Issue

NOVEMBER

2016 SHAKER SALT

What comes to your mind when you think of November? We are near the end of the cal-endar year? Was it a good year for you or not such a good year for you? Are you look-ing forward to the holi-days – Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year? Are you looking forward to the cooking, cleaning, decorating and shopping? Because Thanksgiving comes in November we have a good reason to stop and take stock of some of the things we have to be thankful for. There are so many rea-sons to be thankful I hardly know where to begin. So many reasons are interwoven that it’s hard to put them in any order. I will just list and comment on a few in no particular order.

I am most thankful for my family. My

husband Frank, my daughter Deborah and her husband Lamar, my son Darryl and his wife Maria, my grandsons Dorian and Daniel, my only living sibling my sister Marcia, my nieces and nephews. I was fortunate to have had fantastic parents and 8 other brothers and sis-

ters who are now deceased. In this family, then and now, I was loved, pampered, helped, spoiled (yes, I finally accepted that fact), sheltered and protected. I am thank-ful that when we go to Georgia to visit our family we are treated like royalty. Our daughter and son-in-law insist that we take the master bedroom suite (because it’s on the first floor). They refuse to use it even when we are not there. Either my daugh-ter or our son and his family take us out daily. They enjoy pushing me in my wheel-chair or they have me drive in one of those little store carts. I don’t even have to carry my pocketbook; they do that for me. We are so thankful that we are loved. Our chil-dren and their families, along with other family members in the area, visit us, help us and entertain us. See, I told you I was spoiled! All of our family can’t understand why we won’t come and stay in Georgia. Well, maybe one day.

I am thankful for a loving, kind, and welcoming church family. I have been a member of the Covenant

Church since The Covenant Congregational Church and Westminster Presbyterian Church merged. I was married to my hus-band Frank in Westminster Presbyterian Church in 1961. Our daughter Deborah was baptized there in 1963 and our son Darryl was baptized there in 1965.

At my age and in my physical condition, good health is very important to me. Never take good health for granted. One day I was attending a seminar at St. Vin-cent’s Hospital and running other errands and early the next morning I was in such pain that I went directly to the emergency room at Bridgeport Hospital. This was late March 2012. I didn’t return home until the end of May. Between 2012 and 2014 I spent more time in hospitals and convales-cent homes than I did in my own home. How fortunate I was to have survived.

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COVENANT CHURCH OF EASTON Loving God, Growing Together, Serving Others

1 Sport Hill Road

Easton, CT 06612

203.371.8335

www.coveaston.org

Our mission is to further develop and oversee our thriving small group ministries, and our emerging connections ministries, in to order to create opportunities for learning and fellowship, which will encourage adults to grow toward Christ-likeness together! As Director of Discipleship, I will focus on developing and implementing a strategy to encourage personal study and prayer that produces Godly life transformation; encourage members, friends, and visitors into our family to "get connected" in rela-tionships, church activities, Life Groups, and our vibrant serving ministries; and seek to encourage and draw the greater community of college students and young adults in this area to become a part of our Worship, Life Groups, and Service. Please pray for me and this vital ministry in the life of our church. I will be working and collaborating closely with Pastor Cary and Paul Veerman, and will be reaching out to our Ministry Chairs (Discipleship, Connections, Fellowship, Service and Evan-gelism), our Life Group leaders, Discipleship Pastors in the area, and many of you in our church. Together we will seek God's Perfect Will and Direction, then join the Holy Spirit where He is already at work! Come join us as we walk together on life's journey with Jesus at the center!! I would love to chat with you! Please call me to share your heart and thoughts.

Bob Rieger brieger21@gmail.com or 203.727.8523

Through the month of November we will continue to give you the opportunity to pray for the ministries and leaders of our church by walking around the perimeter of our church building. We’re calling it the Covenant Prayer Walk. On key windows around the outside of the church will be a Praying Hand and a brief description of the ministries that use that room or a room nearby. There is a Praying Hand and description on the window of the double classroom, the Prayer & Healing Room, Room A, the far front entrance, Fellowship Hall, Children’s Center, and the room next to the Choir Room for our music ministry. Maybe your Life Group meets at the church. One by one have each one go outside and pray by the windows. If you are passing by, stop by and pray. Our church min-istries need our prayers. Join us during the day or evening to pray as you walk around our church building.

Director of Discipleship

11/1 Dillon Otten 11/2 Diana Ambrose 11/6 Lynne Sullivan 11/7 ♥John & Debbie Anderson♥ 11/9 Tyler Bachelder 11/10 Robert Lindahl 11/11 ♥Ron & Sandy Koenig♥ 11/12 Willem Zima 11/13 Lucy Gould 11/15 Lily Shive 11/16 JoAnn Gibbs 11/17 Brian Soderholm 11/22 Charlene Skok 11/25 Joan Bjork Stephanie Wirth 11/27 Bill Austin 11/30 Chris Logan

November 5th before going to bed

Faith Promise Sunday November 20 Faith Promise Sunday is November 20th. Culture of Generosity Faith Promise Cards for 2017 will be available in your church bulletin, in the Welcome Center or by contacting Gail Lent in the Church Office.

Friday, November 18th children and their families are invited for a pasta dinner together at 6:00 pm followed by a movie on the big screen. Invite your friends, neighbors and co-workers!

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE MOVIE, WE’LL ASSEMBLE SHOE BOXES FOR OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

These boxes are shipped all over the world and presented to children, along with the Gospel, through Samaritan’s Purse.

Check out Samaritan’s Purse at www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child.

Thank you Mike & Cheryl Blair for drilling 8 holes into 53 plastic eggs for the Harvest Party! And a big THANK YOU to everyone else who contributed to make the Harvest Party a great outreach for young families!

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We’re taking a van full of High School girls to Hudson, Massachusetts to attend the

Simply Beautiful conference from Friday, November 18 to Saturday, November 19. This one day event is designed to equip girls with the life-changing Truth of God’s Word!

Thanksgiving Week

OASIS (High School Youth Group) invites our college youth to join us Wednesday, November 23rd (the day before Thanksgiving) from 6:30 to 9:00 pm!

JHAMS (Junior High Youth Group) will NOT

meet on Thanksgiving —Thursday, November 24.

Want to learn more about the Annual Paint Ball event taking place on Thanksgiving week-end? Contact contact Mark Hatfield (203.650.2333) for

details!

CrossFit Sunday morning Youth Bible Study

Did you know we have Youth Bible Study on Sunday morn-ings from 9:00 to 10:00? All High School youth (and 8th graders that are not partici-pating in Foundations) are welcome to join us on Sun-day. We’re studying the Gospel of John and we meet in Pastor Cary’s office.

Local Missions Opportunity

Under the Bridge on Sun-

day, November 20 from 10:15 am until Noon. All Junior and Senior High youth are welcome to join us for this unique service project. We’ll be bringing toiletries, hats, gloves, socks, winter shoes, and blankets we col-lected at our October MishMosh event, along with artwork, notes of encourage-ment, cookies we baked, and fresh coffee. We’ll take the church van into Bridgeport to meet, pray and hand out our gifts to the local commu-nity.

Did you know that you can donate 0.5% of your purchases at smile.amazon.com to Covenant Church of Easton? Instead of making your purchases from amazon.com, simply visit smile.amazon.com and select Covenant Church of Easton as the charity of your choice. Or simply follow this link to automatically donate to Covenant Church:

http://smile.amazon.com/ch/06-0662118. Only purchases made at smile.amazon.com are eligible for Donations.

AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know.

Same products, same prices, same service.

This year the Service Ministry will partner with Family ReEntry of Bridgeport for our Thanksgiving Baskets. Family ReEntry is a nonprofit program for children and teens who are impact-ed by the incarceration of a parent or close family member, or for youth who are currently involved with the juvenile justice system. Over 12,000 ex-offenders are released from prison each year in Connecticut, and most of them face challenges managing the most basic ingredients for successful re-integration into society. This includes finding employment and housing, re-connecting with their families and communities, and accessing substance abuse and behavioral health services. You can help to bring joy this season by selecting a family from the poster in the Fellowship Hall to donate a gift card. Return gift cards in an envelope, clearly marked with the family name, to Charlene Skok’s Copy Room mailbox on or before Friday, November 18. If you would like to donate “fixings” for the Thanksgiving meal, boxes will be placed in the Welcome Center for your donations. Contact Charlene Skok (203.373.0547) or Bill Morin (203.402.9200) for more information.

Suggested donations for the Light on the Hill Food Pantry at Summerfield United Methodist Church in Bridgeport for the month of November include the following:

Pasta & Pasta Sauce

Cleaning Supplies: Laundry & Dish Soap, Sponges

Garbage Bags Lysol, Ajax, Windex, etc.

Thanksgiving Baskets to Bring Care to Families Experiencing Big Adjustments

Father & Daughter Dinner Dance

Saturday November 19 5:30-9:30 pm

Nichols United Methodist Church will be hosting an event for fathers and un-married daughters of all ages. This semi-formal event will be a wonderful bonding experience where the special father-daughter relationship is celebrated. “Spiritual Fathers” are also invited to bring “Spiritual Daugh-ters”. $45 per person includes: Catering by Cast Iron

Chop House (formerly Marissa’s Ristorante)

Choice of Prime Rib or Chicken Cutlet

A 5”x7” photograph by JC Carley Photog-raphy

Music by Dougie Jam Productions

Memories with Your Daughter to Last a Lifetime

Tickets available

by contacting Kristine Lackowski

(Pastor Debbie’s sister) at:

kclackowski@att.net or 203.943.4078

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on the steps was loose. This was immediately repaired. Who knew that a short time later following my surgery I would need a level walkway for a wheelchair, and then a walker? I certainly needed a strong, sturdy railing to en-ter my home. Again, some-one was watching over me. Thank you Youth Group and advisors for being there when I needed you. My church family has been there in good times and sad times. Please bear with me while I reminisce and remind you of some everyday simple, but often taken for granted things, that I enjoy and I am thankful for.

A smile – a phone call – a card – a hello – a handshake – a hug. Those hugs and smiles get you through not only the day, but through the whole week.

Changing seasons have

always been favorites of mine. Summer with its sun and hot weather. Fall with all of its beautiful foliage. Winter with the snow and barren trees. And Spring with the rebirth of trees, flowers, grass and all kinds of things. I can’t decide

which season I am more thankful for. I love them all.

I am thankful for food, clothing, shelter and freedom from many natural disasters. We

have our share of snow, cold weather, droughts, etc. It could be much worse.

I am thankful for this country of ours. I am

thankful that we have free-dom of speech and freedom to vote and elect the people who will have the responsi-bility of leading and running our country. We live in a country where we follow democratic principles. We are free to debate, to argue, to agree and to disagree. When all this is over, we come together for the best interest of the country. We are thankful for a peaceful and orderly transfer of power. I haven’t said anything new or anything you didn’t know or haven’t said (except per-sonal things about me and my family). I hope you en-joyed being reminded of many of the things we have to be thankful for. Take a few minutes out of your busy day to stop and say thank you for all the won-derful things we take for granted.

On one of my many visits to the doctor’s office, I thanked him for saving my life. He responded that he had help from “upstairs.” “He could-n’t have done it alone.” If I had ever questioned the ex-istence of God, I now had my answer. It was plain to see that I had been in God’s hands throughout it all. How thankful I was for my family, my church family, the Joyful Sisters and friends. How thankful I was for pray-ers, visits, cards, flowers, etc. I am thankful for Pastor Cary, the church musicians, the Choir, the leaders and members of Covenant Church.

Thank you to those who help with the service and those who help with refreshments after the services. Thank those

who provide rides for those who no longer drive. How thoughtful of you! Forgive me if I’ve forgotten to men-tion someone. Several years ago the Cove-nant Youth Group helped older members. They, along with their advisors, replaced my slate walkway with a level cement one. One advi-sor noticed that the railing

How thankful I am for the medical per-sonnel, advances in science, a doctor who

felt he couldn’t do the final surgery I needed, but was willing to help me and my family find a doctor who might be able to do it. While my Con-necticut surgeon searched for a doctor, my family and friends who work in the medical field searched also. Both sources came up with the same name! This was the name of the number one doctor in the country who might be able to do the surgery. He was located at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. So the Bridgeport Hospital staff and my daughter Debbie prepared me for the flight to Atlanta. In the meantime, we were trying to get an ap-pointment with the Atlan-ta surgeon. During the first visit with him we were told that it would be six months before he could do the surgery. He needed that time to pre-pare my body for the sur-gery. The wait began with trips back and forth to the doctor or to the hospital. Finally, the day came. I underwent a 13-hour surgery followed by months of recuperation.

When somber clouds of steely grey Cast shadows o’er your heart and way, Look up, beyond the darkened sky, Where tints of blue will soon drift by. Look up and know that in God’s plan No sparrow falls nor, too, a man Without His watch, without His love, Have faith, believe, trust Him, above. For from the dark is born the light, A ray of hope, a beacon bright To warm your heart and help you through, Rejoice and know God’s there with you.

Mother-Daughter Retreat — November 18-20 This is a wonderful opportunity for moms, daughters, and even a few grandmas, to enjoy a great weekend of spiritual nourishment and plain old fun! There will be a variety of activities and experiences for multi-generations!

Thanksgiving at the Pines — November 23-25 What better way to give thanks then surrounded by the beauty of Swanzey Lake. No cooking, no clean-ing, great food & fellowship and a whole lot of fun!

Winter Creative Craft Weekend — December 2-4 Calling all scrappers! Come for a weekend dedicated to cutting, pasting and learning all the new scrapping techniques. This event is for both the current and beginner scrap-booker. For more information about these and other re-treats, or to register, visit www.pilgrimpines.org.

The financial results of the General Operating Fund for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 were as follows:

For the lasts several months, we (the Church) have had oper-ating surpluses. This has now turned into a small operating deficit. The deficit is the product of a $46,000 shortfall in in-come, compared to the amount anticipated in the Financial Plan, offset by a nearly equal amount of expense savings. About 61% of the savings result from a delay in hiring a Direc-tor of Discipleship and mild winter weather which reduced snow plowing and electricity costs. The Director began work on October 17, which means there won’t be any further per-sonnel savings. The majority of the remaining 39% of expense savings through the first three quarters is expected to be reversed (spent) in the last quarter. Taken together with normal fourth quarter expenses, this means that expenses for the last three months of the year will average $11,500-$12,000 per week. In order to avoid an operating deficit for the year, income must aver-age the same amount per week. This compares to average weekly offerings of $9,407 through the first nine months. How do we close this gap? You are the answer — If we are to close this gap, we can only do it by all pulling together and fol-lowing the Lord’s leading. There is no other way. We don’t keep big financial reserves to fall back on when things get tight. We depend on those who worship and fellowship in this church to support it with their time, talent and treasure. The body of Christ functions best when all of us do our part. In closing, it appears as if the Lord has placed our burden on the hearts of many, for offerings in the first four weeks of Oc-tober have averaged $11,407. What a blessing!

Bob Fiscus, Treasurer

From Bib’s Corner 2001 By Bibs Smith

The Light Beyond

Treasurer’s Report

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