UPWARD IS HERE!!

DATES TO REMEMBER

Registration — Now through January 12th

(refer to an Upward brochure or CLICK HERE for more details)

Evaluation Nights — January 9th & 12th

(only 2 nights again this year)

Practices Start — The week of February 6th

Game Days – March 3rd, 10th, 17th, 31st, April 7th & 14th

Awards Night – April 15th

WE NEED YOU!!

35 FAMILIES NEEDED

We need 35 families who would be willing to advertise for Upward in their neighborhood by taking a yard sign & at least five brochures.  Put the sign in your yard for the next few weeks (through January 12th) and distribute the brochures to neighborhood kids.  If you are interested, please pick up a sign and the brochures from Paul’s office on Sunday morning.  Thank you!!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

We need many volunteers for the 2012 Upward Basketball and Cheerleading season.  We will have those positions listed on an insert in Sunday bulletins next month.  Please prayerfully consider how God would want you to help with the Upward program this year.  Fill out the insert and return it to Paul.  Thanks!!

Did you know that one of our secretaries recently passed a milestone at CCC?  Linda Bower has worked for over 25 years as our church secretary.  Wow!  Thanks Linda for all the service you have given to our church over these last 25 years.  Thanks for being such a great co-worker and friend to me, too.  To the congregation, I would say we have been blessed to have Linda in our church office.  She answers the phone and is such a good people-person.  She’s pleasant.  She meets people well as they come into the office.  She has had a servant spirit towards the staff and the church membership.  I don’t know the number of times through the years that Linda has found out someone from the church has been sick and shut-in, and shortly thereafter she’s visiting them in their home and taking them a meal that she has personally prepared.  She loves the Lord, she loves people, and she deserves our applause and appreciation.

Thanks for a job well done, Linda!  I love you,

Kevin

Offering Update.  We are very close to reaching our goal of $150,000.  The offering amount to this date is $149,519.02.  If my math is correct, we are just shy of $500 in reaching our goal.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could see this final amount come in before the first of the year?  If you’ve not yet given to the remodeling fund, please consider doing that.  Could I tell you a story I recently heard?  Margaret Winter was sharing this story with me.  Every Sunday, Margaret has a deal with her two great-grandsons that if they come up to her at church and give her a hug, she in turn will have something very special to give to them.  For Cole, her 9 year old great-grandson, she will have a dollar bill.  For Caleb, her 3 year old great-grandson, she will have a toy car.  Every Sunday this exchange happens.  Usually Cole is saving for some little something that he has his eyes set upon.  Margaret thought he was saving recently for a special book.  As she gave him his dollar bill a few weeks ago, she asked him if he had enough dollars that he could buy that book he was wanting.  He said, “Oh no Grandma, I’ve been giving my dollar bills to the church’s remodel fund.”  I heard that story and was deeply touched by it.  If only the adults could learn from one of our young people and have that kind of giving heart!  Thanks, Cole, for your example to all of us.  Praise the Lord for your generosity and help to the Lord’s church.  You will learn from an early age that you can never outgive God.  He will bless you for your love to Him.  I pray that many more would follow in Cole’s footsteps and learn the importance of giving to God!  Let me say a big “thank-you” to all who have already given freely and sacrificially to this fund.  I’m excited to see how the Lord is going to bring all this together.  The end product is going to be very nice and something we can all be proud of.

Volunteers Needed.  The first week of January, we will need volunteers to help remove the pews and take up the carpet.  Watch the bulletin or talk to Tim for more specific details.  We will need several people to help with this project.

Worship Services in the Gym.  The Board has decided that during the remodeling project we will meet for our weekly worship services in the gymnasium.  Our new chairs should be here by then, and we will set them up in the gym each week for our seating.  We will need help with this weekly project too — setting up chairs ahead of the service and taking them down afterwards.  Having services on our own campus will be much better, especially for those families that have kids in the nursery or kids’ church.  It would have been pretty inconvenient for a number of people had we decided to try to have services off-site.  Our first service in the gym will be Jan. 8.  Our service times will remain the same.

The Need for Prayer Support.   Would you please be praying for the remodeling project to go smoothly?  Already, we have had the exterior work done on the roof.  We are waiting now for the inside work to begin after the first of the year.  Prayer is a necessary ingredient throughout this adventure.  Pray for the workers.  Pray for safety.  Pray for all of the work to be the finest quality.  Pray for good prices for the products that we need.  We’ve already seen one instance where we were pre-ordering some equipment and “all of a sudden” the stuff we needed was for about a third of the price!!  We believe that to be a “God-thing”.  Pray for our pews to “find a home”.  They have been placed on several websites that deal with church pews.  Pray for CCC to move forward.  Remember, people will not come because we are remodeling our building.  People will come because we are inviting them and witnessing to them.  We can never replace the power of the “word of mouth”.   We do have a story to tell.

Kevin

Christmas Eve Service:  6:00 p.m.

Christmas Morning Service:  10:00 a.m.

Keep in mind, both of these services will be exactly the same.  We’re hoping you will choose one of these services to attend, and be sure to bring your family with you.  Those family members who are coming to be with you over the weekend, let them know ahead of time that your plans to celebrate the birthday of Jesus will include being in church one of these two services.

Please keep in mind, we will not be having a nursery or kids’ church for either of these services.  Parents with little children will need to be aware of this.  We will have a very good time of worship through song and scripture reading.  There will be an opportunity to participate in the communion time and offering in both services.  I will preach a Christmas message that will direct our thoughts towards the Greatest Christmas gift of all…God’s Son.

I look forward to celebrating Christmas with you this year.

Kevin

The following poem reminds us of the reason for the season.  As you see who wrote this, you might sense that his dad is quite proud of him and is glad to share it in this newsletter.  Kevin

Tis the season, of tons of stuff
Hustle and bustle, in the name of “love”
Presents, tree’s, and baskets of cheese
A merry red coat, white beard, can I have this toy please?

Stuffed in the corner, a scene so dear
Of Mary and Joseph, not some red nosed reindeer
A manger of hay, for there was no room
For the King of the earth, who was due oh so soon

Is that Him behind Elmo? Sheperds might say
Or maybe over there! Behind the new car, Fresh out today!
Maybe He’s hiding, the angels would sing
Underneath all the shiny’s, the sweet “bling bling”

Did we leave the scene unfinished? Did we forget the true meaning?
Or is He calling out, in the midst of the screaming?
If we stopped and listened, moved the wrapping out of the way
Would we see our Savior, waiting patiently, in that hay

I know I’m guilty, I’m the first to admit
That I can lose Jesus, in my rush to the gifts
Not this year, I will say, til the day is gone and done
Never once did I stop, to say “Thank you” for your Son

He came in the quiet, in the middle of the night
In a little teeny town, not a castle with a crown
He came for you, He came for me
He came to live, move, and breath, to set us free
He came with love, more amazing each day
He came so that I could even celebrate this way

When I open that KU beanie, or that Cowboys vs Aliens movie so sweet!
I know these that those gifts, with a King, can’t compete
For Jesus is the reason, not Santa, not Walmart

Because He died for me, rose for me, and lives

In my heart

- Jonathan Moyers

Interested in

playing???

Volleyball

Join us on Monday nights @ 6:00 pm starting November 7th.  We don’t sign up for teams.  We just show up and play.

Basketball

We need team captains to sign up on the north bulletin board in the foyer at the church by November 6th.  Team captains must be from CCC.  Games will be played @ 8 & 9 pm on Monday nights starting November 7th.

MONDAY

OCTOBER 31st 

5-8 PM

CCC SOUTH PARKING LOT

This will include our annual Trunk-or-Treat but will also encompass a wide variety of other fun things like games, inflatables, food, plus much more that kids and adults alike will enjoy; and it is all FREE!!!

Our goal is to reach out to our community and invite them to a fun and safe fall celebration where we can share the love of Jesus Christ with them!

WE NEED A LOT OF HELP!!

To make this possible we need you!  Our needs are numerous, so we are confident there will be something for everyone to do.  Our greatest needs are:

PRAYERS - Pray that this event will impact our community in ways we can’t even imagine.  Pray that God will reach lost souls because of the seeds planted at this event.  Pray for good weather.  Pray for all the details of the event to fall into place.

PEOPLE - We need people to help prepare and serve the food and drinks, to bring a trunk and hand out candy, and to help with set up and clean up.  Sign-up lists are in the foyer on the north bulletin board.  Please sign up to help on Sunday.

FUNDS - last year we spent around $3,000 just to buy the candy needed to hand out to the kids.  In addition, we served hot dogs, hot chocolate, brownies & ice cream.  We will do most, if not all, of this again.  We need your help!  We are looking for $4,500 to help cover the expenses of this event.  Donation checks should be made out to CCC with “Falloween” in the memo line.  They can be given to Tim or Paul, or you can drop them in the offering.

Thanks for all your help.  Please come out and join us in this event.  Help us give our community a safe, fun, Christian environment on October 31st.

Take time to tell your church staff how much you appreciate them.  It’s one way you can show love to your neighbor.  I’m so thankful to God for the staff He has given us here at CCC.  We work good together.  We support and encourage each other.  We enjoy being together…we like each other, and certainly that is a good thing.  Something I appreciate too about our staff is there are not a lot of big “egos” within our staff.  We are not about ourselves.  If Joe gets a lot of praise and strokes from the congregation, PTL.  If Dusty gets that, PTL.  When somebody comes and tells me that they’re here at CCC because of the chldren’s ministry, and they go on and on about Paul and what a wonderful person he is…PTL.  Every person on our staff contributes to the ministry here.  There would be a big hole without each of them.  I’m thankful we are “for” each other, and more importantly, we all are FOR JESUS.  We want the glory to go to Him.

With that being said, it sure is nice when someone from the congregation encourages us…so take the time to be an encourager to your church staff, and don’t forget to pray for us, too.  We need that even more.

Kevin

Over the last two weeks we’ve started a series on Sunday mornings called “Live to Love”.  We are being challenged through God’s Word to love our neighbor, which is the 2nd great commandment in all of Scripture.  What a difference this could make in our community and ultimately in our church and God’s Kingdom if we would truly “Live to Love.”  As you get your “Love Works” card each Sunday, do your best to carry out the instructions of that card through the week.  It will be a blessing to you, and it will prove to be a blessing to your neighbor, too.  An added bonus is that our Sunday evening small groups are looking for opportunities to put love into action.  Instead of just studying about love and talking about love, which we have done lots of, we are actually practicing love.

Love will draw people to Jesus.  Pray that over these weeks to come there will be people who will come to Jesus through our acts of love.  If you’ve missed these first two weeks, I hope you’ll decide to get in on the weeks to come.  If you know of someone who’s missing church, why don’t you give them a call and let them know they are missed.  That would be a wonderful act of love on your part.  I look forward to seeing  you on Sunday.

Kevin

I hope you have taken the time to read Tonya Piatt’s testimony, entitled “Does God really have a plan for all of us?”.  I wanted to add a little bit of a “sideliner” to this testimony because I think it speaks so highly of our church.  Tonya spoke of the “crunch” they were in to pay their insurance premium that was almost $1400 per month.  They were looking at a period of 3 months between the two jobs that they were going to have to pay this amount from their own pocket.  They simply did not have the money to do that.  The problem was even more complicated in that without the proper meds provided by the insurance, Troy was going to die.  Troy and Tonya are in our small group on Sunday evenings, and we had just finished studying a book called “Crazy Love”.  In that book, we were challenged to look after our brother and sister who are in need.  It was a great study.  Now we were faced with the question of “Are we going to live what we have just studied, or are we going to close our eyes to our brother who is in need?”.  We decided as a group we could not sit back and do nothing.  We couldn’t live with ourselves if we did that, but it was a little more money than what our small group could do by ourselves.  So I put together a letter to let this particular need be known.  I sent the letter to a couple of other small groups that Troy and Tonya were connected with.  I also sent the letter to some of the people that they sit by in church every week.  I simply shared the critical need that Troy and Tonya had, and I ask for people to give as God would lead them to do.  Within a period of 2 weeks, the need was met.  I’m talking…the insurance premium for all three months was paid!  We actually had to send another letter out and tell people to STOP GIVING.  It was amazing and a wonderful testimony of what God’s people can do when they truly love each other.  I was reminded of two different stories in the Old Testament.  One was with David, and the other was with Moses.  In both cases, there was a need for God’s people to give.  The plea was made, and the response was overwhelming, to a point that the people had to be told to stop giving.  More than enough had been received.  I have to tell you, this was the first time I’ve ever had to tell people to stop giving.  PTL, for how people responded to this need.  It truly is “more blessed to give than to receive”.

Kevin