November 2016

A Day for Thanksgiving

"To all ye Pilgrims: In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetable, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; "Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings. William Bradford, Ye Governor of Ye Colony."

WHBC Newsletter

11.6

Daylight Savings time ends

11.15

Sunday School Teacher Training

11.13

Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes

due

11.23

No Youth Group

11.24

Thanksgiving at WHBC

12.2-4

Buzz in Bethlehem

Mark Your Calendar

By William Bradford (1590-1657), Pilgrim father and second governor of Plymouth colony

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” ~Psalm 50:23

“The more we

knew about Jesus the more we

wanted to know. The stories my

aunt had told us about

Jesus were true.” “If He provided in the

small things, He would

provide in the big

things.” Be a part of this ministry: 1) Red/Green GO boxes are in the foyer - you

can use these to pack your shoebox or any standard sized shoebox (please no extra large boxes, they are difficult to pack in cartons). Take a brochure in the foyer and this will explain exactly how to pack a shoebox and what items to include!

2) Shoeboxes are due in the foyer by Sunday

November 13th. 3) We will continue to serve as a collection site during national collection week. If you'd like to help or be a part of this, please contact Tracy Pelland at 963-6898.

Operation Christmas Child

“At my lowest point—feeling unloved, worthless—God brought me a shoebox.”

The Amazing Journey of a Shoebox Gift Begins with you and Results in Evangelism, Discipleship, and Multiplication. From children to seniors, people pack shoebox gifts each year to bless children in need around the world. Parents often use the project to teach their kids about giving. Year-round volun-teers support these efforts across the country.

“I went through my

shoebox seeking com-

fort. I fell asleep with

the shoebox in my arms.

that happened a lot.”

See P

age 4

for a S

ho

e Bo

x sto

ry...

We hold meetings twice a month where we have some teaching, snacks, discussion time and creative time. These meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month Oct through May, 9 to 11 a.m. and free childcare is provided. We also like to get together in between to develop our friendships so we try to host a Mom's Night Out every month for any mom who wants to fit it into her schedule. If you are a mom who cannot make it to Thursday morning meetings, not to worry! There's another op-tion. MOPS Timeout takes place on the 2nd Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at an off-site location. (Contact us for details) There is a membership fee but please do not let this be a deal breaker. There are scholarships available. If money is an issue, don't let it be! We like to take care of our own. Scholarship forms are available. We hope you'll join us! After all, better moms make a better world.

Any mom who has kids kindergarten or young-er, MOPS is for you! As fellow moms, we know that these young ages can be trying: no sleep, no personal time, no personal space, lack of adult conversation. MOPS exists for the building up of moms, to encourage, to grow together; all in an atmosphere that honors Christ.

Bergene Cowan is coordinating a chartered bus trip to see the life-sized Ark Encounter from June 5 – 9, 2017. Come aboard and join the fun to see this awesome wonder of God. Bergene is arranging several destinations during the trip, including: Ark Encounter – one full day. See the life-sized ark, learn about Noah’s life, what it might have been like to live on the ark and legends from around the world that describe the world flood and ancient man’s intelligence. Creation Museum – one full day. This 70,000 square foot museum features 160 exhibits, special theater productions, botanical gardens and zoo, a healthy food café and a zip line. Tour the Toyota Plant and visit Old Friends Retirement Horse Farm, and visit the Chicago Botanic Gardens on the way home. Additional options are being investigated, including other Kentucky museums, Newport Aquarium, the Cincinnati Zoo and a steamboat ride on the Ohio River. The bus is reserved, hotel rooms are booked, attraction tickets are calculated and bus seats are still available. Contact Bergene Cowan at 393-0578 or bergene.cowan@gmail.com with questions or to make your reservations.

Ark Encounter 2017

10th Annual Thanksgiving Dinner at WHBC

Are you at loose ends for Thanksgiving? We have a place for you!

Join Dave Schwab in the WHBC Fellowship Hall for a wonderful

dinner on Thanksgiving, November 24 from noon to about 2:30.

Please sign up in advance in the church lobby. Dave is also looking

for donations of food from our church family. No need to cook

anything, just provide the raw ingredients. There is a second sign-up

list for these donations in the church lobby.

My home in a part of the former Soviet Union was cold and dirty. My mother and father drank all the time. They often left me and my sister by ourselves, sleeping on beds with no linens and without food. We did not attend school until I was 8 years old, when my sister and I were placed in our first orphanage. When we were moved to another orphanage, we still had to share everything with every-body there. We wore hand-me-downs and shoes that never quite fit. We didn’t have any-thing to our name. At the time, we didn’t even know our birth dates or how old we were. I would always read fairy tales to get away from reality. I dreamed of being Cinderella because she went from being a nobody to being a princess. I had gotten my hopes up that my sister and I would be adopted, but at the last minute the woman backed out. I felt undeserving, that I was a nobody. Why would anyone want me? I lost hope. When I was at my lowest point—feeling unloved, worthless—God brought me a shoe-box. I was about 9 or 10 years old. It was the first time I had received a gift other than candy at New Year’s. My shoebox was suitable for a princess—it was pink. I loved pink. One of my gifts was a pink pen with feathers and a dangling heart. I had never seen something as fancy as that. I also received a teddy bear. I always had to be the strong one to take care of my younger sister. But when I was by myself, I used to tell all my worries to that teddy bear. What had the biggest impact on me was “The Greatest Gift” booklet that told of Jesus’ love for me. I had never heard about that kind of love before. I thought it was a fairy tale. The Creator of everything came down and died for someone like me? It gave me hope. I began to pray for a family, and God provided me a family when I was 12. What’s more, God provided a family who wanted to keep me and my sister together. The orphanage kept our old clothes for reuse once our new parents arrived in our country to take us home. When they took us shopping for the first time, I was just so glad to get new shoes that I didn’t care whether they fit or not. So, when my dad removed the first pair of shoes I had tried on at the store, I was upset at first because I thought they had changed their mind. But, in a Cinderella moment, he helped me into another pair, checking that my toes had just the right amount of room to get the perfect fit. My frame of reference for how a father acted wasn’t a happy one. It was an angry one. When people would tell me that God was my Father, it didn’t have the comforting effect that it did for most people. At our new home in the United States, our dad—our adopted father—would hug my sister and me and kiss us on our foreheads each night. Then, he would tell each of us, “Ya tebya lyublyu” (pronounced ya teeb-ya lu-blue), which means I love you in our native language. I had never heard that before. At first, it was strange and scary, but then I started waiting to hear those words each night as it became a tradition of ours. About a year after my sister and I were adopted, I became a Christian. It took a year for me to realize that I didn’t always have to be on my best behavior just to be able to stay and be loved. I was afraid that if I did something my parents didn’t like, they wouldn’t want me anymore. Our parents kept telling my sister and me, there are three main things you need to remem-ber: God loves you. We love you. And, there’s nothing you can ever do to change that. God’s been working through it all. Not only am I part of an earthly family, I’m part of a heavenly family. While studying at Ozark Christian College I helped organize shoebox packing parties so other children would learn of God’s love for them. Now, as a recent graduate, I look for-ward to continuing to share His love with orphans around the world.

Elana’s Shoebox Story