Reflection doesn’t come naturally to me. Even after such a full and exciting weekend, I’m already thinking about the things that are coming next. But, given all that happened over this past weekend, I wanted to briefly point out some of the very hopeful things that took place within our church.

• Every last gift for those in the MANNA ministry has been claimed. After the first service on Sunday I held up the last 6 envelopes and there was (literally!) a rush to claim them. Amazing generosity.
• You may have already heard that we had to ask for more volunteer slots at the Outreach Community Center’s Christmas Store because all the original slots were filled after the first Sunday of sign-ups.
• The Christmas Store was this past Saturday. On Friday afternoon one team of PCC volunteers showed up to set up and decorate. I heard through the grapevine that this was the smoothest set-up ever, thanks to these volunteers!
• At noon on Saturday another volunteer team showed up to help shoppers at the Christmas Store navigate the process. I spoke with some of you who were “shoppers helpers” and it sounded like people were having a great time serving this way. I want to thank PCC person Bill Harvey for heading up the Set-up and Shoppers Helpers teams. There is no way things would have gone as smoothly as they did without Bill. Thanks Bill!
• Maggie and I were a part of the Clean-up Crew that showed up at 3:00 to help clean up. I know cleaning up probably doesn’t sound like fun… but it was great to serve with other PCC individuals and families. The OCC staff made it very clear how thankful they were for our team. I don’t think they’d ever had a group of folks ask to do clean up!
• Sunday was a great day. A few of us had spent months planning the service and I was admittedly nervous that it wasn’t going to come together. But it did. Amazingly. If you missed it, we spent the morning talking about why and how PCC invites those who are homeless to be a part of the community. Some friends put together a really well-done video interview with a friend who used to be homeless. Pastor Brian and Melissa (PCC person on the Deacon team) explained the nuts and bolts of the ministry. A member of the Manna ministry sung a song with the worship arts team. Sidney had written this song himself and the words and delivery were both incredibly powerful. And… 9 or 10 folks signed up to receive more information about how to be involved with the Manna ministry! I was on cloud nine for the rest of the day.
• And then, on Sunday night our small group read through the first chapter of Luke and talked about Advent. Things have been busy enough lately that I haven’t spent much time considering the season, and I found our small group’s conversation and questions so refreshing.

A lot of people served and gave in a lot of ways to contribute to the events of this past weekend. Thanks!