Happenings in Recent Months

This past week many of our church folks gathered at Gary's Seafood 

for a delicious lunch together and great fellowship!

On Saturday, a very welcoming baby shower was given for a granddaughter of our church and her new husband, as they await their new baby.

Even gathering at the church to clean the kitchen and bathrooms can turn into a party! Look at those smiles.

Pastor Adam Christiansen was the narrator for the Oriental live nativity in December.

Thanksgiving Day, many friends in the community gathered in the fellowship hall for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner, always a wonderful time with amazing food.

The Community 5th Sunday Sing in the autumn was a great event! So many churches participated, the music was excellent, and the fellowship was so heart-warming!

 

A Community of Churches

Oriental's churches have a lovely relationship. We are all friends, we love to sing together, and we love to worship together. We're not just churches who happen to sit on the same streets; we're happy colleagues in Jesus's kingdom work. 

One shared ministry is the Ladies' Prayer Shawl group each Thursday. Ladies from various denominations (or perhaps no church at all) meet at the Methodist fellowship hall. We knit, crochet, pray, chat, laugh, and support each other. Today's group was particularly large!

 I believe we ended up with fourteen around the table today. We have sent 1614 items in ten years to those grieving, ill, or caring for a loved one.

 We make prayer shawls, lap robes, and little soft bunnies to give to newborn babies.

 The Prayer Shawl ministry receives some donations that buy the yarn we use.

 Each week the finished items are placed on a table. We all stand around it with our hands touching the precious pieces they have made, and we pray for those who will receive them. Sometimes we cry a little.

What amazes me is that the two Methodist ladies who started this ministry could have kept it to their own church, but they didn't. They included us all, and shared the joy!

Another community church event is our rotating Fifth Sunday Sing. This past Sunday night our church hosted it for the fourth time, and it was just as wonderful as the first one, back in 2014. Our choir sang "The Old Rugged Cross," and "Freely, Freely," both requested by church members. Rev. Weaver from the Methodist church gave us a rousing rendition of "Wade in the Water" on his saxophone. The Episcopalians sang sweet familiar songs from our favorite red songbook, and the Free Will Baptist choir had everyone singing along with "In My Heart There Rings a Melody!" 

The crowd moved to the fellowship hall, visiting over cookies and snacks, and many stayed and talked at the tables for nearly an hour. Thank you, dear friends, for the friendliness of our neighborhood, and the unity and love we feel among our churches!

The Best Fifth Sunday Singing Yet!

Tonight our church hosted the 5th Sunday Sing enjoyed by the Oriental churches. Sixteen months ago, we hosted the first one -- after making the rounds of all the churches, it's back here!

It was standing room only -- nearly 100 people came this evening to sing, sing, sing. We ran out of hymnals and programs and chairs, but there was abundant joy!

We brought in a couple extra pews from the hallway. And our hand chime choir played, complete with silly girls:

Each church brought its choir. Here's the precious group from the Episcopal church.

And here are the Methodists. They sang a lovely arrangement.

First Baptists has a choir with lots of men. What a great sound!

I failed to get a photo of the Freewill Baptists, I was so excited to listen to them.
There was clapping and cheering and such excitement and joy. It was almost raucous, if that doesn't sound too thrilling. After we'd sung everything we'd planned to sing, and folks were filing out to the fellowship hall, I played To God Be the Glory as a little postlude ... and people started singing again. They weren't ready to be done! What a wonderful spirit filled our church tonight. Everyone truly felt it.

The time of sweet fellowship afterward was just the icing on the cake.

We're thankful for everyone who came, and especially for the fact that this is a recurring event -- every time there's a 5th Sunday -- and we can expect for years to come to enjoy only more evenings like this, a little picture of heaven's singing.