African Team Ministries Craft Sale. Today we are offering a display of craft items that can be purchased for yourself or as a gift. Your purchase will:

• Help pay for orphans to attend school;
• Provide training for 5000 lay elders (men and women) in Kenya in the AIDS prevention ministry. After training, each elder will visit a family each week to help them change their behavior so they will not catch AIDS.
• Provide help for displaced people in Kenya who have been forced from their homes due to political unrest, providing food, shelter, blankets and support for people to return to their homes.

Craft Group. Our new craft group meets tomorrow, November 17, at 7:00 p.m. Marcena Brook has offered to help make greeting cards. Please bring old magazines with you to make collages for the cards. We’ll also have rubber stamps for you to use. Everyone: please bring your old magazines to the church to recycle-look for the box marked “magazines” in the narthex. You may also bring your own project (prayer shawls?). For more info, contact Joan Pierce at 360.668.9691 or jpierce622 @aol.com.
Gobble, gobble, gobble! It’s time for the 7th Annual Turkey Round Up! Each November our generous congregation steps up to purchase turkeys for the families of Matthew House so they too can have a joyous Thanksgiving holiday. Matthew House is a non-profit agency that supports families of prisoners. These families often have no extra income for “high ticket” items such as turkeys. They struggle with just the basics of making ends meet. The Missions Committee will donate 25 turkeys to Matthew House families this year and will accept your $ donation toward this turkey purchase today and next Sunday, November 23.

Donations for Homeless Youth. We are again accepting donations for homeless youth. Please bring $10 Safeway or other grocery gift cards, deodorant, dental floss, white cotton tube socks, sleeping bags and blankets, and new and used clothing. Please give gift cards to Mimi Johnson, any member of the Missions Committee, or the church office.

Choral Evensong. All are welcome to a choir festival at Saint Bartholomew’s Anglican Church to celebrate Thanksgiving Eve at 6:30 p.m. Music will include the Evening Service in E-flat by Sir Edward Bairstow and A Gaelic Blessing by John Rutter. The church is located at 14821 Avondale Road NE.

Advent Devotionals. It’s the time of year to get your creative/reflective juices flowing! Every year some of our congregation contribute their thoughts to an advent devotional which is then shared with everyone. We’re hoping you’ll contribute this year! It’s really very easy:

1. Select a “passage” (selections are at the welcome table or you can get them from Ellen Boyer)
2. Let Ellen Boyer know which one you’re going to do at ellen.boyer@kpcom.com or 425.868. 9440;
3. Write a short reflection and get it to Ellen by November 30
4. Eagerly await the “publication!”

College Students. Let’s connect with our college youth! Remember celebrating their baptisms, receiving their first Bibles, confirmation, then, so quickly, it seemed, their high school graduation? Our congregation has more than 30 youth currently enrolled in college, most living away from home, navigating the highs and lows of this new phase of their lives. Let’s overwhelm them with messages of love and encouragement from their church family back home, along with goodies we’ll pack for them during the Advent Festival. These are the students we feel we have current school addresses for. If you have a student who is not listed here, or if their address has changed, contact the church office. Watch this growing list of students with validated school addresses and start writing your notes today.

• Nicole Gleadle
• James Cebron
• Gretchen Gordon
• Courtney Clark
• Jeffrey Gordon
• Audrey Garrett
• Carrie Garrett
• Justin Hageman
• Shawna Larson
• Brent Larson
• Dana Mahan
• Scott McAlpine
• Ashley Porter
• Tara Spain
• Benjamin Heimfeld
• Jinna Robson

Amazing Grace Seminar. The next Amazing Grace Seminar will be held on Saturday, December 6, from 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. This class is the foundation study on being a United Methodist. We begin with God Is Love and end with a healing process as taught by Christ and supported by the Holy Spirit. This class is designed for the curious (who have no desire to join the church as this time), regular attendees and current members. It is also one of the first steps for those seeking membership into BCUMC. Breakfast, lunch and childcare (as requested) are provided. Mark your interest on the Presence Slip or contact the church office to sign up.

Join the E-Team! You are invited to participate in a study by Martha Reese called “Unbinding the Gospel.” This topical study focuses on creating a disciplined and faithful church and discipleship in the community. It gets to real issues of ministry and outreach. Reese describes the experience of God as paramount, crossing theological and cultural boundaries. It may be too simplistic to say that where there is real prayer, churches will grow; however, it is a clear conclusion that where there is no prayer-where there is no experience of a living God- churches will wither. And virtually each of the interviewed leaders, while diverse in ministry style and tradition, rooted their ministries in prayer and spirituality. These are stories of churches doing the possible! Join us on Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m. in November and December.

Port-a-cribs needed. Community Programs is offering a parenting class from April 15 to May 20 for the parents of newborn infants. We are looking for port-a-cribs that we can borrow for the duration of the five week course. If you have a port-a-crib we could borrow or one you would like to donate, please contact Chris Aakre: caakre@atg.com or 425.883.9260.

Midweek at Bear Creek. We need individuals, groups, committees, covenant groups, etc., to cook our midweek meals. Bread, salad, peanut butter and jelly, and macaroni and cheese will always be available. Your team will need to set up, prepare the meal, and clean up afterwards. If you are able to help fulfill this ministry, please contact Merideth or Tina Stroh at 425.481.5735.

Hurricane Emergency Response. Hurricanes and torrential storms have caused massive damage, destroying homes in the Caribbean and throughout the Gulf coast. Four hurricanes have hit Haiti. “The impact of Ike and other hurricanes on life and property extends from Haiti to Houston,” says Bishop Janice Huie of the Texas Annual Conference. Your gift today will help children and families in desperate need. Please send your contributions to United Methodist Committee on Relief, GPO, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068. Mark your check for Emergency Response, or you may contribute online at www.umcor.org.

Our Health Fair is this Sunday, November 16, from 9:00-1:00. If you are interested in the fasting cholesterol screening, please do not eat anything (except water) after midnight. Light snacks and drinks will be available at the church Sunday morning. A non-fasting test is available in case you forget!

Dear Bearcreekians,

I invite you to pray and fast with me. This invitation is an answer to prayer. God told me to stop talking and to listen. So that is what I am going to do. In worship this Sunday I will invite you to join me.

Why am I doing this? I previously told you about the Four Efforts we are making at Bear Creek. We want to be better at worship, at Children’s Ministries, at the “E” word (evangelism) and at getting the word out of God’s love lived at Bear Creek (marketing). Four teams have been assembled to lead us.

But there is a new twist. Instead of our usual Type A Bearcreekian behavior of problem solving and action plans, we are first seeking God’s guidance. It is the habit of many good folks to give a nod to God in prayer and then do what they think. I have asked the Four Teams not to take big actions or set big directions yet. I have asked to them to study their area and to pray for guidance. The next few months are to be listening time, or a Time of Discernment. I was praying about how I might best assist them in their discernment and God said to stop talking so much. God said to pray and fast for the people of Bear Creek that we might discern His way for them.

So this Sunday I am beginning the spiritual discipline of prayer for Bear Creek’s discernment, and fasting to join with God’s mercies and sacrifices in Jesus that I might be open to the Holy Spirit. I will daily pray for the Four Teams, for their discernment and my faithful service to them and to you.

And I will fast. I will eat Tuesday supper, skip Wednesday breakfast and lunch, and then eat again Wednesday evening at the Midweek@Bearcreek supper. I do this to be in solidarity with Jesus as he makes sacrifices for us, and I do it to be in solidarity with those who are hungry in body and soul so that I am taking action to be open to the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

I am inviting you to join me. This is not a program from any committee or publishing house. I don’t know the results and I don’t know how long it will take. I just know that if we discern the resources and will of God among us for the Four Efforts, then as a God-centered community we would be best served by a Time of Discernment.

The folks with whom I have consulted to make sure my hearing is not impaired have advised me that you will have lots of questions, especially around fasting. I have made a little booklet to guide us and that will be on the welcome table. And I welcome you to ask me whatever you will.

Remember this is not a program we have adopted at Bear Creek. It is simply my invitation to join me in a Time of Discernment.

Shalom,
Dave O