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The Navigator
 November 18, 2009

  Good & Faithful Servant
of the Month

This month we are honoring a dear brother and sister in Christ who have demonstrated exemplary Christian servanthood. They are Dwight and Karen Landis. They both significantly serve the Lord and His church through our worship ministries in audio and video technical support. They are both so willing to serve when and where there is need.  We thank God for Dwight and Karen and name them our Good & Faithful Servants of the Month for December 2009. Please take the time express your gratitude to Dwight and Karen for being faithful and obedient servants of Christ who help make Maiden Lane the wonderful church it is.

We are just days from our national celebration of Thanksgiving Day and I am convinced that the most thankful people on planet earth ought to be authentic Christians. I believe this because we can all give thanks to the Lord our God for at least the following seven reasons:

We give thanks to the Lord our God for giving us the WORD in WRITING. I am deeply and eternally grateful for the gift of inspired Scripture. I say “Amen” with David’s statement, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

We give thanks to the Lord our God for giving us the WORD made FLESH. Of all of God’s gifts none can compare to this gift. The beauty, glory and majesty of this gift are indeed second to none. God’s gift of His one and only Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins ought to evoke the highest praise and thanksgiving from us. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.” (2 Corinthians 9:15)

We give thanks to the Lord our God for giving us GRACE that is GREATER than our SIN. Grace is the unmerited favor and mercy of God freely given to fallen and broken human beings who by faith seek His forgiveness. The good news is that He quickly gives that forgiveness to all who seek Him with a repentant heart. I rejoice today in what the holiness hymn writer Haldor Lillenas called the “Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin; How shall my tongue describe it, where shall its praise begin?”

We give thanks to the Lord our God for giving us HOPE that is ETERNAL. Dear friends we have been given the promise of a forever home in Heaven with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our hope is not just in this life, but in the LIFE that is to come. We of all people have been given every reason to give praise and thanksgiving to our great God.

Soli Deo Gloria,                             
Pastor Mark

FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR CYNTHIA
Dear Church Family,
The time has come for last minute preparations for the Tree.  I am continually amazed (and a bit nervous to be honest) at what God has called us to do this year. Getting the concept for the new sets from an idea in my head to real live structures has been a challenge for all involved.  They look wonderful!  Having a story concept that involves full acting and period costuming has been a challenge from the start. The costumes are beautiful!  Singing songs with very specific stylistic differences is a unique concept for the choir. They sound amazing!  I share these things with you not to pat ourselves on the back, but to give God the glory for what He has done. We could not have done all of these things without His guidance and gifting.  I have continually been reminded throughout the production process this year that God will not call us to do something He will not give provision for. God is so good!  As we enter into these final weeks, I’d like to share with you some areas in which we are in great need of assistance.

  • We need many, many food donations for our worker meals.
  •  We need people to sign up for Tree set-up and tear-down
    (over 65 more are needed for set-up).
  •  We need people to sign up to pray during each presentation.

Thank you for your encouragement and support in these past few weeks.  All involved in the production of LCT need all they can get!  Our tech team will spend over 60 hours here in one week working on all the technical aspects.  Please pray that all our pre-production preparation goes smoothly, safely and with a lot of enjoyment. We’re striving to give God our very best and to get the message of the greatest Christmas gift ever given into the ears and lives of our community. To God be the glory!

In His Service,
Pastor Cynthia

FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR DAN
Enon News
I want to thank everyone who assembled a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child this year. These gifts will be the only Christmas for many boys and girls around the world. This year, we will know where your box goes to as well. Thanks to the Kings Klub for their work at assembling boxes as well. I also wish to thank the Kings Klub for their recent visit to Dayspring on a Wednesday night where they took stuffed God Loves You Turtles with notes from the children and gave them to residents. These periodic visits by our children brighten the day for many who are lonely. Thank you Lisa for your leadership in this area.

With the holidays approaching, this year’s advent theme is called the Advent Conspiracy. Are you tired of all the consumerism of Christmas? This year, I challenge you to love more, spend less and give more presence. This could be the most God honoring Christmas ever if we learn to do Christmas God’s way! Invite your friends and family to this four week series.

We are hosting the Enon Community Thanksgiving service this year at our church. We need volunteers to bring cookies, greet and make all of our guests feel welcome. We will have a full house! If you are on one of our worship teams or wish to sing on the community team or choir, let me know. This event is sponsored by the Enon Ministerial Association.

For those of you who help with Sonshine Club, we are off until December when we will meet only the first two Thursday’s. On December 11th, we will have a Christmas Party for the kids. We need all the extra help we can get that day, so if you are available, come to the gym at Enon Elementary at 3:00 PM.

Due to your faithful support of our building fund, we will begin the next project of laying tile in the Sunday School Wing early in December. Have you noticed our new Welcome Desk for visitors? Thanks to Jim Sewell for building this for us. If you would like to volunteer to be at this desk before and after one of our services, see Betty McDaniel to sign up.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving and always know that we love you very much!   
Pastor Dan

FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR PATTY
Trunk or Treat
What a huge success! About 30 cars from our church joined with cars from Grace United Methodist to pass out candy and treats to the children in our neighborhood. The cars were decorated with many themes: harvest to arctic to OSU to Wizard of Oz. It was amazing to see the creativity that our friends have — we even had a cotton candy machine and a hay ride. We had prepared for about 300 kids to visit, but ended up with closer to 500. Surprisingly, I came away realizing that this event meant more to the parents than the kids. Many expressed how nice it was to come to one place and be done and that they felt safer letting their kids go from car to car rather than door to door. The best comment I received though was from a mother. During a conversation she said, “I thought this was a church group doing this.” I replied, “Yes, this is my church family and I’m the children’s pastor.” Her response, “I never knew church people could be so much fun.” Mission accomplished! We had set out to be in the world, but not of it and to let our neighbors know that we love them. God’s love was shown that night. Thanks to all who helped make the evening a success!
Pastor Patty

A Story from Kids Hope USA
Most of our mentors have begun meeting with their children in the last few months. After such a long break during the summer, it is always surprising what that first meeting will be like. In the words of one of our faithful mentors, “I was wondering what the first meeting of the new year would be like but wasn’t quite prepared for the extra warm greeting I received. When my mentee first saw me, she bounded out of her class line, grabbed me and gave me the biggest hug, saying, ‘I remember your name.’ On the playground she introduced me to her friends. She is much more open this year to talking and sharing. When I asked what she would like to do special this year she said she wanted to knit again. Last year knitting consisted of her wrapping the thread around while I held the needles. Maybe we’ll go a step further this year. We work on her reading skills and math skills but her favorite time is beating me at Go Fish.”

Thank you for your prayers for this ministry. God is working in mighty ways.

Pastor Patty

FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR JOE AND PASTOR MISSY
Spiritual Warriors after Truth

Ohio State Youth Convention a Huge Success…

On November 6-8th more than 850 people (teens and adult leaders) packed the ballroom at the Renaissance Hotel in Columbus for the Ohio State Youth Convention of the Church of God. The theme for this year’s convention was Chosen….  We spent the weekend reflecting on how we are chosen by God. Our congregation was very well represented by 27 youth and 9 adult leaders. Several of the adult leaders (Bob, Karen, Lisa, Joe, and Missy) presented sessions to both teens and leaders during the weekend.  Additionally, Joshua Dandrea opened our Sunday morning worship service in prayer. Plans for next year’s convention will begin in February so be sure to get us some feedback on what you liked about this year’s OSYC and what you think we can do to make it even better next year. Both of us (Missy and Joe) serve on the O-Net Team and will have input into next year’s convention, so touch base with us soon to have your opinion heard.  In closing, let us give a great big thank you to all of our volunteer youth workers who gave of their time and love to accompany our teens to OSYC.  We know you gave up a lot of sleep and time with your families. Your efforts for the Kingdom are making a difference in the lives of our teens.

Have a super Thanksgiving!  We are certainly grateful to God for He has certainly blessed our church with a great group of teens and volunteer leaders!

Blessings!
Pastor Missy and Pastor Joe

FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR JOY

Circle the Cross Night
Wednesday, December 16
From 5:30 to 8 pm

We need volunteers to take gifts to the homes of our LCT guests who indicated that they made a decision for Christ. We will go in team of 2 or 3 to take homemade cookies, a Bible, materials explaining more about becoming a Christian and information about Maiden Lane’s Christmas services, and an invitation to join with a small group of new Christians for study. Please sign up — time is getting short!