the monthly newsletter of Pineda PresbyterianYour Mission Team has also purchased neckties as Christmas gifts for all the young men currently participating in the AMIkids program.

THE TIDINGS

t he mon th ly news l e t t e r o f

Pineda Presb y t er ian Chu rch (USA)

Sunday , D e c emb er 2nd

10:00 a.m. - Combined Service with Communion (Sanctuary)

Sunday , D e c emb er 9 th

8:30 a.m. - Celebration Service (Fellowship Hall)

9:45 a.m. - Adult Christian Education*

11:00 a.m. - Traditional Service (Sanctuary)

Sunday , D e c emb er 1 6 th

8:30 a.m. - Celebration Service (Fellowship Hall)

9:45 a.m. - Adult Christian Education*

11:00 a.m. - Traditional Service (Sanctuary)

5:00 p.m. - Blue Christmas Service (Sanctuary)

Sunday , D e c emb er 23rd

8:30 a.m. - Celebration Service (Fellowship Hall)

9:45 a.m. - Adult Christian Education*

11:00 a.m. - Traditional Service (Sanctuary)

Monday , D e c emb er 24th

7:00 p.m. - Christmas Eve Candlelight Service with Communion & Christmas Joy Offering (Sanctuary)

Sunday , D e c emb er 30 th

10:00 a.m. - Combined Service (Fellowship Hall)

*Adult Christian Education Classes are held in Sanctuary Rooms A & C, the Fellowship Hall and

Church Office. Classes are not held on Combined Service Sundays. Children’s Church for children

up to 1st grade takes place after the Children’s Sermon at the 11:00 Service in Sanctuary Room B.

2018

12/3 Brenda Weston

12/5 David Botts

12/8 David Hoffman

12/14 Nancy Darby

12/16 Bill Toole

12/17 John Marks

12/19 Marjorie Flores

Jan Joynes

12/24 Elaine Watkins

12/31 Laird Arey

12/4

Randy & Mary Ellen

Whaples

12/7

Al & Sue Giddings

12/20

Scott & Pat Zinn

12/30

Gary & Donna Wilson

Orders are now being taken for

poinsettias at the price of $11

each. Sign-up sheets are in the

Fellowship Hall. Please be sure

to specify who your poinsettia

is in honor or in memory of.

Orders will be received through

Sunday, December 9th and may

be taken home following the

Christmas Eve Candlelight and

Communion Service.

The Annual Advent Tea, hosted by Pineda Presbyterian Women

will be held on Sunday, December 2nd following the

10:00 a.m. Combined Service. Everyone is invited to bring a

favorite holiday treat to share!

Join us on Saturday, December 1st at 9:30 a.m. to decorate the Sanctuary and

fellowship Hall for the Advent Season!

The Church Office will be closed on the following days for

Christmas and New Year’s:

Monday, December 24th Tuesday, December 25th Monday, December 31st

Tuesday, January 1st

December 2nd

Jeremiah 33:14-16 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Luke 21:35-36

December 9th Malachi 3:1-4

Philippians 1:3-11 Luke 3:1-6

December 16th

Zephaniah 3:14-20 Philippians 4:4-7

Luke 3:7-18

December 23rd Micah 5:2-5a

Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-55

December 24th

Isaiah 9:2-7 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-20

December 30th

1 Samuel 2:18-20 & 26 Colossians 3:12-17

Luke 2:41-52

Coming Soon for Holiday Gift Giving: Pineda Presbyterian’s 13th Annual

Living Gift Market, featuring Heifer International. Once again, we will

provide opportunities to participate in this life changing charity by making

donations in honor of friends and family. Each gift helps to educate and

empower people in the fight against hunger and poverty.

From Heifer International:

“For nearly 70 years Heifer's cornerstones have empowered

people to change their lives. Everything starts with a desire for a better

life and a better world. Empowering people to change their lives is the

key to ending hunger & poverty.

A Heifer program is a set of strategically connected projects

aligned with a long-term commitment that empower small-scale farmers

to achieve socially, economically and environmentally secure livelihoods.

Because our programs are constructed to address the specific needs of

a region, they can vary in size and geographic scope. They can exist

within a single country, or span across national borders to help as many

people as possible. This focus on scalability allows our work to have the

greatest, most lasting impact possible.”

Families who receive your gift become donors as they pass on

the gift to other families in their community. This allows them to help

others as you have helped them. We teach people how to use environ-

mentally-friendly farming methods, create and operate businesses, and

support their communities with their knowledge.

Visit the Living Gift Market on Sundays, December 9th &

December 16th in the Fellowship Hall.

Lectionary

Readings

Food Pantry Donations

Last month Pineda’s contribution to the Advent Food Pantry helped serve 25 families and 88 individuals. An average of 36 bags were handed out per week with a maximum of 44 bags. During the month, 11 new individuals required food from the pantry. Many thanks to all for your continued support of this very necessary ministry.

Sunday, December 2nd—Canned fruit

Sunday, December 9th—Breakfast Cereal

Sunday, December 16th—Canned pasta (Ravioli, Spaghetti O’s, etc.)

Sunday, December 23rd—Saltine Crackers

Sunday, December 30th—Boxed macaroni & cheese

Just a reminder to check your family file folder located on the

rolling cart in the Fellowship Hall each Sunday when you are here

for worship. Periodically, the church office will place important

items in your folder and some members also choose to place

Christmas cards in the folders. So, please take a moment to check

your folder. Who knows what surprises you may find? If you don’t

have a folder and would like one, please notify the church office.

The 2019 Worship Schedule will be available on Sunday,

December 9th in the Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall and Church

Office. An electronic version will also be available on our

website at www.pinedapres.org. The Worship Schedule

includes the time and location for all church services, special

events and special offerings as well as church office hours and

church office holidays. Be sure to pick up a copy!

The Cold Night Shelter has a couple of ways you can help the

homeless this winter. You can make homemade soup and

place it in the freezer marked CNS in our church kitchen and we

will deliver it to the shelter as needed. Please double bag soup

in gallon sized freezer bags and stack flatly in the freezer.

Additionally, we will be collecting donations of gently used

jeans, t-shirts and sweatshirts for men as well as NEW men’s

cotton tube socks and underwear. Please place items in the

collection bin in the Fellowship Hall.

During this Christmas and Advent Season, we celebrate

leadership; past, present and future through support of

the Christmas Joy Offering. We do so because church

leaders greatly impact our lives of faith, walking with us

down the path to be more like Jesus. We want those

church leaders and their families who find themselves

grappling with a critical financial need to have the

resources they need which are provided through the

Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions.

We also support the offering to help our future leaders in the church and world, like those

educated at our Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color.

Supporting these students helps the whole church develop leaders who reflect the wideness

of God’s intended diversity. For those supported through the Christmas Joy Offering, this

help is truly a gift from above. May our gifts, and the leaders who receive them, point us

always to the truth of the one whose birth we celebrate, Jesus Christ — the truly perfect gift.

The Christmas Joy Offering will be received at the Christmas Eve

Candlelight & Communion Service at 7:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary.

Christmas Eve

with Communion

Monday, December 24th

@ 7:00 p.m.

We’re Doing Something New!

Every December at our Annual Christmas Dinner, we celebrate the Christmas season with

an evening of table fellowship, songs of the season, and expressions of our gratitude to God

for the wonderful gift of His Son, our Savior.

This year, our Christmas Dinner is being held on Tuesday, December 11th, beginning at

6:00 p.m. I hope you’ve already purchased your tickets!

This year, we are doing something new and exciting! Your Mission Team has invited some

special guests to join us. We will be hosting five young men from AMIkids Space Coast -

Melbourne Center for Personal Growth, a program we’ve become familiar with over the

past several years. There will also be two AMIkids staff members joining us.

Your Mission Team has also purchased neckties as Christmas gifts for all the young men

currently participating in the AMIkids program. They need neckties as they approach

graduation and begin interviewing for jobs. We hope everyone will make these young men

(as well as the AMIkids staff members) feel welcome on that special evening!

Rev. David L. Lindemer

This year’s Annual Christmas Dinner will be held on Tuesday, December 11th at 6:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall.

Tickets may be purchased after worship services in the Fellowship Hall for $15 each.

When purchasing tickets, please let us know if you can bring Christmas cookies for dessert or decorate a table for seven people.

Pastor’s Pondering My friends, Happy Advent! As the first Sunday of Advent arrives December 2nd, we remember that we are beginning a period of preparation for the arrival (adventus, Latin) or the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh at Christmas. (18, Dictionary of Christian Lore and Legend, Metford) In addition, Advent is a foreshadowing of the Second Coming of Jesus on the Day of Judgment. (Ibid, 18) At Advent we cry with the early church, “Maranatha!” which means “Our Lord, come!” In the liturgy of Advent, we can see both the preparation for the incarnation of Jesus in the baby born in Bethlehem and the anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus in Judgment. Therefore, Advent is a mixture of emotions: joy, fear, grief, and hope. Are we not caught in this mixture in a special way this 2018 Advent season? Pastor David is saying “Good-bye” with all the joys and hopes of retirement, but along with those emotions come the fears and griefs of change and loss. Interestingly, this dilemma of mixed emotion we are caught in is captured in the Aramaic word “maranatha.” The word used in 1 Corinthians 16:22 can be understood in two ways. If translated as a compound of the two words, marana tha, then it would be the imperative form oriented to the future: “Come, our Lord!” Our focus would then be on the future hope and fulfillment of all that has been done to guide Pineda Presbyterian Church and Pastor David into the new future with our Lord Jesus. There is great hope and joy in this understanding for both Pastor David and our church, while we grieve Pastor David’s goodbye. If translated as a compound of the two words, maran atha, then it would be the present perfect form expressing a completed event, “Our Lord has come.” (Footnote, 1 Cor. 16:22; 95-

96, The Companion to the Book of Common Worship, ed. Peter C. Bower) The orientation here is toward the past, as we remember the light Pastor David brought Pineda Church when he came to rebuild a foundation of strong faith and loving fellowship for our church. The Companion to the BCW says, “The cry of maranatha and the season of Advent emphasize both our remembering of the past and our hope for the future.” (Ibid, 96) We remember the joy and hope of their arrival back in October 2009 and are grateful for Pastor David and Carol, the new life our church found in their love, friendship, and leadership. May they journey into the future with our deep gratitude and with God’s Peace, joy, hope, and love, Pastor Jim

Scottish

New

Year

POTLUCK

&

PARTY!

Monday,

December 31st

at 4:30 p.m.

Bring your favorite dish!

The New Year

will be celebrated

at 7:00 p.m. (midnight in Scotland)

This year we will meet an hour earlier for our

Annual Scottish New Year Potluck and Party!

Please prepare your favorite potluck dish and join us

at 4:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall.

We will have a special farewell celebration

in honor of Pastor David and Carol Lindemer,

followed by dinner and ringing in the New Year.

You won’t want to miss it!

Pineda Presbyterian Church

5650 N. Wickham Road, Melbourne, FL 32940 [email protected]

321-259-1330 www.pinedapres.org