EPIC - Christmas Party

Family Ministries Christmas Party

The Family Ministries Christmas Party held on Tuesday, December 18th in the Parish Hall was a lot of fun for all involved. In addition to the volunteers, 27 children and 25 adults attended. We were blessed to have Scenic City Games in attendance. They provided board games for all ages and skill levels and the game tables were busy throughout the evening.

The Messy Church Team arrived early to set up and proceeded to transform the parish hall into a winter wonderland with festive garlands, strings of Christmas lights, plush Christmas stockings, and assorted colourful decorations. The Christmas Moose was a definite hit. Red and green lights twinkled on the ceiling. J-P was dressed as the Christmas Elf and made sure that the volunteers all had elf hats to wear.

The children enjoyed the seasonal crafts which included decorating paper gingerbread people, colouring decorations to paste on a cardboard Christmas tree, making paper plate Santa Claus faces, and icing and decorating sugar cone Christmas trees. For those not inclined to be crafty, there was a game of candy cane fishing as well as the board games available.

The buffet table, which proved to be popular, offered colourful Christmas pizza, pigs-in-blankets, crackers and cheese, different varieties of potato chips, cookies, clementines, and the most adorable little grinches made out of green grapes, bananas, strawberries, and miniature marshmallows.

Of course, no Christmas Party would be complete without a visit from Santa and this Christmas party did not disappoint. J-P read The Night Before Christmas and passed out candy canes with bookmarks telling the Legend of the Candy Cane. Santa read the nativity story and then handed out treats to the children.  The evening finished with a pass the present game and one young man performing impromptu Christmas music karaoke.

It was a great time for families from the church and from the neighbourhood to get together and celebrate as families. One mom remarked to me that more churches should offer events like this for children. She was impressed with the warm and joyful interactions that the children had with the volunteers at the various activity centres, and promised to come out with her children to our Messy Church in January.

Building relationships, sharing the love and joy of the Lord, celebrating as a community -- all that was there and more at this Christmas Party. To God be the glory, and on earth peace and good will among all people as we welcome the Christ child once more into our midst. Merry Christmas everyone!

Our next party will be MESSY CHURCH Jan 29th at 5:30pm. Join us!!

Moments of pure Joy

There was once a man who said that if you lived to 80 you may have experiences 10 moments of pure bliss in your life time. If I have I believe these moments came from my encounter of God in the “Other”, one of our fellow parishioners has, in what I can only say was an inspiring conversation with David Sykes this past month I was profoundly moved by his experiences this summer. As we enter the dark and coldness of the winter months here are four simple moments that brought David joy over the past summer:

 1.     The look of sheer joy on the face of a young boy of about 10 riding his bicycle enthusiastically down the sidewalk.

2.     Three ladies singing next door.  One would start a song, the others would join in until they forgot the lyrics, then they would all laugh.  They did that off and on for about three days.  Their laughter and joy was contagious. I finished a couple of their songs and then we’d all laugh.

3.      During the children’s focus, the children were asked if they were happy with who God had made them to be. Riley’s expressed a joy at being who he was.  It moved David as Riley’s expression of joy was so hart warming and powerful!

4.     The person, talent and joy of our organist, Katie. She has added to our worship in very important ways, the joy she brings us with her skill, her music and her joy in sharing it with us.

It truly is the simple things that bring Joy. Riley and Katie never take center stage in worship but there leadership is so strongly felt that it can move us to pure joy and pride. If you get a chance today thank someone who has given you a sense of joy in the last year.

By: John-Paul Markides & David Sykes