Advent Season is upon us!!

The Christmas trees are going up in the stores, the wrapping paper is calling our names, waiting to be taken home and used on our gifts for loved ones. It is the most wonderful time of the year... but not because of the trees, the lights, the gifts, the christmas cards, the parties or shopping trips. No, it is the most wonderful time of the year because Jesus came into a world that needed hope and peace... It is the time of year when we remember that Jesus came into a broken world then and now. I pray that you will make Stillwater on Miller Lane part of your Christmas Season celebrations. We have lots of things for you to connect into.

Dec. 3, 10 & 17...Christmas Bible Study
Conference Room at Miller Lane 7-9pm
Led by Marie, come and see how to make room for the Christ Child

Dec. 14….Advent Family Night
We are taking a night to celebrate with each other the Christmas season. Come with a covered dish and your family. We will eat dinner and then rotate to different tables to make crafts and play games. Mark your calendar.
Café At Miller Lane 6-8pm

Dec. 20 @ 1pm… Christmas Cookie exchange
We will make about 8 dozen cookies to share with 6 other people. We are asking that people bring two dozen cookies extra. We are sharing 1 dozen that afternoon and the second dozen for both Christmas Eve and Blue Christmas.
Sign up in the sign up sheets

Dec. 21….Blue Christmas
Christmas is not always a joy filled holiday for everyone. If you struggle with Christmas join us for this time to reflect and share with God our pain and hurt.
Stillwater on Miller Lane Worship Area… 7pm

Dec. 24...Christmas Eve
5pm Family “Hands on” worship service
11pm Candle light service

Hope to see you then.

Blessings

WOW

Can you believe it we finally made it!! Nov. 2nd arrived and we survived!! God was present and people connected. Thank you for all of the people who helped make Sunday happen.

A few of the ways that people connected with us...

A woman and her grandson came because we stopped and talked to her during a parade that we walked 4 miles in....

People saw our signs, recyled and all....

We knocked on doors and handed out popcorn....

People said they were not sure about a female pastor, but it was good.... (the boots helped)

The music was good.

The worship was different but good.

Breakfast was good....

People were very friendly.....

My children really liked Sunday school. They made cool bread.

Sunday was so amazing. We get to do it all again next week!! Yeah

Please keep a few dates in mind in the next month or two.

1.Nov 21 we are collecting items for service people that are away from their families either in Iraq or Afganistan. On that evening we will be putting the packages together so that they can be shipped. We would love you to join us.

2. Dec. 1-7th World Vision Aids Experience comes to Stillwater on Frederick Pike. I would like us as a new church to go and serve for a few hours together in the experience. They need about 350 servants. I will pick a few dates and times to accommodate various schedules.

3. Dec. 7th 4-5pm Munchies with Marie, come and meet my family and I for munchies and questions. I hope to connect with all of you before Dec. but if I have not gotten to see you face to face or if you have additional questions please come.

4. Dec. 14th Advent family night. Come and share a favorite recipe and enjoy a fun time with your family. We will have crafts and things for families to do together. This is a great event to invite a friend.

5. Dec. 21st Blue Christmas. We understand that Christmas is not always Merry for everyone. Christmas can be difficult for anyone who has lost a loved one, going through a divorce or separation, dealing with an illness, etc. The Blue Christmas worship service will name these things and look for Jesus' presence in spite of them. Times will be listed in the bulletin.


Blessings,

marie

Calendar of events

Mark your calendars for the following:

We are only 5 weeks out until launch date. I was wondering if you could send me the list of the people on your target list and what is their status. For example, Fred W is on my list, I have invited him to a just them event, that he attended and a worship service he promises to attend. I would like to add them to my prayer list and the prayer lists of others.

It is essential that we invite others to our church. Remember that we are inviting others so that they can find the peace, love, community or comfort that each of you have found.

A few things to note:

If you are on the green team, we are having a planting day this Saturday Oct. 4th at 9:00am. We don't think it should take more than 2 hours. We need you to come out and help Kurt (from Fred. pike) seed and plant.

Saturday afternoon the children's ministry people are painting the Sunday school rooms. If you are available to help even for an hour or two they would be so appreciative. They are starting at 1pm.

We are doing a building day soon. Please keep tuned for updates.


Oct. 4th @ 10:00am Miller Lane field- Dog Days of Fall. Bring your dog and your friend to come and hang out with other dogs. Pet land will be there to have give aways. There will also be an trainer. Contact Barbara for more information.

Oct. 5th Northridge parade 12:00n- Come and join the fun. We will be walking and handing out candy and invitations for our worship service and also for our Family Fun night on Beggar's night. We invite you to come and join our fun as we join the polar express.

Oct. 11th Bonfire at Ruth's house. Come and enjoy a smore and a great camp fire.

Oct. 12th Worship Celebration @ 7 pm the last preview service before we launch. Invite all those that you have been praying for!!

Oct. 14th Share your favorite recipe. See who can make the cheapest meal.

Oct. 30th Beggar's night- Family Fun night at Miller Lane. Decorate your trunk and hand out candy to the community. We will have a hay ride, bon fire, popcorn and a clown.

Nov. 2nd Opening Worship!!! 10:30am

Blessings, Marie

Top 5 things learned through the poweroutage

5. Quiet is good....
4. It doesn't really matter if the floor is green and the carpet is red, God still shows up!!!
3. The building feels full very quickly.
2. Parking, Parking, Parking
1. It will be incredible when we launch worship with 200 people!!

The whirlwind called Texas

Wow, I can't believe that the week is over, our Church Planting Boot camp was just that, boot camp. We listened, learned, prayed and listened some more. We were so fortunate to realize all the things we were doing right, we were on track with timelines, leadership, teams, small groups and ministry area like Children's, hospitality and building stuff.

We also realized that we have not been invitational. We have not thought about our friends and neighbors being our target areas. So in order to be more invitational we are hosting a number of "Just Them" events. Things like, dog days of fall, movie night, shopping @ the outlets, etc.

These are events that we want you to invite your friends and neighbors that will introduce them to our community. We are so excited with this turn of events.

Well, our next Preview service will focus on Seeing God in others. So the God goggles will be out and we will look at our neighbors from a different perspective.

If you would like to join Todd and I selling hot dogs for Northridge Band boosters, let me know.

Blessings, Marie

Vacation Bible School

Wow, it is finally here!! Vacation Bible School- Power Lab is in full swing. (Pictures to come) We have had 5 new families from the neighborhood come and join us. Yesterday we learned about thankfulness and how out of ten people that Jesus healed only one came back to say thanks. We are having a great time singing and praising God with the children. It is so fun to watch them open up and have a good time. I wonder if this is the feeling that God gets when God sees us finally "get" it.

I will blog some more tomorrow with pictures of children and crew.

Blessings, Marie

Marie preaching

Here's Marie preaching over at the YMCA campus this morning!

Green Day (no not the band)

I can't believe it, we got at least one of the evergreen bushes from infront of the church on Saturday morning. It required myself and 4 men to sit in the truck to make the little bush come out. It was very cool. About the time we got started with the bushes it began to rain. We could not let the rain stop us, people where there to help so that is exactly what they did. We cleaned out the closet in the nursery (it was a huge mess, you could not even walk in there) Duane was able to throw a bunch of stuff I had no idea what to do with out!! Yeah!! We also got another room completely painted. The stencils are slowly coming off the wall, or being painted over.

I have been back in town for about 1.5 weeks. In that time it feels like I have gotten alot started, yet not very much. I have been able to be in touch with about 1/2 the launch team. I have scheduled appointments with those that i have not been able to see yet. (If that is you please contact me so that we can talk.) I have also contacted several outside people in the last week. I hope that within two weeks that I will make the majority of my new contacts with those who do not call Stillwater home.

Okay, I am tired and my computer is dying. I do have to preach tommorrow. I am nervous because I am going without a whole manuscript, only notes. We shall see.

Blessings and hope that the pictures will be up soon.

What is happening

Whew... I can't believe it, I am finally able to commit all of my time to Stillwater on Miller Lane. I feel like it has taken forever to begin the process. As I was at my annual conference (a meeting of other United Methodists who are both pastors and people who participate in the lives of churches) this past week, I realized how blessed I am for this out of the box kind of thinking that we are doing. I am sad that I will not be able to put my feet in the ocean, but I do have the opportunity to reach out and share the love of Christ to a whole bunch of new people here in Ohio.

I did have the opportunity while I was home to visit my friend Doris who is a young woman I have guardian of in DE. She turned 44 in May, we had a surprise birthday party for her while I was home. It was great. She laughed and had a great time. She really likes men. One of her favorite men came to her party and threw her kisses all evening. Doris' staff told me that she and this gentleman had been on a date; they watched a movie in her room. She is such an important part of my life, yet so few people know about her here in Ohio.

Church updates...

On June 28th from 8am- 12 noon we will be having a Green day, not the band, a day to start the sprucing up process at Miller Lane. Bring your shovels and watering cans. We will have fun pulling up weeds and bushes.

saturday at miller lane

it's so great to have activity on this campus again!!

Well... I can't believe I did it.... I with Jenny's help started a Blog. This blog will be my journey along with a group of amazing and gifted people who are trying to live out the purpose and call that God has given us. We will be starting a church on the corner of Miller Lane and Stop 8 road in Dayton, OH. Sometimes our world is filled with scary and lonely places. Some of us have been hurt, wounded and feel like we are broken. God can heal our brokenness and together with the healing powers of Jesus Christ, we can be a stained glass window full of broken pieces put together with Christ's grace. I invite you to join me, and the whole gang as we grow in grace.

Shalom--

Marie