the encounter

Wow! The momentum youth group enjoyed its annual Christmas party tonight at the home of Jarrett and Maddie Hinds! It was a foggy night at a location the students had never been to before so we were unsure of the turnout. But to our great surprise – over 50 people showed up! Lisa Mederos had everything well prepared for the eveningwith lots of fun food, snacks, and drinks.Lots of laughter, games, and the annual white elephantgift exchange. The most popular gifts exchanged? oversized tv remote control, box of multi-flavored jelly beans, sponge bob pillow. Looks like for next yearwe’ll haveseparate junior and senior high parties!

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I’ll file this under the “Guilty as Charged” file.

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, says he objects to Christmas cards featuring family photos.

Look, I love family photos during the holidays. Plus, I actually read those annual holiday letters, all of which start with “What a busy year it’s been!” Seeing photos of my friends and their families and even enjoying a few sunny beach scenes when it’s cold and dark outside is a highlight of December.

But I enjoy the photos more when they’re inside the card, not the card itself. Because more and more, even devout Christians have been replacing Jesus, Mary and Joseph with themselves.

Can I plead my case that we saved a lot more money by making our own cards and having them printed as pictures, rather than buying a Christmas card and including a family photo?

“Doesn’t it strike you as weird to set aside the Holy Family in favor of your family? Does a photo of Cabo San Lucas trump the story told by the original San Lucas? Is Christmas really about you?”

Ouch! It makes me really rethink how I’m celebrating Christmas this year — as I stuff a few more Christmas photos into envelopes.

Listen to the full commentary.

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“Pastor Ryan” and his men’s group got together for their weekly Monday night gathering and took part in their annual tom-foolery.

If there’s a good way to show some people that you were thinking of them during the Christmas season, it’s butter, sugar, cinnamon, and some more butter. Nothing says you’re special quite like the famous Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls.

They even added some custom greeting cards to the mix.

See some video footage from their Advent Conspiring ::

Cinnamon Rolls from Ryan Detzel on Vimeo.

How are you conspiring this season?

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Dong Yun Yoon [English name is Don Yoon], 37, was at work at his cafe when he discovered the horrible news of a F/A-18 jet crashing into a residential home – his home. His wife, two young babies, and his mother-in-law who had recently arrived from Korea to help take care of the babies [a Korean custom] all were killed in this tragedy.

Eugene C Cho shares Yoon’s story on his blog. And you can watch video on CNN.

And I’ll be honest, had it not been for Cho, I’d have no idea this even happened.

Yoon married his wife, Young Mi Yoon [a nurse], four years ago and had two children: Grace [15 months] and Rachel [2 months]. They had just moved into this house one month ago.

“My wife — it was God’s blessing that I met her about four years ago, and we got married,” he said quietly. “She’s just such a lovely wife and mother, who always loves me, and (the) babies. I just miss her so much.”

So, your entire family has been taken from you. The pilot of the F-18 that crashed into your house walked away — he ejected just before the crash.

How would you respond?

Yoon responds with grace that can only come from an almighty God.

“…I believe my wife and two babies and mother-in-law are in heaven with God,” he said. “And I know God is taking care of them.”

as for the pilot…

“Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident,” Yoon said. “I know he’s one of our treasures, for the country, and I … don’t blame him. I don’t have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could.”

This is the Gospel.

Sure makes my petty issues with others seem even more so.

God may we love like you love. May we treasures others like you treasure them. May we see your image in them all. May we conspire to live differently this season and live our lives differently from this point forward.

“Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all our sins.”

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encounter peep post :: Kari McHam

I just want to say thank you soooo much for allowing me to go before encounter and ask them to help out with the MYS kids. There were a lot of people that have committed to bring food the next 2 Sundays and we received $280 in donations yesterday! That should feed at least 7 – 8 families not including what will be donated the next 2 Sundays!! We are so excited about being able to bless these families and we owe it all to you guys for helping us out. Thank you so much – you will never know how much we love you guys and how proud we are to apart of this congregation.

There are 50-75 kids that attend the Methodist Youth Service Program everyday. These are kids that come from horrible back grounds as I am sure you know. Most of them are boys and are members of hard core gangs here in town. The few girls we have range from the ages of 11-17 and sadly they too are a product of their environment. Last month we put together a Thanksgiving Dinner for the kids and we cooked all day and served them a wonderful spread of food – funded by the Methodist Children’s Home. Their faces were priceless. Some of the kids had never had a Thanksgiving meal and some of them were so shocked that “White” people would care enough about them to make them a ton of food. They were so gracious and thankful – it was worth all the hassle that day! At the end of the day Dave was dropping the kids off at home and this one boy, Chuck, who is about 17 – told Dave that he couldn’t believe how awesome this program was – he lost his job that day and he is the sole supporter for his mom and little brother. He was crying (which is something these young men DO NOT DO) and telling Dave that he was so thankful for everything that we are doing. It has brought him so much joy to be able to go to the gym everyday and play ping pong (something they just discovered was fun!) and basketball. It was keeping him off the streets and fed at least once a week! When Dave called me and told me what Chuck had said it brought me so much happiness in my heart. Yeah, we live in a bad neighborhood, yeah we may not be able to afford to buy nice things, yeah we may not be able to do a whole lot for Chloe right now, but serving the Lord in the trenches has brought us more riches than money can and it has taught Chloe how to serve and the true meaning of Christmas. So, being able to do a food drive for these kids is more than just that – it will mean that these kids that have never had Christmas Dinner – will be able to. It means that these kids that have probably never had real contact or love or compassion from another race – they will be able to. Its more than food….its the Love of a Father that they have never known.

The Methodist Home has provided 60 brand new bikes to Dave’s program so the kids will at least get a bike for Christmas. Dave has been giving out 4 a week and the kids are so happy! Its so great to see a 6’4 hard core gang member almost in tears because he has just been given a bike! The Methodist Home also provides $50 a week for me to be able to hold a cooking class every Wednesday night. I go out and buy food and teach the kids how to make simple dinners – we feed every kid here on Wednesdays. Josh Cofield has taken time out of his schedule and drove down here after work one day and taught about 8 boys how to weld. We have a friend of ours that is a Auto Mechanic who will be hosting a Auto Mechanic Class here next year. We have a 3rd grade teacher who comes every Wednesday evening to help tutor those who need help. This is the mission field my friends….and we need as much help as we can get, so help us pray for the harvest – because the workers are few and the harvest is ready! Thank you so much encounter.

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