Keeping Us Connected in Christ"

Northwest Ohio Association,

United Church of Christ

November 17, 2004

“They who sing pray twice!” If that is true, there was a lot of singing and praying last weekend at the Small Church Cluster Choir Fest. Held at Sycamore United Church of Christ, there were seven churches who offered musical selections with different styles. The afternoon culminated with the combined choirs (about 60 voices) signing four selections. By the end of the afternoon, the energy and enthusiasm was exuberant! It was wonderful! Gratitude goes to all participants, Mr. Norman Cassidy who directed the combined choirs, and Sycamore UCC for providing the warm hospitality.

Although the training sessions for “God is Still Speaking” are over for now (there may be additional sessions created in preparation for the March TV Commercials), we do have some of the 3-ring binder resource notebooks available. The notebook contains information about the initiative; a DVD or video of “Ron in the Box” which is the multi-media presentation of the initiative to be used with the congregation and provides wonderful discussion opportunities (the presentation includes the TV commercials); the “Power of Invitation and Welcome” booklet providing resources building on the opportunity that the TV commercials provide; a CD of the various materials in the binder for reproduction, etc. Cost of the binder is $25. We will be returning any extra binders soon, so please indicate your interest by next week.

Announcing “Nű-VIZION NűS!”

Nű-Vizion Christian Fellowship in Toledo has just published its FIRST EVER NEWSLETTER! Click this “Newsletter from Nu-Vizion” link to view the newsletter. The file will open Adobe Acrobat .pdf format (approx. 8 MB…right click and choose “Save target as…” to download the file to your computer).

A new opportunity is taking shape for confirmands. What is summer Confirmation Camp about? Come and find out. St. John’s UCC, Genoa and St. Stephen UCC, Sandusky are in the initial stages of creating an event for confirmands for Sunday, January 16 (Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend). This will be a time for confirmands to learn about and get excited about summer Confirmation Camp. Participants will hear experiences from past campers, CIT’s, and Counselors, view the video from last year’s Faith Journey Confirmation camp, and participate in various activities. If you think you might be interested in having your confirmands attend or would like to be part of the planning conversations, contact Rev. Steven Simpson (St. John’s UCC, Genoa, 419-855-3906 or pastor@stjohnsgenoa.com) or Rev. Rob Patton (St. Stephen UCC, Sandusky, 419-626-1612 or pastorrob@ststephenucc.org).

World AIDS Day is December 1. There is a liturgy available online at www.ucc.org/hivaids.

UCC Employment Opportunities are now available online every month at www.ucc.org/classifieds.

RECENT EMAIL & MAIL CHANGES and ADDITIONS

If your personal (or church) email address or mailing address has recently changed, let us know!

Prayer Requests

Pastor Clark Trowbridge (Berkey Congregational Christian UCC) will have surgery for prostrate cancer on Dec. 3. Please pray for healing and comfort.

Deadlines and Meeting Dates

This Saturday is the Work Day at Nu-Vizion Christian Fellowship (Miracle on Cherry Street) in Toledo. 9 am – 4 pm. If you did not send a RSVP, please do so immediately to 419-241-9358 or by email to nuvizioncf@sbcglobal.net.

Upcoming

November 18 Defiance Program District Cluster Clergy will meet at Defiance College,

in the upstairs Cultural Arts room of Serrick Center, at 11:30 am.

November 19-21 Fall Youth Event – Round Lake Christian Assembly, Lakeville, OH

November 20 Finance and Budget Committee 9 am

November 20 Flight School at St. John’s Mansfield

November 20 Flight School at Trinity Methodist, Defiance

November 23 Transition Team 9:30 am

November 25 – 26 Office Closed

November 28 – First Sunday of Advent

November 29 Nominating Committee 10:30 am

November 30 Program Area Chaplains /Deans 10 am

COOL WEB LINKS… NEW Web Browser is available!

We received this notification today from Networld, one of our NWOA ISP’s (internet service providers)…a NEW, more secure web browser is available for a FREE download. Here is a brief description from Networld: “On Tuesday, November 9 Mozilla released their long-awaited browser, Firefox. This new browser is expected to go head-to-head with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The Firefox browser is noticeably faster on web page loads and has a wide-variety of support for different technologies.”

To check it out, visit: http://www.mozilla.org/. The download is about 4.5 MB. It looks pretty cool...and simple!