The Charger
December 2, 2005


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December 2, 2005

PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING: Christmas time, Advent time, Season’s Greetings time, Happy Holiday time….which ones are the ones we as Christians observe and celebrate? It may seem obvious to us that it is the Advent season leading to Christmas. This distinction isn’t so obvious to the world around us. Just watch the stores and the advertisements in the paper. How many wish us a “Happy Holidays” instead of a “Merry Christmas”? Our church has Advent services each Wednesday in December leading up to Christmas. Come and join us as we prepare our hearts for the coming Christ Child. After all, this is the true meaning to the season. The better prepared we are in the true meaning of Christmas, the better witnesses we will be to those around us. Our Early childhood people are busy preparing a Christmas program for us all. Come and join them on Thursday, December 15th at 7:00pm. Come and join grades 1-8 on Wednesday, December 21st at 7:00pm. as they tell the story also. The Christmas story is one you can never see or hear too much. The next time someone greets you with “Happy Holidays”, return his or her greeting with “Merry Christmas!” 

Pam Billotte

CONGRATULATIONS: Congratulations to our Bible Bowl teams! They did a wonderful job representing our school and our Lord. 5th grade Dani, Deborah, Tina and Jared received 1st place. 6th grade Angela, Olivia and Drake and received 2nd place. 7th grade was represented by Ashley and Victoria. 8th grade finished with 1st place with Jessica, Grace and Jessica.


CHRISTMAS PROGRAMS: What a wonderful opportunity to remind ourselves of the true meaning of Christmas by attending our Christmas programs. The preschools and kindergarten class will present their program on Thursday, December 15, at 7:00 PM, and grades 1-8 will have their program Wednesday, December 21, at 7:00. Come and hear the Christmas story and bring a friend or family member along to share with you. Both programs will be held in the gym. 


SCHOOL CLOSING REMINDER: When District #186 closes, so does Concordia. 

CHRISTMAS VACATION: Christmas vacation begins on Thursday , December 22, at 1:00. School will resume on Tuesday, January 3, at 8:30 am.

STOCK THE PANTRY: Fellowship Group would like to sponsor a drive to “stock the pantry in the Hennig house”. Each family in the congregation is asked to bring food or staple items for the pantry.
Each child in the school could bring their items to the school if they so desire during the week of December 4th and the families from the congregation could bring their items either on December7th (Advent Service) or by Sunday December 13th. Call Vic M. at 529-2696 if more information is needed. (Only non-perishable items please)

VEHICLE SAFETY: At a basketball practice this past week we had an incident of a vehicle being broken into on our parking lot by the gym. Just as a safety reminder, please keep valuables out of your cars in order to remove (hopefully) the temptation to break into the vehicles.

CHRISTMAS WORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:
12/3 5:30 Saturday Worship
12/4 10:00 Sunday Worship with communion
12/7 5:30 Advent Meal
        7:00 Advent Worship
12/10 5:30 Saturday Worship with communion
12/11 10:00 Sunday Worship
12/14 5:30 Advent Meal
         7:00 Advent Worship
12/15 7:00 Preschool-Kindergarten Christmas Program
12/17 5:30 Saturday Worship
12/18 10:00 Sunday Worship with communion
12/21 7:00 Grades 1-8 Christmas Program
12/24 7:00 Worship Service 
        11:00 Christmas Eve Candlelight Service with communion
12/25 10:00 Christmas Day Service
12/31 5:30 New Year’s Eve Service with communion 

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Calendar

12/3 12:00 G(JV &V) B(JV & V) vs. Bethel, Morton at Bethel, Morton
12/6 6:00 B(JV & V) vs. Trinity at Trinity, Springfield
12/7 Mid-Quarter reports go home
        5:30 Advent Meal
        7:00 Advent Worship
12/8 6:00 G(JV & V) vs. Trinity at Trinity, Springfield
12/14 5:30 Advent Meal
        7:00 Advent Worship
12/15 7:00 Preschool-Kindergarten Christmas Program
12/16 TBA B(V) St. John’s Shootout at Champaign
12/21 7:00 Grades 1-8 Christmas Program
12/22 1:00 Early Dismissal for Christmas Vacation

Quotable Quotes 

GOD AND THE GEESE

     There was once a man who didn’t believe in God, and he didn’t hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.
     One snowy eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the farm community in which they lived. They were to talk about Jesus’ birth. She asked him to come, but he refused.
     “That story is nonsense!” he said. “Why would God lower Himself to come to earth as a man? That’s ridiculous!” 
     So she and the children left, and he stayed home.
     Awhile later, the winds grew stronger, and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another thump. He looked out but couldn’t see more than a few feet.
     When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn’t go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and few around the field in low circles blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window.
     The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It’s warm and safe. Surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide. He watched and waited hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn’t seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean to them.
     The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them. They moved farther away. He went into the house and came with some bread. He broke it up and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn’t catch on.
     Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn. They only became more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.
     “Why don’t they follow me?” he exclaimed. “Can’t they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?”
      He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn’t follow a human. “If only I were a goose, then I could save them,” he said out loud. 
      Then he had an idea. He went into the barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn—-and one by one, the other geese followed it to safety.
     He stood silently for a moment as the word he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: “If only I were a goose, then I could save them!” Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier, “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous!”
     Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese—blind, lost, and perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.
     As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come.
     Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer: “Thank you, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm!”

web address: www.concordiaspfld.org and www.concordiacares.org
CONCORDIA LUTHERAN SCHOOL
Est. 1931

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