November 2008
Thanksgiving Dinner @ CCH
When: Sunday, November 23rd at 4:00 p.m.
Where: Here in our Worship Center
What: Full Thanksgiving feast for Everyone!!!!
You and your friends, family and neighbors are invited to a full-Thanksgiving dinner with a wonderful program of thankfulness here at CCH. We also share the event with Westlake Community Christian Church (who use our facilities for their church services after ours on Sundays).
Please consider bringing turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, vegetables, dinner rolls, apple juice or pies. We also welcome help setting up or cleaning up. There will be a signup clipboard in the lobby for you to let us know how many people will be attending, and what you will bring.
Encouraging Words by Pastor Dave
Hello CCH Family!!
November is here and so is the Thanksgiving season. We have so much to be thankful for!! I encourage you to use this holiday to give God thanks and praise for everything He has blessed you with.
There was a USA Poll conducted in November of 1999 asking the following question of 1,451 people…”Do you have a lot to be thankful for?” What was the response? 16% answered YES, 84% answered NO!! It’s hard to believe that 8 out of 10 people said they did not have a lot to be thankful for!
The apostle Paul instructs Christians to give thanks to God in all circumstances. He says…Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
Not only is it God’s will for every follower of Jesus to be thankful, it’s God’s will to be thankful in “ALL” circumstances! Being thankful should not depend on the circumstances we are in!
Are we to be happy and thankful when someone is injured? If I lose my job? If something evil happens? Obviously we are not to be thankful when those kinds of things happen. Notice that Paul doesn’t say, give thanks “for” all circumstances. We don’t want to give thanks for evil or hurtful things in this world. However, Paul does say...give thanks “in” all circumstances. We can give thanks that even when something bad happens, God can be there to strengthen, comfort, guide, and bring about something good.
The Apostle Paul is encouraging each one of us to have an “attitude of gratitude!” Thankfulness is an attitude! You can’t control situations, but you can control your attitude no matter what the situation! Situations shouldn’t control your attitude!
I hope that you’ll take some time in the next few weeks, especially over the Thanksgiving weekend, to
let God know how thankful you are!Thanking Him for you,
Pastor Dave
Message Series
Pastor Dave’s new message series is “Balancing Life’s Demands”. The following are the sermon titles. If you missed any, you can find them online at www.cchagoura.com.
October 26—How Jesus Handled Life’s Demands
November 2 — How to Capture Control of My Time
November 9 — How to Keep a Balanced Perspective About Work
November 16—How to Have a Healthy Perspective about our Physical Body
November 23 — How to Cultivate My Spiritual Life
November 30 — How to Maintain Healthy Relationships
See you on Sunday!
Life Study Groups
These adult studies are designed to help you get connected to the church family and support you in your walk with God. Please join a group that works for your schedule and not only will you be blessed, you’ll be a blessing to others!!
- Monday Mornings: At Kathy Newman’s Home in Oak Park (and alternately at Joy Silver’s in WLV): led by Kathy. Call for details, 818.706.3215.
- Tuesday Evenings: At Dave Fleming’s Home in Agoura: led by Chris Miuccio, 7:00 p.m. Call Dave at 818.991.9919.
- Wednesday Evenings: At Dave & Lori George’s Home in Agoura: led by Dave Crouse, 7:00 p.m. Call for info: 818.991.8495.
- Sunday Mornings: At CCH: led by Randy Olson, 8:30 a.m. NEW 1John study.
Mission Outreach
What: A collection for the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission of underwear and socks for men, women and children. All items should be in their store packaging.
When: Please bring in all your donations for the drive by November 9th.
Chris Miuccio has partnered with the mission to help with this drive and to help two times a month preaching at the mission. Chris says that they always need canned foods as well. We will repeat this drive a couple times throughout the year.
The blue donation barrel is in the lobby.
Thank yous
The list of volunteers for the Halloween Carnival is too long to mention, but know that every one of you is greatly appreciated. It is wonderful to see how you come out and support our community outreaches. The children from the area enjoyed themselves a lot and their parents expressed their appreciation of the event. There were well over 100 people in attendance. Many of you were here Friday, Saturday morning to afternoon and again on Saturday evening. Bless you all!
The elders and staff want to especially thank Amber for her diligence and hard work organizing the Carnival!!!!
Thanks to Jerry Adams for spearheading the project of re-striping our parking lot. So far Jerry has had Lela Adams, Judy Leese and Jerry Olson help him out! Thank you all for your time and hard work!!
Kids News by Amber George
November is here! October is over! And that means we survived the Halloween Carnival! I have to thank everyone who was a part of the Carnival. Thank you so much to all the fantastic volunteers who set-up on Friday night and Saturday! And, also to all the volunteers who worked at the Carnival, thank you so much! Also, thank you to everyone for the wonderful donations and pumpkin banks. Honestly, none of this could have happened without all of you! Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart! You guys are awesome. Thanks for going “M.A.D.”!
And, now that November is here (and hopefully the cooler weather will soon follow) our annual Thanksgiving dinner is coming up. This is a great night of fellowship and a wonderful opportunity to invite friends. So, kids… invite some friends! The Thanksgiving dinner will be at CCH on Sunday, November 23rd at 4 p.m. Don’t forget to sign up to bring a favorite dish for everyone to enjoy.The Pathfinders Sunday School is making their way through their new curriculum. They are a little more than halfway done with this series and will be able to take home the workbooks they have been doing in the next couple weeks. Please, take a minute to look over what your kids have been learning and discuss it with them when they bring their workbooks home.
And, the Pathfinders will soon have a special holiday event planned. So, keep a lookout for that.
With Christmas coming up soon, there will be lots of Go M.A.D. opportunities that I want the kids to get involved with this year. It will be such a rewarding experience. And, we will also have our end of the year Christmas party as well. So, look for details on all of those coming soon.
Have a wonderful November everyone and remember all that we have to be thankful for!
Youth News by Amber George
Youth Group will soon be changing nights. Our Sunday night meetings will likely be moving to Wednesday nights. The details are being worked out right now, but keep your eyes and ears open so you know what night youth group is on.
We are still continuing our study through “The Case for Christ”. If you haven’t already, please bring in $7 to purchase a copy of the book. This is a great study and I think everyone will get a lot out of it.
And, I will soon be sending home a calendar of upcoming events after the New Year, including camps, conventions, events and special activities. So, watch for that. There is a lot of very fun stuff coming up.
Fuse (young adults)
Once again, Fuse will not be meeting the last Saturday of November since it is Thanksgiving weekend. Instead we will meet on a date TBD. Details are still being worked out. But, we are trying to organize a dinner after volunteering at a local soup kitchen in the Conejo Valley. This will be a great time to hang out, get to know each other better and also give back to our community a little during this season of Thanksgiving. Watch for more details.
Upcoming Go M.A.D. Events (Go Make a Difference)
- SFV Rescue Mission donations: Please bring new packages of socks and underwear for men, women & children to church on or before Sunday, November 9th.
- Santa Comes to Agoura—donations of food and help needed on the event day in December.
- Angel Tree Gifts — Help a family in need this year byselecting a child from our list and purchasing Christmas presents for them.
Prayer Requests- Loretta Hicks — for knee and back pain — the treatments are not helping.
- Dale Rickards — battling with lung disease. Pray for healing and comfort.
- Lynn Sweeney—daughter Marie was in a car accident and recuperating from her injuries.
- Patti Pape’s former student — lost his mother-in-law who was struck and killed by a motorist. Pray for the family.
- Amy Fechner’s Mom — is in declining health.
- Pat Henkel — several family members have health issues, please pray for them.
- Thais Klembara — Prayer for health and grief.
- Financial Market—keep praying for the Church and the church families during this difficult financial time.
- CCH — Please always keep our church in your prayers for growth both spiritually and in numbers, for wisdom and direction for the staff and elders, as well as future outreaches and events.
- Remember the servicemen:Drew Lewis, Scott and Andrew Olson, and Amber’s brother Ty.
Labels: community-outreach, thanksgiving
