Spirit Sparks   

December 2015 

605.348.1080      3500 Canyon Lake Drive      Rapid City, SD 57702  email: clumc@rushmore.com   www.clumc.com

Special Delivery

A Note from Pastor DeAnn

Dear friends,

Our worship series, “Special Delivery,”

continues through the end of December! 

Each week we’ll be considering the ways

the Jesus is God’s special delivery to us,

bringing to us and to others these life-

changing gifts: Acceptance, Freedom,

Hope, a Fresh Start, New Life and so much

more. Invite a friend – Come join us for

Featured this month

Christmas Baskets—reaching families with children

More Than a Meeting—Charge conference on Dec. 6

CLUMC Kids Against Hunger 

Confirmation Youth Set $1000 goal for Living Water wells

Teen Lilly Gibson on RC Homeless

Growing Chancel Choir loves "Noel Celebration"

Give or get Alternative Gifts that

worship and let YOUR heart receive God's

special delivery—Jesus.

Christmas Eve Worship 

2:30 Wiggle Candlelight Service  — for          families & wigglers of all ages  4pm Candlelight with Worship Band

6pm Traditional Candlelight w/ Strings

8pm Traditional Candlelight w/ Choir         & Communion

2015 CLUMC Christmas Baskets

change lives

Save the Dates

Dec. 6—Annual Meeting-Elections and BudgetDec. 9– Youth host party at  Cornerstone Women and & ShelterDec. 13—PreK-4th  presents "A Heavenly Tale"   Dec. 19-20 "A Noel Celebration"-Chancel Choir and NarratorsDec. 20—Youth Strings at both servicesDec. 20—Packing and Delivering Christmas Food BoxesDec. 24—Four Special Services with Candlelight and Music

 

At 12 noon on Sunday, December 6, District

Focus

on Families with Children

"CHANGE IS INEVITABLE. "So be it with our

annual Christmas Food Box Program, a long-

time mission of our church," says Bob Drabek,

CFBP Chairperson. 

Church Response has given recipient names

for many years but the number of requests has

grown smaller.  Last year Bob and his

committee investigated through our Rapid City

elementary and middle schools.  "Boy, howdy

—was a need discovered!"  Bob says. So last

year we increased number of food boxes from

120 to 168.  "You  responded to this need and

all 168 boxes were distributed."

"With more study this year, we decided to

Superintendent Kevin Kloster will lead our 2015 annual meeting (United Methodists historically call this a charge conference) to review mission, set a 2016 budget and elect new leadership. 

Leadership Committee members have invited folks to serve our church and community through committees. (Notice: we'll be using the word "Team" to better explain that these groups are focused on action, not meetings.

So many of you have said an inspiring YES! Here's an example:  "I would love to continue serving on the Mission Team...thanks so much for asking!  I feel that we're a very vital component of our church and community and have enjoyed seeing worldwide involvement and growth!  I'm hoping to become more involved in the coming year."

We are blessed by the commitment of CLUMC members and friends like this!  

make serving families with children our

emphasis."  CLUMC members on staff at

particular schools help make those schools a

natural fit for participation is this Christmas Box

mission to families. We asked those partner

schools to identify needs for this Christmas

season. Again, need exceeded our plans.

"After much discussion and soul searching, the

committee asks you to support an increase to

180 boxes, even though we can't meet the

number requested," Bob says. With this

goal we can continue to honor Church

Response requests, too. 

"We pray that God will lead our congregation in

supporting this effort with prayers and finances

along with packing and delivering boxes

on Sunday, December 20.  Certainly Jesus will

look down upon us as we help these families

celebrate His birth.  May this effort bring more

families to know His love and care."

Please mark your checks or envelopes

Christmas Boxes. A box for one family costs

our church $55—that's $9900. Together, we

can say Merry Christmas to 180 families. 

Your questions, suggestions or comments

Westside Little Lambs win Love Ribbon Grant

The Dakotas Conference United Methodist Women have tapped Canyon Lake UMC with a Love Ribbon Grant of $200 to be used for our Little Lambs program.

This outreach reaches about 60 Westside Preschool students to experience the message that God made us, God loves us, and wants to be our friend forever. Grant money will be used to purchase preschool Bibles for kids who didn't get them last year and music CDs to encourage them to sing about God's love.

The ButterOwls class members were given a stuffed animal to care for in the month of November are teachers talked about how God takes care of us.

about this program are welcome! 

Contact Bob Drabek, coordinator of this

mission, Carol Dormann, Chair of Missions or

Pastor Eric.

Chancel Choir and Narrators Present...

 

A Noel Celebration

Dec. 19 & 20

"Lloyd Larson is one of my favorite arrangers, because the music intertwines and you never know which part will have the melody and/or harmony next. This cantata brings musical surprises to familiar Christmas songs and makes them fresh again."- Larry Lashley, Choir Director 

"This choir is a composed of a very special group of people. Not only do they love to sing, they support one another with love, laughter, and prayers, and welcome new members with open hearts." ~ Janet Young, Soprano 

“In December’s conversations about how God gave us Jesus, we will discuss a part of the Nativity story and help children make a nativity of their own," says Little Lambs teacher Erin Woods.

If you are interested in helping with Little Lambs,  please contact Erin Woods

Teens set big goalfor Living Water wells for India

 This Advent season, we want to give the gift of hope to people in India who don't have access to clean water. We are raising $1,000! This is enough to build

"My favorite place to sing is in our church choir

with our great director and our wonderful

accompanist, and I am so very excited about

this year's Christmas Cantata." ~Connie Bruch,

Soprano

"I love the fact that we are a viable, growing

choir with a great director and pianist, both of

whom make singing fun! " ~Dale Osterholt,

Tenor

"Choir has been a highlight of my week for the

last 15 years.  A great way to forget about the

troubles in your life for a few hours each week.

Friendships made will last a lifetime and I

always have a great time. "~ Ed Pauly, Tenor

an entire well for a village in India, which will provide access to clean water--eliminating disease, enabling children to go to school, and so much more!

 

Our youth will be giving up pricey beverages and taking expensive Christmas gifts off their wish lists so that they can donate money. They'll be selling Living Water wrist bands on Wednesday evenings so be generous. 

Please join us as we

Alternative Giving —a growing trend

Give a gift that doesn't gather dust,but keeps on giving and changes lives. 

Many of us have all that we want and

more. Tell your families that you’d like the

gift of a solar oven or part of an oven to be

given in your honor. Many of our friends

and family have all they need and more.

Honor them with a gift that keeps on giving

—support for the work of Solar Oven

Partners.

How do you make this happen? Look for

the  brochure on how to give or get this

beautiful Alternative Gift Solar Oven

Partners option in your bulletin this

weekend. Or you can pick up a brochure

givethe gift of life and hope!

Click here to contribute on the CLUMC Youth   Living Water wells

project. 

Wednesday Fusion

near the display in the lobby.

On Dec. 1 a team of Dakota volunteers and

SOP Director Rick Jost traveled to the

Dominican Republic—our new destination

—to work with fellow Dakotans and United

Methodist Missionaries Gordon and Ardell

Graner to assemble ovens and teach solar

cooking.

The UM Bishop of the Dominican Republic

has  officially invited Solar Oven Partners

and urged that more teams come and more

oven components to be shipped in 2016.

To do this, we continue to need sustainable

funding.

BecomeKids Against Hunger

 Our FUSION kids went to South Canyon Lutheran, the home for Kids Against Hunger where the area coordinator, DeAnna Darr told us about the starving people throughout the world. Then we got to work!

Each packet contains vegan protein vitamins, dried veggies, soy and rice. All ingredients meet national nutrition regulations and are non GMO. CLUMC kids packed 108 food packets which equaled 648 people that we were able to feed! Awesome!

One Kids Against Hunger fact that really stunned us all was that each serving (so one meal) is so nutritious and contains enough protein to hold the person over for the whole day!! Pretty incredible.

$50 delivers training and shipping; $100

provides components; $150 puts an oven

into the hands of a Dominican family with

the training to build a sense of ownership

and investment—You get the idea! You'll

receive acknowledgement of your

purchase and the recipient will receive a

personal note from Rick. 

CLUMC Freshman Lilly Gibson works

on awareness about homelessness 

 

Our own Lilly Gibson, a member of Rapid

City Homeless Coalition Youth Task Force,

participated in a week of awareness

activities in November. 

“It's just shocking that people I know,

people in my community are dealing with

Our FUSION group consists of 1st thru 5th graders and we average 9 kids each week. WE do lots of hands-on! .

 

this and even I didn't realize it." In Rapid

City, nearly 800 kids are either living

without a house or have run away from

their home. More than 450 of them are

elementary age students.

The Homeless Coalition Youth Task Force

performed a skit about a runaway teen at

the Hope Center after Mayor Allender and

RCPD Chief Jegeris read proclamations

marking National Hunger and homeless

awareness week. 

Lilly thinks the live mannequin display was

the most effective awareness event. The

10 youth involved in the project stood

downtown with cardboard signs on which

they had written facts about homeless

youth. 

Nine CLUMC youth, plus three adults, found inspiration, energy and awesome programs at 2015 DAK Youth Event. 

Here's how Monday@Dakotas reported the event: Directions:  Start day one by putting youth in vans, cars and buses headed for Aberdeen First UMC. Sing and dance with the Thrive Band. Listen to an awesome message from Bishop Ough and think: “Where is Jesus calling me?”  “How do I answer the really big questions I have?”

Day Two: Music, prayer and learning from Stephanie Caro, aka The Queen, and Andrew Zirschky, aka The Brainiac.  Mix in some lunch, like walking tacos, small group discussion and you are ready for the afternoon. 

According to KOTA, the poverty rate in

Rapid City has climbed to 16 percent

affecting about 11 thousand people. Lily

learned that 12 to 17–year–olds are at a

greater risk of homelessness than adults.

As part of the Youth Task Force, Lilly

helped host a Glow walk in which more

than 60 people participated including

students from the Rosebud Reservation.

Participants walked with light sticks and

donated blankets, coats, and non–

perishable food to raise awareness for

homeless and runaway youth. Youth also

Start the music from the Thrive Band and enter an artist who creates the image of Jesus all from paint splatter.  Let this simmer a while for a true Splat Experience.  Add more small groups, workshops and another worship experience and then Tyler Mason.  Let everyone stand, clap and laugh for a great entertainment experience. Find a place to sleep at a church, hotel or somewhere.

Day Three:  Draw all the ideas and thoughts of wisdom about Big Questions together into one pot. Get rowdy with music from the Thrive Band. Enter into final worship service with inspiration and love for Jesus. Head home and let the love and inspiration for Jesus simmer a long time.

Yield: 300 youth on fire for Jesus!

participated in meaningful candlelight vigil

remembering homeless youth lost this past

year. KOTA reports on the event here. 

Lilly says, "There are many ways people in

our community can help if they just realize

in the first place what's going on here. But

there are ways to help. The important thing

is not to ignore the signs of the homeless.”

Lilly was confirmed at CLUMC in 2015 and

is a freshman at Steven's High School. 

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