Hello December!
We hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was meaningful and that families were able to connect and strengthen relationships over the holiday week. We want to especially lift up the Sloan family as long-time High Places friend Cathy Sloan died on Tuesday last week. Please pray for her husband Don, and for children Jennifer, Amanda, and Adam, and for all the grandkids and the many who lover her and will miss her until the day we are all reunited in heaven.
Cathy’s obituary can be found here: https://www.knoxnews.com/obituaries/kns042179 and her celebration of life service will be held this Saturday at 6:00 PM at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville. High Places will be donating to the Love Kitchen, where she often volunteered, in memory of Cathy.
On Monday this past week, several ladies gathered for some relaxing, relationship building time at the Grove. Thank you, Anna Childs, for organizing this gathering and we look forward to having more opportunities in the coming year.
Our men will be camping on Friday night at Robbie and Molly Lewis’ place in Dutch Valley. We have picked out a really nice spot in the multiacre valley. Men should dress warmly (even though it isn’t really going to be that cold!), bring your own grub and beverages (a cooler will already be available), and bring a lawn chair. We have no formal agenda other than enjoying nature and each other. I will have a limited number of tarps already set up for those who plan to sleep on the ground near the fire (which is recommended).
The walk to the campsite from where you will park is about 500 yards or more, so plan ahead if you’re packing a whole lot of items. If something is extremely heavy, or you are limited physically, we will use four wheel drive to get you and your stuff down there. If plan to attend, Chad or I need to know so we can text you addresses and such. Carpooling is preferred to limit the number of vehicles in the Lewis driveways / pasture.
Bible Study is back this week (tonight) as we will take 2-3 Wednesdays to look deeper at the Nativity of Jesus. We meet in the movie room at 7:00 PM.
Our annual Christmas Program is Sunday the 19th and you are still welcome to join the choir. Our theme this year is “You Can’t Always Get What You Want… But You Get What You Need.” We’re excited for this season and encourage all to celebrate the birth of Christ, not only in a manager 2,000 years ago, but also in our hearts today.
A Baptism Service is being discussed with a sister fellowship near the Grove to held before year’s end. More details will follow, but if you have been contemplated following the example of Jesus by being baptized as an expression of your faith, please see me within the next week. We have two children potentially looking at baptism, and being winter, we have to plan ahead since we normally do this outdoors. If you have questions about baptism, or our church’s position on the sacrament, please let me know and we can discuss over coffee.
January 29th we will again be organizing and promoting a concert series as part of our ongoing efforts to support the Oak Ridge Community. Fulton Lee will be headlining the show out of Nashville. His music is available on Spotify and other places. Stay tuned for more on this opportunity to serve in the coming weeks.
Finally, a huge THANK YOU to all who organized, cooked, served, and cleaned after our annual community Thanksgiving meal. We didn’t quite serve as many as last year, but every expression on every face that I witnessed was one of deep gratitude. By the time the day was over, we had given out around 200 meals. Thank you to all, and especially to Trina, for the hard work organizing and making this happen. I feel a little guilty in that I was able to see the people’s joy on their faces when they took a meal, while so many others were working in the assembly line of food prep inside. Trust me though, their faces were illuminated with gratitude and happiness. Thank you all for making this happen.
Enjoy the next few days of sun and warmer temperatures. And fellas, come sleep on the ground Friday. :)
Many Blessings,
David