“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is
no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17
It is hard to believe that this year if almost over! The end of the year presents my favorite season, finally a little cooler
weather, and the celebration of the Saviors Birth. What a great reason to celebrate, what a great gift we have been
promised, a perfect gift.
We rush around so much at Christmas time trying to find the perfect gift for someone. It can be a very stressful time, and
can take our focus off of worshiping God. Please don’t lose that focus. There are Advent services 6pm on Wednesday’s
starting November 30th. I encourage you to come to the soup supper starting at 5pm in the Fellowship Hall before the
service. I continue to pray that all will wake up on Sunday mornings with a burning desire to worship and commune. It
was so good to see full pews at the 125th anniversary service, wouldn’t it be great to have all 500 members worshiping
each week!! What a joyful noise that would be!
There are a lot of things going on around St. Paul currently. We are looking at our ministries and refocusing on what our
priority ministries are. The demographics of the congregation have changed over the past several years, if you have not
noticed there are young people all over the place! Our school struggles with low enrollment, efforts to ways to eventually
resolve this are being discussed. Our music ministry is having an organ recital January 29th in celebration of a 50yr organ
birthday. You won’t want to miss this. Don’t plan anything else that day! Our outreach board is working hard to educate
us on assimilation and spreading the good news. Pray for our ministries.
Every good and perfect gift comes from God the Father, and His gifts are eternal. He has given each of us ‘gifts’ to do His
will. But the most important gift of all was the gift of His son – Jesus. Blessings!
Richard Covey
