Christmas Party

I hope everyone had a great time at our Christmas party yesterday. Thanks to the Kays for opening up their home for our party and a special thanks for Debbie for cooking an incredible lunch! It was an honor to have Steve and Carol Smith as our special guests. The scavenger hunt at Tyler Mall was fun - congratulations to Briana and Kathryn who placed first. Ryan and Joey placed second (technically they tied for first, but Bri and Kathryn turned in their paper first) and Jon and Rikki placed third. We pray that all of our teens and their families will have a safe and happy Christmas. We're excited about 2008 and the wonderful things that God has planned for us.

Operation Christmas Child - Church of Christ Style!

Operation Christmas Child was definitely a success at our church. It was so impressive and overwhelming to see 60 boxes underneath and surrounding our Christmas tree in the worship hall. Consider that this is the first time our church has participated in this worthy service activity AND consider that we just had four weeks to get as many boxes together as we can! The boxes are going to a drop-off location this week where they will be shipped off to needy children in numerous countries around the world. I know that much time, money and love went into creating these boxes. Thanks to everyone who helped put these boxes together and helped make our first Operation Christmas Child such a rousing success. Continue to pray for Samaritan's Purse and for all the children around the world who will receive these boxes. Pray that during this upcoming Christmas season the greatest gift of all will be shared, the gift of God's love.

Here is a story from the Philippines about just one of the 7.6 million boxes that were delivered last year: Receiving a fully-packed shoe box made one young boy very happy. His mother is a laundry woman and his father is a janitor and is partially paralyzed. He helped pay for his Grade 3 schooling by driving a wooden trolley along a railroad track. He lived in a house 2 meters away from the railroad track and is an active member of a pioneering Presbyterian Church.The gifts were personalized for the recipient of the box. Letters, cut-outs, and posters were with it. His box was amazing! It came from a retired Union Pacific railroad worker and was received by a boy who transports people using a handmade trolley that runs alongside a Philippine national railroad track. Amazing! God connects people by a railroad track!

You can read more inspirational stories at: www.samaritanspurse.org/occstories

We probably started a tradition tonight! We headed up to Greenspot Farms for a truly frightening haunted hayride, complete with loud screams, chainsaws, deranged killers, and a long walk fending off other types of creatures. Then it was back to the church building where there was some intense pumpkin carving. The results were awesome. While we carved we listened to some Halloween music (The Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack), drank hot apple cider and hot chocolate, and had candy and cookies. Great job on those pumpkins - for those of you who weren't there, check out those pics and see what you missed!

Fun Day Out!

Just thought I would throw this out there in case any of you are looking for a pet OR a fun free outing with the kids. October 20, 2007, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oktoberfest at Ramona Humane Society. Family fun and entertainment for kids of all ages! Great food, music, crafts, clowns, face-painting, dancers, carnival games, frisbee tossing, and dog agility shows performed by the Muttley Crew Gang. AND if you are interested in adopting a pet they have 400 dogs at all times, lots of cute kitties and they even have bunnies, hampsters and birds. Cats and Dogs are only $25 on Saturday the 20th during the Octoberfest. We recently adopted a 3 year old Chihuahua mix there and she is such an amazing dog...potty trained, sweet with the kids and came with all vaccinnations, neutered and on Saturday you can too...for only $25. It's a little bit of a drive but it is a beautiful drive through the hills and it would be fun for kids...they even have large animals like horses, cows, pigs...Ramona Humane Society690 Humane WaySan Jacinto, CA

Happy Birthday Rikki!

The angels were singing tonight! Rikki Scates was baptized tonight by her grandfather, Charlie at the building. Congratulations Rikki - you've made the best decision of your life!

Meeting Dan in Redlands

This afternoon my wife and I took Sophie and Jack to meet Dan Haseltine, the lead singer for Jars of Clay, at the Barnes & Noble in Redlands. Dan recently published his first book - a children's book entitled "The One, The Only Magnificent Me." My daughter was so excited to get a book signed especially for her. This picture seriously makes me laugh and I thought everyone would get a kick out of it. Dan was very kind and generous to everyone who came and my daughter has a great, "magnificent" memory. God bless

Operation Christmas Child

Let’s start collecting items for Operation Christmas Child, an annual project of Samaritan’s Purse, we’ll be creating gift-filled shoe boxes and Gospel storybooks to millions of poor and suffering children in over 90 countries. Last year they were able to give over 7 million of these shoeboxes to children around the world! The shoe boxes must be turned in the week of November 12-17th so please put your shoe box together and bring it to the church as soon as possible. Please place your completed shoe boxes under the tree in the auditiorium. See below for the items to put in the box or donate money to Jeff as we will be putting together boxes also with the teens!

Age groups are 5-9 years and 10-14 years

Please select if it's for a boy or girl

Fill the boxes with the following items:
TOYS

small cars, balls, dolls, stuffed animals, kazoos, harmonicas, yo-yos, jump ropes, small Etch A Sketch®, toys that light up or make noise (with extra batteries), Slinky®, etc.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES

pens, pencils and sharpener, crayons or markers, stamps and ink pad sets, writing pads or paper, solar calculators, coloring and picture books, etc.

HYGIENE ITEMS

toothbrush, toothpaste, mild bar soap (in a plastic bag), comb, washcloth, etc.

OTHER

Hard candy and lollipops (please double bag all candy), mints, gum, T-shirts, socks, ball caps; sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, flashlights (with extra batteries)

A PERSONAL NOTE

In a separate envelope, you may enclose a note to the child and a photo of yourself or your family. (If you include your name and address, the child may write back.)

Do Not Include:Used or damaged items; war-related items such as toy guns, knives or military figures; chocolate or food; liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items such as snow globes or glass containers; aerosol cans

For more information or to donate directly, please visit their website at samaritanspurse.org

Oak Glen

It has been a long time since we updated this blog. My bad! It's been hectic as the Partains have been preparing for a big move and then this past weekend made the big move! Thanks to everyone who came out and helped, we truly could not have done it without you. We're now in our new place and although we came late to family day this past Sunday in Oak Glen, we really enjoyed hanging out with everyone and seeing the old West gun show (good job Brett and Rodney!) We haven't yet unpacked out digital camera, so here are a few shots we took with a disposable.

Hot roller skating

Friday night the youth group went back to Cal Skate only to find that the air conditioner was broken inside the rink. With the temperatures in the triple digits, we decided to try and give it a go. At first it wasn't too bad, but as the rink filled up and the skating continued, it became quite hot. So forgive the sweaty figures in these pictures, but we still had a great time!

Little Corona

Had a blast in Little Corona! Glad we could all get together and share a little of God's beautiful nature! The pics tell it all - well, maybe they don't show our sunburns, but being a little red is worth all of the fun we had together.

Don't forget the fundraiser lunch tomorrow after our worship service. Also, we'll be handing out the September calendar - lots of great activities coming up. Check the right side of this website to see what's ahead!