Ankeny UCC Weekly Update

A midweek boost of grace and peace
 

Dear Church-

We're coming into the last stretch of Advent, and we've got a lot of things to celebrate. First, we celebrate all the work the kids (under the guidance of Brad Church, Stephanie Henzi, Peg Colton, and others) have put in on their Christmas Service, which we'll see this Sunday in church.

We celebrate the gifts and memories (some sad, some wonderful) of Christmas past with our Service of the Longest Night Sunday at 5pm. It's a time where we give everyone permission to have mixed feelings during Advent (which used to be a time of fasting and devotion like Lent, after all).

Christmas Eve, we celebrate the gifts of carols and of Jesus at 6:30pm in candlelight with our service of Lessons and Carols. 

It is nearly Christmas time. Come and Worship.

PS: Next Thursday, we also celebrate the fellowship of the ministers in the Ankeny Ministerial Association as we host the December lunch gathering (hopefully featuring the new Police Chief as our speaker). I'd love to have some help making and serving lunch for them. Please let me know if you're willing to help. 

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Nathan

A Welcoming Church Family:

Continuing Prayers 

For people in Strasbourg. For students at Cal State Northridge, wondering if the mass shooting threat is serious. For Lucille. For Dennis and Nancy. For Marcia. For everyone mourning in the congregation. For those of us with mixed feelings about Christmas. For hope. For peace, and for peacemakers.

Nametags!

Nametags are great! They help us feel more comfortable talking to each other, and give us a way around that awkward feeling of being almost, but not quite, sure of each others' names. Wear them! Can't find yours (or don't have one)? Let us know in the office!

Lost and Found

Our lost and found bin is overflowing! Please come to the office to claim your items! We have a trowel, a purple and pink turtle purse with a walkie talkie inside, a sassy travel mug, plethora of hats and gloves, and many more items. Unclaimed items will be thrown out or repurposed on January 15th.

Exploring Progressive Christian Theology:

VIPs

Please consider attending Sunday School once in the new year to do a "show and tell" with the kids. This can entail you telling the children a bit of your life story, what you do for a living, your family, what you do for work, how you ended up in Ankeny and Ankeny UCC, and anything else you'd like to share! You would share from about 9:15-9:25 and leave five minutes for questions from kids until 9:30 when they go to their Sunday School classrooms. If you would like to be a VIP, please contact Peg Colton at (563)554-9260 or pjcolton@me.com
 

Caring Within:

Ankeny UCC Capital Campaign

It has been 25 years since Ankeny UCC's major capital campaign that built our current church home! It is time to look at where we have been, where we are and where we can go. After many discussions, meetings, surveys, and planning, we have launched our Serving to Grow Growing to Serve Capital Campaign with a target of $225,000 over the next three years. What will this money go towards?

Paying off the Mortgage
Let's close the books on past debs and interest fees in order to free up funds for our future. We have a generous lead off commitment of $50,000 towards this goal! Replacing the HVAC - Let's not wait until the August heat or the January freeze emergency replacement! It is time to welcome new heating and cooling systems.

Prairie Establishment
By establishing a native prairie we will be providing an educational, interactive space for not only our kids and church family, but for the community. Plus, we will be protecting declining grasslands, native pollinators, and other wildlife by restoring their habitat.

We also hope to update the Blue Room, tithe to mission partners, fix that persistent roof leak, and upgrade out bathrooms! Have more questions? Grab a brochure, or ask! Our Capital Campaign Committee is Noah Jensen Tabor, Jenn Howieson, Bruce Beckwith, and Sara Lockie.

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

In the classic Christmas Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie picks an unattractive tree to bestow with decor. The selection is a protest against the commercialization of Christmas, and reminds us of the reason for the season. Please bring a special ornament of significance or meaning in your life to decorate our own Charlie Brown tree.

And Serving Beyond:

UCC Christmas Fund

December 23rd and 24th, we'll be taking a special offering for the UCC Christmas Fund. This fund allows the UCC to make grants to retired ministers and their families who have demonstrated financial hardship in their retirement. Many made great financial sacrifices during their ministries, and this is a way to help ease their lives in retirement.

A Helping Hand Little Free Pantries

It's winter! That means things left outside freeze! So for the winter, try to bring non-freezing items to the little free pantries--pasta, rice/boxed rice dinners, dried beans, dried soup and the like.

There are Little Free Pantries in the community painted with bright pink for after hours folks and those without transportation to the regular food pantry.  Here are the Ankeny locations:

317 SE Trilein - Presbyterian Church
Mel Ray Mobile Home Park
2081 SE Windover Dr
801 SE Belmont
423 W. 1st St - (1st & Walnut)
517 SW Des Moines St - Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
517 SW Elm St - Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
4807 NW 5th St
1313 NW Beechwood
1003 SW 3rd St (has a small cooler for fresh produce that will be monitored frequently)
1510 W. 1st St - Ankeny Funeral Home
602 SE Delaware - Ankeny United Church of Christ (We have a cooler now as well!)
*Facebook page is A Helping Hand in Ankeny

Contact the church if you need transport to a food pantry or would like assistance in deliveries or directions to drop off deliveries to a food pantry. We are happy to assist. Peace,Trina Rupp-Missions Committee 

Marshalltown Family Christmas Assistance

Thank you for all the support for our Marshalltown family. A blessing of $300 in gift cards, $30 cash, gift paper, tape, electric candles, a coat and a poinsettia will go a long way to create a cheerful holiday celebration for a family with a tween child and also a teenager. 

Ankeny Service Center

We can't thank you enough for your donations to our two adopted families. Your contributions helped provide gifts for 8 children and 3 adults who otherwise would not have received gifts. By extending our blessings to others our congregation was able to experience the joy of giving during the holiday season. Thank you to Jennifer Street who delivered the presents to Ankeny Service Center on Monday.

Native American Heritage Association

Weekly Coin Collections for December will go to the Native American Heritage Association. NAHA provides food to school children and the elders through our “Project Preserve”. NAHA works in partnership with Feeding America® to obtain healthy, nutritious food to deliver to Crow Creek, Lower Brule, Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River and Rosebud Reservations all made possible by our generous donors. Many times, without the food deliveries from NAHA, Native American families wouldn’t have anything to feed their children or elders. NAHA delivers on average approximately 300,000 pounds of food each month. This is the same food that you and I would purchase at the grocery store. However, for many Native American families, they have no money to go to the store or transportation to get there.

DMARC

We continue to assist the Food Pantry Network. This past fiscal year they served an average of 17,234 individuals a month, an increase of almost 2,000 individuals a month over the previous fiscal year. Thank you to our congregation for continuing to donate food items in the face of rising need. This months item requests are canned pears and puff ball mushrooms. Please remember to check expiration dates or for spoilage on any food donated. You can find a list of most needed items here: https://www.dmarcunited.org/food/most-needed-items/