Christmas at New Hope
ADVENT BEGINS

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Note that the drape on the cross in the sanctuary has been changed from green to purple for the Advent season. For four weeks we will light candles in the Advent wreath as we look forward to Jesus’ birth. The Christ candle will be lighted at the Christmas Eve service.

Advent Devotionals Online
Special daily meditations for the Advent season, sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, may be found at:

followingthestar.org

CHRISTMAS CANTATA

“Beautiful Star”
presented by the Adult Choir
Sunday, December 23, 5:30 PM

Invite your friends, co-workers and neighbors.

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE OF
CAROLS AND CANDLES

Monday, December 24, 5:30 PM

Come join the church family in singing favorite carols. There will be a fellowship time of sharing Christmas cookies following the service.

NEW THIS YEAR

The beautifully decorated trees in the sanctuary have the addition of cross stitched Chrismons (Christian symbols). Thank you Wanda Buchanan for organizing that creative effort. Thanks to Judy Hutchinson, Fleda Mulkey, Dorothy Rollins, Willodeen Sanders, Laura Southcomb and Joan Wood who decorated the trees and the sanctuary.


LADIES CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON AND

GIFT EXCHANGE
December 11, 11:45 AM

Once again Linda Manners has reserved the "Owners Box" at Vince Carter's Restaurant on LPGA Boulevard for our annual Christmas luncheon. There will be a small gift exchange. Add to the festivities by wearing your favorite Christmas sweater or jewelry.

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

Beginning next Sunday, December 9, a portion of the bulletin board will be reserved for your greetings to the church family. Save the postage expense and contribute to the Global Mission Offering.

CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE
Note: There will be no activities on Wednesday, December 26.

CHRISTMAS PARTIES

Choir Party
Crane Lakes Ball Room,
Sunday, December 9, 5:00 PM

Sunday School Class Parties

 The Friendship Class (Ruth Bradley, teacher) will join with the Hope Class on December 7.

 The Hope Class (Shane Gaster, teacher) Friday, December 7, 6:00 PM at the church. Ham is provided; bring covered dishes to complement the entrée. There will be a white elephant gift exchange.

 The Joy Class (Mel Lyons, teacher) Friday, December 14.

ADVENT SERMONS
Dec. 2 Lord, Make Us New, Jeremiah 33:14-16 & Ephesians 4:22-24
Dec. 9 Lord, Get Us Ready, Luke 3:1-6 & Isaiah 58:6-8
Dec. 16 Lord, Show Us How to Change, Luke 3:7-18 & Amos 5:23-25
Dec. 23 Lord, Make Us Confident, Luke 1:39-45 & Jeremiah 11:4-6

MISSIONS
GUEST SPEAKER, MISSY WARD
to tell of work in Uganda
Wednesday, December 19, 6:30 PM

Missy Ward is recently graduated from McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, GA where she earned a Masters of Divinity degree with a concentration in social ethics. Over the last four years, she has served with ministries assisting refugees in the US and East Africa. Missy was commissioned in June to serve as partner funded CBF field personnel in Uganda. She will serve as the Refugee Women’s Ministry Coordinator with Refuge and Hope International. She will develop a ministry project that will holistically minister to and empower female refugees affected by violence.

Operation Christmas Child

New Hope members shopped for and packed 41 shoe box Christmas gifts for Samaritan’s Purse, a Franklin Graham ministry. Thank you Fleda Mulkey for coordinating this annual mission effort. “The boxes were beautifully done,” she reports.

Countryside Lakes Assisted Living
Bill Batchelor extends an invitation to all to join the next birthday celebration at the ALF at noon on December 19. Bill says he would like to see New Hope expand this ministry to another facility in 2013.
CBF OFFERING FOR GLOBAL MISSIONS
and State Missions

It is a tradition in many Baptist churches to designate a Christmas offering for missions. Our Missions Committee has recommended combining the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global offering and CBF State missions offering and has set a goal of $1,000. This will be divided 50/50 to support specific mission targets in Florida and field personnel around the world. Plan to budget part of your Christmas giving for this offering. Special offering envelopes are available for your gift.

CHRISTMAS-THEMED BOOKS
ON OUR BOOKSHELVES
Granted the Christmas season with all its activities does not leave much leisure time for reading. However, the following are quick reads for a little down time.
A Christmas to Remember, Thomas Kincade
Christmas Miracles, Miller, Lewis and Sander
The Mitford Snowmen, Jan Karon
Esther’s Gift, Jan Karon
Shepherds Abiding, Jan Karon

IT’S HERE! MODULAR UNIT ON TIME
Right on schedule, the modular classroom building was delivered before Thanksgiving. There is still work to be done and furnishings to be purchased before we can move in, but we are on the way to more spacious Bible study areas. If you have not yet seen the building, step out the back door for a peek at the exterior.

MEN’S BREAKFAST
Saturday, December 15, 8:00 AM

YOUTH FUNDRAISER
The Youth Fundraiser at Fireside Pizza (formally Red Brick Pizza) will be Monday, December 3, 5-8 pm. Last month was a little light; our profit was $38 but your continued support is greatly appreciated.

MUSIC AND WORSHIP

On Sunday, December 2, 2012 we begin the first Sunday in Advent and each Sunday thereafter we will observe the Advent Season.

Christmas Cantata
On Sunday, December 23 at 5:30 PM the Adult Choir will present the Christmas Cantata, “Beautiful Star.”

Candlelight Service
On Monday, December 24 at 5:30 PM we will have a traditional Candlelight Service and the Adult Choir will be singing.

Celebrating Grace, our new Baptist Hymnal has many of the familiar carols and some new ones as well. Among the new Advent carols that we will be singing are: “Hope, Peace, Joy and Love” (80), “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” (81) and “People, Look East” (90). Some of the new Christmas Carols we will be singing are; “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” (105), “Of the Father’s Love Begotten (113), “Still, Still, Still (117) and “On Christmas Night All Christians Sing” (133).

Choir Party
Tickets for the Adult Choir Party, Sunday, December 9 at the Ball Room of Crane Lakes, are $10 each. They may be purchased at Choir rehearsal on Wednesday night.

Note: There will be NO Fifth Sunday Night Sing on December 30 as previously announced.

Music for Prayer and Meditation
Wednesdays, 12:15-12:45
All Saints Lutheran Church, Port Orange

Dec. 5 Dan Weimer, organist
Dec. 12 Rita Taylor, piano
Dec. 19 Vita Fortin, piano
Dec. 26 Casey Baker, piano or Solisti String Trio
Dennis Bucher, Host

CenturyMen
The CenturyMen will be meeting in Nashville, TN to record another CD on January 31-February 9, 2013. Please pray for Buryl Red as he recovers from a recent illness and prepares the music to be recorded. It is my intention to be part of this project. It is also my plan to begin again as a member of the Choral Union of Stetson University. Our first rehearsal is scheduled for January 14, 2013.
Dennis Bucher

ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS QUIZ

1. What does the word “Advent” mean?
2. What is the significance of the color purple for the drape on the cross?
3. What do the four candles in the Advent wreath represent?
4. What is a cantata?
5. Which Gospel book does not include the birth of Jesus?
6. Why was the baby named Jesus?
7. Which artist is most famous for his painting of the Madonna and child?
8. How did “Silent Night” happen to be written?
9. What were the angels’ first words to the shepherds?
10. Did the angels and the wise men arrive at the manger on the night of the birth?

WHAT’S COOKING?
Sausage Brunch Casserole
A traditional Christmas favorite from Leesa Holloway in New Hope’s cookbook, Savor the Flavors

1 ½ # sausage
1 2 ½ oz. jar sliced mushrooms
6 slices white bread, crusts removed
¼ tsp. dry mustard
1 can cream of mushroom soup
¼ tsp. grated onion
2 c. cheddar cheese, grated
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 ½ c. milk
4 lg. eggs, beaten
Butter
Fresh parsley sprigs (optional)

Brown sausage and drain well. Drain mushrooms. Cut bread into cubes. In a very large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except butter. Stir well. Generously butter a 9 x 13” baking dish. Pour mixture into dish; cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 325º. Bake uncovered for 2 hours. Garnish with parsley sprigs. Serves 8.

FILM REVIEW

Lincoln

This is a film that surprised me. I had anticipated it for months. Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, and Joseph Gordon Levitt as their son Robert. Not to mention Tommy Lee Jones playing radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens, with Stephen Spielberg directing. Who could ask for anything more?

However, this is not a story about Lincoln's entire life, with all the early tragedies he endured .The death of his mother at a young age, his sister who died in childbirth or even the loss of his first son Willie is not explored. It is not a complete biography of the iconic president.
The subject is rather about one month in 1865 near the end of the Civil War when Lincoln and his Republican peers (they were the liberals back then) and a few lobbyists fought to get the 13th amendment passed to abolish slavery. It is about Lincoln's political genius for influencing others with his wisdom, honesty and deeply spiritual insight. His homespun stories and jokes put his rivals at ease but then revealed truths almost divine in nature. They remind us somewhat of the parables of Jesus and how his easy interaction with people taught lessons that their religious elders could not.

There is also a marginal story of his personal life, with Mary as his grieving yet possibly bipolar brilliant wife. She is fiercely loyal, marvelously eloquent and just a little bit crazy. As all the best wives are.

The cinematography is beautiful and the facts believable, based on biographies of Lincoln. Apparently even the tone of his voice is different from what other depictions of him lead us to believe. According to witness accounts he had a high, reedy sounding voice which had roots in his Kentucky childhood.

Abraham Lincoln was our 16th and possibly greatest president. He fought for the abolition of slavery at a time when it was a given that wealthy people forced other human beings to labor for them, in fact to own them. It was extremely unpopular for him to fight so hard to do what he believed was right. This film is about that incredibly difficult war he waged with Congress to do the right thing.
Sandra Kleinschmidt

CHRISTMAS ROUND TOWN
In addition to New Hope’s Christmas events you may enjoy one of the following:

 Walk Through Bethlehem, Crossroads Church, Clyde Morris, Port Orange, Dec. 7, 8, 9 & 14, 15, 16, 6:00 – 9:00 PM.

 Drive through Nativity, Hope Lutheran Church, N. Williamson, Daytona Beach, Dec. 6 & 7, 6-8:00 PM

 Drive through Bethlehem, Drive-In Church, Daytona Beach Shores, Dec. 19, 20, 21

 Living Christmas Tree, White Chapel Church, Ridgewood, South Daytona, Dec. 2, 7:00 PM

Answers to Advent & Christmas Quiz
1. Coming or arrival
2. Purple is used for royalty
3. Hope, love, joy, peace
4. A cantata is a musical composition based on a religious text, sometimes with speaking parts
5. John
6. Mary was told by an angel to name the baby Jesus.
7. Raphael
8. Father Joseph Mohr wrote the song to be sung without an organ at a Christmas Eve service because the organ in the church was broken.
9. “Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”
10. No, the wise men arrived later

CALLED CHURCH CONFERENCE
There will be a called church business meeting on December 5 at 6:30 PM to discuss and vote on adopting the 2013 budget.

REMINDER
of a Helpful Service

Judy Hutchinson maintains a New Hope e-mail list and will notify members when one of our congregation is hospitalized or ill, if there is a change of schedule or if there are special HUM needs. Contact her at
jhutchinson9@cfl.rr.com
if you would like to be added to the list.