Early yesterday, at the start of the calendar year, while everyone else in my house was asleep, I prayed for you and your families. I believe in prayer as a spiritual activity that focuses the mind and the heart. It is for me an exercise in pastoral care. May the spirit bless you and your family throughout the year.

Good things have been happening here over the past weeks. Our church community rallies in special ways over the winter holidays. I want to mention a few folks who have been doing things around the church recently.

Ron Riggert brought the snow blower to Dick Stitt’s garage for repair. Dick worked on it and decided that it might be best to replace it. Dick’s son David donated a used snow blower to the church. Thank you to David for that! Dick and his friend Russ DiMauro delivered both snow blowers to the church (just in time…). Matt Johnson hopes to pick up the old one and bring it to the Concord Country Club; the mechanics there will use it for parts. This is a good example of members of the community working together on a problem. Thanks to everyone involved.

Speaking of Ron Riggert. Last Sunday Ron was at church early practicing music for our Sunday worship. After playing the organ for the service he supervised the counting of the money. After that he set out the offering envelopes for the new year.

Mary Ann gave a children’s talk in church about the ornaments on the Christmas tree, ending with an inspiring lesson about snowflakes and God’s love for us. Say a word of thanks to Mary Ann for her ongoing concern for the flowers and the gardens of our church. I will order a new flower chart. In the spring Anna Mullen plans to help us plant a cutting garden that will be one source of flowers for the altar.

Kim Ho volunteered to organize meal deliveries to Ursula and Perry Smoot. Contact Kim if you would like to prepare a meal. kim@kimberlyho.net

Thanks to all of you who made year-end contributions to your church. The council meets on Monday, January 13 to set a spending budget for the new year. The semiannual; meeting is scheduled for January 26, following the service.

The carpet cleaners are here today-1/2-working on the rug in the fellowship hall. Our friends from Or Atid (our Family Promise partners) and Music Together made special contributions toward the cost of the cleaning.

God’s peace to all of you as we begin 2014, our 50th anniversary year!