
January,
2010 Newsletter
St. John’s United Church of Christ, 218 N. Church Street, P.O. Box 88,
Office: 106 Pine Alley,
Pastor Monica J. Ouellette
Home phone: 814-422-0533

January
1st is often a time for looking back on the past and looking forward
to the coming year. It is a time to
reflect on the changes we want to make in our lives and resolve to follow
through on those changes.
Common New
Year’s Resolutions include losing weight, joining a gym, stop smoking, balance
your finances, take a vacation, spend more time relaxing, and spending more
time with family and friends. I would
like to suggest a great New Year’s resolution would be to live our faith in our
daily lives. We can accomplish this in
many ways including taking at least ten minutes each day for prayer, attending
Worship every Sunday, joining a Sunday School class or Bible study group,
volunteering for a committee or project at church, volunteering in the
community to serve others, do one nice thing for someone else each day, see
each person you meet as a child of God, send a card to a person on our prayer
list, open your hearts to change, practice forgiveness and mercy.
Here are five steps to help us decided upon and accomplish our
resolutions.
Step 1: Be realistic by setting achievable goals.
Step 2: Describe your resolutions
in specific terms. Instead of saying, "I want to be a better Christian”
say, "I will volunteer in my community for one hour every week" or
"I will be in Worship every Sunday."
Step 3: Break down large goals into smaller ones. For instance, commit to being
more active in our community of faith by
thinking about your gifts and talents and volunteering for a committee or project
that uses these gifts and talents.
Step 4: Find alternatives to a behavior that you want to change and make them
part of your resolution plan. If
you want to more active, but you are having health problems: can you join our prayer chain group, pray
for each person in our congregation or send cards to our shut-ins?
Step
5: Above all, aim for things that are
truly important to you, not what you think you ought to do or what others
expect of you.
I hope you
have a blessed 2010.
Pastor
Monica
Vision Statement
of
“To be who God wants us to be: a friendly and open
congregation, ministering to its members for individual growth and intentionally
serving as Christ’s hands and feet to the spiritually and physically needy in
the local and greater communities; using our abundant talents, financial
resources, and effective methods to provide a center for worship, Christian
education and outreach.”
Pastor Pastor Monica J. Ouellette
Office Manager: Marieta Smith
Choir Director: Natalia Orlovskaia
Organist:
Handbell Choir Director: Sally Yocum
Piano Accompanist: Elena Loukachkina
Children’s Choir Directors: Jean Pierce & Renee’ Owens

CHURCH OFFICE HOURS
Monday
thru Thursday 9am—2pm
Staff
Lunch 12:00-12:30pm
PASTOR MONICA’S HOURS
Monday-Tuesday-Thursday 9am-2pm
E-mail &
website addresses:
Pastor Monica: ordaineducc@comcast.net
Marieta Smith:
joyousucc@comcast.net
Web page: www.stjohnsucc.info
Penn Central Conference website: www.pccucc.org
Northern Association website: http://northernassoc.50megs.com/
Thank
you to everyone who serves as ushers, greeters, acolytes, readers, teachers,
children’s church, nursery attendants and sound technicians during the past
year and to all who serve in many other ministries “behind the scenes” for St.
John’s.
Worship Ministry
January, 2010
January 3
Head Usher: Yvette Willson
Greeters Dick & Linda Ackley
Reader:
Acolyte: Ryan Willson
Nursery: t.b.a.
Children’s Church: t.b.a.
Sound Technician: Dave Lucas
January 10
Head Usher: Yvette Willson
Greeters: Dick & Patricia Albright
Reader: Bruce Druckenmiller
Acolyte: Anna
McFeeley
Nursery: Kathryn Bainbridge
Children’s Church:
Sound Technician: Ryan Dwyer
January 17
Head Usher: Yvette Willson
Greeters Tina Allamon & Alice Breon
Reader: Marion McCullough
Acolyte: Marissa Willson
Nursery: t.b.a.
Children’s Church: t.b.a.
Sound Technician:
January 24
Head Usher: Yvette Willson
Greeters: Lois Creighton &
Reader:
Acolyte: Faith Matthews
Nursery: t.b.a.
Children’s Church: t.b.a.
Sound Technician: Xavier
Johnson
January 31
Head Usher: Yvette Willson
Greeters: The Dailey Family
Reader: Andrew Druckenmiller
Acolyte: Frank Boob
Nursery: t.b.a.
Children’s Church: t.b.a.
Sound Technician:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please note: Worship Assistants not listed above will be announced in the bulletins
as they are determined.

THANKS AND APPRECIATION TO:
…
Pat & Cliff Long, Bill & Ellen Matten, Kathryn & Shawn Bainbridge,
Laura & Bob Homan, Donna & Steve Vore, Bernie & Stan Lindsay, Phyllis
& Richard Kipp and Seddie Hess for hosting cottage meetings.
… Jean and Renee’
for organizing the children for our Music Celebration on Sunday, December 20th.
… All the children,
parents and members of the congregation, Natalia, Elena and Ryan who made our
hymn celebration a success.
… Jean Pierce for
organizing our Christmas caroling.
… Kathryn Bainbridge
for sharing her recycling ideas with us.
… Mark Scott for
leading Pastor Monica through the new member service.
… Rebecca Maciejczyk
for sharing her gift of singing with us.
… The Celebration Ringers
for sharing their gift of music on Sunday and during hometown Christmas.
…
…
… Chuck Hunt for all
his hard work scheduling Ushers and Greeters this past year.
… everyone who
donated to the UCC Christmas Fund.
…
… Greg & Ann
Fredericks who were narrators for 7:00pm Christmas Eve Service.
… Mark Scott who
made the starry night background and Donna Vore who made the stars, hearts and
hay bundles for the early Christmas Eve Service.
… Rebecca Maciejczyk
for donating the wreath on the office door.
… Chuck Hunt for
shoveling the sidewalk to the office.
…
…
… Todd Runkle for
updating our website.
… Janet Kellerman, Lois Creighton,
… Everyone who
contributed to the sock challenge for Back Bay Mission. We collected 550 pairs of socks!!
… Patti
Michaels for our beautiful Advent and Christmas altar.
… Beth
Segall and
…
… Ian Pierce for
helping with the Christmas Eve 11:00pm service candle lighting.
…
Attendance Last
Month:
December 6 96
December 13 58
December 20 122
December 24 ( 7:00pm) 120
December 24 (11:00pm) 86
December 27 59

January Birthdays:
January 3 Paul
Walker
5
8 Alicia
Lindsay 9 Lisa (Creighton) Homan
12 Bruce Druckenmiller
14 Tracy Williams
16 Curtis Addleman
17 Wyatt Bascom
18 Rob Bascom
19 Tracie Bogus
Todd
Trigger
21 Sally Yocum
22
23 Tammy Williams
27 Randy
Meister
29 Chuck
Hacker

I would like to thank the congregation for my
Christmas Love Offering.
I am overwhelmed by your generosity and
blessed to be your new pastor. I hope each of you have a healthy and
prosperous new year. Blessings, Pastor
Monica
NEWS FROM THE PROPERTY COMMITTEE:
Lock
Box Key The Property
Committee changed the combination on the lock box holding the church building
key. Please contact any member of the Property
Committee or the church office for the new combination. If you have flowers delivered to the church,
please remember to notify the florist of this change.
Pew for
Tuesday
Morning Lectionary Bible Study Group Each Tuesday morning
at 10:00-11:15am in the Parish House. Everyone
is welcome!
January 5:
Psalm 29; Isaiah 43: 1-7; Acts 8: 14-17; Luke 3: 15-22
January 12:
Psalm 36: 5-10; Isaiah 62: 1-5; 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11; John
2: 1-11
January 19:
Psalm 19; Nehemiah 8: 1-10; 1 Corinthians 12: 2-31a; Luke 4:
14-21
January 26:
Psalm 71: 1-6; Jeremiah 1: 4-10; 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13;
Luke 4: 21-30
Monday
Evening Bible Study Group
This group will meet twice a month on the 2nd and
4th Mondays of the month from 7:00–8:30 pm in the Parish House. We will start by reading through the Acts
of the Apostles. This book tells the
story of the ministry of the apostles after Jesus’ resurrection, the work of
the early church and the ministry of Paul. Come join the fellowship.
Monday, January 11: chapter 1
Monday, January 25: chapter 2
CIA (Christians in Action)
Youth Group Schedule
Sunday,
January 17 - Mystery Dinner, 5:30 pm in
Fellowship
Hall
Monday,
January 18 - Winter Hike, 1:00 pm
We
will meet at the church, carpool out to the trail and come back to the church
for hot chocolate.
Sunday,
February 7 - Super Bowl Party, 11:30am
Saturday,
February 20 – Pasta Dinner Fund Raiser,
seatings will be at 5:00pm, 5:45pm and 6:30pm.

Confirmation Class Schedule:
Sunday, January
10 Confirmation class: Holy Spirit Chapter 3 in Words for the Journey
Sunday, January
17 Mystery Dinner, 5: 20pm in
Fellowship Hall
Sunday January
24 Confirmation class: UCC Background
Installation
Service
The
Northern Association has set Pastor Monica’s Installation Service for Sunday,
January 24, 2010 at 3:00pm here at

Our
congregation is invited to join two
mission
trips to Back Bay Mission in
Faith
UCC,
First
UCC,
The Caregivers Ministry is looking
for
people who might be available to prepare a meal for shut-ins within the
congregation, who are convalescing
from
illness, surgery or other difficulty. People are also needed to provide occasional transportation to those in
need.
If you are able to serve in this ministry, please contact
Caregiver Coordinator,
at 466-7204.
Beginning on January 3rd, the
church office will be scheduling
every family in the church as
Greeters for one Sunday morning. If you are unable to make your scheduled
week, please contact someone in the church to cover your duty for that Sunday
and let the church office know who will be greeting for you.
GREETERS FOR MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2010
February 7 Rebecca & Ryan Dwyer
February 14 The
February 21 Chuck &
February 28 Dennis & Brenda Hameister
GREETERS FOR MONTH OF MARCH 2010
March 7 Diane
Hatch & Seddie Hess
March 14
March 21 Chuck Hunt & Kent Baker
March 28
USHERS Each member of our Church Council is providing ushers for one month of
the year. Thank you for your help.

Come join Pastor Monica for Coffee Hour at the Pump Station
Café at 9:30am on Thursday mornings.

“UPPER ROOMS” for
January/February have been placed in the kiosk in the Narthex and on the table
by the front door. Please don’t forget
to pick one up.
NEWS FROM CHRISTIAN ED:

Intergenerational
Sunday School
On
Sunday, January 3rd, we will be celebrating Epiphany. All are welcome!
Attendants needed: We are still in
need of Nursery and Children’s Church Attendants. Sign-up sheets are outside
of the Nursery Doors. Please consider volunteering.
Mystery Dinner for our youth group grades 6 & up including confirmand mentors on Sunday,
January 17th at 5:30pm. Please
RSVP to

Save the date: Saturday, February 20th will be
the Youth Pasta Dinner Fundraiser at 5:30pm. Monies raised go toward their confirmation camp fees in March 2010. More information to follow.

Thank you all for your generous support of our monthly
mission projects presented to the Sunday school children. To update everyone; The Crop Walk with
On Sunday, January 10th starting
at 8:45am with a “light breakfast”, Celina Ouellette will share the “Peace
Crane” story and teach us how to make Peace Cranes. Our goal is to make 1000 by August 2010 – the
anniversary date of
Northern
Association Workshops:
Our Workshop this
year will be February 7th held at Trinity United Church of Christ, Pennsylvania Avenue in
Centre Hall. We will be posting a flier as
soon as it arrives. It sounds like a
great selection with options for everyone.
The
workshop on the Narrative Budget was given by Jerry Tomason and Char Burch at
the last Conference meeting and was well received. Hopefully if you didn't
attend the workshop there, you will want to select this one along
with someone involved in the budget process from your church. The Bible
Study will introduce the Still Speaking Devotional available daily on your
computer in conjunction with a Bible Study. And the Recycling fits well into
our Stewardship theme for this year's Workshop. As in the past, each person may
choose two of the three workshops. In
addition, the Ministerium decided at their monthly meeting to ask each church
to bring as snacks "something good for us" and "something chocolaty"
(early Valentine's Day indulgence!) enough to serve 8-10 people of each one.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask any of us on the
Planning Committee.
Terri
Krabill
Chairman
of the Planning Committee
SCHEDULE:
1:30 Registration
1:45 Opening Worship and
Announcements
2:15 - 3:00
Workshop Offering # 1
3:00 Food and Fellowship
3:30 - 4:15 Workshop Offering
#2
WORKSHOP OPTIONS:
1: Still Speaking Bible Study – Stewardship of God's
Word led by Rev. Julian Hall, Interim
Pastor at Trinity UCC, Centre Hall
2: Using the Narrative Budget - Stewardship of the
Church's Money led by Jerry Tomason, chairman of the Penn Central
Conference Stewardship Committee
3: Recycling -
Stewardship of the Earth's Resources led by Ms. Amy Schriff, Centre Country
Recycling program

The C. C. C.
(Church Cleaning Crew) will begin cleaning
the church and Parish House on Thursday, January 7th at 1:30pm. Bring your favorite cleaning cloths and join us.

The St. John’s Ladies Lunches
are held at 11:45am on the 4th Tuesday of each month. This month’s lunch
will be on Tuesday, January 26th at the Red Lobster Restaurant,
238-3537
or Lois Runkle at 422-8221.
Fellowship Meals
will resume on January 6th with
subs and are scheduled for every Wednesday evening at 5:45pm. ALL

Member Information Updates
We are updating all of our member
information in the office and for our website. Please send your birthdays, anniversaries, home addresses, e-mail
addresses and phone numbers via e-mail to Marieta at joyousucc@comcast.net or call the office at 466-7162.

I would like to graciously thank
your support, encouragement
and kindness have given me the strength I
needed as I endured my new office manager responsibilities. I truly love my job and working with each and
every one of you here at
P.S. A special thank you to “the
Food
Bank
The overall success of the Food Bank comes from the
dedication and support of the community. Thank you
The next Food
Bank Sunday will be January 10th
Needs List updated 12/11/09:
** Gift Cards are used to maintain our food
inventory and supplement what we don't receive in food donations
The
following items are always needed as we cannot purchase these through our state
food purchasing program. We rely completely on donations for these items:
In addition, we
distribute donations of personal hygiene items (toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo,
etc.) and baby items (baby food, diapers, formula, etc.).
A Moment by Marieta
Snowflake
Snowflakes
falling from the sky
Help
remind us exactly why
Christmas
came so long ago
Cleansing
the earth like each new snow
One
pure, unique and perfect form,
Who
came to earth to withstand the storm.
Each
snowflake melts as does the ice,
But
we can’t forget the sacrifice;
So
display this symbol of the season
To
recollect what gives us reason
One
pure, unique and perfect form,
Who
came to earth to transcend the storm.
Consistory Members
President Mark Scott ‘11
V. President
Secretary Tina Allamon ‘10
Charles
Hunt ‘10
Logan
Hill ‘11
Yvette
Willson ‘11
Tom
Runkle ‘12
The Treasurer is
The Financial Secretary is

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