Merry Christmas!

It has been a fun time here at Holy Cross. Christmas is coming!

I particularly enjoied watching all the children in the Christmas Program. While I was sad to not see more people in attendance, the program and its message is not just for those with children, I throughly enjoyed the day. My favorite part was watching the little children sing "Happy Birthday Jesus". The Confirmation age children did a wonderful job and all of their hard work paid off. The children presented a powerful message of the wonder of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Thank you to all who worked to make it a wonderful day. The Cakes were great.

My Hope is that we can all express the Love of Christ to our families and our friends.

In the Peace of Christ.

Dan Johnson
Director of youth ministy.

For many years the small church I grew up in tried to put on a Christmas Program. Often we were too smallto do an effective program. Years later I moved to St. Louis and left my small church and joined a much larger church family. I then saw how effective a children's message can be at Christmas. I learned quote a bit about the true meaning of Christmas from these programs. Sometimes the message of the adult version can be overwhelming, but the children's program tends to be basic, more direct and to the point. (This may be why I often like Children's sermons so much.)

I am preparing for my third children's program here at Holy Cross. The Previous two years of programs have been wonderful. We are gifted with a great group of kids here at Holy Cross and such supportive adults. I am thrilled to say i would put our program up against any church in the area. Last year i felt like I was in the Caribbean. Where will we be transported this year?

I have had the honor of helping this year's group prepare for Sunday. I know that the kids have been hard at work learning lines and some great songs. The proprs are ready and down from the ceiling. This Sunday you are in for a treat. Please plan to attend the 9:45am celebration.

In the Hope, Peace and Love of Christ,

Dan

Advent

Yes I know that we are past Thanksgiving and heading full steam into Christmas. But we should not forget the wonderful season of Advent. Advent is special to me. (My childhood church was Advent Lutheran.) The expectation of the coming of the Lord Jesus is a wonderfully exciting time for me. I look forward to Christmas but it is the tense expectation of Advent that gets us ready. To think of all that the coming Christ does for us and all the preparation that both we at the church and that Mary and Joseph did blows my mind.

Yesterday at the Staff meeting we discussed when the Tree and other decorations should go up. Who would decorated the tree. Should we have a church decoration party and invite everyone to join us in this festive occasion? We have a wedding in December and would they want decorations up for the wedding?

Advent seems to get lost in the shuffle. Advent has started. In fact if you have an advent calendar you would be opening the first window today. I looked at Targets selection of Advent calendars and while I am thrilled to see 13 of them ranging from a manger scene to a train, I have to wonder what a penguin has to do with Advent. That aside Advent is here. Are you anticipating the coming of the Lord?

Thank you to all who made the Advent celebration a wonderful success.

Happy Advent.