Once again we will be Christmas Caroling to shut-ins on Saturday, December 20th. Please meet at the church at 5:00pm for Christmas caroling to local nursing homes, followed by a pizza party. Please contact Joel and Sue Comer with any questions.
Join us for the Christmas Festival on Sunday, December 7, 2014. From 5:00 until 5:30, there will be hot cider and Christmas music around a fire that will be sure to set the mood for the evening’s pageant. At 5:45 we will begin the program of music, scripture, and reflection on the birth of Jesus presented by our own Oakton children and talented musicians. The evening will conclude with our traditional Christmas meal in the Fellowship Hall. Gluten Free food will be available. Consider joining in this evening of preparation for the Christmas season and the love of Christ.
Brethren Disaster Ministries has assigned the week or March 29-April 4 to our congregation. This is Easter week and spring break for Fairfax County public schools. We are putting together a team of volunteers for the Spotswood, NJ project. The minimum age is 14 accompanied by parent (15 without a parent). There is no cost to volunteer other than travel; BDM provides housing and food. If you can’t do construction type work or manual labor, they often need a cook or cook’s assistant, assistant household manager or errand runner. If you are potentially interested, contact Jan Fischer Bachman as soon as possible ().
| December 2014 Volunteers | |||||
| Duty | 12/7/2014 | 12/14/2014 | 12/21/2014 | 12/24/2014 | 12/28/2014 |
| Preacher: | Randy Yoder | Dick Shreckhise | Dick Shreckhise | Randy Yoder | |
| Worship Leader: | Colleen Eddy | Mark Phillips | Gretchen Zience | Angela Finet | |
| Children’s Story | Jan Burket | Jan Burket | Jan Burket | Jan Burket | |
| Acolyte: | Bobby Schultz | Drew Seidel | Evan Strong | Charlotte Kosek | |
| Greeters: | Fischer Bachman/Wingert | Meadows/Wilkerson | Ferrari/Judd | Comers | |
| Organists Hymn Leader: |
Shafer/Carson/Strong | Shafer/Carson/MacKinnon | Shafer/Carson/Wuhrman | Shafer/TBD | TBD/TBD |
| Counters: | Kozaks | Levesques | Ferrari/Judd | Wilkerson/Beach | |
| Nursery: | Karen Richardson | John Eddy | Jerry Anne Kines | Kimberly Judd | |
| Nursery: | Hannah Seidel | Michael Biddle | Emma Bachman | Casey Comer | |
| Nursery: | Cortland Comer | Casey Comer | Katelyn Judd | Emma Bachman | |
| Children’s Church Leader: |
Debbie Seidel | Karen Richardson | Debbie Seidel | N/A | Debbie Seidel |
| Children’s Church Helper: |
Kennley Judd | Seth Strong | Drew Seidel | N/A | Michael Biddle |
| Sunday School Nursery: | Jake Burket | Kim Ferrari | Jan Burket | N/A | Jake Burket |
| Coffee Time | Kim Ferrari | Gretchen Zience | Pat Reed | N/A | TBD |
| Nursery Toy Cleaners: | Karen Richardson | Karen Richardson | Karen Richardson | N/A | Karen Richardson |
We had a beautiful service planned by Angela. She helped us connect with the meaning behind our traditions. The question and answer parts of the service included several people who helped by asking questions that addressed the different parts of our love feast, feet-washing and communion. Angela explained what we do and how we do what Jesus did by serving each other.We all shared a meal together prepared by our deacons. The traditional scriptures preceded each part of our service and John accompanied us in singing some of our familiar hymns. As we ended the service, many hands helped with the clean-up. It is always gratifying and fun working together and as my mother used to always say “many hands make light work”. Even though Kim was away and unable to join us, we felt her presence through her wonderful written instructions. It was a meaningful service and I am thankful that I belong to this church family and have the opportunity to share in our Christian traditions.
Just in case you’ve forgotten, or maybe never knew, BNP is the acronym for Brethren Nutrition Program. This program of church outreach functions from the soup kitchen located in the Washington City Church of the Brethren.
On Saturday, October 18th, we had an afternoon of group cooking in the Oakton kitchen preparing food for BNP. My personal input to our cooking day included pick up of donated produce from Garner’s Produce LLC of Warsaw, VA. They were very generous in their donation. At approximately 2PM cooks of many ages were assembled and functioning with high efficiency in the church kitchen and fellowship hall. The crew for the day included:
Emma Bachman
Jan Fischer-Bachman
Missy and Sary Burket
Cathy Carson
Mary Ellen Judd
Kay Lee
John Shafer
Anne, Audrey and Gillian Sullivan
and Al Zebrowski
Fellowship hall was converted to central chopping quarters, kitchen counter-tops to soup assembly plants and the stove to “cooking zone central”. After approximately 4 hours – a significant amount of that time was spent waiting for soups to cool – our cooking day was almost complete. Four different kinds of soups, as well as some chopped produce, were bagged and frozen. Carolyn Nestman, from BNP, picked up all prepared food on Monday, October 20th. She left with approximately 18 gallons of soup and as least 25 pounds of produce. Carolyn estimated that the food contribution from Oakton would supply the BNP for almost 3 months!
Karl Wilkerson coincidentally arrived shortly after Carolyn and assisted with the loading of her car. He agreed – a large quantity of frozen food is quite heavy! The Oakton all-church cooking day was sponsored by the Action-Reflection Committee. The day’s cooks and the committee have already loosely discussed plans for the next cooking day, some time during the 1st quarter of next year.
All in all, it was a great day; some fun, good conversation and significant education in squash preparation (thank you Anne Sullivan) were all part of our cooking day.
~Submitted by Cathy Carson