Christmas and Christmas Eve

Wow. I loved having Christmas on Sunday. Worship on Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning was awesome- well at least that was my experience.
Christmas Eve was a simple service of Scripture, Special Music and Congregational Carols. It was sacred.
We had over 90 in attendance.
Christmas morning was a blast. I preached from Luke 2:1-20.
There was something fun to me about starting Christmas day with cinnamon rolls and opening a couple of gifts and then putting all of that on hold to worship God- Our Savior Jesus! It was a grand "interruption," and put my whole Christmas into a great perspective.
I have no idea how many folks were there, I didn't count. Probably 60ish.
I hope you and yours had a blessed Christmas and remember to have fun and be good on New Year's.
Pastor Corey

Great Job Youth!!! (and Parents!)

Our church youth put on an excellent Christmas program, "Live from the Streets of Bethlehem," on Tuesday night, Dec. 20th. The youth did a fantastic job- there were several solos and every one of them was sweet.
Thanks to the parents for all the work they did. Patti was our director, Betty was on Piano. We also had Mike, Tecla, Terry, Kent and Connie doing back up singing. Sharon was in charge of the wardrobe. Tina, myself and Zoe were Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Danny was a roaming mini-angel. (Did I miss anybody- if so it's not intentional).
We feasted on delicious pie after the program. Thanks to the wonderful volunteers!!!
Good job youth, I am very proud of you.
the program told the story of the birth of Jesus from different perspectives in Bethlehem- including some of the animals from the stable. It was fun and it really showed the truth that our Lord was born into this world in humble circumstances.
Merry Christmas,
Pastor Corey

Pray for Robert

I am asking you to pray for our 18 year old friend Robert. He has Sarcoma (cancer) in his lungs and one leg. His lungs are collapsing every couple of days it seems. He has just finished his first four-day round of chemo (with dozens of more rounds to go). Right now his spirits are pretty low, as he was hoping to get out of the hospital for a couple days and be at home for Christmas, this now is unlikely because of his lungs.
Would you join me in praying for Robert?
Pray that he takes all this frustration and anger and turns it against the cancer.
Pray for his family that they may have strength, endurance, patience and understanding to be with him in this difficult time.
Pray that the chemotherapy works well and that he avoids infections.
Pray for his lungs that they may heal and not collapse again.
Pray that he lean on Jesus in this difficult time.
Thank you for your prayers.
Corey

Caroling, Worship and other happenings

Hello there friends!
It has been a fun week. We capped it off with some Christmas caroling this evening through the town of Palouse. It was about 5 degrees outside, but nearly40 of us braved the elements to sing songs to our neighbors.
This week we had several fun things happen. 1. Someone donated a VCR/DVD player that we really needed. 2. Someone donated a brand-new foosball table that we will really be able to use with the youth. 3. The lot across the street was turned into a parking lot, making it easier to accomodate the crowds we have been having. 4. The board voted on a budget that is in line with our current growth, this budget included making me a full-time pastor, as of January 1st. 5. The men had their monthly breakfast, which included sourdough pancakes (thanks Dean). We also decorated the church this Saturday (looks good diaconate and volunteers).
Tina, the kids and I are headed to Spokane, today, Monday. We are going to visit our friend Robert (age 18) who is receiving chemotherapy at Sacred Heart for Sarcoma. We are hoping and praying that he doesn't have to spend Christmas in the hospital. Please pray for Robert and others that are suffering- when we have good health we take it for granted and sometimes we forget that there are people, including young children, who are fighting for their lives.

Worship was moving for me today. The words to away in a manger really got to me today, got choked up. Another side note, someone mentioned that I said "Mary" when I should have said "Elizabeth" at the beginning of my sermon, making it sound like Mary was six months pregnant when the angel Gabriel came, rather than Elizabeth (see Luke 1:26-38). I apologize for any confusion- I pray it was minor and not a distraction to the wonderful truth of our Savior's birth. If you are interested in the sermon notes they are posted at my "Corey Sermons" blog.
The Blood family led the advent reading and reflection. Terry Keller and Tecla Blood did special music. We had a fun children's sermon.
In all there were 83 folks in worship today.
Praise God- Pastor Corey

Zoe's Dedication & Wonderful Worship

Zoe Clare Laughary, her parents and God-Parents (Matt and Jamie Brown) participated in a dedication service for Zoe. The intent of the dedication service is to commit the parents, God-parents and the congregation to raise the child in the Christian faith. Cheri Nelson, a good friend from Spokane led the congregation in this part of the service. Especially delightful was singing "Jesus Loves Me" and "I Love You and You are Mine." Cheri did a fine job leading us in these songs.
Our Advent worship was kicked off by the Kent family. Patti and JD did an awesome job. JD gave a musical reflection, sharing a beautiful piece on the piano. I am not very musical- but I appreciate greatly those who are. Patti read the scripture from Isaiah and JD lit the candle of Joy (that's the pink one).
I might be a God-dork, but I love worshiping our Lord. I dare say worship was "pleasurable" this Sunday. It is an honor to be the Pastor of Palouse Federated. It is exciting to see God at work. In all there were 81 folks in worship Sunday.
Peace,
Pastor Corey

Blessings from Sunday

God blessed us in our worship on Sunday. One great thing was we had a lot of visitors. This is beginning to be a pattern lately. One visitor was Sgt. Anthony Kopf, recently back from serving in Iraq. He is Mel and Betty Ingall's Son-in-law. We have been praying for his safety and for his family for a quite a while. It was a blessing to have him and his wife, Kim, in worship.
The White family did the advent reading, reflection and the lighting of the candle. Taylor wrote her own reflection- and it was quite wonderful. It's theme was being a gift for God, because God is a gift for us.
In all there were 72 in worship- which is important for the following story. As I lifted the communion lid I noticed that one of the rings on each of the trays had not been filled with glasses. I found this curious, because in November we had nearly run out of cups and the trays were full that time. I was a bit scared as I looked at how many folks we had in the pews. I passed out the trays and the servers passed out the cups. When they came back there were exactly five cups left- one for each server and one for me. As far as I could tell no one turned down a cup and no one was left out. We ended up having the exact amount of cups we needed. A "small" but fun miracle.
The sermon was from Mark 1:1-8. It is available at coreysermons.blogspot.com
Peace,
pastor Corey