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PASTOR’S CORNER

November is a month for “Thanks-LIVING”!

At Green Hill, it is a month where we will be pledging our tithes and offerings for the following year so that we can prepare proper budgets for the New Year. It is a month when the congregation affirms support for Elders who make up our governing body—the Session. It is a month where we gather for our Annual Thanksgiving Supper, this year honoring our commitment to the Presbyterian Children’s Home in Alabama.

And, this year, we will host two special events in November. The first will be our Annual Veteran’s Sunday Service, honoring our Veterans and Veterans organizations in our community, Sunday, November 10th.

The second is a new offering: A Pancake Breakfast honoring First Responders in the Enterprise Area. The organizers for this unique offering will be our newest members, Tyler and Addie Worsley, who have hosted a similar breakfast in their home church in Manhattan, Kansas.

Come, be with us, and give thanks!

Pastor David

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS ENDS

Don’t forget to change your clocks before you go to bed on Saturday night, November 2. On Sunday morning, November 3, at 2:00am, Daylight Savings Time ends, and we all get back that extra hour we gave up in the spring. We look forward to seeing you at church that Sunday.

VETERANS SUNDAY

On Sunday, November 10, we will have a special worship service in honor of our local veterans. Please mark your calendars now and stay tuned for details.

PANCAKE BREAKFAST

On the morning of Saturday, November 16, Green Hill will host a special event to honor all of the first responders in our community. Tyler and Addie Worsley are all set to cook pancakes and serve up breakfast for our local police officers, fire fighters, and other emergency personnel.

SCOUTS BSA GIRL TROOP FOOD DRIVE

On Saturday, November 2, the girls of Troop 150 are going to hold a food drive in front of Walmart in Enterprise. They are collecting food to be used by our Green Hill Food Pantry. If you are out running errands on that day, be sure to stop by to say hello. These young women are some of the very first in the country to become part of the new Scouts BSA (formerly known as Boy Scouts) program.

STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY

Green Hill’s annual Stewardship Sunday is coming up. Each year in November we ask our members and our regular worshipers to prayerfully examine their resources and to pledge a portion to God’s work. It is important to remember that Stewardship includes contributions of not just money, but also of time, talent, and prayer.

For the purpose of planning the church’s annual budget, blank pledge cards will be mailed out to everyone the last week of October. Please write your financial pledge on a pledge card and return it to the church by dropping it in the offering plate no later than Sunday, November 17.

The returned pledge cards will only be seen by Joel. He will use the information to estimate the total amount of giving expected for 2020. This is the number the Session will use in planning next year’s budget.

THANKSGIVING DINNER

The annual church family Thanksgiving dinner will be held at Green Hill on Sunday, November 24. Please mark your calendars now and stay tuned for details.

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

Did you know that you can keep up with what’s happening at Green Hill by using Facebook? That’s right! Just visit our Facebook page and click “like” to have the latest news show up in your news feed. All of the articles posted on the church website are automatically posted to our page and many of the special events happening at Green Hill have their own “event” pages. It makes it really easy to put the church on your schedule, and to invite your friends to come to church with you. So please click “like” today!

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

Do you want to pack a box for Operation Christmas Child? Now is the time! Empty boxes are available in the Fellowship Hall. This year we have the official boxes that can be folded into just the right size. Take your box home, fill it with stocking-stuffer type items, and return it to the church with a $9 check made out to Samaritan’s Purse. Complete instructions can be found on the table with the boxes. Please bring your box back no later than Sunday, November 17.

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER DEADLINE

Do you have a submission for the next newsletter? Please get it in to the church office by Monday, November 18. If you leave a note, please include your name so we can contact you if we have any questions. As always, the newsletter will be printed and ready for pickup by the last Sunday of the month, perhaps earlier.

EAGLE COURT OF HONOR

On Saturday, November 23, a very special celebration will be held at Green Hill. Garrett Bogart, of Green Hill’s Boy Scout Troop 150, and son of Gary & Stacy Bogart, will officially be recognized for attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. This is the highest recognition that can be earned by a Boy Scout. We are very proud of this young man and all of the hard work he has put in to earning this achievement.

PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN THANK OFFERING

The Thank Offering has long been a tradition of Presbyterian Women. It has provided and continues to provide much-needed financial assistance to numerous worthwhile programs not included in ongoing General Assembly mission support. Each year, domestic and international projects are carefully and prayerfully selected by the Creative Ministries Offering Committee to help meet a crucial need. Forty percent (40%) of this offering is used to support hospitals and community health programs that place priority in helping the neediest members of God’s community. The remaining sixty percent (60%) is used for new creative ideas for mission. This year the project for our synod is “Katie Geneva Cannon Legacy Memorial Conference – Women and Gender Studies.”

The generosity of Presbyterian women and their families and congregations as demonstrated through their Thank Offering gifts help chosen recipients find real solutions for projects related to health, education, economic development, and needs of women and children.

Green Hill members wishing to contribute to this annual Thank Offering may use one of the special blue envelopes located in the pew racks.

THANKSGIVING AT PLYMOUTH PLANTATION

Early American Thanksgiving celebrations reflected biblical feasts when people thanked God for deliverance, provision, bounty, and blessings. One of the earliest American feasts took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621.

Two years later, in 1623, Governor Bradford called the people together for a day of thanksgiving, with this proclamation:

“Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”