This Sunday will mark the start of the nine-week study as a church. We will not be putting BibleQuest online during those nine weeks. Pick up the book in the lobby on Sunday morning.

Click here to download this year’s Advent calendar – Advent Calendar 2012

Dear Faith Church families,

We are excited that you want to journey with us through Advent and join us in preparing ourselves to welcome the Baby Jesus this year! Attached to this note is our 2012 Advent Calendar. There are lots of fun activities to do as a family to get ready for Christmas. We encourage you to do as many as your family can manage during this often busy season. We hope that you will make sure to carve out space in each day to prioritize time with your family and to prepare your hearts and homes for welcoming the Christ-child this Christmas.

There are two traditions that you can use with this calendar. The first is to just simply do the activities on the calendar. You can combine it with a fun Advent calendar or Christmas countdown you have at home or just cross off the days on this calendar until you get to Christmas. The second way is to include an Advent wreath. The wreath does not have to be fancy: there are 4 candles in the wreath (usually 3 purple and 1 pink) and 1 in the center of the wreath that is white. Each day at home, the candles are lit, perhaps before the evening meal — one candle the first week, and then another each following week until December 25th. The pink candle is usually lit on the third Sunday of Advent. As the candles are lit, refer to this calendar for devotionals or activities to do when you light your wreath each night. All candles, including the white candle, are lit on Christmas Eve. The white candle signifies the birth of Christ.

This year, we are celebrating advent as a time of anticipation. Discuss together as a family what it means to anticipate. With the coming of the Baby Jesus (and also His second coming – which has yet to happen), we wait with excitement for many things. For Advent 2012, we are focusing on four aspects of what Jesus brings: freedom, love, comfort and healing. We pray that as you get excited for Christmas, you will find Jesus to be even more exciting!

Merry Christmas! from Faith Quest Children’s Ministries

You can now download the most recent BibleQuest in the “My Money Talks” sermon series.

It’s on 1 Timothy 6 and is the first in the series My Money Talks.

Don’t forget that there’s a tournament on Sunday.

Sunday School teachers, there’s a meeting at 12:30pm.

Encounter 4 for the 2nd through 6th graders has something extra this week. Check it out.

Orange Day is this Sunday! Make sure to invite your friends and to wear as many items of orange clothes as you can.

The BibleQuest for this Sunday’s sermon has been uploaded. It talks about Paul’s letter to the Romans explaining how to exist as citizens of an earthly government even though our true citizenship is in the Kingdom of God.

The BibleQuest for November 11′s sermon has also been uploaded. November 11 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Check out International Christian Concern or the Voice of the Martyrs to learn about what is happening to your Christian family members around the world.

Galatians 3:26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Make sure to grab your copy of BibleQuest to do before Sunday.

Fall Family Festival is this Saturday at the church from 4:30pm to 8:30pm. All of the games are free.

Orange Day is coming up November 4. Invite your friends.

The BibleQuest page is now functioning. Click on the BibleQuest logo in the sidebar to find the most recent BibleQuest to download and work on for Sunday.

What’s really cool is that if you click on the specific volume number/issue number, it will bring up the Bible passage for you to read. There’s also a button that you can click to have the passage read to you.

Thank you, Jeremy, for working hard to get the site up and running again.

Families, we’ll hopefully have BibleQuest up for you this week.