Hope Blog

Smiles & Stories Social International Potluck 

Creative, New Culinary Delights Welcome!
Sunday, February 8th – International Foods

Come join us for our monthly potluck as we celebrate spreading God’s love around the world and we bring together dishes from places we’ve been or places we’d love to visit. Hope Chapel provides the Slavic dish Plov. Bring an International food dish maybe from a place our own GO Team or our youth have gone cross-culturally. Bring something from there or from a place you’ve been or would like to go.

Pitch in as you can before you leave – many hands make light work!

Joe Friedman, A HopeArtist Presents: Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” Reading on Sunday, December 21st, 6-8:30 PM

AN EVENING OF IMAGINATION
Invite friends to come and hear this timeless redemption story as veteran actor, Joe Friedman, in period costume, reads aloud Charles Dickens’ beloved classic, A Christmas Carol, for our enjoyment. Ebenezer Scrooge, Marley, the Ghosts of Christmas: Past, Present, and Yet To Come, and Tiny Tim with the rest of the Cratchits will come to life in your imagination. Joe is in his 36th year of reading this story for others.

BRING SOMETHING TO DO “AROUND THE HEARTH” 
Bring your puzzles or knit, sew, make crafts (a great time to make ornaments!) – whatever your preferred activity to do is while you listen – in the Den upstairs.

ARE CHILDREN WELCOME? YES, OF COURSE… Parents, it’s up to your discretion as to whether your kids have the right temperament for a two hour reading (with an intermission).

Joe says, “Feel free to dress in period costume!”

RSVP ON REALM
No tickets needed: free for all as Joe’s gift – but let him know you’re coming.

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at 5:00 PM

START OR BEGIN A TRADITION  – COME LET US ADORE HIM, THE LORD JESUS
Come as you are for our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service from  5-6:00 PM on December 24th: dressed for photos or bring your kids in pajamas. Bring your family and friends to sing the carols and hear the story once again of when Hope came as a human and lived among us.

Then stand in the darkness as the first candle is lit and see it slowly spread across the room, candle to candle. At last enveloped in the glow, we remember when The Light who came into the world pierced the darkness.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, COWORKERS, AND NEIGHBORS
Invite someone with the postcards available in the lobby or download an invitation to send here.

All-Church Christmas Lessons & Carols Plus Cookie and Carrots After-Party Sunday, December 7th at 5:00 PM

Bring your friends, family, and neighbors to enjoy a special program of music and readings of the Christmas season. Preschoolers sing, elementary kids sing, we sing! We’ll close with our traditional “birthday pop-up” version of 12 Days of Christmas. Then we’ll go to the Family Room for snacks and goodies!

Please bring either:
• two dozen of your favorite cookies,
• a sandwich tray or
• veggie or fruit or mixed platter
for the reception immediately following the service.

Deck Hope’s Halls Sunday, December 23rd

Advent is just around the corner… the season when we gather to worship our King in song, scripture, and joyful anticipation. Come lend a hand and help us prepare for this beautiful season! Let’s make our spaces glow with beauty, love, and laughter… together.

All ages welcome after the 10AM service on November 23rd! We’ll do the family thing and pull decorations from the attic and closets and make Hope’s Sanctuary and Family Room festive together.

Sign up on Realm (you get lunch that way).

Learn more about Advent here.

“Light Up the Church”: Remembering Kristallnacht

On November 9, 1938, hordes of German paramilitary and citizens attacked Jewish citizens, their homes, schools, businesses, cemeteries and synagogues in what became known as Kristallnacht — the Night of Broken Glass. 

Over the last decade synagogues around the world have participated in leaving their lights on all night on Nov. 9th.  Churches worldwide are joining them to “let their lights shine in the darkness” Saturday, Nov. 9th in solidarity with the Jewish people, to stand against anti-semitism. At Hope Chapel, we will place about 50 “LED candles” in each of our windows visible from the streets, and yard signs out front indicating the purpose. 

For more information,  visit LightUpTheChurch.org