United Church of Christ, Congregational 990 State St. Vermilion, OH 44089 vermilionuccc@gmail.com

November 2017

Church chatter

From Sunset Shores -

Pastor’s Letter

As I write this article, our congregation is preparing for a dinner celebrating our bi-centennial year of ministry. As I have shared previously, it’s wonderful to cele-brate a time such as this. At the same time the church is being called to discern its next steps. I recently an-nounced I will not place my profile into con-sideration for the settled Pastor position. Let me clarify. I believe this church has a very promising future ahead of it. There is enthu-siasm and positive energy in exploring new possibilities. My decision is in no way a re-flection of the church. I have spent the past year in my own dis-cernment period. Even as I came to greatly appreciate the church and the community of Vermilion I realized I really feel called to

staying in ministry settings needing inten-tional transitional work. I love what we have done together so far and am excited about what this next year will bring. I hope everyone will step up and partici-pate in the search process that has begun. All voices and perspectives are not only welcomed but needed. For the next elev-en months please take the time to visit with me, dream with me, and share your hopes and concerns with me...and with each other.

In all things LOVE, Rev. David Zerby

Office Info: Phone: 967-5212 DNS phone: 967-5230 T-F 9-2 p.m. Staff: Rev. David Zerby, pastor Jerry Boros, treasurer Jim Innes, Fin. Secretary Jennifer Bertoni, Office Mgr./Youth Dir. Shelly Innes, Christian Ed. Cecily Musser, Principal,DNS Ted Williams, Music Director Corey Knick, organist

Mission Statement: We, the members of the United Church of Christ, Congregational, Vermilion, strive to love, serve, and grow as we live God’s message in our families, our church, our com-munity and our world, now and forever more.

Inside this issue:

Calendar 2

Book Nook 3

Women’s Coord. 4

Christian Ed. 4

DNS Report. 5

Youth Report 5

Poinsettia Form 7

Sunset Shores Retreat Center has had a very busy summer. While not having large groups as guests, the house and/or the cottage has been in use most days. Julie Wilson, who has served as our reservationist the past several years, is turn-ing her focus to building a new home and a new business so she is stepping away from this position. Thanks Julie for all you have done. We are so grateful for the work you have done and for the gracious and hospitable way you have served our guests. Fortunately, Julie has agreed to continue to serve on SSRC committee. All reservations will now go through the main office of the church. New reserva-tion forms for 2018 are now available either in the office, from the committee, or on line. The SSRC committee has streamlined the process so now all guests will complete the same form and pay the same fees. Of course, events of The United Church of Christ Congregational, Vermilion will need to reserve but, as before, will have no fee. If you have any questions, please call Anne Stock (419-565- 7256) or any member of the committee. Sunset Shores Committee is made up of Rick VanDenBossche, Judy Klucas, Ken Lewis, Julie Wilson, Brian Wilson, Pastor Zerby and Anne Stock.

Page 2 Church chatter

November 2017

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS

2 Abby Martin

3 Janice Barton

Denise Troy

Susan Moehle

4 Fred Hesse

5 Jonathan Clark

6 Brett Freeman

7 Melanie Haynes

Jason Bard

Jenna Nicole Peters

Rashelle DeMartinis

8 Alexandra Burger

Rich Tarrant

9 Don Bedillion

10 Allison Ballard

11 Leia Hoyman

Wendy Lightfoot-Weber

Kristin Clark

14 Annalee Hector

15 Bryan Smith

John Strittmather

16 Gloria Kocan

Judy Klucas

Ivan Schreuer

17 Warren Mehnert

Dan Martin

Tom Musser

18 Kelsie Tucker

19 Saber Vandetta

20 Dennis Zimmerman

23 Larry Howell

Laurie Mangus

24 Ellen Rossi

25 Katelyn Strittmather

Sean Smith

Brian Beckwith

26 Jaqueline Ruetenik

27 Joyce Smith

Diane Rupert

28 Kurt Innes

29 Jimmy Jones

NOVEMBER ANNIVERSARIES

1 Pete and Becky Wade‘01

15 Timothy & Tricia Fenton ‘99

18 Don & Barbara Bedillion

30 Larry & Barb Akers ‘74

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 7 Diaconate

2

7 Boy Scouts

7 Small Group

(Innes)

3 8 AA

4

5 9 Missions

9 Confirmation

6 Small Group

(Ozmun)

6 8 AA

7 7 Venture

8 12:30 Marmaru

6 Small Group

(Lounge)

7 Opiate Talk

9 7 Boy Scouts

7 Small Group

(Stein)

10 8 AA

11

12 9 Finance

9:30 C&C

13 10 Lucy Idol

8 AA

14 15 1 Prayer Group

7 Council

16 7 Boy Scouts

7 Membership

17 8 AA

18 Senior High

Youth Event—

Pilgrim Hills

19 (SHYE Contin-ues)

20 8 AA

21 Rachel Circle

7 Venture

22 23 Thanksgiving

24 8 AA

25

26 27 10 Lucy Idol

8 AA

28 29 30 7 Boy Scouts

7 Personnel

Page 3 November 2017

Shout Out!

From the Book Nook

New in the Book Nook this month is The Book of Joy, Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, by Tenzin Gyatso—the Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Doug Abrams. These two delightful world leaders met for a week in Dharamsala, India, the home in exile of the Dalai La-ma. Co-writer Doug Abrams was asked by these two world lead-ers to interview them and then “to weave our voic-es together sharing the views and experiences of these two men plus what scientists and others have found to be the well springs of joy.” You might think this is a “heavy” book. Quite the contrary! With all the wisdom they impart, both of whom have faced much suffering and lived through great atrocities, this book is light-hearted filled with compassion, humor, gratitude, and humble-ness. When you finish you not only feel joy but great hope. You also get to experience two 80-year-old friends coming together to share a birthday celebration, one that was denied earlier when the government

South Africa refused to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama to come to Desmond Tutu’s celebration in South Africa. These two men, who are both mischievous and humorous, share their per-spectives on joy— “it’s true nature, the obsta-cles, and the pillars of joy”. Both wanted this to be a universal book speaking to all people, those who are of a religious tradition and those who are not. I highly recommend this book and think it would make a great gift for someone close to you.

Odds ‘n’ Ends: The next Personnel meeting will be held Thurs-day, November 30th, at 7:00 p.m. in the lounge. Membership’s November meeting has been moved to Nov. 16th at 7:00 p.m. because of Thanksgiving. The December Church council meeting has been moved to Dec. 13th at 7:00 p.m.

A full schedule of events is posted outside the

church office.

"Many Hands Make Light Work!!!" Last month, with the help of many volunteers,

our church served 188 meals at Grace's Kitchen! Thank you to our kitchen cooks Sally Fox, Karen Reis-ing, Robbie Brown, Nancy Wendt, and Shelly White. Our at home volunteers were MaryAnn and Judy

Brizzolara, Pat Creel, Linda Estle, Sally Fox, Karen Howell, Shelly Innes, Ellen Johnson, Diane Lang-ham, Shirley Lehky, Sue Moehle, Lori Ozmun, Karen Reising, Pat Stein and Pat Zimmerman. Helping to serve our guests was Mary Ann, Judy and Joe Brizzolara, Dan Kernell, Judy Klucas, Diane Langham, Ryan Strittmather, Jim Weber and Nina.

Page 4 Church chatter

Women’s Coordinating News

Women’s Coordinating Committee thanks eve-ryone who ordered Peterson Nuts in the month of October. Nut orders will be ready for pickup on Sunday November 12 during Coffee Hour. Please pay with cash or a check made out to UCC, Congregational (Memo: WC-Nuts). This is one of only two fundraisers we have throughout the year. Thank you for your support.

The frost might not yet be on the pump-kin, but the holiday

season is soon upon us!

Get out your cookie recipes and get ready

for the 12th Annual Cookie Walk

on Dec. 10. We’ll need Saturday workers; Sunday workers;

and of course, LOTS of delicious Christmas cookies.

Look for sign-up lists toward the end of November during Coffee

Hours.

(sponsored by Women’s Coordinating)

Christian Ed. News

During October, the children in the Sunday School classes learned about life and growth in the early church. After the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, an ever-increasing group of people listened to the apostles' preaching and ate and prayed together. Just as the early followers of Jesus lived together, sharing their possessions and goods, the children of this church also belong to a community of faith that cares for each other. The story of Cornelius and Peter shows that God's love is for everyone. The story of Peter's rescue from prison taught us that we don't always understand the way that God works, but we do know that when we pray , God hears us and we are not alone. We then moved from stories of the early church to stories from the book of Genesis. Throughout history, God has called individuals to play special roles. The children learned that we need to care for God's creation.

The Sunday School children will be kicking off a ser-vice project called Read to Feed. This program is from Heifer International and encourages reading while heightening children's awareness that they can make a difference in the lives of others. The children will be getting sponsors (family, friends, members of the congregation) for books that they read over the next few months. At the end of the program, we will pool all of the money donated by sponsors and we in turn will then donate it to Heifer International. The children will be able to choose from a variety of ani-mals to help families around the world feed their families and reach self-reliance. We hope that the congregation will help us with this service project by sponsoring the children to read.

The Coffee and Conversations high school discussion class meets on the second Sunday of the month at 9:30 in the lounge. We talked about God's creation and their faith response to God the Creator. If we believe that God made the world, our relationship with God's gift of creation is to ensure that we pro-tect it and take good care of it. The next meeting of this group is Sunday, November 12 at 9:30.

——————————————— Accessibility Committee

We hope that by this time next month we will be far enough along to share with the congregation our plans for making our church Handicap Acces-sible to ALL.

November 2017 Page 5

DNS Report

DNS started off the month with a visit to Burnham's Orchard. Students and families were able to pick apples, go on a hay ride, see how the apples are sorted, cleaned, and bagged, and were able to see how apple cider is made! We are learning all about the fall season and have many fun fall and Halloween activities planned. Did you know that we have an amazing music teacher at DNS? Jen Bertoni has music time with our students several times a month and does some really cool things with the kids! She does a wide variety of activities with the students includ-ing tons of movement, learning and acting out nursery rhymes and poems, and hearing and learning about different genres of music! What an amazing experience for our DNS kids ! Our annual fundraiser is underway! Thanks to all who donated gift cards etc and those who worked hard to get donations to be raffled off during the month of November. Calendars are on sale for only $5.00 each and you have 30 chances to win some great prizes! Calendars can be pur-chased at coffee hour through the month of Octo-ber; from a DNS student, or in the church office. Would you like to know more about what is happening at DNS? Like and follow us on Face-book at Developmental Nursery School.

Youth Report Kids’ Club: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving! (11/5, after Church until 1 pm) Kids grades 5 and below are invited to an early Thanksgiving feast! We’ll have snacks, play a few Thanksgiving games, and watch the claasic cartoon We’ll also make something to take home for our own Thanksgiving celebrations. Parent/Youth Informational Meeting (Nov. 12, after church) Parents and students are invited to come hear more about the Mission Trip this summer. Please come to get more information about this exciting experi-ence! There will also be time for a discussion about dreams and goals for the youth program. What do we want to see going forward? What’s working well? What can we do to foster more involvement? Hope to see you there! Senior High Fall Event: Nov. 19-20 There’s just a little time left to register for the Senior High Fall Event out at Pilgrim Hills. This is the VERY LAST EVENT to be held there, so take the opportunity if you can! Registration is still open until November 3rd. You can register at: http://www.ohioucc.org/all-event-list/fall-youth-event-you-gotta-be/ Please also let Jen know you’re planning to go!

Pastor Dave’s Class Info!

Confirmation Class will begin again on Sunday, December 3rd, at 9:00 am and will meet the

first Sunday of each month through May. Any youth interested in learning more about being

an Acolyte see Pastor David .

Balance 9-1-17 (13,127.22)

Sept. Income 15,864.27

Member Giving 8,451.27

Other Income 7,413.00

Sept. Expenses 27,683.41

Balance 9-30-17 (24,946.36)

Finance Report Sept. 2017

Page 6 Church chatter

We have small group conversations now scheduled to occur over the next few months. Signup sheets for these conversations have been post-ed near the door in Fellowship Hall. Each small group will be looking at the same questions in order for our church to complete its search pro-file. These groups are meeting in a variety of places at a variety of times to help ensure we have as much congregational participation as pos-sible. Please join us as we prepare for the next big step in our journey together.

Discussions will be held: Tues., 10/24, 7:00 p.m. in the UCCC Lounge (host, Pat Zimmerman); Thurs., 10/26, 2:00 p.m. at the home of Sally Fox, 5107 Elm St., 967, 6557; Thursday. 11/2, 7:00 p.m. at the home of Jim and Shelly Innes, 4185 Firestone Lane, 967-4894; Sun., 11/5, 6:00 p.m. at the home of Rich and Lori Ozmun, 4959 Woodview Dr., 740-707-4832; Wed., 11/8, 6:00 p.m. in the UCC Lounge (hosts, Tom and Sana Orphan);

Thurs., 11/9, 7:00 p.m. at the home of Pat Stein, 5718 Huron St., 967-5006; Wed., 11/15, 6:30 p.m. in the UCCC Lounge (hosts, Cal and Julie Clark), and Sunday, 12/3, 2:00 p.m. at the home of Jeff and Cathy Tucker. 9501 Harrison Rd., Wake-man, 653-7195. Ruth Maurer will also be hosting a discussion - details TBA.

Small Group Discussions

UCC Disaster Relief Services - $750 - To help Puerto Rico recov-er from hurricane damage. Next Meeting will be on Sun-day, November 5 at 9am .

- YOUR Mission committee sup-ported these agencies in Octo-ber: Grace Place - $250 - recom-mended by Beth Eberhard, who volunteers there in winter months teaching English. It was severely damaged by hurricane Irma.

ing the worship service each Sun-

day. If you or someone that you

know might be interested in the

nursery position, please send a

letter of interest to the church

labeled attention: Judy Kernell.

The church's Personnel Com-mittee is seeking applications from persons interested in a part-time job as our church's secre-tary. The position is available be-

ginning January 2018 and is a part-time position with morning and early afternoon hours throughout the week, for a total of approximately 20 hours per week. Interested persons should submit a letter of interest and a resume to our church office la-beled attention: Personnel Com-mittee. Interviews for the posi-tion will occur in early December.

Cathy Tucker is retiring at the

end of December from being in

charge of the church nursery dur-

Mission Minute

Help Wanted!

Page 7 November 2017

We hope to fill our sanctuary with lovely poinsettia plants. The cost is $8.00 per 6”pot. Please include your payment with your order. Place in the offering plate, or bring/mail to the church office at: 990 State St., Vermilion, OH 44089. All orders are due December 1st. Please pick up your poinsettia after worship on Christmas Eve. Please Reserve #___________Poinsettia(s) -OR- In Lieu of Poinsettias, please designate my donation for: _________General Fund _________Accessibility __________Youth Mission Trip In Memory of: __________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ In Honor of: ___________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Given By: _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Phone/Email: ___________________________________________________________

Christmas Poinsettias—Order Form

990 State Street

Vermilion, OH 44089

United Church of Christ, Congregational

November Servants of the Church:

Ushers: Diaconate

Greeters: Jim Jones

Coffee Hour: DNS Board

Altar Committee: Diane Langham

Non-Profit Org.

U.S. Postage

PAID Vermilion, OH 44089

Permit No. 18

No matter who you are Or where we are on life’s journey You are always welcome here. As we journey together we discover… Love is the key! Love of neighbor, children, and creation.

Rev. Wendell Brooker will

be leading worship Nov.

5th.

Message: “A Quality Disci-

ple.”

Jim Jones will be leading

worship November 19th.

Message: “God is my Soul

Friend, my Comfort, my

Counselor, my Best Friend.”