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December 1, 2021

A publication of Edgewood Baptist Church

Edgewood Expressions

I went to the garage to grab my shoes. I flipped the

light switch, but no light came on. I closed the door and

did what I have done so many times… I called for my

wife. “Paige, do you know why the garage lights are not

working?” She did not. Together, we checked to find that

the garage doors were working. In fact, everything in the

garage and house seemed to work fine. Maybe it was a

light bulb, but it would be weird if both the lights burned

out at the same time. Paige had to get to work so she

left. I then remembered the freezer that was in the

garage. I ran over to check it. Everything in the freezer was still frozen solid.

I concluded it still had power and was working. That conclusion proved to

be faulty and costly. Four days later, Paige would find everything in the

freezer thawed out and several inches of liquid. Hundreds of dollars in food

were lost because of my failure to act when I saw a problem. The night she

discovered the mess in the freezer, Paige also discovered that a fuse had been

tripped. Something I should have checked, but I did not.

Today, our culture is drifting away from God and His truth. Some are

saying it is not impacting our everyday life. Like the light in the garage, we

see some immediate problems caused by the drift, but they seem like no big

deal. We adjust and think we can deal with the problem later at a more

convenient time. Years ago, I heard someone say that America was like a

bouquet of flowers. There is still beauty, but the roots have been cut and so

the beauty will not last. Like the power being cut to my freezer, sometimes

we do not notice when the power of our lives has been switched off. As

strange as it may sound, in the same week the freezer blew a fuse, someone

also accidently held two buttons on our new refrigerator that put it into

display mode and so it too, had the power turned off so that it was not

cooling or freezing. This time we checked and saw that things were still

frozen but were getting soft. We Googled what we should do. Within

seconds we held two buttons down and turned the refrigerator back on.

God taught me a valuable lesson. “Do not look at the warning signs and

ignore them. Do not assume that just because there are no immediate

consequences that there will not be consequences.” When you see warning

signs deal with them. Do not ignore them.

You may ask what this all has to do with Christmas. Here is the

connection. Jesus was born into a world filled with political corruption.

Jesus was born into a world full of religious confusion and hypocrisy. Jesus

was born into a weary world filled with disappointment. Jesus came to bring

light to a dark world. Love to a world filled with hate. Hope to a world

filled with hopelessness. When He came, the people had no room for Him

because He was not what they expected. When He came, He came through

Mary and Joseph whom the world saw as unimportant. Jesus did not ignore

the world’s problems. Jesus came to change the world. The world sees

Kevin Hollinger Senior Pastor

(Continued on page 5)

Christmas Light for Dark Times

Kevin Hollinger, December 2021

December 5

The Solution

Guest Speaker: David Nelms

Founder of Timothy Initiative

December 12

The Joy of Christmas

Transformation

Romans 11:30-12:3, Luke 2:8-11

December 19

Christmas Peace: Overcoming

Evil with Good

Romans 12:4-21, Luke 2:11-14

December 26

Godly Living

Romans 13

January 2, 2022

We Do Not Have to Agree

on Everything

Romans 14

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

Worship services available in the building: 10:45 am in English and

1:00 pm in Spanish

SUNDAYS

English

Explorers’ Class 9:30am in Conference Rm

Onsite Worship - English 10:45am in Sanctuary

**Livestream of Service 10:45am Facebook, YouTube

Onsite Children’s Sunday School (2 yrs-6th grade) 10:45am

ESM Youth Pizza & Bible Study 12:00 noon in Gym

Spanish

Onsite Worship - Spanish 1:00pm in Sanctuary

**Livestream of Service 1:00pm on Facebook Live

Onsite Children’s Sunday School (2 yrs-6th grade) 1pm in Sanctuary,

then move to classrooms

* General Zoom invites are issued weekly via email to those on our “In

the Know” list. If you’d like to be included, please contact the church

office.

** It is possible that your image will be captured and included in this

service while it is shown live.

TUESDAYS: Prayer Gathering 7:30am via Zoom*

Women’s AM Bible Study (resumes January) 9:30am via Zoom

Women’s PM Bible Study (resumes January) 7:00pm via Zoom

WEDNESDAYS: Caleb Community 12:00noon onsite

Spanish-Speaking Discipleship Class 8:00pm Facebook Live

THURSDAYS: Bible Study for Kids 6:30pm via Zoom*

FRIDAYS: Spanish-Speaking Prayer Time 8:00pm via Zoom

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Everybody

To help get us in the mood for Christmas, we recently asked the Edgewood staff to answer a

few corny Christmas questions. Here are their responses.

Merry Christmas from your EBC Staff!

What Christmas song makes you cringe?

John and Khyra - anything by Alvin & the Chipmunks

Kevin and Shannon - Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

If you could have only one type of Christmas candy this year, what would you choose?

John - Spice Drops

Kevin - Peppermint Bark

Khyra - See’s Candy

Shannon - Mint M&M’s

What is the weirdest or ugliest Christmas decoration you’ve ever owned?

John - ?

Kevin - My Santa Suit

Khyra - No idea, because if I thought it was ugly, I would have gotten rid of it!

Shannon - Dancing Snowman

What gift(s) do you especially like to find in your Christmas stocking?

John - Anything that is actually a surprise

Kevin - Pop Tarts

Khyra - When there is a little something that I didn’t ask for, it’s thoughtful.

Shannon - Gift cards, lotion, earrings, socks

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Attention Families

After not being able to have our

children sing last year for

Christmas, we are excited to

give them the opportunity to

sing at our Worship Service on

December 19th! I have chosen

one of their favorites so they

can just have fun and bring joy to our

congregation. We will be practicing each Sunday

from now until December 12th in our Sunday

school class. The kids will wear masks when we

practice each Sunday. On performance day it will

be up to each family if they want their child to

wear a mask while performing. We would love to

have the kids here each week so they can be

confident and sound great. We also have

impactful Bible lessons you don’t want them to

miss. Please make every effort to be here.

Shannon Bullock Children’s Director

Children Students

Children, cont.

We welcome 3-year-olds (by Sept 1, 2021 & potty

-trained) through 6th graders to join us from 6:30

- 7:30 pm beginning on January 12th. Cost is $25.

Each age group begins together, then moves to

age-appropriate breakout rooms dedicated to

teaching sportsmanship, lessons from the Bible,

Bible verses, and most importantly,

demonstrating God’s love and kindness to

everyone around them.

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Adults

Can you spare a couple hours to help??

Due to health and family concerns, Liana Jiménez

is stepping down from her paid position as

Director of Outreach Ministries. She will continue

supporting Pastor Julio and the church through

volunteer work. Thank you Liana, for all you do

in the Lord’s service!

Thank you, Liana!

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followers of Christ as unimportant, but God sees

us as ambassadors of Christ. Ambassadors sent to

bring hope to the nations. We cannot just ignore

the problems we see around us. We must

demonstrate the difference Christ makes by

speaking out against injustice, spreading kindness,

and sharing the love and hope that are found in

Christ alone. We must be boldly unashamed of

the Gospel and point people to Jesus.

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Kevin

Pastor Kevin, continued from page 1

Ladies, where are you running these days? Are

you on the path set forth in Proverbs 18:10?

The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

the righteous runs into it and is safe.

Join us as we consider what it means to run into

the name of the Lord, our strong tower.

Come and be encouraged in faith and love as

together we seek God's face in the beautiful

surroundings of Cedar Springs in Sumas,

Washington.

Registration is now open. There is a $25 early

registration discount, which brings the price

down to $205. To receive the discount type

"EARLYBIRD" (at the end of the registration

process).

Caleb Community, December 2021

We all made it through November. Now it is

December and we’re getting ready to celebrate

Christmas. In the Caleb Community we will do this

on December 22nd

with a White Elephant gift

exchange. By this time, we all have a feel for

White Elephants, but just in case: it is an item that

no longer serves a purpose in your home or

family. In the spirit of Christmas, we want it to

serve a purpose for others. It should be wrapped,

and the prettier the wrap the better. We will

exchange gifts during the “party”. We will also eat

a lunch prepared by a few of us. The only thing

you need to bring, in addition to your White

Elephant, is an appetite and a fun-loving spirit.

Some of the ladies will bring Christmas cookies. If

you have a special Christmas ornament you may

want to bring it and the story of what makes it so

special. Between eating, gift-sharing and ornament

tales, we may run over our normal 1:30 finishing

time. Oh, if you do not have any White Elephants

in the closet, you can bring a nominal ($5) gift all

wrapped. If you have questions, call or catch

Randy after Sunday services and he will be glad to

answer them. We will have festive table covers

and Christmas paper products on which to eat. If

you have never been to one of our gatherings, we

do meet every Wednesday at noon in the

Junction. On most weeks we bring a brown bag

lunch, just not on the 22nd

.

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Si desea unirse al servicio de oración,

contáctenos a la oficina de la Iglesia para

proporcionarle el enlace de Zoom.

Artículo se publica cada lunes en la

pagina del Facebook de la IBE

Mientras celebramos la navidad…

¿Estás seguro de que conoce el verdadero motivo de la temporada? ¿Quién es Jesús

para ti?

¿El bebé hermoso de un pesebre?

¿Un pretexto para pasar un buen tiempo en Diciembre?

¿Un personaje más de una historia en un libro de cuentos?

¿Un pensamiento agradable, durante esta temporada de ajetreos?

¿Un maestro, religioso, un reformador, un luchador social?

Déjame decirte lo que la Biblia dice acerca de Jesus:

Él es el cordero prometido que vino a destruir la obrar del maligno. Él es el que descendió del cielo a

morir en la cruz en tu lugar para darte salvación y vida eterna.

Él es el regalo de Dios que nos da: Paz, Gozo, Fe y Esperanza en nuestro diario vivir.

Pon tu confianza en El.

¡!Jesucristo es el motivo central de esta temporada!!

Pastor Julio Jiménez

Julio Jiménez Spanish-Speaking Pastor

Ministerio Hispano

Debido a preocupaciones de salud y familiares,

Liana Jiménez dejará su puesto remunerado como

Directora de Ministerios de Alcance. Continuará

apoyando al pastor Julio y a la iglesia a través de

su trabajo voluntario. ¡Gracias Liana por todo lo

que haces en el servicio al Señor!

Gracias, Liana!