Nonprofit Organization US POSTAGE PAID Stillwater, OK Permit No.

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Facts & Figures for October 14, 2012 Attendance (119 and 144)...........................263 Sunday School........128 General Fund Receipts...........$7,407.00 Capital Fund Receipts.......................$1,630.00 Loose Offering/Sunday School....$85.00 Non-Budget Funds Receipts...$8,246.05 Preliminary Facts & Figures as of September 30, 2012 YTD Budget Receipts.........$354,110.45 YTD Budget Expenses...$341,332351 Net Receipts over Expenses$12,777.94 Presented by Kay Smith, Treasurer, dkwsmith@suddenlink.net

Volume 2012
Announcements Care and Feeding Of a Candle Children & Youth Birthdays & Anniversaries Facts & Figures

The Stillwater Christian

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October 16

In This Issue

WNF Session 2 begins this week! Dinner and a Movie for all ages! Begins at 6pm! For dinner, you will have two choices this week: Either enjoy a traditional meal with a Chicken buffet in the Small Fellowship Hall, or enjoy hot dogs, nachos, and movie snack foods in Williams Hall during a movie. Well show a movie on the big screen that the whole family will enjoy. As always, feel free to bring blankets, bean bags, and/or lawn chairs. Movie attendance is not mandatory, feel free to sit and talk, knit, or attend Bible study class.

Central Area Churches Praying for Churches This week we are praying for: FCC in El Reno
ARMCHAIR BAZAAR MEMORIES Memories of Past Armchair Bazaars is the theme for the 2012 Bazaar on Nov. 7th. Ladies, be thinking of items to bring for display that remind you of those past Bazaars. Remember the year with the doll theme and Stillwater's Doll Lady was our guest? Or the year with the plant theme, and we had so many hanging baskets that we had to use the rummage sale racks? Items from 20 or more years ago are probably gone, but some more recent ones may be at home. A list will be given in next weeks newsletter, but some of the themes were weddings, hats, Christmas, America, antiques, bears, cookbooks and aprons, angels, and more!
The Stillwater Christian is a weekly publication of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The deadline for articles each week is 1pm Monday. Tracy Freeman, Editor editor@fcc-stillwater.org Church Office Phone: 405.372.7722 Fax: 405.372.7726 Find The Stillwater Christian and more information at www.fcc-stillwater.org

TRUNK OR TREAT We are planning to once again host Trunk or Treat for the Stillwater community, and its so great that this year Halloween falls on a Wednesday night. We hope that many of you who have not participated in previous events will join us this year. It would be amazing to have so many people that we fill both lots! For those who dont know what a trunk or treat is, participants decorate cars, trucks or spaces in the parking lot, dress up and hand out candy just like in a neighborhood. Treat or treaters will go car to car (or space to space) gathering treats. We provide a safe places for our children to experience the fun of the holidays, WHICH IS IMPORTANT THESE DAYS. Lots of us groan and complain about how things are now days. How about making a positive difference?! JOIN US IN CELEBRATING. WE PROMISE YOULL HAVE AS MUCH FUN AS THE KIDS! It WILL put a smile on your face. Call Sondra for more details. Thank You to Those Who Helped Move! It is a joy to participate in Christianity in action in our community. The Roediger family were able to move this weekend, thanks to guardian angels Judith and Ron Elliot, who helped during the week as well as on Saturday. Saturdays angels of mercy, who sometimes worked in the rain, also included Norm Filtz and Jim Baker. Woody Hedrick handed over to me the keys to his pickup on Saturday morning. Thanks to all who helped and also to Julia Bollinger and Ron Beer, who offered to help, but were not needed. ~Leila Beeby, Outreach Coordinator Blanket Sundays for CWS, Oct. 21st and Oct. 28th Its time for the annual Blanket Sunday! CWF will be set up in the Small Fellowship Hall both Sundays to take your donations for blankets. Make checks payable to CWF. These valuable blankets are distributed to people in crisis situations all over the world.
Join us this Sunday for Owen Caytons Message, Finding Your Place: Who Do You Think You Are based on Mark 10:35-45 and Psalm 104_1,9, 24, 35c Traditional 9:00am Sunday School 10:10 Contemporary 11:10

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Of Stillwater, OK, Inc. 411 W. Mathews Ave. Stillwater, OK 74075-7517

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Send prayer requests and general email to office@fcc-stillwater.org

Owen Cayton, Senior Minister

The Care and Feeding of A Candle

CHILDREN & YOUTH MINISTRY NEWS

Sondra Ladd, Children/Youth Ministry Director youth@fcc-stillwater.org

pastor@fcc-stillwater.org

Once, I had dinner with a coffee executive and asked him how many choices were possible in one of his stores. He said there were eighty-two thousand give or take a few dozen possibilities for a drink from the menu. Diana Butler-Bass shares this story to illustrate the vast number of choices we are bombarded with on a daily basis. The woman to whom she said this did not look surprised at the extreme number of choices and replied, That just makes my head hurt. (Christianity After Religion, pg. 40). Bass goes on to observe Americans, even those of modest means exercise more choices in a single day than some of our ancestors did in a month or even a year. (pg. 41) Like it or not, choice, and with it, change comes to our doorstep, not in trickles but in waves and floods. The ebb and flow of the world catches us up and carries us along. The shrinking of the globe as a result of technology and economics has opened up possibilities that our parents and grandparents (even if you are parents and grandparents) could only imagine in their wildest dreams. In and of itself this expansion of possibility, choice, and change is not good or bad. It just is. We live in a time in which it is both possible to solve some of historys greatest problems: hunger, access to clean water for everyone, and even disease as well as in an instant set off a firestorm of destruction or alienate our neighbors around the globe. However, the speed at which things change and the multitude of choices and possibilities can create a crisis of identity for many people. The old ways and categories of peoples self-identification are eroding before our eyes as they are overwhelmed by our choices. Fewer people go into the family business, live close to their parents, or even live in the same town for their adult life. It is not just adults that struggle with this sense of identity crisis. Our children do as well. In the already difficult waters of adolescence, their lives have become more public not always as a result of their own decisions. Trying to figure out who you are and where you fit in the multitude of possibilities overwhelms some to the point of giving up, as we experienced as a community a few weeks ago with the suicide at the Jr. High. Yet, we as Christians confess that human beings derive their value and identity from God. How do we find ourselves and our identity as it relates to God, our choices, our friends, the world around us? How do we negotiate the ebb and flow of the world in such a way that we become the people God has made and called us to be? How do we find our place in the world? For the next 6 weeks, we are going to bring up some of these issues in our worship during a sermon series, Finding Your Place. Together we will listen for some good news as we wrestle with questions of identity. Shalom, Owen

Childrens Worship and Wonder this Sunday Sondra Ladd will be the storyteller for Childrens Worship and Wonder. Chloe Freeman and Jenna Baker are the youth assistants. Quahal/Koinonia Mid-Winter Chi Rho/CYF Retreat, Nov. 9-11 Deadline Extended to Wed. Night We have extended the deadline for our Regional retreat. Several have already registered, but Im fairly certain there are still a few who plan to attend that have not yet registered. Quahal/Koinonia will be held Nov. 9-11 in Anadarko. Cost is $50 per person (the church pays the other $50). Youth grades 6-12 can attend. IF you miss this, youll be sorry. We are going to have an AMAZINGLY GREAT TIME! I MUST GET OUR GROUP REGISTERED IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND YOU MUST SUBMIT FEES, ALONG WITH NAME, GRADE AND T-SHIRT SIZE NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY NIGHT. Jamaica Mission Trip 78 people have registered for our summer 2013 Jamaica mission trip! In order to finalize trip plans, registration has been closed. (If you have not submitted your deposit at this time and would like to attend, your name will be placed on a waiting list and you will be notified upon availability of space.) Our next trip fundraiser will be apple pie assembly on Sunday, Nov. 3rd. A group meeting will be held in the Small Fellowship Hall immediately following pie assembly. IF YOU ARE REGISTERED, PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND THIS INITIAL PLANNING MEETING.

Finish The Race Completed! Celebration Held Last Sunday

What a great joy we celebrated Sunday, remarkably almost a year earlier than we planned. This was truly a collective achievement due to the efforts of many people, in many ways, over many years: including the long-range planning committee from 1996, the building committee which started around 1996, congregational leaders who over 15 years raised more than $2 million in gifts, and all of the families and individuals (100 to 200 in each campaign) who gave generously, passionately, even sacrificially. So whether they are here today or not, whatever their role in helping Finishing the Race, it is fitting to say to all - well done, good and faithful servants. Happy Birthday to: 10/17 Rachel Peters; 10/18 Ellis McHendry; 10/19 Kelly Arrington; 10/20 Jerry Crenshaw, Keeley Gross, Beverly Hesser; 10/21 Kimber Taylor; 10/22 Courtney Andrews, Burl Carrier; 10/23 Beau Bigheart Happy Anniversary to: 10/23 Tanner and Ashley Ladd