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On this page: Calendar, Prayers, Announcements, St. Paul School News, Stewardship

Of all the gifts for which we thank God, above all is the gift of Himself to us, His erring but redeemed children! “Whom have I in Heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25).

Our purpose is to reach out to families and individuals of all backgrounds and bring them into healing and transforming relationships with the Lord Jesus and with others in His Church through the sharing of God’s Word and Sacraments.

THE CHIMES November 25, 2007 Listen to Sermon Here St. Paul Lutheran Church and School a multiethnic family of faith 1025 Lake Street * Melrose Park, IL 60160 Church Ph. No. 708-343-1000 * School Ph. No. 708-343-5000 Fax No. 708-343-8635 www.stpaulmp.org Rev. Thomas R. Johnson, Pastor  Mr. Douglas Grebasch, Principal

CALENDAR

EVENTS THIS WEEK AT ST. PAUL, November 25 – December 2, 2007
TODAY:	9:00 AM	Worship Service (NHC)
		Servicio de Adoración (NSC)
	10:15 AM	Coffee Hour
	10:30 AM	Sunday School/Christian Growth
THURSDAY:	9:00 AM	Quilters
	7:00 PM	Hisp. Bible Class
		Choir Rehearsal
		Super Nova Group
SATURDAY:	5:30 PM	Contemporary Service (NHC)
SUNDAY:	9:00 AM	Worship Service (HC)
		Servicio de Adoración (SC)
	10:30 AM	Sunday School / Christian Growth Hour

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS. Remember to send your Christmas Greetings to all your St. Paul friends via the Newsletter (to be mailed on Thursday, Dec. 13). Your donation in lieu of postage will help defray other church non-budgeted expenses. An additional list will also be included in the Chimes of Dec. 23^rd. Sign up sheets are available in the church narthex.

NOTE: New date for the Traditional Carol Sing-along during Adult Education-Sunday School hour on December 16. Carol sing at Westlake Hospital will be held on Sunday, Dec. 23, during the Adult Education Hour.

TIME AGAIN FOR COOKIES. Homemade cookies are needed for three events: Care Corps Shut-in bags, Sing-along on Dec. 16, and the Children’s Service Reception after the service on Wednesday, Dec. 19. Please bring your cookies to the lunchroom by December 7 at which time the shut-in bags will be prepared. Care Corps is asking for volunteers to deliver the Shut-in Bags. Distribution will take place on Sunday, Dec. 9.

Stewardship Corner. A “steward” is defined as a manager of someone else’s property. In God’s Word, a “steward” was put in charge of his master’s household and given full authority to manage all of his material belongings. In 1 Corinthians 4:2 Paul wrote, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” As God’s stewards, we are entrusted with many things. First and foremost, God has entrusted us to spread the Good News of Jesus. Being stewards of the Gospel is an important part of being a good and faithful steward.

Please include the following prayer needs in your personal and family devotions this week.

ü We pray for those in care facilities and at home who are physically unable to worship with us. We also ask God to heal and comfort the following members and/or friends of our congregation:

Lois R.	Armond “Bud” C.	Erna F.	Ruth B.	Harold G.
We also want to continue to remember those in nursing facilities, those who are recovering, and those who are receiving ongoing treatments.

*(If you would like us to pray for someone, please let Maria, our church secretary; know, either by phone or with a request card. Names of congregational members will remain on this list for 4 weeks unless additional requests are received.)

ü We pray for those celebrating birthdays the week of Nov. 24^th – 30^th

24:	Eugene S., Jonathan G., David Z., Kevin W.
26:	Carla S.
28:	Johanna J.
30:	Robyn E.

FROM PASTOR JOHNSON. “If you are in the hospital or are in need of pastoral care, please notify Maria in the church office. If it is an emergency, please call my mobile phone (in printed copy of chimes). Please don’t hesitate to call me at any hour if it is important; I keep the phone with me at all times. If the matter is important enough to think about calling a pastor, by all means call me. Please do not think you will disturb me or I will think the matter unimportant. Thanks!”

ANNOUNCEMENTS

YOUTH GROUP. This is a notice from the 5^th Street staff to all the families of 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th graders out there. There will be no 5^th Street on Tuesday nights between Thanksgiving and the New Year. This is so that families are not overwhelmed with evening activities during Advent and the New Year Holiday. We encourage you to join us for our Wednesday evening Advent services and also to not stress during the holidays! Let it be a time of rejoicing, relaxing, and rest, not the all-too-usual stress-out time! We will resume 5^th Street Tuesday, January 8^th, at 5:30pm. Thank you for the opportunity to serve your kids and have a great Advent!

BOAR’S HEAD FESTIVAL. St. John Ev. Lutheran Church – 305 Circle Ave. – presents Boar’s Head Festival - a Medieval Christmas Celebration – on Saturday, Dec. 8^th at 4:00 & 7:00 PM., and on Sunday, Dec. 9^th at 4:00 PM. Advanced tickets $12 General, $10 students and seniors. Group and family rates available. Order your ticket(s) by calling 708-453-2654 (Visa or Mastercard accepted).

PROVISO PANTRY ANNUAL FOOD DRIVE. Pears, pineapple, peaches, cherries, oranges, plums…. would be great to bring for the Annual Proviso Pantry Food Drive next weekend to St. Paul. Please bring your donations to the narthex or lunchroom next Saturday or Sunday, December 1^st or 2^nd to help brighten up the Christmas season for the less fortunate in our community and who benefit from the Pantry. Thank you!

PORTALS OF PRAYER, the daily devotional booklet offered by St. Paul for all adults to use on a daily basis, is available in the narthex for 50 cents. The booklet is published quarterly and is a handy pocket-sized edition. The Care Corps also orders some large print editions for those who need a larger size. Please enjoy these worthwhile daily devotion booklets often as you grow in your faith and study God’s Word along with these daily devotions.

St. Paul, I want to give you the information on a new fundraiser St. Paul is able to do for our youth group that requires no money or time from you. It’s called GOODSEARCH.

What is it? GoodSearch is an internet support for non-profit organizations. It is a search engine that donates one penny to a non-profit or charity of your choice every time it is used.

Is it run by a reputable source? GoodSearch is powered by the search engine, email tycoon, and news center Yahoo! Big businesses like Best Buy, Target, Gap, etc., contribute to this website and receive in return a place to advertise.

How does it work? The website itself is a search engine just like Yahoo! or Google, and you use it just like you would use those search engines. The difference is the blank field below the search field. Before you search, you enter “St. Paul Lutheran Church – Melrose Park” in that blank field and then click “verify.” Once that is entered into your search field, each time you use GoodSearch as your search engine, a penny is donated by the participating businesses to our Youth Group fund. You can also shop using GoodSearch’s “GoodShop” and the companies you buy from through the GoodShop donate a percentage of your item’s cost to our Youth fund instead of just a penny. For those of you comfortable with online shopping, this could be an excellent way to take care of some Christmas presents and give to the church at the same time!

How do I use it? The GoodSearch site comes with directions for making it your home search page or adding it to your internet browser’s toolbar so that it becomes habit to use it and thus it becomes habit to raise more money for the charity of your choice (St. Paul Youth!). Please at least check it out and perhaps use it as your search engine to support St. Paul Youth. The website address is www.goodsearch.com .

If you have any questions, please call Chelci at 708-343-1000 ext 243. Search engines command a large amount of internet traffic. Thank God for Yahoo! for finding a way to use something so common to support organizations all over the world! Please check it out. If everyone at St. Paul used GoodSearch as their normal search engine with “St. Paul Lutheran Church Melrose Park” in their charity field, we could raise hundreds of dollars without ever asking for it! Thank you all for the opportunity to serve your kids and also for your generous support of the St. Paul youth groups!