Churches report Christmas projects

Above, Darla Carr sorts green and red Christmas stockings at Frederick UMC. A quilters group at the church made hundreds of them for elementary students. Below, gifts of sweatsuits are delivered by Chelsea Memorial UMC volunteers to a veterans care center in Claremore. From left are Karen Stockton, Sandy Neighbors, and Paula and David Sanders. Neighbors represents the veterans center.

Oklahoma’s churches gave good gifts at Christmas time, in the name of the Greatest Gift. Below are gift updates provided to Contact.

• Congregations in Bartlesville District collected clothing for the "Sweats for Vets" project. More than 300 pairs of sweatpants and shirts were delivered to residents at Claremore Veterans Center, reported Warren Neff, district president of United Methodist Men.

• Members of the quilting ministry at Frederick UMC made more than 400 Christmas stockings—one for each elementary student in town—and the school filled them with candy and other treats.

The quilters also sewed together fabric squares decorated by the 27 children in the church’s midweek program, "Kid’s Connexion." Each child’s "creation quilt" was based on Genesis 1, the focus of their study during one quarter, said Pastor Eric Snyder.

• St. Mark’s UMC, in Bethany, began the Advent season with a new event, "Family Advent-ure." A one-hour Christmas concert, by both adult and children’s choirs, was followed by family-oriented activities stationed throughout the church. About 200 people attended.

At the mission station, military chaplain Brian Kirschenbaum spoke, and each family wrote the name of a serviceman or woman on a snowflake-shaped ornament, a keepsake for the family’s Christmas tree. In a nearby prayer room, families paused to pray for that person.

At another stop, each family created a small Advent wreath and received instructions to use it at home. A Christmas backdrop decorated the picture-taking station. Families could take group photos with their cameras, and a photographer also was available. At the gingerbread cookie station, each person could decorate a sweet treat.

• About 80 churches participated in Project Noel, according to leaders of the Oklahoma Conference Small-Membership Church Commission. Look for reports from Hitchcock and Anadarko-St. Paul’s churches in a future Contact issue.