The Rev. Peter Russell, Honorably Retired From his wife, Verna: Thanks to all for prayers for Peter. He finished his radiation November 19th. We are now waiting for additional tests to be done in February.  Hopefully the cancer will  be gone. He has macular degeneration in both eyes and has had numerous shots in both eyes. We go to the Great Lakes Eye Clinic in Midland about every 5 weeks for checkups.  Needless to say I am the designated driver now.  Continued prayers would be helpful.

We have a part-time temporary employee assisting in the presbytery office.  Her name is Vanessa Scott.  She will be the one you speak to when you call the office and select the option of speaking with the operator.  She can be reached by e-mail at office@presbylh.org.

Due to the medical leave of Staci Percy, there will not be a Bi-Weekly Brief on the next scheduled day, February 3rd.  At this time, the next Bi-Weekly Brief is scheduled for February 17th but will depend upon when the medical leave ends.

Churches have been asking how to get money to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for Haiti relief.   The denomination has already sent $100,000 from the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering.  All future giving will ensure an even stronger response from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 

There are three ways:

No matter which way you decide to send funds please mark your check with the following project number:  DR000064 - Haiti Relief.  To find out more of how our denomination is involved please click here.

A communication was received from the Synod of the Covenant that informed the Presbytery of Lake Huron that the Synod is a potential recipient of a $50,000 grant from a charitable trust.  Once the final confirmation of the grant is made sometime in December the Synod will divide the $50,000 equally among the presbyteries to be used according to the specifications of the trust.  At its meeting on October 28, 2009 the Coordinating Team approved the invitation to participate.  Provided that all 11 presbyteries agree to participate the Presbytery of Lake Huron will be allocated a minimum of $4,500 from which to make grants.  The specifications of the trust are:

If you are a church that meets these criteria and wish to apply please send a letter describing your request in detail to:  Andrea Drapp, PO Box 6129, Saginaw, MI  48608 or fax to 989-799-5286 or email to adrapp@presbylh.org no later than February 26, 2010.

For the past three years, the students of the healthcare classes at the Bay County ISD program have been making baskets and distributing them along with our baskets.  The emergency food pantry of Bay County provides gift certificates for them and the students collect the food that goes into the baskets.  On the day of the distribution, the students provide help with carrying the baskets out to the cars for folks who require help.  This year, Crop Production Services of Auburn heard about the project and donated $1000.00 to the ISD students and asked if they could also be involved in the making and distributing of the baskets.
  
This help took the form of delivering some of the baskets directly to the homes of people who didn't have transportation or could not get to the church to pick up their baskets.  Thus, through the combined efforts of all three groups, we distributed almost 200 Thanksgiving baskets to families in the Bay City area. 

This project has continued to grow throughout the past several years and it is all due to the generosity and caring of the members of Westminster Presbyterian Church that originally started the program. 

Each of the "turkeys" that are sold during the time of the program represent a $10.00 gift certificate that is used to purchase a turkey or other fresh food items for the family's Thanksgiving meal. 

All the food collected during the drive is what makes up the bulk of the baskets.  However, we also provide a loaf of bread and a package of rolls with each basket, which are purchased with a discount, through Sara Lee Bakery and through the overwhelming generosity of Mr. Dave Jensen, we are able to include a 10# bag of potatoes with each of our baskets. 

The members of Westminster have every right to be very proud of this project and the love and care that goes into each basket shows the light of God's love that shines brightly in our community.

For more pictures, please visit the Mission Stories page of our website.