Special Musical Offering This Sunday

Christmas Caroling Sunday Evening!

Christmas Pageant, Joy Gift Dinner Next Week

Congregational Meeting to Elect Officers Dec. 23

Men's Retreat Next Month

Registration Deadline: January 6

High School Ski Retreat Scheduled for February

Student Ministries Fellowship

Students Stage Progressive Dinners This Weekend

Youth Ministries News

Christmas Partaaay This Sunday!

All college-age friends of FPC are invited to spend time catching up and sharing holiday cheer at the FPC Christmas Party this Sunday, December 16. Bring friends and a $10ish gift for a wild gift exchange. The party will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Arnolds' house at 1308 Hillside Avenue in Bristol. If you have any questions, please contact Katie Arnold. See you there!

Children's Ministries News

Dirty Jobs of Bethlehem

In Kids' Kirk, we will be learning about the "Dirty Jobs of Bethlehem." Over the next few Sundays, folk who worked at some of those dirty jobs will visit us and give us their perspective on the birth of a child in the stable.

We will hold Kids' Kirk at both the early and the late service on Sundays through the end of December. Come join us as we look at the Christmas story through different eyes: 

December 16, "Cleaning Up the Mess." We will meet a stablehand who cannot believe the owner has offered the stable to a young couple. Even the stable is crowded, filled with the animals of people who have traveled to Bethlehem. The stablehand is doing his best to clean up a little before Mary and Joseph arrive.

December 23, "Proclaim the News." We will meet a shepherd who sleeps out at night with his dirty sheep, often sleeping across the entrance to the sheepfold to keep the flock in and the wild animals out. Imagine the dark, quiet night suddenly illuminated by an angel!

December 30, "Worship the King." We will meet a camel keeper and hear about the hard work of loading and unloading the camels and getting them enough to drink. The wise men the camels carry have to make a decision after finding the baby.

Wednesday Night Kids Unveil Creation Tower

In mid-August, the Wednesday Night Kids began building a seven-level tower to illustrate God's careful planning of the creation. Each level of the tower represents a day in the creation story. Last week, we unveiled our Creation Tower in the Fellowship Hall. After dinner, we celebrated with a Creation Feast in the Children's Wing. We enjoyed a firmament of cookies, a rainbow of fruit, candied mice, fish crackers, a forest of broccoli, and a blue Jell-O ocean with fish. We washed down bug cupcakes with blue ocean water. All the while we celebrated God's plan for creation and his plan for us, his children.

Our First Family Promise Service Opportunity of the New Year

Mark your calendars for January 13-30, 2013, for Family Promise of Bristol at First Presbyterian Church! It is time, once again, to serve homeless families in our area at our church. Families will be arriving on Sunday evening, January 13, to begin a week of staying at FPC (we provide food and shelter during the evening and nights). If you are interested in participating as a volunteer or want to know more about this ministry, please contact Chris or Jennifer Kennedy at jenniferchisler@hotmail.com or 423-383-2535.

There are many ways to help!

• Provide prepared foods for breakfast or lunch
• Provide an evening meal
• Serve as an Evening Host (be at the church from 5:30 to 8:30 one evening and eat dinner with the families)
• Serve as an Overnight Host (spend the night at the church from 8:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.)

Scottie Bales is the Food Coordinator; contact her at 423-360-5357 if you can contribute food or help prepare a meal. Nancy Allerton is the Evening Host Coordinator; contact her at nja0510@gmail.com or 423-612-0051 if you are willing to spend an evening with our families. Dawn Eubanks Gross is the Overnight Coordinator; contact her at alexjean7@yahoo.com or 423-534-4758 if you are willing to spend the night at the church with our families.

We are excited to be involved with this ministry and we are looking forward to another week of service and giving to help families in need! Won't you join us? Chris and Jennifer Kennedy

Bristol Faith in Action urgently needs flu season care kits to distribute to families in need. Many items that promote health and cleanliness cannot be purchased with food stamps. Among these are disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, germ-killing sprays, and tissues. The Evangelism and Outreach Committee asks the FPC family to collect such care kits, or items for them, over the next several weeks. Please bring your donations to the church and place them in the gray bin under the steps in the Music Wing. Thank you!

Library News from Bill Wade

A Used Bookstore in Big Stone Gap? That's Nuts!

Wendy Welch at the Washington County Public Library last Sunday. Photo: TimesNews.net

A couple of weeks ago Martin Dotterweich emailed me that I might enjoying attending one of his classes to hear an individual from Scotland make a presentation. I've come to know Martin well enough to recognize that when he offers a suggestion, however mild, it is likely to be something of greater significance than I would anticipate. So I was prompt to show up for class and to hear Jack Beck, his Scottish guest, speak. The moment he opened his mouth, memories of my earlier trips to Scotland flooded into my mind, for I could not understand a thing he said, nary a word. But gradually I became accustomed to the brogue and by the end of the hour was comprehending what he had to say. And a story began to unfold.

Beck had fairly recently come to Big Stone Gap, Virginia (population 5,000), with his wife, Wendy Welch, who is an American, and they had opened a used bookstore. "They're nuts!" I said to myself. But they have made a go of it; the bookstore has prospered. Moreover, Wendy, who has a Ph.D. in ethnography (you may have to look that up in the dictionary), has written a book about their experience, The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book. Within days I obtained a copy of it and, after reading only a few pages, knew that this book was appropriate for our church library and I wanted you to know about it.

Perhaps a little explanation is in order here. I always try to obtain books for our church library that have some clear spiritual merit. And what is the merit in the story of a used bookstore? The point is this: Jack and Wendy did not simply want to run a bookstore. As outsiders coming into a small, somewhat insulated community, they wanted to become accepted by the local folk and to make a personal contribution. They wrote out a mission statement: to provide quality books at a fair price, to make a fair profit, to become "responsible members of our community," and stated that their bookstore "is a kind of sacred trust ... it should be friendly and fun for customers and us."

Wendy's book tells the story, and it is very human, with good and sad moments, serious and also funny. Jack was at first rejected for membership in the local Kiwanis; they were Quakers but sought to find a comfortable church home in Big Stone, and finally found it with the Presbyterians. Initially, customers were scarce, but gradually business began to pick up. They encouraged groups to use the store as a social gathering place, and in time quilters, weavers, and all kinds of craft people were meeting there. They became aware of the personal stories of local residents and offered their help when there was death, sickness, divorce, and other tragedy. One resident commented that they had made their bookstore a local church.

This is a wonderful story, beautifully written by Wendy, and it's especially appropriate at Christmas. It has similarities to the motion picture It's a Wonderful Life, which is so often screened at this season. In fact, her book would make a marvelous movie, and I'm already considering who should play the parts of Jack and Wendy. I heartily recommend it to you as a beautiful, warming book, and if you are like me, you will be planning a trip to Big Stone Gap.