Lake Palestine U.M.C.
by Barbara Cade

It was a fun weekend at the church. The choir had two successful performances at Noonday United Methodist and at the lake church. A great deal of thanks goes to the director, Carla Fisher, and her husband, Bob, who managed the sound system. The ladies who provided the food afterwards were greatly appreciated, too. Special thanks also to our local soloists, Angela Martin, Rev. Richard Prather, Charlie Varnell, and Josh Martin as the reader.

Sunny Farley was the director of the children's Christmas program on Sunday morning. Each age group had a part, and you could tell a lot of work went into putting it together. Thank you for a great morning.

We missed seeing those who were ill. Charles Johnson and Everett Kuykendall are still recov- ering from their illnesses. Donna Franko had a heart procedure on Friday, so she couldn't make the church Christmas party that night. She did manage to come for the Sunday service though.

Speaking of Friday night, that was when Santa Claus showed up for the children. He had a present for every child there. There were almost as many that showed up for this party as came to the one at Traditions last week. It actually looked like the whole church was in the restaurant. Mary Ann Whisenhunt was in charge of that. After playing a game, eating, and talking we all joined in to sing Christmas carols.

This past week, John and Debbie Morris received some bad news. Their brother-in-law, Wayne Clawson, died. The Morris' will be attending his funeral on Monday, the 17th in McKinney. Wayne's wife, Margaret, is John's sister and the Clawson family used to live at Cape Tranquility before moving to McKinney.

Our prayers are with Diane Kelder as she recovers from her surgery, and we also heard that Larry Rogers had some surgery this past week.

The Massey family had their family reunion in Athens this past weekend. That kept Bernard and Linda and Roland and Gail very busy, but we're sure they had a great time.

Rich and Donna Franko left to spend Christmas with their son in Boston. They are staying in Rhode Island.

It looks like Rose Cade might be coming home soon. Keep her in your prayers.

It looks now like Christmas is almost upon us. There will be the three normal church services this weekend on the 23rd, and then on Monday, Christmas Eve, there will be a 4:00 PM service with a reception following and a 7:00 PM candlelight service. Also, on Thursday, the 20th there will be a Blue Christmas service for people who are experiencing a lot of sadness and depression in their lives during this time of year. Call the church for details on that.

Since this column won't come out again until after Christmas, I want to wish everyone a very blessed and Merry Christmas.