Dear familia,

We hope that the sermon series “Honest Waiting” has invited you gently into slow rhythms of watching and waiting, alone and together. The past two weeks I have enjoyed leaning into the Honest Invitation in Zechariah’s song to receive knowledge of salvation, light in the darkness, and let our feet be guided to peace. As I shared in that sermon, my honest invitation was to engage in therapy again in this season and I am happy to report that it was a hard session, but a holy session. Selah. Last week, the invitation was to engage the stars as witnesses of light and life in the story of the magi and receive Honest Revelation. This upcoming Sunday, our very own Nicola Patton will be preaching and inviting us into Honest Tension in the advent narrative of Luke. You don’t want to miss it! Thank you familia for journeying through advent together.

A few announcements that are time-sensitive are as follows…

Community Partnerships

In looking toward the rest of this month, we want to point you again to two initiatives we are embracing and endorsing! Our church will be investing in both of these initiatives from our Community Partnership fund. If you’re able to, would you consider joining us?

Snuggle Day

Thank you so much to all of you who supported this initiative led by our very own Alicia McCormick. Alicia sent us pictures and reported that all the gifts were gone in a matter of 20 minutes! This event supporting social workers and their case families was a success and we are honored to have played a small role in it. Gracias!

Gilbert Community Center – Affordable Christmas Store

There are two ways that you can join Caleb Parker who works with teenagers at the Gilbert Community Center, which is part of OC United, in Fullerton. This is a community that elevates voices for change. This year, we get the opportunity to serve families so that parents are able to purchase gifts for their teens in a way that is empowering and dignifying.

First, would you help us purchase gifts for the GCC teens? Caleb and his team have put together a wish list here where you can buy gifts and they will be shipped directly to Caleb. The deadline to receive these gifts (please check shipping & handling times) is December 12 as the event will take place on December 17 in Fullerton!

Second, Meleca Consultado is organizing table crafts on the day of the Affordable Christmas Store where we could use your help. On Saturday, December 17th, from 1:30-6:00 PM, at Gilbert Park, while parents/guardians/and other family members are shopping, students will have the chance to engage in some fun arts and crafts. This is where our TCWHF Familia comes in! In order to give the OC United staff the chance to be present and engage with students and their families, we will be stepping into volunteer as table hosts of 6 different craft/activity tables. If you are able to join us, please sign-up for a shift to volunteer at the OC United Christmas Store. We would love to receive your responses by this Friday evening for planning purposes!

Christmas and New Year’s

We also wanted to remind you we will not be having a Christmas Day Sunday Service. Our final Christmas service will instead be the Sunday before — December 18th at our normal time. Also, our New Year’s service will be online via our Zoom Living Rooms just like last year (10:30 AM PST). We’re hoping these very intentional rhythms of rest and restoration invite each of us into more opportunities to be more present as witnesses to Light & Life in this season.

Thank you familia for giving of your heart and your selves in this journey of advent,

Gracia y paz,
Inés

p.s. SAVE THE DATE!

Our next World Cup Watch party will be Saturday, December 10, 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM for a Quarterfinal game (teams still TBD)! Janet and Mike Hale will be hosting this time! We invite you to bring a potluck dish to share. Space is limited to 20 participants so please RSVP here to sign up!