Seen Around Church – Week of December 17, 2023

Sweet Service: Rain or Shine Group Bakes Cookies for Center of Hope

The Rain or Shine group met earlier this month to socialize and bake cookies for the residents of Center of Hope. The group made 10 dozen cookies!  

SMPC Volunteers ‘Jingle All the Way’ for the Salvation Army

SMPC rang kettlebells at Belk, SouthPark for the Salvation Army over the course of four Saturdays this Advent season for a total of 24 hours of ringing! A HUGE thank you to SMPC member Terry Gaines for organizing our efforts every year. We are blessed to have this opportunity to serve others.

SMPC Serves Breakfast to Center of Hope Guests 

On Saturday, December 16, SMPC volunteers served breakfast to residents of Center of Hope. Andrew Conerly, home for break from East Carolina University, was “trained” on pancake flipping by highly trained experts, Bob Williamson and Karl Schelhammer. Andrew passed with flying colors (he can add that to his resume!). We are so grateful to all who donated breakfast items and served. There is another opportunity to join in next month. We’ll be serving breakfast to residents on Saturday, January 20. 

Angel Tree Gifts Ready for Delivery

Thanks to the generosity of so many of you, we will be delivering gifts and Christmas dinners for 16 Angel Tree families this Saturday! That’s 238 presents! Thank you to the SMPC “elves” – the Sandeens, Colsons and Hopes – for their hard work and dedication to this project every year. This is the group’s 7th year leading the SMPC Angel Tree efforts. They started in 2017! Thank you, thank you!

Fourth and Fifth Graders Strike JOY!

Our SMPC fourth and fifth graders celebrated the holidays by bowling and playing arcade games in “ugly Christmas sweaters” (although this group is too cute to make anything look ugly!).  Thank you to Director of Spiritual Formation Rebecca Guzman for coordinating this fun event!

SMPC Youth Spreads Holiday Cheer to Legacy Heights Residents

On Sunday, December 17, SMPC Youth sang Christmas carols for the residents of Legacy Heights Senior Living Community. Each year our youth look forward to spreading peace, love, hope, and joy to the residents. 

Thank you to Associate Pastor of Youth Ministry and Missions/Outreach Lindsey Odom for leading this event and Director of Music and Organist Zach Bowyer for leading the group in song and showing everyone how to use the chimes! And, thank you to all the youth and parents who attended this event!

Rejoice, Rejoice! We’ve Got More Festival of Carols Pictures!

These gorgeous photos, taken by SMPC member Tom Schellin, capture the beauty of the Festival of Carols night! Thank you, Tom, for sharing your incredible talent with us every year. You can still watch Festival of Carols here!