Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of HOPE – DAY 5 – Thurs, Dec 2
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. — Isaiah 40:31
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? — Psalm 27:1
______________________________________
Watch the edge of the candle flame. It shifts. Changes color. Jumps and flickers. It seems to be alive.
In your own body, your heart leaps. Your breath catches. You, too, are alive.
Writer and researcher Lee Daniel Kravetz suggests that during the urgency of crisis and other life-changing events, we especially seek hope. Such experiences shift ‘our focus to the legacy we’ll leave … It pushes us to ask the question, “What is truly important to me?”’ Extreme circumstances or changes in perspective cause such clarification of our priorities.
What has become important to you over the past year or more? What, in this season, arises to claim your energy and imagination? Part of hope is channeling your time and resources into those areas of your life that matter the most and offer the greatest sense of purpose.
Let your flame be fed by what you value above all else. — Rev Gail
______________________________________
Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality. — Jonas Salk
Light must come from inside. You cannot ask the darkness to leave; you must turn on the light. —Sogyal Rinpoche
This week with JCC and around town: THURS, DEC 2 – SUN, DEC 5
THURS, Dec 2
- Community Service: WAY STATION SHIFT
All Day • Way Station, 15 Grove St, No Conway
Volunteers open day resource center for showers, mail pickup, grocery distribution, and more - Community Event: CONIFER TREE ID (Tin Mountain program)
7pm •Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86854117167 Meeting ID: 868 5411 7167 Conifers, or cone bearing trees, are easy to tell from deciduous trees, but how about from one another? How do you tell a spruce from a fir from a hemlock from far away? Join David Govatski for an overview of needle bundles, bark, and other clues to help you better identify the diverse class of conifers in the region. You’ll never refer to all cones as ‘pine cones’ again! - Community Events: MUSIC AROUND TOWN
- Wildcat Tavern: Rafe Matregrano • 5:30pm-8:30pm
FRI, Dec 3
- WOMEN’S GROUP CHRISTMAS SEASON POTLUCK
11:30am • JCC Parish House
Please RSVP to Linda Hastings by email if you plan to attend. - Community Resource: LIBRARY OPEN
2-5pm • Jackson Library- Masks and distance will be strictly required while in the building. If you’re unable to mask, you can still take advantage of our pickup or delivery service – simply let us know what you need.
- Contact the library for additional help: 603.383.9731 or by email: staff@jacksonlibrary.org
- Community Event: FIRST FRIDAY-REED ORGAN CHRISTMAS (Mountain Top program)
Noon • Brown Church, Conway
George Wiese plays Christmas-themed music, familiar and not-so-familiar, on his 1903 harmonium (reed organ), with Chris Nourse, viola, and Kate Vachon, flute. Hear the sounds of a Victorian family parlor at the holidays! The concert lasts about an hour, and is free – of course donations are gratefully accepted. Sign up and donate on line if you’re able; walk-ins are OK too. Proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative test w/in 72 hours is required. Info & tickets: https://mountaintop.ludus.com/index.php?step=seats - C3: COCKTAILS & CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION
5pm • Zoom link & password required.
Bring your adult beverage and your curiosity for a conversation about our sacred texts. - Community Event: Mountain Top Music Concert: MAJESTIC CAFE: Justin Ramos & Eric Rollnick
7pm/8pm • Majestic Theater, Conway
$10/pp. More info: https://mountaintop.ludus.com/index.php?step=seats - Community Events: MUSIC AROUND TOWN
- Wildcat Tavern: Al Shafner • 6-9pm
- Shannon Door: Marty Quirk • 6-9pm
- Red Parka: Now Is Now • 8-11pm
- Shovel Handle: Scott Baer • 6-9pm
SAT, Dec 4
- JOHN PEPPER CELEBRATION of LIFE
11am • JCC
Celebration of Life for John Pepper. Friends and family invited. Masking required. Livestreaming also available for those unable to attend in person. Alternately, people can watch the service live-streaming on the church’s website at this link: https://jacksoncommunitychurch.org/memorial/. The video on this page will be deactivated shortly after the service ends. - Community Resource: LIBRARY OPEN
10am-2pm • Jackson Library Return to full hours of Tu&Th 10-7, W&F 2-5, Sa 10-2. We will continue to close on Sunday for the time being.
Masks and distance will be strictly required while in the building. If you’re unable to mask, you can still take advantage of our pickup or delivery service – simply let us know what you need.
One family at a time in the kids room.
Bathrooms and meeting room remain closed.
Contact the library for additional help: 603.383.9731 or by email: staff@jacksonlibrary.org - PIANO RECITAL
6pm • JCC
Students of Molly Dellavalla hold recital. Masking required. - Community Events: MUSIC AROUND TOWN Wildcat Tavern: Jeremy Dean • 6-9pm
- Shannon Door: Marty Quirk • 4-6:30pm / SHeehan & Holden • 7-10pm
- Red Parka: Now Is Now • 8-11pm
SUN, Dec 5
- INTERFAITH GATHERING
8am • Old Red Library next to church (indoors) & Zoom link & password required.
Poetry and conversation. Join us. Bring your own hot beverage on cold mornings! - WORSHIP ZOOM & IN-PERSON – Advent 3: Peace
10:30am • Zoom link & password required.- Join us for worship with music, scripture, prayer and reflection.
- Live music by Alan Labrie
- Advent 2: Peace candle-lighting by Roberts family
- Message with Rev Gail Doktor
- Angels & Elves gifts and gift tages must be returned by noon today.
- In-person attendance requires social distancing and maskingfor all attendees (additional precautions may be changed based on COVID stats and CDC guidelines).
- Service will also be live-streamed to website and Facebook (if technology supports this function on the day of event). Afterward, recordings of worship service will be posted to Facebook, Vimeo.com channel & Youtube.com channel.
- GREENING the SANCTIARY
1pm • JCC
Volunteers continue decorating sanctuary. - Community Event: WREATH-MAKING
4pm • Whitney Community Center Reservations required: Link: https://www.dutchbw.com/product/12-5-21-wreath-making-class/
Join Carrie Scribner, owner of Dutch Bloemen Winkel, and learn how to create a fragrant and bountiful wreath for a festive accent on your front door. All supplies, tools and materials are supplied for this workshop including seasonal embellishments such as ribbons and pinecones. Bring gloves. Value of this workshop is $50. The Friends of the Whitney Community Center in Jackson have been so kind as to sponsor part of this workshop, bringing the cost to only $35 per person. This is event is for the Jackson Community only. https://www.dutchbw.com/product/12-5-21-wreath-making-class/ Let’s continue to keep our community safe this holiday season. Dutch Bloemen Winkel kindly asks that all participants be vaccinated or a have a negative Covid test in order to participate in this indoor class. Masks will also be required. - PEACE CONCERT with Dellavalla Bluegrass Trio
4pm • JCC
Join us for peace, protest and resistance songs performed by the Dellavallas! Masking required. Free concert. - Community Event: ARTISAN NIGHT
5-9pm • Shannon Door
Shop among the goods of local artisans! - Community Event: MUSIC AROUND TOWN
- Shannon Door: Sheehan & Holden• 6-9pm
- Red Parka: Blue Sunday – Erin Harpe & Delta Swingers – 5-8:30pm
Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of JOY: Day 17- Tue, Dec 14
I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be complete. — John 15:11
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
— Ecclesiastes 11:7
______________________________________
For now, begin with the simple act of being present to whatever is going on within you and around you. Pay attention to your body and its experience.
For instance, engage your senses. What do you see? Hear? Smell? Feel? Taste? Ground yourself by taking this inventory of your senses.
Now focus on a few simple strategies to cultivate joy through bodily self-care.
Inhale. Hold your breath a moment. Exhale slowly. Breathe.
Mindful breathing offers healthful benefits. It lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, and helps regulate your body’s capacity to manage stress and fatigue. It reduces depression, burnout, and negative thinking. It boosts your capacity to manage chronic pain and positively affects the side effects of other illnesses or conditions such as diabetes.
Repeat your breathing cycle. Then repeat it again.
Now smile. Science urges that the act of smiling triggers healthy neurological responses. Floods your brain with positive, empowering chemistry. Improves your wellbeing psychologically and physically.
Joy is connected to your body-mind-spirit connections. While it grows out of spiritual, emotional, and psychological practices, it remains an embodied experience, too.
Let your senses ground you in your surrounds and in your own skin. Now inhale deeply. Hold your breath. Smile wider. As you exhale, blow out the Advent candles. — Rev Gail
______________________________________
To get the full value of joy you must have
someone to divide it with. ― Mark Twain
An age is called “dark,” not because the light fails to shine
but because people refuse to see it. – James Michener
Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of HOPE – DAY 4 -Wed, Dec 1
For surely I know the plans I have for you,
says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm,
to give you a future with hope. —Jeremiah 29:11
Where is the way to the dwelling of light? — Job 38:18-20
______________________________________
This solo candle lifts its presence as a guide. It shines into the season of waiting and preparing. It becomes a companion.
In day-to-day living, we probably don’t focus on our need for hope. Rather, we seek or rely on hope in times when you struggle.
Another strategy for cultivating hope, especially when you are experiencing challenges, is to find at least one relationship that remains supportive. Just one.
At first, people often respond in overwhelming numbers with tangible gestures of kindness in the wake of trauma or loss. Over time, that network of sympathy and outreach slows down. Yet your human need to foster hope is often a long-term approach to whatever situation has troubled or transformed your life. If you have one or more vital connections that continue to be present throughout your journey, this is often enough to cultivate hope.
Perhaps, on the other hand, you are that significant relationship or form of support for another person. It’s imperative to honor self-care boundaries, so that you maintain your own equilibrium when offering compassion to someone else. Yet realize, even when you set limits, that by caring and showing up consistently for another person, you make a difference. You help foster resilience in another life, as well as your own.
Maybe, in this Advent season, you receive someone else’s light. Or perhaps you offer your own to another. One way or another, hope burns. — Rev Gail
______________________________________
Hope can be a powerful force.
Maybe there’s no actual magic in it,
but when you know what you hope for most
and hold it like a light within you,
you can make things happen, almost like magic.
– Laini Taylor
Listen to the inner light; it will guide you.
Listen to the inner peace; it will feed you.
Listen to the inner love; it will transform you.
— Sri Chinmoy
#GIVING TUESDAY: Reminder about the church’s charitable partners.
INTERNATIONAL CAUSES which our faith community supports through giving or volunteering:
- Heifer International cards will be available inside the church’s front entrance by Wednesday afternoon., Dec 1 You may take a card and make a donation (cash or check). Drop it in the church model inside the front doors, which we’re using to collect these funds. Learn more about Heifer International.
- Zimbabwe cards will be available in the front of the church by Wednesday afternoon, Dec 1. These support partner faith communities and communal projects through the NH-Zimbabwe Ukama Partnership, including sister churches like JCC’s partner: Chikanga Church, City of Mutare, Zimbabwe. You may take a card and make a donation (cash or check). Drop it in the church model inside the front doors, which we’re using to collect these funds. or make an online donation: https://jacksoncommunitychurch.org/. Representatives from regions — including our churches — have traveled back and forth to establish strong ties between the partner faith communities.
- Honduras Hope is a NH-based partnership with communities in Honduras. Church member Meg Phillips has traveled there several times to provide direct volunteer service in the communities and can answer your questions! Link to site for giving: https://www.hondurashope.org/donate
- Legado Initiaitve is an international charitable foundation managed by a local Jackson resident. Madja Burhardt. They use a radical approach for securing THRIVING FUTURES for both people and the wild places they call home. To learn more and support this organization: https://www.legadoinitiative.org/donate/
LOCAL CAUSES the church supports financially and/or through volunteering. We respond to many local partners, so may not have included all such missions and initiatives here. If you’re interested in learning more about our Missions team, contact the church: jcchurch@jacksoncommunitychurch.org
Health and wellbeing of our community from many angles:
- Way Station serves the homeless and housing-insecure residents of Mt Washington Valley. Learn more and/or donate: https://www.waystationnh.org/. Link to donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XBLS8D57RPDSS.
- Starting Point provides support and safety for individuals and families experiencing domestic violence. Learn more and/or donate: https://www.startingpointnh.org/
- End 68 Hours of Hunger (Conway branch) sends hundreds of backpacks filled with food home every weekend in the SAU9 school district for food-insecure students. Learn more and/or donate: https://www.end68hoursofhunger.org/find-your-community/new-hampshire/conway/
- MWV Habitat for Humanity builds homes for local families. Learn more or donate: https://mwv-habitat.org/
- White Horse Addiction Center works in North Conway and Ossippee. Learn more and/or donate: https://whitehorserecovery.org/
- Mt Washington Valley Supports Recovery works in North Conway and Mt Washington Valley to support recover. Learn more and/or donate: https://www.mwvsupportsrecovery.org/
- White Mountain Community Health provides sliding scale of medical services for the valley so that all people may access medical and dental care. Learn more and/or donate: https://www.whitemountainhealth.org/
- Gibson Center provides essential services to the valley’s senior population, including Meals on Wheels, adult ed classes, health and wellbeing support and many other services. Hint: they have a thrift shop with excellent bargains! Link to learn more and/or donate: https://www.gibsoncenter.org/
- Northern Health & Human Services provides essential, affordable mental health care and counseling to clients in the Mt Washington Valley and other regions of NH. Learn more and/or donate: https://nhfv.org/resources/northern-human-services/
- Jen’s Friends provides support for local cancer families. Learn more and/or donate: https://jensfriends.org/wordpress/
- North Country Cares supports projects such as the Revolving Closet which is a free clothing boutique for preteens and teens. Learn more and/or donate: https://www.northcountrycaresnh.org/
- Conway Humane Society provides rescue, fostering and adoption for pets in Mt Washington Valley. Lean more and/or donate: https://www.conwayshelter.org/
- Angels & Elves provides Christmas assistance (brand new warm coats, boots, clothes, toys, etc.) to underserved children in MWV, Fryeburg & Brownfield. To apply for Christmas assistance email angelsandelves2021@gmail.com for an application link thru Dec 5. Note: The church is supporting two families this season. All gift tags have been claimed, but you can contact Linda Hastings by email if you want a gift assignment (all gifts and tags must be returned by Sun, Dec 5 at noon) for one of these two families or make a cash contribution to the gift requests they have made by dropping a check or cash (payable to JCC and designated to Angels & Elves on subject line) in the church model in front entrance way.
Culture, Education and Environment:
- Mountaintop Music provides music education and performances throughout the valley. Learn more and/or donate (or join): http://www.mountaintopmusic.org/
- Jackson XC Ski Touring Foundation: This foundation maintains trails for XC skiing in Jackson, offers classes, provides affordable youth education and access for snow shoeing and XC skiing, and works with local nonprofits and landowners on conservation initiatives. Learn more and/or donate (or join): https://www.jacksonxc.org/
- Tin Mountain Conservation Center is a local partner in environmental education and preservation. They have sites in Jackson and Albany, offer programs regionally and in our classes and community centers, as well as on their own sites. Learn more and/or donate (or join): https://www.tinmountain.org/
- Upper Saco Valley Land Trust is preserving land throughout the region, including many local sites. Learn more and/or make a donation (or join): https://www.usvlt.org/
- Mt Washington Valley Observatory is a local nonprofit focused on environmental and weather-based science
- Appalachian Mountain Club is integral to the culture and conservation of the White Mountains. Learn more: https://www.outdoors.org/
- Believe in Books works on literacy and performing arts in the valley and conserves land along the Saco: http://www.believeinbooks.org/
- Horton Center is the nearby UCC summer camp based on Pine Mountain and is the heart of NH outdoor experiences and ministries within the United Church of Christ’s NH Conference. Learn more and/or donate: https://hortoncenter.org/give-the-gift-of-camp-at-hc/
- Star Island is a UU and UCC-owned island off the coast of NH that promotes creative, cultural and spiritual engagement with people and the environment through camps and conferences. Learn more: https://starisland.org/donate/
- Bartlett Historical Society is preserving the local history of their town and region. To support them and learn more: https://bartletthistory.org/Museum%20Donor%20Form%20v3.pdf
- Jackson Historical Society preserves the artistical and historical heritage of Jackson and is building a significant collection of local artists from across several eras. To learn more and support them: https://www.jacksonhistory.org
- Public Libraries are a significant public resource. If you wish to volunteer or donate:
- Jackson Public Library: http://jacksonlibrary.org/
- Bartlett Public Library: https://www.bartlettpubliclibrary.org/