Join us on Sunday, February 12 for our annual Winter Picnic!  Immediately following our regular worship service at 10:30, the festivities begin!

The picnic includes a potluck lunch (indoors), and will feature the following:

- the “award winning soup” contest.  Did your great grandmother leave you the secret family recipe for an ‘out-of-this-world-awesome’ soup?  Then bring it in a slow cooker and enter it into our contest!

- Winter sweater contest.  Our contest from last year returns and has expanded to include the best of the best (or worst!) sweater you have in your closet!

- Marshmallow Sculpture Contest – Tables and families compete against each other to build the best sculptures!

Following our potluck lunch, there will be many activities available including.

- Sledding (assuming we have snow!)

- Basketball & Road Hockey

- “Ping Pong Obstacle Course”

- Board games (bring your favorite!)

- Ice Skating.  (Off site open skate at the Albany County Hockey Facility, 830 Albany Shaker Road.  Cost is $4, seniors $3, kids under 5 $2, and skate rentals are $3.  Transportation to and from the ACHF is not provided.  Meet in the church lobby following lunch for any additional information.)

*  All free time activities are subject to change.

Hi Pineviewers,

We are creating a new pictorial family album, and you’re part of the family!  Our album wouldn’t be complete without you.

We will be offering free appointments along with a complimentary 8×10, but you need to book an appointment!  Click here to schedule your own appointment, call the church office (518-456-6777), or call Lifetouch directly at (888-313-1746).

Thanks!

Hey Pineviewers,

I wanted to catch up with you and let you know of a couple of things that are happening around Pineview:

• New Year’s Sunday, you received a Setting Goals with 20 20 Foresight handout to help you make plans in light of God’s plan.  (To listen to the message, click here.)  I would love to hear how you are setting goals based on our values!  Drop me a note on paper, email, Twitter or Facebook.
• Last night, our Elders for 2012 met for the first time.  We had an excellent meeting, discussing the direction we are headed as we look to hire additional pastoral staff.  We’re still evaluating our needs, so I appreciate your prayers!
• The lobby renovation team has met and will be putting out a request for quotes soon.  We unfortunately won’t be able to make the District Executive Committee’s deadline for agenda submission, so it may take a little time before we can show off some plans.  However, it’s better to do it right than fast!  Hopefully we’ll have some final layouts approved by the Elders soon!
• We’ll soon be doing regular email updates to keep in touch more often.  It’ll include events, good reading and updates from me that I trust you will find helpful.  We’ll be adding everyone’s email to a list and sending it out, so if you’d rather not be on that list, make sure you let me know.

Watch for our new family photo album and the Winter Picnic; both coming soon!

I hope you’ve already been blessed by the Christmas events at Pineview.  From the ladies tea and brunch and the cantata to the morning messages, my prayer is that you would experience the reality of Immanuel, God with us, more deeply than ever before.

I also have a second prayer for you.  It is this:  that you would have boldness and favor when inviting your unchurched friends and family.  My prayer is that you would not come alone, but that you would take the opportunity to share the hope that Jesus brings to others by inviting them to our Christmas Eve Service.

Our service is at 6:00 pm, will run just slightly over one hour, and will include great singing of familiar carols along with a message from Shawn Wallace, Pastor of Carman Road Alliance Church.

See you on Christmas Eve!

This Sunday, we were challenged to do more than give gifts this Christmas.  We were challenged to “Be the gift that someone needs”.  (If you missed the message, you can catch it here!)   Jesus surrendered his rights so we could have life, and we can do the same for others this Christmas.

Have you been a gift to someone?  I would love if it you would be willing to share the story!  You can post the story here in the comments below, on our Facebook page, tweet it, or blog about it and link it!  If you feel kind of weird to share how you helped someone, just email it by using the form below.

Be the gift that someone needs!

Hi Pineview family,

As a church, we have a tremendous opportunity to respond to the communities around us with cleanup and care from the hardship caused by Hurricane Irene.  I’ve been in contact with the Red Cross, who are having a special fast track training for volunteers tomorrow night.

I’m writing to ask our church family if we can help communities in need!  Would you be able to attend the training and respond?  Please let me know today at 518-456-6777 if you are willing and able to attend the training.

Thanks and blessings!

Brian

Paul Barner is a name familiar to the Pineview family.  He has been a long time missionary in the Philippines, founder of the Barner Learning Center, pastor, church planter and more!  God is doing some incredible things in the Philippines and he was able to join us at our worship service on Sunday July 24, 2011 and share what is happening in his life, his family, his ministry and in the Philippines.  Take a listen (there was a powerpoint presentation with the video that was not recorded).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:20 — 10.4MB)

Two updates today!  From Ellen early this morning who received a text:

God is awesome!  75 kids were at the VBSes. 21 kids prayed to receive Jesus. Other awesome things 2 share later

And from mere moments ago:

We are back in TX after a great trip!  We fly out tomorrow and should arrive back in Albany early-mid afternoon.

We’re planning on a short update from Pastor Ken on Sunday morning so join us at 10:30!

Pastor Ken has let us know some new ways to pray!  Check it out (once again via Ellen Strait, thanks Ellen!):

I received another call from Ken and he told me that today while they were in the tent there was a breeze that blew through and gave relief from the gnats.  Ken was able to tell the kids that they were blessed by God today after he had asked for prayer from friends and God listened and provided the relief.

Ken told me that at one of the churches, the children are a little more difficult to reach and hold attention.  In fact, Ken needed to call a young boy, Angel, aside because he was disrespectful.  Ken spoke to the boy’s mom later and was told that he has been acting out because his parents are divorcing.  Nothing happens by accident when working with God, so lets pray that this boy and his mom will meet Jesus and know the love He has for them.  Please pray against the enemy as he won’t want to let them go.

Tomorrow Juan will be sharing the Gospel at his church and the pastor of the other church will be sharing the Gospel at his.  There are lives at stake so please pray for them as God puts it on your hearts during the day.

Consider it on our hearts!

Ellen Strait received a phone call from Pastor Ken who is leading our missions team in Mexico!  Here’s the email she sent out earlier:

I received a call from Mexico tonight…how exciting to hear Ken’s voice and that the week is going so well this far.  Pivy is making a great connection with the kids, she is teaching them signs and they are loving it.  And they love her.  Today was Lorrie’s turn to teach the VBS lesson and Ken said that she was very comfortable and did a good job.  I know that she has been working very hard preparing for it so I was glad to hear that it went well for her.

As we thank God for what He has done with the team so far and how He has provided what they need, we need to continue to call on Him for His help during the remainder of the time there.  Ken has asked me to pass on some specific requests.

Andy is teaching tomorrow and it is done with a translator.  I know that this can be tricky to do and have it come across clearly.  Please pray that Andy and the translator will work well together and that the message will flow as if there was no translation.

Ken also told me that one of the two churches where they are holding VBS is only one week old!!!!  How special is that!  Juan is a mexican missionary who has been part of the church plant and Ken has asked him to share the Gospel on Thursday.  This will illiminate the need for a translator.  Lets ask God to bless them with seeing many understand the message and give their lives to Jesus.

One last thing that needs our prayers is to ask God to do something about the gnats.  The sessions are being held in a tent and Ken told me that the gnats are terrible, they are all over and dive bomb (my words) everyone.  What an opportunity for us to ask God to keep the gnats from entering the tent while the Gospel is being shared.  Not only will there not be a distraction from hearing the way of salvation but the power of the Lord who wants to save them will be experienced.

Awesome stuff!  Thanks for praying for the team and what’s going on!