REJOICE

We rejoice over 3 new births. John Watts was baptized Sunday, November 25^th and Cole Clark and James Pate were baptized Tuesday, November 27^th. All of them are residents of His Way. Please welcome and encourage these men.

THOSE IN THE HOSPITAL AND SHUT-IN

Ø Bobbye Ashley is now at home after being in rehab.

Ø Merle Gowen, a graduate of His Way, is in rehab at Encompass Health, 107 Governors Drive SW, Room 307, Huntsville, Alabama 35801.

Ø Jerimie Hughes, a resident of His Way, had a massive heart attack on Monday, November 19^th. He is in Huntsville Hospital, CCUII.

Ø Mother-To-Be: Jordan Gibbs (4/15/19)

Ø Our Shut-ins: Cindy Anderson, Bobbye Ashley, Roosevelt Augustus, Jamie Cole, Viola Drappier, Margie Gough, James Hall, Martha Jones, Sally Mans, Ted & Rosalie Moore, Johnny Powell, Louis Teague, Bill & Sherill Townley, and Mary Williams

PRAYER REQUESTS AND COMMENTS

Ø The Hopkins request prayers for the grandson-in-law, Jake Crawley. He is in a hospital in Colorado with serious medical problems. Please keep him and his wife, Morgan, in your prayers.

Ø Gail Jones asks us to pray for the family of Mary McCoy (a former member of Mayfair Church). Ms. McCoy passed away Sunday, November 25^th. Her visitation will be today at the Higgins Funeral Home in Fayetteville, TN from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. followed by the funeral. Cards of sympathy may be sent to Mary McCoy’s family at 290 Mimosa Road, Fayetteville, TN 37334.

Ø Chiana Walker: “I’m asking for prayers for my biological father and his siblings at this time. They lost their sister over a week ago and we held the funeral on this past Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, FL. She was the third sibling of theirs to die this past year. After the funeral, their brother was sent to hospice and passed the next morning. As you all could imagine this a tough time for my family especially my dad, aunt and uncles who have now lost 4 siblings so close together, so please keep us in your prayers.” (Notes of sympathy may be sent to Chiana’ biological father, Richard McCree, 203 Stone Street, Dothan, AL 36301.)

Ø Mothers-To-Be: Jordan Gibbs (4/15/19)

Ø Missionaries: The Denisovs, Phil Lowery, and The Rahimovs – Tomsk, Russia, The Etwaroos – Guyana, Dwaine and Charlotte Simmons – Juayúa, El Salvador, and YOU – Huntsville Area

THANK YOU

To the Central family,

These past several weeks have been extremely difficult as we cared for our beloved mother and are now mourning her death. We know that you loved her and cared for her and that you mourn with us.

We appreciate the visits, the prayers, the cards and hugs, the lovely peace lily, the food, the singers, and all the other expressions of love and support you have shown us.

May God continue to bless each one of you in His service. The children of Louise Whitten

Alan Whitten, JoAnn Polk, Virginia Carden, and Mary Blake

ANGEL TREE

The purpose of our Central's Angel Tree is to help those who would not have a good Christmas due to financial difficulties. There are several Angels left on the tree, who need someone to pick them up in the fellowship hall. Please bring your wrapped gift with the Angel tag on it and place on the table in the Fellowship Hall by Sunday, December 16^th. If you have any questions, please contact Juanita Crittenden.

LADIES’ HOLIDAY COFFEE

The Tuesday Ladies Bible Class

would like to invite all ladies to a

Christmas Coffee

at the home of Pat Canterbury

1606 Sun Valley Place, SE

Huntsville, AL 35801

Tuesday, December 4^th

10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

TEEN ACTIVITIES

Ø Saturday, December 8^th, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.– Senior High Christmas Party at the home of The Keetons – Dirty Santa party. Need parents to provide finger food and a few adult chaperones to help at the house.

Ø Sunday, December 9^th (after morning assembly) – Cookie Day for 7^th – 12^th Graders. Need adults to help teens make cookies, peppermint bark, etc. and help drive to Sonrisers/Shut-Ins.

NEWSLETTER FROM EL SALVADOR

Catching up. We realized just this morning that we have not sent a newsletter since our return in late September. On October 3^rd, soon after we got back, Ruth Reyes was baptized. She had been studying for several months and we even thought she might be baptized when the Central group was here. She has lots of health problems as well as family and personal difficulties, so she needs a lot of prayer. She has been struggling with her attendance. She lives near us and we have tried to keep in contact, but it is not easy due to her working schedule. On Friday, October 5^th, we went with Carlos, Linda and the girls to a seminar on the other side of El Salvador. It was near the town where Linda's relatives live, so we dropped them off at a bus stop about 30 minutes from there and went on to the seminar. It was in the little town of Alegría (happiness) and is supposed to be a very pretty little tourist town. We had to leave at 4 am because it was over a 4-hour drive. The seminar began at 8:30 and lasted all day. That afternoon about 3 it began raining pretty hard and rained all night and all the next day including most of our trip home, so we did not get to see anything in the town. Our trip to “happiness” was a flop as far as seeing anything, but the seminar was good. We did go by a lagoon as we headed out of town, but it was still raining, and the lagoon was about dried up though we did still have to pay to get in. We went on to San Miguel to pick up Linda and the girls and got to meet her family. Linda had studied with her cousin, Rosita, over the weekend and Carlos baptized her in the short time we were there. The Monday after the seminar we went to Ahuachapán to see Wendy, Eva Mitchell’s aunt. She also had a broken hip in the same accident. She had been lying on her back for over a month and according to the doctors, probably had another month to go. Her spirits were positive, and we were able to Skype with Eva during our visit. The next weekend was our third family seminar of the year and the brother from the States (who is originally from El Salvador) stayed at our house Friday and Saturday night along with a brother from here. We really enjoyed having them. The following Tuesday, 4 young men and 2 young ladies from the BICA institute in Guatemala arrived for a 4-day campaign. We door knocked Tuesday & Thursday in Salcoatitán and in Juayúa Wednesday & Friday. We had the whole group over for lunch each day they worked here and for dinner Friday night. It was the first time we have really spent any time with a group from there and we enjoyed getting to know all of them. We thought we had several contacts from their door knocking but have not had much success in the follow-up. Over the last several months finding new studies has become more difficult as most everyone here is very aware of us and more resistant. We had our last neighborhood ladies’ event on Saturday, October 27^th, in the street in front of Sister Ana's house. We thought sure it was going to get rained out after all our planning but thankfully it didn't. The next day we had a celebration for the children at church with both Juayúa and Salcoatitán kids because October is the month of the children. We had a great turnout! November 11^th was the big confraternidad, which is an annual combined Sunday service of all the congregations in the western part of El Salvador. It was held at a school in Sonsonate which is only about 25 minutes away so many of our members went on the bus. We had about 1000 people including kids and it was a great meeting, but really hot. Charlotte and Linda taught classes all morning with about 40 kids. We went from 8:30 to 2:30 and everyone brought their lunch. And the last and some of the best news, was the baptism of Morena on November 11. She was contacted during the ladies’ event that was held when the Central group was here in the little isolated community near Juayúa. It is up several steep hills and a very difficult trip. We have mostly had to hire a pick-up each time we went. At first, we had three contacts, but one lady was not at home anymore after the first couple of times. We went off and on for several weeks and finally Morena was convinced. We are still hopeful for the other lady as Carlos and Omar have walked up there the past two weeks and plan to go one more time tomorrow. We are in a significant slowdown right now because this is school vacation time until about the middle of January. We did get to have 10 of the teens over for dinner and a movie on Friday, November 9. We watched The Princess Bride for about our 5^th time, but amazingly several of the teens said they had not seen it and it is always fun to watch again. The one disappointment is that the crazy wedding scene was just not the same in Spanish, hard to find a guy with a voice like that! Blessings to all,

Dwaine and Charlotte Simmons

NOTE TO TUESDAY LADIES

Please remember the Central Women's coffee we are hosting December 4 at the home of Pat Canterbury, 1606 Sun Valley Place. Please email Barbara Hopkins what item(s) you are planning to bring. She is coordinating for a good mix of sweet and non-sweet food. Her email is crhopkins37@gmail.com

The coffee is 10:00 until 11:30 Tuesday December 4. Your food item should serve 10-12 and may be homemade or purchased.

Thank you, Janice Greenleaf

P.S. Please remember that there will be a basket for donations to the Supply Barrel our Ladies are sending to Guyana in March. Bring cash or check. Pennies or dollars. The Guyana Ladies are counting on us.

FAMILY VACATION RETREAT

JANUARY 18^TH– 21^ST, 2019

The campus ministry's annual Family Vacation Retreat is here again. However, due to the damage caused by Hurricane Michael, the normal venue in Panama City Beach is unavailable this year. Instead, the event will be at the Camden on the Lake Resort in Lake Ozark, MO. This year's theme is Generations Reunion Weekend. This year is special – it’s our 10^th anniversary, and we’re inviting not only current college students to attend, but alumni as well. As last year, those Central teens who are juniors and seniors are also invited to join and the campus ministry will help sponsor those that want to go. There will be a teen track with breakout classes designed for them. Rodney, our youth minister, will be going to aid in leading the trip. We really hope this will be well attended by our teens, college, and alumni. The cost is $80 per person including a $20 deposit when you sign up. If you have any questions, interested in going, or interested in helping someone to go that is financially unable, please contact D’Mitri Lewis (904-887-4006).

HOLIDAY CLASS SCHEDULE

The following is the schedule for Central’s classes over the upcoming holidays.

Christmas: Sunday classes are planned to run as usual both before and after Christmas. On Wednesday, December 26th, the night after Christmas, adult and children’s classes alike will not meet in order to support a devotional in the old auditorium. New Year: All classes are planned to run as usual.

If teachers will be out of town or think their class attendance will be small on one of these days, they may make special arrangements for their class (e.g., have prayer time; combine classes with another group; etc.).

WINTER TERM WEDNESDAY ADULT CLASSES

The winter term Wednesday-night classes will be conducted in the old auditorium. The two primary themes include the Bible itself and what the Bible teaches as a whole. The term will be comprised of two back-to-back short series.

Part 1: December 5, 2018 through January 16, 2019

“How We Got the Bible” – A 6-hour look at 3500 years of Bible history that points toward Jesus as revealed by the Holy Spirit

Why do we have the Bible anyway? Do we know who wrote the Bible or when? What is a manuscript? Do we have any of the original manuscripts? If not, how do we know what God really wanted said? Are there really variances in the manuscripts from which the Bible is translated? What is the best translation?

The Lord willing, this will be a 6-week series presented by Ed Ditto.

Part 2: January 23, 2019 through February 27, 2019

“Ask Me Anything” – A 6-week Q&A-style series intended to facilitate deeper understanding of what the Bible as a whole teaches about questions of interest to Central’s members

The “How We Got the Bible” series provides reasons for confidence that the Bible is God’s word. God’s word (and NOT human tradition) is the authority for the church and Christian living. The “Ask Me Anything” series is an opportunity to apply what the Bible as a whole says about topics of contemporary interest.

The first week of “Ask Me Anything” will begin with moderators from Central’s Adult Education Committee (AEC) briefly explaining in more depth the purpose of the series and setting ground rules for class discussion. A typical night in this series will consist of moderators fielding questions to the class and facilitating class discussion of what the Bible teaches about those questions. To provide some preparation time for prayer and study, an initial set of questions will be requested ahead of time. Questions may address theological, ethical, or practical concerns, such as, “What does the Bible say about…?”; “Does the Bible permit Christians to…?”; and “Why do we do…?” Once an initial set of questions is received and collected, the congregation will be provided that list so that individuals may come prepared to discuss. Depending on the number of questions received, the moderators may not have time to field every question over the series. Moreover, some topics may require multiple weeks, perhaps with initial discussion one week with follow-up in later weeks. Also, please note that the moderators may slightly revise some questions or combine multiple questions to address a category of questions together.

From now through Sunday, December 16, please provide your written questions to Pat Canterbury either in hardcopy or by email (pat@centralfamily.org). Pat will compile the list of questions and provide them to the moderators to provide back out to the congregation by Sunday, December 23. Keep in mind that these questions are intended to seed the discussion. More questions will be welcomed as the series gets underway.

DIRECTORY UPDATE

Ø Chris Campbell’s new address is 102 Boseman Street, Huntsville, Alabama 35806.

Ø The Shedd Family’s new address is 1153 Danielle Elizabeth Court, O’Fallon, MO 63366.

Ø Chiana Walker’s new address is 1204 Julia Street, Apt. 7, Huntsville, Alabama 35816.

DECEMBER TEAM SERVANTS

USHERS – Alex Coleman’s Team

COUNTING – Alan Moore’s Team

FLC SET UP – Jared Mosley’s Team

NURSERY – Anna Mosley, Julie Meyer, and Carrie Arnold

Dec	2	Teen Time (5:30-7:30 pm)
	4	Ladies’ Christmas Coffee at the home of Pat Canterbury (10:00-11:30 am See article.)
	8	Senior High Holiday Party (5:00-8:00 pm at the Keetons See article.)
	9	Teens – Cookie Day (after assembly See article.)
		Elementary Holiday Party (5:30 pm)
		Teen Time (5:30-7:30 pm)
	16	HUGS (during assembly)
		Angel Tree gifts due back (See article.)
		Teen Time (5:30-7:30 pm)
	23	Teen Time (5:30-7:30 pm)
	31-1	Teen – Lock-In
Jan	6	Teen Time (5:30-7:30 pm)
	13	Teen Time (5:30-7:30 pm)
	18-21	College and 11^th and 12^th Graders – Family Vacation Retreat (See article.)

Leading:	Jamie Burns
	D’Mitri Lewis, Mike Lowery, Travis Bowen, Tristan Henderson, Dana Mercier, Walter Franklin, Alex Coleman, Jim Phillips
Prayer:	Aqueel Moss