Christmas Eve 2008

It was a perfect evening, a holy evening at the First United Methodist Church in Sidney, Nebraska! The sounds of Wayne Phillips on the French Horn by the fireplace provided a welcome that really set the tone (no pun intended) for the service to come.

Lauri Beach (mother of Courtney Shabram-Beach) sang two lovely solos, "O Holy Night" and "One Small Child," and she helped lead the singing. A special treat following the offering was the vocal trio of Jaide, Kaci and Aleigha Wachtel who beautifully shared the love of God in the quiet of the December evening. Carolyn Hays played most of the music tonight, and she was really put through her paces with all of the extra singing in tonight's service: Thank you so very much, Carolyn!. (The service bulletin can be found on the church web site at this link.)

In the place of the typical Christmas eve sermon, Pastor Charles introduced the "Christmas Pageant in-a-bag" which was a unique telling of the Christmas story. The cast was comprised of members of the congregation and they really got into their roles!

The service ended with the singing of "Silent Night" and the passing of the light of Christ amongst the congregation. Into the night, we departed with the sounds of hope ringing in our ears and the light of Christ burning within our hearts.

Merry Christmas!!!

All of tonight's pictures can be found at this link.