There has been a lot of activity at Laurentian over the last couple of months. Excitement had been building within the church as our 75^th Anniversary Celebrations neared. We had a wonderful two day event in which we enjoyed a delicious dinner together followed by a special evening celebration service on Saturday November 21^st. The celebrations continued on Sunday with Rev. Thurland Brown from the Winchester Wesleyan Church , Rev. Dave Johnston from Powassan Wesleyan Church and part of the Powassan Wesleyan Church ’s Worship Team taking part in our celebrations. Many people from Laurentian also helped with our celebrations and we give them thanks for their contributions to our celebrations. I believe for the church the highlight of the two day event was hearing stories about the beginnings of Laurentian from Bea Mooney and Beryl Nicolson who are long time members of the church and are daughters of the founding pastor Rev. Major. It was great to celebrate and give thanks for all God has done both with our church family and many friends of the church.

Throughout the fall our work with Operation Christmas Child (OCC) kept us busy. This was the first year that as a church we were designated the Regional Collection Center for North Bay and surrounding area. The National Collection Week happened to fall on the week leading up to our 75^th Anniversary Celebration Weekend. Shoeboxes containing an assortment of gifts for children lined the walls of our sanctuary and were piled high on our platform during our celebrations. What a powerful visual it was as we celebrated what God was doing with Laurentian. All together we collected 2,958 boxes and with the help of over twenty volunteers from our church we were able to pack all the shoeboxes collected in less than an hour and a half on our “Boxing Day” event.

The following Sunday was the beginning of the season of Advent and we quickly found ourselves in the Christmas season. Our youth once again did a wonderful job with their Children’s Christmas Concert which included special music from our Sounds of Joy who I’m sure are children at heart. Our Christmas brunch was well attended and was a wonderful time in which we enjoyed good food and fellowship with one another. Our Christmas Eve service was beautiful with over fifty people attending the service.

Since our last edition of the New From The Pews we have had to replace our furnace that heats the sanctuary of our church. This was the second furnace we have had to replace in the last two years. Also since our last edition the LBA has prayerfully researched and found a Wesleyan missionary family that we as a church can come along side of and support. Laurentian had been supporting both the Guptill family and Cora Gorman who are no longer on the mission field. The Szmara family (Zach, Lyndy and Isaac) are a young family that are preparing to go to Ghana to assist the developing Wesleyan Church over there.

We are excited about what 2010 will bring. Already there is much activity going on within the church. If you have internet access please go to our website at www.laurentianchurch.com to learn more about what is going on at our church and to see pictures from recent events.

God bless, Pastor Chris