The heating system is all installed and working and all bills have been paid. The total cost of the system was $213,331.80…$209, 565.00 to Christenson Plumbing and Heating, a local company, which came in a little under the original estimate; $3,600.00 for the design work to Design Day Mechanical; and $166.80 for administrative costs.

The response to our Capital Campaign to raise funds toward the cost of the system has been very positive. In anticipation of the cost, the church withdrew $165,000 from its endowment fund and set a goal of the campaign to raise $125,000 to replace these funds. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed! We have received almost $90,000.00 to date! However, we still have a long way to go and hope for a lot of continued participation.

The next host week for Family Promise is November 8-15. The two families, two moms with one child each, will be housed at St Theresa’s Church in Henniker, and we are still responsible for the meals, evening and overnight hosts for the week. We are all set for meals, but still need one evening host on Wednesday, November11 from 5-8:30 PM, and several overnight hosts (8:30 PM-7:30 AM) – one on Monday, November 9, two on Wednesday, November 11, and two on Friday, November 13.

Due to the pandemic and one move, we have lost some of our usual volunteers for this time. There are all kinds of safety procedures in place at the church – for more information about those safeguards and/or if you could fill any of those slots, please let Barbara Daley or Fran Charron know.

The next book on the G&E reading list is A Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg. What better title for 2020 than this – don’t we all need a year of pleasures right about now! The story is about a resilient woman, Bette Nolan, who moved to a small town after the death of her husband to try to begin again. Along the way she encounters adventure, self-discovery and comes to appreciate the solace found in ordinary pleasures.

The author, Elizabeth Berg, lives in Chicago, but has a local connection having been a good friend of John Farrar, who some of you will remember from the Smith Church Men’s Chorus years ago and in fact, one day she showed up at Fuller Library with John who introduced her to the amazed library staff.

The book is available in bookstores and online. A discussion of the book, led by members of G&E, is set for Friday, December 4 at 3 PM both in the vestry and by zoom. Please send any suggestions of books to read in following months to the church office.

PJ’S & PIZZA

On Oct 18th from, 3-4:15 we had our first event since March. We were outside on the lawn and in the vestry. Our bible story was a lesson from Abraham and Sarah who had to wait a long time for their son, just as we have to wait a long time for many things due to the pandemic. We read Not Forever But For Now: A Story for Children about Feelings During the Pandemic, which was helpful as families struggle at times to answer children’s questions and concerns. If you are aware of families with this concern, we do have books to recommend. In November, Pj’s & Pizza will be a mailed event (minus the pizza!), and we will focus on Thanksgiving.

THE SCENE

The SCENE lucked out again for our second meeting of the year on October 15 with a beautiful, warm, and sunny afternoon. With 10 kids in attendance and staying on our socially distanced circles, we enjoyed some conversation about our quote of the month “You are always responsible for how you act, no matter how you feel” (good advice for all of us!), shared our highs and lows, played some games, had a snack (thanks to Amber Lane for providing our snack), and then took a walk picking up trash around the church lawn and Butler Park.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 19 (3:30- 4:30) and we are hoping for another glorious sunny afternoon. If you know of children in grades 1-5 who might like to join us, please let either Barbara Daley or Jean Crowley know about them – we would love to have even more new members.