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This coming Sunday, December 3rd, is the first Sunday of Advent. This season of waiting can foster extreme feelings in us. We feel great joy in enjoying family and friends. We experience great sorrow as we miss those who are no longer with us. We feel great anticipation for what is to come. We experience great frustration as we have to wait for it. We feel a great longing for people and for things. We experience great disappointment when those longings aren't met. During this roller coaster of a season, I pray that you will find time and space to remain rooted in the true message of Christmas . . . that God loves you more than you can imagine. He looks down into the mess of the world and declares with his presence that we . . . that you are worth it.

To help you engage with God through the Advent series, I encourage you to participate in our advent services. This Sunday morning we will be focusing on the theme of hope.

To help you engage with God daily, our Be In Christ Church of Canada family has produced a daily devotional you can use. You may pick up a copy from our church building at 95 Robert St. E. or you can download it here:  http://beinchrist.ca/advent-devotional-2017/. You can even follow along on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BICCanadaPrays) or twitter (https://twitter.com/biccanada).

A third suggestion to help you engage with God is to do it together. Find a person or some people to talk with as you move through advent. Tom Petty once sang that the waiting is the hardest part. I think he's only half right. Waiting alone is harder. We have the privilege of being in community and having the chance to wait together. During this season, if you find yourself alone, invite someone (or a group) to go out for coffee; have someone over for a cup of tea; grab a meal together and talk about the advent theme for the week as a chance to connect and wait together. You will be blessed by it and I'm sure the other person/people will be, too.

To help you invite someone to join with you during Advent, we have created Advent postcards showing the dates and times of our services. Please pick them up from our church building and use them to invite others to come with you on Sundays. If you'd like to use it to invite someone electronically, the event page on our website is here:  http://www.covenantchurch.ca/events/advent/2017-12-03.

I look forward to this wonderful time of year waiting together for the celebration of the gift of Jesus!