{"id":87272,"date":"2017-12-08T11:15:34","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T16:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=87272"},"modified":"2017-12-07T20:25:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T01:25:51","slug":"canastota-churches-join-in-giving-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=87272","title":{"rendered":"Canastota Churches Join in Giving Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"On Sunday, Nov. 19, Canastota Christians from several area churches gathered at the United Church for the annual Thanksgiving Community Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot to be thankful for as individuals and as a group, so it\u2019s always great to come together in ecumenical fashion this time of year,\u201d said host pastor Charlie Vollmer.<\/p>\n

The service included traditional Thanksgiving hymns and a very non-traditional message from four different pastors and leaders, their four brief themes beginning with first letters spelling out G-I-V-E.
\nAutumn is a busy time for the Canastota Area Association of Churches. In\u00a0October their combined effort raised over $3,000 in the annual CROP Walk to fight hunger globally and locally.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five percent of that amount stays right in Canastota,\u00a0helping fund the two area food pantries and the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen. The\u00a0balance extends our local reach to dozens of international efforts to improve nutrition
\nand water supply around the world.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Nov. 11, a dozen men from area churches attended the Iron Sharpens Iron Men\u2019s Conference, joining 700 other men in North Syracuse to focus on\u00a0becoming better husbands and fathers. In addition to special workshop opportunities, everyone was thrilled by inspirational messages from the New York best-selling author Steve Mansfield and former Yankees and Mets great Darryl Strawberry, now a\u00a0committed minister of the gospel.<\/p>\n

The Community Thanksgiving Service concluded with blessing the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes packed in northern Madison County and gathered there before heading to North Carolina for distribution. Many of the needy children around the\u00a0nation and the globe have never received a gift like that, and are sure to be blessed.<\/p>\n

Local Coordinator Greg Wright was almost overcome to tell everyone present that the area had packed 1,120 boxes, easily surpassing last year\u2019s admirable total of 919. After that announcement, the service dismissed to fellowship over some delicious early Christmas baking. Everyone present agreed there\u2019s a lot to be thankful for this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, Nov. 19, Canastota Christians from several area churches gathered at the United Church for the annual Thanksgiving Community Service. \u201cWe have a lot to be thankful for as individuals and as a group, so it\u2019s always great to come together in ecumenical fashion this time of year,\u201d said host pastor Charlie Vollmer. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}