Category: Kathy Scott, Senior Adults & Care Ministry Director

I love Christmas!  I love the festivities, the good cheer and the lights.  If you do too, please plan to join me on Wednesday night, December 18 for a trip to Three Kings Restaurant and a walk around the Garden Glow at Missouri Botanical Gardens.  This trip will definitely get you excited about Christmas.  The bus will leave church at 4:15 pm.  We will go to Three Kings Restaurant first.  3 Kings supports local farmers and features wings, burger, slads and appetizers at moderate prices.

When we finish eating we will head for the Glow.  It could be cold so dress accordingly.  Wear walking shoes if you want to see the entire exhibit which will be over a 1 mile walk.  The price of admission to the Garden Glow is $16 for seniors unless you have a garden membership.  There are vendors with hot chocolate, places to roast s’mores and incredibly beautiful lights.  Hope you will plan to attend.

The senior council will be meeting this month to plan January, February, and March but at this time, those events have not been scheduled.  If you would like to be a part of the senior adult council, please let Gloria know.  We meet every 3 months to plan events and you will be asked to help with the preparations of in-house meetings with lunch.  Thanks for your consideration.

Upcoming Activities

We are racing towards the holiday season and family and holiday activities tend to ramp up at this time.   To help with this, we will slow down the Prime Time activities for November and December and just have one activity each month.

On Monday, November 18, we will go to the St. Louis Science Center and watch Train Time: Climb Aboard.  They have billed it as the biggest adventure on wheels.  We will experience what it is like to be on a giant freight train traveling across America.  Tickets are $9.50 for seniors.  Lunch was planned for Zia’s but it is closed on Monday so we will go to a St. Louis favorite – Ragazzi’s.  It is under new management and is receiving great reviews.  Sorry about no Missouri Bakery and Zia’s – maybe next time!

Our last adventure of the year is the Garden Glow at Missouri Botanical Gardens on Wednesday, December 18.  The bus will leave church at 4:15 and we will eat at Three Kings before the Glow. Three things to consider:  1. It is the middle of December – dress accordingly.  2.  It can be a lot of walking if you want to see the entire exhibit. 3.  It is at night.  If you don’t like to drive at night, ask someone who does if you can ride with them.  In spite of these precautions, this may be one of the best Christmas exhibitions in the area and is worth doing some pre-planning.

Wow.  Summer is almost over.  Kids are back in school.  But the seniors still get to have adventures.  Fall is a time for outdoor fun and our next four activities involve some time outside.

On Friday, September 13, we will head up the River road to Pere Marquette for a fabulous fried chicken family style lunch at 10 am.  Everyone will get 2 pieces of chicken, and family style mashed potatoes, gravy, cole slaw and corn.  Your lunch price will include a drink of tea or coffee and dessert.  The price will include tax and tip and should be around $20.

After lunch, you can go for a walk, sit outside and play games or cards, or just sit and watch the river roll by.  Sign-up in the connection center.

On Thursday, September 26, we will go to Rainbow ranch at 10 am.  Rainbow Ranch is a 170 year old farm in Nashville, IL.  They have llama, alpacas, donkeys, sheep, goats, deer, potbelly pigs, peacocks, ducks, horses, a zebra, a zedonk and even camels and kangaroos.  You know you want to pet them!  I have contacted them and we will either have lunch first or the tour first.  If you’re an animal lover, this trip is for you.  The cost of the farm is $15/person plus your lunch.

The Senior Council has planned the following activities for the last quarter of the year.  Mark your calendars.

Monday, October 14, Grants Farm

Monday, October 28, Summit Farm Market in Kirkwood and Billy G’s.

Monday, November 18, the Omnimax and Zia’s

Wednesday, December 18, dinner and Garden Glow (nighttime event)

Hope you can make these fun filled activities.

We are going to avoid the heat and stay in the building for our activities in August.  On Wednesday, August 14, we will have lunch and watch the movie of the Sight and Sound production of Moses.  A lunch of sandwiches, chips and desert will be served at 11 with the movie immediately after.  Our movie was filmed in front of a live audience.  Nearly 2 million people have seen it on stage and you will get to watch it on our giant screen in the dining room.  The cost of lunch is $7 and the movie is free.

Adult VBS will be in the Rafters August 26-29 from 9:30-noon.  This year we will dive deeply into the book of James.  We will study what the half brother of Jesus has to tell us about walking in the footsteps of Jesus.  Jesus’s own brother was transformed from unbelief to leadership in the early church when He had a face-to-face encounter with the Risen Lord.  James instructs us in how to live and serve like Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit in the only book in the New Testament written only to believers. Join us for this exciting study.

Prime Time                                Gloria Fox, Director of Senior Adults & Bible Study

On Wednesday, July 10, we will go to the History Museum by Forest Park to see the new additions to the 1904 World’s Fair Exhibit.  While this exhibit has been at the museum for several years, it has been revamped.  The exhibit, artifacts and images will bring to life a more complete picture of the fair showing it from the perspectives of the organizers, the visitors and even the workers.  The bus will leave at 10 am and lunch will be after at Joey B’s.

Then on Monday, July 29 we will travel to Breeze, IL to the Excel Bottling Company to go on a tour and hear about its exciting origin.  In 1936, Edward, “Lefty” Meier received a reward for catching a bank robber.  He used his reward to purchase a used bottling machine.  Using his wife’s grandmother’s house, they have expanded into a bottling plant.  Excel is one of the few independent family bottlers in the nation. The bus will leave at 10 am. After our tour, we will have lunch at PJ’s Diner.

Hope you all are having a good summer.  We are asking that if you know of one of our members in the hospital, please let the church office know, so a staff member, a member of their Bible Study class and a deacon can visit.

Keep up in your Bible Reading program this summer.  We will be reading the letters to the churches at a pace that you can keep up with!  Talk with others inside and outside of the church about what God is showing you through his word.

June is another very busy month for Fee Fee.  We have a trip to the Soda Museum in St. Charles with lunch at Lewis and Clark’s. The cost for the museum is $10.  The bus will leave at 10 am on Friday, June 7.  The museum is the private collection of a local resident, Tom Smith, who has been a soda enthusiast since he was 10 years old.  You’ll see everything from vintage soda dispensers to your favorite soda that got taken off the market!

On Wednesday, June 26 we will board our busses and head to Springfield, IL.  We will leave at 9 am and return on Thursday early in the evening.  We will stay at a local hotel.  Prices range from $110 to $154.  If you want to share a room, your hotel will cost you half of that amount.  Breakfast is included.  We will spend Wednesday afternoon at the New Salem village and visit other historic sites during the day on Thursday.  This trip will require a lot of walking and will require a deposit.  Please sign up by June 15 so I can plan accordingly.

The council has also planned the next quarter so put these dates on your calendar:

Wednesday, July 10 – World’s fair exhibit at the history museum with lunch at

Joey B’s.

Monday, July 29 – Tour at Excel Bottling Company in Breese, IL.  Lunch at PJ’s Diner

Wednesday, August 14 – Moses, Sight and Sound Production movie in the Fee Fee Dining Room at 11 with lunch.  Lunch cost is $7.

Adult VBS – August 26-29 from 9:30-noon.

Friday, September 13 –  Pere Marquette State park for the fried chicken family style lunch and then go out to the patio to play some card or board games or go for  walk.

Thursday, September 26 – Rainbow Ranch in Nashville, IL with lunch at Fletcher’s Kitchen.

Hope you are enjoying spring. We have some fun activities planned for you in May.

Sign up for the Legacy Banquet on Saturday night, May 11. It will begin with a fabulous dinner at 6 and transition it to the “Songs of our Life”. I promise you a great time of friends, food and fellowship. The cost is only $15 per person. Hope to see you there. Bring some friends but don’t forget to sign up so we have enough food!

On Thursday, May 30 we have a change. The previously announced farm visit has been changed to a trip to Kimswick and the Blue Owl for lunch and shopping. The bus will leave church at 10 am. Come eat some mile high pie and other great food and walk off your meal while shopping for a while.

I’m already thinking about the dessert I’m going to order at Josephine’s on Monday, April 8.  The bus will leave church at 10 am.  We will eat lunch and then there will be some time for shopping or sitting on a bench outside in the sunshine!  You can look at their menu online at https://www.josephinesltd.online/menu

On Thursday, April 25 at 10:30 am, we will go to Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate.  We will eat lunch at Guido’s first and then do the tour of the Chocolate Factory at 1:30 pm.  This may get us back to church a little later than usual because the tour will not be over until 2:30.  The tour will take us down onto the factory floor where we can see, hear, smell and taste chocolates.  We will even get to see the candy makers hand making some of the chocolates.  Then you can buy chocolate in their store.

I also want to invite you to the Legacy Banquet on Saturday night, May 11 from 6 – 8pm. Join us for a delicious meal, a photo booth, a brief devotional, and our own singers doing some 50’s, 60’s and 70’s music.  The meal will be a little less formal this year since we don’t have a church hostess but I know the cook and it just might be some of the best food you have ever eaten!  The cost for the meal and a night of entertainment is $15.  Encourage your friends who have never been to join us at this fun night.

We have 2 great activities this month.  On Monday, March 4 at 10 am, we will leave for the Lewis and Clark Boat House Museum in St. Charles.  There is a movie about the Lewis and Clark expedition and replicas of the boats they used to explore the Missouri River.  We will have lunch at Magpies on Main Street after.  They feature sandwiches, flat bread pizzas, quiche and homemade desserts.  Yum!

On Wednesday, March 20 at 10 am, (NOTE:  THIS IS A DATE CHANGE), we will go to the art museum.  You are free to wander the galleries of your choice.  We will then go to lunch at Joey B’s on the Hill.  Joey B’s has  great variety and reasonable prices.

Below you will find the next quarter’s activities so you can put them on your calendar:

April 8: Josephine’s in Godfrey, IL 10 am lunch and shopping

April 25: Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Tour 10:30 am. Tour will be at 1:30 after lunch at Guido’s

May 11: Legacy Banquet 6pm dinner and entertainment

May 30: Baetje Farms and lunch  9 am tour / lunch at Dew Drop Inn

June 7: Soda Museum10 am museum/Lewis & Clark lunch

June 26-27: Lincoln sites, Springfield, IL overnight/ details to follow

*Because the eligibility for driving our buses has changed, we are having difficulty getting bus drivers for our trips.  Consequently, members and regular attenders will be given priority when we can only get 1 driver.

Hope you are reading along with us in our church-wide Bible reading plan. We are reading only a chapter a day and have started in Matthew and will do the 3 synoptic gospels the first quarter. One thing I have discovered as I have aged, you can never know everything there is to know about God and His Word. We will finish the New Testament in one year and hopefully will have a greater understanding of our Mighty God. We are reading Monday-Friday so you have the weekend to catch up if you fall behind. This is an attainable goal for all of us. There will be a quiz at the end of the year!