Announcements - October 18, 2015

• Church prayer meetings are held every Sunday at 10:30am at the office. All are encouraged and welcome to attend. 
• Worship duties list is posted on the church website. Please contact Deacon Peter, Deacon Justin or the church secretary if you are not available for the duties. Please do not make changes on your own.  
• Try to use offering envelopes for your tithe and offering. If you have forgotten your offering number, please contact the church office. 
• Pastor Gladys is away on vacation from Oct 14-28, during these times if there are any emergencies please contact Pastor Alan or EM deacons (Peter and Justin). 
• Guest speaker today is Brent Weick, our ex-youth director of the denomination. 
• Monthly bulletin has been posted on the bulletin board. Please check it out for important announcements. 
• Operation Christmas Child empty shoe boxes will be distributed on today during worship service and please take note of the followings: 

1. if you take one of the folded shoeboxes on stage, it comes with an English brochure inside the box. 
2. if you take the unfolded one on the table at the back of the hall, please take a brochure (there are English & Simplified Chinese brochures for your choice) 
3. you can also use your own box - suggested is the transparent plastic shoebox so that the child receiving it can re-use it (it can buy from Walmart, London Drug, JYSK etc) 
4. new this year: 1) do not put candy of any kind in the shoebox; 2) there are 2 sets of 'boy/girl' labels in the English brochure, you may only need one brochure for multiple boxes 
5. please bring back the gift-filled shoebox on November 15 

• WBC301 will resume classes on November 1 at 1:00pm.This course is for baptized members who want to find out their spiritual gifts and a place of ministry at Westside. 
• For those who are new to Westside and if you have not filled out a guest record form, please get one from our ushers. Also contact Pastor Gladys or one of our SG leaders if you want to know more about us or join our small groups. 
• The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program is started as a bridge to reach out to the community. It is suitable for teens and youth ages 14 - 19. The registration fee per participant per year is $100. Please invite youths who fall in this age group to attend and get more information about the program. If you are interested to know more about this program or in helping out, please contact the coordinator, Kenald Yu or the co-leader, Carson Lai. Also please pray for God’s guidance in the development of this new ministry. The next meeting will be November 1 at 2:30pm. 
• Meditation retreat will be held on November 22. Details and sign-up sheet have been posted on the bulletin board. 
• The church fall cleaning will commence soon, deacon Lily Liu will contact the groups accordingly and the cleaning is aimed to be done before the end of November. 
• Christmas Celebration events: Clothing drive (coordinator: Maggie Leung) will be on December 6 – 13. Christmas Charity Dinner (coordinator: Deacon Keddy Au Yeung and Samson Chan) will be on December 20. Dinner tickets are $15 per adult and $8 per child age 4-10. Net proceeds from all fundraiser events will be for aiding the Syrian refugees. 
• 2016-2018 Deaconship Election 
• Existing deacons are Keddy Au Yeung, Samson Chan, Justin Chen, Peter Cheung, Godfrey Leung, Lily Liu and Tsz-Lam Mak. 
• Justin Chen (1st term), Lily Liu (1st term), Tsz-Lam Mak (1st term) deaconship will be ended on December 31, 2015. Therefore, new deacons will be elected to replace the vacant in 2016. 
• Nomination Committee: 
• Deacon Rep: Justin Chen, Samson Chan, Godfrey Leung 
• Congregation Rep: Doris Lee, Kelly Lo, Cannis Wan 
• Criteria and procedure for deacon election has been posted on the bulletin board. The application forms are available with the church secretary. 
• Timetable: 
• September 6 Nomination commences 
• October 25 Nomination closes 
• November 15 Publication of final deaconship candidate list 
• November 29 Deaconship election