This is truly the most wonderful time of the year as far as I am concerned! I like Thanksgiving mainly because it gets me in the right frame of mind to properly enjoy the Christ of Christmas. “If it were not for Jesus there would be no Christmas” has become the theme of my celebration this year. We enjoyed the Seniors’ Christmas provided by the Ladies Service Club, but missed the children singing about the birth of our Savior. I know there is a lot of pressure on our institutions to be politically correct and recognize this time of the year only as “the holiday season,” we must demand that our schools teach the historical truths, which would include the reason for this season is the birth of Jesus Christ!

As a community effort, we were part of the puzzle that provided 51 Thanksgiving boxes of food for needy families in our area. Because of the generosity of many people, including the Ladies Service Club, our local churches, generous benefactors, and discounts from H.E.B., we were able to make the baskets larger than before. We are planning a similar distribution on December 19 for those who sign up for the Christmas baskets by calling 361-218-6693 no later than December 17. (If there are those looking where to place a worthy cash donation, please consider the Port O’Connor Benevolence Fund, which has an account at our local bank.)

We were honored to have guest musician Ric Gorden from Oklahoma with us again this year on December 3. In spite of many of our regulars being out, we had a good crowd and truly enjoyed his message of Christmas. Pastor Jesse Alderete has been filling the pulpit for us several times in our absence because of our obligations to other area churches.

We will be celebrating Christmas on Sunday, December 17, this year. Our morning service will feature our children and at 6:00 p.m., we will begin the evening activities with an All Church Fellowship Meal of barbecue. The church will be providing the main dish and our families will be providing the sides and ”pies”! We will have our style of gift giving, which always provides a lot of laughs. We ask that any people who act like “Scrooge” to please stay home and do not hamper our celebration of Jesus’ Birthday!

On Wednesday, December 20, at 7:00 p.m., we will have our annual Christmas Hayride and Caroling. I have been informed that the school play will be the same evening, and we are saddened that the school has chosen to have such a major event on a Wednesday evening, our traditional church service day.

On Christmas Eve, we will have only one activity for the day. We will gather at the Chapel from 10:30 until noon, and give our families opportunity to spend the rest of the day with families and friends. On New Year’s Even, the schedule will be the same – one service beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Fisherman’s Chapel is an interdenominational church whose goal is to celebrate the Christ of Christmas all year long! Our service schedule includes on Sundays our 10:00 a.m. Bible Study lead by Pastor Jesse; the 11:00 a.m. Morning Service, and our 6:00 p.m. Evening Service. On Wednesday, we meet at 7:00 p.m. for a special time of inspiration. One will always find a warm welcome at the Chapel and you are urged to, “Come grow with us!”

On Friday Evening December 1, I enjoyed the most Beautiful POC Community Service Club Christmas Lunch EVER!  The decorations were “Out Of This World” and really put you in the Christmas Spirit!  The entire Port O’Connor Students presented an outstanding Christmas Musical Program, professionally led by Teacher Judy Anderson.
After the outstanding Program by the Students, everyone was treated to a feast of fine food, salads, and desserts.  Thanks to everyone for the most beautiful and professional Port O’Connor Service Club Christmas Lunch!

The Special Church Christmas Service will be this Sunday, December 17 at 11:00 AM.  The Church Choir will present the Christmas program in Bible Scripture and Music.  During the music, the Lord’s Supper will be observed and everyone is invited to participate.  This will be a very important inspirational Service.

See You In Church Sunday!!

The Cowboy Fellowship of Port Lavaca is a different kind of church. The casual and friendly atmosphere is welcoming and easy. The Bible based teaching and country gospel music is full of truth and easy to apply to daily life. The fellowship has been meeting on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM for the last year and has grown to a healthy group of committed individuals who love the theme of when Christ meets Country. Beginning January 7th Cowboy Fellowship will begin meeting at 10:45 AM each Sunday with plans for an early service when needed. Join us on January 7 for Cowboy Breakfast at 9:30 A.M. and our first morning service at 10:45 A.M.! Families with children, teens, singles and retirees are finding a home and worshipping here. All are welcome, so come and visit. Cowboy Fellowship will be celebrating Christmas Eve at 7:00 PM on December 24th with carols, candles and cookies. Come and bring your family and friends and celebrate this special time with us at Cowboy Fellowship. We are at 2411 State Highway 35 South in Port Lavaca directly behind Bucee’s. If you have questions or need more information, please go to www.cowboyfellowshipofportlavaca.com or call Pastor Mike Bender at 830-570-3444.

Port O’ Connor Improvement District has changed billing systems so please keep an eye out for your bill. If you go to www.eonlinebill.com/uswgu and create an account you can view your bill, pay your bill, view payment history, get set up with automatic bank draft, and paperless billing. If you have any billing questions or concerns, you may contact the office. The Port O’ Connor Improvement District office will be closed for Christmas Monday, December 25, 2017 and New Year’s day Monday, January 1, 2018.

With the colder temperatures residents with outside faucets or exposed water pipes, insulate pipes or turn off water to avoid a break in the line due to cold or freezing temps. Residents, who are leaving their home for the winter, please turn off water on the owner side of the water meter. Also, please verify the hot water tank is off. This will help prevent failure of the hot water tank and prevent frozen or broken lines this winter. Remember, January 2017 Port O’ Connor had freezing temperatures and several homes had damaged water lines due to the cold temperatures. Let’s try to avoid that as much as possible this year.

Please note to receive an alert in regard to POCID activities, please sign up at our website pocid.org.  It only takes a few minutes and then you will receive alerts in regard to water, sewer, storm events, outages, etc. Please sign up.. all it takes is an email address.

Call our office at 361-983-2652 for any questions.

The Next time for the Roll Off will be February 3, 2018.

All residents of Port O Connor on the Air Vac System please take time to look around your yard for possible infiltration or inflow into the sewer system.  Such as clean out caps off, your candy cane or vent is loose allowing rain water to enter into the system.  Finding these problems will help in reducing unwanted water into our sewer system.

From POCID, Happy Holidays!