Foothills Congregational Church, United Church of Christ

461 Orange Avenue, Los Altos, California 94022 (650) 948-8430

October 28, 2008

Dear Members and Friends of Foothills Church,

This letter is about positivism and the possibilities, growth and creativity that it offers us. A resounding, heartfelt and consistent YES! in attitude and action takes us far whereas a shorter NO keeps us stagnant and uninspired. Our Stewardship theme for 2008 is YES! to our Future, a catalyst statement of simple words and positive momentum reflecting our YES³ philosophy. As Foothills Church, as a community and as individuals we have so many strengths to appreciate, be proud of, and leverage forward into our preferred future.

We are an active group, a probing and stimulating assemblage of individuals who relish our little church: our exceptional ministerial staff; the steady growth of our Children’s and Middle School Fellowship programs; the stream of new visitors who “are welcome here”; our note-worthy complement of music, educational, service and outreach opportunities. We have so many gifts, and we so enjoy sharing with others our time, talents and treasure. Think of the joy we experienced in providing scholarships to children from Community Services Agency for our summer Arts Camp and how much they enriched it. Think, too, of our Jail Ministry and of the Care and Comfort program that supports our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We clearly do say YES! to God, to one another in our community, and to ourselves. YES! to our Future is the way we want to live our lives. We can mobilize all our wondrous and life-giving talents, attitudes and resources into more energy, more creativity, more successes.

We acknowledge that these are worrisome times. Now, more than ever, it is important to have Foothills and its ministries here to comfort us and our community and to remind us of God’s love. It is more important now, too, to be positive and committed to the important YESes in our lives. In the spirit of our Three-fold YES!, we are suggesting a 3% increase in your annual pledge to ensure we can offer a cost of living increase to our extraordinary staff and continue to provide programs that support our members and our community.

Please return your 2009 pledge card no later than Stewardship Sunday, November 16. You may mail it in, place it in the offering plate or drop it by the office. We will also have blank cards/envelopes available during coffee hour. We want to make this easy for you. We need to have firm pledges in hand before any 2009 budgeting can begin. To ensure you do not begin to receive phone reminders, turn in your pledge cards promptly. Call us if you have any questions, concerns or special needs.

Thank you for saying YES! To our FUTURE.

2009 Stewardship Committee: Bonnie Adams, Linda Cole, Melissa King and Dave Schricker