{"id":4987,"date":"2014-12-01T13:20:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T17:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=4987"},"modified":"2014-12-21T22:36:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T02:36:50","slug":"pumc-kicks-off-and-steps-off-in-pitman-christmas-parade-112914","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=4987","title":{"rendered":"PUMC Kicks Off and Steps Off in Pitman Christmas Parade (11\/29\/14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Christ<\/a>One of Pitman’s finest traditions comes on the Saturday before the first week in Advent<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 People from all over take part in the annual Christmas Parade, and then everyone heads over to the Hagerty’s to see the opening of their annual Christmas lights display.\u00a0 The parade starts in our parking lot and then continues down Broadway, through the downtown area, and then ends smewhere around Ballard Park.<\/p>\n

This year, in addition to hosting the parade’s starting point, we entered our own float<\/a><\/span> and marched in the parade.\u00a0 Along the way we handed out zip lock bags containing a Advent Event Schedule<\/a><\/span> bookmark along with a”Whistle” (a decorative piece of wood reminding us that “Unto Us a Child is Born.”)\u00a0 Over 900 of these handouts were given out along the route!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Getting our Float Ready…<\/span><\/h3>\n

The words “Christ” and “Mas” literally mean “a celebration of Christ,” and our float celebrated the birth of the Christ child.\u00a0 The front half of the float featured our “Christmas Parade Praise Band,” while a live Nativity with Mary and Joseph at the end of the float reminded everyone of the birthday we’re celebrating.\u00a0 Throughout the parade, the Band played some familiar Christmas Carols (to a slightly unfamiliar beat).<\/p>\n

Here are some pictures of our float and “Marchers” before the parade began:<\/p>\n\n\t\t

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\"\" <\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\n

 <\/p>\n

PUMC- the Parade’s “Staging Area”…<\/span><\/h3>\n

Our parking lot has always been the place where floats gather and marchers make last minute preparations before “stepping off” into the parade.\u00a0 In fact, even before our church was built, this ground was used for the same purpose.\u00a0 Ours wasn’t the only float gracing our parking lot.\u00a0 Here’s a tour around the parking lot as other floats and organizations prepared for the parade:<\/p>\n\n\t\t

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\"\" <\/span><\/div> \n\t\t
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\"\" <\/span><\/div> \n\t\t
\"\" <\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\n

 <\/p>\n

Marching Down Broadway!<\/span><\/h3>\n

The generators were running, the guitars were tuned, and everyone was ready to go.\u00a0 When the time came, we all started walking down Broadway.\u00a0 Here are a few views of the parade along the route:<\/p>\n\n\t\t

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\"\" <\/span><\/div> \n\t\t
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\"\" <\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\n

 <\/p>\n

Keep Christ in Christmas!<\/span><\/h2>\n

Christmas means a lot of different things to different people.\u00a0 For most of us it is a time\u00a0 of family, giving, and joy.\u00a0 For others it is just another day<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 But for Christians it is a reminder of how much God loves us.\u00a0 Humanity had (and “has”) gone so far off track that God had no other choice than to either wipe us out or to come down to earth Himself and show us how to live.\u00a0 Not only did He come to earth Himself to teach us, he came down to die for our sins!\u00a0 Take a fresh look at John 3:16<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

God is super amazing<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 Christmas is a time to Celebrate Christ and God’s amazing grace and\u00a0 love.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Christmas<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Pitman’s finest traditions comes on the Saturday before the first week in Advent.\u00a0 People from all over take part in the annual Christmas Parade, and then everyone heads over to the Hagerty’s to see the opening of their annual Christmas lights display.\u00a0 The parade starts in our parking lot and then continues down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,55],"tags":[123,83],"class_list":["post-4987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evrpt","category-mission-aroundtowns","tag-christmas","tag-towns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4987"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5000,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987\/revisions\/5000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}