So many thoughtful acts go unnoticed throughout the year. Did you know that 30 poinsettias were hand delivered to members of Faith Lutheran this year? The delivery list included shut-ins, assisted living residents, and nursing home residents, and this mission outreach stretched beyond Hutchinson — to Litchfield, Hector, Dassel, Stewart, and Buffalo Lake. Thanks to Muriel Dobratz for taking care of these deliveries and visiting the recipients over the years. She couldn’t remember how long she’s been delivering the plants (she used to deliver with her late husband, ElRoy), but she said the deliveries have been going on for years.
12 Days Left of 2012
Did you know… there are only 12 days left of 2012? As a final touch to our focus on giving in 2012 (“Give-12“), we’re mailing out a “Joy to the World” offering envelope. Members of Faith should receive the envelopes in a couple of days. As you consider your Christmas offering or end of the year gift to Faith Lutheran, we are calling on all members and friends of the church.The “Joy” offering envelopes will also be available in the announcement bulletins and in the pews now through January 31.
We hope you’ve heard by now, either from reports in the weekly bulletins or from our “Financial Forecaster” Ian McDonald, that Faith Lutheran is facing a significant shortfall in offerings this year. We hope that many of you will respond to this CRITICAL NEED. God has blessed us and called us indeed to bring JOY to the world. We ask that you prayerfully consider a one-time, extra, or catch-up JOY OFFERING to help us meet our mission commitments and ministry goals.
Learn more about just some of the ministries of Faith Lutheran: Youth, Kids, Missions, Sermons
Camp Penuel December Newsletter
In just a 13 days, Faith Lutheran will send a group of young adults to Camp Penuel in Costa Rica to help run a kids camp for the first week in January. You’ll hear so much more about Camp Penuel and the mission trip after the group returns. For now, we invite you to take a look at the December 2012 newsletter from the camp and learn more about the mission destination to which the group is traveling.
Included in the newsletter is information about new 2013 projects at the camp, including:
- a tree house,
- remodeled basketball and tennis courts
- a memorial garden
- advancement to the camp’s farm to improve the dairy herd and clean living conditions for the animals. Cheese sales have been successful and the camp is looking to make the garden more productive and to lower their food expenses.
You can also read a special greeting from Paul Bernhagen, who runs the camp, and you can learn about the “Camperships” $20 scholarship program for campers.
Preparing for Mission
[Megan Anderson reflects on the importance of mission work as she and six others prepare for a January 2013 young adult mission trip to Costa Rica. The group will help at Camp Penuel, a free Christian camp for Costa Rican children, for a week.]
My sister and her husband (Rachel and Jon Kamrath) are members at Faith, and they are the reason I heard about the trip. As soon as I received the e-mail saying Faith Lutheran was planning a mission trip to Costa Rica for college-aged young adults, in a Spanish-speaking country, doing Kingdom-building work, I was all-in. You see, I have had a passion for the Spanish language (and those who speak it) for years. I studied it all through high school, majored in it in college, and am currently living in Spain for three months to improve my fluency.
In addition to building language skills, college was a time of huge spiritual growth for me, and an opportunity like this one to further build my faith seemed too good to pass up. Coming up with time and money for a mission trip can be difficult, but I believe it’s completely worth it. My grandpa Harvey Johnson once wrote that “showing the love of God has done something for the inner soul that is hard to describe.” Outward costs are often easy to see, but unseen benefits can be enormous. When we put our time, money and hearts on the line working to bring God’s kingdom a little closer to earth, God blesses our efforts. We aren’t usually very good at loving our neighbors, but with God’s help we can truly make a difference.
Every action we choose shapes who we become. This is always true, but I think as young people this is especially true. Now is the opportune time to chose activities that will make us more Christ-like, and set us apart as Christians living out a genuine faith. On behalf of those going on the trip, I thank you all for your support and prayers as we set out on this weeklong, Spirit-filled adventure.
Live Christmas
As staff and leaders, part of our Advent preparation includes plans for the many ways we celebrate the birth of our Lord. This is all designed to help us reflect on this deep and powerful mystery of the Word that became flesh and lived among us. What does “The Word became flesh” really mean? I will resist a brief theological treatise and simply invite you to live it – LIVE!
“The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have beheld his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
Christmas: Giving
“They offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11)
Primarily due to the story of the magi, we think of Christmas as a time of giving. And that giving takes on many forms. As you read this, Operation Christmas Child gifts are well on their way — these gifts are received by children all over the world.
Christmas: Experience
“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus… and she gave birth to her firstborn son… and laid him in a manger. (Luke 2: 1,7)
This is a story that takes place in history. And so, we can imagine the commotion of traveling to one’s own town to be registered. There was confusion and crowds and “no place for them in the inn.” To help us imagine and experience this, there are two opportunities to experience this story: Nov. 28 – “Walk to Bethlehem” and Dec. 19 -“Live Nativity.”
Christmas: Outreach
“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard.”
(Luke 2:20)
There is something about this story that make us want to sing and tell it. It is not the kind of thing you can contain or keep to yourself. So it is to this day. On Dec. 5, we all have this opportunity to reach out with an evening of caroling to others in our Faith community.
Christmas: Singing
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God.” (Luke 2:13)
Music and singing are powerful parts of the Christmas story. Some of the most powerful hymns, songs, and carols are associated with Christmas. On Dec. 9, we will gather for our annual Christmas Concert. It is a wonderful evening of music and song!
Christmas: Surprise
“And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.” (Matthew 1:31)
Of all the ways God might reveal Himself to us, who would even imagine an infant child! And since that time God has continued to surprise us with the way He comes to us. Ever since Bethlehem, the place of children in the story of God is prominent. And so it is that we count on children to tell us this story. There are two opportunities for this: on Dec.12 we will hear the witness of our Preschool-Kindergarten students, and on Dec. 16., our 1st – 6th graders.
Christmas: Worship
“They knelt down and paid him homage.” (Matthew 2:11)
Finally, all our preparations for Christmas culminate in worship. Like all the characters in this grand story, we give to God our thanks and praise and worship. What else can we do? There are five opportunities to worship and celebrate the birth of our Lord: Dec. 24 @ 2, 4, 6 and 11 p.m. and Dec. 25 @ 10 a.m.
Prepare yourself to meet the Lord!
In Christ,
Pastor Randy Freund
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 154
- 155
- 156
- 157
- 158
- …
- 181
- Next Page »