From the Pastor Fair Weather Believers?

Transcription

1 From the Pastor Fair Weather Believers? June 2012 As I sit to right this article, it is Memorial Day and yesterday s 95 degree temperature made it the hottest May 27 th on record. Days like that might not lead us to curse God, but they might cause us to say, Come on, Lord, you can do better than this! Does it really need to be this hot? Do we only accept the good from God? Do we view the bad things as God s mistakes or days which he didn t put as much work into? Yesterday s heat reminded me of the prophet Jonah. In the closing chapter of Jonah, after he has preached the word in Nineveh and the people repented, Jonah becomes angry at God and goes outside the city to sit down and stew in his anger. He builds a shelter, and the next day, God provided a vine to grow up over the shelter to shade Jonah. Jonah was happy. But the next day, God sent a worm to eat through the vine and it died. The sun beat down on Jonah and the wind scorched him and he said it would be better for him to die than live. But God said to Jonah, Do you have a right to be angry about the vine? I do, he said. I am angry enough to die. But the LORD said, You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. Jonah fits the mold of a fair weather believer. When things go his way, God is alright, but if God s plans for him run against his will or seem hard or displeasing to him, then he thinks that God must hate him and want him to be miserable. He loses sight of what is really important. Jonah was so caught up in himself and his own life that he missed the bigger picture. God told Jonah that there were 120,000 people in Nineveh that couldn t tell their right hand from their left. God may have meant that there were that many small children in the city, meaning that there were millions altogether. Or, he may have meant that figuratively to say that the people in Nineveh didn t know anything about God or his promised Messiah. Either way, the message to Jonah was the same. Jonah, I care about you. But I also care about everyone else. I want them to repent. I want them to be saved. Your problems may serve another purpose my purpose. Jonah had important work to do, and so do we. Sure, we have good days and bad, hard times and easy times, days with 95 degree heat and days where it s 75 and sunny. But there are far more than 120,000 who don t know their right hand from their left. Millions don t know the Lord. Some are crying out in anguish. Others are sitting smugly in their ivory towers. Still others are searching blindly, unable to see the light of the gospel. There are times in life to plant vines and tend them. We maintain our homes and pray that disasters would not come near our tents. But may we never despair when troubles befall us. May we not give up because the blazing sun of life is beating down on our heads. Trust that the Lord will provide the vine when we need it and take it away when we don t. Meanwhile, hear the calling of your Savior to make disciples of all nations. See the fields ripe for harvest. May God always bless our efforts to bring his kingdom to the whole world. In Christ, Pastor Kuckhahn S F i f t h S t r e e t W a t e r t o w n W I w w w. t r i n i t yw a t e r t o w n. n e t S e c r e t a r y' s H o u r s M o n d a y, W e d n e s d a y, F r i d a y 9-2 t r i n i t ym a n a g e c h a r t e r. n e t Inside this issue: WIS 2 Pebbles from the ROC 3 Trinity Book Club 3 Council Highlights 4 Blood Drive 5 TSL Report 6 Treasurer's Report 7

2 Page 2 Women in Service Trinity Lutheran Church Newsletter Remember Those We Love In Memory Ray Tietz Unified Budget Elmer Nietzel TSL, Trinity Sunday School Mike Dragon Building Fund June Malewicz Unified Budget Mrytle Bartel Building Fund Bob Hansen Unified Budget Walter Watson Unified Budget Lucille Roloff Unified Budget Jean Edwards Unified Budget Matt Kruger Unified Budget Linda Dudley Unified Budget Ramona Mohr Unified Budget Trinity Women In Service met in the Parish Center Conference Room on Thursday, May 10, 2012, for their regular meeting. Nine persons were present. Hostess was Lorna Roberts. Pastor Kuckhahn opened the meeting with a Bible reading. During coffee and cookies Pastor John Braun presented a program about how the many different translations of the Bible came about. He also answered questions about the current review of several translations for future use in the Wisconsin Synod. The business meeting was opened by President Kathy Strucely. The secretary s minutes for April were accepted as printed in the May Trinity Newsletter and a few of the highlights were given. The treasurer s report for April was approved as printed with a W.I.S. balance of $ The basket collection was given to the general treasury. Thank you notes were read from Trinity Church for the memorial for Jean Edwards, from the family of Lucille Rohlhoff, and parts of a letter from the WELS Prison Ministry. Old Business: Audrey brought menu suggestions from Lindberg s On the River. The June 14 luncheon will be held there. The cost will be $12.00 which includes dessert and coffee. More information will be inserted into the service bulletin at a later date. It was also agreed to invite our two pastors and families as our guests. We hope to see many women of the congregation join us for this event. New business: We were reminded how valuable the saving of General Mills boxtops, Campbells Labels for Educa- tion, and various milk caps for money are to our TSL School. Also keep turning in cancelled stamps (especially the special ones) and pill containers. (The Medical Mission presently doesn t need pill containers, but we will keep collecting them and send them when they are needed. If they aren t needed, they will be put in a recycle bin.) More detailed information on all these projects will be put into the monthly newsletter. The next meeting will be held on June 14. There will be no business meeting or program at this luncheon. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned with the Lord s Prayer. Respectfully submitted, Phyllis Kaesermann, secretary Changes in Membership Baptisms Bently Zastrow Jacob Hawkins Confirmations Johanna Brauer Amanda Haecker Noah Kreilkamp Rebbecca Marley Ethan Maurice Tucker Nass Jonathan Thede Removal Angela (Zweig) Crandall Releases Mark Whiting Mark and Jane Pieper Funerals Lucille Roloff April 14 Jean Edwards April 29 Don Ebert May 25

3 Pebbles from the ROC Let your light shine (Matthew 5:16). As our faith lives to please our Savior God who died for us, we also hope people ask us about our faith so that we can tell them about Jesus. We thank our Lord that the ROC is regularly noticed by our community (example Krahn Award) as a place that makes a big difference. When asked why, may we always point people to Christ as their Savior from sin. Listen to a great presentation, enjoy a delicious meal and, if you wish, enjoy some golf. Please attend the ROC Youth Center Golf Outing on Sunday, June 24, 2012, golf at 3 pm, eat at 7 pm at Watertown Country Club You can Golf & Eat ($58) or just come for the dinner ($20) and a great ROC presentation. Sign a golf team up by June 15 or reserve your dinner. You are also invited to help by donating an auction item or sponsoring a hole. Maybe you also know someone who can donate an auction item. Pass the word For registration and other info. call Don at or at debartz@charter.net. THE ROC (Recreation Outreach Center) Rummage/Bake Sale is also fast approaching. Receiving for the sale will begin on Sunday July15 from 12:30-5 and July 16 through July 18 from 8-5. The sale will be Thursday, July 19 from 8-7:00 (note new later time), Friday, July 20 from 8-5 and Saturday, July 21 from The sale will again be at the Trinity St. Luke's School campus on Western Avenue. Entrance for receiving and the sale is off the playground. Muscle will be needed to pick up tables starting on Friday & Sat. July 13 and 14 and then again to return the tables on July 21 and 23. Put aside your clean, undamaged, workable items for this sale. Help is needed to receive donations, sort, display items and then work the sale assisting customers, receiving money, and to Page 3 carry out purchases. Bakers, please price your items and drop them off either on Wed. during receiving or during the sale hours. Please contact Ruth Uttech ( , rmurru@charter.net), Pam Erdman ( , perdman@gmail.com), or Joyce Zwieg ( ) with any questions or to volunteer. Please indicate your phone number and address in case we need to contact you. Many hands make the work easier and any amount of time you can donate helps! Thank you for your support of the ROC. Congratulations to Our Trinity Graduates Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 Martin Luther College Rachel Mattek, Joel Moeller, David Strucely Luther Preparatory School Kamilla Thoma Lakeside Lutheran High School Brienna Braunschweig, Emilie Kreilkamp, Amber Mayer Trinity-St. Luke s Johanna Brauer, Noah Kreilkamp, Rebecca Marley, Ethan Maurice, Tucker Nass, Jonathan Thede Riverside Middle School Amanda Haecker UW-Oshkosh Jared Putz UW-Whitewater Danielle Ellwein Watertown High School Anthony Blasé, Michael Cain, Morgan Meyer, Andrew Roberts, Megan Winkelman Trinity Book Club The Trinity Book Club will be taking off the month of June. This will give us a chance to sit back and relax with our July selection, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler s Berlin by Erik Larson. The group will discuss the book on July 13 at the home of Steve and Kathy Strucely at 7 pm. We are always looking for new members. For more information contact Sally Heins at

4 Trinity Lutheran Church Council Highlights - May 2012 Page 4 Ministry Report. The Worship Committee is reviewing the use of Divine Service I, and is also working on tune-up and repair of the organ. The Trinity Teens have a number of activities planned for summer, including trips to Six Flags and the WELS International Youth Rally. Executive Committee. President Jim Schwartz is continuing to seek a replacement for the position of Trustees chairman. In the meantime, the Executive Committee is working with the Trustees to ensure that facility needs are addressed. Board of Elders. Members are encouraged to remain regular in worship over the summer. The Elders are continuing to visit members of concern. Board for Stewardship. The board is reviewing and updating the Time and Talent survey. They have also reviewed the revised stewardship booklet. Another Heart in Focus class is planned for the fall. Board for Evangelism. Scott Heins is the contact for submitting events and activities to be promoted on the church website. The board is working on updating the assimilation process for new members and developing a laminated worship guide for visitors. TSL Joint Board of Education. Alex Moore was assigned to TSL as a new teacher at the recent MLC call service. The Clark Street gym floor will be refinished over the summer. The board adopted the school calendar for Board of Trustees. The Trustees will discuss the possibility of a summer clean-up day at church. A sign-up sheet will be put out for those interested in mowing. Board for Spiritual Growth. The board is making plans for Family Bible Week this summer. The Council suggested that consideration be given to offering options to members for Bible study during the summer. (condensed from Council minutes recorded by Steve Strucely, secretary) Trinity Teens Head for International Youth Rally On June 26, 10 teens and 3 chaperones from Trinity will head to Knoxville, TN to the WELS International Youth Rally. On the way there, they will stop at a mission congregation in Kentucky to help distribute flyers to the neighborhood around their new church. Once in Tennessee, the teens will enjoy worship with a thousand other teens and participate in a wide variety of workshops, lectures and fun activities. The group will return on June 30 th. A small amount of the funds needed for this trip were provided by the teens and their parents, but the vast majority is covered by your donations given every time the teens serve a fellowship meal or provide a service like the Christmas luminaries. Thanks for helping to make this trip a reality.

5 Helping Fellow Members in Need As we hear on the news repeatedly, times in America are hard, so it's no surprise to any of us that there are a number of struggling families sitting right beside us every Sunday at church. Many of us think, "I wish there were something I could do to help, but how far would my help go among so many?" Isn't that exactly what Andrew asked when Jesus told him to provide food for the 5,000? But Jesus replied, "What DO you have? Go and see." Page 5 What if there were 100 families in church on Sunday who took Jesus' advice, and went and saw that they each had $1 in their purse or wallet. Combined, that would be $100 that we could use to help a struggling family in our midst. Maybe 25 of those families found a spare dollar in the husband's wallet and another spare dollar in the wife's. Combined, that would total $125 that week. Would you consider being one of the 100 families who goes and sees if you have one or two dollars to contribute each Sunday to be combined with one or two dollars from the other 99 families to help a struggling family? This isn't an appeal for a one-time gift, but for a regular, weekly gift of one or two dollars, over and above your weekly sacrifical gift for the support of the gospel of forgiveness for the sake of Jesus' perfect life, innocent death, and glorious, joyous resurrection. What did Andrew find when he went to see: 5 loaves and 2 small fish for 5,000 men. And with God, it was enough, more than enough! God's power today is no less mighty, he can make your one or two dollars per week enough to feed struggling families at Trinity. Watch for more information. Why Donate Blood? Consider these needs in our area and you may be motivated. It s not unusual for a liver transplant to use as many as forty pints of red blood cells and thirty pints of platelets. Last year, a liver transplant was performed locally in which the patient needed more than fifty units of A positive blood, and the Blood- Center of Wisconsin was happy to say that donors who support this vital program saved the patient s life! A firefighter in one of our local communities was blessed with the addition of new baby to his family. The infant required an immediate life-saving transfusion of all its blood to keep him alive, and fortunately he is doing well. It s donors like you who participate in our on-site drives that make saving lives possible and the young firefighter wants to express his gratitude to donors everywhere. The transplant patient is so grateful as well, and was fortunate to have his transplant here. BloodCenter of Wisconsin is the sole supplier of blood and blood products for liver transplants and other surgeries in hospitals in twenty-nine counties throughout Wisconsin. The next blood drive to be held here at Trinity will be Thursday, June 21 from 1 6 pm. Let s meet our goal of 49 units while we help our neighbors. Signup sheets will be available in the Fireside Room. Volunteers are always needed for publicity and assisting on the day of the drive. If you would like to help, please contact Becky Knauth at

6 Page 6 Trinity Lutheran Church Newsletter TSL Called Worker Staffing for With the return of the divine call that was extended to Mr. Jason Schmidt of Omaha, NE, to serve as seventh and eighth grade teacher and Technology Director, a request has been made to the Assignment Committee of the WELS for a graduate to be assigned to TSL. The Assignment Committee will be meeting on May at Martin Luther College. We pray the Lord of the Church would bless their efforts as they assign candidates to schools throughout the nation as well as to our school. What are we requesting? First and foremost we are requesting a teacher who will instruct and train the children of our congregations in the chief truths of the Word of God as they are revealed in the Scripture and set forth particularly in the Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther. We desire a teacher who will teach the children thoroughly in the elementary branches of learning in the spirit of the gospel. We want a teacher who will maintain Christian discipline in the school, serve the congregations as an example by his/her Christian conduct, and who earnestly endeavors to live in Christian harmony with the pastors who serve as the called shepherds of our congregations. A teacher who will submit to the supervision of the pastor and others who are responsible for the conduct of the school, and with the help of God do everything within the limits of his/her call for the general advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Specifically we have requested either a male or female graduate who will currently serve in the upper grades as one of the seventh and eighth grades departmentalized teachers. We have also asked that this teacher serve as teacher of technology in grades 5-8 using the curriculum we have developed. We will ask the graduate who is assigned to us to consider the position of technology director. If the teacher decides that he/she possesses the talents and desire to serve in this position, we have budgeted funds for professional growth in this area with classes and workshops. Under a resolution of the WELS Conference of Presidents, all graduate teachers assigned to the three Wisconsin districts must be assigned a mentor through the mentoring program of the Commission on Lutheran Schools (CLS). To assist with this process and to help defray the cost of training the mentors, TSL will be paying $1,000 a year for the first two years of the teacher s ministry to the WELS CLS. We want our teacher to be off to a good start; the first priority of a beginning teacher is to learn their classrooms and the school s culture and background. We patiently wait to see how the Lord will fill our need for a teacher. [Update: Since the submission of this article, the Assignment Committee has assigned to Trinity-St. Luke s Lutheran School Mr. Alex Moore. He will serve as grades 7-8 teacher and technology director. He is from Aurora, Illinois, and graduated from Luther Prep in His starting date will be July 1.] TSL Budget for the FY Both congregations will be asked to adopt as a part of the congregational budgets the TSL budget for the upcoming fiscal year. As in years past we have tried to make the school s budgetary impact as small as possible. However, in order to run a school in these times there are certain items that must be budgeted to make the operation of an educational institution viable. The school budget summary shows increases in expenditures for items like standardized testing, summer floor maintenance, as well as other items deleted from the previous year s budget. A 2% increase in salary is proposed for both called and hired workers. For several years since the budget year there have no been pay increases, or they have been cost of living increases. (cont. on page 7)

7 Page 7 On the income side it was decided to raise the student fee $50.00 per child for the upcoming school year. This was done to offset the impact of the budget on the congregations. TSL will continue to make every attempt to be prudent and wise stewards of the financial gifts that are used to operate the school and received through the congregations and the anticipated funds of fees and tuitions. May the Lord bless our efforts. Anniversaries At the conclusion of this current school year both Mr. Gregg Birkholz and Mr. Brian Maurice will have completed twenty-five years of service in the teaching ministry. Both are 1987 graduates of Dr. Martin Luther College. Mr. Birkholz was assigned to Trinity Lutheran Church upon graduation to serve at TSL for one year as seventh and eighth grade teacher in the school year. When the enrollment of the school grew, and the principal that had been called accepted the call, Mr. Birkholz s call was made permanent, and he began teaching fourth grade, which he has taught ever since. Upon graduation Mr. Maurice was assigned to Eastside Lutheran School in Madison. After several years he accepted the call to serve at the Martin Luther School in the Czech Republic where he and Mrs. Maurice lived for three years. In 1996 he accepted Trinity s call to serve as eighth grade teacher and is currently teaching one of the seventh and eighth grade homerooms. We thank both men for their faithful service to our congregations and schools. We pray the Lord s continued blessings on their ministries in the years to come. Treasurer s Repor t Update on the Eunice Draeger Estate Funds Total funds received $371, Projects Funded to Date Church Furnace/Boiler repair and replacement $57, Church Ixonia State Bank (ISB) line of credit paid off $45, Church water heaters replaced, water softener installed $2, Church Debt reduction Pay down mortgage $65, Pay off some Member loans $35, TSL water softener replaced $1, TSL hot water boiler replaced with efficient water heater $5, TSL lighting upgrades $5, Total $217, Remaining funds $153, Special Offering for Debt Reduction A special offering for debt reduction was approved by the voters at the May 20 meeting. The voters approved the resolution that $100,000 from the Draeger estate be allocated to reduce the long-term debt (church mortgage and member loans). Members are invited to offer special gifts to further reduce long-term debt by using their church envelope designated for category. Reduction of the debt will decrease our mortgage payment by as much as $1,000 per month, allow us to redistribute our member loans, and reduce our total debt over a period of time. The deadline for contributing to the program is Sunday, June 24. May our risen and ascended Lord move you to consider your participation in this offering.

8 Trinity Lutheran Church 604 S Fifth Street Watertown WI PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID WATERTOWN WI PERMIT NO. 120 Summer Bible Study Schedule found on back of calendar Pastor Brett Brauer trinitypastor@charter.net CELL: HOME: TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH Church Office trinitymanager@charter.net net Sunday Worship Services 8 & 9:30 am Pastor Paul Kuckhahn trinitypastork@charter.net CELL: HOME: Wednesday Worship Service 6:30 pm