Commandments & Covenants

Transcription

1 March 2018 Newsletter Commandments & Covenants In Mark 12, a scribe comes to ask Jesus, Which commandment is the first of all? Jesus responds to the scribe s question with words from the Shema, a passage from Deuteronomy 6 that is recited daily by many of the Jewish faith (see image below). These words form a covenant between God and God s people and show us a way to respond to this God who so extravagantly loves us through the cross. Throughout Lent, we are invited return to the Lord with our whole hearts, and reflect once again on the covenant God created with us through Christ s death on the cross. Worship includes a 5-week sermon series designed to remind us of God s commandments to Love God with our heart and mind and soul and strength. Worship also includes several specific prayers written just for the Lenten season, and which include the following phrases (among others): Create in us clean hearts Almighty God have mercy on us Receive the offering of our lives, that following in the way of the cross we may know the joy of your resurrection May our fasting be a hunger for justice, our alms a making of peace, and our prayer, the song of grateful hearts Our prayers, our sermons, and our Psalms are all designed to prepare our minds and hearts and souls for the events of Passion/ Holy Week. Of course, we will never truly understand what Jesus went through for us, but we can receive God s gift of covenant love, and respond by loving God with our whole lives and hearts and souls and mind and strength. Please join us for worship Sundays, Wednesdays, and Holy Week, and consider participating in one of the many special events and mission projects we are highlighting throughout the newsletter this month. Pastor Kelly Nieman Anderson Shannon Stoker, Parish Administrator Beki Tetzlaff & Dawn Zirtzlaff, pastorkelly@livinghopesaukville.org shannon@livinghopesaukville.org Here We Grow Directors herewegrow@livinghopesaukville.org

2 Midweek Lenten Opportunities February 21-March 21 5:30pm Soup & Study at Living Hope 6pm Dinner/7pm Drama & Song at Christ the King Palm Sunday, March 25 8:30am Worship Service at Christ the King 10:30am Worship Service at Living Hope Maundy Thursday, March 29 5:30pm Dinner & Communion at Living Hope 7pm Worship & Communion at Christ the King Good Friday, March 30 12:30pm-4:30pm Community Blood Drive 5:30pm Good Friday Service at Living Hope Easter Sunday, April 1 8:30am Worship Service at Christ the King 10:30am Worship Service at Living Hope A MISSION OF LIVING HOPE LUTHERAN CHURCH herewegrow@livinghopesaukville.org Phone (262) Here We Grow & Living Hope Celebrating Lutheran Schools Week March 5 th -11th The theme this year is Its All About Jesus. We will be doing some fun activities including, Living Hope Scavenger Hunt, Heart pictures for prime horizon friends, a sing-a-long with Prime Horizon Clients (thank you Deb), and special God s Eye s project with Hearts to Hands volunteers.(thank you Cathy and Sonia) The Here We Grow kiddos will be singing at service on March 11 th with the Sunday school choir. Here We Grow staff volunteers will be serving Lenten Dinner on March 7 th 2 th.

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4 Sanctuary Chair Repairs We need our Sanctuary Chair Repair person(s) or team to spring into action. We seem to be out of replacement chairs for chairs with wobbly legs. Thank you. You re Invited...to a Save, Share, Spend Family Workshop Please join us on Sunday April 29 at 9:15am in the Fellowship Hall for a dynamic workshop called Save, Share, Spend, hosted by Thrivent Financial. This workshop is specifically designed for Christians of all ages (there will be separate workshops for kids and adults) to learn more about using our money to create positive change in our families, our churches, and our communities. You do not have to be a current Thrivent Member to attend. Did you Know? Thrivent Financial is a membership organization which helps Christians use their money for good in our community and our world. Thrivent Financial helps their members show God s love to others through financial strategies that help Christians be wise with money and live generously. More Information is available here: 4

5 Living Hope Feed My Starving Children 2018 Here is an event that is coming up for Living Hope that if you can volunteer a little money and a couple hours of your time, will make a huge difference in the life of a child living with hunger somewhere in the world. What is Feed My Starving Children: Founded in 1987, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is a Christian non-profit that provides nutritionally complete meals specifically formulated for malnourished children. Our process is simple. Donations given by people just like you fund the meal ingredients. Volunteers hand-pack all of the meals at Mobile Pack and Fixed Site locations all over the U.S. Meals are donated to FMSC food partners around the world, where kids are fed and lives are saved! To date, over 2 billion meals have been packaged. To Volunteer: Jeff Irish has reserved a total of 40 spots for shifts on Saturday, April 14, Shift 1: 08:00am to 10:00am (18 spots currently available) Use this link: Shift 2: 11:00am to 1:00pm (11 spots currently available) Use this link: Do you want other options? Would you like to work multiple shifts/different days? There are other shifts available in this Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) Mobile Pack Event. To see what else is open visit this site: When you get there, click on the "Become a Volunteer" option. To be a volunteer you have to be at least 5 years old. While most of the jobs in the event require standing, not all of the jobs do. If you volunteer we will find a place for you to help. To Donate: Visit our Fundraiser Team page: Give a check written to FMSC or cash to Pastor Kelly or Jeff Irish It only takes is 23 cents to pay for one meal. If you are so blessed here are some higher amounts to keep in mind: Feed a child for one year for $80. Sponsor a full box (648 meals) for $150. Feed a family of 4 for one year for $365. Jeff Irish jeffrey.irish@gmail.com cell:

6 Announcing the Formation of an Ecumenical Youth Group Planning Team Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Leave the children alone, and don't try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Recently five (5) Churches in the Port Washington/Saukville area came together to envision what a shared ecumenical Youth Group would look like. The team is made up of laity and pastors from Christ the King Lutheran Church, First Congregational Church, Grand Avenue United Methodist Church, Living Hope Lutheran Church, and Parkside Community United Church of Christ. As we got to know each other, we found that each congregation shared a similar dream for a vibrant Christian youth program. Each congregation has struggled with implementing their own program due to limited resources. Each congregation has a lot to bring to a shared program. We also found that we genuinely liked working with each other. The team has engaged with a professional facilitator to lead us through the process of developing our vision for a quality and sustainable program that would operate with the upmost integrity. We have developed the following: Our churches see the need for a vibrant Christian group that welcomes youth of all faith backgrounds. By combining resources, we know we can provide progressive and relevant experiences that promote character development in this changing world. We intend to create an environment where youth feel safe asking questions and building relationships with God and with each other. Anyone interested in joining the joint leadership team for this most important work is asked to contact Pastor Janet or Dan Benning. The team would like to begin offering programming and mission outreach opportunities in the Fall of

7 March 2018 Please note the following dates: Thursdays March 1 & 15 Thursdays April 5 & 19 Thursdays May 3 & 17 The Miracle of Mercy Did you know that mercy is God s number one characteristic in the Bible? The world portrays God as a God of anger & judgement. But God shows himself first and foremost as a God of mercy. If mercy is God s number one characteristic that he reveals to us in the Bible if that is the most important thing he wants us to know about him then it must be the most important thing he wants us to learn about Him. And it must also be the most important character trait that God wants to develop in us. Jesus said Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Matthew 5:7 Rick Warren will lead us in this six-session study on DVD. He is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church, one of the largest churches in the world and author of The Purpose Driven Life. Please join us as we begin our new DVD study The Miracle of Mercy on Thursday March 15. GOD S EYE Hearts to Hands 7 th annual retreat was held on a cold but beautiful snowy day outside while the Higgins home inside was filled with the peaceful warmth of knitting/crocheting projects cozy on our laps, the warmth of tasty stone soup and a fellowship in Christ. We are thankful to the Higgins for opening their lovely home to us and to Cathy Higgins & Pastor Kelly in leading us in insightful conversations about seeing others through God s eyes. We also learned to make God s Eyes as a tangible reminder. In the pictures below, see our capable teacher Cathy with her serious students and our finished projects. 7

8 Remembering His words, Love one another, Hearts to Hands regularly meets to knit and crochet for others while sharing fellowship and devotional time. We continue to meet at church on the 1st & 3rd Thursday of each month. We will share fellowship time at 6:30 PM and begin our study about 7:15 PM followed by prayers, concluding about 8:30 PM. Join us! All are welcome, even if you don t knit or crochet. We encourage you to come, participate in the fellowship and Bible/ devotional study. Please feel welcome to come, share in fellowship and grow in faith. If you are in need of child care in order to attend, please let us know. If you have any other questions, please call Cathy at or Julie at We look forward to having you join us! Hearts to Hands uses the Living Hope mailbox, #166. 8

9 Items needed for the Food Pantry March 4, 2018 Cereal Muffin Mixes Gravy/Broth Chili Beans Manwich Rice Snak-Pak Pudding, Reg & Lite Coffee Pull-Ups 4T 5T Shampoo, 12 oz Paper Towels March 11, 2018 Sugar Progresso Soups Canned Chicken Dried Beans Knorr Pasta or Rice Sides Pancake Syrup Jam/Jelly, Lite & Reg Diapers, 4, 5, 6, 7 Oil, 16 oz Toilet Paper March 18, 2018 Chili Flour Beef Stew Hamburger Helper Scalloped Potatoes Mayonnaise Graham Crackers Coffee Salt Detergent Liquid Hand Soap, small March 25, 2018 Cereal Healthy Choice Soups Canned Meats Spices, Chili Powder, Basil, Oregano Manwich Dried Beans Fruit Cups, Lite & Reg Shampoo, 12 oz Toothpaste Diapers, 4,5,6,7 Paper Towels Food Pantry Statistics for February The Food Pantry was busy again in February. We closed out our fiscal year on February 28 th and will now begin the re-registering of all our clients this Tuesday. We were very happy to work out some solutions with Fox Brothers Piggly Wiggly for our clients. We were also very sad to say good bye to our friends at Sanfilippo s Sentry. Our client numbers dropped for 2 weeks in February but started coming back to normal by month s end. I know I am not alone in hoping the renovation of the soon-to-be Piggly Wiggly store in Port will go quickly. For the month of February we: Served 206 families; welcoming another new client family Distributed 6, pounds of food and household & personal items Redeemed 202 Sentry Milk Certificates for $ and 20 Piggly Wiggly Milk coupons for $34.90 Redeemed $ in Piggly Wiggly coupons for non-taxable food items We received 1, pounds of food and $3, in cash donations. Our Expenses for February were $2, Your continued support of the Food Pantry is very heartwarming. God bless all of you as we start a new fiscal year. Chris Flint, Director H: North Wisconsin Street. Port Washington, Wisconsin

10 Living Hope Calendar County New Horizons Band Rehearsal 5:30 PM Maundy Thursday Dinner/ Service 8:00 PM AA Meeting 5:30 PM Good Friday Service Prayer Chain If you would like to request prayer or receive prayer requests through the Prayer Chain, please contact coordinator, Chris Koss, at 10

11 Please visit us on Facebook or on our church website for more information on upcoming events: 11