December 2018 Newsletter St. Mark Lutheran Church 21 S. Baird Avenue, Rhinelander, WI 54501 (715-362-2470) In this issue: Pastoral Letter Holy Communion Ladies Prayer Lunch Scrip Program December Birthdays Missionary News Monthly Group Gatherings Dec. Volunteer Schedule Dec. Altar Guild, Trustee, and Counters Schedule Officers and Boards for 2018 December Calendar From the Pastor Lift up your heads, O you Gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory my come in. Psalm 24:7 This is the season for UPS, the Post office, and Fed Ex to deliver millions of packages. In their rush to get everything delivered on time, they often have permission to simply leave the package on the front steps. The owner of the house needs to be aware that the package is going to be delivered and watch for it to come. My guess is that quite a few packages never make it inside. There is always the possibility of theft. Someone notices that the package hasn t be picked up and steals it. God has a package for you this Christmas. He has it delivered and waits for you to pick it up. Advent is the season that reminds us to be watchful for that present. It warns us that, like anything precious, it could be taken from you right from your front door. Evil forces are lurking at your front door anxious to steal Christmas from you. The other danger is that God s present for you isn t stolen, but simply sits there on the steps and is subjected to the winter storm and is ruined before it ever makes it inside. What s my point? Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Worship Schedule and Office Hours
Business Old & New Pumpkin Cake 2 C. evaporated milk (I just use the 15 oz. can and it works fine) 1 and ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp. nutmeg ½ tsp. allspice ½ tsp. ginger ½ tsp. ground cloves Mix this all together with mixer and then pour into 9 X 13 pan. ( no need to grease) Mix 1 box Jiffy yellow cake mix with ¼ c. melted butter. Crumble this mixture over the top of cake and then bake the cake at 350 for 1 hour. Let cool completely before serving. Submitted by Terri Lammert HOLY COMMUNION If you need to have Holy Communion brought to you in the pew, please let an usher know. Pastor will be happy to accommodate you. THRIVENT CHOICE DOLLARS Thank you to all members continuing to participate in the Choice Dollars donation to St. Mark Church. Your donations are greatly appreciated. ST. MARK QUILTERS St. Mark quilters meet the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month at 9:00am and sewing until noon so that they can attend the Ladies Prayer Lunch. They will be meeting on December 6, 2018, because of the Thanksgiving holiday but will resume meeting on Tuesday, December 5, 2017, at the usual time. LADIES PRAYER LUNCH Ladies Prayer Lunch will be on December 6th, 2018, at noon at Tula s Restaurant. All ladies of the congregation are welcome to come. Any questions, just call Mickey Steil at 715-362-2282. LWML Ladies of St. Mark, we hope that you can join us for our December LWML meeting. On December 11 at 10:00am. We will enjoy some Christmas fellowship with a party. If you plan to attend, please bring 2 pairs of socks-one Christmas pair that we will exchange in a game, and another pair to donate on the mitten/hat tree for Christmas. We also ask that you bring a dozen of your favorite Christmas cookies. The cookies will all be gathered together and given as a Christmas tray for N.A.T.H otherwise known as the homeless shelter. We want to spread a little of the Christmas cheer with some who are not as fortunate this holiday season. If you have any questions contact Barb Scott at 612-803-5694. CONGREGATIONAL ASSEMBLE MINUTES Please take a moment to read the minutes from the October Congregational Assembly meeting and bring any of your questions or concerns to the next meeting the second Sunday in January after the service.
MORE NEWS AND NOTES Ladies Bible Study ResCare Christmas Party Our Wednesday Ladies Bible Study will be meeting for their bible study on December 7th 1:00PM. Hopefully, you can join us. We meet in the fellowship hall and we always walk away feeling fulfilled in what more we have learned about our God. What a great way to spend an afternoon. We are starting a new book, Quenched, by Donna Pyle. Once again, the St. Mark local mission will be hosting a Christmas party for the clients of ResCare (Bethesda) and their caregivers. The party is Tuesday, December 11th at 5:00 pm. It is such an awesome event and the clients are always so excited to be here all together. We could not resist doing it again. Preparations are being made as you read this newsletter. We will be looking for a few party helpers again this year. If you would like to help and have a great time while you are doing it, please take a look at the signup board in the fellowship hall and sign up for the area/areas in which you would like to help. There will be great food, happy fellowship, wonderful holiday music and Santa will be making an appearance. For the members that are not familiar with our ResCare friends, they are developmentally disabled people that live in 8 group homes in the city of Rhinelander. We would like to make the Christmas holiday a great memory for each of them. Mitten and Scarf Tree Once again we are asking our members to consider donating mittens and scarves and a new addition socks to decorate our fellowship Christmas tree. It always looks so festive and we will be donating the mittens and scarves and socks to the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry to individuals to stay this winter. Please help in our effort to create a beautiful tree and to help people in our community stay warm during this cold season. Noah s Ark What a Year!! The Noah s ark that Julius Gerdes made sure 2018 was sure a blessed year here at St. Mark! As does get a lot of use here at St. Mark. These you look at all of the pictures in the following pages you will see that we were never idle. Shown 2 little girls had a great time playing. are just a few of the happenings of 2018. And this year, our very first annual Turkey Trot was held. I stood amazed as I watched 170 people come in to signup to run on Thanksgiving morning. The event was organized by Andy and Jayme Wyss and they really have every part of the event well planned. Everything went smoothly and it even made the news on channel 12. If this event does not put us on the map, nothing will. Well done. Terri Lammert
Bits and Pieces New Members at St. Mark We have received 7 new members at St. Mark in 2018. If you have not introduced yourself to them yet please take a moment this Christmas season and introduce yourself and welcome them to our congregation. Wyatt Knoeck through Baptism Dylan Knoeck through Baptism Henry Fish through Baptism Dean and Sue Kuckkahn through Profession of Faith Jeffrey Seifert through Profession of Faith Devin Biggs through LCMS transfer Christmas Season Service Times Services for the 2018 Christmas season are as follows: Christmas Eve: Christmas Day: 6:00 PM 9:00 AM In Memory... We have 3 members that are celebrating their first Christmas in Heaven with our Lord and Savior. What a glorious Christmas that must be! Please remember them in prayer... John Jesse February 15, 2018 Arlene Martin February 28, 2018 Sharon Gerdes September 13, 2018 Food Pantry Thank you to all of the members that have volunteered their services to help out at the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry in 2018. Your help is tremendously appreciated and we always leave with a good feeling in our hearts. 2018 In Review
2018 BUDGET VS ACTUAL 20-Nov-18 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Actual $ Received 13634 8510 10347 12333 9470 10056 12304 10330 16671 8869 Budget 10075 10075 10075 10075 10075 10075 10075 10075 10075 10075