Non-Profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 3 Algoma, WI 542041 L U T H E R A N C H U R C H & S C H O O L 1115 DIVISION STREET, ALGOMA, WI 54201
S T. PAUL S PRESS N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 8 Thanksgiving While you review your blessings and give thanks to God this month, please include the following. Jesus, your Savior, has accomplished everything for you to be welcomed into heaven. God uses your fellow Christians in your life to remind you of the Gospel of Jesus, your Savior. God has kept his Word, the Bible, pure and unchanged through centuries and millennia, so that you can hear his Gospel in its simple truth, for the salvation of your soul. God sends himself, his Spirit, to be in you and miraculously strengthen faith whenever you hear the Gospel. God has kept you from many sins, but especially from the sin of unbelief, rejecting his Son, our Savior. There is no forgiveness for unbelief, for without Christ there is no forgiveness. God provides all you need for your bodily life, so that you never need to worry, just as he promises in Matthew chapter 6, 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. God uses his creation to supply food for people and every creature, sustaining all things by his powerful Word (Hebrews 1:3). God placed you, according to his gracious purpose and will, into the family and community where you live. God used your parents and grandparents to start you in life so that you can be the Christian you are today. In your family, God provides opportunity to serve as only you can. He put you into your family to serve them with the purpose that they trust Jesus for their hope of heaven. God established, long before you were born, his Christian church here in our community by gathering his people into a congregation that took the name St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran. In this Christian church, God provides you weekly worship that proclaims the pure Gospel of Jesus, Baptism for you and your children (Acts 2:39), and the Lord s Supper for the forgiveness of your sins (Matthew 26:28). In this Christian church, God serves your family with his Gospel in a wide variety of ways through his gifts of faithful volunteers who give thousands of hours each year to our congregation and community, offerings of faithful givers who supply the financial needs of a congregation with a large ministry in church, school and community, and the deeds of love by faithful members who pray for each other, send cards and gifts of encouragement and visit one another in times of need. In this Christian church, God provides opportunities for you to serve other Christians with your abilities and time, your gifts and offerings, and your prayers and encouragements. We thank you, Lord! Psalm 100 4Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Pray for each other The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16 PRAYER LIST Pray for the Justin and Danielle Jandrin who received a son from God, Silas Paul, on October 22. Everyone came through childbirth well, but Silas was born early, so he needs to stay at the hospital for a while. Silas has been baptized and is a child of God through faith in Jesus. Pray for Gloria Naze who was in the hospital briefly. Pray for Doris Jensen who has struggled with bronchitis. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ, that all who are in need may find comfort in the Gospel, help in the generosity of the congregation, and hope in the rich promises of God. Come and Learn, Go and Share Our mission as members of St. Paul s Lutheran Church BIBLE CLASSES Please consider attending one of our Bible classes: Sunday Mornings at 10:15am in front of church (Lessons from the Bible) Wednesday Mornings at 10am in school library (Life and Psalms of David starting in November) Wednesday Evenings at 6:30pm in school library (Life of Abraham) Wednesday Evenings at 6:30pm Women s Bible Study (Women of the Bible starting in November) Wednesday Bible Night offers Bible activities and care for children of every age, so parents can attend a study without worrying about childcare. Please come as a family! We do not have our adult evening classes on the first Wednesday of November (7 th ) because of Parent/Teacher conferences. Catechism class will be offered as usual on the 7 th. We will not have any evening classes on November 21, but invite everyone to church for our Thanksgiving worship service. WORSHIP Our Thanksgiving worship services are November 21 & 22, Wednesday @ 6:30 pm and Thursday @ 9 am. Come and worship our generous God who gives us every blessing! BENEVOLENCE As the colder weather and the holidays arrive, our members like to support those who are in need. Many have generously donated to our Benevolence Fund for many years. We want to use those funds to help individuals or families who would appreciate financial assistance. If you know anyone who would benefit from a gift from St. Paul s, please contact the pastors. HOUSE FOR SALE Our generous member, Jim Toppe, left a generous financial gift to St. Paul s, as well as his house. We wish to sell this house, as he intended, so that the funds support our ministry. If you or someone you know may be interested buying in this house at 5 th and Jefferson in Algoma, please forward information or offers to Jake Blazkovec or Paul Stuth, the Chairman of our Board of Trustees. If you would like to give generously through your estate, please contact our advisor for planned giving, Pastor Dennis Kleist, who preached at St. Paul s in October. He can help you plan a will that honors our Savior, avoids unnecessary delays or costs, and directs your blessings of money and property in ways that bless your family and friends and show love for Jesus by supporting the Lord s work. Contact Pastor Kleist anytime regarding planned gifts at (920)-740-5899 (cell) or dennis.kleist@wels.net.
S T. PAUL S PRESS N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 8 INFORMATION NEEDED The Board of Elders is looking to contact members who have moved away or we have not seen in quite some time. In order to do this, they will need your help in gathering missing contact information. In the coming months, the Board of Elders will be putting out a list of names from our congregation. If you have any contact info please call the office or speak with a pastor. USHER MEETING AND SECURITY PLANNING On Monday, October 29, over 40 members gathered at church to fine tune our ushering practices during worship and what changes are coming to offer a safe worship environment for our members and guests. We enjoyed a good meal, thanks to our volunteers who served it. We discussed procedures to usher efficiently, provide a warm welcome for worshippers and be observant before and during worship should some assistance be needed by anyone at worship. For our safety, we will create a new Safety Team of volunteer ushers and others who will be trained to manage a variety of incidents in the worship setting, so that everyone can participate safely and confidently. If you would like to serve as an usher or on the Safety Team, please contact one of the pastors. SUPPORTING OUR SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM Our school lunch program is a blessing to our school, our students and their families. Our students can enjoy a low-cost, nutritious lunch every day. In order to keep costs lower, we encourage everyone to give gifts to this program. Please give gift cards from the local grocery stores, support through Thrivent, or home-grown fruits, vegetables, eggs or meat. Grocery cards can be purchased through our SCRIP program, which supports our school in two ways: the lunch program and our SCRIP program. In addition, we are interested in purchasing beef in bulk by buying a quarter of a cow for ground beef and stew meat. LEADERS NEEDED This fall, our leadership is preparing for officer and board elections in 2019. We encourage our voting members to consider serving your Lord and your congregation by serving as a leader of the congregation. We are looking for members who are regular in church attendance and desire to serve the Lord through regular participation in board meetings. The board terms are for two years, though one-year terms are available this year. Our four boards-elders, Education, Trustees, and Stewardship-meet once a month to plan and carry out the various activities of the congregation. Each board has its own duties and events to discuss and implement, and to learn more please talk with our Vice President Rick Kroening 920-493-8077 or one of the pastors. ST. PAUL S STUDENT ASSISTANCE ENDOWMENT FUND Applications are available at church and in the school office. Student Assistance Endowment Fund is for any member of St. Paul s that is continuing their education at a Synod school or beyond high school. The applications must be turned in by December 1 st to one of the Pastors or school office. EPIC Our high school students are planning a trip to an escape room this month. The suggested date is November 18, meeting at the location around noon. Look for more details as the date gets closer. The long-range plan for this school year and into summer is to prepare for a mission trip in Summer 2019. Taking a mission trip which includes travel for six to ten teens will cost around seven hundred dollars per teen. We ask our members to support this ministry of our congregation with generous gifts to our EPIC fund. The purpose of this trip is to train our youth to serve God and our congregation so that as adults and parents, they can train the next generation of dedicated Christians.
St. Paul s Lutheran School LITTLE SPROUTS PLAYGROUP We welcome new people all the time. We meet at our school on November 1 and 15 at 9:30 am. Please share this info with families who have children ages 0-5. PRINCIPAL S PAGE The cooler temperature and the color changing leaves signals the season of fall. It almost means that the end of the first quarter of the school year is here. Hard to believe we ve been in school for almost two months. Our first quarter ends on November 2nd. Reports cards will be handed out at our parent-teacher conferences, November 7th-8th. Our fall sports season is now over. We turn our attention to basketball. This year we will have a boys B team and A team. Our A team will be comprised of 6th-8th graders, while our B team will be represented by the 3rd-5th grade. Thanks to all of you who contributed to our latest fundraiser. We were able to raise over $3,700 towards a new PROMETHEAN BOARD. These new boards will be replacing our current SMART BOARDS. Our staff and students are beginning to prepare for our Children s Christmas Eve service. This year our school will be by itself at 4:00 p.m. Thank you for all the support and prayers for our school! FROM THE EARLY CHILDHOOD DIRECTOR Our classroom recently learned the sign language for belong. It was a moment that I will never forget, as I signed belong and told each one of Jesus s little lambs that they belong in this classroom, their faces lit up. Matthew 19:14 tells us, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. Now anyone who steps into a classroom full of 3 and 4 yearolds understands that it s not heavenly all the time, but what a joy it is to teach them about God s grace, love, and forgiveness! Three new friends stepped into our classroom this month. Each time a new friend showed up, one of the veterans of the room would step up and show our new friend around the classroom, sometimes with a hand on their back, guiding them through. Its then I realized that these children are so proud of their classroom. They know that they belong in this classroom and want our new friends to feel the same way. We would love for you to step into our classroom. Visitors are always welcomed with a smile and a couple (or maybe a lot) of questions. I promise that you will have a personal tour guide.