October 2018 MAKING NEW FRIENDS IN OUR COMMUNITY MISSION FALL FESTIVAL AT HOLY CROSS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 4 pm 7 pm. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Mission Festival is just around the corner this month with a new format to reach out to our new neighbors in the community! With the housing developments in our neighborhoods it s a great opportunity to reach out to the immigrant and international families that many times are looking for friendship with those who have lived here for many years. It can be very lonely in a new culture, especially if you are learning a new language, learning about education and your children going to school, living in a different climate, not knowing and understanding how to accomplish everyday tasks of making and going to an appointment to the doctor or dentist, where to shop economically and other areas that can be stressful in taking care of one s family in a new country. This year we will have again as our main guest speakers, Nadar and Georgette Alahaj as they share about the Ministry of the International Friendship Centers that are at Mt. Hope Lutheran in Bloomington and Ascension Lutheran in Burnsville with the hope of starting another in Prior Lake to reach out to our international neighbors in our communities here. If you know of international families in your own neighborhood or where you work, please invite them to this evening of fellowship, food and fun for all as well as learning how we can be supportive to the families that are new to our country. We will have flyers and postcards available at church for you to use as invites. Join us October 27, 4 pm 7 pm. MISSION FALL FESTIVAL SCHEDULE. 4pm-4:30 Guests arrive, mixer: Getting to Know You 4:30-5:00 Opening Welcome, Songs over the Decades and Cultural Fun 5:00 5:45 Country Style meal and Fellowship 5:45 6:30 Speakers Nadar and Georgette Alahaj International Friendship Centers 6:30-6:45 Special Guests & Entertainment in parallel with children s activities 6:45-7pm. Door prize drawings, Sending Music and Thank you LET S JOIN JESUS ON HIS MISSION WHERE HE ALREADY IS WORKING! Please see the article on page 6 of this newsletter from the International Friendship Center written by: Nadar and Georgette Alahaj. Pastor Jim What is the LWML? LWML stands for the Lutheran Women's Missionary League. The Lutheran Women's Missionary League is the official women's auxiliary of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). It has as its "mission heart" thousands of volunteers who are daily dedicating their lives to making a difference in this world. It is also Lutheran Women in Mission, the dba ("doing business as") name adopted by the Board of Directors in January 1998. It is women who are finding avenues to use their God-given talents as they meet the challenges to share the Gospel message. It is composed of individual women and women's groups within congregations of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, on campuses, in resident homes, or in other settings. The LWML seeks to develop and maintain a greater mission consciousness among women of the LCMS through education, inspiration, and service. For 75+ years a major emphasis has been the support of mission and ministry throughout the world by means of mite box offerings. These mite box offerings have funded tens of millions of dollars in mission grants since the organization's inception in 1942. Learn more about the mission grants and the LWML at lwml.org.
Page 2 October 2018 October is Pastor Appreciation Month! Who is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Well, there s the obvious parents. Then there s the not-soobvious your pastor. His office hours may be set days and times, but he doesn t clock out after that. Pastor Jobst s calendar is filled with shut-in visits, meetings, counseling, teaching, community-relationship building, and late-night phone calls. And his mind and heart hold the God-given weight of spiritual care for His people. Lift Pastor Jobst up in prayer. Ask him if he has any prayer requests. Treat him and Vivian to a meal out and help them get to know the area. Seek ways to spend time with him outside of church. And don't forget to show Pastor s wife a special measure of appreciation as well! Gifts, cards, flowers, a surprise corsage on Sunday morning or a cup of coffee with friends are all great ways to tell Vivian how much you love her. Oct. 7, 2018 Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost LWML Sunday Theme: Our Rest in a Changing World Text: Psalm 62 Oct 14, 2018 Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost Theme: The Lord is My Shepherd-You Prepare a Table Text: Psalm 23:5a Oct 21, 2018 Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost Theme: The Lord is My Shepherd- You Text: October Sermons Anoint My Head Psalm 23: 6a Oct 28, 2018 Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost Theme: The Lord is My Shepherd- I Will Dwell in the House of the Lord Forever Text: Psalm 23: 6b Inviting All Women All women at Holy Cross are invited to attend any of our Bible studies, mission service activities and meetings. Our next time together will be a Bible Study at 7 pm on Oct.15 at church. Sometimes you might hear us call it the Holy Cross Ladies Guild or LWML, it s one in the same. Watch for upcoming events and join us when you are able! Sunday Schedule 8:15 AM Traditional Worship 9:45 AM Christian Education Hour 11:00 AM Contemporary Worship
Page 3 October 2018 The Lutheran Hour The Lutheran Hour can be heard each Sunday on WCCO (830 AM) at 6:05 am. And it can be streamed online too, www.lhm.org. Check-out LHM s daily devotions too. October 7 "God Created" Guest Speaker: Rev. Perry Hart Life is a precious gift. Guest speaker, Rev. Perry Hart warns against our culture's devaluation of life and calls us to see ourselves and others as precious people, created by God, redeemed by Christ. (Genesis 1:27) October 14 "We Will Not Fear" Guest Speaker: Dr. Oswald Hoffman Dr. Oswald Hoffmann says, "Fear is a fact of life... but faith in God harnesses fear and points it in the right direction." (Psalm 46) October 21 "We Preach Christ Crucified" Guest Speaker: Dr. Oswald Hoffmann In a classic message from 1955, Dr. Oswald Hoffmann talks about all the things that change-and the God Who doesn't. (1 Corinthians 1:23-24) October 28 "Stranger Than Fiction" Guest Speaker: Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler God is the Author Who becomes part of the story--our story. The Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler presents his first message as Lutheran Hour Speaker (Romans 3:19-28) Dealing with the Digital Age (suggested by Vivian Jobst: SS Superintendent)... the following is only part of an article from the Mayo Clinic: Every Day Health e-newsletter I receive online in my email. If you are interested in reading the whole article just email me vrjobst@gmail.com or call/text me on my cell (913) 486-2626 with your email and I will gladly send you the whole document which gives fabulous ideas/suggestion for implementation and explains the reasoning behind the suggestions from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other knowledgeable brain research results You and your family are important! Unplug: 12 Tips to Manage Kid s Screen Time Concerned about how much time your child (or you) spend on the computer, watching TV or playing video games? Try these suggestions: Eliminate background TV. Keep TV s and computers out of the bedrooms. Don t eat in front of the TV. Set school day rules. Talk to and encourage other adults/caregivers to limit their screen time. Set a good example. Unplug it if it is a source of tension. Become an active participant, make screen time as engaging as possible: Plan what your kids view. Watch with your children whenever possible. Encourage active screen time. Stretch or do yoga while watching or during commercials. It can be difficult to start limiting the time your children spend in front of a screen, but it's worth the effort. By creating new household rules and steadily making small changes in your kids routines, you can curb screen time and its unhealthy effects.
Page 4 October 2018 LCMS Stewardship Ministry October 2018 Newsletter Article Why do we give? Is it simply because God commands us to? Or is there more to it? To be sure, the instruction and Word of God in the Bible says we should give, and this is sufficient to encourage us to give (Luke 6:38; Acts 20:35; 1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 8:7; Gal 6:6). But there s more to it than just obligation. We re not just trying to fulfill a work of the Law. We are bearing fruits of the Spirit given to us by our Father in heaven through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, we re not just doing what our Father said, we re also doing what He did. Children emulate their parents. When they grow up they often carry many of the same mannerisms and characteristics as their parents, but there is more to it than that. Children copy their parents even on a more mundane level. They watch how their parents cross their legs, how they fold their hands, how they stand and sit and walk, how they do and say most everything. And children try to copy it, which can be quite humorous when parents wish they wouldn t. It can be uncomfortable and embarrassing if a child copies or repeats something less than polite that they learned from a parent. Sitcoms thrive on these situations. It only happens because children emulate their parents because they want to be like them. We are the children of God, by grace, through faith. In Holy Baptism, God the Father declares of us what He declared of Jesus at His Baptism in the Jordan: You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. God the Father claims us as His own. He takes away all our sins, and in exchange He gives us His righteousness, His purity, His holiness, and His Spirit, by which we cry out, Abba, Father. We are born again, born from above, born of water and the Spirit, to a new life in Christ as His children. We are sons of God in Christ, through Baptism. And since we are sons, we are heirs heirs who share in the glory of the Son of God. The inheritance is ours because of the Father s grace and mercy, His generosity in sending His Son in time to save us for all eternity. And this is why we give generously of our income to the work of the church. We want to be like our heavenly Father. We want to emulate His generosity by being generous ourselves. We give to the work of the Church because we have witnessed the generous giving of our Father in heaven. More than that, we are recipients of it. It is because we have received God our Father s gifts that we desire to give ourselves. And His gifts are not just spiritual. They are temporal and earthly as well. As the Small Catechism teaches in the Fourth Petition of the Lord s Prayer: Give us this day our daily bread. What does this mean? God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. In other words, God gives us everything we need for the care of both body and soul. His generosity knows no bounds. Therefore, we sit down at the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month, or the beginning of the week to set aside a generous portion of God s daily bread for His work in the Church. We don t do this simply because He has commanded us so to do; it is because we, as His children by grace, want to emulate His generosity in our own lives. He is our Father; we are His children. And children want to be like their parents.
Page 5 October 2018 College Student Service Project Fall 2018 through May 2019 Holy Cross has up to nine students attending a college or university at present! Do you know who they are? If not check out the bulletin board, The Giving Tree, by the Delta room (old preschool room) to find out! You can see a picture and what college or university they are attending. Do you remember your college days? Or do you look forward to them in the near future? I was far away from home and very homesick! Are you praying for these young people during this important and impactful time of their lives? What thoughts and decisions are they faced with? What events and happenings do they encounter away from home that affect their future? What kinds of things are they being shown and taught by professors, the administration and especially their new peers? Yep, we want to keep them in our prayers. Here are some of the prayer requests they shared when filling out the College Bound form. Since I m part of a church in college just that my friends and I have a good year and that we can grow in faith together and strengthen our relationships with one another. By a parent of new college students: Adjust/smooth transition to college, do well with classes, make good decisions, fruitful studying, have fun with music, keep centered with Christ and have strong faith. More requests - Continue to do well in school, guidance for the future and finding an internship, continue to strengthen faith with a more leadership role... WOW! They want and need our prayers! Lift them up to the LORD! In the future watch for opportunities that will be given here at Holy Cross to make contact with these special students at this pivotal point in their lives! --In Sunday School this Fall we are learning about: In the High School class is seeking to learn more about God and His Word for them as the study the book of Proverbs. Jr. High (6 th -8 th ) In Fusion: Water, students learn how the element of water is used throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament to communicate the message of salvation. The Old Testament is full of events involving water that connect to the New Testament, specifically Holy Baptism K-5 th Grades are using the Growing in Christ series for their specific age classes and this fall are studying OT stories. Starting with Joseph and moving forward in history. --*REMINDER* due to MEA break, there is no SS scheduled for Sunday, October 21! Calling all Thrivent Members Are you a Thrivent Member? You may have free money to donate! Looking for an easy way to help support Holy Cross? Look no further than Thrivent Choice, Thrivent Financial s memberadvised charitable outreach program. Thrivent Choice lets eligible Thrivent members recommend where they feel Thrivent should distribute some of its annual outreach funding by choosing from thousands of enrolled churches and nonprofit organizations nationwide, including Holy Cross. If you haven t yet participated in Thrivent Choice but would like to learn more about participating in it, visit Thrivent.com/thriventchoice. Or, you can contact your Thrivent Financial representative. Contact Information Update The church is in the process of updating our data base and we need your help. We would like you to fill out a new data entry form found on the Administrative Assistant s counter. We want to make sure we have the most up to date information for our members. You may also email your information to holycross@holycross-pl.org
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