will be Sunday, January 21 at 9:15 a.m. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend this meeting.
OFFERING ENVELOPES The 2018 offering envelopes are ready for you to pick up in the narthex.
If you do not find your name on the envelope boxes, please let the office know. You can start using the new envelopes in January.
ANNUAL REPORTS All committee reports should be in the office by now.
If you have not yet sent in your report, please do so as soon as possible.
COUNCIL MEETING MOTIONS— December 18, 2017
COMMUNITY AND CARE
PASTOR SUSANNE is away January 3-9. Pastor Ralph Andersen is preaching Sunday, January 7. Father Paul Walker is providing pastoral care cover-age. Father Paul may be reached at 570-766-2182.
THE SOCIAL MINISTRY COMMITTEE would like to thank everyone who contributed hats, scarves and gloves for the Mitten Tree this year. So many pretty hats, both purchased and hand made. Scarves, gloves, and headbands of all colors are on the tree and in the basket. Everything will be taken to the Administration Office at Burlington Schools the first week in January. They are very grateful for the sup-plies we are able to give them. By leaving them in the office, bus drivers will be able to distribute them to children who need them at all of the schools.
PRAYERS FOR OUR SERVICE MEMBERS - Please keep in your prayers our members who are in the armed services: Josh Myatt, combat medic in the Army/National Guard; Titan Miller, 2nd lieutenant in the Air Force.
service and witness
TAKE AWAY HUNGER will be packaging on Satur-day, January 20th with Messiah scheduled at 10 a.m. Please sign the sheet in the narthex if you plan on helping.
TEACHING AND LEARNING
ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL/ADULT FORUM January 7: Passing the Faith: Faith stories with Messi-
ah’s confirmation students January 14-28: “By Heart”: Conversations with Lu-
ther’s Small Catechism
PAGE 2
SHAPING FUTURES Through Faith Based Education
Messiah Preschool News Greetings from the children’s wing of the church. The BIG NEWS for 2018 is that Registration is underway for the 2018 – 2019 sessions. Our list will start to fill up and we would love to invite your child or grandchild or a neighbor to come join us. If you would like a regis-tration form or need more information, please call Ms. Margie (our Director) at 754-7591 ext. 2. We offer a 3-year-old session on Tuesday and Thurs-day mornings, a 3-4 year-old session on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, and a 4-5 year-old afternoon session on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Our Christ-mas programs were each great successes and a lot of joy and fun for the children. The children’s parents and families all enjoyed their little one’s performances as much as the children enjoyed putting them on. We are looking forward to study-ing about hibernation and wild animals lives during the winter months. We will also be continuing to enjoy our adventures in learning more about the ABC’s and 123’s. As always, we thank you for supporting your preschool and its mission to Shape Futures with a Christian based curriculum. Have a Blessed and Happy New Year 2018!!!
Please include us in your prayers.
Adult Ministry
Adult ministry is not about ministering to you – It’s about you ministering to others.
How would you do that?
Do you have any ideas as to how Messiah can do that to meet the criteria of serving and ministering to others?
Are you interested in helping to provide meals to the Bridges out of Poverty program? We have the opportunity to provide a monthly meal to their “Stay Ahead” program.
How about a weekly meal for the neighborhood? To those who just need someone to share a meal with, or those in need of a meal, or just to people that would like a different setting now and then.
Messiah could do all of those with the help of its members.
Interested? Contact me in the church office. 319-754-7591 Dennis
NOTE: Due to length of reports only highlights are provided here. Full reports and minutes of council meetings are available in the office and on the council bulletin board in the hallway.
Facility Usage: MOTION The use of the social hall and kitchen for PEO on January 19, 2018, 12:00-4:30 p.m. MSC MOTION The use of the social hall and kitchen for birthday party on January 27, 2018, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. MSC MOTION The use of the social hall and kitchen for Mohr family social on January 30, 2018, time TBA. MSC MOTION The use of the social hall for Hawkeye Her-itage Quilt Guild, 4th Tuesday each month for all of 2018. MSC
PAGE 3
Confirmation will meet on January 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31.
The Sunday school children
will be singing at the annual
meeting!!
Please join us at 9:15am on
Sunday January 21st.
Sunday school children need
to be here by 9:10 that day.
High School Youth Group
Wednesday
January 24th
8:00-9:00pm
Children, Youth, & Family
Ministry News!!
Registration happening now!!! See Kelly for more information
and to register!
Look for Fundraisers in the future!
High School Students– Did you
know you are welcomed and
ENCOURAGED to attend the
adult Sunday class that meets
every Sunday in the Library
from 9:15-10:15am?
LIFT is January 14th and it is Messiah’s turn to provide the meal. If you can help, please let Kelly or Laura
know. Thanks!
LIFT 5:00-6:45pm @ Trinity
Stewardship Message from Joel Hanger, Council President In a recent lesson we heard how a master had given 3 slaves a talent or several to watch over or use while he was gone. Many folks ask themselves what is a talent. Well a talent is a weight of gold or other precious metal-Greek coin worth about 600 Drachmas, in today’s currency around $360,000 so we realize this is no small thing. Another way to look at it is what the slave was worth or his or her life. What did the slave do with the talents? Well we heard that at the time the master returned, two did well, but one did not. The parable is asking us “What are you doing with the life GOD has given you?” My Father told me once everything we have is a gift from GOD. That paycheck you earn-who gave you the body, skill and knowledge to earn that? In today’s world, for most of us, that job or paycheck is how we buy food, clothing, shelter, the basics we need. What else do we do with that talent God gave to each of us? Here at Messiah you have ample opportunity to use or better yet give of that talent. Right now, our average attendance is 135 people and we have held steady this way for five years, this 135, or really you, are the core of Messiah membership. We have 435 members, so do the math, that’s 31%...right now you folks-right here-are the active stewards. What opportunities are there for YOU to be good stewards well this month there are circles, Holden evening worship, youth choir and con-firmation, Pastor’s weekly group, Sunday worship, after church fellowship, Worship and Arts com-mittee, LIFT (that’s youth program), Men’s Bible study, Alanon, Membership committee, Communi-cations committee, Executive committee, two groups of Piecemakers/quilters. Christian Education committee, girl scouts meet here, Take Away Hunger, congregational council, a monthly supper and global mission round table, Phebe hospital giving, support school children and young adults in school at Phebe. Blankets, world hunger support, Sunday school teachers, adult class-we had the Bishop here a few weeks ago, by the way, missionary support, Sunday morning greeter’s, commun-ion assistants, acolytes, ushers. Sing in the choir. Kitchen committee, library work, Outreach com-mittee, Memorials, Landscaping, Parish Life, Endowment, and Preschool board. We have 48 pre-school kids, which is up the last two years by 15 kids, so they are growing. So…, you think there is nothing going on here except worship, far, far from that. Now, I admit this is all I could think of as I wrote this up. But what do we do? What you do is find something you are good at, or just like to do and get involved. I was told last Sunday evening a person didn’t think they could do much to help decorate. “Nonsense”, I said. You came, and we were all happy to see you. Moral support is important, too. When we do these talks we do often need to speak about financial stewardship as well. Though our building is now taken care of mostly through a trust that too is stewardship. We have Scholarship trust, a general trust, and a trust to help members with their needs. You can give, or add, to these any time you like. Our weekly offering though runs what we do here. We have 4 staff that I can see here today: Pastor, Kelly, Hal and Alice. There are 5 others. We have utilities costs as our church is a busy place so we have to keep it usable. We still need to mow grass and plow snow (well not yet). I’ll leave all the line item stuff to reports at the annual meeting, but we run about $250,000 budget to do what we do here plus a $71,000 yearly mortgage (the income from the Fladt-Lehman trust covers that cost). I hope you all realize we would not be here at Messiah without that gift. All the rest? That needs to come from us and is part of that talent that GOD gave each of us. Now, I cannot stand here and tell you what you should be doing or what you feel you need to do, for I too am just like you trying to serve GOD by being a good Steward of what he has given me. For each of you - that conversation is between you and our LORD, the giver of every talent. Thank you. Joel Hanger, council president
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Lutheran Services in Iowa
Raising our Voice for Iowa Children and Families – Lutheran Day on the Hill
Families living in poverty. Iowa children in need of a forever family. Former refugees building new lives.
These kinds of issues are rarely the center of attention at the Iowa State Capitol. Let’s change that!
Please consider joining Lutheran Services in Iowa (LSI) and the three Iowa synods of the ELCA for Lutheran Day on the Hill, an annual day of advocacy in Des Moines to uplift the needs of our neighbors. The event will be held on Thursday, February 8. Visit www.LSIowa.org/advocacy next month for event details, online registration, and an online toolkit for your congregation.
If you are new to advocacy, come learn more about the legislative process and your role as a citizen. If you’ve attended before, join us again. We hope this year’s schedule will also allow you more opportunities to connect with legislators. If you would like more information, please contact Deb Whitford, LSI’s director of philanthropy and church relations, at 563-676-2065 or [email protected].
Our Mission: Lutheran Services in Iowa responds to the love of Jesus Christ through compassion-ate service. LSI is an affiliated social ministry partner of the Iowa congregations of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and a member of LSA (Lutheran Services in America). We proudly serve people of all ages, abilities, religions, sexes, gender identities, national origins, ethnicities, races, and sexual orientations. Learn more at www.LSIowa.org and www.facebook.com/LSI.iowa.
Friendly Competition
When the time came to take their U.S. Citizenship Exam, Bhakti and Chhali felt overwhelmed.
Originally from Bhutan, the couple moved to Des Moines from a refugee camp in Nepal. Since then, they have been busy improving their English and settling into their new home. They both worked seven days a week and struggled to find time to study for their exam.
LSI’s Refugee Community Services were there to help. LSI provides English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, and Bhakti and Chhali studied hard in class to prepare for the writing and reading component of their exam. They supported and competed with each other, pushing themselves to succeed. Their work paid off, and Bhakti and Chhali recently passed their exam and are now U.S. Citizens. “We appreciate the help our LSI volunteers gave us on the Citizenship Exam,” Bhakti says. “They are so committed to seeing us meet our goals.” Thank you for empowering your Iowa neighbors. We couldn’t do this important work without you!
4 - Mark Smith 5 - Susan Simmons 7 - Jane Richter 9 - Larry Williams 10 - Natalie Good, Brent Ruther 11 - Lisa Jacobs 12 - Linda Natzke, Sue Schoof, Craig Wyant 13 - Nenyo Lotegeluaki 14 - Jeff Bloomquist, Samantha Carruthers 16 - Matthew Dittner, Joshua Myatt 17 - Matthew Dieterich, Rebecca Egerton, Jim Watts 18 - Ryne Smith 19 - Marianne Darnall 22 - Jonathan Arnold, Mary Bloomquist, Jeremy Jacobs 23 - Justin Ruther, Mark Siegle, Jerry Smith 25 - Keith Bloomquist, Cosette Smith 26 - Larry Johannsen 27 - Kinley Orth 28 - Alice Gallerick 30 - Lengilang’et Lotegeluaki 31 - Jacob Dittner
JANUARY ANNIVERSARIES
2 Abe and Melissa Lambert– 2009 8 Keith and Marcia Taeger - 1972 24 Betsy and Jerry Hysell - 1986 28 Mike and Cristy Schmidt - 1984 29 Pat and Dennis Hudgel - 1961
*Let the office know if we have missed your birthday or anniversary. If you prefer not to have your name included in the birthday and anniversary lists, please let us know.
Mission Statement Welcoming all people to share in God’s blessings by strength-ening our commitment to God through prayer, fellowship and service.
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MESSIAH LUTHERAN CHURCH 2411 West Avenue
BURLINGTON, IOWA 52601
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
Burlington, IA
52601-1598
Permit No. 360
Return Service Requested
Sunday Mornings Worship 8:00 a.m. Sunday School & Adult Bible Study 9:15 a.m. Worship 10:30 a.m.
Third Wednesdays Supper 6:00 p.m. Holden Evening Prayer 7:00 p.m.
Weekly Bible Study - every Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. Alanon - every Tuesday at noon 3rd Wednesday supper & Global Mission Round Table (6:00 p.m.) and Holden Evening
Prayer (7:00 p.m.) - January 17 Take Away Hunger packaging - Saturday, January 20th at 10:00 a.m. Congregational Annual Meeting - Sunday, January 21st at 9:15 a.m.
