FREE "Dessert First" Dinners
October 13th and 14th
The Stewardship committee is hosting two dinners to celebrate our opportunities as Stewards of God’s gifts. Dessert will be served first, then a short program followed by dinner. The dinners are free but you need to pick up your free tickets to either one of the nights. Tickets are available at the Church. Please plan to attend and be a part of the celebration.
QUILT TO BE RAFFLED
Quilters for LWR continue to meet every Friday from 9am to Noon and the 3rd Saturday of each month from 2pm-4pm. Our goal is to make warm quilts that are then shipped to Lutheran World Relief in Minn., MN. And are then shipped to disaster and refugee areas around the world. To date we have made over 60 quilts.
To raise funds for shipping costs, we are holding a raffle for one of the quilts. You can see this 62"x 84"
Quilt displayed in the Narthex. Tickets will go on sale in October and will be sold until the drawing, which will be at the Anniversary dinner to be held November 11th. Winner need not be present.
Tickets are $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00. Matching funds will be provided by Lutheran Brotherhood Bonanza Branch #8237.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to win a beautiful quilt and support this worthy cause. Also, remember we are always in need of donations of old blankets, mattress pads, sheets, pillowcases and fabric scraps or yardage. You can place these donations in the box provided in the Narthex.
New Year ‘Round Worship Schedule
to Begin January 2002
Based on Long Range Planning and Christian Education Committees, the Church Council voted to fine tune our Sunday worship times to encourage parents to enroll their children in Sunday School and youth choirs. It is also hoped that with less time between services and the start of Sunday School, more parents will take advantage of adult forums.
New Times Begin January 1, 2002
Saturday worship
6:00pm (no change)
Sunday worship
8:00am and 10:30am
Sunday School
9:15am
Sunday Morning – 9:45am
Adult Forums led by Pastor Tom
Oct. 7-Opening the Door to Luther - 30 minute video and discussion
Oct. 14-The Morning Star of Wittenberg-The Life of Katie Luther -30 minute video and discussion
Oct. 21-A Man Called Luther Part I - 20 minute video and discussion
Oct. 28-A Man Called Luther Part II - 20 minute video and discussion
Faith Lutheran Jr/Sr High School
Faith Lutheran opened its doors to almost 900 students on August 27th. Also welcomed were 14 new teachers, 2 new administrators, and 1 new staff member. A grass practice field has been completed and a maintenance building should be done by the end of October. You can still get an Orel Hershiser autographed baseball with a donation of $100 to Faith’s Capital Campaign. Call the Development Office for details 804-4308. Homecoming is October 19th.
Lutheran Woman Today
The September issue has a subscription card enclosed so that you can order or re-order your own magazine. You must put the name and address of our church on the card to get the group rate. The offer expires February 1, 2002. If you have any questions please call Trudy Keys 364-5236
Family Fellowship Donuts
From 9-9:30am each Sunday, coffee will be served now with donuts from Carl’s donuts. Three dozen donuts and bagels will be delivered each Sunday. A minimum donation of .50 cents is suggested.
Choir Opportunity
Are you burned out? Have you had more than you can take? Is your relationship with God suffering because of it? Take a break. Take a vacation, a restful one. Sit back and refresh your love for God, His Word, and your family. Consider joining the choir.
The fellowship is great. The opportunities to make a difference are numerous. Your relationship with God will blossom and flower. Instead of being "burned out," you will be part of the light that gratefully sings praises to a deserving God. Talk with Pastor Tom, Intern, Rebecca, or Val Connor, Choir Director or any choir member. Practice is on Wednesday’s at 6:30pm
Ponderings from Your Intern
I would like to thank you for the wonderful welcome which I received my first Sunday here at Good Samaritan. Particularly for all your well wishes and support. I indeed feel that I am starting my internship with love and support from all of you. I must admit that I have been a bit nervous and overwhelmed. I have found the words of Saint Paul, found in Philippians, as an inspiration for my coming year. Paul writes:
Philippians 4:4-5
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will again say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be
evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of
God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus.
One In Christ,
Intern, Rebecca Rossow
Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us
Woman finds Jesus in strangest place.
A Tennessee woman claims the face of Jesus has mysteriously materialized on a muddy towel she used to clean her German shepherd’s paws.
Ginny Harris says the Christ-like image appeared on the white terry cloth hand towel right after she wiped off the dog’s paws. She now displays the dirty towel on her bedroom wall and says she looks at it every day for inspiration.
Harris thinks her "Shroud of Murfreesboro" is a symbolic message from God since the source of the mud was her German shepherd and Jesus was known as "the good shepherd."
EVENTS
The May Family
Kay & Paul Hanson, friends of Pastor Tom and Andra, serve as teachers and Parish Pastor with the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic.
Tuesday September 11th
We heard the news first at 4pm on BBC radio, our main news source. That was 9am, US CDT time. It became clear very early that this was an event which would change the world forever. Living in an international context gives us some different perspectives on this tragic episode. We get 28 channels on our cable TV, and I "surfed" through them last night at one point to find that 17 were covering the disaster live. It was in German, Austrian, Czech, Hungarian, Slovak, Polish, French, plus CNN, British Broadcasting Corporation and another European English language channel. Probably the most interesting was watching Russian TV showing the CNN "feed" but with Russian commentators and headlines. What a world!
Each class I taught today wanted to talk about the American tragedy. Everyone had heard the news-something I’ve never experienced here before. I told them I thought this would be, for this generation, what Kennedy’s assassination was to mine; they would always remember where they were when they first heard the news. They told me that the Slovak phone company is making all phone calls to the US free from now through Sunday. It is a very generous gesture since normally it costs .25 cents a minute. Many Slovaks have relatives living in the US, and want to call to verify their safety.
One scene on German TV last night had someone holding a sign saying, in English, "No revenge, please!" I think that expresses the fear of many people around the world. If it should turn out that Islamic fundamentalists are responsible for this attack, we need to remember that such militants don’t speak for all Muslims any more than a few fanatics speak for all Christians. People from all over the world, including Palestinians and other Muslim peoples, worked at the "World" Trade Center, and therefore, lost loved ones. A prayer, written by one of our students, includes these petitions: "Please, be also with the people, still alone, struggling for life under the wrecks of the World Trade Center. Bless the relatives of all the victims and don’t let revenge rule people’s minds."
An article in the Paris newspaper Le Monde said: "We are all Americans now. We are all New Yorkers." It reminds us of Kennedy’s famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in 1963. These attacks seem to have had strong unifying effect in the world, making it not just an American tragedy but a global one. May God help the people and leaders of the United States, and of the world, to make wise, unifying decisions in response.
Friday September 14th
A call went out in Europe for countries to observe Friday as a Day of Mourning. We decided that, since ours is the most identifiable "American" congregation in this country (even though our membership is multi-national) and since we are located in the center of Bratislava, the capital city, we should be the ones to organize a worship service. We scheduled it for 12:15.
A Church is, among other things, a place of gathering, of bringing diverse persons together for purposes of reconciliation and mutual support. An international congregation has a unique opportunity at this point. Here we would be bringing together representatives of governments and businesses from several countries. Also coming would be Americans seeking one another to talk and weep together, and ordinary Slovak citizens, friends, to share sympathy. The American Embassy can’t organize a worship service, nor can the American Chamber of Commerce. But a congregation can, and then the Embassy and Chamber publicize it through their membership and through the local media. The word went out at 4pm Thursday.
Close to 100 people came-some members, several Slovak people, ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and several others, business people from Slovak and international firms. Our Charge d’ Affaires (acting ambassador) spoke, thanking the many people and organizations who had shared their condolences, acknowledging the several other countries who had also lost many citizens in the World Trade Center. He had just come from a "media event" at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia where the President of this country signed the Book of Condolence. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Slovak citizens have done so.
Sunday September 16th
And now it’s SUNDAY. We’ve come home from worship. Another overwhelming day. The largest attendance we’ve experienced in our four years here-141, including a tour group of about 35, mostly from Minnesota, mostly Lutherans (of course). The Gospel was about the lost sheep and lost coin. I preached on LOSS-the tragedy and hurt of it, and the danger—that under threat and terror we slip into revenge and forget who we are and Whose we are and what we most believe and value. Times of loss become defining moments-for better or worse. And we need to have particular concern for those who, in our world, have little to lose. Our congregation gathers in the name of Christ, hoping to transcend human boundaries, to worship, to be forgiven, to share bread and wine, and to be reminded once again of who we are, really.
Paul and Kay Hanson
Global Mission in Bratislava, Slovakia
On behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American