AUGUST 2006
Five
Cents, Please
Sometimes it is easier to look
elsewhere for our security and approval. Like the day when Charlie Brown
stopped at the psychiatric help stand to talk with Lucy. He confesses, "My
trouble is I never know if I'm doing the right thing. I need to have someone
around who can tell me when I'm doing the right thing." Lucy says,
"Okay. You're doing the right thing. That'll be five cents, please!"
Charlie Brown walks away with a smile on his face.
In a few minutes, he
returns with a frown. "Back already?" asks Lucy. "What
happened?" Charlie Brown says, "I was wrong. It didn't help. You need
more in life than just having someone around to tell you when you're doing the
right thing." Lucy says, "Now you've really learned something!
That'll be another five cents please."
Waiting To
Exhale
A character in John Updike’s novel, A
Month of Sundays, reflecting on his youthful experience of the church, says,
"Churches bore for me the relation to God that billboards did to
Coca-Cola; they promoted thirst but did nothing to quench it."
The Holy Spirit empowers
the church to be the agent of change in the world, a counter-cultural entity.
The task of the church is to breathe in the Spirit and be inspired by the
Spirit to act on behalf of God. But the church has been waiting to exhale far
too long. As the Spirit of God flows into us, it also ought to flow from us in
the way we treat one another, the way we speak to one another, in the way we
treat others in our community, in the way we live out the new life we receive
in Jesus.
We All Need Dads!
Some years ago,
A dozen years later,
however, several of the young male elephants (now teenagers) that had been
transported to the game park began attacking the park’s herd of white rhinos,
an endangered species. They used their trunks to throw sticks at the rhinos,
chased them over long hours and great distances and stomped to death a tenth of
the herd - all for no discernible reason.
Park managers decided they had no choice but to kill some of the
worst juvenile offenders. They had killed five of them when someone came up
with another bright idea. They brought in some of the mature male elephants
still residing in the
The new discipline, it turned out, was not just a matter of size
intimidation. The young bulls actually
started following the Big Daddies around, yielding to their authority and
learning from them proper elephant conduct. The assaults on the white rhinos
ended abruptly.”
The point: young males -
whether they are wild animals or human beings - need Dads.
Families Have More Parents Than Children
Dr. Elizabeth Tracy, a professor at
Leonard H. Budd
The Demons Of
Fear
We must remember that regardless of
what happens, God will be with us. Wrote the Psalmist:
"When I am afraid I put my trust in You."
Well, let me ask you. Where else are you going to go? If the Dow
drops tomorrow to 7000, God is still going to be the same. God is the
same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Denial of Death, Ernest
Becker says that so many of the fears that we grapple with - fear of rejection,
abandonment, failure, separation, and loss - are but manifestations of the one
ultimate fear, and that is the fear of death. Perhaps he is right.
How do we overcome that ultimate fear? Faith.
It is the only antidote that will exercise the demons of fear that can haunt
us.
Not
Force, But Love
Recently I ran across this
parable: Once upon a time there was a
piece of iron, which was very strong and very hard. Many attempts had
been made to break it, but all had failed.
“I’ll master it,” said the axe… and his blows fell heavily upon
the piece of iron, but every blow only made the axe’s edge more
blunt, until it finally ceased to strike and gave up in frustration.
“Leave it to me,” said the saw… and it worked back and forth on
the iron’s surface until its jagged teeth were all worn and broken. Then
in despair, the saw quit trying and fell to the side.
“Ah!” said the hammer, “I knew you two wouldn’t succeed.
I’ll show you how to do this!” But at the first fierce blow, off flew its
head and the piece of iron remained just as before, proud and hard and
unchanged.
“Shall I try?” asked the small soft flame. “Forget it,”
everyone else said. “What can you do? You’re too small and you have
no strength.” But the small soft flame curled around the piece of iron,
embraced it… and never left it until it melted under its warm irresistible
influence.
There’s a sermon there somewhere! Perhaps it means that God’s way is not the
way of force but love. God’s way is not to break hearts but to melt
them. Perhaps it means that that is our calling – to melt hearts… under
the warmth of God’s gracious love.
Shaken From Our Sanctuaries
A few years ago, AT&T had a major
snafu in
Usually, technicians would fix that kind of blackout quickly.
However, they didn't respond quickly on that particular occasion. While
alarm bells rang unheard, the technicians were--believe it or not--attending a
training session on how to handle an emergency.
I worry that something like that often happens in the church.
Christ has called us to serve the world for which he died. Worship is
that time when we strengthen our spirits for service to the world. When worship
becomes an end in itself, we are not being what Christ has called us to be. We
need to be shaken from our sanctuaries and into the streets.
A Hug From
Jesus
A business executive became depressed.
Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with
him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out
his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would go into the den and read the
paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life.
After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her
little hand and pushed the newspaper down. She then jumped into her father’s
lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him strongly. The father said
abruptly, “Honey, you are hugging me to death!” “No, Daddy,” the little girl
said, “I’m hugging you to life!”
This was the greatness of Jesus. He took people where they were
and hugged them to life.
Compassion is not pity. Pity lets us
stay at a distance. It is condescending.
Compassion is not sympathy. Sympathy is for superiors over
inferiors.
Compassion is not charity. Charity is for the rich to continue
in their status over the poor.
Compassion is born of God. It means entering into the other
person’s problems. It means taking on the burdens of the other. It means
standing in the other person’s shoes. It is the opposite of professionalism. It
is the humanizing way to deal with people. "Just as bread without love can
bring war instead of peace, professionalism without compassion will turn
forgive-ness into a gimmick."
Fiery Furnace Faith
Faith for my deliverance is not faith
in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my
belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace.
Oswald Chambers
They Grow In Clusters
Though I have never seen the Sequoia trees
of
When we are together, either as a family or a church, we provide
this same support. Pain and suffering come to all of us. But, just like
those giant Sequoia trees, we can be supported in those difficult times by the
touch of one another's lives. The knowledge that we have someone; that we are
not alone; that there is someone who is willing to touch us, hold us, keeps us
from being destroyed.
An Admirer Of
Jesus
There were two brothers in
As the community formed and social pressure forced the community
into court proceedings, the one brother asked his attorney brother to help them
with the legal work. The brother refused, saying that he could lose his job. He
pressured his brother to help with a reminder that he was a Christian. The
lawyer responded, "I will follow Jesus to His cross, but it is His cross.
I have no need to be crucified."
To this his brother replied, "Then you are an admirer of
Jesus, but not His disciple."
(Sung to the tune “Edelweiss”)
Bless our friends,
Bless our food
Come, oh Lord,
And be with us.
May our speech
Glow with peace;
Send Your love
To surround us.
Friendship and peace
May they bloom and grow,
Grow in love forever.
Thanks for friends,
Thanks for food.
Thanks for this time together.
May the Lord, Mighty God,
Bless and keep you forever.
Grant you peace,
perfect peace,
Courage in ev'ry endeavor.
Lift up your eyes now
and see His face
And His grace forever.
May the Lord, Mighty God,
Bless and keep you forever.
Job In
Modern Form
In Biblical times walls were built
around houses and cities to protect them.
We don't do it that way anymore, now our walls are financial and legal. Lawyers and insurance give us comfort and
purport to give us a level of security. Our society has created the illusion
that if we have a big enough pile of money we will be protected from problems.
We forget the lessons of Job: money comes and money goes.
Back in the early ‘80s there was an accountant who developed
talent for putting together partnerships, primarily buying up apartment
buildings, strip shopping centers and sometimes office buildings. He would borrow as much money as he could and
sell shares in the partnership, taking back a percentage for himself as his
commission. He did very well. Within a
few years he had built up a net worth in excess of $20 million. Unfortunately
the tax laws were changed in 1986 and affected the values of his properties.
The property values went down, and he found he owed more than the properties
were worth. From a $20 million net worth within a few short years he ended in
bankruptcy.
The money comes and the money goes.
I know of another man in a limousine business, he had been doing
quite well financially, but through no fault of his own, one of his vehicles
was not covered by insurance. His
insurance agent had made a mistake.
Unfortunately there was a serious accident someone was hurt and someone
was killed. The lawsuit was for an enormous amount of money, far in excess of
his net worth and that of the insurance agent involved. They both lost everything.
The money comes and the money goes. Or as Job said, the Lord giveth
and the Lord taketh away.
In our society we are busy chasing the illusion that if we have
enough money it will provide us with security. There is no real security. Not
if you are looking for money to provide it.
In our current age, financial catastrophe takes the form of hurricanes,
lawsuits, health problems or some other disaster. But they happen.
It is true, money can open more options, but not security. In the
book of Job there was a happy ending, God gave Job back everything he had
before and more. That is not always the
way it works, as far as I know the men in the stories I have related never got
their wealth back.
Life is very fragile, health and economic existence, could
disappear in moments. We take it as the
right that we should enjoy our accomplishments.
“They are ours” we say, “we have earned them.”
Yes, but it is all a gift not a right.
Everything we have can disappear. And disappear very
quickly. Every moment we have on this
earth, and every dollar we are given, is a gift of God. The Lord has given, and
the Lord can take away. Trust in the
Lord.
submitted by John Murray
Today's man is in constant danger of
becoming enslaved by the very things that were supposed to make his life more
convenient. Notebook computers, fax machines, pagers, and cellular phones threaten
to take him hostage. No matter where he goes, his work goes along. In truth,
his time (his life) is not his own.
Even if he could break free of the ever-encroaching demands of
his career, his own responsibilities are enough to occupy his every waking moment,
things like volunteer work at the church and civic duties, not to mention his
family responsibilities. He needs to spend quality time with his children. He
needs to be both physically and emotionally present for his wife. He needs to
take care of the yard and service the cars. He needs to balance the checkbook.
He needs...the list seems endless.
Somewhere in his hectic schedule he must find time to build
lasting friendships, time to maintain a quality devotional life, time to read
for personal and spiritual development, and time to exercise. No wonder he's
tempted to throw up his hands in despair!
Is there a solution, a way out? I think so, but it won't be
easy. Busyness is addictive and it’s hard to regain command of our life once
we've yielded it to the expectations of others. The key is control. Are we
going to be governed by external pressures—the desires of others--or will we
allow the internal witness of the Holy Spirit to set our agendas?
Richard Exley
An ethics professor at Princeton
Seminary asked for volunteers for an extra assignment. About half the class met
him at the library to receive their assignments. The professor divided the
students into three groups of five each. He gave the first group envelopes
telling them to proceed immediately across campus to Stewart Hall. He told them
that they had 15 minutes and if they didn't arrive on time, it would affect
their grade. A minute or two later, he handed out envelopes to five others.
They were also to go over to Stewart Hall, but they had 45 minutes. The third
group had three hours to get to Stewart Hall.
The students weren't aware of it, but the professor had arranged
for three drama students to meet them along the way. Close to the beginning of
their walk, one of the drama students had his hands on his head and was moaning
aloud as if in great pain. About half way to Stewart Hall, on the steps of the
chapel, the seminary students passed a man who was lying face down as if
unconscious. Finally, on the steps of Stewart Hall, the third drama student was
acting out a seizure.
In the first group of students, those who had only 15 minutes to
get across campus, no one stopped to help. In the second group, two students
stopped to help. In the last group, the one that had three hours for their
assignment, all of the students stopped to help at least one person.
The professor had clearly shown these seminarians that hurry
hinders ministry and that hurry hinders our awareness of people's needs.
All Our Free Time
In 1960, expert testimony concerning
time management was presented to a Senate subcommittee. The experts said that
because of advances in technology, within twenty years or so, people would be
radically cutting back on how many hours a week they worked, or how many weeks
a year they worked, or else they would have to start retiring sooner. The great
challenge, according to the experts of the sixties, was what people in our
decade would do with all their free time.
I'm sure all of you are struggling right now with all the free
time you have, right?
In this day when we are suppose to
have so many devices to save time, I've never seen so
many hurried and restless people! If the computer, the laptop, the cellular
phone, and all of these other technological wonders are suppose to save us
time, why do we have so little time for the things that matter?
It seems that with all we've accomplished, about all we have
really added is speed and noise. We get there faster, but we don't know where
we are going. And when we get there, we're out of breath.
I read one time about a man who swallowed an egg whole. He was
afraid to move because he was afraid it would break.
But he was afraid to sit still because he was afraid it would hatch.
There are a lot of people like that today--so frenetic, so
pressured they don't know which way to go. And the place where the pressure and
restlessness often hit home is in the home.
In today's culture, we find it
difficult to wait for anything. We grow impatient waiting for an elevator. We
anxiously pace while waiting for a phone call. We can start acting like caged
animals waiting in line at the store. On the highway, we quickly pass one car,
just so we can pull back into the right lane to get off at the next exit. At a
popular restaurant today, you'll be given a timer at lunch to prove that they
can serve you lunch in 15 minutes. Even credit applications have been sped up,
so that Citibank even has a 15 minute mortgage approval.
In this culture of hurry up, Jesus invites us to come apart and
rest awhile.
A story is told about some African
workers who were hired to carry heavy equipment on their backs to a remote
outpost. It was a place that couldn't be reached any other way but on foot.
After several days of difficult travel, the workers refused to
pick up their packs and go any further. They sat by the side of the trail
ignoring the shouts of the leader of the expedition. Finally the leader asked
why they wouldn't go on. One of the workers replied, "Sir, we are waiting
for our souls to catch up with our bodies."
It is an old and ironic habit of human
beings to run faster when we have lost our way.
Jungle Journal
(Missionary Terry Schultz,
If I remember correctly, it was C.S.
Lewis who said: “You don’t know if you really believe something, until holding
onto that belief becomes a matter of life and death.” For most of us, it is
hard to imagine being in a situation in which staying true to the Lord would
really involve choosing between life and death. There are some trials you
would just as soon not have to face.
Readers of the Jungle Journal have heard about our native pastor
Maravi over the years. Physically, he is a rather short, thin guy, with
those classic Chayahuita features of thick black hair and high
cheekbones. He pulls giant Amazon fish out of the river that weigh as
much as him, with those skinny arms that are as strong as steel. He is
timid and usually talks quietly like so many isolated, deep-jungle dwelling
natives. A former animist who dabbled in the shamanic arts, the Holy
Spirit grabbed Maravi through our Gospel message and turned him into our
greatest native evangelist. The man’s eyes light up when he stands beside
me and translates my sermons before an evening crowd of villagers. When Maravi
gets going, it is one of the great moments in all my missionary work.
There is no one like him. He is truly one of God’s special
servants. More than anyone else I work with in
Now maybe it was the Devil himself that decided to sift Maravi
like wheat, tried to break the man with the worst trial I have ever seen.
The Bible says our trials can be likened to precious metal going through fire
to be purified. Maravi was put through a fire like few of us could even
imagine. To think back to it now still puts a knot in my stomach.
Maravi spends much of his time in a second thatch roof home he
built next to his cornfield, about a half hour walk from the
And if you spend any time at all around this extended family,
you know that Maravi’s favorite child by far is his firstborn, 18-year-old
Gloria. Maravi’s face lights up when that little skinny girl comes
around. In the cool, 4:00 morning, she will come out of her house and,
without saying a word, sit down on a log beside Maravi by Lucha’s cooking
fire. Hardly a word passes between the two of them. They don’t even
really face each other. They just sit there quietly in each other’s
presence, father and daughter. Gloria and her husband Nilo live only a
few feet away in the thatch roof dwelling Nilo and Maravi constructed together,
- the home where Gloria gave birth last year to Maravi’s first
grandchild. Lucha assisted in the delivery, Gloria screaming through the
process on a bed made of rough-cut boards with one dirty scrap of a
sheet. The huge family was thankful that Gloria did not die in the
process for all the blood she lost. Both mother and baby were fine.
But the Amazon jungle
takes a mighty toll every year among the natives: Malaria, yellow fever,
hepatitis, parasites, and a host of deadly tropical diseases that are simple
referred to as “jungle fever.” To say Maravi and all were alarmed is putting it
mildly, when Gloria began exhibiting the unmistakable symptoms of a fatal
jungle fever.
The severity of Gloria’s illness was immediately evident to
all. In one day, Gloria simply stopped eating all together, and began
slipping deeper and deeper into the deadly fever. You could see her
condition deteriorate right before your eyes. The girl went shockingly
pale, lost all strength, and simply lay there and got worst. Maravi and
the family threw themselves into hours and hours of nonstop prayer, asking that
the little girl, already a wife and a mom, not be taken like so many others in
the village. But Gloria did not get better. The hours passed and
her condition kept deteriorating. The family spent the night beside her
as she lay on the floor in a mound of ragged blankets. She survived the
night, but the next morning still refused to eat a thing. Clearly, she
was continuing to slip away.
It was a moment of crisis like the family had never faced
before. To some family members, the all-night-into-the-early-morning
prayer vigil didn’t seem to make a bit of difference. They started
thinking that more needed to be done, something that felt more proactive.
Gloria’s husband Nilo was going out of his mind, watching his new wife
sliding toward death right before his eyes. Desperate to do something,
anything to save Gloria, Nilo fell back on the familiar: He asked Maravi
for permission to take Gloria downriver to Yurimaguas, to the most famous,
powerful shaman in the region, renowned for his extraordinary healing
powers. Maravi, as patriarch of the tribal family, had the final say in
the matter. Maravi refused to let Nilo take Gloria to the shaman.
Nilo nearly went berserk.
Maravi knew full well that God does not allow for any involve-ment with the supernatural, magical arts. (How many
of my sermons had he translated on that very topic?!) Nilo, a new
Christian, was stunned by Maravi’s intransigence. It was not a denial of
the true God to consult a shaman, Nilo pleaded, but simply an effort to do
something more for the dying girl. After all, didn’t the shaman know all
kinds of special, healing plants that he could prepare and give to
Gloria? Why would Maravi refuse anything that might help his dying
daughter?
Maravi tried to explain to Nilo (and a growing number of
villagers who had become aware of Gloria’s critical condition), the simple
facts: You don’t just receive medicine when you visit a shaman; you get
the magical incantations that supposedly help activate the medicines to give
them their extraordinary power. Supernatural forces are always summoned
by the shamans. “Exactly,” thought Nilo, and many villagers. “So
what was the problem?” Amidst Maravi’s own anguish at watching Gloria
continue to slip away, he now had to try and explain to his son-in-law why a
trip to the healing shaman was not an option. Maravi gathered a few
medicinal plants and prepared them for Gloria, but that was not what Nilo
wanted. He was shocked that Maravi would do nothing more to try and save
his daughter.
Gloria steadily worsened in the evening hours. She had now
gone two days with no food and hardly any water. In the midst of his
grief, Maravi was subjected to Nilo's and several villager’s nonstop barrage of
questions: What harm could be done in taking Gloria to the healing shaman?
Why would Maravi do nothing but just pray and wait? Why wouldn’t he try
and do everything possible to save his daughter?
The crisis was deepening, and Maravi was about to receive
yet another shocking blow: His dear wife, Lucha, his beloved partner in
everything, now joined in the growing chorus of those who pleaded with Maravi
to try and save Gloria with a trip to the shaman. Like some modern-day
Job, Maravi was being ill advised by supposed village friends and now being
advised to turn his back on God by his very own wife. Maravi sat in
agony, praying for Gloria as she slid closer to leaving them.
Now I wouldn’t make the following comparison lightly, but I
think it can be said: Out there in Parinari, on the floor of that thatch
roof house where Gloria lay dying, Maravi made his stand. In a certain
peculiar way, it was Abraham and Isaac all over again. Maravi would
sacrifice the life of his child if it came to that, before he would disobey
God. It was that simple. Maravi knew it. God knew it.
Everyone reading this story I think can see it. (Not that the shaman
could have saved Gloria of course.)
All night long Maravi prayed beside his motionless little
daughter. He was now pretty much on his own. No support. No one
understood. A lot of people deeply disappointed with him. Who would
have thought it would all come down to this?
Day three broke over an exhausted Maravi who tried to stay up a
second night in a row but nodded off around dawn. Maravi woke up and
instantly looked over at Gloria. Her breathing seemed a little
better! So did her color! The fever had left! By afternoon
she was sitting up and eating! Gloria had come back from the brink of
death! God had saved her!
And
Maravi? His prayers had been
answered. Spiritually speaking, the man had indeed passed through a fiery
trial. What a witness before his entire family! What a witness
before the entire village!
Now there’s one final, extraordinary point in the story: I
asked Maravi last week about Gloria’s illness and the intense pressure to visit
the shaman. In his quiet, humble voice, Maravi had this to say: He
never felt he had any choice in the matter. He clearly knew that God does
not permit shamanism. Maravi then uncharacteristically looked me straight
in the eyes and said: “Besides, I knew I would be with Gloria again in
paradise.”
Breathtaking!
Terry
Many folks at
Mike’s wife, Elaine, has been diagnosed with "Spinal cerebellar ataxia." This is a hereditary disease
that affects the brain. The cerebellum controls all bodily movement and
that is atrophying. Walking, speaking, vision, swallowing, even the heart
beating and respiration eventually are affected. It can be fatal.
There is no cure or treatment. The disease progresses slowly but she
could lose her ability to walk in a year, and her speech may become
slurred. She will continue to go to the
Your prayers would be greatly appreciated.
Minnesota District Forty-Fifth Biennial Convention
The Forty-Fifth Biennial Convention of the Minnesota
District of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod opened with a communion
service at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at
Following the
opening service, President Larry Cross opened the convention in the name of the
Triune God at
Among other reports
and presentations were a number of lay leaders who spoke about their work as
visitors and missionaries in the Minnesota District. Some individuals were
Darrell Isebrand who encouraged the lay people to be
friendship evangelists; Peder Dressel,
who has received a formal call to visit patients in the
The assembly
wrestled with many of the issues facing our synod at this time. Concerns regarding cutbacks in World Missions staff, restructuring
and streamlining of synodical leadership, and
alternative funding for parish schools at a time when the rising cost of
education threatens enrollment at our synodical
schools, brought about spirited discussion.
Although there was
not unanimity on every issue, the assembly did agree that effectiveness should
not be compromised by efficiency in an attempt to restructure the
administration of our synod.
Many sentiments were
also expressed toward maintaining our present education structure with our four
synodical training schools:
The convention
closed with a worship service led by Pastor Archie Frenz
of
The incumbent
officers of the district were reelected and installed during the closing
service. The members of the Minnesota District Presidium are District President
Larry Cross, First Vice President Charles Degner,
Second Vice President Joel Luetke, and Secretary
Michael Hatzung. The closing hymn, “For All the
Saints Who From Their Labors” brought the convention
to a close with the reminder of our ultimate goal and the gracious fulfillment
of God’s promise to us in Christ.
Representing
Respectfully
submitted, Pastor Jeffrey A. Bovee – Media Chairman
of MN District
It's That Time Again. Those Mission
Box offerings for Lutheran Women's Missionary Society that you have been
filling with change are due. Please give to Mae Schmidt, our LWMS Reporter,
before the end of September to ensure being counted before the Fall Rally. New
boxes are available in the
back of church. Thank you!
It is time to start thinking about the
fall schedule and a new year of Sunday school. We hope to have a new series of
materials for this next year which will make our Sunday School
sessions even more enjoyable. We plan to team teach again so that the children
will have a variety of people talking to them about Jesus. We will use the same
format with the lesson being taught to the whole group along with singing.
All children ages 3 to 8th grade are invited to join
us each Sunday starting September 17th which is the Sunday after our
weekend at
College Happens!
Help
How: A Dorm Shower
When: Wednesday, August 23
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Where:Mt. Olive Fellowship Hall
We will start with a light potluck supper of sandwiches and
salads. There will be a sign-up sheet posted on the white board near the
kitchen. Mary Schultz and
If you need ideas
for gifts, please see the JC Penney website, Campus Registry, Soledad Petersen
(I used my last name to make things easier), or the Target website, Wishlist for Linda Petersen (Soledad Project). I am also
attaching a list of suggested items here. If you wish to contribute money to be
used toward a gift, please give it to me as soon as possible.
Thanks, and I hope
all men, women, and interested children and teens of the congregation can
attend!!!
Linda Petersen and
Pam Folkens,
P.S. Mary went
through the clothes that have been donated for
Good scissors for paper, etc.
Small sewing kit.
Highlighter pens.
Tape and dispenser.
Post-it notes and note pads.
Desk supplies organizer.
Comfy lounging chair.
Hangers (wood/ plastic).
Gift cards to Target, etc.
Hair dryer.
Small suitcase.
Flip-flops for showers.
Terry robe (for showers).
Sleep shirts and pants.
Comfy throw.
Small dorm refrigerator.
Nice hand or vanity mirror.
Floor lamp & bulbs.
Desk lamp & bulbs.
Varied storage containers.
Silverware and snack dishes
Hamper/laundry bag.
Bed pillows. (2)
Storage/book shelves.
Twin sheet set. (have
1-need 2)
Wicker storage unit.
Desk chair.
Folders, binders, paper.
Pens, pencils, pencil sharpener
Stationery and stamps.
Shower tote and toiletries.
Organizer book/calendar.
Fast food gift cards.
Flashlight & batteries.
Umbrella/rain poncho.
Printer paper & ink/toner.
Power strips.
I have already purchased: one sheet set, one
duvet cover, alarm clock/radio, mattress pad. She will need a duvet!!!!!
Notes regarding the cash flow report: The deficit in contributions is reflected in
the outflows of Adult Discipleship, Child-Youth-Family and Outreach. As of July
31 we owe to synod $6,500.00 and somewhat over $2,000.00 to
We have
made these commitments as a congregation and we need to keep them. If we wait
until fall to address this, the amount may be overwhelming. Prayerfully
consider this situation and respond as you have been blessed.