Because
Jesus Christ lived the life we owed,
and
because
He died
the death
we had
coming,
We go
from being condemned orphans
without
hope
to being
adopted
children without fear.
Prof. John Jeske, Reformation Renewal Weekend at Mt.
Olive
"If anyone
wants to be first, he must be the very last,
and the
servant of all."
Jesus in Mark 9:35
Jesus turns the notion of greatness upside down.
Greatness means to serve others in love. It means to relinquish power and
control. To be a servant is to put others first.
A college professor gave me and a whole room full of
college students a lesson in greatness. He was a professor who was successful
in every sense of the word. His students loved him and his colleagues respected
him. He frequently had his lunch at the school cafeteria, a beehive of activity
and noise.
I along with other students worked in the cafeteria
clearing tables. Unfortunately, a crudely callused tradition had developed.
Anytime one of the table servers would accidentally drop a tray on the floor,
the students would burst into applause in a mocking gesture of recognition.
One particular lunch the esteemed professor joined
some students for lunch. While they were enjoying lunch, there was a tremendous
crash. I had dropped an entire tray of dirty dishes. Immediately the dining
hall erupted with applause as I started to clean up the mess on the floor.
Without saying a word, the professor stood up, walked over to me and stooped
down to his knees and joined me in cleaning up the mess. The clapping stopped.
And the dinning hall fell silent as a morgue. For a few seconds everyone
watched as the professor taught all who were present more about true greatness
and servanthood in that one action than he could have taught in a whole
semester of words. That was servanthood.
Service
Keeps Us
Alive
Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the
Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain. It was built in 109 A.D. For
eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and
thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations of men drank from its flow. Then came
another generation, a recent one, who said, "This aqueduct is so great a
marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We
shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor."
They
did; they laid modern iron pipes. They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a
reverent rest. And what happened to the aqueduct? It began to fall apart. The
sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble. The bricks and stone sagged
and threatened to fall. What ages of service could not destroy idleness
disintegrated.
Politeness
is a Form of Service
How we live in relation to one another is becoming
increasingly important, even in our parenting. According to one source,
"Politeness is making a comeback. Growing numbers of Americans say that
parents need to teach their children good behavior. Between 1991 and 1995, the
share of U.S. adults who agree that good manners and politeness are among the
most important qualities for parents to instill in children rose 10 percentage
points, to 59 percent. Americans now rate manners and politeness as the most
important qualities to encourage in children, ahead of 10 other traits,
including a sense of responsibility, tolerance and respect for others, and
religious faith."
For Me?
A number of years ago, a small book appeared for
ministers. Titled The Penguin Principles, it attempted to help naive clergy get
a handle on the people of their congregations. Most of the material in the book
was written with tongue in cheek, so it has some truth in it. According to the
book, the first principle of church life goes like this: "Despite the
pious things we say, at any given time, less than five percent of any group in
the church is operating with purely Christian motivation. The other 95 percent
is asking, 'What's in it for me?'"
Pastor Steven E. Albertin told the following story.
He said, in my church secretary's office there hangs a modernistic picture
composed of a maze of colors and shapes. I realized these sophisticated,
modern, and abstract pictures were supposed to contain some profound artistic
or philosophical message, but I never was able to figure it out. It just looked
like a jumbled mass of confusion. If there was a message there, I was blind to
it.
One
day while I was standing in the office, waiting for the copier to warm up, one
of the congregation's kindergarten-age boys, Adam, stood beside me and said,
"Do you see what I see?"
"Do
you see something in that picture? I sure don't." Adam looked at me with
glee in his eye, "Pastor, can't you see him? It's Jesus hanging on the
cross." I stared as hard as I could, until my eyes actually hurt from
staring. I wanted to believe Adam and that there actually was the image of
Jesus hanging on the cross hidden somewhere in that mass of color and shapes,
but I couldn't see Jesus anywhere. "Adam, I'm sorry but I must be blind.
You will have to help me see."
Directing
his finger to a mass of color in the center of the picture, Adam said,
"There, Pastor. Do you see what I see? There is Jesus, his face, his arms
outstretched on the cross." And then, like an epiphany, the image began to
appear. Yes, there hidden somehow "behind" the colors and the shapes
was the barely visible image of Jesus, hanging with arms outstretched on the
cross. "It's amazing, Adam. You have helped one blind pastor to see Jesus.
Yes, I can see what you see, Adam."
WHY WE
LOVE KIDS
HONESTY
My son Zachary, 4, came screaming out of the bathroom
to tell me he'd dropped his toothbrush in the toilet. So I fished it out and
threw it in the garbage. Zachary stood there thinking for a moment, then ran to
my bathroom and came out with my toothbrush. He held it up and said with a
charming little smile, "We better throw this one out too then, 'cause it
fell in the toilet a few days ago.
>
OPINIONS
On
the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his
mother. The note read, "The opinions expressed by this child are not
necessarily those of his parents."
>
KETCHUP
A
woman was trying hard to get the ketchup to come out of the jar. During her
struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the
phone. "It's the minister, Mommy," the child said to her mother. Then
she added, "Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now. She's
hitting the bottle."
>
POLICE # 1
While
taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by
a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked,
"Are you a cop?" "Yes," I answered and continued writing
the report. "My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?" "Yes,
that's right," I told her. "Well, then," she said as she
extended her foot toward me, "would you please tie my shoe?"
>
POLICE # 2
It
was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As
I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little
boy staring in at me. "Is that a dog you got back there?" he asked.
"It sure is," I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then
towards the back of the van. Finally he said, "What'd he do?"
>
ELDERLY
While
working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used
to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly
intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers
and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking
in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she
merely turned and whispered, "The tooth fairy will never believe
this!"
>
SCHOOL
A
little girl had just finished her first week of school. "I'm just wasting
my time," she said to her mother. "I can't read, I can't write and
they won't let me talk!"
Missionary
Terry Schultz, Lima, Peru, member of our Mt. Olive family
Yes, as
more than a few of you suspected, these final pages were in fact written a few
weeks ago! I had originally planned to
wait awhile before sending it out, but a few too many mildly-to-seriously
incensed emails started stacking up, insisting on hearing the rest of the
story. OK amigos, let’s finish it off.
The early morning thick white fog
over the small jungle river finally started to clear around 5:00 AM. We quickly loaded up our few personal bags
and were ready to go. Basha and his
wife, Mahkia would be traveling with us as far as Yurimaguas, where he hoped to
meet with government officials regarding assistance for his village. At least that’s what he was saying. But we knew he was also concerned about our
traveling past the river villages of their traditional tribal enemies, the
Condoshis.
As you Journal readers may
remember, in this part of the Amazon jungle there is a kind of “honor code”
that calls for showing respect to village chiefs, even of rival tribes, and
allowing them safe passage down the river.
But at this very time, the tribal antagonisms were heating up again,
resulting in victims on both sides! All
bets were off regarding chiefs from rival villages being automatically granted
safe passage. Basha knew this, but was
more worried about us non-natives traveling completely alone. A boatful of
“foreigners” would be a tempting target indeed. Stories abounded in this part of the jungle, of natives stopping
boats at gunpoint and the travelers being picked clean of gas, money, and all
their personal goods.
However, I was personally thinking
that all this concern about tribal warfare was a bit overblown. Hadn’t we just come down river past numerous
villages without incident? Let me tell
you amigos, a little naiveté in this part of the Amazon can practically get you
killed.
The morning started out well
enough. We motored along at very slow
speeds, as the river was so shallow and full of vegetation and tree roots. We traveled for well over an hour up river with
Basha telling us that all this jungle belonged to his Shapra village. Finally, we came to a part of the river,
(that didn’t look any different to us from all the rest of the tree-lined river
we’d passed for an hour and a half), and Basha solemnly informed us that we
were leaving Shapra territory and entering Condoshi territory. Basha now sat straight up, extra alert,
intensely scanning the high riverbanks.
I decided not to bother him with talk, though I still thought he was
acting overly cautious. What happened
in the next few seconds, would prove how wrong I was…
We rounded a sharp bend in the
river, and a small Condoshi village sitting high on a steep bank suddenly came
into view. At the very edge of the high
bank, we all spotted a huge, extremely agitated Condoshi man emphatically signaling
us to stop the boat and pull over! He continued making huge, crazy, waving motions with his arms,
obviously getting madder by the second when we showed no response…
Segundo did not steer the boat
toward the shore, though he had cut the slow speed of the outboard down even
further. We all waited to see what
Basha would have us do. Basha sat there
not moving, a defiant, stone-cold look on his face. Had the Condoshi spotted
the hated, rival chief in our boat?? I held my breath, waiting…
It became one of those rare moments when the seconds seem to pass in
slow motion. The Condoshi was getting
more vexed by the split second, now stomping around, as Segundo still made no
move to pull over, but continued to motor right down the middle of the river. The Condoshi was now yelling at other natives
to come! And Segundo’s next move?? His next move was decided for him, for in
the next instant another Condoshi came up and FIRED A SHOTGUN IN OUR DIRECTION! In that instant, Segundo slammed the
throttle wide-open!!! The boat
practically leaped ahead out of the water, throwing Ronal completely off his
bench. We almost ran ashore, as Segundo
cut the corner close, then sped straight down the narrow river. It was all over in a couple seconds. We all turned to cheer for Segundo, who was
wiping the sweat streaming down his face.
Basha’s straight-ahead stare into space, eyes seething with anger, told
me he was filing this event away for future reference. The tribal antagonisms were heating up
indeed.
It took more than a little while
for everyone to settle down again and simply enjoy being on the river (and not
within anyone’s rifle range)! It was a
gorgeous day and late in the afternoon the sun was finally starting to break
through. The river was getting progressively wider to about 15 yards. While
casually scanning the river a huge, glistening, bright pink shape emerged a few
yards away. I warily thought it must be
someone’s plastic air mattress coming up out of the water, and even look ahead
at a canoe, thinking it must be pulling a mattress along. Wait, that’s no air mattress!! – It was a
rare PURE PINK RIVER DOLFIN!! These
beautiful creatures are only found in these jungle rivers, nowhere else in the
entire world. I had the feeling that
God had especially sent this moment to us!
Hours later, huge, dark storm
clouds gathered, and a persistent downpour commenced. Segundo was starting to get that “crazed boat captain” thing
going again. , – the kind we would see when we couldn’t sleep at night, and he
would simply decide to drive us in the boat all night to get back to
Yurimaguas. Mind you, he had now been
driving from 5:00 in the morning till now, 9 o’clock at night. That’s right amigos, over 16 hours, with only
two half-hour breaks. Those breaks came
when we had finally crossed back out of the hepatitis zone and come upon a
couple of small villages. Yet, the only
food we were able to buy was a couple little plastic bags of cooked rice plus a
few hard-boiled eggs. Segundo took one
look at the puny bag of rice, poured it all in the palm of one hand, and tossed
it down in a single gulp. That, plus a
final couple packs of crackers were all Segundo had to go on while pulling a
double shift that appeared to be going into a third, midnight shift!! Yes, the man appeared crazy.
It was now completely black out,
stars covered, no moon. Filco sitting
in the front of the boat, motioned for Segundo to stop for a second, then
walked back for a quick conversation.
As Filco was the boat owner’s representative, he now politely asked the
boat captain, Segundo, to pull over for the night. Segundo curtly told Filco to sit back down, and get the hand-held
spotlight out.
Thoroughly frustrated, Filco went
back to the front of the boat, shooting me an angry, narrow-eyed,
why-don’t-you-stop-this-madman look, but I just slightly shook my head no. If Segundo was going to play Captain Ahab
tonight, it was best to just keep a life jacket nearby and ride it all
out. However, not 20 minutes later, the
rain starting coming down in torrential sheets, harder than anything you’d ever
seen. Even with our plastic canopy
roof, the boat was beginning to fill up with rain!! And still, Segundo kept driving, now with one hand on the outboard,
while with the other hand he scooped water out of the bottom of the boat. I shot
a look to Jose, who knew what to do: He
grabbed another plastic bucket and headed toward the back. (The water was
rising fastest near the heavier, back end of the boat.) Jose started bailing
like crazy, as Ronal just buried his head in his lap, not wanting to see any of
this. I took it as my job to not look
overly concerned. One does not
second-guess an experienced Amazon boat captain, especially one who has already
driven twenty hours straight and insists on going all the way.
The situation was deteriorating
fast. In the front of the boat not
covered by the canopy, Filco was standing in water, steadying himself with one
hand. With the other hand he held a powerful, portable spotlight which had two
wires connected to a big car battery sitting on a pile of rags. Rain streaming down his plastic poncho,
Filco scanned the river from one side to the other, watching for floating tree
trunks or other debris, and signaling Segundo which way to steer to avoid
collisions. The beam of light was all
that could be seen in the now pitch black night. That is, except for the outbursts of lightening that now started
crashing down!!
Would I say God sent the
lightening? Perhaps. Anyway, it was probably the only thing that
would have gotten Segundo to finally pull the boat over. As our boat was the only object in the now
much wider river, we were certainly in danger of getting struck by lightening.
We pulled over to the riverbank
as the rain continued coming down in an absolute deluge! Jose and Segundo kept bailing away as we
just sat there in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go. Basha and Mahkia huddled together wondering
what would happen next. Didn’t we all.
What did happen next started in a
matter of seconds: The empty air space
inside the boat, between the bottom of the boat and the plastic-sheet canopy
roof, slowly started turning black from the massive, dense swarm of JUNGLE
INSECTS that began flying in! Racing in
to save their lives from the storm, the insects came in thick as a mini-plague,
till the inside of the blue plastic roof overhead was solid black!! We quickly started applying insect-repellent
lotion, putting it on as thick as shaving cream, but it was useless: The insects just stuck to it like we were
human fly paper.
The inside of the boat was
rapidly becoming a solid ball of flying, buzzing, agitated insects seeking
shelter. A quick flip-on of my powerful
flashlight confirmed the unimaginable sight:
Insects were crawling on everything and flying everywhere, some biting
and stinging away. The entire length of
my flashlight beam looked like a perfectly formed black tube of pure, pulsating
insects!! It was the closest I ever
came to completely freaking out, for there was nowhere to escape to! Bugs were crawling up and down everyone’s
legs, jackets, hair, my mustache… The
same thought was obviously racing through everyone’s heads – should we jump in
the water?? - But that was hardly an
option; in the complete blackness, there was no telling what could happen if
you left the boat. As I was at the
verge of losing it, a thought flashed through my mind: I quickly shoved my hand in one of my bags
to find: A crazy jungle hat Mary had bought me years ago! It was a strange hat that included a mesh
material attached all around the brim (a la those beekeeper’s hats) that you
could pull down to cover your face and neck.
I quickly pulled it on to my great relief. Now I could concentrate on just the bugs coming up my
shorts!
Obviously, the rest of the crew
was faring even worse. Yet the
torrential rain would not let up. There
seemed to be less lightening, so the biggest concern with traveling again would
be the boat filling with water and sinking.
However, it was becoming clearer by the second that we couldn’t just sit
there, as more and more flying insects were cramming into the boat to escape
the rain. The group appeared on the
verge of a collective psychotic meltdown: Everyone’s clothes were now crawling
with insects, and I mean inside AND outside your clothes! Basha was trying to hold a big blanket tight
over Mahkia’s head and body, (thus losing the use of his arms), while spitting
bugs away from his mouth. Little Ronal
had disappeared into his poncho like it was a teepee, and was simply rocking
back and forth, moaning. Abruptly,
Segundo pulled the starter rope of the outboard, and yelled at Jose to start
bailing water. We would take our
chances with the river!!!
Segundo swung the boat away from
the shoreline and, even at a low speed, the insects began flying out of the
boat. Of course, the torrential rain
now began entering the boat, especially from the front, but it was a welcome
relief from the unbearable insect invasion.
It was now well past midnight, and absolutely pitch black out. Filco would still need to somehow stand in
the front and take the onslaught of rain, working the hand-held spotlight to
watch for trees and debris in the river. He reached into his bag and produced a
thick fabric belt, several yards long.
He tied one end of the belt securely around his aluminum bench. Then he passed the other end around his
waste twice and tied it tightly. As the
boat was going slow, he had decided to sit on that piece of sheet metal welded
on the top of the front of the boat, legs and feet dangling over the sides of
the boat. His hunched over, the plastic
poncho’d figure being battered by rain and wind made a pitiful sight, but then
again once you’re soaked, does it really matter anymore? Scanning back and forth with the light and
signaling Segundo to swerve left or right, we crawled ahead in the middle of
the river. By my calculations, we were
perhaps just 2½ hours from a safe port in Yurimaguas. Little did we know, that the night was not through with us
yet!
Filco must have been scanning the
river, back and forth, back and forth with his spotlight for over an hour. Where his strength came from I’ll never
know, for it’s not the kind of job where you could let up for even a
moment. Run into a huge floating trunk
or just leafy branches and your outboard could be damaged beyond quick repair,
leaving you completely stranded in the water. Amazingly, somewhere around 2:00
that night, the rain finally began to let up, and the stars and even the moon
began to poke out from the clouds. We
were ecstatic, as you could now see several yards ahead in the ever-widening
river for the first time all night.
Segundo responded by cranking up the outboard to about double the
speed. And between too much speed and
too little sleep, I suppose one more accident was simply waiting round the bend. Actually it was sitting right ahead of us,
in the form of a small little island of mud that was jutting out of the middle
of the river. Segundo could have gone
to the right or the left of that island.
He chose right. He chose
wrong. Filco barely kept from toppling
into the water as the boat ran right into deep mud hidden under the shallow
black water. We were completely
stuck. Grounded!
Now it’s 2:00 at night, we’re
stuck in the mud of an Amazon River tributary, and there’s nothing to do but jump
into the water to push the boat out.
Filco, in sheer exhaustion, was lying down on a bench, taking advantage
of his first break in hours. Jose and
Segundo, calling up what reserves of energy I don’t know, were already in the
shallow water, pushing the boat off the mud bar. It appeared that the boat would have to be pushed down river for
a while, to get through this shallow stretch.
Following Jose and Segundo’s example, I took my boots off and got ready
to join them now at the back of the boat by the outboard, to help them push the
boat up river.
“No, no, you can’t jump in, we’ve got it,” Jose and Segundo
immediately began yelling at me, as they realized my intentions. “We can handle it.” “That’s O.K., I don’t mind,” I
replied. “No you can’t, you can’t,”
they began yelling. “Don’t you know what’s in here?!” “No.” “There could be
electric eels, big fish, piranhas!”
“Really??”
However, what kind of team leader
would expect more of his men than he was willing to do himself?! “I’m coming in.” Now to tell the truth, I did take a position between the two of
them, thinking that with all the mud and water we were churning up, the eels
and big fish might stay away. It was a
strange sensation to sink your bare feet into inches and inches of river bottom
mud. Standing shoulder to shoulder,
pushing against that metal boat with two jungle brothers, sweat pouring,
muscles aching, yard by yard trudging through the mud and water in the middle
of that Amazon night. It was hard, it
was exhausting, … and it was downright exhilarating!!! About half and hour later, the river finally
started to get deeper again, and the propeller of the outboard was no longer
dragging through mud. Segundo jumped
into the boat and started the motor up!
What a welcome sound! I had just
enough strength to grab the side of the boat, raise myself out of the water,
and fall into the boat.
It was clear boating for nearly
an hour, and it was starting to feel like we were going to make it. Everyone started dozing off except the
pilot, and Filco with his spotlight scanning across the black surface of the
river. But this wild Amazon night still
wasn’t through with us! It all started
again: We were about thrown off our
benches as the boat drove deep into yet another mud and sand bar. Grounded again!
One more time, Jose, Segundo and
I jumped into the mud and muck to pull the boat out. Then, it was time again to wade over to the back of the boat and
start pushing it up river. I took my
place between Segundo and Jose, and once again we put our backs into it,
trudging through the mud. Then, without
any warning, it happened: Segundo
abruptly stopped, stood straight up,… and said he felt a nibble!…as in
something trying to take a BITE OUT OF HIM!!
We stopped in an instant, waiting to see what would happen next. Segundo felt his leg… said he didn’t think
it was bleeding. No one dared say the
“P” word, (yes, those little fishes with very big teeth). We just looked at each other, and without
another word, began pushing even harder!!
But just as we were pushing harder and faster…
Segundo slipped and, sliding
against the outboard propeller, cut a huge gash in his thigh!!! He let out a howl, then said it wasn’t bad,
(although he couldn’t see it in the darkness), and in frustration, hauled
himself up into the boat. Meanwhile,
frantically trying to put some distance between the blood and our boat, Jose
and I let out a yell and pushed like two men in the water with “Jaws” closing
in. We pushed for just a few seconds
more than jumped into the boat, as Segundo, revving the outboard, was able to
plow through the last few yards of mud and finally break free!
With everyone safely back in the
boat, I yelled for my flashlight and insisted that Segundo stop for a second so
we could finally get a look at his leg.
He was attempting to drive with one hand on the outboard, the other hand
on his thigh trying to squeeze the wound shut.
The flashlight beam revealed blood streaming down his leg, forming a
huge red pool sloshing in the water at the bottom of the boat. I immediately whipped off my t-shirt, and
started to wrap it around his leg. By
now, everyone in the boat was getting worried.
Ronal produced a bottle of medical alcohol, Jose held my flashlight, and
everyone yelled at me to pour the liquid right on the open wound. I did, and Segundo reflexively arched his
back, grimacing in excruciating pain, yet refusing to scream out. Everyone yelled at me to pour more alcohol
on the open wound. I’m not sure
why. (Yes amigos, I have since been
told that this was not the thing to do!!)
I then wrapped the wound as tight as I could, and Segundo waved everyone
off so he could go back to driving!
Jose insisted on sitting right beside him to make sure he was OK. Everyone else got back to his bench, praying
that Segundo would be all right.
Well, it was more than an hour
later, but the lights of Yurimaguas finally came into view!! It was closing in on 4:00 am. Segundo had driven an astounding 22½ hours
straight, on practically no food, no sleep, (and not to mention down a quart or
two of blood)! We all tumbled onto the
dock as the boat was tied up. Filco,
collapsing in total exhaustion, (I thought I might have to pry that spotlight
out of his cold hand) announced that he would just sleep right there for a
couple hours, and then put the outboard away.
He laid down on a bench and promptly fell dead asleep. Segundo limped onto the dock, and we put him
in the first motorcycle rickshaw taxi that showed up. He adamantly refused to let us take him straight to the emergency
ward of the hospital, and there was no changing his mind. He wanted to go straight home. Didn’t we all.
By 4:30, Ronal and I were checked
into a hostel. A few hours later, we
were on the road to Tarapoto. That same
morning, Segundo was down at the hospital, getting about a half dozen stitches
in his leg. He would not have wanted us
there. He’s not that kind of guy.
Our all-night river run now lay
behind us in the dust of the Tarapoto highway.
But already, our minds were racing on how we would get back to those
Amazon villages! After all, we had been
invited. By the power of the Holy
Spirit, those natives wanted the message we could proclaim: Jesus has come to save His children. By His power, we’d be back!
Martin
Luther College Ladies Auxiliary
"THANK YOU" to those who donated non-perishable
items for the MLC food bank here at Mt Olive.
The items were delivered the day of the Auxiliary meeting, Wednesday,
October 8. Marcella Voss and Jean Brown
attended from Mt Olive.
Following
coffee and registration, the opening devotion was conducted by Auxiliary
Pastoral Advisor, Craig Engel with the help of his six year old son, Joel. Pastor Engel spoke of the changes in Joel
since he was born. He demonstrated that
now he could hardly lift Joel, whereas at one time, he could hold Joel in one
hand. His emphasis was on people
changing, times changing, but “Jesus
Christ the same yesterday and today and
forever” Heb13:8, which was the theme for the day’s meeting.
Diane
Brutlag, Auxiliary President, welcomed everyone to the meeting and proceeded
with the following introductions, reports and business:
·
President Olsen
welcomed those in attendance to “our” campus
·
A word of welcome was
given by the Student Government President; thanking us for our support of the
students through the gifts given to the college
·
Gary Sonneberg,
Financial Advisor, introduced Jon Loescher, freshman and new recipient of the
Auxiliary Scholarship, which is renewable for four years
·
Secretary, Treasurer,
and Endowment Fund Chairman commented on reports found in our meeting folder.
Students
presented scenes and musical selections from “Into The Woods” which will be
presented at the college, November 6-9.
Since
the meeting was ahead of schedule, people were encouraged to visit the college
bookstore and take advantage of the 15% discount for the day before going for
lunch at noon in the MLC Cafeteria.
After
lunch, Professor Rolland Menk, Faculty Representative to the Auxiliary,
reported that MLC enrollment at the beginning of the year was 1021 full time
students – 230 in pastoral ministry and 791 in educational ministry;
representing 35 states and 10 foreign countries. Enrollment was slightly down from the previous year. He
encouraged us to check out the MLC website www.mlc-wels.edu to keep current on what is
happening on campus. He explained that
due to the budget cuts and his increased teaching load, he would no longer be
representative to the Auxiliary. Professor
Paul Wendland has been named to replace him.
He thanked those that brought goods for the married students’ food bank
and encouraged us to continue with this project as more married students are
enrolled at MLC (especially second career men with children), and they are very
appreciative of the food bank.
Election
Results/Announcements at end of Business Meeting:
·
Elected Arlene Post
Treasurer
·
Elected Clarice
Fastenau 2nd Vice President
·
Selected order of
project funding for the next year depending on monies available
1) Cassette Tapes of Hebrew Old
Testament - $65
2) Round Table (Student Café)
Sound System - $1000
3) Infant-Toddler Library
Resources - $500
4) Three Instruction Slide Sets
for Class Room Teaching - $500
In
addition $2000 is given in scholarships and $1250 to the library. This year we have balances on committed
projects: $2500 for women’s lockers
·
Approximately 100 were
in attendance; Project offering was $1308.15
·
Diane Brutlag, current
President passed the gavel to Theckla Schultz who will serve until the next
annual meeting.
The
closing devotion featured the MLC Treble Choir wearing the new gowns that were
a recent Auxiliary project.
Jean Brown
WELS/ELS
Seniors Rally (OWLS)
A Minnesota District – Senior Rally (OWLS) was held October
4, 2003 in St. Paul’s Lutheran Parish Center, New Ulm, Minnesota. The rally theme was “Seniors Sharing the
Gospel”. Registration, coffee and rolls
took place beginning at 9:00 AM. There
was a registration fee of $8.00 per person, which included the cost of
lunch. The opening worship service was
at 9:45. The opening hymn was “With the
Lord Begin Your Task”.
The
Scripture reading was Galatians 6:1-10, followed by Psalm 96. The rally theme also served as the title for
the worship service message based on Romans 1:16. This was delivered by Pastor
LeRoy Lothert. The closing hymn was “We
All Are One In Mission”.
After
the worship service, Mr. Ron Freiling, from the WELS Mission for the Visually
Impaired, gave a presentation on Macular Degeneration. He also brought along a display of work
performed at the Mission for the Visually Impaired.
After
a break at 11:00 AM, the group was divided into two workshops:
(1) In Africa (Malawi) presented by Missionary Ron Uhlhorn
(2) Crossroads at New Ulm presented by Pastor Arnold
Koelpin
A
lunch of Kentucky Fried Chicken was served at 12:20 PM and the workshops
resumed at 1:20 PM. The two groups
attended the opposite workshops from those attended in the morning sessions. The workshops concluded at 2:15.
At
2:15 there was a brief meeting and several reports were given. There was a free will offering taken which
will be used to purchase Bibles For Africa.
This offering came to $177.00.
There was also a vote taken to add an additional $100.00 from the OWLS
treasury for this purpose. Bibles are
urgently needed for mission work in Africa.
This was followed by a short closing devotion based on Matthew 9:35-38, before the rally ended at 2:55 PM.
Harold
and Jean Brown attended this rally as OWLS members at large, as Mt. Olive does
not have an OWLS chapter.
Bring
Your Appetites!
Bring
Your Friends!
Thanksgiving dinner at Mt. Olive has been scheduled
for Saturday, November 22nd. If you like to eat you are welcome. Bring your
appetite. Quite a bit of volunteer help is needed to put on this affair. If you
know how to wash dishes you have the necessary skills to volunteer. If you do
not know how, we have a training program just for you!
In
addition to much help needed in preparing the meal, this is also an outreach
event. Invite and bring your friends
who may not have a church home or who may have become distant from church.
And
last but not least, this is an opportunity to fellowship with our Chinese
brothers and sisters and enjoy some of their fine food too.
Do
plan to attend! Contact Jane Murray to
volunteer.
In the 1960’s, Bob Dylan wrote, “Times, they are a
changing’.” If one considers what those
years brought, then change can not be a good thing. Yes, God made it quite clear that the world will become
progressively wicked. In fact, things
will become so bad that even the righteous will be tempted to fall away. We certainly seem to be on that path, or
should I say expressway. Since the
1960s, the United States appears to have completed the transformation from a
Christian-based society to one of self-centered, morally intolerant, humanism.
What
about ourselves? Have we done the
necessary things to stem the tide? I
call your attention to the recent decision to abolish the Rib and Kraut
Supper. In years past, this was the
most auspicious event of the fall.
Devout members would plan months in advance to acquire choice ribs from
the best butchers in the city. Others
would diligently purchase the finest kraut available. There was a zealous competition to participate in the preparation
of the meal, which was renowned in the St Croix Conference. Even today, we receive calls from people desperate
to once again enjoy the feast fit for a Kaiser. To top it off, AAL would enthusiastically support the
preparations and provide matching funds that helped our efforts in discipleship
and outreach.
But
what has happened? Fewer and fewer
people have participated in recent years.
The young people do not seem to have the time. Many seem to think food preparation begins
and ends with a microwave. AAL is gone
and has been replace by a corporate conglomerate. Perhaps, most damning, we can
not even offer the event because no one is will to step forward to try to make
it happen. Yes, it certainly appears
that even the righteous are losing their saltiness.
But
have we forsaken God? I remember
attending a fabulous Thanksgiving feast at Mt Olive last year. The kitchen and fellowship hall were
bursting with smiling faces. There were
dedicated members that planned in advance and purchased succulent turkeys. With others certainly more adept, I remember
happily pealing, cooking, and whipping 25 lbs of potatoes to bring. (I guess this is even a stretch for me. Anyway, it wasn’t too bad, and I would be
willing to do it again).
Then,
there were our guests that turned into hosts; our sister congregation of
Chinese. They occupied the kitchen and
wrapped dumpling upon dumpling. And we
all sat together and enjoyed the food and fellowship, maybe not unlike an
internationalization of the Kraut and Rib Dinner. In fact, I bet most of you did not know that the main
ingredients in dumplings are ground pork and Chinese cabbage. So maybe we haven’t lost the desire for
friends, fellowship, and togetherness after all
So
what we were thinking on the Council, maybe we should make the Thanksgiving
feast our annual fare instead the Kraut and Ribs. This would give us a wonderful opportunity to reach out to our
sister members and thank them for their inspiration and enthusiasm for
spreading God’s Word. Maybe, we could
invite those we met when we canvassed the neighborhood, so they could get a
flavor of the great family of people we have in our congregation. Maybe, just maybe, we can even have roast
duck along with the dumplings and the traditional turkey and fixings. Yes, maybe we can use this event to thwart
wickedness, at least in our neck of St Paul.
Yes, I think, “Qin wen, ge wa Zhong Guo fan!”
Tim
Wiedmann, chairman,
Mt. Olive
congregation
News & Notes
Our Sunday school children and all their friends are
invited to a Reformation party here at Mt. Olive on Sunday, November 2nd
from 6-8:00pm. Dress as your favorite
Bible character and join us for food and fun.
Parents are asked to accompany their children.
We will be having our annual Christmas for Kids on
Saturday, December 6, starting at 1:00pm.
Please bring your friends for an afternoon of The Christmas Story, fun,
games, refreshments and crafts. This is
a three hour Vacation Bible School, which allows parents to do some Christmas
shopping. You will pick your children
up at 4:00pm. Please plan to join us.
Our Children's Christmas service will be given on
December 21st at 9:00am.
There will be 3 Saturday morning practices to prepare for this
service. Our practices will be from
9:30am to 11:00am on December 6, 13, and 20.
There will be a morning snack break at each practice. If you have friends and neighbors who would
like to join us for this service, please bring them to practice on December 6th.
Outreach
Committee Notes for November
There are a number of upcoming events and activities
for the Outreach Committee in November:
By the time you get this newsletter we will have had our outing to Buca’s on November 1st. I’m sure everyone will have a great time indulging the Italian in us.
The
weekend of November 8/9 we will have a tremendous opportunity to walk off that
big dinner from Buca’s because we will be conducting a flyer distribution
together with the CYFD committee to promote Christmas for kids (December 6).
The flyer distribution will be essentially the same activity that we do for VBS
(just a little cooler). We will also do a knock and drop activity (similar to
the one done with VBS distribution) at this same time section 2 of the VBS
distribution map will be canvassed. WE NEED LOTS OF HELP WITH THIS PLEASE CIRCLE IT ON YOUR CALENDARS!!!.
November
22 will be our second annual Thanksgiving dinner. This is a great opportunity to
invite people to church to give thanks for our blessings. As you may recall we
did this last year in conjunction with the Chinese Church so we have some
exciting and appetizing dishes that we don’t normally see for “thanksgiving”.
Jane already has five turkeys for the traditional appetite. So bring a hungry
guest! Please contact Jane Murray to offer assistance with this event.
We
will be working with the worship committee to review the roles of ushers and
greeters. The presentation Pastor Henkel did last month was thought provoking.
I feel we do a good job of welcoming visitors to our church, but it is also
appropriate to see if we can do better. One thought is to ask the greeters to
also “greet” visitors after the service to thank them for coming and answer
questions they may have.
Please
prayerfully consider joining the Outreach Committee. This is Job One for
Christians and we need some more help and more ideas. Please contact me, the
pastor, or any of the committee members if you are interested. Our committee
meets the first Monday of the month.
Greg
Schuyler,
Outreach
Committee Chairman
Reformation Renewal Weekend a Grand Success!
If you had the opportunity to hear Pastor John
Jeske’s three Bible studies, you couldn’t leave without renewed sense of your
Christian faith and Lutheran heritage.
(If you missed it, study notes are still available.) All three Bible studies were well attended
with over 50 participants at each study.
A special thanks to all who made this weekend a success. We hope this is the beginning of new and
renewed friendships with possibility of having another guest speaker next
year.
The Youth Group organized, collected, and sent 5 care
packages of goodies for Mt. Olive’s college students. This year’s Mt. Olive collegiates are Kory Henkel, Beth Holen,
Stacey Meier, Rachel Mueller, and Kristine Petersen. The collegiates received everything from pens & highlighters
to gift cards & snacks. Thank you
to all who generously contributed!
November
16th the Youth Group will be going shopping! Shopping to help restock the food shelf for
Merriam Park Community Center. This
will be the Mt. Olive Youth Group’s fall service project. Through a grant from Thrivent and with
additional congregational support, the youth will be purchasing basic living
essentials to help those in need. If
you have other service projects for the youth, please let them know.
Ryan
Jacobs, Adult Discipleship Chairman and Youth Leader
The Music
of Christmas
A Christmas musical treat is in store for us at the
Women's Guild Christmas party featuring the Cooper String Quartet. Those of us who heard them when they
performed before will want to hear them again.
If you missed it, you will be in for a treat. The four Coopers are the grandchildren of Bob and Berdella
Cooper. They are musically talented,
well educated in their musical skills, and give a very professional
performance.
The Guild Christmas party will begin at 6:30pm on
Thursday, December 4th with a light supper, followed by a short
Christmas Service and the musical program.
An invitation is extended to all members and friends of Mt. Olive. The joys of Christmas will abound.
Christmas
Poinsettias
Christmas will soon be here and it is again time for
Mt Olive Altar Guild to offer for sale Poinsettias to beautify the altar this
Christmas. Following the Christmas
Service, these can be taken home to enjoy.
Offered for sale in either red or white will be the 6-inch pot that has
4-7 blooms at a cost of $9.00.
Complete
this order form (make checks payable to Mt. Olive Altar Guild) and give to Jean
Brown or leave in the church office.
Order forms will also be available in the bulletin/narthex of the
church. Orders must be placed by the
fourth Sunday in November. Please indicate when you intend to pick up your
plant.
ANNOUNCING
Christmas For Kids
Saturday, Dec. 6,
2003
1:00-4:00pm
Come For An Afternoon Of Crafts ... Songs ... Snacks ... And Much
More!!
A One-Day Vacation Bible School
Parents can enjoy an afternoon at the Mall while your
children hear the message of Jesus' birth and discover the real meaning of
Christmas.
Christmas for Kids is
open to the children of our congregation also.
All welcome! We could still use additional helpers, too! If you are able to assist please speak with
Paulette Marschel at (651)765-8015 as soon as possible and volunteer your
services.
Once
again we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the following
memorials to the congregation:
…In memory of Pastor Donald Grummert
Harold
& Helen Evert
Nebraska
District, WELS
Mae Hansel
M/M R.F.
Henke & family
…In memory of Jane Gieseke from Dean Malhke
Marlene
Struwe
M/M John
Fuller
M/M Harold
Brown
Louise
Vickers
Family &
Friends
Remodeling
Project
The time has come for Mt Olive Lutheran Chu