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Download here…

• Announcements as PDF
• Announcements via Issuu
• Insert: Sharing God's Story at Home

To view the PDF files you may need the free Adobe Reader or some other PDF viewer. Want to view all this on your iPad or Kindle? Check out these tutorials…

Download here…

• Announcements as PDF
• Announcements via Issuu
• Insert: Sharing God's Story at Home

To view the PDF files you may need the free Adobe Reader or some other PDF viewer. Want to view all this on your iPad or Kindle? Check out these tutorials…

Download here…

• Announcements as PDF
• Announcements via Issuu
• Insert: Sharing God's Story at Home

To view the PDF files you may need the free Adobe Reader or some other PDF viewer. Want to view all this on your iPad or Kindle? Check out these tutorials…

The week after Christmas, my family made their way to the Bahamas so that the kids could join new classmates for the entirety of their second semester which begins (for Bahamians) on January 3. Schools in the Bahamas require uniforms. Indoor gymnasiums do not exist. My eldest will commute to school by boat. It promises to not just be a change of pace, but an experience that will transform their perspectives on the world.

Thanks to the generosity of our congregation and community, the First Teen Clothes Closet has full racks for nearly all items. There are a few specific needs for which we would still welcome donations now: coats, shoes, boots and items in hard-to-find XXL and larger sizes.

One of my favorite things about winter is having a cup of hot chocolate in a large mug I can wrap my hands around. Sitting by the window watching it snow with the mug radiating warmth and me curled up under a blanket is so calming and relaxing. It would be great if everyone who comes into our church would feel that way. A warm place to be, someplace where everyone is welcomed. We all can make this happen if each one of us does our part.

The OWLs had a fun and exciting December. We started the month with a wonderful Christmas concert at English Lutheran by the UWL combined chorus and orchestra. We finished with a Christmas feast and games at the potluck. A great time was had by all.

Plentiful research states that thriving Christian congregations have a variety of robust opportunities for community service. When the congregation created the strategic plan in 2015, the growth of our community service efforts was named as a primary initiative.

What is our most precious resource? The thing we all wish we had more of, to use, to share with our families and to give to others?

Surely, it is time. While we guard our time closely and feel we never have enough of it, it is when we give that time that we receive the most back. Volunteers who have given their time to serve as hosts for the First Teen Clothes Closet recently shared the moments of time when they were able to see and feel how this ministry is about so much more than clothes.

Look what we did! (And look at what we do… and what we plan on doing!) In November, the La Crosse Area Synod hosted an event: “The Generosity Jubilee”. For a year and a half, about a dozen congregations of our synod have done work toward developing more thoughtful ways of growing our stewardship, and this Jubilee was the final celebration. There, we heard from Rev. (and stewardship guru) Chick Lane who wrote a great little book called, “Ask, Thank, Tell.” He says developing a generous congregation has everything to do with these three words. People give when they are ASKed. THANKing is essential, too. And once people’s gifts have been given, we need to TELL the stories of how their support is making a difference.

By the time you are reading this, Advent will have started. You may have noticed that the church is festooned in blue, that there is a big wreath with candles at the front of the church and we have changed the musical setting of our liturgy. It is quite possible that our worship has a different rhythm to it, too. This first season of the church year often gets lost in the craziness of the holidays and yet, I have grown to appreciate the ways it calls me to slow down, to be still and to ponder what it means to have God with us.