Month: January 2019

bloghome, Lutheran Women in Mission, Missions for God

LWML Working for you!

Last week was a week of meetings in St. Louis for the LWML. The district archivist-historians met with LWML Archivist-Historian Caroline Honeycutt and worked at Concordia Historical Institute as well as learning more about preserving their district’s history.

The Convention Programming Committee met to firm up more plans for the LWML convention coming up in Mobile, AL, June 20-23, 2019. We have great speakers, worship leaders, Bible study leaders, and activities to make it a great experience for anyone attending.

Then the Executive Committee came in for their meeting and were followed by the entire Board of Directors and advisory personnel for the Board of Directors’ meeting. They passed along the grants to be considered for funding at the convention, selected convention offering recipients, approved bylaw amendments to be brought to the delegates, and had a fun “mite challenge” that raised $27,000 for the mission grants. These women are committed—Time, Talent and Treasure!

Group photograph of the LWML executive committee and the LWML district presidents at the International Center of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, in St. Louis. LCMS Communications/Erik M. Lunsford

We also took time out to tour the LCMS International Center and met with LCMS President Matthew Harrison on the importance of the work of LWML in the larger church picture. Also, showing their appreciation by talking about specific missions helped were Office of International Missions head, Rev. Dan McMiller and Office of National Missions head, Rev. Robert Zagore.

Ministry to the Armed Forces, Chaplain Steven Hokana also thanked the group for the grant they received. Deaconess Ministries head, Grace Rao, stopped by the meeting to express her thanks and inform board members of how their contributions were being put to work.

Mary Hamilton, Grants Manager, Mission Advancement for LCMS commented, “Our staff, too, cherishes the personal connection with the LWML. The heart-warming passion for mission the ladies have is inspirational. Their prayers for our missionaries provide encouragement and renews their hearts and minds.”

In spite of the cold, blustery weather we received a very warm welcome from President Dale Meyer as he welcomed the Board members to Concordia Seminary campus with a “welcome home, LWML!” as we toured the new LWML offices and the campus. Some of the district presidents had arranged to meet the seminary students they support.

All told, it was a great week! Engage, Encourage, Equip and Enjoy! We did it all, thanks be to God and to Him be the glory for the opportunity to work together with all His talented, gifted, and called servants in LWML, in our church body, and in the mission fields!

Love, Patti

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Engage, Encourage, Equip and Enjoy

A busy week for LWML sisters. This week includes meetings in St. Louis of the Archivist-Historian Boot Camp, Convention Programming Committee, the Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors. We will be reviewing the past year and looking towards budgeting for the coming biennium that starts April 1, this year. (Remember to support the Mission Grants before March 31!)

It’s always encouraging to me to see the wonderful variety of women who have come together with no pay to volunteer to work for LWML and its leader, Jesus Christ our Savior. Many have learned new technology or meeting management, made new friends from all across the United States, gleaned new insights into some Bible passages, and generally “served the Lord with Gladness”. It’s part of our mission statement to enable women to use their God-given gifts in ministry.

And there are many gifts represented. Some of these women are retired and some use PTO time to attend from their work venues. There are real estate agents, nurses, manufacturing managers, teachers, government workers, musicians, lab researchers, missionaries, and dog- showers. Our Pastoral Counselors are full-time ministers with schools at their churches.

There is also a meeting of the district Archivist-Historians (A-H) taking place with LWML A-H Caroline Honeycutt. They will be learning about archiving, working at Concordia Historical Institute, and looking to things of the past to preserve for the future!

And we are all trying our best! I hope you will remember us in your prayers this week (actually, always!) as we do our best, calling on the Holy Spirit, to help us discern the will of God for our ministry efforts. Your District President will be at the Board of Directors meeting. Give her some encouragement via email before she travels on Wednesday.

Remember – Engage, Encourage, Equip and Enjoy is what we do in LWML. Please do it! I know we will in St. Louis this week.

Love, Patti

bloghome, Lutheran Women in Mission, Missions for God

Racing to the Finish!

It’s time to put on your racing shoes!! LWML has 11 weeks to collect $449, 159.01 in order to meet the biennium’s Mission Goal. There are still grants to pay and other expenses that have to be fulfilled by March 31, the end of our 2-year Mission Goal cycle.

This past week the LWML Mission Grant Selection Committee met in St. Louis to go through 81 grant submissions for the next biennium and narrow those down to 31 to put on the ballot at our convention in June in Mobile, Alabama. They were all good opportunities to support missions and missionaries who, working with the Holy Spirit, are spreading the Gospel and doing works of mercy. It’s a shame to have to turn any of them down.

The grants we have this biennium are also great opportunities for you to support when you can’t do the work yourself or when you have a ministry that you are especially attuned to. But, we are short in our Mite Box offerings for grants. We still have several that need payment. If you go to our website, www.lwml.org and click on the Missions tab, you can see the grants that still have to be paid and a breakdown of each month’s Mite Box offering receipts.

What can you do to help? It’s easy to donate online and or to send a check to the LWML at our new address of 801 Seminary Place, Suite L010, St. Louis, MO 63105. Please keep our Mission Goal and the fulfillment of it in your prayers and then open your heart and pocketbook to give some extra offering to the Lord.

At the grant meeting it was discussed as it is every biennium, lowering the Mission Goal. Financing less ministry. Not having to work so hard. The economy is forecast to go down or stagnate, the church is losing membership, the LWML is not promoting the mission grants like they used to. Are we to give in to that type of thought? Are we that weak that we can’t take on a challenge and meet it? Are we to abandon the promises we made at the Albuquerque convention to those grant recipients depending on our financing?

I say NO! We are strong, we have prayer, we have resources, and we just need to work a little harder over the next 11 weeks! So put on your running shoes and let’s race to the finish, together!

Patti

bloghome, Lutheran Women in Mission, Missions for God

Joy to the World

The new year is upon us! We returned from Pasadena and Los Angeles last night. We worked as Lutheran Hour Ministries Petal Pushers on the Rose Parade floats and then visited our son, John, in Los Angeles.

We met so many wonderful people and renewed acquaintances with many others. It’s so great to do some “hands-on” work with people you usually just have meetings with or talk with on the phone. The floats were on display for two days following the parade. During that time Lutheran Hour Ministries has people at the float talking to people as they stop to admire the workmanship. They also have literature available for people to take and are invited to address a postcard to someone which has a picture of the float on it.

Lutheran Hour float

Here’s an update from Lou Marting.

We started with a supply of 9,000 2019 Ministry Booth post cards for our Joy to the World the Lord is Come! float. Before the end of the second post-parade day, we ran out.

Along with hundreds of face-to-face witnessing conversations during decorating, on the parade route, staging area, and post parade, over 1700 of the post cards were addressed and sent to destinations all around the country, even to many international locations. This significantly exceeded previous year’s efforts and provided a way to spread the message of the float to many individuals.

Stamps were placed on the post cards as a volunteer effort by those of a local churches’ men’s group.

It was a very good experience – all part of the mission of Bringing Christ to the Nations – and the Nations to the Church.

To God be the glory!

Maybe we should think about having postcards to mail from our convention in Mobile, Alabama this June 20-23, 2019!

Joy to the World the Lord is Come! Joy as we “Serve the Lord With Gladness” in the coming new year of our Lord!

Happy New Year!

Patti

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