Missions for God | Lutheran Women in Mission

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

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.

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

This past week LWML held a leadership event in St. Louis. This event was titled, “Follow the Leader”, and included 180 LWML women and junior pastoral counselors from the forty districts. LWML committee members conducted sessions covering various aspects of LWML. Guest speakers contributed, as well. I was very encouraged by the interest shown by the attendees and by the dedication of so many to serving the Lord and working in LWML.

Preparations for the event started over a year ago and subjects were chosen after a survey was conducted with district presidents asking what they wanted to learn and hear about. In response, the planning committee under the direction of VP of Organizational Resources, Debbie Larson, chose carefully the content of the sessions and the speakers.

It was a fun and informative few days spent together. Now the attendees will bring the knowledge acquired back to their districts. If you weren’t in St. Louis you will get the opportunity to learn and experience the material presented closer to home in your district and zone.

It’s a great time to be serving in LWML! It’s a great time to follow our leader, Jesus Christ!

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:9).

Patti

2017–2019 Mission Grant 14 — $100,000

LBW — Lutheran Braille Workers Grant #14

LBW’s ministry lovingly reaches out to people who are visually impaired to create a connection to the Word of God and His church. Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc. (LBW) is celebrating their 75thAnniversary on October 20, 2018 at their headquarters in Yucaipa, California. I had the pleasure of serving on their Board of Directors during the two years between being LWML VP of Christian Life and LWML President. LWML has been honored to be one of the keynote speakers at this anniversary celebration. LWML has long been supportive of LBW through mission grants. Many of us serve in Braille work centers across the United States and many of your LWML districts also support LBW with grants.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to present their grant check of $100,000 from our mite offerings when I go out there for the celebration? At this point, we only have half of that amount available. When you look at our mite offerings (www.lwml.org/mites-received) you will see just how far behind we are with them. Please pray about our mites. Then, I strongly urge you, individually and collectively, to do something specifically about it. What will you and your LWML group do now to help pay all of the grants selected at the Albuquerque convention, including this one for LBW?

Remember this grant in prayer: Lutheran Braille Workers (LBW) has been providing God’s Word to the visually impaired since 1943, utilizing the New International Version of the Bible for the past 25 years. With the use of the English Standard Version (ESV) by the LCMS, LBW desires to offer people with visual disability the opportunity to worship and study with the same translation of the Bible as sighted people of the Church. These funds will assist in the cost of the production of the zinc plates for each Braille Work Center along with producing the ESV Bible in large print.

Jesus had a special place in His heart for the marginalized of society and so can we. Our LWML family reaches out to the physically and the spiritually blind as part of our mission. With the help of the Holy Spirit we should strive to do the best we can in both areas!

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in pathsthat they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them(Isaiah 42:16).

Patti

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We all love to celebrate special events with our family like baptisms, confirmations, birthdays, and weddings, etc. This past Sunday Rev. Dr. Robert Roegner, LWML Pastoral Counselor 2013-2017, was installed to his missionary position with The Apple of His Eye Mission Society at Concordia Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas.

Pastor Roegner and his wife, Kristi, who most recently served on the LWML Church Workers in Mission Task Force, will be working with The Apple of His Eye founder, Steve Cohen and his wife, Nancy, as missionaries in Israel. They will be working with Immanuel Ministries and Immanuel Lutheran Church in Israel.

Another reason for the LWML family to mark this day is the fact that this outreach in Israel was made possible, in part, with your Mite Box Offerings from last biennium. You may remember the mission grant paid to The Apple of His Eye Society to do missionary work in Israel.

Now, as we would following any family celebration, we continue in prayer for Pastor Roegner, Kristi, Steve and Nancy as they set out to witness to the lost sheep of Israel. Thank you for your prayers and for your mission support!

To read more and communicate with these missionaries go to their website: www.appleofhiseye.org.

Congratulations Pastor Bob and Kristi!

Patti

Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age is the subject of a three-session webinar that Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) putting on this Thursday, September 13 at 7 p.m. Central time. In this webinar, Rev. Dr. Tony Cook, will discuss LHM’s 2018 research with the Barna Group. Here is LHM’s description of the course. I encourage you to sign up for lhmlearn and take advantage of this learning experience.

LIVE Webinar on Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age

While technology and rapid cultural shifts have altered the face of evangelism, the Great Commission remains. This FREE three-session webinar presents findings from joint research done by Lutheran Hour Ministries and Barna about the state of spiritual conversations today. It explores changes in how and why people share the unchanging Good News in the digital age. This webinar digs deeper into our findings about the changes to faith sharing over the past 25 years, how people are sharing their faith today, the profile of those who are eager to share their faith, and how you can apply those insights to spiritual conversations in your everyday life.

Join Rev. Dr. Tony Cook, LHM’s Executive Director of United States Ministries, beginning September 13th at 7 p.m. CST for Session One, Sharing Faith Then and Now. During the presentation LHM staff will be answering questions followed by a LIVE Q&A with Dr. Cook after the presentation.

We look forward to sharing the research findings with you!

Go to https://www.lhm.org/conversations/webinar.asp to sign up. All of us in LWML need to stay updated on current trends in communication because we have such a wonderful message to share! The message of the Gospel and God’s Grace!

Please keep the LWML Carolinas District in your prayers this week as the stormy weather approaches the location of their district convention scheduled for this week.

Patti

My husband, a cardiologist, will tell you never to eat anything that can be served to you through a window. That being said, I do give in time to time on McDonald’s French fries. When I do, I look down and see the dropped change on the concrete beneath the window. If my car wasn’t so close to the window, I would reach down and pick it up!

When we were on vacation last week I was looking for sea shells on the beach and found a quarter! Bill knows when I see a coin I will pick it up and say, “for the Mite Box”. I also picked up a penny in the airport parking lot. 26 cents for the Mite Box! Wow, you say, not much of a haul. However …

Check out the first of our LWML grants and read the story of it. “Providing Food and the Gospel to Starving Children” a program administered by Mercy Meals of Siouxland, a ministry of Faith Lutheran Church, Sioux City Iowa. Their volunteers package fortified rice/soy meals that are shipped to many international and national destinations to feed hungry people—at a cost of 13 cents a meal!

So, my 26 cents will buy 2 meals for someone! Makes it worth the effort to pick up the coins, doesn’t it! Especially, when you think that not only does it deliver 2 meals, but it delivers the Bread of Life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, feeding hungry souls as well as bodies.

If you can figure out how I can vacuum up that loose change under the McDonald’s window, let me know!

Enjoy reading John 6:22-59 and see what Jesus has to say.

Patti

Traveling again for LWML found me in St. Louis this past weekend for the LCMS 2018 Prison Ministry Conference. If you look at the list of 2017-2019 Mission Grants you will see that Mite Box offerings financed this conference. Thanks to our faithful family of Lutheran Women in Mission these pastors and lay people involved in prison and jail ministry came together to share experiences, hear numerous speakers, and share resources.

To tell you that this was a worthwhile grant says way too little. These servants of the Lord actually risk their lives, face lawsuits, long hours, and long drives as they deliver the Word of Jesus that He forgives and loves. To listen to their experiences you realize these people are special, called to an incredibly tough ministry and deserve our daily prayer support to protect them from earthly and spiritual attacks. I was incredibly humbled to meet many of them and see their dedication to the marginalized and despised children of God who are in our penal system. They depend on the strength and action of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.

If you have a local or district prison ministry I urge you have them come and share about how they do their ministry and then find out what you can do to help them.

We all read Matthew 25 and think, yes, Lord, I can feed people, I can give water to people, I can clothe people but whoa, I can’t go visit prisoners. However, through your Mite Box offerings, service projects, and prayer, you can hold up those wonderful men and women who do! As the hymn says, “We can be like faithful Aaron, holding up the prophet’s hands.”

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did is to me.” (Matthew 25:37-40)

Patti

Oh boy, did this summer go fast! Our Oklahoma schools open again in a week! It’s been a summer of traveling!

Traveling last weekend took us to the Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) SENT event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Members of the Lutheran Layman’s League, LHM staff, donors, and guests kicked off a five year special program to spread the Gospel. They have taken the scripture from John 20:21 to heart and made it their theme verse, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you”, spoken by Jesus to His disciples.

President and CEO of Lutheran Hour Ministries, Kurt Buchholz, led a gathering that interacted with LHM Ministry leaders who traveled from Liberia, Jamaica, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and Paraguay. LHM staff presented information about media offerings that sound really exciting. For instance, go to www.lhm.org and check out THRED, LHM Learn, Sentido Latino, Digging Deeper, Action in Ministry, and of course, The Lutheran Hour. And before you ask, no, they did not announce the new Lutheran Hour Speaker yet.

Ran into fellow LWML travelers there. LWML Presidents #14, 15, 16, and 18 were there. Also Karen Soeken, past LWML Planner, Past Convention Manager and Chesapeake DP, Jan Reuter, Past LWML Texas President, Dorothy Hunger and current LWML Oregon DP, Carmen Nagel were enjoying the event. If you have worked on the LHM Rose Parade float, you will recognize the names Dick and Lynn Gast and Lou Marting who were there. Rev. Ingo Dutzmann and Rev. John Nunes led us in devotions and worship. It was an inspiring, uplifting and educational event.

The two mission grants that you have funded from the last two conventions for LHM are pretty amazing outreach efforts in the Middle East. Reporting on the outreach to Syrian refugees in Lebanon –four women shared what it meant to them to now be Christians. Common denominator? A God who loves and forgives them. Really, really beautiful! They and many others will be reached by the broadcasts from the Christian TV station in Cairo that our second grant supports! You are helping make the Word of God travel through the Middle East!

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” Mark 16:15.

Our travels are not over!

Patti

Someone dropped their Mite Box! Coins go rolling around and people scramble to help find them all! It’s another Mite Box Sunday at our church — the first Sunday of every month when we invite the congregation to bring their Mite Box offerings in and add them to the big Mite Box. We then dedicate those offerings to God for spreading of the Gospel message.

It reminded me of the power of those Mite Box collections when they go rolling out of the box. Just this past month we have delivered the first two of our mission grant awards.

One was to Franklin Avenue Mission who sponsors Mercy House for Women and Children in Flint, Michigan to remodel, add on to, and provide a shelter. In Flint 46% of the general population and 66% of the children live below the poverty line. This mission outreach will help unwed, pregnant, abused, homeless Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic mothers and their children. Can you see those coins rolling out into the community?

The second grant was the grant for Current Missionary Need to support LCMS missionaries overseas. As you know, LCMS missionaries must raise their own money to finance their mission work. The $100,000 grant will provide $10,000 each to assist nine missionaries/missionary families already serving in Kenya, Togo and Ethiopia, Africa; Hong Kong; Peru; and St. Petersburg, Russia, as well as another missionary who has been called to serve in Thailand. Can you see those coins rolling out into the world?

I hope whenever you see a spilled Mite Box you’ll think of those coins spilling out into the world — making a difference in someone’s life for eternity.

Let’s keep those coins rolling!

Patti

And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, “Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all; For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had” (Luke 21:1–4 KJV).

Check Presentation inside the offices at Mission Central

Check Presentation at Mission Central
LWML Treasurer Marilyn Schroeder presenting the check to the personnel at Mission Central for the grant Current Missionary Need

Check Presentation to Mercy House personnel, pictured outside of Mercy House's facility

Check Presentation to Mercy House
Pictured from left to right: Sue Aussen, Mercy House Program Manager; Michigan District President Susan Gruber, Kaye Wolff, Vice President of Special Focus Ministries; Pastor Bradley Yops, Mercy House Director; MaryBeth Heikkinen, Michigan District Vice President of Communication.

Racing to the Finish!

Joy to the World

Follow the Leader

Laborers of Love-Lutheran Braille Workers

LWML Family News

Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age

LIVE Webinar on Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age

For the Mite Box

“Captive Souls … Mercy for All”

August travels

Coins Go Rolling!

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