Hello everyone and Happy New Year 2019! We are out in Pasadena working as Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) Petal Pushers on the LHM float that will be in the Rose Parade on New Year’s morning! What a fun experience this is! This is our third year to take part in the decorating of the floats. The LHM float is the only Christian float in the parade. It always includes Jesus. This year the theme of the parade is “The Melody of Life”. There are a lot of floats that have to do with music. The LHM float is called, “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come” and consists of a manger scene, with doves, bells, trumpets, and a group of people seated on the front as the choir. It’s all situated on a music scroll which unrolls the length of the float.
Watch the parade if you can. It starts at 10 a.m. Central time. The LHM float is about 2/3 of the way through the parade. If you watch on HGTV they don’t have commercials and the float is sure to be covered. We will be going to the parade around 6 a.m. and we are planning to go the football game that is between the Washington Huskies and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
There are quite a few LWML women here working on floats with the Petal Pushers. I talked with women from North Dakota, California, Iowa, and Michigan. Another fun thing the LWML Family does together!
“God, who is outside of time has entered it to bring us out of it.”
I’m not sure where I got this quote. I like it because it makes me think. It makes me think about God’s majesty and how He transcends time and place. His omnipresence.
It seems appropriate for this week of Christmas. The majesty of God, which we can’t fully comprehend, comes to us in the humble form of a baby, which we can understand, to bring us outside of time, eternally, to live with that majestic God.
I hope it makes you think, too!
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God (Psalm 90:1-2).
From me and Bill, Merry Christmas to our LWML Family!
I have a quote above my desk from Canadian author, Margaret Atwood. “I believe that everyone else my age is an adult whereas I am merely in disguise”.
I’m facing another birthday on December the 9th. After trying for 10 years and enduring multiple miscarriages, my dear mother had me. I have carried the expectations of such a child all my life. True, my younger brother came along three years later. I was expected to be the perfect one, but my brother turned out the better.
This imperfect child has hidden in disguise for many years now. So I have lived a not-so-perfect-life. I lack the maturity I think I should have. How about you? We’re probably in the same boat. Thanks be to God that he forgives our imperfect, sinful existence through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He brings to us forgiveness of our sins and life eternal in Heaven – thanks be to God!
Also, do you find yourself in your thoughts or your brain, whatever, stuck at around age 35-40? I do. I still expect I’ll be able to do the same things physically that I did then, that I’ll have the same social connections and relationships I had at that time, and have the same list of things I want to do. Then, I look in the mirror at the sags and wrinkles, creak and crackle as I stand up after pushing off from the chair to get up, put on eyeglasses and hearing aids knowing I’m not 35 anymore.
For some things I’d like to be young again. For others, I embrace the ability to look back at certain events with a little wisdom born of faith, experience, and time. To see the guiding hand of God and His wonderful care in my life is essential. I may still be an adult in disguise, but I believe God knows that and continues to take care of me in my less-than-perfect-life. Even though I’m in disguise as an adult I know that I will always need God as my Father.
More quotes from around my desk next week.
Love, Patti
Enjoy reading the only Psalm Moses wrote, Psalm 90, From Everlasting to Everlasting!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day at our house in Tulsa this past week. I hope you all did, too! We had 13 for dinner here at our house. Thanksgiving worship was Wednesday evening at our church.
A halt in emails was called among the LWML Executive Committee from Wednesday noon to Monday morning. What a relief! I could walk by my office room without feeling guilty about not checking email. In fact, that was one of the things I was really thankful for! Email is wonderful in that it speeds up communication and cuts costs of postage. However, as it speeds up communication it also speeds up the expectation of response time, making it necessary to check all during the day! Hence the guilty feeling as you slink by the office door like someone is watching you!
Tuesday is Giving Tuesday. LWML is participating. This is our fourth year to participate. I know that LWML women are invested year round in giving for mission grants and operating costs of LWML. Mite Boxes are filled faithfully by men, women, and children in homes, offices, and churches. It is a privilege to pass along the blessings God has showered down on us with others in physical need or spiritual need. Two women have stepped up and offered to match funds from Giving Tuesday up to $20,000. This will help immensely as we near the end of our biennium March 31, 2019 and provide the mission funding that delegates promised at the Albuquerque convention.
I’ll be checking my email, happily this time, and our LWML Facebook page for updates! I hope you will read about the wonderful mission work being done by our grant recipients on our website or on our Facebook page this week as we participate in a national Giving Tuesday. Please pray for them as you read!
Thank you for all that you do!
Patti
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1Corinthians 15: 57-58).
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).
This is a big week for LWML! We are having our Assembly of Leaders (AOL), this year, titled “Follow the Leader”. As always, we will begin with Bible study centered around the Scripture verse, 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). Bible studies will be led by our counselors, Rev. Robert Mundahl and Rev. Mitchel Schuessler.
Thirty-nine of our forty district presidents will be attending. New, this year, will be the newly elected junior counselors from the districts attending with their districts. Each district was encouraged to invite two other women to attend. Following the 3-day event, they will return to their districts and hold district and zone events to share information and ideas that they shared here in St. Louis.
Speakers, interest sessions, convention information, communication ideas, and other things used to strengthen their districts will be presented. I hope all of you will be able to attend a presentation they will do in your district.
Please remember them in your prayers this week for safe travel, good health, and a valuable learning time with everyone at this event.
In LWML, we serve the Lord, our Leader, with Gladness!
To be an LWML Pastoral Counselor is huge. The job includes doctrinal review of everything, weeknight and weekday meetings either in person or via computer. You have to juggle family time, congregation time, and LWML time. You can be asked to be away from home at least 25 days per biennium. Your counseling time may include Executive Committee and Board members, district members, office staff, or other counselors. You review legal issues, employment questions, sit on financial committees, and plan and write various services, dedications, and convention worship. Necessary qualities include patience, a sense of humor, and the ability to be silly at times in sketches and “purplemercials”. In other words, we expect a lot out of our counselors!
You have two outstanding counselors elected by your delegates at conventions in Des Moines and Albuquerque. I hope you have a chance to meet them if you haven’t already.
Elected in Des Moines, 2015, our senior counselor, Rev. Robert Mundahl, is senior pastor of Peace Lutheran in Faribault, Minnesota, in the Minnesota South District. He attended Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne and also has a B.S. in K-12 Education/Philosophy from the University of Minnesota. (Peace has a school, 3 years-8). He served as an LWML District Counselor in two districts, Missouri and Minnesota South. He and his wife of 43 years, Peg, have 2 children and 2 grandchildren. His hobbies include camping, photography, golf and hiking and his golden retriever, Glacier, frequently accompanies him. His favorite sports include golf and watching NCAA wrestling. He enjoys all aspects of being a pastor but says if he had to do a different job it would be a school teacher/coach.
Our junior counselor, Rev. Mitchel Schuessler, is pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran in Troy, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois District. He received his Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis and his B.A. from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. He served nine years in prison ministry. St. Paul’s also has a preschool. He and his wife of 34 years, Penny, have two married children. As hobbies he enjoys train watching and model railroading and reading. They have quite a menagerie at their house: Golden retriever, Zeb; chocolate lab, Wrigley; guinea pig, Oreo; parakeet, Rizzo; 2 water turtles, Houdini and Titan. His favorite sport to watch is baseball and if he wasn’t a pastor he would like to be a photographer. He enjoys leading worship and preaching and especially enjoys leading Bible studies.
Because of the heavy workload of reviewing manuscripts, articles and the review of the new history book that is currently being written, we asked Rev. Kenton Wendorf of Neenah, Wisconsin to come aboard as a special appointed counselor for doctrinal review. This has been a wonderful addition and has helped our elected counselors immensely. Many of you know Rev. Wendorf as LWML Past President, Jan Wendorf’s husband of 40 years and co-author of LWML Sunday materials in 2010. They have 11 grandchildren and, surprise, one of his hobbies is playing with the grandchildren! Also enjoys golf, playing the piano and watching the Brewers, and Indian’s play baseball and the Ohio State and Wisconsin play football. If he wasn’t a pastor he would enjoy working in the business sector, possibly in the nonprofit sector.
Our counselors are very special to us. I hope you will find a way to express your appreciation this month to your counselors—zone, district, or national—as they serve the Lord with gladness alongside you!
Patti
For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom from the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints (Proverbs 2:6-8).
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 notknown 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).
This video is a tour of our new LWML Offices. You’ll see as we go down the stairs in Loeber Hall on the campus of the St. Louis Seminary. The last hallway is not ours but I walked down it to show you the storeroom we are renting. Many of you will recognize the hallway as the location of the old food and clothing bank. There is a loading dock out back that we can use for truck deliveries.
Gold mums were planted outside the windows of the office by the Seminary to welcome us. The office staff can decorate their offices this week and get settled in. A huge thank you goes to Product Developer, Beverly England, who coordinated the construction, the move, and the interior decorating. She spent hours and hours on the phone and shopping and “coordinating” everything involved. Thank you, Bev!!
We just have to get window coverings and our outdoor sign done. Again, thanks to a donor who donated savings bonds years ago and also an anonymous donor who gave $20,000 towards the move. No Mite Box offering money had to be used.
Please stop in and “set a spell” if you are in St. Louis. Dedication of the office will be Tuesday, November 6, 2019, at 1:30.
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.
