From the Desk of Pastor Diehl
December
We get them every year at this time.
Especially from our kids. The
“Christmas Lists”! This year, our
Anna, who is now living in Auburn,
Alabama (the first time ever living
outside of Florida) has asked for
warm socks for Christmas! And
anything else to help her stay warm.
What a Florida kid!
Giving and receiving gifts at
Christmas has certainly become a
part of the celebrations this time of
the year. While on one hand this
easily slides into a commercial
frenzy and all kinds of negative
things about “the holidays”, at the
same time it can be a wonderful
way of remembering the Gift of all
Gifts, the Gift of the Christ Child to
restore and reclaim a fallen world.
It is truly a unique time of the year.
With thoughts of Gift giving before
us in so many ways, I thought this
would be an opportune time to start
something which we would like to
continue in these monthly
newsletters: a “Wish List” for
different needs that you may want
to help meet here at Our Savior and
beyond. This is not a “be all and
end all” list, but a sampling of
different places where you can
channel some special gifts which
may be in your heart to give.
Starting with Christmas, the
Lutheran Men in Mission will be
providing some wonderful goodies
following worship the first weekend
in December and they will have a
basket out for your donations, which
will be used to get Chirstmas Gifts
for needy families in our county.
Names of needy families will be
received from Big Brothers/Big
Sisters, our Youth Group will do the
shopping and the wrapping of gifts
and our Lutheran Men in Mission
will (along with doing the “coffee
hour fund raising”) deliver the gifts.
Also, you can give $10 toward our
Poinsettia/Memorial fund. Our two
Christmas Trees have just been
given in loving memory of Ted
Mattil, by his family.
Along with those, here are some
other things on Our Savior’s “gift
list”: chairs for the Parish Health
Ministry exercise class, $20; new acolyte robes, $70 each (4
needed); rug for Sunday School
kids to sit on for openings, $??;
Youth Group River Rat Ramble
weekend retreat, $50 per child;
LutherSprings week of Confirmation
Camp, $450 per student; music
amp and mixer for exercise class
(and other uses), $600; sponsor
coffee hour after worship, $15 per
service; flowers for worship, $35;
new roof for choir building, $20,000;
new fellowship hall, expanded narthex
and new walkways (watch for
details from our Long Range planning
group), $2.5—3 million. These
are just a sampling of some “Our
Savior” needs, big and small.
There are also many local charities
which we support through your local
benevolence dollars and “Change
for the Better”. Gifts of any amount
are welcome for: Big Brothers/Big
Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, the
Samaritan Center, CareNet (crisis
pregnancy center), Safespace; the
Food Bank, Coalition for the Homeless;
The Source; Women’s Refuge,
Hibiscus Children’s Center,
and the list goes on. These all
count on the generosity of the community
to survive and serve.
And finally, through the ELCA, there
are so many places where your
gifts can mean so much. We have
been quite involved with the church
in Guyana and work in Haiti through
Beyond Borders, as well as the“Goat” project from Sunday School
last year. Through the ELCA’s
Good Gifts catalog, you can find gift
opportunities from $10 for providing
6 water jugs to transport water or to
provide 10 chicks to build an egg
business, up to thousands of dollars
for building a reservoir for an irrigation
project in Peru. To find out
more about this go to www.elca.org/goodgifts or come by
the office and see the Good Gifts
catalog. Maybe a gift to one of
these projects can be given in
honor of someone who already has
everything and more.
A pastor friend of mine has on his
license plate: B A GVR. Not bad
advice. Being a giver brings us into
the flow of giving and receiving,
beginning with recognizing that all
we are and have are gifts from a
gracious God to start with. In this
season, which can get so out of
focus and caught up in the frenzy of
commercialism, keep God’s Gift of
the Christ Child in mind, and let
your gifts, whatever they may be,
be a reminder of that Greatest of
Gifts.
+ Living in God's Amazing Grace +
Pastor Jack |
Biography
November October
September
|
