Reformation Sunday

Question for the Day:

What's the connection between

The Lutheran Reformation,

Flying Gospel Angels, and

Nigerians on motorcycles?

The answer will be revealed this Sunday!

Our annual WELS Alaska Reformation Festival Service will begin at 4:30 pm.   Pastor Chris Ewings will serve as the liturgist, leading us in worship with fellow Lutherans from the area WELS congregations.

Pastor Douglas Weiser will preach a message based on Revelation 14:6-7.  His theme will be “Give Thanks for All Angels of the Gospel!”  His message will tie the Lord’s prophecy in Revelation to the Lutheran Reformation -- to our WELS mission work -- and to our own lives as people of God.  

A potluck meal will follow the service.  Local folks are invited to bring a hot dish to share.  More distant folks can more easily bring salad, rolls or dessert.

Pastor Weiser

After serving as WELS liaison to the Lutheran congregations in Nigeria for many years, Pastor Douglas Weiser was called this year to serve as a “non-resident” missionary.  He will reside in the United States but maintain regular communication with and make regular visits to Nigeria.  He will counsel and assist pastors, congregations, and efforts at the seminary training of our Nigerian brothers.

WELS in Nigeria 

WELS relationships with Lutherans in Nigeria go back almost 80 years, to 1936.  With no resident missionary on this field today, Pastor Weiser now serves our Lord and the church by working with self-standing church bodies and steering them along the path of confessional Lutheran faith and practice. Please remember our brother and sister believers in Nigeria in your prayers!

The Offering

In our school chapel services this month, our mission offerings are designated for a special project for Nigeria.  These offerings will be combined with mission offerings from Grace Lutheran School in Kenai and the offerings received in our Reformation Service.  The resulting amount will be used for the purchase of a motorcycle for the Nigerian pastors to use when visiting mission stations.   In the bush, roads are often difficult or impassable at certain times of the year, and a motorcycle would be a great help to them.

Join us for roadside cleanup this Saturday!

Faith Lutheran Church and School have adopted a stretch of road on West Northern Lights starting at the Earthquake Park parking lot due west.  Come help clean up Anchorage and support your church and community by joining us!  We’ll meet at the Earthquake Park parking lot at 11am on Saturday.  Bags will be provided.  I hear that there may even be some hot chocolate for warming up after!

Pastor Wendland Update

Welcome, Pastor and Mrs. Wendland

September 28th is Pastor Wendland's first Sunday preaching for us. Let's give his wife and him a big Faith Lutheran welcome by doing a Nametag Sunday and offering a few goodies during fellowship and Bible Study. Please bring something simple and breakfasty to share. Contact Amy Mozolik for more information or to volunteer to help write name tags prior to the services."

Update on Pastor Wendland Accommodations

Thank you all for your generous gifts providing for Pastor and Louise Wendland during their stay while Pastor Oldfield is in Arizona recovering from back surgery.  Arrangements have been finalized for airfare, car and housing.  Due to the generous donations, we are able to provide a modest rental apartment for their stay.  If you would like to contribute a special offering to help, simply indicate Wendland Housing on your donation.

Regular Schedule . . . Think About These Things!

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 
Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.  Ps. 84

What a blessing it is for us to have a place where we can come together and where the living God comes so close to us!  When we "go to church," there are so many ways that God's name is hallowed and his kingdom comes!

What happens when we go to church? 
•  we show those who know us how much God is worth to us; that's "worship"
•  we pray, praise and give thanks to the God of our salvation
•  we hear, throughout the service, the good news of our salvation
•  we hear lessons from God's Word, carefully chosen & combined with other parts of the service
•  we listen to a sermon on one of the lessons, crafted to apply the Word to our lives right now
•  we publicly confess the name of Jesus Christ, and gladly confess that we belong to him
•  we encourage our fellow believers -- yes, just by being there and worshiping with them
•  we are encouraged by our fellow believers -- yes, just by being there and worshiping with them
•  we receive a very real, powerful blessing from the Triune God as we close our worship
•  we dig into God's Word together, getting to know him better...and each other, too

No wonder the psalmist said:  
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.  Ps 84:10 

Sunday, September 7
Worship  8:15 and 11:00 AM
Bible Hour  9:45 AM  Bible learning for children, youth and adults!

Church Office Volunteers Update

As approved at the congregation meeting, the church and school secretary position is now being staffed by volunteers.  Sheila Lillo and Joy Bromaghin have been staffing the office over the summer and will continue to do so throughout the year.

Office hours till school starts on August 20 are:  Monday/Tuesday/Friday, from 9am-12p.
Office hours during the school year will be Monday through Friday, from 8am to 3:45pm.

The transition is moving along smoothly thanks to these sisters in Christ who are generously donating their time, energy and expertise to serve the congregation!

Wish lists to benefit Jesus' "little lambs"

Both the Preschool and Kindergarten classrooms have posted wish lists on the "Opportunities to Serve" bulletin board in the Fellowship Hall.  School starts next Wednesday August 20.  If you'd like to help out either of these classrooms for this school year, please consider donating some of the items on their wish lists.  Thank you for your support of Faith Lutheran Preschool and School!

KINDERGARTEN WISH LIST

• 4 rolls of 1 inch wide masking tape

• Playdoh

• Clay

• small tubes of decorator or gel icing, any color (not gel food coloring)

 

Books requested below need to be regular sized to match the larger versions that are used for class reading:

"Where's the Fly?" by Caron Lee Cohen

"Honk! Honk! A Migration Story" by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom

"Mouse Mess" by Linnea Riley

"No, No Titus" by Claire Masurel

"Looking for Crabs" by Bruce Whatley

"Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off to the Moon" by Dan Yaccarino

"Mary Wore Her Red Dress" Illustrated by Michael Morris

"Five Little Ducks" Illustrated by Pamela Paparone

"Flower Garden" by Eve Bunting

"Machines at Work" by Byron Barton

PRESCHOOL WISH LIST
• Alphabet things (puzzles, manipulatives, magnet letters, alphabet bean bags, etc)
• Pencils and erasers
• old, broken cell phones
• More doctor kit tools
• Baby dolls
• Play food (not the cheap plastic; we have lots of fruit and veggies, so maybe more variety in other kinds of food)
• Play barn and farm animals
• Grid blocks (large or small); we sometimes called these waffle blocks when I was a kid
• More wedgits
• Any kind of stacking, linking, building, connecting, magnet manipulatives
• Marble run building set (plastic tubes that link together to make “tracks” for marbles)
• Plastic tweezers, metal tweezers, or small tongs for picking up small manipulatives
• Eye droppers
• Number puzzles, magnet numbers, number peg boards
• Dice (foam or plastic, large or small, letters and numbers dice)
• More geoboards
• rhythm instruments (don't need any egg shakers, but would like more jingle bells, rhythm sticks, tambourines, drums, cymbals, triangles etc)
• ribbon wands
• smaller child sized hoola hoops
• Anything for outside playground (little scooters or trikes, chalk, bubbles, bean bag toss games, pop up tunnels; nothing Step Up or Little Tykes that is a climbing structure; sea saws and other plastic toys OK)
• pattern blocks and shapes (no melissa and doug tangram set – we have 2 of those already)
• locks and switches boards (we could make these..?)
• puzzles – any kind; religious, trucks, careers, seasons, animals, transportation, nursery rhymes etc
• watercolor paints
• spray bottles
• washable paints (not urgent since we can borrow from elementary art closet)
• dot art paint bottles/markers
• food coloring
• sponges
• plastic paint cups with lids (we have about 5 or so already)
• ink pads and stamps
• abc and 123 playdough tools – cookie cutter type things, rolling pins, playdough extruders
• child sized scissors (just a few – 5 or 6 maybe)
• clothespins
• spot markers for movement activities (usually rubber and a variety of colors; 15-20)

The other big things for the preschool are monetary donations to install more fencing to expand our preschool playground fenced area. (Not sure what that cost is, but perhaps a little fund could be started).  Also, Costco gift cards to buy food for our "supply" -- we supplement food if parents don't pack one of the USDA required categories.

Thank you for your support of Faith Lutheran Preschool and School!

Don't forget -- great food and a great cause this evening!

Today's the day the brothers and sisters of Faith Hmong Lutheran have invited us all to come and enjoy an egg roll feast.  It's at church, starting at 6:00pm.  There's no charge; all donations will be added to the Christina Yang medical expenses assistance fund.  Please join us for food and fellowship!