September 2018 Mission Service Activity

Sharing Jesus’ Love in Action –  October is Pastor Appreciation Month!

[Qualifications for Overseers and Deacons] Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap (I Timothy 3:1-7).

Can you think of any other job where an employee must be on call 24x7x365, carry the emotional burdens of dozens of people, be held to a higher standard of behavior just because of the position, and still find time for a personal and family life? It’s no wonder we hear some depressing statistics around pastor burnout. Take a few moments to think about your pastor (or pastors) or other church workers you know. Do you think there might be something you and your LWML sisters might be able to do to lighten their loads and lift them up? The month of October is designated as Pastor Appreciation Month so now is the time to organize some activities to do just that!

Pastors and Church Workers are God’s Gifts to Us:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Let’s remember that pastors and teachers are given to us to help us learn God’s word and to carry out God’s will on Earth. Where would we be without them!? Who would we ask when we have tough questions? Who would we turn to when faced with illness or grief? Who joins with us in the celebrations of baptism and marriage? Why, of course, our pastors!

Ways to Show Support:

Here are just a few ways you can support the pastors and church workers in your congregation:

• Take some time to talk with your pastor one-on-one to tell him how much you appreciate him and ask what you and your LWML sisters can do to support him.
• Review the LWML Toolkit for Pastor Support. This resource has several ideas for encouraging and uplifting your pastor.
• Refer your pastor and other church workers to the LWML Church Workers in Mission page on the LWML web site.
• Share this LWML Leader Development tip titled Staying Energized as a Leader.
• Suggest that your congregational leaders review the tasks your pastor performs with the goal of identifying those tasks that could be performed by lay workers. In other words, if your pastor is regularly doing things that don’t require a seminary degree – maybe someone else should be doing them!

Additional Resources:

Here are some links to other resources you may find helpful:

• An LCMS blog post titled An Ounce of Prevention provides information about Grace Place Lutheran Wellness Ministries, a Registered Service Organization (RSO) of the LCMS.
• Another LCMS blog post, Church-Worker Wellness: When One Suffers…, provides additional information about resources to support church workers.
• The article How to Avoid Pastor Burnout from “The Parish Paper”, published by the Michigan District, explains major causes of burnout and how to address them.

A Prayer as You Plan:

Dear Father in Heaven, please bring to our minds all those who serve us as pastors and teachers. Help us be mindful of their needs and to show support for them. Father, help us also remember that we are partners in ministry with them and that we too are charged with bringing your Word to the lost and erring. Thank you God for placing these men and women in our lives. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Service Activities

August 2018 Mission Service Activity

School Kits for Youth in Mexico

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them (Mark 10:14–16).

As our summer is soon coming to an end we need to start thinking about our children, grand-children and great-grand-children returning back to school. In this month’s Mission Servant Activity we will look at ways that we can help those families who may be struggling to make ends meet and how we can help support their children as they return to school.

Education in Mexico is only free through the sixth grade, and if a child or family desires to continue their education, there are tuition payments to make. Often, these children are needed to enter the job market in order to help the family earn money, or because there is no money to pay for middle school, high school, and college.

Ysleta Lutheran Mission wants children and teens to escape the cycle of poverty, crime, and violence that is ravaging the communities they serve in Juarez and Anapra in Mexico. A “Stay in School” scholarship is available to youth in Mexico who demonstrate academic potential and great economic hardship. This year, Ysleta Lutheran Mission (YLM) will be distributing school kits (backpacks or bags filled with assorted school supplies) on August twentieth and in mid-December.

Ideas to help YLM and children as they return to school:

1. Have an ingathering at your church and collect school supplies and backpacks.
2. Apply for Thrivent Action Team money to help with your collection of items.
3. Serve a meal to help raise funds but collect a free-will offering instead of setting a price. Encourage attendees to donate school supplies and backpacks.
4. At your Sunday service take a special offering for YLM school supplies and backpacks or have your Sunday school offering go to support YLM.

Other ways to help:

1. Collect gently-worn or outgrown clothing for YLM. Engage, children, grand-children and great-grand-children by having them help clean out their closets.
2. Hold a sneaker drive and see how many pairs of shoes you can collect.
3. Collect new underwear and designate an “Undies Sunday” to pray for the children who will receive the underwear.

Other Resources:

1. Orphan Grain Train School Kits and gently used or new clothing
2. Lutheran World Relief School Kits
3. Lutheran Border Concerns Ministry School Kits
4. Give locally to ‘back to school’ efforts in your town, church, zone, or district.

Sharing Your Servant Activities:

Border Mission Gifts

Orphan Grain Train Headliner on May 31, 2018 stated that recently the Mitchell Zone, South Dakota District LWML had a spring workshop supporting OGT. They had Gifts from the Heart gathering which included putting together 130 school kits with backpacks for OGT to deliver to Ysleta Mission in El Paso, Texas. Some ladies from Armour Redeemer Lutheran Church in South Dakota brought the backpacks to OGT and then had a tour and volunteered for a few hours in the warehouse.

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Service Activities

July 2018 Mission Service Activity

Sharing Jesus’ Love in Action — Loving through Laundry

Laundry! That’s something most of us are not crazy about, right? It’s one of those mundane chores that we typically dread. But, what if you didn’t have a washer and dryer? Or, what if you didn’t even have the money to wash your clothes at a laundromat? Sadly, it is the people in high-density, blue-collar, ethnically-diverse areas who are most dependent on laundromats. With average costs around $2 per wash and dry, a family with four loads of wash per week would spend $16 per week or $64 per month. For low-income families that’s a big chunk of change! So, what can we do to help? Enter “Loads of Love” as implemented by St. John’s Lutheran Church in Russellville, Arkansas.

The concept behind “Loads of Love” is simple. Find a laundromat that will let your church team come once a month and pay for the clients’ laundry. At St John’s, the team selected the last Saturday of the month since that’s when people tend to be crunched for cash. They serve from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM or until the allotment of quarters ($300 per month) runs out. They also provide a free lunch which normally consists of a hot dog, chips, water, and cookie.

Another congregation, Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, enlists the youth to put the money in the machines and hand out the laundry soap. They even carry the finished laundry out to the clients’ cars! The LWML provides cookies and punch as well as church brochures. The event is so popular that the laundromat puts out a sign a week ahead announcing when the free laundry is available.

Of course, clean laundry isn’t the only objective of “Loads of Love.” While the clients are waiting for the wash and dry cycles to complete, the church team has an opportunity to visit with, listen to, and show Christ’s love to them. Many of the clients are regulars who have come to know and love the volunteers. This is also an opportunity to share Christian literature, including information about the church and services, with the clients and to pray with and for them.

For more information about starting a “Loads of Love” ministry contact Mollie Haines at 479-567-0935 or mmh2718@gmail.com.

God’s word commands us to take care of the poor:

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land (Deuteronomy 15:11, NIV).

All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along (Galatians 2:10, NIV).

Other Ways to Show “Laundry Love”:

In every community there are ministries and agencies that house people (homeless, disabled, at risk, etc.) In most cases those facilities may have washers and dryers but they are usually in need of detergent and fabric softener. Others may not have laundry facilities but would like to install them. Here are some ways you can reach out to them.

• Contact the ministry and ask if they need laundry supplies. Ask if they have specific requirements since some washing machines require special detergents.
• Organize a collection of laundry supplies. Use a hamper and a laundry basket as receptacles for the contributions.
• Collect cash donations to fund laundry supplies. Send a small “laundry basket” home with each family to remind them to contribute to their laundry fund. You can furnish a list of thank-offering prompts such as “put in a nickel for every pair of socks you own”.
• Hold a fund-raiser in the form of a game night. Serve light refreshments, award laundry-themed door prizes (mesh bags for delicate items, hanging clothes pins, dryer balls, etc.), collect laundry supplies, and set up games such as “pin the sock on the dryer,” “dryer sheet toss,” and “match the socks.”

A Prayer as You Plan:

Dear Heavenly Father, so often we take for granted the simple gifts you’ve given us, like clean clothes. Please make us aware of those for whom clean clothing is not so simple, especially when that might impede their ability to find work. Particularly help us recognize the needs in our community and show us how to satisfy them. Make us bold, Father, to go out into our community to meet the people who need our help. Send the Holy Spirit to give us the words to say and to be able to show love to people who might not be just like us. They are all your precious children. Amen.

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Service Activities

June 2018 Mission Service Activity

Sharing Jesus’ Love in Action — Plan a Refugee Sunday Service

The Constitution of the United States of America outlines our freedoms! As Citizens, we are free to share the love of Jesus with people of all ages who do not know Christ! Plan a Refugee Sunday Service at your church to help our Sisters and Brothers in Christ to learn more about the refugees in their community and churches.

Ideas for your worship service:

1. Share with your Pastor sermon notes provided by LCMS on Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) website.
2. Sign-up for a free poster to advertise your service from LIRS and hang your poster up in your local store.
3. Invite refugees in your area to attend.
4. Invite a speaker from LIRS to attend your service and have them speak.

Ideas for a fellowship meal following your service:

1. Have an ethnic meal and share recipes from different countries.
2. Charge $5 per person per table and donate the money to LIRS.
3. Each table might represent a country related to particular refugee areas; the table would have a host from the represented country who would:
   1. decorate their table with things from the represented country;
   2. make a typical dessert to share; and
   3. invite guests from their country to sit with them.

Ideas for awareness:

1. Refugee Simulation Game from LIRS.
2. Take a quiz to learn more from LIRS.
3. Be an advocate to help support the refugees provided on LIRS website.
4. Watch a Video on LIRS website to learn more about refugees.

Ways to help:

1. Have your offering go to help support refugees and their families.
2. Volunteer by connecting with a local partner, visit refugees in a detention facility, or give a donation to LIRS.
3. Pray for the safety and protection of refugees and immigrants. Set aside one Sunday of your choosing to celebrate Refugee Sunday.

Our freedoms as citizens of the United States of America allows us to share Christ and that spiritual freedom we enjoy, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation only through Him.

Let us set aside one (1) Sunday a year to help support our refugee families in our church and in our communities. These people need our love, support, and encouragement as they adjust to living in a new country.

What a wonderful way to help support refugees!

Resources:

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service: www.lirs.org/refugee-sunday

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Service Activities

May 2018 Mission Service Activity

Sharing Jesus’ Love in Action — Mother’s Day and Beyond

What’s the first thing you think of when May rolls around? Most people would say “Mother’s Day” of course! How wonderful it is that we have a day set aside to appreciate our mothers and to thank them for all they’ve done for us. But, there is an entire population of people who may see Mother’s Day through a different lens. Consider those who are unable to conceive or who have suffered a miscarriage or the death of a child. To those who have suffered a terrible loss or who are struggling to conceive, Mother’s Day can be a miserable time with countless reminders of what life could be like “if only.” Even those who have other children will never stop mourning the child they lost.

As the month of May begins, make a pledge to reach out to at least one person who may not see Mother’s Day as a day to celebrate. Consider sending a Mother’s Day card honoring “someone special” (or make one of your own) and include a special message and a Bible verse. Just spending time together can be a special gift, especially when it allows the grieving mother to share memories of the child they lost.

There are many resources available to either help you educate yourself or to provide guidance and comfort to someone who is suffering. Here are some suggested resources:

• Pastors and other trained counselors — If you know someone who is grieving over a loss let your pastor know and ask if he would mind if you referred that person. Or, your pastor should know of other Christian counseling resources.
• Those within your congregation who have faced this type of loss and who might be willing to talk to others who are newly grieving.
• Christian adoption services — Make a point of learning about what options are available and how arduous (and costly) the adoption process might be.
• The book He Remembers the Barren by Katie Schuermann and the associated web site www.heremembersthebarren.com. This web site includes a blog on a variety of topics as well as a comprehensive list of resources.
• The Bible study The Master’s Touch: Living with Infertility. Though geared toward infertile couples, the study would be appropriate for any audience who desires to better understand what infertile couples face.
• Martin Luther’s statement Comfort for Women Who Have Had a Miscarriage.
• Lutherans for Life has several articles and blog posts related to stillbirth and miscarriage.

Often we just don’t know what to say to someone facing these situations. There is definitely a long list of what NOT to say, for example, “you’re young, you’ll eventually have a baby” or “have you thought about adoption?” But, we can never go wrong by just being with someone, praying with and for them, or providing a loving gesture like a hug or a card of encouragement.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV).

Reaching Out in the Community

• Research the availability of local grief support groups in your community for those who have lost children to miscarriage or early death. Perhaps start a group at your church. Or, invite a representative to speak at your church and open the talk to the public.

• Contact a local hospital to find out how you might support families of stillborn infants. Perhaps assemble a basket or bag containing:
  • The devotional Into His Loving Care
  • Comfort from the Psalms Mustard Seeds
  • A list of resources such as those mentioned above
  • A journal and pen
  • A charm bracelet with a cross, angel, heart, baby shoes, etc.
  • Practical items such as tissues, snacks, and bottled water
• Another way to support families of stillborn or premature infants who did not live is to get involved with (or start!) a group that makes burial clothes for these tiny infants. Refer to the March 2016 mission servant activity to learn more. Or develop a process for collecting used wedding gowns to send to groups who make burial gowns from wedding gowns. One example is The Angel Gown® program.
• Hold an annual remembrance service for those who have lost children and publicize it as a community event. After the service provide light refreshments and have resources available to help with the grief process.

A Prayer as You Plan:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful women you have placed in our lives who have nurtured and encouraged us. You have blessed us with their presence in our lives. Help us to be a blessing to other women who are childless or have suffered the loss of a child through miscarriage or other tragedy. Remind us to be sensitive to others in their grief and to share the love and hope of Jesus with them. We ask that you give us opportunities to help and encourage others as we reflect and give thanks for the special women in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Resources:

Concordia Publishing House: www.cph.org
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League Store: www.lwml.org/store

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Service Activities

April 2018 Mission Service Activity

Friendship Tea and Youth Fashion Show

Invite your family, friends and neighbors too!
You may bring your favorite tea cup and share your story.
Bring a canned good for the Community Food Bank.

At Easter we celebrate new life in Jesus Christ.  The joy of our living Savior invites us to share His Love with others. Spring is a great time to celebrate with family, friends, and neighbors. Here is an inspirational spring event that will allow you to share time and express your love with those you care about and those you have just met.

• Put together a planning committee and/or a Thrivent Action Team. Consider the following tasks:
  • Reserve the fellowship hall for the event.
  • Request that men from the congregation to act as servers.
  • Solicit volunteers for the clean-up committee.
• Recruit children to be models in the fashion show. Action Team funds can be used purchase an outfit up to $25 for each model. The children can be from the congregation, preschool or a school, or children that the LWML ladies have taken under their wing.
• Send out invitations – encourage attendees to bring family members, friends, or someone new. Provide opportunities for shut-ins and those in assisted living or nursing homes to join you.
• Plan a menu such as finger sandwiches, fruit, desserts and a variety of teas.

• Set up the day before so there is plenty of time to decorate tables with table cloths, flowers, teacups, plates, cookie trays, etc. Include a recipe for friendship tea or a Mustard Seed devotion at each place.
• Consider activities such as:
  • A Maypole
  • A PowerPoint slide of each attendee including five pictures of them at various stages in their life with the last picture on the slide transitioning into what they look like now
  • A Candyland prayer walk
  • Sharing stories about the favorite teacup they brought with them
  • A service activity (food for the food bank, diapers for a pregnancy center, etc.)
  • Providing vintage hats for all the ladies to wear; have everyone make their own hats; or have a vintage fashion show
• See the suggested invitation text here: sample invite Word doc

Extending Jesus’ Love in Action to the Community

Take the tea party to the community using these ideas:

• Have a simple tea party at a nursing home, women’s shelter, homeless shelter, or half-way house for women. Work with the nursing home or shelter to determine whether there are any restrictions and then keep it simple. Bring everything needed — mugs or teacups, simple cookies or finger foods, a devotion (perhaps Comfort from the Psalms Mustard Seeds) and an eagerness to make new friends.
• Assemble “Mug Devotions” to hand out to women who visit your church or who become new members. Start with a mug (check out the LWML mugs at CPH.org!) then include the following:
  • An herbal tea bag or two
  • Honey sticks
  • A Mustard Seed devotion (such as Living as a Woman in Mission)
  • Contact information and meeting times for LWML and Bible study groups
• Visit a shut-in or someone who hasn’t been in church for a while. Or, perhaps there’s a new mom or a neighbor you’ve not yet met. Bring one of the aforementioned “Mug Devotions” as a gift as well as tea preparations for the two of you.

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Service Activities

March 2018 Mission Service Activity

Sharing Jesus' Love in Action — with an Easter Basket

Easter gives joy! Share the joy of Jesus’ resurrection with people of all ages during this blessed and holy season! Remember the thrill of getting an Easter basket as a kid? Create a basket for shut-ins, someone in a nursing home, or widows/widowers. Form a Thrivent Action Team and use the seed money to help purchase your items.

Ideas of items to put in your Easter basket for shut-ins could be:

1. From Quiet Times to Noisy Love: Dead End from LWML Store
2. Living in Joy Mustard Seed Devotion from LWML Store
3. Eyewitnesses Bookmark Set from CPH. Stop and visit them each week during Lent and give them a new bookmark.
4. Purchase a chocolate cross from the Grocery Store or a Dollar Store.

Ideas of items to put in your Easter basket for that special person in a nursing home:

1. Joyfully Aging: A Christian’s Guide from CPH. The special person will gain insight on the limitless opportunities to witness their faith to others and live vibrant, grace-filled lives.
2. He Is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! (CD) from CPH. This CD will be uplifting as they sing along with hymns such as “I Know My Redeemer Lives”
3. Portals of Prayer from CPH or you may have extra copies of the large print at church that you could add to your basket. OR several sisters in Christ from your church could come with you and bring several Portals of Prayer for all the women in a wing of the nursing home.
4. Spend time visiting them, pray with them or sing hymns from the new CD that you provided for them.

Ideas of items to put in your Easter basket for widows or widowers you may know at church or maybe someone who does not go to church and does not yet know Jesus:

1. Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation – 2017 Edition from CPH
2. Eyewitnesses Magnet Puzzle from CPH and visit them each week for six (6) weeks during Lent. Bring them one puzzle piece each week and explain the puzzle piece and share God’s word with them.
3. Lutheran Witness from CPH
4. Joyful, Joyful Mustard Seeds from the LWML Store. Bring your hymnal and sing hymns that go with the devotional.
5. There are several large print Mustard Seeds also available.

Resources:

Concordia Publishing House: www.cph.org
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League Store: www.lwml.org/store

One precious gift is our time. God seeks each of us to use our personal time in service to Him. One such way is to interact with people in faith that God places into our daily life. Visiting an individual or several individuals on a regular basis is one such opportunity. You may also go and visit a nursing home, visit a widow/widower or a shut in, go and serve a meal to the homeless or in a soup kitchen. When we take time to be there for them, bring a bright smile and some joy to the homeless, the sick, the lonely, this is truly Jesus’ love in action.

This is where the conversation can begin, the mustard seed may be planted, where hope, mercy, love and forgiveness are given so that in joy they may know the Lord and His love through your service. What a wonderful way to live, showing the love of our Lord during the Lent and Easter seasons.

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

Related Resources

• Mission Service Activities Archive
• Spring Resources
• Resources for Easter