| Written By Mother Theresa |
MAKING
PALM
CROSSES
Palm Crosses, which will be distributed to worshipers on Palm Sunday, April 9, will be fashioned from palm fronds on Saturday, April 8, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall. You are invited to assist with this enjoyable undertaking. NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY. Easy to follow instructions will be given, and the fellowship will be delightful. Why not come and give it a try? The more hands at work, the more quickly the job will be done. It would be helpful if those coming would please bring a large pair of scissors or kitchen shears. Thanks for helping out.
Written
By Mother Theresa
People
are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Forgive
them anyway.
If
you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be
kind anyway.
If
you are successful, you will win some false friends
and
some true enemies;
Succeed
anyway.
If
you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be
honest and frank anyway.
What
you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build
anyway.
If
you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be
happy anyway.
The
good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do
good anyway.
Give
the world the best you have and it may never be enough;
Give
the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You
see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It
was never between you and them anyway.
A
WONDERFUL
WAY
TO SERVE
Several years ago, lay persons at SAKLC assisted with a ministry
that involved taking the Sacrament of Holy Communion to sick and shut-in members
of the congregation. The Church
Council recently decided to offer this meaningful way to serve, once again.
Lay
“Eucharistic Ministers” would be trained for this vital task and then
assigned persons to visit. The
program is used in a number of ELCA congregations with good results. Pastoral visits, of course, would continue to be made and sharing the Sacrament would be included in those visits, but
the visits by Eucharistic Ministers would increase the frequency of contacts
with those no longer able to come to church for worship.
If you would like to hear more about this enriching way to serve,
please speak to Pastor Wogen.
IT’S
THAT TIME AGAIN….
Haven’t these past few
months passed quickly? It is such a
joy to receive our winter residents – members and friends at SAKLC each year.
The months of November through April were full of activities, and we hope
that you found them to be enlightening and uplifting.
We pray safe travel for those who are leaving your Sarasota homes and
look forward to your return next season. Godspeed!
Please notify the church office (388-1234) if you have moved or are returning to your Northern home. Thank you!
SHARING
GOD’S LOVE
Perhaps you’ve seen the little “calling cards” in the Narthex
that convey that message. Developed
by the SAKLC Communications Committee, the cards offer an invitation to worship,
a listing of worship service times, the address, phone number and e-mail address
for the church. Designed to be a
convenient way to pass this information to prospective members and to others,
the cards have been an excellent resource.
The original supply was recently exhausted, but thanks to Dan
Brendle, a fresh supply has been received.
We are deeply grateful to Dan who not only assisted with developing the
format for the cards, but also has provided them, gratis, to the church.
We are grateful to Dan.
You are encouraged to make use of the cards.
CAN YOU HELP? - A number of SAKLC members volunteer at Resurrection House, a day-resource center for homeless persons in Sarasota County. In addition, our congregation has provided financial and in-kind assistance to this meaningful ministry. Notice was recently received that Resurrection House is in need of volunteer staff. Might this be a way for you to use your God-given gifts to serve others?
|
RESURRECTION
HOUSE,
a day-resource center for Sarasota County’s homeless, provides Monday
– Friday services for the homeless. Who are the homeless in Sarasota?
Mothers and children fleeing abusive homes, drug and alcohol
abusers, the emotionally unstable, single or divorced women or men with
children, families who could not pay their rent and Veterans, especially
Viet Nam Veterans. What Resurrection House offers at no cost
to the client: medical treatments, showers, laundry services, change of
clothes, help to obtain identification, housing, guidance to treatment
facilities, restrooms, hair cuts, a resource for local, state, &
federal aid, referrals for alcohol, drug or physical disorders,
breakfast, and very importantly we offer non-judgmental friendship,
understanding and listening ears
to our clients. It
takes 75 volunteer hours per day, to efficiently and effectively provide these
services to the 150-200 clients who come through the Resurrection House
doors per day. If you have
any experience doing laundry, data entry, general office work,
counseling, medical or hair care, we can put you to work. We divide our day into 4-hour shifts for
our volunteers. If you are
available, please call the Volunteer Coordinator, Bonita, at 365-3759,
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 3:45 p.m. Serving
the Homeless Community |
Things
My Mother
Taught
Me
Submitted
by Christina Ortiz
My mother taught me to appreciate a job well done. – “If
you’re going to kill each other, do it outside.
I just finished cleaning.”
My mother taught me religion – “You’d better pray that will
come out of the carpet.”
My mother taught me logic – “Because I said so, that’s
why.”
My mother taught me foresight – “Make sure you wear clean
underwear, in case you’re in an accident.”
My mother taught me irony – “Keep crying, and I’ll give you
something to cry about.”
My mother taught me about contortionism – “Look at the dirt on
the back of your neck.”
My mother taught me about weather – “This room of yours looks
as if a tornado went through it.”
My mother taught me genetics – “You’re just like your
father.”
My mother taught me medical science – “If you don’t stop
crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.”
My mother taught me wisdom – “When you get to be my age,
you’ll understand.”
Most important, my mother taught me about justice – “One day you will have children of your own to take care of …”
Visit Our Web Site @
The site is lively, informative and current with what it offers.
Most recently, a video link provides the opportunity to view a portion of
the 11:00 a.m. worship services. We
are excited about adding other audio/video pieces to the site, too.
To keep the web site current, it is important that those with responsibilities for various aspects of our congregation’s life and ministry regularly forward information to our webmaster, Bob Jackson at bjacks14@comcast.net
|
Many thanks to Bob for all
he has done to enhance our site, to Jim Roach who has graciously assisted with
the audio/visual capability, to our Communications Committee Chair, Kurt
Heinzerling; Council liaison to the Committee, Dick Elliott; to Don Good for all
the time he spends getting the service ready for the site; and to Pam Becker for
coordinating endless details. Well
done, one and all! |
Committee chairpersons and members should review
their sections on the site and update or add new information as necessary.
The website will only be effective if the information on it is accurate
and current.
Please check the site on a regular basis and send us your updates.
Please
e-mail your suggestions and updates to Bob Jackson at bjacks14@comcast.net
MISSIONARY TO VISIT SAKLC
Our congregation presently provides annual financial support
for two ELCA Missionaries, Pastor Richard Young in Guyana and Pastor Chris
Quello in Lithuania. In August,
Pastor Young will be in our area and has kindly agreed to spend some time with
us. Present plans call for Pastor
Young to be with us from August 19-22. He
has offered to preach at SAKLC on Sunday, August 21. As the time draws closer, look for information on other
opportunities that will be arranged to provide time to hear from Pastor Young on
his ministry in Guyana.
Kurt Wilkening has visited Pastor Young’s parish in Guyana as part of Synod Mission trips.
Pastor Young’s visit will offer us an exciting glimpse into the mission work we support.
Opportunities For Mission
Continue to Unfold ….
Tonight we will be presenting a
Level II request at the church council meeting.
The request is on behalf of the Lithuanian Lutheran Church and is a
request for second mile giving through the ELCA’s Division for Global Mission.
In this case, the request is for funding that will enable the local
Lithuanian Lutheran congregation to renovate another section of the building
returned to them after Soviet occupation ended here in Vilnius.
It has been 65 years since anything has been done to this building.
The hope is to rebuild the roof structure, then add new roofing materials
followed by a renovation of the space for the purpose of creating a parish hall.
Another opportunity that has presented itself involves the
possibility of sponsoring a second international congregation here in Lithuania.
The port city on the Baltic Sea of Kleipeda is home to the Lithuanian
Christian College. Quite a few of
their teachers are volunteers from the states and as English speakers, they long
for an opportunity to worship in the language in which they are most
comfortable.
Yet another mission opportunity that we are exploring has to do
with the start up of a college or university here in Vilnius.
A group of us are exploring the feasibility of such a possibility.
Our initial sense is that this is an idea whose time has come.
I will keep you posted on any developments as they occur.
Ministry in this place continues to hold a growing fascination for
us. We do appreciate your on-going
prayers and support.
In Christ,
The Quellos
SPECIAL
EVENTS
COMMITTEE
The
Special Events Committee would like to schedule a Dinner Dance for sometime in February or March but we need a
chairperson. We have started
looking into places and available dates, but cannot proceed until we have
someone that will oversee it. Please
call Jackie Whalen at 387-8001 or e-mail jjwhalen10@comcast.net
if you are willing to work with us on this event.
SYNOD ASSEMBLY REPORT
Judith
Neale and Don Good faithfully represented SAKLC at the recent Florida
Bahamas Synod Assembly held in Orlando. Unfortunately,
Pastor Wogen was unable to attend with them as planned because of the passing of
his wife’s father. Don and Judith
handled the situation extremely well and were excellent delegates.
We appreciate their willingness to serve.
Their report appears below:
We were pleased to attend the Eighteenth Annual Florida Bahamas Synod
Assembly as Lay Representatives for St. Armands Key Lutheran Church.
The Assembly, led by Bishop Reverend Benoway, was May 5-7 in Orlando,
Florida. The Assembly started with
registration at 8 a.m. Thursday with activities scheduled through noon Saturday.
The Assembly ended Saturday noon with Holy Eucharist and an Ordination
Service.
The Keynote Address Speaker, The Reverend Susan Briehl, was very
effective mixing humor, scripture, and childhood stories.
She participated in the proceedings three different times and was always
well received.
We did not split up to attend 2 of 4 workshops.
We both wanted to attend the “Mass Aging of Congregations” as we
believed it to be the most pertinent of the 4 available.
The attachments contain material from that workshop and information on
the subject can be found at www.elderministry.org.
The “Tsunami of the elderly” will impact Florida and our church.
The Resolutions Committee presented six resolutions to the
Assembly for consideration. Resolutions
to support Refugees (05-2), adopt the budget (05-3), and lift up Augsburg
Fortress (05-6) were accepted with little or no discussion.
Resolution 05-1, Recommendations of the ELCA Church Council on Sexuality Studies, Resolution 05-4, Resolution Concerning the Report and Recommendations of the Human Sexuality Studies Task Force, and Resolution 05-2RC, Resolution on Human Sexuality and Rostering of Practicing Gay and Lesbian Clergy generated passionate and extensive debate. Twice, the Call for Division required each Red (No) and Green (Yes) cards to be counted. Vote tallies were, for example, 214 Green vs 201 Red on Resolution 05-2RC. Copies of these Resolutions, the amended Policy of Sexual Ethics in Ministry and the Recommendations to the Churchwide
Assembly on Sexuality Studies are included in the attachments.
Once again, we are thankful for the opportunity to attend the Synod
Assembly.
In the Narthex, you will find a display which features items of
interest from the Assembly including the attachments noted.
It was our pleasure to serve.
Don Good & Judith Neale
SYNOD
ASSEMBLY
APPROACHES