2-20-2011 announcements

IN OUR DAILY PRAYERS this week, we pray for Leann Albrecht hospitalized and under doctors’ care, her family, Richard Salis and Roman Miller as they receive treatment as well as for our shut-in members, our inactive members and for at least two people in your life who don’t know Christ.

MENTOR/MENTEES will meet following the service today.

BERNARD WRENN’S ENTRANCE INTO GLORY. We pray for comfort for the family of Bernard Wrenn whom God called to his eternal rest on Sunday, Feb. 6th. We give thanks to our Lord for His loving-kindness and for all of the mercies granted to Bernard during his earthly life, especially for calling him to faith in Jesus Christ through Holy Baptism. We pray that God would comfort all who mourn with the hope of the glorious resurrection of the body and a happy reunion in heaven, and that He would sustain the family with the knowledge that all who remain faithful will be given the crown of eternal life and will be in our Lord’s presence forevermore. Bernard’s home-going service was held on Thursday, Feb. 10th.

THANK YOU: We wish to thank the Ladies Aid and all the workers for serving the lunch at Bernard’s funeral, and all the people who brought cakes and pickles. We are so thankful to the members of this congregation for everything that was done for our family. Marie Wrenn and all the family.

AND THE BIBLE VERSE CONTEST WINNER IS … (drum roll here) … Marlene Geidel with her entry of Joshua 1:8 for one of the Bible passages where God urges us to meditate on His Word. Congratulations, Marlene, on your winning entry in our contest!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR THANK YOUS! Susan and Pastor’s first grandchild was born last Sunday about 10:00 p.m. Throughout last week several people called or emailed their ‘congratulations’ and ‘best wishes’ for Baby Kayleigh Grace Cook and her parents, Justin and Kendra Cook. All are healthy and doing well; we thank God for that and for entrusting one of His children to Justin and Kendra’s care.

COFFEE HOUR: If there is anyone who would like to be in one of the coffee hour groups please speak with Diane.

THRIVENT MEMBERS: If you have a Thrivent account and have received a notice that you have Choice Dollars available to designate to an organization, St. Paul Lutheran Church does have an account set up there to receive Choice Dollars if you wish to designate them to us. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Leann Schulz-Thomas.

LENTEN SEASON SOUP AND SANDWICH SUPPERS are being scheduled and planned. The first one will be on Ash Wednesday, March 9th. If any person – or a group – would like to volunteer to do one of the 6 Wednesday suppers, please contact Diane at the church office (925-7219) or call her directly at (660-2911) right away so that we can organize our Lenten season events accordingly. Thanks!

THE SD DISTRICT YOUTH BOARD needs your help! Youth ministry is face paced and changes even faster. To serve our Savior and the youth of His Church the South Dakota District Youth Board is seeking your wisdom, guidance and involvement. They will be holding 2 information-gathering meetings -- one on each end of the state. They especially value the input of our youth and encourage all church youth group members to attend. They also encourage any lay members who have a passion for working with youth to also attend. Please RSVP for the noon lunch. In eastern SD the meeting will be on Feb. 26th from 9:00 until noon at the SD District Office, 3501 Gateway Blvd, Sioux Falls, SD 57109. Please RSVP to Ryan Paszek (youth@zlcsf.org ) or call him at (605) 338-5226.

LENTEN DEVOTIONS (written by Lutheran Hour Ministries) will be provided this year in both electronic and paper formats. The printed devotions will initially be distributed after the Mar. 6th worship service; extra copies will be available throughout the Lenten season in the library. If, instead, you wish to have the electronic version e-mailed to you, please contact the Pastor.

PLEASE LET US KNOW if you or another of our members is sick, hospitalized, has a new baby, has a death in the family, etc. This will enable us (pastor, elders and others) to visit them, send a note of encouragement and to keep the person and his or her family in our prayers.

ANNUAL REPORTS will be handed out after church service.

LUTHERAN HOUR MINISTRIES provides a daily meditation on God’s Word. If you have e-mail, you can choose to have the daily devotion sent to you by going to: www.lhm.org/newsroom/emailservices.htm and clicking on the Daily Devotions button to sign up. You may also choose to read the daily devotion on-line without having it e-mailed to you. Just go to: www.lhm.org/dailydevotions.asp

BULLETIN ANNOUNCEMENT REMINDER  If you have an announcement for the bulletin, you may hand-write it, call it in or send us an e-mail to stpaulfreeman@gmail.com. The deadline is noon on Thursday. Announcements received after Thursday may or may not be in the bulletin; we will try but we are making no promises! Get it to us by Thursday noon and we will publish it!

BIBLE STUDY CLASSES are available at different times on different days. We encourage you to please find the time to study your Bible – either at home during your personal daily devotions or you may attend any of our existing, on-going classes. Feel free to just sit in and listen, if you wish. You are also welcome to attend even if you haven’t been able to attend classes in the past or if we happen to be in the middle of a topic. It’s never too late to learn more about our faith and our Savior! We are currently studying “Heaven and Hell” in our Sunday morning classes, “How We Got the Bible” in our Tuesday evening classes and the “Parables of Jesus” in our Wednesday morning men’s breakfast classes.

MAIN STREET LIVING: February 27, 2011” Kid’s Crossing - Janitor Bob encourages Simon to learn to say, “No!” when he is tempted to do wrong. The featured speaker is Rev. Michael Bagnall from Zion Lutheran Church in Wessington Springs, Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Woonsocket, and Concordia Lutheran Church in Wessington, SD. The sermon theme is "Consider the Cross." The hymns are Father Most Holy, Merciful, and Tender; Come Unto Me, Ye Holy; and Jesus Sinners Doth Receive. The Main Street Living Choir will provide the hymns. The program is interpreted for the hearing impaired.

THANK YOU, YOUTH GROUP, for another successful Valentine’s Day supper. The youth group and leaders, Bob and Karen Pidde, did all of the planning, preparation, serving and clean-up work. Please be sure to say ‘thank you’ to all of them for the time they spent and the work they did in serving our congregation!