The Messenger
Newsletter of St. Jacobi and Zion Sundays after Pentecost/End Times Wake up!
The season of End Times will soon be upon us. Reformation is usually the beginning of our End Times observation that concludes around Thanksgiving before we start the new Church Year with Advent as a lead-in to the Christmas season. Hymn 206 in Christian Worship, “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying,” is one of my favorite End Times hymns. It uses the pictures that Jesus put forward in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins to stress the importance of being prepared. It does a fantastic job of expressing the overall theme of End Times: be ready! How ready are you? End Times directs us toward something beyond the here-and-now. We can very easily get lulled to sleep by just going through the motions, shuffling off from one thing to another. How often, though, do we think about how any day—today, even as you read this—could be the moment that Jesus returns to earth? That’s a sobering reminder. Paul writes to the Romans, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:11b-12). If we assume that every day will be like the next, we lose the motivation and fire to make use of what little time we have left. We don’t have long to get our house in order and help others to do the same. That’s why it’s so important for us to be continually fighting that dreadful fight against sin and its temptation. We don’t know if, having given up on our faith, we will indeed have time to repent on our deathbed. Perhaps a deathbed will come and go in an instant; perhaps it will all end with the last trumpet blast at Jesus’ return and then it will be too late. We need to be ready and alert, aware of our sinfulness and continually taking our sins to Jesus, assured that he has and will continue to forgive us because of his love for us. The End Times also remind us of how important it is to reach out with the message of the gospel to those who do not know it. You may think to yourself, “That is a job for Pastor, or the elders, or an evangelism committee, or a canvassing group!” We certainly can and do make use of all of those outlets to get the good news of Jesus out to others. But a far more effective means of communicating that love is through personal invitation and contact. You know that your neighbor, or friend, or spouse, or child, or parent, etc. doesn’t know the love of their Savior. So invite them! Don’t let them slumber too long or it may be too late! Invite them to come with you to church, with you to Bible Class or to Sunday School. In that way, they may join all the Church in praising our Savior Jesus until he returns to bring us home to be with him in heaven! Being ready sounds like work, but it’s really a joy. End Times simply focuses us on the core of our faith, and by extension, the core of God’s love for us. End Times holds Jesus’ cross and empty tomb in front of us and reminds us of his great love for us. So during these last days, you can ask yourself, “Am I awake? Am I ready?” and the answer is always a resounding, “YES!” through Jesus our Savior. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! “Wake, awake, for night is flying,” the watchmen on the heights are crying “Awake, Jerusalem, arise!” Midnight hears the welcome voices and at the thrilling cry rejoices: “O where are all you virgins wise? The Bridegroom groom comes—awake! Your lamps with gladness take! Alleluia! With bridal care, yourselves prepare to meet the Bridegroom who is near.” (CW 206:1)
October/November 2009
October/November 2009
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Younger Elder Report
Greetings Members: Just a few items to report on from the Elders. Discussed purchasing the Christian Worship: Supplement books for worship. Also we talked about continuing to purchase bulletins from Synod or maybe printing our own. The Pastors also reported that we have been blessed with new faces and visitors worshiping with us recently. Remember, with Fall approaching, Bible class, Sunday School, Choir are starting up and Zion services moved back to 10:45. We still have three students attending GPLHS Dylan Prusha, Kristine Schlomer, and Shawnna Bieber - so keep them in your prayers. Lastly some of our younger members are attending Zion's day school and Mobridge public schools. Many of them are involved in Band, Choir, Cheerleading, Athletics, and of course schoolwork. If you get a chance, attend one of their events and also look for their names in the paper. Also let them know about it as I know they will appreciate it. I also encourage everyone to check out the bulletin boards by the classrooms down in the day school after church sometime as there's always some interesting things posted on them. Well, that's it for the second revamped newsletter. Sincerely in Christ, Tom Fried
Area Reformation Service
On November 1, 2009 at 4:00 pm Zion will be hosting the circuit’s area Reformation service. We invite our members from all over our circuit (and farther if they’d like) to come and worship with us, celebrating the purity of the gospel that God restored to his people through the work of Martin Luther and the other reformers. This year, we have the privilege of having Professor. Daniel Balge from Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota to be our guest preacher for the service. Anyone from the parish who has an interest is invited to join the Senior Choir this year as we seek to beautify the worship service with song. A brass choir is also being assembled to assist us in praising our Savior. A meal will follow after the service. More details on that will be forthcoming. Hope to see you there!
Life Issues in Our Community and Parish
The South Dakota Right to Life group will be meeting in Mobridge at the Moose Lodge on Saturday, October 10. More information has been posted on the community bulletin board at Zion. Tickets are $5 cheaper to purchase in advance than at the door. We have been looking to revitalize our fairly inactive branch of Christian Life Resources (formerly: WELS Lutherans for Life), which uses life and family issues as bridges to convey the love of God and to share the message of salvation through Christ. If life issues (abortion, euthanasia, suicide, etc.) have a special place in your heart and you would like to work with others in the parish to reinvigorate our chapter and get together on perhaps a quarterly basis, please speak with either Pastor Naumann (-7242) or Pastor Shrimpton (-2038).
Mission Festival
On the weekend of October 18, we will have our annual Mission Festival celebration. Our guest speaker for the weekend will be Pastor Curtiss Seefeldt from The Lutheran Home in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. He will be here to preach for our worship services as well as to make a presentation about the wonderful opportunities they have at The Lutheran Home. Presentations will follow services both at Zion and St. Jacobi that weekend.
October/November 2009
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GSI Thrift Update
GSI Thrift in Watertown is the thrift store associated with Great Plains Lutheran High School, our area Lutheran high school. All proceeds from the store support GPLHS in its mission to provide a Christ-centered education to assist families in nurturing students as lifelong disciples of Christ In the September/October GSI newsletter they request donations of boys’, girls’, and men’s jeans; toddler clothing; girls’ dresses; and snow pants. Furniture requests include bed frames, box springs, and mattresses; chests of drawers, loveseats, and card tables; good working refrigerators and freezers and small microwaves; shower stall chairs and canes; up-to-date baby furniture such as cribs and playpens. Hunting clothing and Halloween costumes have also been requested. The complete newsletters are posted on the Great Plains bulletin board at Zion. Missionary Kevin and Sarah Stellick PO Box 27-4 Taichuing 406, Taiwan ROC Anniversary: 10/28/89 Birthdays: Kevin – 5/20 Sarah – 7/1 Hannah – 3/21/99 Katrina – 3/21/99 Issac – 3/10/01
Our Home Mission assignments for 2009-2010 are: Pastor Steven and Jenny Hillmer 6960 Verite Ct Sparks, NV 89436 Anniversary: 6/19/99 Birthdays: Steven – 3/30 Jenny – 3/19 Benjamin – 2/26/01
LWMS Befriend-a-Mission Assignments
Please remember our missionaries and their families with cards, letters, and prayers. Our Ladies’ Aid remembers them with a package once a year, but individuals are encouraged to think of them all year. If you send a card to a world missionary, please address it to “Mr. & Mrs.” Our World Mission assignments for 2009-2010 are: Missionary Paul D. and Susan Nitz PO Box 30067 Lilongwe 3 Malawi, Africa Anniversary: 7/27/91 Birthdays: Paul – 6/15 Susan – 11/26 Henry – 8/3/92 Erin – 5/1/95
Matthew – 6/6/03 Silas – 12/8/05 Jude – 10/30/08
Pastor Joel and Bethany Schwartz 2145 Arcadia Rd Holiday, FL 34690-4308 Anniversary: 5/29/05 Birthdays: Joel – 4/23 Bethany – 12/9
Elise – 10/7/06 Silas – 11/5/08
Newsletter Submissions
Items may be submitted for consideration for inclusion in the December/January newsletter. Items can be dropped in the church office or emailed to kjshrimpt@gmail.com The submission deadline for all newsletter content is Tuesday, November 17.
Reuben – 3/1/97 James – 6/1/99 Joel – 6/13/01 Frances – 5/6/04
October/November 2009
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October Birthdays
1 Larry Fritz Bob Schlinkert 6 Nadya Harrison 7 Mary Ann Ernst 19 Donna Pfitzer 21 Ryan Enderson 22 Erica Frey Deb Hatzenbuhler Seth Pourier 24 25 26 27 Kelly Thies Walter Weber Janine Salverson Taylor Keller Herb Schlecht 29 Marion Schlomer 31 Deb Walker
November Birthdays
5 Vic Schlomer 6 Tom Fried Tootie Hieb 8 Roger Frey 9 Karlie Spiry 10 Lindsay Beranek 15 Cheryl Raugutt 18 21 24 26 27 29 30 Dean Gosch Carol Bockman Navalyn Struxness Betty Mitchell Lorraine Fowler Todd Pfitzer Crystal Cadotte
October Ushers
Zion – Marion Schlomer, Lyle Walth Ralph Rabenberg, Ron Landis, Jeff Frey, Ron Hepper, Evan Salverson, Tim Pfitzer, Bob Ernst St Jacobi – Vic Schlomer, Quintin Schlomer
November Ushers
Zion – Tom Fried, Roger Frey, Glen Landis, Alan Landis, Ron Pourier, Jason Rabenberg, Helmuth Eisenbeisz, Tom Volk St. Jacobi –Allen Walth, Dan Schlomer
October Cleaners
Zion – Tom Fried, Ed and Ruth Fried, Carol Fried, Harold and Carol Bockman, Pastor and Karen Shrimpton St Jacobi – Rose Gosch, Connie Gosch, Lorraine Fowler
November Cleaners
Zion – Marion and Corrine Schlomer, Paul and Laila Arndt, Eugene and Deb Walker, Ron Pourier, Ray and Shirley Lutz, Sharon Cripe St. Jacobi – Becky Schlomer and Becky Walth