News and Announcements

Newport Lutheran is involved in many programs of Social Concern. Here are announcements for August 2008.

 
Mission Emphasis

NLC's mission emphasis for this month is World Missions and our offering will go directly to Lift Kids, an organization we contributed to last year for the first time.

Lift Kids, a Minnesota-based organization located in Minneapolis, has the following motto: "Take Action, Build a Village, Develop Children, and Inspire Hope". Ultimately, Lift Kids will:

1. build villages in developing countries
2. cultivate local businesses for capital, training and support
3. elevate leadership roles to sustain their communities, and
4. use our leaders for sponsorship and consultation.

Volunteers go to impoverished countries throughout the world where children are starving and dying every day and build Lift Villages which provides housing, food, and clothing to these children.

Mission Sunday is August 10th and we thank you for your contributions with the hopes to uplift children out of poverty into leadership roles.

Thank You

The Social Concerns Committee thanks you for all of your support in giving to the Missions and to the various collections. The following are the recipients of this years generous donations:

• April Mission sent to both Lyngblomsten and Human Services, Inc.
• May Mission was sent to Kimala, Tanzania church through the St. Paul Synod
• The Pie and Ice Cream Social included a match from Thrivent for our Loaves and Fishes Grocery fund.
• Fair Share coffee sales helps the coffee growers.
• June Mission was sent to Tubman Family Alliance who includes Anne Pierce Rogers Shelter as their support.
• Two laundry baskets and two grocery bags of cleaning supplies and paper products were brought to Anne Pierce Rogers Shelter for their outgoing clients.

Help Needed Lawn Mowing

It's that time of the year again, the grass is growing! We need help keeping our church lawn well groomed. There is a sign-up sheet on the kiosk in the entryway.

Vacation Bible School

was a great success! Over 60 children/youth volunteered/attended throughout the week and 39 adult and youth volunteered anywhere from one day to the full week! The VBS theme "Rainforest Adventure A Tree Top Bible Blast" was well received by the VBS students and volunteers. Thank you to all who helped. Without you VBS would not be possible! And thank you to the youth - VBS would not be fun without your participation! Thank you to all who made donations to VBS - whether monetary or items needed for snack/or the light meal provided beforehand. You ongoing support of this very important program is MUCH appreciated.

A Very Special Thank You

to Marlys Anderson for smoothly and efficiently running the Church office while I was on vacation. I could relax and enjoy my vacation knowing Marlys was taking care of business. Thank you, Patti Wolff

Green LBW Reminder

There are many green LBWs yet to be claimed that were given to NLC in memory by members.They are arranged in alphabetical order in the back pew of the choir loft. Please pick them up before they are discarded.

Relay for Life Update

Relay for Life took place in Cottage Grove on Friday, July 11th, and many Newport Lutheran members were there to support our team. We collected over $1200 in donations to the American Cancer Society, which was more than $200 over our goal! It was a hot day, but Larry and Mickey got our campsite set up and decorated beautifully, and we listened to opening ceremony and speeches by courageous survivors.

The Relay began with a survivor lap, which was very touching! The truckload of free water was unable to be there, so after opening ceremonies, Pastor Mark saw the need for water, and graciously went and got enough water to supply ALL of the Relay walkers! We had many coolers in front of our campsite with free water! We sold some beautiful wood crosses that were graciously donated by our Newport Woodcarvers group, as well as the fresh strawberries that Pastor Mark and Larry Benson picked themselves the day before.

The walk was called off early in the evening because of approaching storms, so we never had a chance to put our luminaries out around the track and the event was cancelled. We went back Saturday morning for closing ceremonies, and met at Applebee's for breakfast. It was a very touching, inspirational event, and we were all disappointed that it didn't go all night as planned, but we will try again next year!

Thank you to all who participated in the Relay by being a walker, or by donating money for luminaries, or by giving your time and effort to such a worthy cause. We will be displaying our luminaries here at some point for all to see, date and time to be announced later.

Jane Benson

Lutheran Social Services Need Child Foster Care Homes

The metro Lutheran Social Service Treatment Foster Care Program is now recruiting for Child Foster Care Homes. As a foster parent you will be provided training, ongoing support and financial reimbursement ($1200 + per month per child in your home). You can own or rent your home, can be any age (above 21) and can have other children in the home. The biggest requirement is to "enjoy children and have the desire to make a difference in their lives." Please call Darlene at 612-879-5278 for an information packet.

Thoughts on Stewardship

Intern Erin Nelson preached a very good sermon on July 6th, and many members missed it since it was the 4th of July weekend; but the theme that stuck with me was that "we all serve or follow someone". We are going to live our remaining days on earth spending our time and money on something, so why not devote them to our church and our Lord? What better way to spend the rest of our lives? We also have had 2 sermons based on the parables of the seeds which really hit home for me as a gardener. It made me think about my garden that can quickly turn into a weed patch without constant care. July was a busy month at Newport Lutheran with the Relay for Life and the Red Cross Blood drive (thanks to all who participated and donated). Thanks to Gordy Urdahl for fixing the basketball hoop and to Vern Moen for mowing the lawn.

By the time you read this we will be well along on our Sanctuary Improvement Project that was approved at our annual meeting and expenditures of $25,000 was approved at the special congregational meeting on July 12th and 13th. Please volunteer to help with this project. We have most of the money to pay for this if we sell the 3M stock that we have and use the CD that matures in August, but we still need $5,000-7,000. We need to raise this money in the next 3 months so we are asking those who are able to make an additional contribution to the sanctuary project either as a memorial or a special gift. If 100 members could give $50 and another 100 members could give $25, this would take care of it.

We also need everyone to check their midyear giving statements to ensure that you are caught up with your planned giving for the year. After 3 months in the current fiscal year we are $10,000 short of the contributions needed to meet our budgeted expenses. We need to have general contributions of $20,000 per month to pay our bills and to meet our budgeted expenses for the year. We fell short in April-June, so now we need to catch up or we will be looking at cuts down the road.

Have a great August,
Larry Benson, Stewardship Committee

Bless the Children News

Bless the Children Child Care Center currently has 23 children enrolled. Over the summer many families stay at home with their children and return back in the fall, which means at the end of August beginning of September our numbers will begin to increase. We currently have openings in infants, toddlers, and preschool classrooms. If you are interested in more information or would like to schedule a tour, please contact us at 651-768-0016, or visit us on the web at: www.btcccc.org

Bless the Children Changes

We are currently undergoing two major changes at the center. Our first change is the switching of the toddler and preschool classrooms. We are switching these classrooms (located across from the library), as we feel it will be a benefit to the young preschoolers to have access to a bathroom in their classroom.

The second major change at the center is the addition of a third preschool room, as our preschool/pre-kindergarten group is constantly growing. This room will be located directly across the hall from Bless the Children's office, you may have noticed the fresh coat of paint already. Located outside of the classroom, we have put together a giving tree, this is a way to help us raise funds to help purchase the items that are required by the state. Our giving tree lists all the items that we will be purchasing within the next couple of weeks. There are only 3 steps in order to make this donation to Bless the Children:

1. Pick an apple from the basket
2. Fill out the amount of donation, name and address
3. Leave your donation with the apple in BTC's office or mailbox (located directly across from the church's office).

Bless the Children Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is currently looking for another person to join our team. The Board of Directors meet on the second Thursday of every month at 4:45 p.m. If you are interested in learning more about what you can do as a member of the Board of Directors, please contact the center at 651-768-0016.