Vol. 29 Issue 14 - December 13, 2016

Christmas blessings from St. John’s Lutheran School faculty and staff!

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Christmas Blessings!

With only 12 days until Christmas, it might be easy to get involved in the busyness and stress of last-minute preparations. Jesus came in the fullness of time, as a tiny baby, in a quiet manger (Luke 2). May God’s peace surpass the hectic nature of this time of year. Let St. John’s help to keep Jesus at the center of your Christmas plans. Candlelight Advent worship tomorrow at 7 pm, Christmas chapel, Friday at 11:15 am and a host of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship opportunities are available at St. John’s.

Prayer for our school!

Chapel and Devotion

This Week’s Chapel Service

St. John’s Middle School students will lead our Advent chapel Friday as our 2016 closing chapel at 11:15 am.

Chapel Offering

Chapel offerings for the month of December will support Project 23 at St. John’s. Project 23 is a community outreach ministry that seeks to help the needy and homeless in our neighborhood. Thank you for your support of this important ministry!

Join us for chapel in 2017 every Wednesday at 8:30 am in the St. John’s sanctuary!

Family Devotional

Countdown to Christmas with All the Colors of Christmas Advent Devotional from Focus on the Family. This daily, familydevotional incorporates God’s Word and fun family crafts! Click the link above for this free Advent resource.

A Reminder For Our Volunteers

We are so grateful for the many hours put in by our parents to make St. John's the vibrant, loving community that it is! We couldn't do it without you! When volunteering, please remember to leave younger siblings at home, so as not to distract you or others from the supervision of our students. Thank you!

Parent Survey

Thank you for providing feedback and insight! Please take a moment to respond to the December parent survey concerning Accelerated Reader. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/StJohnsOrange

Donate Hygiene Bags for Project 23!

Each year, St. John’s Lutheran School helps Project 23 by donating travel-sized hygiene kits for the homeless and needy in our community. On December 17th, St. John’s will host hundreds of people from our community who are without funds, family and friends for a warm breakfast and gifts of necessities like coats, blankets and hygiene items. This week, your child will bring home a Ziploc bag and hygiene kit directions. Just fill the bag with a travel sized shampoo, conditioner, bar soap, deodorant, comb, dental floss, toothbrush and toothpaste, and bring it to school by December 16th. These kits will be distributed the following day at the Project 23 event. Thank you for helping the less fortunate in our community! Questions? Contact Shannon Beshara sbeshara@stjohnsorange.org

Important Dates

Thursday 12/15 - Sanctus Choir sings at Park Plaza and Town and Country Retirement Homes. 9am-12pm. Friday 12/16 - Free Dress - Christmas attire or Red and Green. Please follow "free dress" guidelines

in the Parent /Student Handbook. Friday 12/16 - Middle School leads Advent closing chapel at 11:15am in the Sanctuary. Friday 12/16 - NOON DISMISSAL - Begin Christmas Break. Saturday 12/17-Monday 1/2 - Christmas Break! Sunday 12/25 - Merry Christmas! Tuesday 1/3 - School Resumes - Full day

Pajama Project

There are more than 26,000 children that are homeless and 126,000 children that are today living in poverty. These kids are forced to focus on where they will sleep instead of what they will learn. Today through December 16, there will be labeled black bins placed along the drop-off zones of St. John’s, as well as Lamb’s Lot preschool, for you to drop off pajamas for children ages birth through pre-teen. These pajamas will be given to the kids on December 17 during the Project 23 Christmas party. Thank you in advance for your generosity!

25th Annual Gala & Auction – Planning Meeting

Please join us in The Garage (our newly renovated meeting space) on January 11, 2017 at 8:30am. We will be getting updates from our Gala Team Chairs on their progress. Want to be part of a team? We need YOU! We are looking for volunteers to fill out our teams: Sponsorship, Operations, Opportunities, Auction Items, Marketing and Wine. We also have plenty of jobs for after-hours work. To volunteer for a team, please contact Co-Chair Elise Ozawa at elise.ozawa@gmail.com. To donate or sponsor the event, please contact Julie Roberts at Advancement@stjohnsorange.org. Childcare is available in the nursery. Possible skeeball/pinball shenanigans to follow.

Meet St. John’s – Next Date: 1/8/17, 11am

Interested in what it means to be a part of the St.John's community?

Focusing on our discipleship pathway of CONNECT-GROW-SHARE, Meet St. John’s offers a better understanding of what it really means to be part of the community here at St. John’s and you will get the opportunity to meet our senior pastor. You will have an opportunity to sign up for a 7 week experience that will help you grow in your faith and leads towards membership. – RSVP www.stjohnsorange.org/nextsteps

School Age Care – Holiday Care

If you need holiday child care, consider St. John’s School-Age Care program. For more information, please see information below!

Donate Your Old Phone!

If you have any old Apple iPhones or iPod Touches at home that are no longer used, but in working condition, please consider donating them to our educational technology program! These used iPhones or iPods (5th generation or newer) will be used for creating virtual reality projects in our educational technology and STEM program. Any old device will be wiped clean and used by St. John’s classrooms. iPhones and/or iPods can be dropped off at the school office or given to Mrs. Grack.

Scrip Holiday Gift Card Drive

Holiday gift card sale now through December 12th (final delivery on December 15th). Support our school by purchasing gift cards for your Thanksgiving, Christmas, grocery and everyday shopping. Buy cards for teacher gifts, class items, party supplies, etc. The possibilities are endless and every purchase helps. During this sale, for every $50 in gift cards purchased, your student will earn a raffle ticket. The raffle tickets will be put in a school-wide drawing for a Concourse Bowling party for 10 and grade level drawings for In-N-Out Double Double gift cards (winners announced in January). The grade with the most total sales will earn a free dress day (Date TBD). See flyer below for details!

Amazon Smile

If you’re shopping on Amazon this holiday season, please log onto Amazon Smile (www.smile.amazon.com) instead and support St. John’s! Simply choose ‘St. John’s Lutheran School Auxiliary” as your charity of choice and Amazon will give a percent of the proceeds back to our school. It even works if you're an Amazon Prime member.

Excellent to Exceptional – Help to Change Lives!

We’re in the middle of our Excellent to Exceptional Annual Campaign, and truth be told, we are far from our goal of $75,000 to help the students of St. John’s. Instead of praying for a windfall, we are looking to build our Annual Campaign up brick by brick to change lives at St. John’s. Did you know that you can set up a monthly donation on www.stjohnsorange.org/e2e, or on the NEW St. John’s app for as little as $25 a month? Any and every amount of giving contributes to our ability to provide for the students of our school. Imagine if every family donated $25 during the month of December. That would be over $13,000! And if that was increased to $100, we could raise $55,000. Through Excellent to Exceptional, we are able to bless the students of St. John’s Lutheran School through the Endowment Fund, which provides tuition assistance to those families in need. We will also be able to provide for our students in the areas of Athletics, Academics and Current Year Needs. We have a huge opportunity to change the lives of our students at St. John’s. Your gift helps us move from Excellent to Exceptional and beyond!

Need a Sweatshirt?

We still have a few sweatshirts available for purchase. We have youth extra larges , adult mediums, adult smalls and a youth extra small. If interested please email Trish at slstrish@aol.com

CONNECT at Sunday School

Sunday School - Follow link for classroom locations

Christmas Gift of Music

Give the gift of music lesson at St. John’s Community Music Conservatory. Gift packets are available. The Winter Session of private instruction on instruments and voice continues after Christmas with 9 weeks remaining. For information, please call Kathy Hayes in our Conservatory – 714-288-4433, or email khayes@stjohnsorange.org.

Baptism Information Meeting

Interested in finding out more about Baptism? What it means to be baptized at St. John’s or why we have baptism? Please come to an informational meeting with an Elder. These meetings are held on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month. For more information, please visit our website www.stjohnsorange.org/baptism or call the Christina Meadows at 714-288-4425.

Holiday Meal Fundraiser

Would you like someone else to prepare your Christmas dinner for you? Fit Body Foods has a Holiday Feast for you! 20% of the proceeds will go toward the 4th grade trip to Sacramento. Order by clicking on "Holiday Feast" by December 22 for delivery to your home! Holiday Feast

St. John’s Lutheran School

www.sjls.org

154 S. Shaffer St. 714-288-4406