This past week, I was able to sit down with Board of Deacons and talk about how the last year went. What a joy it has been to serve here, and to be your pastor, and I look forward to being here as long as the Spirit calls me to this place and to you people!

Out of that meeting came two ideas that I think are worth exploring as a congregation. The first is something that has been hanging in the back of my mind for the last six months ago. I make it my goal to see you if you are sick. In fact, I believe that if you are sick enough to be in the hospital, you are sick enough to see your pas-

tor. Continue letting me know when you are down and out.

However, what if you and your family are well and just trucking along in life? When do you get to see your pastor then? I love to see you in church. It’s also hard to have a full on conversation in the greeting line after service. And so, even if you’re in good health, I’d still love to visit with you. Feel free to invite me games, events, or whatever else you’d like. It can even be as simple as coffee or dinner – both I have been known to partake of daily – and we can find a time.

The second thing, and something I feel is of great importance is where do we want to go as a church, to where is God calling us? Do we have ministries that God has place on your heart that you would like to see grow and flourish? Are we seeking to grow in size, or are we content with the number of folks that we provide a worship home for in our communities? So many questions we could ask one another but in short, “What are God’s dreams for us in this place and on this hill?”

I cannot imagine a better question for us to wonder as a congregation at this time. I have my own ideas as pastor about the ministry that we could be doing. I am also aware that God speaks and moves through all of us. Plus, this congre-gation has seen many pastors come before me and will see many pastors come after me. What are the dreams God has placed in the heads and hearts of the people that have been and will continue to worship here for so many genera-tions? What is God putting within you as we build his kingdom in this place? For some of you, this kind of thought requires a broom closet where we can escape the chaos and noise of life. For others, this kind of conversation is best served where two or three gather. If that is you, feel free to bring it up in coffee shops and where you gather with friends.

Please dwell on this and with much prayer. It is holy conversation and deserves our attentiveness. May God bless our seeking of his will and word!

-Pastor David

A Day to Celebrate a Bit!

Let's celebrate our protestant roots on October 25 with Reformation Sunday! Wear red to church that day (not a hard thing to do in Ne-braska Land) and show up for cook-ies served between services by our own Witness and Fellowship Minis-try. Thanks be to God for those who have renewed the church through their courage and wisdom, especially Martin Luther.

H I G H L I G H T S

Leaders’ Spotlight 2

Council Corner 2

Giving Opportunities 2

Church News & Events 3

Women’s New 4

Library News 4

Youth News 5

Rally Sunday 2015 5

‘God’s work. Our hands.’ 6

October 2015

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Youth Representative

By Candice Brockhoff

It’s that time of year! When the weather gets cool-er, Halloween gets closer and every-thing is pumpkin spice. But did you know that Hallow-een has a religious history? It is be-lieved that it had originated with

the Celtic festival called Samhain. They would cele-brate their new year on November it marked the end of summer and harvest and the beginning of the cold and dark winter, which was a time of the year that was associated with death-human death more spe-cifically.

They believed that it was during this time that the world of the living and the dead were combined. The night before, on October 31, they celebrated Samhain because it was believed that that was when the sprits of the dead returned to the earth and caused trouble and damage to crops. They thought that these spir-itual presences made it easier for the Celtic priests to predict the future and during this time, these predic-tions were very important to one’s comfort. During the celebration, people would gather to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to Celtic deities and wear costumes and tried to tell each other’s fortunes.

In 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to honor all Christian Martyrs on May 13, and thus the Catholic celebration of All Martyrs Days was formed in the Western church. During the eighth century, Pope Gregory III had wanted to expand the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs and had delegated November 1 as All Saints’ Day instead. By the time of the 9th century, Christianity had spread into the lands of the Celtics and the holiday blended some of the same traditions of Samhain. All Saints’ Day was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas, which stems from the Middle English term Alholow-messe, that translates to All Saints’ Day. The night before the celebration was known as All Hallows’ Eve and eventually became known as Halloween.

Leader’s Spotlight Council Corner August 2015, Church Council Notes

New Business: Council Retreat will be Sunday, September 27 after

the 10:30 a.m. service. Josh gave a status update of the nominating com-

mittee. Board Reports:

Property: Replaced hydrant outside of the Parish Hall.

Stewardship: Fellowship of Christian Grad students: graduation resources—$1000 to have a hotline for a year.

Helping Hands fund: Gary Kepler and Alan Hillman.

Youth & Family: Trunk or Treat/October 25 / 4 p.m.

A complete set of minutes can be found at the Kiosk.

Second Mile Giving

Project Cost Rcvd to date

Kiruweni Dispen-sary

On Going 12,348

Giving Opportunities

The Little Red Wagon October: Syracuse

Please remember those in need when you shop! This is one of the easiest ways to make a real impact in our community. When you’re shopping, please add a few

of the following items to your cart. Then do it again next week! It could become a habit! Thanks for your participation in this important ministry! This month’s needs: Shampoo dish detergent toothpaste, Cereal crackers diapers

Please have your donations to the church anytime before the children bring it forward for blessing on October 25.

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Church News and Events

Our Sympathy Roy Berner passed away on September 18, 2015. Fu-neral services were held here on Tue. , September 22. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of Roy’s family and friends.

Join us for our annual Halloween Party! Sunday, October 25, 4:00 - 5:30 pm We are bringing back ‘Trunk or Treat’ this year for our Halloween Party!

A Trunk or Treat is a Halloween event that will be spon-sored by our church. We are asking for volunteers to be a ‘host’ and to gather and park their cars on the grass area north of the parsonage. You would arrive at 3:15 to park your vehicle, open your trunks, or the backs of your vehicles, and decorate them. Then you would pass out candy from your trunks.

When it comes to decorating your vehicle there are the obvious choices, like decorating for Halloween, using pumpkins, spider webbing, spiders, brooms, bats, caul-drons, scary stuff or you could pick a theme like sports, beach, campout, Nascar, 50s, etc. Think of it like dress-ing yourself in a costume. Sometimes you pick a theme and throw things together. Don't forget about a cos-tume for yourself. The best and most interesting trunks have their owners dressed to match the theme. Please provide your own candy to hand out.

We will have games/activities in the parish hall as well as a hayrack ride! A light supper will be provided.

Feel free to bring your friends. Everyone is welcome to join in the fun!

"WOW" Saturday — Right around the corner on October 3rd It will be a day of cleaning up the church as we 'whack our weeds', 'wash our windows', and then wonder 'where's our watermelon.' We will start at 8am and finish with some good ole watermelon. Kids welcome to help wash windows and eat watermelon. It's BYOWW (Weed Whacker/Window Wipers).

Thank You We just want to say Thank You to our wonderful church family and prayer warriors. To those who wrote victim impact statements for us, Thank You. Your prayers and support this past year has meant so much to us. On the anniversary day of when we lost our beloved Matthew Fred and beautiful Emily we went before the judge for the sentencing of Edward Koch. He received consecutive sentences of 15-20 years and will have to serve a minimum of 15 years total before he could receive parole.

Again, Thank You God Bless You,

Craig & Marilyn Jacob, Kathryn & Becca Kirchhoff

and Marianna Kirchhoff & Family

TEACHERS APPRECIATION SUNDAY Sunday, October 18th 8:15 Service Refreshments Served between Services

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The Last Laugh Mary and Dave got along pretty well. But there was one thing that drove Mary absolutely crazy, and that was no matter how many times she told Dave how important it was to her that he come on time for din-ner, he never did.

It was after one such spat that he got down on his knees and said “Mary, I promise I am turning over a new leaf. From now on I will be on time for dinner!”

Well, the next day, promptly at 5 o’clock, Dave locked up his shop and headed out the door to his car. When suddenly out of nowhere a car pulled up next to his parked car and hit Dave. Dave was rushed to the hos-pital. Luckily they let him out after 3 hours and he walked in the door to his house at 8 o’clock. Mary was livid! “Wait I can explain” pleaded Dave, “I got run over by a car!” “REALLY!?,” screamed Mary, “IT TAKE 3 HOURS TO GET RUN OVER BY A CAR!?

Women of the ELCA

Annual Fall Bazaar Saturday, October 24 @ 11 a. m. Serving Barbeque Meatballs, Cheesy Potatoes, Sal-

ads, and Dessert

Hopefully everyone's creative juices are flowing and you are all working on great crafts to sell and planning what goodies to make for the bake sale!

Please price your own items and bring them to the parish hall by 9 a.m. that day.

Raffle Tickets Raffle tickets will soon be available for two 2016 sea-son to The Lofte Theater and a Radiance Lighted Can-vas. Hope to see you there!

Youth Group / 7th—12th Grade October News The youth group is excited for our second gathering of the year, on Sunday, October 4 after late church our youth group will be going on a scavenger hunt for canned goods and nonperishable items for the local food banks. For those of you that live in Syracuse be ready for that knock on your door as they race around town trying to find the items on their list! This is a great way for our youth to give back to the community in their own style.

We would also like to thank the congregation for your support of the youth group and to the parents who en-courage their junior high and high school youth to be an active member of youth group.

Youth Group

A few new DVDs have been purchased for the library. They are not the latest releases, but good movies that lots of viewers should hopefully enjoy. Mandela Long Walk to Freedom and 42 The Jackie Robinson Story are both good family movies. More for the children are Brave, Epic, and Tangled.

The Proposal by Lori Wick and New Day New You by Joyce Meyer have been donated.

Goodie Boxes to be mailed The Women of the Church will assemble goodie boxes to send to our six college students on Friday, October 23 at 6 p.m. Contributions of candy, gum, and other goodies for the boxes are needed. You may also help by giving a cash donation to help de-fray postage costs.

Suckers Gum Candy Bars Hot Chocolate Packets Beef sticks Cappuccino Packets Tootsie Rolls Fruit Snacks Nuts Hard Candy Cheese & Cracker Packets

Please have your donations to the designated box in the Narthex by Thursday, October 22. The pack-ages will be assembled the next day. Thanks to all!

Library News

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Rally Sunday 2015

On Rally Sunday, Sunday school children and volunteers decorated envelopes and then put a pair of gloves and socks in each one. As a service project the 6th grade class finished stuffing the envelopes. A total of 75 enve-lopes will be distributed the People’s City Mission in Lincoln and the Open Door Mission in Omaha. ‘God’s work. Our hands.’

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“God’s work. Our hands”

From cleaning roadsides to assembling Personal Care Kits, to cleaning the yard of someone with health issues we partici-pated in several service projects. “God's work. Our hands.” Sunday celebrates a church that believes God is calling us into the world together. Wow what a beautiful, glorious day it was!