College Hills Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls

Pictures of the Jr. High and High School Weekend Visit to College Hill Lutheran Church which took place on January 19-20. I'll send a few more emails with more pictures.

Vinton Lutheran Home

Vinton Lutheran Home Celebrates a Joyous Christmas

What a glorious time of the year we just celebrated, the birth of our Lord Jesus!  The Residents throughout our Lutheran Home Community hosted a Christmas Family Dinner.  Nearly 300 guests participated in a wonderful meal provided by the Lutheran Home kitchen.  The Residents were excited to dine with their family and friends during this very special event.

The special guests for the evening were the McKibben family, who played out the Nativity scene.  Cory; wife Leslie, son Keegan, daughter Maylee, and nephew Chase, were in the nativity.  Cory brought a donkey and a sheep from his farm to add to the Nativity scene.  Along with our Christmas Party, the residents also performed a Christmas Story skit for all who could attend; had a local 4-H group, North Eden Willing Workers, bring gifts to the residents and spend time with them; and local churches were kind enough to stop by and carol for our residents.

           

The Vinton Lutheran Home rang in 2013 with an early “ball drop” that started the count down at 11:50 am so the residents could celebrate the new year without the late hour of watching it from Times Square in New York.  We also had a celebration on the Epiphany when the Wise Men came to see that our Lord had been born when they brought the gifts of “Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

We are off and going with making plans and getting settled in with the new year.  Some dates that we already have set for 2013 are:

Auxiliary Spring Salad Luncheon; April 5^th

Annual Golf Outing; June 20^th

Ice Cream Social; August 4^th

Auxiliary Fall Salad Luncheon; November 1st

Memory Care Unit Christmas Party; December 6^th

Resident and Family Christmas Party; December 12^th

With all of our everyday activities that we have for our residents we all look forward to the big events as well.

  

Trinity Lutheran Church in Vinton

Groups in Trinity Lutheran Church - Vinton have had a very active winter. The Men's Bible Study group put on their second Father-Son Breakfast in November. Three generations of men got together for a full breakfast, devotions, social time and a craft. The craft this fall was a woodworking project where each family built a cross. The breakfast is open to all men and gives them a chance to get together and strengthen their family and Christian bonds. The Men's group also hosted REv. Daniel Johnson on January 5th as he spoke about his missionary work to the Lutheran churches in Siberia and the Baltic countries.   The Evangelism Board built a lighted float for the local Holiday Lights Parade. A lighted nativity and the Christmas carol "What child is this?" brought the message of Christ to the viewers who lined the street. Church members walked beside the float handing out candy and "Road to Emmaus" DVD's.This is the second year Trinity has had a float in this parade.   The Sunday School Christmas Pageant this year was written by our Pastor and told the Biblical Nativity story. It was an exciting time for the children as they had all new costumes, stage and backdrops courtesy of the Education Board and members of the church. The children also sang one of their songs at the Christmas Eve worship service.   Five Junior High students attended the IDE Jr High Retreat at IoDisECa. The kids found the Bible study "What is the World to Me?" very interesting. It was well presented by Rev. Peter Hoft. Of course, the games and Snolympics and great food were a big hit. Pastor Stephen Preus and Margaret Preus joined students Ethan Horak, Jonathon Kreutner, Weston Powers, Cole Tharp and Hailey Twaites for the weekend.

Rev. Dr. Dean Rothchild, Assistant To The District President

Proclaiming Christ Jesus Capital Campaign

   Luke 24:46-47 states: “And He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”  Those are the marching orders which Jesus has given to His Church.  Our Pastor’s are privileged to do that through their preaching office and those who are hearing that word preached are called to proclaim Christ Jesus through their daily vocations.  The goal of that proclamation is to have people gathered together in the Divine Service to receive the gifts of God, namely, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

   It was those verses which were chosen as the basis for our District’s Capital Campaign which has as its purpose to help raise gifts to support new church starts here in Iowa District East.  On October of 2011 New Hope Lutheran Church began gathering for Divine Service in Charles City.   Area Pastors are helping to serve this new congregation.  New Hope Lutheran was received into membership at a chartering service on Saturday April 21^st, 2012.  They are working toward having a called Pastor.

   By the time you read this, St. Silas Lutheran Church in North Liberty will have held its first Divine Service.  That happened on February 3^rd, 2013.  Pastor Andrew Richard was called by St. Paul’s Chapel in Iowa City to be their Assistant Pastor and the Planter for this new congregation.  If you have members who are residing in the North Liberty area who are still on your books but no longer live in your area, please forward those names on to Pastor Richard.  The saints in Christ Jesus need to be connected to an altar and pulpit where they can be nourished in their baptismal life.

   So how is the capital campaign going?  As of this writing, we have received gifts from congregations and individual donors in the amount of $112,000 and future intended gifts of $43,000 for a total of $155,000.  The stated minimum goal was $600,000.  Congregations have included this campaign in their budgets and individuals are responding to the opportunity to help fund new missions starts in our District.

   The ongoing challenge for all of our congregations is how do we engage people in our communities with the Gospel of Christ Jesus?  What do Witness, Mercy, and Life Together look like in our particular locality?  To receive more information on the Proclaiming Christ Jesus campaign, please contact Rev. Dr. Dean Rothchild at: deanrothchild@lcmside.org or call him at 319-373-2112.  He is available for individual visits or presentations to a congregation on Sunday mornings.