Concordia Seminary in St. Louis

During Call Day services on April 22, at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 122 pastoral calls, 98 vicarages and four deaconess assignments for students were announced. Those assigned in the Iowa East District, pictured with wives and the district president, are, from left, front row, Kara Hartwig, Kendra Fay, Sallie Pool, Angela Carriker (Deaconess, St. Paul's, Iowa City), Marjorie Arp; second row, Brent Hartwig (Our Redeemer, Iowa City), Karl Fay (Trinity, Davenport), Daniel Pool (St. John, Clinton), and Rev. Dr.Gary Arp.

Grace Lutheran Church in DeWitt

After months of planning and preparation, members of Grace Ev. Lutheran Church came together at Grace Camp on Sunday, March 22, 2009 to celebrate as ground was broken on a new construction project, the Grace Youth Ministries (G.Y.M.) Building. Clearing of the site and construction began the following day and has been progressing steadily over the last month. Construction of the facility is expected to be completed by the fall of 2009.

The G.Y.M. Building is envisioned as a base location for the Youth Ministry activities of Grace Lutheran Church. It will be the place the youth of the congregation can call their own. This is a vital part of being connected to the community of youth and the whole church. It is envisioned as a place in which youth can find a place of belonging within a community of believers who are like they are.

Designed with both a Media Room and a Recreation Room, the G.Y.M. Building will host the congregation’s youth meetings and activities, as well as be a multi-media center used during youth retreats, camps, Bible study, and worship. At other times it will serve as a location in which the youth of the community are invited, and encouraged, to come together with one another in a safe and uplifting environment.

It is the place in which youth will be able to come together to have fun and hang out with old friends, and make some new friends as well. It is the place in which the ministry team will be able to interact and build stronger relationships with youth while watching movies, playing video games, listening to music and sharing a message of God’s, and our own, personal care and love for them.

Black Hawk Lutherans For Life

Black Hawk Lutherans For Life – 2009 Diaper Drive

The Black Hawk Chapter of Lutherans For Life recently completed their 2009 Diaper Drive for Alternatives Pregnancy Center in cooperation with congregation members from Immanuel Lutheran Church and Faith Lutheran Church in Waterloo, and St. John’s Lutheran Church in Waverly. The annual event tallied 1399 diapers, 1023 baby wipes, 21 jars of baby food, and other baby related items including receiving blankets, baby bottles, soap, bibs, outfits, and a cash donation was also given. Black Hawk Lutherans For Life’s mission is To witness to the sanctity of human life through education based on the Word of God and continues to support men and women who choose life in the face of difficult circumstances through this annual event. Free pregnancy tests, ultrasound services, pregnancy support and information, adoption information/referrals, and abstinence education are just some of the services that Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Waterloo provides. A special thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s diaper drive a success. Thanks!!!

Trinity Luthean Church in Lowden

Eighty-four quilts made for World Relief by Trinity Lutheran Ladies of Lowden.

Trinity Lutheran School in Cedar Rapids

Trinity Lutheran School, CR celebrated Lutheran School’s Week with many activities and special projects. Among those was collecting coins for the Wittenberg Project. The students were challenged to collect pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars during the week. The students collected over $700.00. To God be the glory!(Picture #1 l to r - Logan Bradley, Austin Ash, Brian Holt grade 4)

Trinity Lutheran also celebrated baptism birthdays during Lutheran School’s Week by each class wearing party hats, eating baptism birthday cookies and reading Scripture which reinforced God’s love through baptism.(Picture #2 Luke Jonasson grade 4)

Concordia Theological Seminary

IOWA DISTRICT EAST: New Vicar Christ, Dean E. (AR) (Macomb, IL)

Wife: Susan

Child: Sarah

Trinity Lutheran Church

Knoxville, IA

Iowa District East

IOWA DISTRICT EAST: New Vicar  Callahan, Phillip J.(Westmont, IL)

Wife: Amanda

Trinity Lutheran Church

Hampton, IA

Iowa District East

Deaconess Intern: Barkley, Sarah (Belleville, Michigan)

St. John Lutheran Church

Clinton, Iowa

Iowa District East

St. John Lutheran Church in Waverly

On Palm Sunday April 5, 2009,Rev. Matthew Versemann of St. John Lutheran Chruch of Waverly took into membership Pam and Tom Traxel, Ben Gomez, Larry Niebes, Chris & Wallace Graham, (pictured) Not pictured were Jill and Celina Young.

St. Paul's Chapel And University Center in Iowa City

While other college students packed their swimsuits and suntan lotion for Spring Break, four students and one Deaconess-Intern from St. Paul’s Lutheran Chapel loaded their bags with old jeans and t-shirts in preparation for their Spring Break servant event in St. Louis, MO. While there, the students volunteered at two inner city Churches: Transfiguration Lutheran and Emmaus Lutheran. At Transfiguration, the chapelites helped manage a clothing drive, prepared food bags from the food bank, sorted boxes in several storage rooms, and spent time with the neighborhood children – playing games with them and telling them Bible stories . At Emmaus, they helped clean the basement and the old school associated with the church in preparation for the church’s 120th anniversary dinner. The students also took some time after working all day to see some sights in the city, including the zoo, art museum, science center, the Seminary, and, of course, Ted Drews. After an enjoyable week of hard work and great fun, the students headed back home, loaded with stories to share and books to read (over 150 combined, thanks to the Seminary library book sale and books from Emmaus!). The chapelites would like to extend a special thanks to Grace Lutheran Church in Storm Lake, IA and Park View Lutheran Church in Eldridge, IA for helping fund this trip. This work in the inner city was an eye opening experience and a great way to tangibly share the love of Christ with others.

College Hill Lutheran Church

On Friday and Saturday nights, February 20 and 21 the airwaves at College Hill Lutheran Church and Brammer Student Center were taken over by TV station CHLC Channel 3. Emcees for the evening presented a regular “Ed Sullivan “show as act after act entertained the audience and filled the room with laughter.

Yes, it was the annual Lutheran Student Fellowship Dinner Theater raising money for the student servant event trip to Houston, TX to work on cleanup from Hurricane Ike. Cooking and serving a great meal of salad, BBQ beef, mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans with fruit cup the students showed a skill and training. After the meal the TV broadcast began with humor and cleverness that had the crowd laughing and clapping. Intermission found the same actors and emcees serving brownies and ice cream to the guests. Second Act was a “get involved” rather like “Dancing with the Stars” but with lots jazzier music for the crowd to dance. And dance they did. Whether dancing or watching it was great fun. The students even created a video to share with the audience. Such creativity and talent was fun to experience.

Congregation and friends look forward each year to the dinner theater and are so pleased that the students create this project for financing their servant event travel. A special thanks to Black Hawk County Thrivent Financial for Lutherans for assisting with expenses.

Keep alert for news of the Trip to Houston.

St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Atkins

St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Atkins, confirmed two young people on April 5. They are as follows: Left to Right: Kenzie Woltemath, Pastor Doug Woltemath, Kayla Minkel.

College Hill Lutheran Church

The cast of reporters from TV Station CHLC has returned to College Hill Lutheran Church to resume their studies at the University of Northern Iowa. Having spent a week in Houston, Texas during spring break experiencing their servant event trip for 2009 they are excited to flood the media with their work and play endeavors as well as their impressions.

The crew of fourteen (14) left Cedar Falls on Friday evening in the fire red College Hill van and drove all night reaching Houston and their host church, Our Redeemer Lutheran, on Saturday. Grocery shopping and gazing around the wet, wet streets of Houston occupied the day and evening. Sunday the students attended church and were treated to supper and Bible study that evening. Another rainy day.

Okay. Time to get to work.
Work was directed through an organization called LINK. They had eighty (80) volunteers between two locations. There were forty at the site with the LSF crew. There were work crews from Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Washington, Canada and Texas.

Monday, the students planted trees and plants in a median. They raked and weeded to clean up the area and put down mulch. Tuesday found the crew working at a future nature preserve. The area had been designated as a park but now was badly in need of clean up of brush, weeds, debris and garbage. Wednesday, the work load was much the same, cleaning up a site littered with stick, branches, and leaves. This area was College Park Cemetery, a long established burial site where free blacks and their families were buried. There were also elaborate burial sites for important black members of society: first blacks on the City Council, members of the Armed Forces, etc. The last work day, Thursday, had arrived and the crew was put to work taking out garbage, tearing down dry wall, paneling and spraying disinfectant on the walls for a lady’s home in Houston.

The crew members are the first to admit that the trip wasn’t all work. They did enjoy the sites of Houston. The relaxation times included a trip to an aquarium, watching the NBA Houston Rockets basketball game at Toyota Center, walking the beach and swimming at Galveston, going out to eat and other site seeing.

Now, Thursday was the day of the UNI appearance in the NCAA tournament, so everyone worked especially hard so they could finish the work task early and make it to the nearest TV to watch the game. This was also the time to head home, again an over night drive. So it was clean up the church area, shower up and pack up. Checking to make certain there were no geckos or cockroaches planning to go along, everyone loaded into that comfortably, crowded red van for the trip home to Iowa.

Station CHLC Channel 3 has lost it’s analog and ceased broadcast until the next event at College Hill Lutheran Church and Brammer Student Center, Cedar Falls.
“Good night and God bless”.

Camp IO-DIS-E-CA

Awareness and Readiness Study

A very important decision was made by the camp’s board and was officially endorsed by the Iowa District East Board of Directors.

Your camp is approaching its fiftieth anniversary. Over the years our needs have changed and our facilities have aged. Recent evaluations by retreat groups have noted the sad condition of our buildings and furnishings. The pavement on road has crumbled. There are limited family housing spaces for retreats benefiting the entire family. The climbing tower is near the end of its life cycle. Our Program
Director lives with his family in a small trailer. The well needs major repairs. The air conditioner in Alpha Lodge needs to be replaced. The list is long. The need for capital improvements is great. Our mission has expanded, and we have plans for the future reflecting these priorities. With this in mind the camp is launching an Awareness and Readiness Study to test our constituency for a major capital campaign. You will hear more about our plans in upcoming weeks.

One of the ideas we will be testing has the potential of a direct benefit to your congregation. We maybe offering “Partnership Campaigns” to congregations which would like to raise funds to meet a specific need. Through a Partnership Campaign, your congregation would designate a portion of their campaign proceeds to Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca while raising new funds to meet its own needs. This would be offered for minimal expense to you with the guidance and assistance of professional stewardship consultation.

Your camp has hired Cornerstone Stewardship Ministry, a Lutheran stewardship consulting firm to facilitate the Awareness and Readiness Study. The study will offer about one thousand people the opportunity to provide feedback via written surveys and personal interviews. The Cornerstone consultants will analyze all the surveys to provide the camp board the information needed to make an informed decision whether this is the time to proceed with a capital campaign and if so, whether the camp will offer a partnership campaign. The consultants will present their report to the board on June 1st.