Bethlehem News You Can Use

July Ice Cream Social!

Evangelism & Education invites you to join us for summer ice cream fellowship and fun!
When: Sunday, July 13th
Time: 5:00pm
Where: Peace Fellowship Hall
What to bring: Yourself and your family!
This will be a wonderful time for fellowship, to meet the Lutheran Ranches of the Rockies counselors that will be with us for the week and of course to enjoy a favorite summer treat! We can't wait to see you there!!!

Disaster Response

Thank you for your generosity! Over $1,100 was raised for tornado relief. A $600 check was sent to ELCA Domestic Disaster Response designated for "Windsor." $500 will be used to help Molly and Jeremy Kennis put a new storage shed on their property.

Office News

Nancy Tiff will be out of the office on Mondays between June 30 and August 18th. In addition, Nancy will be out of the office August 12-19th for vacation. Anyone interested in helping out in the church office on the morning of August 19th, please call Nancy.

Bethlehem serving Sunday Lunch at the OUR Center in Longmont on Sunday, July 20th

First let me again thank each of you for your help in previous times. This is such a wonderful outreach to our community and would not be possible without your love and support - so thank you again for participating and supporting these lunches!

Now it is once again time for everyone to check your busy schedules and see if you can set aside a couple of hours on Sunday, July 20, 2008 to help serve lunch at the Longmont OUR Center. We will try to schedule 2 shifts: 10 - 12 noon for cooking, set-up and beginning to serve; and 12 noon to 2 pm for serving and cleanup. Our menu will be fairly easy to prepare: taco mix (beef & bean) served over salad greens (or chips, if there are problems with produce!) and cheese, salsa, sour cream toppings; fruit; dessert; and drinks.

Please consider serving in one of the shifts and let me know if you can help and which shift you prefer. If you prefer to support the effort but cannot work, donations to help buy the food are always appreciated by those who must make the budget stretch!

There is a sign-up sheet on the Social Action Bulletin Board and you can contact me through email (jmtkelley@comcast.net) or call and leave a message on my home (303-651-6226) or cell phone (303-503-1634). If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. If you know of someone who is interested in serving and might not see the information, please feel free to share this information with them and/or let me know how to contact them.

“Gathered around the Word and Sacrament, We Live the Good News of Christ’s Love throughout Our Community and the World.”

Thank you! Jenny Kelley

A TRIBUTE TO ERNEST PETERSON

A tribute to Ernest Peterson was added to the National Congressional Record by Colorado State Representative Marilyn Musgrave. A letter was presented on April 24, 2008 to the House Speaker of Congress in his honor for the campaigns in Europe during WWII and the medals he received. You can view this letter on the east Narthex wall here at the church.

A GUEST FROM NEW ORLEANS

The Rev. Dr. Patrick Keen, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in New Orleans, LA. will be the featured guest at Faith Community Lutheran Church in Longmont the weekend of August 2nd and 3rd. A Chicago native, Pastor Keen was the first director of Chicago’s Habitat for Humanity program. He currently serves as a pastor developer for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as a community developer, and a grass roots organizer -- experience that has been helpful to him in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast three years ago. Bethlehem NOLA continues to serve as a staging area and hospitality center for relief workers. Pastor Keen recently released a musical CD, Delivered Out of the Storm. A portion of the proceeds benefit the outreach work of Bethlehem in the inner city of New Orleans. He is familiar with Colorado having been involved in the Young Life camping ministry here.

You are invited to a light lunch on Sunday August 3rd at 12:30 pm. Pastor Keen will explain what has been accomplished in New Orleans and what remains to be done.

Faith Community Lutheran Church is located at 9775 Ute Highway in Longmont

IT’S TIME FOR HABITAT WORK BUILD DAYS AGAIN!!

Please mark your calendars now for Bethlehem days: FRIDAY AUGUST 8TH - SATURDAY AUGUST 9TH. The sign-up sheets will be in the Narthex with the ladder and poster.

This year we will be working on a Thrivent for Lutherans sponsored home ($107K) and requiring $16.5K of matching funding from Lutheran Churches locally and YOUR help to build.

Meet the selected homeowner: Bernadette is a hard working single mother, with three daughters ages 16 to 6. They currently live in a rented small two-bedroom apartment that is very poorly insulated. Their winter utilities bill is $300 per month! The oldest daughter has a disability, and uses one bedroom. Bernadette and the other two girls use the other bedroom. In 2003 Bernadette was forced to file for bankruptcy, after her husband moved out, and did not pay bills. The only way she could qualify for a home of her own would be with a Habitat home that requires a mortgage of only 25 to 30% of her monthly income, and no interest. The family has already, and will continue to demonstrate their willingness to volunteer the required “sweat equity” towards the home. Bernadette has been working at the Habitat “Restore” and is an asset with her bilingual skills. Please help this deserving family see their dream turn into a reality.

Habitat is building 5 homes this year, that are located in the “Shadow Grass” development located on the East side of town, on the South side of 17th Avenue just to the West of the junction with County Road 1.

Thank you, Bob Cotton, Thrivent Build Specialist, Robert.C.Cotton@comcast.net

Colorado Women’s Service Trip to Korea

By Sandy Burrell. On April 4, 2008, a group of women, twelve from Colorado and one from Ohio traveled to Seoul, South Korea for twelve days to do service projects for adoption and orphanages. One of the first projects was to visit the Eastern Social Welfare Society community center. The center serves a wide variety of clientele from pre-schoolers to senior citizens. Our group split up with one group working with the Kindergarten after-school children and the other group preparing food for a snack project with the 2nd through 5th graders after-school program. We all joined together to make kimbap when the children arrived. Kimbap is similar to sushi but served in a long roll rather than sliced up. After the children ate their snack we sang songs and practiced English phrases.

On Tuesday a fundraiser was held in the Hyundai department store to benefit Eastern Social Welfare Society. The women collected items for the sale such as chocolate and coffee and handmade articles such as quilts, potholders and aprons. In addition to raising money for Eastern Society, the women served as ambassadors for adoption.

Thursday, the group traveled south to Pyongtaek where Eastern Social Welfare Society has a campus that houses Jacob’s Home, an orphanage for preschoolers; Esther’s Home, an unwed mother’s home; a school for handicapped children and several sheltered workshops for handicapped adults. In the morning, half of the group played with the preschoolers and the other half did a quilt art project with the handicapped children. In the afternoon all the women did a beaded bracelet project with the unwed mothers. The mothers were able to create one bracelet for themselves and another for their baby to be adopted.

Friday, the women took the train to Busan on the southern tip of South Korea. The next day they traveled 40 miles southeast to Jinhae where the Hope Home Orphanage is located. About 60 children ages 2 ½ years to 21 years live there. The children welcomed us by clapping as we entered the auditorium where they were waiting. Then a group of children sang for us. The next hour was controlled chaos as four projects relating to Colorado happened simultaneously. One group learned the Electric Slide county line dance. One group learned about dinosaurs by putting together a dinosaur floor puzzle, coloring dinosaur pins and making a dinosaur model. One group made beaded Native American medicine pouches and a group of boys made dinosaur glider planes. All the children received a stuffed toy lamb, even the 20-year-olds. After lunch the women walked with all the children to the cherry blossom festival that is held annually in Jinhae.

The last three days of the trip were spent at the guest house of Eastern Social Welfare Society back in Seoul. The women spent much time holding the newborn babies in the baby hospital. The babies stay here for up to six weeks before going to foster homes. The women did a stamped card project with the unwed mothers in Sharon’s Home. The unwed mothers were going to write a letter to their baby being placed for adoption in one of the cards.

At the conclusion of the trip the group escorted four babies home to their adoptive families in Colorado. There were two boys and two girls. The babies were 9, 10 and 11 months old. The foster moms were very sad as they said good bye to their little ones. Dr. Kim prayed over the children as they left Korea. When we arrived in Denver, four very happy families were waiting for us.

SERVICE MISSION TO NICARAGUA
Because of You

Bethlehem members have been very generous in their giving of encouragement, prayers, material goods, and money for the support of the Nicaragua Project. Four members of LOC and three in Bethlehem went June 10-20. Because of your support, we were able to do the following:

1.Have four clinics, two of which served areas that are difficult to access and people have little to no medical care.
2. Teach Bible School to many children. Because of our support for the last number of years, five women have become “missionaries” in their own area. These five women helped im mensely with both the Bible School and clinics.
3. Initiate a scholarship program for the children’s project for 11 youths, three of whom are orphans. The bowl-a-thon that raised money sponsored four of the eleven. This inspired others to give scholarships as well. Each student receives $20 a month in needed supplies and food. Every penny goes to the student as the five “missionaries” volunteer their time to administer the program.
4. Start the children’s program Boys and Girls of the Future (Ninos y Ninas del Futuro) The program will provide medical, nutritional, spiritual, and educational support and technical training for 120 children. In the last stage, an orphanage will be built.
   a. Because we were able to speak to a governing board about our strong approval and support for the program,
      i. the land was donated. A church member donated money to grade the land. Only the cost of running the machinery will be paid as volunteers will do the work and the machinery is being loaned free of charge.
      ii. Volunteer students of construction, electricity, and plumbing will provide much of the construction.
      iii. Three of the five “missionaries” will donate six months of administration, secretarial work, and psychological services.
   b. Money held in escrow was donated for building the multi-purpose building to begin serving the children.
5. Start an account to support for $300 each per year 30 impoverished students in school to learn to be physicians’ assistants. They come from 30 of 82 isolated villages who have no access to medical care and will return to their villiage after their training to provide it. They currently get only one small meal a day and sleep on a bare floor together. Donations by sponsors can be sent.
6. Provide a roof for an 81 year old man who had only plastic to cover his shack.
7. Put money in escrow to complete the Mother’s House in Telpaneca that will save the lives of mothers and infants during birth. We were able to obtain two volunteer experts to determine the most efficient ways to use the funds to finish it and make the house operational.
8. Fit 350 pairs of glasses. People cannot afford them. The stories of people thrilled with being able to see clearly are numerous.
9. Provide two small cooking areas outside the two homes we built.
10. Build two homes for two homeless families, one of whom is a family in which the mother and two children who have Downs Syndrome are cared for by the grandmother. They were cover ing themselves in plastic during downpours, trying to protect themselves.

We cannot thank you enough for your continuing generous support that is helping the poor and helping the poor help themselves. Cathy Goodman and the Nicaragua Team

TIME AND TALENT UPDATES

So almost 200 Bethlehem members recently filled out Time and Talent sheets. Thank you! That is the best response we have had in a long time.

But…does anyone read them? Are they followed up on? Absolutely!

Every council member was given a copy of all the sign ups that applied to their ministry. They will be encouraged over the year to follow on all those members who volunteered in this way. And we are already using that information.

INTERN COMMITTEE – We have formed a new intern committee. They will be responsible for helping to supervise and evaluate our new intern, Lili Stahlberg. The committee is: Bev Berry, chairperson, Dick Rausch, Deb Stewart, Luke Kunselman, Sarah Peterson, and John Dickkut. They will meet monthly for the year that Lili us with us. They will be asking for your input on Lili’s ministry here.

HABITAT – We had a recent Habitat work weekend. Thanks to Bob Cotton for organizing this effort over at the new Habitat build site at 17th and County Line Rd. Thanks to all those who showed up to pound nails: Cindy Tayler, Deb Olson, Mary Boyer, Meghan Brunsheen, Ken Wright, Kevin and Mike Kelley, Kelly Thornburg, Bonnie Mason and Marc Burrell.

Lutheran Family Services Refugee Program

With new refugees arriving almost daily we are desperately in need of household items and furniture to provide for these new neighbors. Help with our “Welcome Home” project outlined below; provide just a few items by delivering them to 1600 Downing St., 80218 or call 303-980-5400 for furniture pickup.

Welcome Home Project

• Commit with a group to furnish an apartment
• LFS supplies you with a list of items needed
• Decide on a contact person from your group
• Notify LFS when you have a majority of items
• Bring items to the apartment and prepare it for occupancy when you are given an arrival date for your family

In Our Thoughts....

Hospitalized.....

Claudia Byrne, Bud Tornow, Marc Burrell, Mildred Hart, Joyce Jorgenson

Ill/Recuperating...

Jeremy Goodman, Taylen Zabel, Nancy McLeod, Bud Tornow, Claudia Byrne Marc Burrell, Jack Vogee, Rex and Wilma Carnes, Phyllis Friedrich, Gail Gaffney-Taylor, Lucille Wollman, Joyce Jorgenson

Prayers and sympathy to.....

Patty Fagler on the death of Martha Strasheim of Thornton, mother of sister-in-law, Pat Fagler

Mary Fjeld, Barb Payne, and Paul Fjeld and families on the death of sister-in-law and aunt, Lorraine Strom of Seattle

Jane Housewright on the death of her daughter’s father-in-law, Tom Keane of Arizona