God's Work, Our Hands

Thank You!

• To the following people who served lunch for Habitat for Humanity workers on January 23: Jan Geiser, Wanda Schnabel, Jean Messinger, and Irene Marconnet
• To the following people who participated in assembling care packages and sending them to 24 college students on February 6: Sandy Burrell, Teresa Harris, Eva Summers, and Diane Frank assembled the packages; Colleen Beyer and Kate Adams baked cookies; the many other people who donated goodies; Jane Lahman called people to get current addresses.
• To the following people who served lunch at the OUR Center on February 14: Jenny Kelley, Mark Abromski, Kate Adams and her friend Angela Komloski, Pr Sarah Anderson, Colleen Beyer, Bev Coody, Katie Coody, Troy Coody, TK Coody, Justin Dirkes, Paul Dorn, Mike Kelley, Amy Loberg, Sarah Loberg, Caleb Payne, Gene Tesdahl, Howie Wayne, Shirley Wayne, Dean Wilder, Patricia Wilder, Alpha Wuertz, Don Wuertz.

Opportunities to Serve

The chairpersons for the following service projects have served faithfully for several years and have decided to step down in 2011. We feel strongly that these service projects provide a valuable benefit to our local community and would like them to continue. We need someone like you to fill these spots! If you are interested, please contact Colleen Beyer at 303-651-2816 or Debby Olson at 303-702-9928. (For additional information, see also this month’s Pastor Peterson’s Pericopes.)

• OUR Center lunches: 4 times per year.
• Habitat for Humanity lunches: 4 times per year.
• 9 Health Fair
• ShareFest

Happenings

Blood Drive: March 8, 11:30 AM–5:30 PM, at the Moose Lodge, 2210 Pratt Street, Longmont.
Empty Bowl Lunch (OUR Center fund-raiser): March 20, 11:00 AM–1:30 PM. See details on the narthex bulletin board.

LOCAL/NATIONAL/WORLD OUTREACH OF BETHLEHEM

Our mission statement is “Gathered around the word and sacrament, we live the good news of Christ’s love, throughout our community and the world”. We feel this is accomplished by serving others in need in our local community, our nation, and the world through the giving of our time, goods, and financial resources. In 2009, our congregational members supported a large number and wide variety of philanthropic projects. The list of projects is below. We want to recognize the passion of all members who participated in and/or supported these projects. We are truly living our mission!

Local

• Tutoring at Spangler
• Building Habitat Homes
• Serving Habitat Lunches
• Serving OUR Center Lunches
• 9 Health Fair
• Sky Ranch
• House for All Sinners & Saints
• Quilts for graduates and OUR Center
• ShareFest
• Bread for the World Offering of Letters
• Donations of goods/money to local organizations

National

• Crop Walk
• New Orleans Mission Trip

International

• Nicaragua Mission Trip
• Donations of goods/money to Somoto, Nicaragua
• Madagascar Sister Synod
• Fair Trade Fair
• Smile Train
• Quilts for Lutheran World Relief

Bethlehem/LOC New Orleans Trip, May 2-8

A group of about 18 people will be rebuilding homes in St. Bernard Parish (the east side of New Orleans) where there are still 1,000 homes in need of refurbishing. Despite being under eight to twelve feet of water for three weeks during the Katrina catastrophe, they can be rehabbed for about $12,000 each with volunteer labor and donations of materials. Our group will likely get split into work units of four or five, so in one week’s time we will be able to work on four homes and help four families “come home.” Do you feel the call to help? Please contact Bob Cotton (303-651-6563) as soon as possible. We may only have a couple of slots still open.

Fund-raiser for New Orleans Trip

We will again be holding the joyful St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and Merriment on Saturday, March 13 starting at 6:30 PM in the Fellowship Hall.

Tickets will be on sale after both services on March 7. Buy your tickets early; it was a sell out last year! If you are not able to come, donations are welcome to help defray the cost of room and board in New Orleans for the group.

Thrivent/Habitat Home 2010

Because of the dedication of Lutherans helping to build and finance the 2009 Habitat home, Thrivent will again provide the major funding for a home in 2010. This one will be built in Mill Village (off CO 119, just east of town). The three Bethlehem build days are the following Saturdays: June 5, July 10, August 7. Please reserve these dates on your calendar now.

Give the Gift of Life – Donate Blood

Supplies for Haiti Orphanage

Sandy Burrell is collecting supplies for the Cloud of Fire orphanage in Haiti, founded by Linda Kohn and her husband Gesten. This orphanage is unique in that it also does outreach to the community. The AAA adoption agency in Colorado is the local connection, and the supplies it collects are delivered to Haiti on a regular basis. This is an excellent opportunity to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

The following is a list of items needed for the babies and children. Clothes may be new or gently used. Items will be collected until the end of March; look for the basket in the narthex marked Haiti. Thank you for caring.

FOR BABIES

• Disposable diapers, size 1-4
• Cloth diapers
• Diaper pins
• Plastic pants, all sizes
• Baby bottles w/silicon nipples
• Formula – dry, soy or regular
• Powdered milk
• Latex gloves, medical
• Band-Aids, all sizes
• Antifungal medicines and ointments
• Antibacterial soap and sanitizers
• Onesies – short sleeves or undershirts
• Lightweight baby clothes & pajamas
• Lightweight baby blankets
• Crib sheets

FOR CHILDREN

• Lightweight children’s clothing
• Lightweight pajamas, all sizes
• Hair ties, combs, picks

GENERAL

• Bath towels & wash cloths
• Powdered cleaning supplies
• Scrubbies for cleaning dishes
• Rice, dry
• Beans, dry
• Spaghetti, dry
• Peanut butter

“Helping Haiti” Response Exceeds $3 Million

(News Release from Thrivent) In less than a month, Thrivent Financial and our members have contributed $3 million for earthquake response efforts in Haiti.

Thousands of members contributed through our “Helping Haiti” effort, which provided a $1 Thrivent Financial contribution for every $2 members gave to any of four Lutheran relief agencies. Thrivent pledged to add up to $1 million to the donations our members made; we have reached that goal and the combined $3 million is Helping Haiti now.

Lutheran World Relief and the three Lutheran church body relief organizations that have received donations through the “Helping Haiti” effort have provided food, shelter and water to meet immediate needs. They are also committed to continuing their support as Haiti begins to rebuild.

“The generosity of our members continues to amaze and inspire me,” said Tim Schwan, Church and Community Engagement. “Their outpouring of support was immediate and will be a tremendous blessing to the Haitian people who will be recovering from this disaster for a long time to come.”

Lutheran Family Services

Care Management Solutions, a LFS program for older adults, is in need of financial contributions to help us meet the needs of older adults. The recent economy has hit the vulnerable senior population particularly hard—we have seen a dramatic increase in older adults seeking assistance for shelter, food, housing and healthcare. To address the growing needs of our clients, LFS has set up the Senior Relief Fund that will be used to pay for necessities such as glasses, hearing aids, emergency medications, etc. The needs are many and quickly multiplying. If you can help with this project or would like more information, please call Carol Buchanan at 303-217-5865.