WV - July 25, 2012

I'll let the photos tell a bit of the story ... 

Praying the team out before they hit the road.

Most of the team getting ready to head north. 

Robert Diaz giving the morning devotional Monday. 

symbolically nailing our sins to the cross.

Kids visiting the sites. Standing in the kitchen that was completed by both the weekend team and the week team. It looks GREAT!

Photo in Mr. Raymond's living room. (He's on far left)

It was fun explaining this to the 9 and 7 year olds. And it is still in use!

Cecil. Oh how Miss Gaye loves her Cecil!

Kids working on a project.

All the guys prepping for devo's

Mr. Raymond made a spaghetti linch for the team. YUMMY!

Many games of dodgeball happen here

WV - July 23, 2012

No photos yet, but coming soon! 

We had 51 people leave Thursday to travel to Welch, WV to work with Community Crossing doing home repair. 

There were suitcases, sleeping bags, pillows, coolers, miscellaneous food EVERYWHERE!! Most of this was shoved into all the nooks and cranes of three 12 passenger vans and two mini vans. (There were also a couple of personal cars carrying stuff.) After being on the road for four hours, they arrived at the converted high school. 

Then the work began! Lissa made sure everyone was well fed with lots of help. Gary made sure everyone did their work. Lisa and Kim kept the kids occupied and learning about Jesus. Relationships were kindled or reinforced. 

On Sunday, 39 people returned home from McDowell County with full hearts, three more arrived and now we are 15. 

Throughout the week photos will be posted, stories will be told and in this small way you can see how your prayers and donations are being used to the Glory of our King. 

Belize Update

An update on the Bell Family & a few photos. 

The rods were removed from Mr. Bell's leg and he has a cast that is to be removed in the near future. The folks at Oasis Ministry were able to move him upstairs so he has been able to be with his family in the main living area. 

They no longer have a power line running through their house! Praise God!

The house is a beautiful shade of green. They have also started demo on the old house. 

What a beautiful sight! It looks like they are trying to salvage as much lumber as possible from the old house. 

It is such a blessing to see Mr. Bell sitting up in a chair. He looks much healthier than when we were there.

Please continue to keep the Bell Family and Oasis Ministries in your prayers. 

May Meeting Minutes

Mission Committee Meeting May 28, 2012

Chris Kramer opened the meeting with devotions from a book called, "When Helping Hurts."

The New Testament Bible Sticks-we will continue to accept donations through Sunday June 3rd. The sticks will be sent directly to Chaplains all over the world-they will know where th28 e needs are.

It was reported that Adam Lichtman will be coming home from Afghanistan soon.

The blood drive was held on May 15th. There were 29 donors who came. 28 were able to donate. The goal was 25.

Redeemer Lutheran's last service was on May 27h. Please  pray that everyone is able to find a new church home, and that Pastor Ashley hears God's will for her life.

The West Virginia Mission Trip is set for July 19-27th. This is the biggest year yet as there are 67 people signed up to go. 57 for the weekend; 23 during the week; and 18 for both the weekend and the week.

The mission trip fundraiser is the chicken dinner which will be held this Saturday, June 9h from 6:P00-8:00 p.m. There will also be an auction. Bill Roberts reported that there weren't alot of people signed up yet. Deams Huffman is bringing the cookers for the chickens. They also need an auctioneer. Ann Lashley said that she would be glad to help with the shopping. Kelly Bovi said that she would help organize the auction items.

Chris Kramer showed us what the T-shirt for the mission trip is going to look like. She said they will be offered to anyone in the congregation who might want them. They will be red and black.

Kelly Bovi reported that the month of July is open for the soup kitchen (July 15th). Allen Lindhom said that he would check with his wife, Susan. Kelly said that she and Chris would do it if need be. The council is signed up to cook and serve o n June 17h and August 19th.

Allen reported that there really isn't a project needed by the Homeless Shelter. They are needing donations of meat and shampoo. We have $500 that we can use to fund them. We will look for a group in the church to do the shopping. Whoever does it can just turn in receipts and be reimbursed. There was also discussion about putting up a sign up sheet in the church for people to sign up on to volunteer to shop.

There was no report on Loaves and Fishes.

Vegetable Garden-Bill Roberts reported that there had been an e-mail from Dell Schell regarding the friendship gardens that help with the culinary school. There are 35 friendship gardens listed, but we are not one of them. We will check into seeing whether we can be added to this list. There are also workshops about gardening which are available for people to attend. Tim Hindes has gotten a plot in the garden. There don't seem to be as many people signing up for plots this year-we need people to do watering, picking, and weeding. There are plans to show the video about the garden again. There are problems with the well not working. Ann Lashley said that we need to get this fixed as soon as possible even if it costs money. All of the planting has been done and all of the 2012 supplies have been donated.

The Child Evangelism Fellowship at Waxhaw Elementary has concluded for the year, and will restart again in the fall.

There has been no communication from With Love from Jesus so we decided to scratch this from our list.

Eldercare-still trying to find an outreach in this area to assist with. Karen Thomas is checking into this.

Haiti-Supplies were mailed plus $2,000 for medications. The focus is currently on Ebenezer's Hospital.

Missionaries-Bobby Bender is still is South Sudan and is working with two new bosses. Paul and Grace Closius are going to Michigan for a joint trip of vacation and to raise money. Tilissa Roseman is overseas.

Youth-Chris Kramer reported the youth will be holding a bake sale to raise funds for the Senior Prom which is sold out.

The Guys are helping to replace fencing in Rummi Peter's yard.

HANDS will be holding a bake sale on October 14th.

Belize-Mr. Bell has experienced great progress of late. His leg pins have been removed and he is now in a cast and is able to sit in a wheelchair. He is living in the new house with his family. The cast is to be removed next week. He is determined to be walking soon and to return to work as soon as possible.

Craig Bender had sent a request for someone in Germany who was requesting funds to buy a laptop. After much discussion we decided that the e-mail was a mass e-mail that was sent out to several. We decided that this was something that we didn't feel right about being involved in.

Chris Kramer asked about doing a Compassion Sunday for child sponsorship. This will be done on Sunday, September 9th.

The next missions committee meeting will be held on Monday June 17th at 7:00 p.m.

There being no further business, the meeting was closed with the Lord's Prayer.

Mission Team 2012 T-shirts

 Don't push your way to the front; 

don't sweet-talk your way to the top. 

Put yourself aside, and 

help others get ahead. 

Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage.

 Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

 [Philippians 2:3-4 MSG]

Front Left of Shirt

Back of shirt

**If you are not going to West Virginia but want a t-shirt, 

let us know or sign up on the mission bulletin board in the hallway.

 Cost TBD**

April Meeting Minutes

Mission Minutes

April 23, 2012

Chris opened with a devotion from  "When Helping Hurts" She will lead devotions for the next few months.  This book will be very good in guiding our Mission Team in our work. Some of the questions asked were, "Have you ever helped the poor? Have you ever harmed the poor"  She will mail us some questions to ponder for the next meeting.

Gary then led us in prayer.

Haiti: Mary Louise reported that $2,000 has been sent to Haiti for the hospital.  She has been working with Dr. Clair Chappooiux. For now we would like to focus on helping the hospital. Their goal is to be an inpatient hospital. HANDS has donated $100 for this mission. We will be purchasing vitamins with the monies.  We will purchase vitamins with iron and antiacid medicines.We talked about how we can build a relaitonship with them.  We'd like to send an information gathering group of 4 early next year. It would be good if we could send 2 medical people, 1 technology oriented person and 1 construction person.We will look into who we can send as ambassadors. Each person should have an alternate. This will give us several months to prepare.

Mission Trip: The Barbeque was a success.  We will probably need another fund raiser. Gary would like to do a chicken dinner like we did last year. he will check with Bill and Kathi Roberts to see if they will head it, possibly in May.

There is a possibility of going to the Navajo Nation for our next Year's Mission Trip. Mary Louise said that one of their former churches, Bethlehem, worked with them. Gary will gather more information on this in the coming months.

Bible Stix: Chris is working on this. She has asked Mary L. if she would like to help.   Chris will get something in the bulletin to open it to the congregation to help in purchasing these.

Blood Drive: The blood drive is scheduled for Tuesday, May 15th from 3:30 to 7:30.

Ann will be helping Pat for the first hour. Lynn Lerch will be helping after that.  If anyone else would like to help for awhile, it would be appreciated.

Soup Kitchen:  Kelly said their Sunday small group served this month.  There were more people there than she has seen in the past. There are still 2 months that haven't been signed up for, June and September.

Homeless Shelter:  Alan has been in contact with them and they have a great need right now for meat and shampoo.  We can help supply that, we will work on finding a group, possibly a Sunday School class, to do the shopping and deliver it.

Elderly Outreach:  Karen reported that She and Brigitte have 3 or 4 people who have been assigned to people that need help. Right now we have limited it to church members but we may open it to people in the community. Karen is also working on the Caregivers support group.

Garden: So far we have had only 1 request for a plot from Tim Hindes. Eric made up and passed out some very nice brochures advrertising it. We may have some more response by May 1st.

Missionaries:  If we are following Bobby's blog we see there is more unrest in the Sudan and his work load is very heavy. They are bombing oil fields and live in very poor conditions. We continure to pray for him.

TiLissa will be leaving May 20th for her Mission Trip to Africa.

HANDS: Pat reported that HANDS voted to send $100 each to the Haiti project, Bobby's Ministry in Sudan and to TiLissa for her Aftrica trip.

Compassion International Sunday: Chris would like to sponsor a Sunday to promote this ministry, possibly she can pick a Sunday in September.

Mission Team Open House:  Ashley Burris, a member of the congregation would like to designate a time where she could sell Mary Kay Products and she would donate 25% of her profit to Missions. We discussed that if we do this for her we must open it to others in the congregation. Not sure what we will call it yet but we are discussing having a time where people in the congregation can set up a station where they will sell their products, such as jewelry, Mary Kay, Tastefully Simple, Pampered Chef etc. They in turn will donate 25% of profit to Missions.

Star Fish Project:  Mary Louise talked a little about this Ministry that is trying to abolish the sex slave trade.  She and Lynn Lerch are making jewelry to sell. Also is there a possibility of one of the Sunday School classes having a bake sale and giving the proceeds to this Ministry?  We will discuss it more at our upcoming meetings.

Our next meeting is scheduled for May 21st, however we want to change it as the Prayer conference will be going on at that time.  We decided to try to meet on May 28th, which is Memorial Day. We will propose this date to Ann.

Thanks Gary for conducting the meeting.

We closed with the "Lord's Prayer".

Respectfully submitted,

Pat Schell

The garden is in and needs everyone's help.

This is an excellent way to serve both Spirit of Joy and the community. 

The produce from the garden is donated to the Community Culinary School of Charlotte.

Click the words below to sign up for a week to help 
water, weed and pick

March Meeting Minutes

Mission Notes

March, 2012

Members Present: Kelly Bovi, Grace and Paul Closius, Jody Hartis, Eric Kindberg, Chris Kramer, Ann Lashley, Alan Lindholm, Bill Roberts, Gary Roseman, Pat Schell and Pastor Ed

Chris opened with prayer and a devotion on wisdom. She referred to many sayings we hear everyday, many which are actually Scriptural. 

NEW BUSINESS

SOJ fed 4 homeless families who were temporarily housed at Siler Presbyterian.

We cooked and served dinner for them 4 nights.

VDC and TEC info will be moved from Missions committee to Christian Ed.

Bulletin Board:  Grace had some pics from the Child Evangelical Fellowship in Waxhaw, she will post these on the board.  Pat will post the minutes. Any other things you feel we need to post, please do.

Newletter:  We must get anything we want to have in the Newsletter to Ann by the deadline. Tracy does allow us an extra day because our meeting is usually on the day of the deadline.

NEW BUSINESS

Haiti: Mary Louise will be collecting medical supplies on a regular basis. Some people have given checks to be used for medical supplies.

Mission Trip and Fundraisers:  The Barbecue will be this Friday and Saturday.  Gary put out a plea for desserts, individually wrapped. Bring them Thrusday Eve or Friday Morning. Also anyone who wants to come and help, even for a short time is welcome.

Bible Stix: We will do this project in May and have a blessing of them on Memorial Day Sunday.  Chris will publicize it after Easter.

Blood Drive:  Drive is set for Tuesday,May 15th from 3-7.  Pat asked for volunteers.  Ann will help from 3 to 4. If anyone else would like to work for an hour or more please let Pat know.

Soup Kitchen:  The student leaders served in March. July and August still are not filled.

Homeless Shelter:  Alan will call to see what their needs might be.

Loaves and Fishes:  They have their big collection on Mothers' Day, the boyscouts promote it. The biggest day to stock shelves is that Tuesday after Mothers' Day, which is the Blood Drive. Pat will check again to see if there is another time we could help. They said they would get back with us on other needs they might have for the year.

Community Culinary School: They could use some help painting, Ann will get more information on this.

Elderty Outreach:  Brigitte has a woman who would be a good candidate for the program. She contacted as many elderly people as possible in our congregation.  There were many women and a few men that applied.  This ministry could be more than visiting, for example working in their yards and helping them get out to get groceries etc.  We discussed if this ministry belongs under Missions as we are usually an outreach team.  Do we want to take it outside of the congregation?

Garden: The leaves have been spread and the garden is ready to be tilled. Connie and Brigitte will lay out the garden. We discussed if we want to open it to the community, allowing anyone who to have a 10x10 plot for their own use. Eric volunteered  to publicize this to the community. We will set a deadline on offering plots to the community for first come first serve by May 1st. Kelly offered fertilizer from her horse stall.  Jody will join Kelly and Bill in championing this ministry.

Child Evangelism Fellowship: Grace passed around pictures taken there. She said it is going very well.  They have plenty of volunteers and about 40 children.

Missionaries:  Tilissa is getting ready for her Mission trip to Africa, which will be 6-8 weeks in the Senegal.Tilissa is raising money for her trip and will give the congregation an opportunity to partner with her. Gary requested that we put the money we allocated to her ministry at Campus Crusade towards that trip as she will be leaving that ministry after the trip. Chris will be posting info from Bobby and TiLissa as she receives it.  We would like to start putting an article either in the newsletter or the blog about the missionaries who are serving from SOJ. Paul encouraged anyone who hasn't been to attend one of the JAARS open houses as they are very worthwhile.  He also said we can listen to the Gullah recording at scriptureearth.com.  He thanked us for our continued support.

Youth: They did a road clean-up.

HANDS: They will soon be handing out the Easter baskets  to be filled and returned on Palm Sunday.  The baskets will go to Union County Social Services.

Blog:  Chris will be setting up a schedule for the Blog.  A different Mission for each week of the month, for example, lst Tues of Mo. - Local Missions, 2nd week - Regional, 3rd week-International and last week focusing on one of our SOJ missionaries.

Next Meeting will be Tuesday, April 23rd at 7:00 in H-1.

Pat will have devotions,

We closed with the "Lord's Prayer".

GUYS in WV

The GUYS at Community Crossing in WV.

Following are photos from the projects they worked on while there January 26-29. Please pray for the families whose homes were improved (or at least started).