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Volume 3 |
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Issue 9 |
September, 2007 |
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Greetings from Pastor John |
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~Colossians 1:28, New Revised Standard Version Greetings in Christ! Where did it go? Summer, that is, which seems to have flown by faster this year more than any other. Much has happened this summer at Sammamish Hills, take a brief walk back with me and then we’ll take a quick look at the fall. Earlier this summer:
TWO Mission teams were welcomed home as Brelin Rismiller brought her merry band of adults and youth back after a week of service, prayer, worship, and play at the Yakama Reservation in Toppenish, and Andy Hermanson and Peter Shen brought their band back from a very successful and life-changing trip to China. More will be heard from both teams in the near future. Looking to the fall:
It is a great privilege to be part of the rich life we have together in Christ. I hope you have experienced a summer of renewal and are now ready to come back fired up for our life together this fall. See you in Church! ---Pr. John prjohn@shlc.org |
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Worship Notes |
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It used to be the “hard sayings” of Jesus were safely tucked away at the end of the Church year - so tucked away that most years, depending on the date of Easter, preachers never had to touch them. Then, all of that was changed and they were moved up. Starting this month, we will be wrestling with the hard sayings of our Lord. Sayings, teachings, parables, etc., about money, what “the end” will look like, how we live justly with our neighbor, who that neighbor is, and so on… In reality, these are the deepest places of faith. Not just how we dress for Easter, but how we live our faith in Christ, each and every minute of each and every day. It will be helpful if you’ll read the lessons before each Sunday. Let the Spirit speak to you in and through them, and you’ll begin to experience the living Word working on you in powerful ways. Hard sayings? Yes. But, if you’re willing, they will change your life. See you in Church! |
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Letter from Pastor Will |
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Can you believe we are just around the corner from another Rally Day? Rally Day is the day we kick off everything at church. Sunday School starts, youth groups and confirmation gear back up, and adult education begins a new fall program. In worship we’ll prepare to use a new liturgy at the 8:30 traditional service and continue to look for worship leaders at the 8:30am, 10am, 11.27am and 7:30pm services. Are you interested in being a part of worship leadership? We need ushers at all services, communion assistants at all services, acolytes at the 8:30am and 10am services, and musicians at the 10am, 11.27am, and 7:30pm services. Hopefully what you see in this paragraph is a place for you. “But Pastor Will, I have never ushered before, I’ve never been a communion assistant, and at 35 I think I’m a little too old to be an acolyte.” Well you’ve got a point on the acolyte duties, but I’ve got the answer for your questions. We are having a worship leader training session on September 8 at 10am. That is a Saturday morning and I promise it will take no longer than an hour. If you’ve ever wanted to come forward when Pr. John or I call for communion assistants from the congregation, this will be your opportunity to get trained. If you’ve ever been greeted warmly by our wonderful ushers and thought you or your family might like to help, then join us on September 8. I am always looking for musicians to lead worship. If you are in middle school or high school we would love to have you in the Youth Band. Director John Junke holds rehearsals on Thursdays from 5-6pm. If you have been blessed with musical gifts, contact me and I would love to chat with you. Rally Day and a new program year are here. Let’s go to church!
Pr. Will
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Special Meeting of the Congregation- September 16th @ 6:15pm |
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A Special Meeting of the Congregation has been called by the Congregational Council for Sunday, September 16th, beginning at 6:15p in the Fellowship Hall. The sole purpose of the meeting is to consider a request from the ELCA’s Division for Outreach to serve as the “Fiscal Agent” for a new Lutheran presence in the communities we serve. The request we’re entertaining is a continuation of the work begun several years ago, when we committed ourselves to be “radically open” to the unchurched in the communities we serve. That commitment was followed up with a resolution in June 2006 which called us to begin exploring an outreach ministry to Chinese speaking immigrants on the Eastside. Through a partnership with Pr. Red Burchfield, Region 1 Director of Outreach and Mission for the ELCA, and Pr. Paul Cheung of Grace Chinese Lutheran Church, the ELCA has now approved full funding for the development of a Chinese language congregation on the Eastside. The request to serve as fiscal agent for this ministry does not bind Sammamish Hills financially to this ministry; it simply gives the ELCA a means for financial accounting of the ministry.
The full
explanation of what it means to be fiscal agent is posted on our
website and is also available at the Information Desk on Sunday
mornings. Please plan on joining a lively conversation as we
prayerfully consider this next step in the formation of a Lutheran
Chinese language congregation on the Eastside. |
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Fall Membership Opportunities at Sammamish Hills |
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Interested in Membership at Sammamish Hills? We
will be receiving New Members on Sunday, December 9th. Commitments
for this New Member Sunday are due in the office no later than
Sunday, October, 14th To help you prepare to become a member of
Sammamish Hills we invite you to attend:
New Member Sponsors:
We will be receiving New Members on Sunday, December 9. For each
group of New Members, we ask current members to act as Sponsors to
help welcome these New Members to the Body of Christ. Please
prayerfully consider being a part of this ministry. |
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Skyline High School Parking Permits & Paint in the Parking Lot |
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Sammamish Hills has provided parking for a limited number of Skyline High School students over the past few years. To facilitate what parking spots are allocated to whom on week days, later this month each parking stall in our lot will be painted with a specific designation and number. Sign up for parking spots for active members of Sammamish Hills is now open. The necessary forms are available in the office and on our website (click here to download forms). General registration for remaining parking spots will begin on Monday, October 1st.
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The Annual Holden Men's Work Retreat- October 5-8, 2007 |
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Most of the participants take the boat in and out, but every year a few hardy souls hike into the Village. This is not a hike for the novice. There is serious elevation gain (+/- 4,000’ and 10 miles a day) and weather can always make the difference between a sweet hike and dangerous footing. But, if you’re game, talk to Pr. John and he’ll share the details of this year’s hike.
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September Ministry of the Month - Lutheran Counseling Network |
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Our September 2007 Ministry of the Month is the Lutheran Counseling Network "LCN". LCN provides licensed professional individual, couple, family, and group therapy services, consultation and educational programs to congregations and community groups in the Greater Puget Sound area. Lutheran Counseling Network is a not-for-profit pastoral counseling agency and social ministry organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Formed in 1981 by a group of 13 counselors, both lay and clergy, LCN’s desire was and continues to be of service to the church by providing counseling and educational services to and within local congregations. The Vision for LCN is: Healthy individuals thriving emotionally, relationally and spiritually. The Mission Statement is: The Lutheran Counseling Network's professional therapists are instruments of God's grace bringing hope and healing to individuals, couples and families in church congregations and in the broader community. Lutheran Counseling Network offices are located in local churches from Bellingham to Tacoma. These generous congregations including Sammamish Hills donate their office space to LCN which allows LCN staff to provide discounted fees to folks who may not otherwise be able to afford counseling. These and other congregations and individuals also make monetary donations to LCN to subsidize fees for lower income folks and the highly trained therapists who see them. It is the commitment of LCN therapists to further its ministry as a social ministry organization of the ELCA and reach out to those in need in our communities. September 2007 Ministry of the Month contributions will be used to fund “scholarships” as supplements to those who cannot afford to pay the subsidized sliding scale fees for counseling service. For more information please contact our LCN Representative:
Paul Anderson –
Marriage & Family Therapist at the Lutheran Counseling Network To make a donation to the “Ministry of the Month”, please place contribution in a pew envelope and check the “Ministry of the Month” checkbox.
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Married? "A Weekend Apart" SHLC 2nd Annual Couples Retreat |
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Fall Membership Classes Scheduled |
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Ezekiel Bible Study on Wednesday Evenings at Sammamish Hills |
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Study the book of Ezekiel on Wednesday nights 7:00pm-8:00pm through Nov 28th in the Youth and Family Bldg (no class on Sept 12th,19th, 26th, Oct 3rd and 10th). Dan Bloomquist, who taught Ezekiel at Trinity Lutheran College, is the teacher. If you have any questions regarding the study, please contact Dan Bloomquist at 425-369-8339. A brief study outline for each week is available at the church information desk in narthex.
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Contact Information Form |
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We are in the process of updating contact information in the congregational database. To help with this project we are asking each family to fill out the enclosed form and return it to the office (you can put it in the offering plate, leave at the information desk or deliver it to the church office). Only names, street addresses and home phone numbers are included in the church directory, unless you direct otherwise. All other information is used internally for church communications. Current Cell phone numbers are especially important if your children are involved in any church activities. Your help is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions please contact Paula Brown (pbrown@shlc.org or 392-7799 ext 23). |
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China Mission Trip Report |
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Craving something beyond Chinese food and recovering from jet lag, Sammamish Hill’s first overseas China mission team returned home in one piece and was thankful to God for an incredible twelve days of ministry.
The team from
Sammamish Hills served two purposes while visiting China. First, we
were representing SHLC and working to support Luzhou Christian
Church. This Church, one of four churches in Luzhou serving its
population of over 4.8 million people, is working hard to impact the
community through several avenues of ministry including a nursery
school, a clinic, meal program, and outreach to the area youth. Our
main concentration while working in the area was with the nursery
school and the outreach to youth. Working with pre-school and
kindergarten age youngsters, we were able to share God’s love
through teaching English, singing songs, and putting on a training
workshop for the school staff in the morning hours. At night we
partnered with a group from Taiwan Lutheran Church to provide a 3
day rock-concert style event in which the Gospel was presented via
drama, testimony, and prayer. Both events were incredibly
successful at reaching over cultural boundaries to share who God is. In addition to representing SHLC abroad, our group also represented the ELCA Division for Global Mission or DGM. Over the past 5 years, the ELCA has worked to support local churches and organizations in their efforts to make China a healthier, safer, and better place to live. Various ELCA donations to schools, hospitals, and retirement homes have played a vital role in establishing a positive view of the church in the eyes of the government. Our role as representatives was to provide a context in which both the government and the church could sit down together and discuss further possibilities for partnership together.
Special thanks go to Peter and Jane Shen whose tireless efforts to translate for, prepare, guide, and correct our team were invaluable, Pr. John and Pr. Will for their continued support of this mission and their willingness to see it through; and everyone who guarded us with prayer and provided the financial means to make this experience a reality.
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Health &
Wellness: "Moving Toward Wellness" |
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Autumn is one of my favorite times of year. Back from the lazy days of summer, schedules begin to fill once again with all the demands of life from jobs, school, and other various activities. As much as we enjoy getting back into more familiar routines, we may find ourselves feeling suddenly overwhelmed with too-busy schedules and struggling to find a balance. Life can indeed feel very rich…but so crowded sometimes that we can lose the sense of where we are going. Our worldly culture is often at odds with faith-centered life. In a society that esteems the “over-achiever” we may, as God’s people, feel the need to relinquish a few accomplishments and experiences in order to rest, to nurture our bodies and spirits, and to keep God at the center of all that we do. Perhaps this is a good time to sort out those activities that bring fulfillment and purpose to your life—and try to eliminate those “busy” tasks and responsibilities that only seem to bring added stress and little personal growth. If life becomes too busy, we are left with little time to contemplate whether or not we are pursuing the life God desires for each of us. Many of us have used the excuse that we simply can’t “find the time” to start an exercise program, or schedule a daily prayer time. Yet, if we desire to live longer, more satisfying lives, we need to become better at “self-care”—making health a top priority, scheduling healthy activities as if they were appointments “that just can’t be missed”. We also may put off having yearly physical exams for fear of what the doctor might tell us. (What we don’t know, we don’t have to deal with—right?) Yet, if we ignore our bodies and do not practice healthy lifestyles it will soon affect our quality of life in our relationships, our jobs, and our spiritual lives as well. ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson, recently stated, “We’ve got to get over the idea that wellness is something that we do on our own…it is important that we work on wellness together, as a church. The idea of wellness, he continued, is indeed grounded in the core of our faith. “Salvation” comes out of the Greek word for wholeness.” Our wholeness, or sense of well-being, is God’s gift to us, brought to us through faith and through our salvation in Christ. Wellness involves the health of the whole person, beyond the mere physical body. As God’s created beings—with a body, mind, and spirit; —we are also called to be good stewards of these gifts, (1Cor. 6:19), to experience all the fullness of life in Christ. When our lives reflect God’s peace in mind and spirit, it is possible to sustain a sense of well-being—even in the presence of life-threatening illness. The role of the church in supporting our faith community toward optimal health and wholeness is the foundation of our Sammamish Hills Health and Wellness program. With God’s help we can learn to make time for healthy priorities, and as a church body we can support one another in moving toward wellness. When desiring to change to a healthier lifestyle, consider what disciplines have worked for you in the past, and those that have not--identifying what might help you change unhealthy habits. When you are ready to take action, it is best to identify one small thing that you are ready to change—starting an exercise program, lowering your cholesterol, maintaining a healthy weight or blood pressure, making time for daily devotions --as a few examples. You might find it helpful to select an “accountability partner” who will support you in prayer, encourage you, and keep you accountable should you relapse. Remember we are only human! None of us continually sustains the healthy lifestyle that we ought. Yet, if we begin to make health a top priority we will undoubtedly live the rewards. Throughout the year we will help you in your journey toward wellness through newsletters, screenings, healing services and forums. Feel free at anytime to communicate your health interests and concerns to the parish nurse or team members so that we can better support the needs of our congregation. Join us as we partner together in creating more satisfying lives of wholeness in Christ! Your partners in Wellness, The SHLC Parish Nurse and Health & Wellness Ministries References: ELCA for Wellness, www.mayoclinicembodyhealth.com, “Messages from Tammy Devine” May-August, 2007 “Wellness path doesn’t have to be lonely….” Interview with Bishop Mark Hanson, ELCA Board of Pensions, www.elcabop.org, June 2007 |
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Youth and Young Adult Ministries Activities |
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Here, in no particular order, are my top 12 favorite things that happened this summer.
Thank you for the privilege of walking alongside your students, and walking with your families this summer as we experienced life-changing events—learning more about who God is, and beginning to grasp the hurt that He can heal in our hearts.
Brelin Rismiller |
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Children's Ministries News |
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Is your family ready for Sunday School*? This fall get ready to discover the adventures of King David, Solomon and Elijah. We will be will learning about Israel’s greatest king, hearing about Solomon’s great wisdom, and experiencing God’s work through Elijah the prophet. In our Sunday School classrooms we encourage children to have a growing relationship with Jesus. This doesn’t just mean hearing and learning about the Bible stories, we experience them. Our teaching methods and classrooms are designed to reach every child where they are developmentally. Students in preschool through 5th grade will experience God’s story in fresh, fun and meaningful ways; understand God’s Word by doing surprising and amazing stuff; and discover the fun adventure of applying God’s truth to everyday life. The material we teach in our classrooms isn’t just for Sunday. Our curriculum is specifically designed to encourage kids and parents to continue learning and applying scripture throughout the week. Because every student, at each grade level, learns the same Bible story, it is easier for you to incorporate family discussion time after Sunday School. Be sure to check out your student’s “take home pages” for great activities that your family can do to continue learning, applying and experiencing each week’s Bible Point. In partnership together, through activities here at Sunday School and those at home, we can build a foundation of faith in our children’s lives *Fall Sunday School classes for preschool to 5th grade students begin on September 16th. We kindly request that all children are registered by September 9th to help us be prepared on the 16th. Registration materials can be located in the narthex, church office, or download them. Important Children’s Ministries Highlights: RALLY DAY— Rally Day is coming on September 16th! It is the official launch day for our fall programming, including Sunday School. Help us make the day extra special as we welcome back teachers and students. We need assistance with food, decorations, activities and publicity. This is a fun way to get involved as you help get kids excited about Sundays. Contact Amanda if you can help (aforbes@shlc.org or 425.392.7799 x.14).
Dinner and a Movie — Friday, September 7th from 5:30—8:00pm
We need you on our team!
Luncheon for families with children under age three.
Children’s Ministries Parent Meeting— September 16th
BIBLE SUNDAY IS COMING!— October 7th
(Grades:1-3)
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Preschool News
By: Muffie Namie, Director of SHL Preschool |
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A few months ago we were saying “so long” to some very special preschool friends who were moving on to their next great adventure in life – to 30 preschoolers who graduated into the big world of primary education as Kindergarteners and to 2 staff/ministry team members who were being lead into a different phase of life to focus more time and attention on their families and the special ministry they have been given there. Those friends will be missed, without a doubt, but we do recognize that there is a season and a time for everything in life. As Ecclesiastes 3:1 states, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” Now that September is here, it’s our time to celebrate a new season at SHLP – one in which we embrace all that is before us and think of the potential and hope that this new school year brings. With a new school year comes new preschool friends and families (35 new preschoolers to be exact)! We are also in the process of hiring one new Music and Movement teacher and we are blessed to have two incredible new Ministry Team members (Amy Hatmaker and Nikki Balt) joining the ranks as they guide and support this important outreach ministry of Sammamish Hills. We have seen God’s hand at work over the years as He has blessed this school and built a great staff that works in unison, as we educate and nurture the precious little lives that come through our doors. We have seen the seeds of faith and confidence being sown in the children and we have witnessed a wonderful dynamic of support and encouragement develop between parents and families. We can’t help but be excited to see what God has in store for us this new year. This is a season of great excitement as we say, “Welcome” to all of our friends and families, both old and new who will share in the blessings God has for us to enjoy, together! We thank you for sharing in our excitement and we encourage you to remember us in your prayers. The support of this faithful congregation plays a key role in the work that is being accomplished in the classrooms and lives of all those who are touched by or serving in this ministry! “Meet and Greet” – September 10th:
Classes begin September 12th If you are interested in finding a preschool for your 3-5 year old this fall, please call Muffie at 392.7799 ext. 29 as we have a few remaining spots available! It’s not too late!
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Church Council Update |
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How to Contact a Council Member: |
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President: |
Tom Ryan: tomgryan@msn.com | phone: 425.837.0670 |
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Treasurer: |
Sandy Dahl: danjdahl@comcast.net | phone 425.392.7207 |
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Secretary: |
Kevin Ostendorf: bailey229@comcast.net | phone: 425.392.3541 |
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Member at Large: |
Shana Tischaefer: shanatisch@hotmail.com | phone: 425.868.5590 |
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Member at Large: |
Kent Selbrede: kent23721@comcast.net | phone: 425.369.2245 |
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Do you have a
question or concern for the Church Council to hear? |
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Click here to view the Church Calendar |
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© 2007 Sammamish Hills Lutheran Church,
Sammamish, WA
If you have a technical problem with this newsletter, please
contact helpdesk@shlc.org
If you
have content related questions regarding this newsletter, please contact Kim
Peng @ worship@shlc.org
If you have
questions related to particular events, dates, times, etc. please contact the
individual responsible
(listed in articles or on web pages - i.e. Youth and Young Adult Ministries is Brelin Rismiller).
Greetings
from a thankful China Mission Team!
