The Bethlehem Star - May

The Bethlehem Star


Volume 6, Issue 5 May 2009


Summer Worship Times


The Councils of Bethlehem and St. Mark’s set summer worship times when they met in April. Beginning June 7, for the months of June, July, and August, the schedule will be as follows:

Worship at Bethlehem: 8:30 a.m.
Worship at St. Mark’s: 9:30 a.m.



Joint Worship

Traditionally (for at least 8 years) we have celebrated our working together with St. Mark’s with a joint worship service at the beginning of the summer. A year ago, we moved the worship service to August so that we could celebrate a farewell with Intern Paul Amlin and his family. This year we will again hold that joint service in August and it will be a welcome for Intern Matt Masco and his family. Watch for details.

Dining Room Renovation

The doors and trim for the basement dining room have been ordered and work has begun on finishing them before they are installed. Thanks to the volunteers who applied primer to the walls.

By way of clarification, at our special meeting we voted to complete the projects in three stages – as funding becomes available whenever that is – regardless of years. When the dining room is finished we will install trim in the dining room annex and then we will install flooring. Special enve-lopes marked “Basement Renovations” will be available in the pew racks and on the ushers’ stands shortly for member contributions.


Meet Intern Matt Masco

Greetings from Wartburg Theological Seminary!

This morning I had a chance to meet Pastor Keith for the first time to begin a conversation about my upcoming internship in 2009-2010. I can’t tell you how excited my family and I are about this opportunity to serve in your midst, and we want to express our deep gratitude for giving us this opportunity!

Pastor Keith asked me if I would write a brief “about me” for this month’s newsletter, so here goes:

I am a Wisconsin native—born in Milwaukee and living most of my life in the town of Oconomowoc, about 30 miles west of Milwaukee. I guess I had a “typical” childhood in many ways—I had loving parents who were always supportive of me, and a wonderful sister and brother with whom I get along great. I was the first person in my family to attend college, and graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa in 1998 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy (I am a classical pianist by training). Following graduation, I moved back to the Milwaukee area, where I owned my own piano teaching studio and concertized on the side. I was also privileged to serve as Music Director and Conductor of a community orchestra in my hometown of Oconomowoc and as Assistant Conductor of the Waukesha Area Youth Orchestra. Needless to say, music played (and continues to play) a big part in my life (no pun intended!). While I was largely absent from church during my college years, I began to serve as a pianist and later as a music director at a number of churches in the Milwaukee area, where I finally began to feel that “call” to pursue ministry. After several years of attempting to resist this call, I finally began my studies at Wartburg Seminary in 2007, and now will have the opportunity to meet all of you nice folks and the opportunity to explore with you how God is calling each one of us in our lives.

I am married to my wonderful wife of 9 years, Meganne, who is a Board Certified Music Therapist with Hospice of Dubuque and a PhD candidate at the University of Iowa, and my equally wonderful son of 9 years, Max who is just getting ready to complete second grade at Bryant Elementary School here in Dubuque. When not up to my eyeballs in school and work (I currently serve First Congregational UCC in Dubuque as their organist), I enjoy playing racquetball, golf, baseball, and football. I dream daily about my cabin in Eagle River, Wisconsin, and wonder how long it will be before I can get up there and do a little musky fishing. And, when the conditions are just right, I participate in my strangest hobby—driving all over, chasing severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. (Pastor Keith adds that he is trained and licensed, so just ‘cuz he does it doesn’t mean we all can do it.)

I look forward to meeting each one of you very soon, and I can’t wait to be able to be in your midst, discerning how God is speaking to each and every one of us.

Christ’s Peace be with you all,

Matt


Council Meets

Bethlehem Congregation Council met for the regular monthly meeting on April 14. In business, they:
• Appointed Deanne Bennett as temporary Financial Secretary for 3 months;
• Elected Tim Thiede and Deanne Bennett as Bethlehem’s voting members to the Sou-theastern Iowa Synod Assembly on June 12 - 13;
• Opened bids for summer lawn mowing of church and parsonage and voted to hire Lynda Humphreys to mow;
• Set summer worship time at 8:30 a.m. each Sunday during June, July and August, pending approval of St. Mark’s Council;
• Heard the following Treasurer’s report:
General Fund Farm Acct
Balance 2/;28/09 $ 159.34 $42,460.49
Income for Feb $8552.87 0.00
Expenses for Feb $7132.13 $ 1240.02
Balance 1/31/08 $1289.08 $41,220.47


May Anniversaries

3 Gerry and Wilber Pithan
3 Gala and John Alden
13 Amber and Bobbi Suthers
26 Lola and Richard DeMoss
27 Kathy and Dennis Hute
28 Lisa and Tom Gruenwald

May Birthdays

6 Scott Doll
7 Don Busch
8 Emily Horst
11 Bryant Barnett
13 Joan Von Sprecken
14 Charlie Horst, TJ Benke
15 Betty Hainstock
16 Dylan Rickels, Katie Snyder
17 Mikayla Dosland
19 Marlene Hicks
20 Marlene Feuss
24 Ron Adrian, Connie Kleppe
25 Pat Hendrickson
26 Pauline Schoop, Nathanial Dosland
28 Cary Gruenwald
29 Elmer Petersen, Taylor Amlin

What is an Intern?

An intern is, first of all, a theological student, training to be a pastor. An intern is not yet a pastor, but will use the year to practice doing pastoral things, as well as begin developing a self-understanding of what it is to be a pastor. At the beginning of the year, he or she, (I will use he since our intern will be male), will do more observing and watching, but as the year progresses, he will do more things on his own, in consultation with me, his supervisor, and with Barb. Together, the three of us will be a pastoral staff. (You may assume that what one of us knows, we all know. The health of the congregations depends on the three of us working closely together and sharing information.)
Because the intern is a student, he is learning. Although our seminary has many bright and able students, they all have some things to learn yet about the practice of pastoring. Some will have many skills to hone, and some fewer. But we are teachers. We provide feedback. As supervisor, I am an important teacher. But the internship committee meets each month with the intern and works closely on helping him improve areas that need improving. The internship committee and I both provide quarterly evaluations. The internship committee will be learning ways to help all of us provide the intern with useful feedback on preaching and other activities. But each of us in the congregation is a teacher. We all can ask ourselves, “What would I want this person to know or do, so that he will be an even better pastor in his first call?”
In the first weeks with us, in consultation with the Internship Committee and me, the intern will develop a learning and service agreement. This will set forth goals for him for the year and help define his job description. It is based primarily on areas he and we see that he needs to develop and improve, but also partly on the needs of the congregation.
(Adapted and reprinted from The Bethlehem Star, August 2007)

American Legion Auxiliary Breakfast

Everyone is invited to the American Legion Auxiliary Annual Continental Breakfast on Thursday, May 7 from 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. at the American Legion Hall in Lost Nation. Bring a friend.

From Associate in Ministry, Barb:

It was fun to watch our granddaughter Karley when she first learned to roll over. She did it splendidly. When put on her back – flip – she was instantly on her tummy. Every time you put her down, it was the same. Back – flip – tummy!

The problem was, once she was on her tummy, she couldn’t go anywhere. She was stuck! Her head was up, her legs would kick, madly, and her arms would flail; but she was going nowhere – like a car, stuck, in a snow bank.

Then she would get mad. Her face turned red; her limbs would rev up even more, and pitiful cries turned to angry shouts. So Mommy would sigh and shake her head and pick Karley up so that she was, once again, freed from her self-imposed predicament; that is, until the next time someone put her on her back.

Like children, we demand our independence from God. “Leave us alone,” we insist! We are intent on showing God that we are in control of our lives. So God steps back, a little, to give us limited freedom – all the while watching to see what happens to us.

The problem is, when left to our own resolve to be human without God’s help, we often find ourselves going no-where. We flail, madly, about; but, we are stuck, not knowing where to go or what to do. Then we get angry. We wonder why God would let us get into such a predicament. “Why did you let this happen,” we shout.

So, God, who is always close by, watching and listening for our cries, sighs, most likely thinking, “I could have told you this would happen,” picks us up and frees us from our self-imposed dilemma; that is, until the next time that we insist that we are just fine on our own thank you, and the pattern repeats itself.

Thank goodness, God always sticks around, just in case.

Iranian Courts Sentence Lutheran College Alumna

An Iranian court sentenced a graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, to eight years in prison at an April 18 hearing in Tehran. Roxana Saberi, 31, who filed reports for National Public Radio and the BBC was convicted of espionage. Iran revoked her journalist credentials in 2006 and considers all subsequent news gathering illegal. Saberi was slated to deliver the commencement speech at her alma mater.

Saberi was born in the United States and grew up in Fargo, with her Iranian father and Japanese mother. She was the 1997 Miss North Dakota while pursuing a degree at Concordia.

Saberi has been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since January. No evidence against her has been made public. After the verdict was announced, Reza Saberi said in an interview with NPR that his daughter was weak, frail, and depressed. Her father is also concerned because Roxana wants to go on a hunger strike. He said that during her imprisonment, Iranian officials coerced his daughter into making false statements in exchange for her freedom. But after realizing she’d been “tricked” she repeatedly told officials the statements were false, her father said.

The Rev. Mark Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop and president of the Lutheran World Federation, wrote to the Ira-nian government asking for Roxana Saberi’s release. In the letter, he noted the “shared Abrahamic heritage” of Christians and Muslims. “Our culture has grown to value journalists as agents of truth and to give them latitude for investigation and truth-telling,” Hanson wrote. “Therefore in addition to our call to advocate for persons in prison, I am called to advocate for the freedom of journalists who are not engaging in espionage but only trying to discover the truth of a given matter. Descendents of Abraham are seekers of the truth.”

Saberi’s father said the case would be appealed.





Children’s Story Tellers for May are: 3 - Becky Ihns-Petersen 10 - Clay Ketchum
17 – Diana Ihns 25 – Darlene Christiansen 31 – Madge White or Tim Thiede



BWELCA Hi-Lites

Quilting

Thanks to all the women who participated, we had another successful year!! 148 large quilts/lap quilts were completed. The Mission Action Committee spent the morning packing the quilts for delivery to the following: Hospice of Clinton Co., Veteran’s Hospital, Iowa City, Catherine McAuley (women’s shelter) in Cedar Rapids, Presbyterian and Catholic churches in Lost Nation, High Point (women’s shelter) in Clinton, Alda Buresh (women’s shelter) in Iowa City and LWR. We gifted lap quilts to Wilber Pithan and Jean Busch. 4 large quilts to our graduating seniors and one to Kari Rigg. A queen sized hand quilted quilt will be sent to EWALU for their quilt auction in September. We saved 12 quilts for our use during the year. 48 school bags were completed and will be filled in the fall. Jill Suthers assembled 57 mid-wife kits from some of the donated items. These kits will be sent to Global Health Ministries in Minneapolis. See you next year!!

Spring Bazaar

What a great day!! Thanks to Ellen Pithan and
Diana Ihns for organizing this event and to all who furnished food/craft items and worked. The bazaar netted $1190 plus matching funds of $600 from Thrivent.

Special Thanks

To Darrel Hicks for picking up our Lands Ends gifts at Dodgeville WI., to Pat Hendrickson and Joan Kleppe for delivering our layettes and quilts to the LWR truck in Cedar Rapids. To Jackie Fischer for coming each Monday during lunch hour and setting out/cleaning up so we could keep quilting. To all who stayed and helped with work day/cleaning following worship. To the Endowment Committee for providing pizza and lunch for all the workers. We appreciate your efforts!!

SE Iowa Women of the ELCA 2009 Gathering

The Gathering will be held on Saturday, June 27 at the Holiday Inn Amana Colonies on I-80 exit 225 from 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Registration fee is $60 which includes the luncheon and all activities of the day. Information and registration forms are posted on the bulletin board in the narthex. The theme this year is “RIVER OF LIFE”. Registration deadline is June 1. Let’s see if we can get a carload to go from here.

Grace Camp’s Women’s Retreat

Grace Camp’s Women’s “Blessings Springing Forth” Retreat and Salad Luncheon at the Andrew Retreat Center in DeWitt is Wednesday, May 6, afternoon retreat is from 12 – 3 p.m., evening retreat is from 6 – 9 p.m. Registration is $10 each. Information on the bulletin board. Register before May 4.

Upcoming Events

Guys and Dolls meet Monday May 4, Rebecca is
Hostess.
BWELCA Bible Study Leaders will meet Monday May 4 at 5:00 p.m.
Next BWELCA board meeting is Tuesday, May 5 at 6:00 p.m.

Esther: Reversal of Fortune
This month at BWELCA April Circle Meetings
Rebecca – Wed., May 13, 1:30 p.m. at Marge
Long’s home with Lorraine Wulf as Leader
Eve – Thurs., May 14, 7:00 p.m. at Madge White’s
home with Joan Clapp as Leader
Bethlehem – Sat. May 9, 9:00 a.m. in Conference
Room with Diana Ihns as Hostess/Leader
All women are invited!

Worship Assistants

Greeters: Dennis Kleppe, Marlene Hicks
Ushers: Les Paarmann, Jill Suthers
Lectors:
3- Elmer Petersen
10- Ellen Pithan
17- Eleanor Sheldon
24- Tim Thiede
31- Madge White

Communion Servers:
3- Marlene Hicks, Connie Kleppe
17- Joan Kleppe, Jone Paarmann
31- Deanne Bennett, Ellen Pithan

Acolytes:
3- Emily Horst
10- Dylan Rickels
17- Jo Thiede
24- Sammie Adler
31- Cassie Suthers

Altar Care: Joan Clapp, Darlene Christiansen
Bread Maker: Bob Hendrickson
Tellers: Ron Christiansen, Brent Ihns
Fellowship Servers:
3- Wilma Adrian, Joan Clapp, Lola Berner
10- Happy Mother’s Day
17- Elenor Bentrott, Kathy Becker, Lola DeMoss
24- Rochelle Busch, Marlene H., Amber Suthers
31- Joyce Feuss, Kathy Duffey, Darla Fields





Bethlehem Lutheran Church
403 Pleasant Street
Lost Nation, Iowa 52254

May 2009
Pastor Keith Larson
Office Phone 678-2301
Home Phone 678-2303
E-mail keith.larson@ecunet.org
or pastor@bethlehem.mylutheran.org

Pastoral Associate Barb Tobiason
Office Phone 826-2761
Home Phone 319-465-3124
AIM@bethlehem.mylutheran.org


Office Secretary Deanne Bennett
Church Phone 678-2301
secretary@bethlehem.mylutheran.org

Parish Nurse Carm Schneider
Office Hours 9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Tues
Phone 678-2302




Sunday Schedule

Worship 9:00 a.m.
Sunday School/ Fellowship 10:00 a.m.


Office Hours

Pastor Keith is in the office most mornings
Monday – Thursday 9:00 a.m. – Noon
and Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

If you need to enter the church and do not have a key, always call ahead to be certain he or someone is here.