The

Carrier

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH—DECEMBER 2016

Pastor’s Corner…. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Now that our Presidential election is past, and we begin to move forward in this new reality, it might be worthwhile to give heed to the advice given by John Wesley, the architect of the Methodist movement, to his congregants in 1774: I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And, 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side. In light of some of the events since, it seems hard to believe that our current election, just past, could surpass the rancor and division caused by the campaign of 2012. And there have been similar times following other elections in the past. But it is settled opinion that the 2016 campaign has transgressed political norms in a way that no previous election has. Wesley’s counsel, therefore, is perhaps more vital now than it has ever been. As you have heard, I have had no intent of telling you who to cast votes for. That is your own business. I have only encouraged you to study the issues and the candidates, to honor that sacred space of the voting booth, and conscientiously to step into that space to do your duty as an American citizen, to bring your whole self to the process of discerning who will receive your vote. As the people of God in our Christ, Jesus, we must be careful that the exercise of the vote and the tone of our political action are not regarded as

something separate from the exercise of our faith. When we woke up on November 9, we had a clear sense of who has been chosen to lead us, and there is a sizable minority of people who are disappointed by and angered at the results of the election. Our witness in these days following this election are most important. I am reminded of Jesus’ disciples. Gathered from diverse backgrounds in first-century Palestine, the composition of the Twelve was rife with reasons for conflict. A collaborationist tax collector (Matthew/ Levi) served alongside a member of a violent revolutionary party (Simon the Zealot). That same tax collector had likely exacted great harm on the fishermen who sought to bring their catches to market (Peter, Andrew, James, and John). Jesus even called Judas (“the one who would betray him”) to fellowship and service alongside the others. In response to the call of the Christ, these Twelve (and I should add, many others, including a large number of women) dropped everything and devoted themselves to following Jesus, choosing intentionally to live in a different way than the surrounding society. We, too, are called to walk together in the midst of division, and to bear witness to the power of God to help us live differently, with love for one another and the people around us. It is my prayer that we will join in pondering how we can move forward together, not only as a community of faith, but as a nation. As we give thanks to God for our many blessings as a nation, and make ready to celebrate the joy of family and friends, as we come together to remember and honor the birth of our Lord Jesus, at this very special holiday time of the year, let us not forget the reason that he comes among us. He comes to bring light out of darkness, life out of death, harmony out of disharmony, love out of anger, unity out of division, togetherness out of separation, understanding out of misunderstanding. “…as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’ With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds,,…to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations” (Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address). The baby Jesus, Immanuel (“God with us”), is born for this purpose, to bring us together in peace and concord. As we celebrate that divine event, let us not forget its ultimate end, the cross on the hill of Calvary, where sin and separation meet their match, and the devil and all evil are finally and fully conquered, once and for all. Praise God for such surpassing love and grace toward us! Let’s pray: Lord God, you call your people to honor those in authority. Help us to elect trustworthy leaders, and to work with them in fellowship and grace. Guide us as we participate in making wise decisions for our common life, and serve our neighbors in local communities. Bless the leaders of our land, that we may be at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth; through Jesus the Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. (adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship). Yours, in our Christ, Pastor Bartos

Remember Christmas Red reminds me of the blood He spilt to wash away and cleanse all of our guilt. White is for His actions, most pure. Through sinless perfection, He did endure. Green is for the life eternal we can obtain through our Lord supernal. The star shines like the one so bright that twinkled above that first Christmas night. The fir tree is for many things: the tree of Jesus - - the father of kings, and for the needles pointing to the Lord - - that little babe we all adored. The wreath shows one eternal round; the begin’ of the Lord cannot be found. The lights remind us that this babe is the light of the world, and born to save. The candy cane is for the crook; not one sheep or lamb the shepherd forsook. The Christmas bells we love to ring proclaim joy! The birth of a newborn king. These symbols remind us that we, more like the three wise men all now should be. Earnestly seeking to find the new babe who humbly in a manger laid. By Valerie Plowman

Church News We are now well into the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. We began on October 31, the date when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the university cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, which served as a public announcement board for the university community. In our year-long celebration here at Peace Lutheran Church, we will be gaining insight into the character and the person of Dr. Martin Luther, as well as some of his theology and writing, principally from Roland H. Bainton’s book, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. As we have been doing in the past, some of our Lutheran beliefs and teachings used will be from other writings contained in the Book of Concord, the collection of our Lutheran confessions of faith and Biblical understanding. Whereas in the past we have used a quotation as a part of our worship on the fourth Sunday of the month, during the coming year we will use these learning segments on both the second and the fourth Sunday of the month. This will allow us the greater opportunity to learn and grow in our knowledge and understanding of Martin Luther and his times, as well as his thinking and his teaching. We trust that you will appreciate these additional insights into our Reformation history and heritage - what it is that makes us Lutheran. Let us know your response. During this Season of Advent, we again will be using stanzas from the hymn “Light One Candle to Watch for Messiah” as a part of our worship liturgy, as we light the four candles on our Advent wreath and wait with patience for the coming celebration of the birth of Messiah on December 25. Our Christmas Eve worship will be similar to what we have done in the past, and we will offer the Sacrament of Holy Communion on that night. The service of worship will begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday evening. On Sunday morning, Christmas Day, December 25, we will offer only one worship hour at 10:00 a.m. This will be a simplified service of lessons and carols, built around our normal Sunday worship liturgy. We hope that you will make every effort to join us, and perhaps bring family and friends along with you, as well. Advent decorations are already going up in the sanctuary, and further decorating is scheduled for Saturday, December 3, at 9:30 a.m. We hope that you will be able to come and join us. Ushers and greeters, acolytes and lectors are always needed for our services of worship, especially for these very special ones. Please step up and volunteer your services to help out, and be ready to say “YES!!” if asked to do so. Thank you for all you do to make ours a warm and welcoming congregation, always ready to “Reach Out to Serve Others in Christian Love.” ORPHANAGE FOR CHILDREN IN MEXICO - Two local Latino missionary/evangelist pastors, who are prayer partners with Pastor Bartos, work in Christian ministry in various locations in Mexico. One of them is building an orphanage in Matamoros to house 55 orphan children, who are temporarily living with foster families. Our prayer group has adopted them for Christmas and is in the process of collecting clothing and other items. If you would like to be a part of this work, please speak to the pastor for further details. We will be thankful to have you on board! UPCOMING FUND RAISING EVENT - This winter, Peace Lutheran Church will be sponsoring a fund-raising event to benefit one of our newest congregations in the Central States Synod. We have made the decision not to host the Music Talent Night events, and to offer this opportunity instead. We will have one event rather than three, and have invited the artists and entertainers from the international Country Gospel Music Association to provide the programming for the evening. The event will be held on Monday, February 20, 2017. Pastor Susan Candea, Associate to Bishop Roger Gustafson, will be with us at worship on Sunday, February 5, to share information about the congregation and its people. At the Synod Assembly in June at Wichita, I (Pastor Bartos) was privileged to sit with and meet Pastor Odir Flores, a Hispanic pastor and new to our territory. He serves one of the largest and fastest-growing congregations in the entire ELCA, Iglesia Luterana Sagrado Corazon de Jesus. Sacred Heart Lutheran Church is located in southwest Kansas, a rapidlygrowing Hispanic region of the country. As I visited with Pastor Flores at the Assembly, I was impressed by his enthusiasm and vigor for his work. I made plans to visit him, and the congregation, as part of my vacation trip to the mountains in August. On that visit, I met several members of the congregation in Garden City, Kansas, and got a tour of their facility and grounds. They are in the process of remodeling their building and updating the outside areas with new play equipment, flowers and shrubbery, etc. Both the pastor and the people strike me as being faithful Christian believers, many of them converts from the Roman Catholic tradition, with trust in the Lord to provide for them the things that they need to carry out the ministry they are called to do. Certainly, this is an admirable goal for any of us. We want to be in the Lord’s will and doing the Lord’s work at every step along our life’s way. Our fund-raising event this winter will assist them in this work, and we give thanks for your interest and your support of this very worthwhile effort. DATE: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017, 7:00-9:00 p.m. EVENT: ENTERTAINMENT BY CGMA (COUNTRY GOSPEL MUSIC ASSOCIATION) BENEFITS: IGLESIA LUTERANA SAGRADO CORAZON DE JESUS (HISPANIC ELCA CONGREGATION IN GARDEN CITY KS)

Church Announcements WELCA CHRISTMAS BASKETS We will be providing gifts for the children of our six sponsored families. Food has been donated except for dessert (cookies or snack cakes). Our baskets will be delivered on December 11th. There is a sign up sheet on the bulletin board for gifts. We want to be sure each child has a gift appropriate for their age. Also the hat & mitten tree will be in the Narthex. We try to include a hat and gloves for each family member. Family members are as follows: Family #1: 2 parents & 4 children. (Boy-11, Boy-7, Boy-8 & Girl-Newborn)

Family #2: 2 grandparents, 1 adult child & 2 children (Boy-12 & Girl-8) Family #3: 2 parents & 3 children (Girl-7, Boy-7, & Girl-2 months) Family #4: 1 parent & 2 children (Girl-5 & Girl-4) Family #5: 2 parents & 4 children (Girl-5, Boy-6, Girl-4, & Girl-18) Family #6: 2 parents & 1 child (Boy-6) Please take a gift tag & sign up. These families will be so blessed by our gifts of food and presents for their children. The women of WELCA thank you for sharing your Christmas Spirit in this way.

Sharon Bain

Operation Christmas Child Here's a big THANK YOU to the congregation for a job WELL DONE!! We had so many wonderful donations this year and we beat last year's count on the shoeboxes. 2013...45 - 2014...110? - 2015... 216 - 2016... 229!! That is 229 more Christians in the world and 229 very happy children! Each box actually represents 10 saved lives. So that would be 2,290 saved. Thank you, Jesus! Last Friday we took the boxes to New Beginnings Fellowship in Hollister, which is the collection center for OCC. We always gather in prayer over the boxes when we get there, so it's a nice send off to experience and share. This year we were blessed to have the Regional Director come by and he prayed with us. He was so happy to see a large group there and we were happy to see him. What a blessing for all! Peace Lutheran made the newspaper again this year. The article is on the large board in the Fellowship Hall. I will also be making a poster with photos of our Packing Day, which will be in the Fellowship Hall. PS .. I think this is our 13th year of Operation Christmas Child participation. -

Gayle Goldapp

Council Meeting Tidbits The Council minutes from October were approved as written. Pastor Report – At the end of the Lutheran Belief Classes, Jack Mefford & Family & Jake Bettlach will be accepted into membership during services with refreshments following. We will have a baptism on November 26 th for Evelyn Rose Bettlach. StefAnie will take care of the medallion & Gayle will make the flag. StefAnie let the council know that we will need to look into getting new medallions made as this is the last one and Thrivent does not provide them anymore. Music & Worship – This committee set a date for December 3rd @ 9:30 AM to start decorating for the Christmas season. For the Christmas Eve Service, David Straw will be the ‘go to’ man, he will be able to assist those who need help. StefAnie will take care of the Ushers/Greeters & Lectors for this service and Jim will have his friend Doyle to play the trumpet. We also discussed the concerns of those who asked about the Candle Light Service; we have not changed that part of the service, we will be using the candles, however instead of standing in a circle, we will stand where we are seated. We will have a fundraiser with the CGMA on February 20th, the funds will be allotted to the Spanish speaking church in Kansas. Pastor will have a representative from the Synod to come and speak prior to the fundraiser to inform members of the special needs for the church in Kansas. PROPERTY – The hole in the bathroom wall has been fixed and Jeff will paint it this month. We had White River Environmentalist come out and fix our septic problem. We had both pumps and grinders out as well as the station above it that alerts us when there is a problem. MEMORIALS – Thank you notes have been mailed for memorials that have been received in Barney Millard’s name. Kay wants to use Don’s memorial fund to purchase a new podium for lectors. Jim found one at global industrial for $400. It comes with built in speakers and microphones; he will do more research and let the council know what he finds. Once podium is purchased, StefAnie will have a plaque made for it in Don’s name. OLD/NEW BUSINESS - Council spoke about a purification system for our existing system, we still have funds left over from our new a/c units. Council felt this was a good idea as we have those who have problems with allergies, smells, etc. Jeff will call Knight Heating & Cooling to get a price. Claire Eckert will fill in for Jim while he is away during the winter months. Our January Congregational Meeting was discussed. We will install our newest members. StefAnie reminded everyone that they will need to get reports into her at the first of the year. Our meeting will be on January 22 nd between services @ 9:30 AM. Council discussed a day & time that we will be able to meet in 2017; we decided we will move our meetings to the third Monday @ 6:00 PM. Respectfully submitted by – StefAnie

Perkins

Letter from the Prez... We have had a lot of activity at PLC over the last month. Shoe boxes everywhere and busy people preparing for our various activities during the month. Thanks to all who have spent time at PLC during what we do. As I write this it is November 17. Thanksgiving is next week, so I am already getting hungry for some great food. I hope everyone has a great day with their family and friends. Gayle and I will be eating over at the Wyndham resort, because I will be playing for their Thanksgiving meal. Soon our Christmas tree and church decorations will be going up. Our altar Christmas scene will start to appear, and Christmas eve will be here soon. I hope many of you will be able to attend our Christmas eve service, BRING LOTS OF GUESTS! Good music and a candlelight service. Please keep our members who are ill in your prayers, as well our staff as we continue to keep things moving along. Please include my dad, Edwin Goldapp, in your prayers. He will be receiving special care at home as his health is deteriorating. I have been monitoring wikileaks to see if I am on the naughty list! - James

Goldapp

Let’s Celebrate!! Happy Anniversary!!

Happy Birthday!!! December 1st – Bob Falk December 7th – JAK Krieser December 8th – Dawn Wakefield December 9th – Greg Shawver December 16th – Diane Egerstrom December 30th – Anna Shawver December 31st – Howard Anderson December 31st – Marilyn Raether

December 12th – Ted & Carla Byrum 46 years of joy!

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. - Luke 2:10-11 -

Volunteer Information GREETERS

8:30 AM

10:30 AM

Dec. 4, 2016

Bev Myhre

NIck & Fayla Nickens

Dec. 11, 2016

Linda Krieser

Dean & Margaret S

December 4, 2016

Dec. 18, 2016

Micki Babcock

Greg Shawver

8:30 - Stan Bladt & Bob Hehnke

LECTORS

8:30 AM

10:30 AM

10:30 - Greg & Anna Shawver

Dec. 4, 2016

Ed Krieser

Dean Spaulding

December 18, 2016

Dec. 11, 2016

Gayle Goldapp

Claire Eckert

8:30 - Suzie Smith & Sandy Coorts

Dec. 18, 2016

Stan Bladt

Jim Goldapp

10:30 - Anna Shawver & Dean Spaulding

Christmas Eve Service at 7 PM Ushers/Greeters: Dave & Micki Babcock, Ed & Linda Krieser, & Greg Shawer. Lectors: David Straw & Gayle Goldapp Communion: Greg & Anna Shawver

Christmas Day Service at 10 AM Ushers/Greeters: Shirley Hehnke & Greg Shawver Lectors: Bob Hehnke

Communion Assistants

Altar Care Sharon Bain

Fellowship Sunday Dave & Micki

Thank you to all of our faithful volunteers. You make the church

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Proverbs 22:17

“A merry heart does good like medicine”

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Peace Lutheran Church, ELCA Reach Out to Serve Others in Christian Love 350 State Dr. P. O. Box 827 Hollister, MO 65673

Office - 417-334-1499 Cell - 417-231-7693 E-mail [email protected] Website: www.peacelutheranchurchhollister.com Pastor: Emil Bartos, Jr. Editor & Publisher: StefAnie Perkins

Those for whom we pray: Barney Millard, Carla Coorts, Ascher Sinkkonen, Joshua Shawver, Imo Girard, Shirley Falk, Deb Drexler, Debbie Brown, Robert French, Caleb Jentsch, Justin Howerton, Kay Johnston, Craig Karpiak, Sue Dent, Robert Ludewig, Jacob Goldapp, Tracy Van Sloun, Peyton Crump, Eric Coronado, Kathy Snabley, Debbie Greenway, Melissa Kerins, Robin Shawver, Kristina & Porter Smith, the Banahan family, & the Garcia Family.

Prayers for Service People: Chris Bartos, Matt Skidmore, Travis England & Christian Shawver.