Love in Action

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

1300 Belt Line Road Collinsville Illinois 62234

618-344-3151 (Church) 618-344-3153 (School) 618-344-3378 (Fax)
Pastors M. Walther & P. Hemenway  Vol. 33  No. 3   March  2010

By the time you read this Ash Wednesday will have come and gone and Lent will be in full swing. I would like to encourage each of you reading this to take an active role in this year’s Lenten celebration as it is truly one of the most spiritually edifying parts of the Church Year. So, what is so significant about Lent? "Early in the Church's history, the major events in Christ's life were observed with special observances, such as His birth, baptism, death, resurrection and ascension. As these observances developed, a period of time was set aside prior to the major events of Jesus' birth and resurrection as a time of preparation." This is something that we as a congregation can take part in that connects us with the worship practiced in the early Church and has continued on throughout the 2,000 year history of the Christian Church. When we celebrate and recognize Lent, we are taking part in a rite that has gone on since at least the Second Century with many historians believing the practice began earlier.

"During Lent, the Church's worship assumes a more penitential character. The color for the season is purple, a color often associated with penitence. The "Hymn of Praise" is omitted from the liturgy. The word "Alleluia" is usually omitted as well. By not using the alleluia--a joyful expression meaning "Praise the Lord"--until Easter, the Lenten season is clearly set apart as a distinct time from the rest of the year. Additionally, it forms a powerful contrast with the festive celebration of Jesus' resurrection when our alleluias ring loud and clear." This is a time when we, as the Church, focus in on and recognize the importance of the suffering and death of Jesus. This isn’t some pious form of "playing church" but rather a way that we can remember and give thanks for the great sacrifice made by our Lord and Savior for our sins.

"Finally, the penitential character of Lent is not its sole purpose. In the ancient Church, the weeks leading up to Easter were a time of intensive preparation of the candidates who were to be baptized at the Easter vigil on Holy Saturday. This time in the Church's calendar was seen as an especially appropriate time for Baptism because of the relationship between Christ's death and resurrection and our own in Holy Baptism (see Romans 6:1-11). This focus would suggest that the season of Lent serves not only as a time to meditate on the suffering that Christ endured on our behalf but also as an opportunity to reflect upon our own Baptism and what it means to live as a child of God." Think about what this means! Just as Christ died and rose from the dead, we will too! So while we reflect on and remember the great sacrifice and suffering made by Jesus on our behalf, because of Jesus’ suffering and death the Lenten story has a very happy ending; the Easter Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which, thanks to the gift of faith given to us in our Baptism will be our story as well! (The text in quotations was taken from the LCMS website.)  Pastor Hemenway

One purpose of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church is to nurture those God has called by the Gospel to faith in Jesus. Another purpose is to spread the word of God in order that others God is calling would come into His kingdom. Join us as we learn good ways to share the Gospel with our Family, with People Not Like You, Through Technology, and to People Around the World. This Bible study will be taught by Pastor Walther and Matt Victor and is sponsored by the Board of Christian Outreach.

Jaime Brinkmann, our Youth Director, recently announced that God will bless her and her husband Thomas with their first child this summer. Her desire is to cut back to a part time youth director position. The Board of Elders has appointed a call committee to search for a new graduate that could be called to serve on a full time basis. This should still fit within our budget and allow Jaime to continue providing youth leadership while spending time at home. Please watch for meeting announcements in the bulletin.

Need your help to support Women's Day of Renewal Weekend. Please volunteer your time to support this wonderful event. We need help on Friday the 12th from 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and on Saturday the 13th from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. or 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please contact Lonnie Koeltzow at 667-7424 or E-mail at lkoeltzow@charter.net 

Does someone in your home have trouble hearing people on the telephone?   Would you benefit from a new telephone that provides better sound?  The State of Illinois will provide a free amplified telephone to everyone with moderate to severe hearing loss when using a standard phone.  The only requirements are to be an Illinois resident and have a Doctor or Audiologist sign the application.  Applications are available through the church office.  Upon receipt of the completed applications Lynn Cook, Parish Nurse, will coordinate the date to test and receive the free telephone.  If you are interested, please leave your name and phone number with Jeanette, church secretary, 618 344 3151.  

National Lutheran Schools’ week is March 6-12, 2010. This year’s theme is "Securing Each Child’s Future-For a Life of Service". Each day there will be an opportunity for students to show their school spirit and dress for the theme of the day. 1 Corinthians 12:5, "There are different kinds of service but the same LORD."

Sunday, March 7^th: The Faculty will be singing in the church services.

Monday, March 8^th is "Monday Fun Day." Students should wear clothes that clash and do not go with each other. K-4 Doughnuts with Dad from 7:45-8:15 in the cafeteria. (Suggested donation of $1.00 per family.)

Tuesday, March 9^th "School Spirit" day. Students should show their school spirit by dressing in school colors or CHARGER wear from head to toeJ. 5-8 Doughnuts with Dad from 7:45-8:15 in the cafeteria. (Suggested donation of $1.00 per family.)

Wednesday, March 10^th "Double Identity" day. Grandparents and Special Friends’ Day for the 4’s preschool. Students should come to school dressed as a fictional or non-fictional person/character. Students will enjoy an assembly by Rev. David Horn, a Christian Singer. K-4 Muffins with Mom from 7:45-8:15 in the cafeteria. (Suggested donation of $1.00 per family.)

Thursday, March 11^th "Black Tie Affair". Students should dress their best for school. (Wear dressy appropriate clothes for school). Grandparents and Special Friends’ Day for the 3’s preschool. Talent Show at 7 p.m. 5-8 Muffins with Mom from 7:45-8:15 in the cafeteria. (Suggested donation of $1.00 per family.)

Friday, March 12^th "Team Dress" day. Support your favorite sports team by coming to school wearing sports apparel. (jerseys, hats, and jeans) Grandparents and Special Friends’ Day for grades K-8.

Please consider helping the school with this year’s service project: The Shoeman Project. Put your old shoes to good use. Clean out your closets and bring your old shoes to church. Just tie them together or put a rubber band around them and drop them off in the connecting hallway display. One pair of shoes equals a lifetime of water for one person. Please pray for God’s continued blessing on our school ministry during this special week of celebration, and always.

Grief Share: 3/1 and 3/8 @ 5 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall

Braille Workers: 3/ 4 at Zion Bethalto. Meet in the church parking lot @ 8:30 a.m.

Blood Pressure Screening: 3/7 in the connecting hallway between services

Congregational Life Meeting: 3/8 @ 7 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall

Lenten Soup suppers: 3/3 Wednesday Women, 3/10 LWML, 3/17 Congregational Life, 3/24 ?

If you are not a member of any of these groups, but would like to contribute food or help, please contact Kathy at 345-5086. Each of these groups uses the free will offerings for worthwhile projects at church and abroad.

Many groups use the kitchen, so it is very important to be as sanitary as possible. Washing hands often, wearing plastic gloves, sanitizing with bleach solutions, heating food to the correct temperature, and throwing away used condiments, etc. are some of the guidelines. The complete list is posted in the kitchen.

Pictorial Directory: The directory is at the printers and as soon as we get the copy to proof, we will do so. Hopefully it will be coming out in March.

Spring Adopt-a-Bag : Continues through 3/24 If you’d like to help shelve food, call 345-5086.

The following paragraph was taken from "Engaging the Aging" winter issue.  Up to 60% of older adults experience a trip or fall every year.  The cost of this statistic is high - falls account for 6% of Medicare costs, and yet, they are largely predicable and preventable through exercise and choices in home decorating.  Call the parish nurse.  Lynn will come visit you in your home, do an assessment and make recommendations that can make you and your living area safer.  Just call Jeanette at the church 344-3151 or e-mail Lynn at lcookparishnurse@charter.net

The Board of Congregational Life will be making food baskets available for those desiring it, on Saturday morning, March 27.  If you are interested in receiving a basket, please contact the church office, 344-3151, by March 22, and leave your name, phone number and number of family members.  Pick-ups will be in the lower level of the church between 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. that day.  If you are unable to pick up the food, delivery is possible.

All ladies of the church (and your friends)!! The month of March is chocked full of activities, so get out your calendars and mark these down.

First of all, our next LWML meeting on Thursday, March 4^th, will feature Reverend Todd Wilken, host of ISSUES, ETC.. as our speaker. We’ll begin at 6:45 PM in the Fellowship Hall. There will be a special ingathering of shoes to help support Thrivent Financial’s 2010 Heartland Kick-off event. The Shoeman Project, created and run by Reverend Georg Hutchings (the "Shoeman"), has as its mission to bring clean water to Kenya, one pair of shoes at a time. To fund his clean water initiative, Hutchings collects used shoes, sells them to a local recycler, and uses the proceeds to buy rigs and drill water wells in Kenya. According to his website, these shoes would be going to Haiti. So if you have some shoes at home that are in good shape, rubber band or tie each pair together, and bring them to the March meeting.

Also in March, the following events will take place that will need your support:

**March 10 – Lenten Soup Supper (sign up to bring food or to work)

**March 12/13 – Women’s Day of Renewal

**March 20 – Spring Retreat at St. Peters in Prairietown

**March 26 – Confirmand Reception

As a Mission Outreach Project, LWML has also been asked to bring food items for dinner to be served to the Teen MOPS (Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers). The date for this event is March 23; sign-up sheets will be available at the meeting.

In April, our meeting will "Test your Bible knowledge" with a trivia/game night. In addition, our Annual Spring Luncheon and Card Party is planned for April 29^th. So look up your best salad recipes and help make this church and community event a big success!

For more information on any of the events listed in this article, please call Donna Kober, President, at 344-3342.

Our theme for March is Serving with a WILLING HEART!—""Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (Col. 3:23-24)

On March 16 we will meet at 11:30 a. m. on the church parking lot and go to Outlaw Blues for lunch, Please call Mary Preuss (288-9525) by March 14 so we can make a reservation for you. Everyone is welcome to join in the fellowship as we support each other in our faith.

A Lutheran Retreat for Older Adults "Growing in Christ XII" will be Wed. & Thurs. April 21 – 22, 2010, at Pere Marquette State Park, Grafton, IL. You are invited to join others, 50 years & older, at this Retreat for growth opportunities in faith, fellowship, & fun! Information is posted in the Narthex. Registration is due by April 14. Reduced room rates until Mar. 21. Forms are available at the Southern Illinois District website: sidlcms.org (copies available in the church office.)

The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League of Good Shepherd cordially invites you to join their Annual Salad Luncheon & Card Party on Thursday, April 29, at 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. There is a donation of $8 in advance & $9 at the door. Bring your own cards or dominoes. Reservations are due by April 19. You may send your advanced reservation to Gloria Drique at 206 N. Wilson Heights Rd., Collinsville, IL 62234. Make checks out to Good Shepherd Lutheran LWML If you have any questions, please call Gloria at 345-9548 or Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Office at 344-3151.

Contemporary Christian Music Ministry presents its 19^th Annual Production of "The Promise" at Zion Lutheran Church, 1301 N. State St., in Litchfield, IL. Performances for this musical drama based on the life of Jesus will be March 12, 13, 19, & 20 at 7:00 p.m. & March 14 & 21 at 2:00 p.m. Friday, March 12 is designated as Youth Group Pizza Night. Admission is free, however, tickets are required. To obtain tickets, visit our website at www.thepromiselitchfield.com or call 217-324-6133. Seating is open on a first come first served basis, & doors open 45 minutes before the performance.

Planet Zoom is a zip, zap, zoomin’ good time for kids of all ages. Kids will meet Scout, a bee in the Planet Zoom hive, and four other bee friends who will guide them through the week. Scout and his friends will guide children through five amaz-z-zing Bible stories that will teach them to be bold bee-lievers of Jesus. So prepare yourself for a swarmin’ good time the week of June 21-25.

We need you! Through the dedication of our members and friends who volunteer at VBS, we minister to 250 children each year with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you can help some days, just one day, every day, or in advance, we have many levels of involvement to suit your schedule and interests. Volunteer sign up sheets will be in the narthex soon. Call Carol Walther at 344-3151 x 302 for more information.

Christian Fiction Book Club will read "Widows and Orphans" by Susan Meissner. As usual we will meet at St. Louis Bread Co. in Collinsville on the 3^rd Monday (March 15) at 7 p.m. Come early if you want to join some of the regulars for dinner.

"A New Song" Bible Study will not meet in March. We will resume for 6 consecutive weeks beginning April 17 with the book "A New Song—All of Your Wonderful Deeds". This Bible Study Devotional book is based on Psalms of Praise. Several copies of the book are available in the church office for $12.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church will host an Easter Egg Hunt on April 3. Donations of small individually wrapped candies to place in the eggs can be left in a box in the connecting hallway or dropped off in the church office. Please call the church office if you are available to help.

Received Through Transfer: Jenee Meier from Holy Cross, Collinsville

Marriages: Andrew Richard Henderson and Holly Elizabeth Jones

Funeral: Deloris June Provaznik

Souls: 1,627                                    Comm.: 1,322

Board of Elders - Paul Lauber & Pastors

** The Men's Ministry has offered to be prayer partners/mentors to the boys in this year's confirmation class. The men will pray for them and offer to be mentors for them during this important year in their lives.

** We noted the Southern Illinois District of the LCMS budget this year is $1.12 million. Good Shepherd is giving $57,600 to SID. The following percentages are allocated: 36.5% District Missions and Prison Ministry; 22.5% LCMS; 16% President's Office; 18% General Office. Our District and Synod Offices are organized to manage the work that cannot be done very effectively by individual congregations. This is mainly mission work and church worker training. Pastor Walther was elected to be the pastoral delegate to the Synodical Convention this summer. He will also attend a preparatory meeting in February. The big issue before the convention this year is a proposal to make sweeping structural changes to the Synod. On one side there are people who say the present structure is inefficient. Others are concerned that the proposed changes centralize power in the office of the president.

** A Youth Director Call Committee has been appointed (see article in this issue).

Board of Christian Outreach - Bruce Cross

** We were very pleased with 210 people in attendance at the Creation/Evolution Presentation by Dr. Werner. We hope that this will equip and encourage our members to speak confidently about the miracle and meaning of creation: If God made us, then we matter, and we have responsibilities to God and to one another.

** A subcommittee is working on a major overhaul of our website. We hope to have the new website up and running by May. The internet is quickly becoming a major tool for Christian ministry and outreach.

** We are working on our Greeter's Program. Anyone who is interested in being a greeter should contact Bruce. We also want to encourage all members to take a few minutes to look for someone they don't know and introduce themselves. Paul Lauber suggested that a good way to meet people is to say, "I'm so and so. I haven't met you yet... What's your history here at Good Shepherd?"

Metro East Lutheran High School - Tony Fuhrmann

** The school's income for the fiscal year is slightly below the budgeted amount. A new process is being put in to place to collect tuition that are in arrears. Next year's tuition will be $5,950 (association tuition) $6,950 (non association tuition)

** $1.1 million is available at the present time for the new building program. The goal is to raise a total of $2 million to build a mutli-purpose facility that will include a cafeteria, second gym, and stage for productions along with updating the front look of the building.

** A group has been organized to begin the process to select a new principal for the 2011 School Year.

Board of Christian Dayschool - Eric Robinson & Principal Mayhew

** We will need a new eighth grade teacher to take the place of Sarah Schultz, who will be going on vicarage with her husband next year.

** Singing for the Savior Choir will be singing at the International Center of the LCMS during Lutheran Schools Week.

** Science Fair was a success. We may have as many as 45 entries to the regional science fair.

** We are working on improvements to our Daycare. We currently have a vacancy in the director's position there and are working on defining the vision / direction of our daycare program.  We would like to move forward with the master plan committee in looking at the building of a new daycare building as the current building is becoming very difficult to maintain.

Board of Congregational Life - Kathy Bohnet

** Work is being completed on the new picture directory.

** We are preparing written guidelines for our kitchen. Various organizations use the kitchen, and meals prepared for the congregation. One important part of the policy is that all meat served at the meal must be prepared at the kitchen.

** Other ministry endeavors include our blood drive, Adopt-a-Bag, Anniversary Dinner, Time and Talent Sheets, and Food Baskets (Food Pantry)

** The GriefShare program has been very successful in helping people who have lost a loved one as they look to God for support.

Board of Stewardship - Doug Ruckman

** Two new scholarships have been granted.

Board of Church Property - Bob Jones

** Improvements are being made at the daycare building.

** We met with a company to provide a sound system for the hearing impaired. However the company experienced the same interference that we have with the current system. We are waiting on another system to test.

** We will be repairing the light fixtures on the parking lot. All five will be replaced.

Youth Ministry - Jaime Brinkmann

** The Mystery Dinner was a great success to raise money for the National Youth Gathering.

** Senior High and College Ski Trip to Wisconsin was safe and enjoyable. These trips provide a lot of opportunities to have good heart-to-heart talks about our Christian life and faith.

** The Junior High Group went to Concordia Seminary. The group enjoyed learning about the many facets of the seminary. Lyle Buettner showed them some of the rare books housed at the library.

** Super Bowl - Senior High Sunday School talked about the Tebow ad.

** Girls Night In - Topic was "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places"

** Trying to set up a "Guys Night Out."

** Thirty Hour Famine is coming up in March. The group fasts for 30 hours. Donations are given to HumanaTree in order to furnish a kitchen in a home. (See Youth article)

** Trying to get small groups together for youth.

Parish Administrator - Marty Hoffman

** Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has agreed to give $5,500 if we raise $11,000. More information coming.

Board of Finance - Tim Evers

** After seven months we are on target with our income and expenses. All boards need to start thinking about their new budgets.

Church Council - Jeff Baker, President; Mary Jane Wade, Secretary

** Discussed a proposal to invest the CD funds earmarked for the new daycare building to pay down the current loan on the school. We will probably only get 3% on the renewals while we pay 5.7% on our current building loan. The fund amounts will still be earmarked for the new daycare building that we hope to build.

** The Master Plan Committee continues to work on ideas for the new daycare building. At our last meeting we met with Hurford architects to discuss ways to get more useable space on our Belt Line property by making use of retaining walls. This would allow us to move the daycare building to the Belt Line campus.

** We need to think about having "vice-chairmen" for our boards. This would help us to make sure that we have people who can handle the challenges of leadership.

The Famine Unleashed, March 5-6

We are participating in the World Vision 30 hour famine again as a youth group and our goal is to raise awareness, empathy, and $365 in funds to feed one child for a year. We don’t eat for 30 hours and learn some important facts and information about world hunger and how we can help. This year we will stop eating Friday after 8am and have a late lunch Saturday at 2pm. During our fast, we can drink fluids just no eating. Take the chance during lunch at school to share about what you are doing. Then we will meet together at 5pm Friday night at church. Bring a sleeping bag and pillow, a favorite juice if you’d like and any games. We will play games and do activities that help us to connect to other cultures who often struggle with hunger. On Saturday we have the unique opportunity to serve a family in St. Louis. Humanitri, an organization that works to end homelessness, has 21 new apartments they’ve been given for families currently in shelters. They need help furnishing these homes. We will be "adopting" the kitchen in one of those apartments and we need to collect things on the list below along with any extra things we want to add. We will bring these items to the apartment and furnish it ourselves that Saturday morning. Looking forward to serving, learning and growing with you all! Pick up a fundraiser envelope and sign up on the youth board!

Anyone who has any of these items or wants to look for these used or new items please drop them off in our Adopt a Kitchen box in the connecting hallway, or call Jaime Brinkmann. Items not on the list are welcome also. Just let us know what you have!

Adopt-a-Kitchen Items Needed:

• Table and chairs
• Set of pots and pans
• Set of frying pans
• Dishes – 8 piece set (unmatched is fine also!)
• Glasses – 8 piece set (Just have 3? That’s fine!)
• Silverware – 8 piece set (It is not necessary for any of these to be sets)
• Kitchen utensils
• Dish towels and wash clothes
• Pot holders
• Baking dishes
• Paper towels and holder
• Dish soap
• Staples: sugar, flour, coffee, tea, salt, pepper, spices,
• One week’s worth of groceries (Please bring non-perishables)

Refuge this month

On March 7^th we’ll be taking some time to Praise God in music and then writing some encouragement letters to our college students. On March 21^st, we’ll play some rounds of Human Foosball in the gym and talk about our limitations vs. God’s unlimited glory. Bring a friend and come dressed to play!

Easter cookie gifts

The Sr. High Youth attending the National Youth Gathering will be taking orders throughout the month and then bake and creatively package a plate of cookies for the person or family of your choice for Easter weekend. Look for cookie order forms in the Narthex, school office, or church office. Please turn them in by March 29^th. You will be able to pick up your cookies on Saturday before or after the church service or Sunday between the 6:30 and 8:00 service or between 8:00 and 10:30 service.

We want your stuff!

While you’re waiting for spring to arrive take the time to sort through those unwanted items in your closet, basement, or storage area. The Good Shepherd Youth will be happy to take this stuff off your hands for their Youth Gathering Garage Sale to be held Saturday, June 5th. Keep watching for more details and drop off instructions.

Jr. High Human Foosball

This event was initially planned for March 19^th. However it has changed to Sunday, March 21 at noon. A hot dog lunch will be provided along with chips and drinks. Meet for lunch in the church fellowship hall and then we’ll go play in the gym. We’ll play human foosball on one end of the gym and basketball and dodge ball on the other. Please plan to pick up your students by 3:30 Sunday.

Summer Servant Events Jr. High and Sr. High

We will be planning our summer servant events this month so please look in the April Newsletter and the bulletin for upcoming summer plans! A couple possibilities are a return to work at Camp Cilca to help with Joyful Hearts Camp (handicampers) or to attend the Sheep of Summer event by Humanitri in St. Louis which will connect us to the homeless. Each are the week of June 6-11.

Weekends have become traumatic events here in Pretoria. The last weekend in January, Joe, Anita, and 3-year old Robbie Burnham arrived at the seminary where Joe, a pastor from Denver, will be a guest lecturer for two months. Before coming to SA, they had spent a month in Togo, Kenya and Ethiopia. Soon after their arrival Joe became very ill. Some symptoms were malaria-like, but tests showed no malaria, just a bad virus. On that Sunday morning our house didn’t have water. Lee discovered that the valve (which is on the street outside our gate) had been turned off, so that was an easy fix. But then the sudden water pressure blew the head off of our shower. Fortunately we had other shower choices on campus. That was also a weekend with no internet because at the end of January we had used our contracted amount.

On Friday night the first weekend in February someone lifted our gate off of its rail and tried to steal our car parked next to the house. The thief tore the plastic fitting from steering wheel, but then gave up and the car worked fine Saturday morning. Gerhard, the rector’s brother, welded the gate on Saturday so it couldn’t leave the rail. But then Saturday night while we were sleeping, the gate was opened by brute strength and our laptop and cell phone were removed from our locked house with its gated windows and doors. (The thieves probably used a wire to "fish" them through a slot in the window gate.) Even worse, the Burnhams lost two computers when the thieves came through their one ungated window. Looks like someone had "cased the area" for laptops, because the Burnhams had camera, money and other valuables next to the computer that weren’t taken. The local police find small losses like this not worth their time to investigate.

We had used our contracted internet time for February by the evening of the 4^th; bought more time on the 6^th, but then a thunder and hail storm knocked out the main campus modem for the second time since we’ve been here so no internet again today, the 8^th. Thank goodness for Salome, the Rector’s assistant, who will eventually find time to buy yet another new modem today. We are so spoiled, there was a time when a letter had to suffice for communication home!

Kianga, the seminary’s volunteer from Germany arrived last weekend. She is a delightful young gal who is volunteering for a year in Southern Africa between graduating from high school and beginning college. She’s a hard worker who wants to improve her English while she is here. Obviously, Kianga is not a German name. We wondered why. Her great grandparents were missionaries in Tanzania before WWII. Her grandmother was born here and named Kianga (sun-light). When her great grandparents returned to Hitler’s Germany all children had to have German names, so grandmother Kianga was never known by her given name. After hearing that story we think it is a very special name. She’s living in the unattached room with bath that Lee and students worked hard to clean and paint as one of our first projects this year.

We are beginning the second week of classes with 15 students (4 of them new) and another one, from Zambia, arriving today. (Twelve more students say they are coming!) Before most of the students arrived, Lee and Moses, a student who is also an electrician, repaired or replaced broken toilets, drain lines, faucets, cabinets, locks, fluorescent light fixtures, hot water heaters, etc. It always feels good to get a project done but then there are those where compromises are required, like when a faucet washer requiring replacement cannot be fixed without removing the ceramic tiles from the wall covering the fitting.

One Saturday in January friends from church, Mpho and Trevor, took us to the Apartheid Museum in southern Johannesburg. It is a large, somber cement and brick structure that tells with videos, original black and white photos, and printed material the disgrace, frustration, and sadness of that time in SA history. There is a large section devoted to Nelson (the English name given to him by his first grade teacher) Mandela. It seems that God used his 27 years in prison to shape and mellow him so that he was the one person able to hold SA together after apartheid and avoid a major civil war like those that have ravished and destroyed the infrastructure of so many African countries.

After the museum we drove through Soweto (Southwestern Township), the township (for blacks only) where Mpho lived as a child. We expected the bleak surroundings we pictured from the 70’s of shanties, broken people, and tattered children, but now Soweto is colorful and relatively clean with neat gardens surrounding 3-room, 4-room and finally, larger homes. Some children who began life in Soweto, like Mpho’s family, are well-educated and successful. Her father, a former school principal now working for the Education Department, says education is the answer for the future of SA. He told us that the US has given SA billions to help educate the children of the families who were "left behind" during apartheid.

Yesterday Pat spoke to Rosemary after church. She works for the SA government in a department that oversees other departments. Rosemary is involved in planning an "Anti-corruption Forum" with leaders from government, business and non-profits. The non-profits are the only group able to control corruption in their organizations. She told Pat corruption has to be stopped; it is destroying her country.

One last heart-warming story: Matthew from Liberia was Pat’s library helper last year. When he came back this year he brought us "rice bread" that his mother had made for us. We were very touched by her thoughtfulness. Rice bread is made with young rice that has been beaten, crushed peanuts and sweetener. It is very crunchy and nutty and Pat’s been eating it on yogurt. Liberians eat it with their fingers as a snack.

Keep us in your prayers (after reading this, you know why we really need them!)

God bless you. Pat and Lee Hoffmeier

Students who currently are attending Good Shepherd will be receiving a form. Forms will be gathered until the end of February. The Board will consider all forms delivered during February, including new enrollments, before considering forms delivered March 1^st or after. This means it is important that your child’s form is received during February. The pre-registration fee for Kdg-8^th grade is $220.00. Also, the pre-registration fee is non refundable. See attached sheet.

Metro-East Lutheran High School Spring Craft Fair at the High School, Sat. March 13 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. & Sun. March 14 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The address is 6305 Center Grove Rd., Edwardsville.