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Things First December 2018

The Newsletter of

First Evangelical Lutheran Church

561 Chestnut Street,

Taylors Falls, MN 55084-1110

651-465-5265 www.tflutheran.com

What if?

What if we turned something off? Our phone, our TV, the car radio, the computer? What if we turned them off for 15 minutes every day or night during Advent, and walked around, thinking about preparing our hearts for Jesus?

What if we watched the news, and took deep breaths, and prayed while we learned about what was happening in our world? What if we thought about how much we love our children, or grandchildren, or parents or friends, and then tried to help someone else in the world know that someone loves them that much, too? What if we took 5 minutes before we drop off to sleep to thank God for all the beauty & kindness & generosity & abundance we have in our lives? I wonder, would that change us? How might it change us?

What if we spent Advent thinking about what we're looking for next? When Jesus comes, will we notice?

With you, preparing with hope for the arrival of the One who loves us,

Pr. Mary Kaye

2

QUILTERS

SARAHCIRCLE

COUNCILMEETING OFFICE HOURS@FELC

New Members Welcome! SUNDAYWORSHIP

FAMILY PORTRAIT TIME

With LIFETOUCH

We need you to help us make this a

complete Family Album!

This will be a great tool to help us all

connect names with faces as our

church continues to change and grow!

Dates Tuesday, December 18

2pm to 8:50pm

Wednesday, December 19 2pm to 8:50pm

FREE….. 8x10 Family Photo AND a Free Church Directory!

in addition, when you bring in 1 non-perishable food item to your photography

appointment time, you receive $5.00 in THANK YOU coupons from LifeTouch!

To sign up, please visit the church website:

www.tflutheran.org or Call the church office at 651-465-5265 15

Adult CHOIRSCHEDULE

MONTHLYGIVING REPORT

DECEMBERBIRTHDAYS

James Goranson 12/01 Mary Anne Mattson 12/03 Caren Carlson 12/04 Makayla Langer 12/05 Dalton Langer 12/05 Justin Jorgensen 12/06 Gayle Langer 12/11 Isaac Moberg 12/12 Todd Hall 12/13 Colton Dexter 12/14 Emily Posey 12/17 Jerry Rhoads 12/19 Geraldine Swenson 12/19 Rachael Lamb 12/20 Carol Nelson 12/21 Susan Berthiaume 12/22 Olivia Smith 12/23 Deanna Peterson 12/24 Melissa Johnson 12/27 Luke Valez 12/29 Suntina Hackmann 12/31

Please contact the church office if there are any errors or omissions. Thank you.

14

First Lutheran

Youth

C O N N E C T

I N V I T E

E Q U I P

FLY Schedule

3

The youth group

was hard at work

putting beautiful

Christmas labels on

the Maple Syrup

bottles! If you are

interested in

purchasing syrup for holiday gifts or

for your family, please see Michelle or

Don! It’s always available at the

church for purchase as well!

4

An animal can make a world of difference for a family in need. Animals provide food

to eat, fertilizer to grow crops and offspring to sell on the market. With one gift, you

can help a family escape the cycle of hunger and poverty for good. There are many

other gifts available to purchase: Water filters, solar-powered lantern, communion

supplies, farming field school, school uniforms, and so many more!

Our Youth Group along with the Sunday School Class and the Confirmation Class will

be saving their money, sharing with family about this great organization, and together

will be blessing families and communities in need this Christmas season.

If you are interested in donating or would like to know more information, please

contact:

Pastor Mary Kaye 612-532-7083

Michelle Lynch, Youth Director 715-220-2782

Angie Linngren, Ministry Coordinator/Sunday School Teacher 763-222-3033

Sunday Confirmation Classes

December 2nd, 16th & 23rd

Bring your Bibles and meet in the library at 10:15am!

(2019 confirmation schedule will be out soon. Call

church office to make sure you're on the list of those in

the class!) Group

Life

Life Group for HS and College Age young

adults will run Sundays

Dec. 2nd, 9th, and 16th

10:15—11:15am

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We can get anything we want, from anywhere in the world, whenever we want it. That’s how it is and that’s how we want it to be. Still, our lives aren’t any different than other generations before us. Our time is. We want spiritual direction, but it has to be real for us and available when we need it. We want a new format for getting Christian perspectives. NOOMA is the new format. It’s short films with communicators that

really speak to us. Compact, portable, and concise. Each NOOMA touches on issues that we care about, that we want to talk about, and it comes in a way that fits our world. It’s a format that’s there for us when we need it, as we need it, how we need it. We have plenty of DVD’s to check out! Tomato, Breathe, Kickball and Lump are just a few!

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Come join us! We will plan to

meet in the library, unless we get

too big for the room!

6:30-8pm on select Wednesdays:

December 5 & 12, then break

until after New Year’s. Bring food

if you need some or want to

share; wonderings, too!!

We’re going to dig into the

Gospel of John! Please read the

first two chapters for 11/7. New

joiners welcome

at any time!

(If we want to

know more about

God, we need to

know more of

God's word.)

Book study at the Lodge! Participants are reviewing

Be the Surprise: Experiments in Spontaneous Faith by

Terry Esau. If you’re interested in

participating, please contact PMK or

call the church office so we can make

sure you know about schedule

changes and get you a book!

Meeting time at the Lodge will be

10:30-11:30am on Wednesdays.

December Date: 5th - Will resume

January 9th

Friends & neighbors are welcome!

Attention Thrivent Partners

and Thrivent Members!

Please remember to direct

your Choice Dollars by Dec.

1st to the recipient of your

choice, (including FELC).

Thank you all and God Bless!

5

We will be decorating

the church on

Saturday, December 1st

9:00am—12:00pm

18th Annual Christmas Bazaar Raffle & Bake Sale

Supports Church Ministries!

Chisago Lake Lutheran Church - Center City

Sat., December 1st 9 am to 3 pm

Cinnamon Rolls & Coffee in the morning and Sloppy Joe Lunch at 11am.

Bethlehem Bakery Bake Sale

Antique Items for Sale

Unique Gifts by 30 Crafters

Raffle Items: Hand-made Quilt, Two—$100 Gasoline Gift Cards, Two—

Minnesota Wild Hockey Tickets

Raffle tickets sold now in the church between Sunday services and on

Saturday, December 1st 9am—3pm

Sankta Lucia

6

River Valley Christian Women’s Connection invites women of all ages to

“Wrapped in Love”

11:30 Luncheon

Monday, December 10

Chisago Lake Lutheran Church

1 Summit Ave., Center City, MN 55012

We meet at a different site each month

Special Feature: Holiday Bow Making and

Outdoor Winter Decorative Pots

Special Music & Speaker: Radio personality Joyce Harley speaking

on “The Gift of Love”

Reservations by noon, December 4 .

Call /text Diane, 651-808-8579

Treat someone for the holidays.

$12 -pay at the door

11

We will be setting up our annual Giving Tree that supports families

from the Taylors Falls community in need. Each year, our generous

congregation purchases gifts cards for families who struggle at

Christmas. These families are blessed with gifts cards towards

gas, food and presents. If you’d like to donate toward this

wonderful cause, you can put your donation in the offering plate

noting “Giving Tree” on Sundays at worship or send your donation

to the church:

First Evangelical Lutheran Church

Attn: Giving Tree

561 Chestnut Street

Taylors Falls, MN 55084

Thank you for opening your heart this

upcoming Christmas season and blessings

others!

A holiday classic for all ages,

Miracle on 34th Street

asks us all, "Do you believe in

Santa Claus?" It's the trial of the

century when Kris Kringle takes

on the skeptics in this time-

honored, holiday show - one that is

sure to have you believing in

miracles.

Nov. 24th—Dec. 23rd

Check out

http://www.festivaltheatre.org/

for show times/dates!

Chisago Lakes Area Lutheran Churches Present

PRAY AND PLAY DAY

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019

9a.m.—3p.m. Registration starts at 8:30a.m.

At Trinity Lutheran Church, Lindstrom

Preschool (must be toilet trained) - Grade 5

Registration Fee: $10/child or $30/family

Want more information? Check out our

website: www.tflutheran.org

10

Meeting Agenda

Church Council of First Evangelical

Lutheran Church

November 11th, 10:45am to 12:30pm

“To worship God as an intergenerational praying community, learning God’s Word, and building lasting relationships as we grow in God’s love and grace.”

Members Present: Duane Olson, Pastor Mary Kaye, Wendy Szczepanski, Rose Anderson, Joe Landgreen, Craig Loen and Miriam Flysjo Members Absent: Don Hansen A. Opening Devotions – Wendy Devotions for December—Miriam B. Sharing story - Rose-lefse, Wendy her sister and niece and family visiting C. Pastor Report-PMK- Getting Ready for Jesus event- collaborative meeting with the 5 churches. Upcoming event November 24 2-4p hosted here at FELC is meant to be event to focus on Jesus coming. There will be various family friendly activities like decoration making stations and Maple praline candy. PMK also shared that the next MiChiLu collaborative meeting is at Zion in Chisago City, on 1/15 at 12:30p and ALL are welcome.

Advent Tea November 25 noon - Open House Time for people to come and work on projects.

D. President’s Report- Don— no report due to his absence E. Property Report – Scandia Repairs did repairs to heating system last week. There was a hole in one of the pipes in the floor. Now all pipes are up in ceiling. The closet was cleaned out and items were put out for people to take. (Wendy volunteered to take any electronics left to recycling. Thanks!)

Steeple Repair Joe and Don will get together to talk about how to proceed with the steeple. Angie and Don working on a visual to show how much money is collected

Nativity scene- It is stored in the shed and at Olson’s. Duane will put it up before the lighting festival.

F. Treasurer Report. Joe- Everything paid for. 4% down from budget

We are signed up for new insurance company. We are not covered for the youth working at the sugar shack (but were before in the last policy) so that will be addressed. New company will have a more stable price

7

G. Memorial Report- The Council got Church Informational brochures in their boxes. Please hand them out. Duane will distribute some to the information center in St. Croix Falls and other places that have informational brochures.

Memorial fund meets quarterly. Did not meet due to conflicts. There is not much on the agenda so they are meeting when they can. They are attempting to get an AED.

H. Other- The church has a goal to promote community events. An invitation to the Lefse event was sent to all churches in the area. We did not put fliers up in town, which is an area we could improve on. PMK is making a list of people who attended so we can be sure to invite them and others who have expressed interest.

The Lodge- When they opened, we got request to do worship every week. We said we’d do it quarterly. 9 or 10 people who live at the Lodge are coming to the book study and the worship. We need people to help set up, clean up, haul hymnals and help with communion. We aren’t getting many people to volunteer to help. It would be a good thing for a family to do as the Lodge residents like to see children. Next time is January 20 at 2:00 (usually the 3rd Sunday)

Directory- Lifetouch has offered to make a church directory. If we have 15 family/individuals take their picture we get a free directory. It is half size. It will just have portraits, names and addresses. Will have the ability to add members at a later date. Picture taking will be scheduled Dec 18 and 19 from 2:00-8:50. Will have sign up online and in the office. The council supports this endeavor. I. Motion by Miriam seconded Rose by to Adjourn

December Council

Meeting

Sunday, December 9th

10:45am - 12:30pm

8

It always feels like someone pushes the fast forward button as soon as Thanksgiving is over. I encourage each on of you to slow down, enjoy this beautiful season of giving and magic, deep breath and enjoy your family! What better way to spread love and holiday cheer than do bless others with random acts of kindness! Here is a list of twelve—have fun!

Blessings to you this Christmas season! Angie, Ministry Coordinator

9

Mission Statement

Please send submissions to: parishc@tflutheran.org

Articles due the 10th of each month.

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” Psalm 90:1

The mission of FELC is to worship God as an intergenerational praying community, to learn

God’s Word, and to build lasting relationships as we grow in God’s love and grace.

(Mission Statement approved 2017)

Church Office 651-465-5265 www.tflutheran.org

2018-2019

Council/Officers: Don Hansen—President

Wendy Szczepanski—Vice President

Joe Landgreen—Treasurer

Miriam Flysjo —Secretary

Rose Anderson

Duane Olson

Craig Loen

Pastor Mary Kaye Ashley

Financial Secretary

Jerry Rhoads