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May you always look to God
and His guidance every day
as you seek to follow Him
and His good and perfect way.
As you go along the path
that He’s chosen just for you,
may He richly bless your life
and bring joy in all you do. - unknown
St. Peter Youth Group enjoyed an Amazing Race around St. Peter on March 27th. We started our evening out with spaghetti, garlic toast and cookies. The 14 students divided into 5 separate teams and were instructed on the rules of the game. The beginning clue was found in a kiddie pool filled with packing peanuts. They were to follow the instructions on the clue and find their first station. After each station was completed they were handed another clue. Our 7 stations included a strength training in dartball, crafting a card for our shut-in members, singing to Zacchaeus our Wee Little Man and Jesus, memorizing the Nicene Creed and reciting it to Noah at his Ark, visiting with Jesus at the Last Supper table, talking to our angel in the balcony and picking the most daring person on their team to either milk a cow or eat worms! The first team was finished in record time! It was a great team building project and the kids and volunteers had a BLAST!
Thank you to our volunteers - Andy, Bridgett, Dana, Emilie, Henry, Jonathon, Pam, Pastor, Robyn & Roger!!
Over my last few newsletter articles I have been encouraging everyone to pray more this year. I believe one of the reasons we don’t pray a lot, is we don’t know how to.
I have been suggesting an outline to use for Prayers. I have already suggested you begin with an ADDRESS. In the Lord’s Prayer, Our Father is an address to Our Father in Heaven. You follow an address with a Rational. In the Lord’s Prayer our Father who art in Heaven is the Rational. He is in Heaven so he can see everything and knows everything. You can then add what we call a Petition. These are the Things you actually pray for, so it’s sometimes called the requests.
I would suggest some of your Petitions be followed by what’s called The Benefit. Here is an example; Let’s say you pray, “Lead us not into temptation”. Then you say the BENEFIT. You might say, so I do not fall into “false believe, despair, and other great shame and vice.”
This is the benefit to not being lead into temptation. You do not always have to say a benefit, but it can be helpful. It can make your prayers more meaningful, and it can also help your prayers not to be selfish ones. It’s hard to ask for a new car, if you can’t come up with a good Holy Benefit. You could pray for a car in this way. Let’s see what this would look like: God I pray that I can get a car, so that, I can get to work and serve my neighbor.
Here is an example from the Prayers of the Church for The First Sunday in April: [Address] Holy Father, [Rational] You raised up Your Son from the dead so that He might bestow upon us His Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins. [Petition] Grant that we might live joyfully as those who have been crucified and raised up with Christ in Holy Baptism, and [The Benefit] that we might boldly testify of Him, His forgiveness and peace, to all who will hear. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
April 10th & 11th - Lent Service – 7pm
April 14th - Palm Sunday – Confirmation 10:00am
April 18th - Maundy Thursday Service – 7pm @ St Paul
April 19th - Good Friday Service 7:30pm
April 21st - Easter Sunrise Service – 6:30am & Easter Breakfast – 7:30am
MaKenna Helmke – daughter of Andrew & Robyn Helmke
Zander Watson – son of Bridgett Volkert and Clifford Watson
April 6, 2019 Zion Lutheran Church – Edgerton Registration and Breakfast at 8:30am Being the Lord’s Blessings for the Children featuring Pastor Kurt Letcher will speak on Rosa Young: Pioneer Lutheran Educator and Missionary. Anne Compere, a representative from the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in Minot, ND will be present to give information about the Ranch and its mission. Monetary ingathering will be for the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch.
You are invited to a German Lutheran Heritage Meeting at 2 PM, April 21 at the Lutheran Social Services Building South of Archbold on State Route 66 across from the Four County Career Center. The special program is entitled “Researching My German Lutheran Heritage” by Joanne Richolt Allison. She and her German speaking Daughter-in- Law toured Austria and Germany so she has a very interesting presentation to share. Beverages and German coffee cake will be served. Public is welcome.
Plans are being made for this event on April 28th so mark the date on your calendar! Invite your family and friends, all ages. Anyone interested in helping plan contact: Deb Oberhaus, Nancy Michaelis, Kristin Leaders.
Attention ALL SENIORS! We would like to feature our graduating Seniors (from High School or College) in the May newsletter. Please send or drop off a copy of your senior picture with a bio of your senior accomplishments and future plans to the Church Secretary. Email to stpeterflorida@gmail.com
We are so happy that the weather has finally gotten better and we're able to enjoy recess outside ~ the fresh air has sure felt great after that long winter.
March was a busy month in Preschool. We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday early in the month ~ always a big hit with the preschoolers. Ms. Barb from the Napoleon Public Library always visits us each month with new books to read. Ms. Evie comes monthly to teach us a wonderful Bible lesson ~ we love her visits! The leprechauns made a visit around St. Patrick's Day ~ and made quite the mess in our classroom! We tried so hard to trap one, but it didn't work! Henry County Hospital came to visit and talked with us about Poison Prevention. A wonderful presentation from them and much appreciated they came to speak to us.
April will consist of our library visit and Bible lesson. Firefighter Kyle comes back this month and will bring the Florida/Flatrock firetrucks!!! We can't wait. We will have our 3rd annual St. Jude Trike-a-Thon the end of the month ~ always such a fun day and raising money for a great cause.
Our Spring Open House is scheduled for Wednesday, April 17th from 4:30-6:30pm. Please spread the word! We have a lot of students returning and have already enrolled a bunch for Fall! This makes me so happy!
Thanks again for allowing me to be your Preschool teacher ~ I am blessed!
In God's Blessings ~ Mrs. Rees
St. Peter Lutheran Preschool hosted another fabulous Storytime & Craft on February 13th. Kids and parents enjoyed a reading of Love Monster by our very own Mrs. Julie Rees.( link to bio) After the story, the kids and parents enjoyed craft time by designing their very own Love Monster. We definitely had some little Picasso's this night. The kids were able to satisfy their sweet tooth with some homemade preschool cookies. What better way to show how much we love our preschool?
We would like to thank everyone who attended. As usual, we had a wonderful time! Now registering for Fall classes. Please check out our upcoming OPEN HOUSE! Teacher/Director: Julie Rees Ph: 419-966-3263 . We LOVE preschool!
Download the ‘PRE-REGISTRATION FORM’
Over my last few newsletter articles I have been encouraging everyone to pray more this year. I believe one of the reasons we don’t pray a lot, is we don’t know how to.
I have been suggesting a FOUR PART outline to use for Prayers. I have already suggested you begin with an ADDRESS. In the Lord’s Prayer, Our Father is an address to Our Father in Heaven. You follow an address with a Rational. In the Lord’s Prayer our Father who art in Heaven is the Rational. He is in Heaven so he can see everything and knows everything.
You can then add what we call a Petition. The Petition is best described as the “Request”. Asking for your daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer is a Petition. It is something you want, and you are asking for it. We can see in the Lord’s Prayer there are multiple Petitions. Thy Kingdom Come is a petition. In the same way when a person prays they can have many Petitions or requests as they need.
The Petition is usually the reason you are praying in the First place. For this reason, it’s usually not the part of the Prayer you have to think about. Yet, I believe putting a Petition after an Address and a Rational helps us to think about who we are addressing our Petitions to. For instance we might all like a cooler car or a nicer house, but is this something we really want to ask God of? So next time you think about something you want to pray for, consider saying all three parts of the Prayer. – Pastor Jacob Stuenkel
Ash Wednesday Service – March 6th – 7pm
Wednesday Lent Services – 7pm
Come join us on March 13th for our first Lenten Dinner 6:00pm. Dinners will continue on Wednesdays: March 20th, 27th, April 3rd and 10th. A sign up sheet will be posted on the bulletin board in the Narthex. Please sign up with a friend and prepare one of the meals.
Congratulations to all 7 awesome chili participants: Marv & Nancy Michaelis, Tim & Becky Buchhop, Kevin & Evie Leaders, Bill & Alicia Richardson. Drum Roll: We had a tie for 2nd place: Jake & Addi Leaders and Roger & Pam Jones. Our 2019 Champion was Ryan & Ben Weddelman! Congratulations! Thank you to everyone who participated by attending, fixing delicious food, decorating, set up crew, counter & drum roll, kitchen helpers, Pastor, Emilie, Cindy and the planning committee. Will there be a Challenge in 2020? Board of Witness, Outreach & Stewardship
Were you unavailable for our church directory photo shoot? No worries! You can set up an appointment with Emilie Parsons or if you have questions ph: 419-758-3348. She will be taking any additional family photos at her studio, which is located in Defiance, Ohio. You also have an option of sending in a family photo / snapshot (as long as it is NOT copyrighted by a photographer). If you are sending in a family photo / snapshot please email: emiliejoparsons@gmail.com. Deadline: March 31, 2019
THANK YOU!
- Thank you everyone for coming to have your family / individual photo taken for the St Peter church directory. It went so smoothly and I had a wonderful time visiting with all of you. Be sure to check your email in the upcoming week for your complementary digital right!
Emilie Parsons
Schedule of group pictures to be taken for our new church directory: Sunday, March 3rd: 9:15 am – Choir, Chimers; after church – Altar Guild Sunday, March 10th after church: Church Council, Pastor, Staff Tuesday, March 12th: LWML, 1:30 pm
We’ve had a good month of February - despite dealing with many school weather cancellations. The students are enjoying school and doing amazing.
Next week we have our annual visit from the dentist for “dental health” week. The kiddos are super excited!
We are currently enrolling for the 2019/2020 school year - our Spring Open House is Wednesday, April 17th from 4:30-6:30pm. Next school year we will again be teaching these days: the 3 year old class will be T/Th from 9-11:30am with a one time enrollment fee of $45 and $60/month tuition. The 4/5 year old class will be MWF from 9-11:30am with a one time enrollment fee of $45 and a $90/month tuition. Please spread the word! The enrollment fee will hold the students spot for next school year.
As always, feel free to visit anytime. We love Preschool and would love for you to see what we do!
In God’s Blessings,
Mrs Rees
Thanks to Chief Super Market, Inc. in Napoleon for their generous donation, Thrivent Action and Big Lots in Defiance our Youth Group successfully packed 15 boxes for our church shut-in members and for those who could use some cheering up. These kids are pretty amazing.
In my last newsletter article I talked about New Year’s Resolutions. I encouraged everyone to consider praying more this year. I believe one of the reasons we don’t pray a lot, is we don’t know how to. Prayer does not always have to be uniform or the same. I do believe we can learn how to outline a prayer and that can help a person to feel confident in prayer.
I am going to suggest a FOUR PART outline to use for Prayers, and I am going to discuss these parts throughout the Year. Each Prayer begins with an Address. Then has A Rational. Which is followed by The Petitions [or what you are asking for]. This followed by The Benefit. And it should end with a Termination or the Conclusion. Throughout the year I am going to explain each one of these parts.
One thing most prayers should start with is an ADDRESS. Just like you have to think about a person’s name before you call them on your phone, you should address the Deity you pray to. After all we don’t just pray to any god, but we pray to the Triune God of the Scriptures. And it is this God that we should address our prayers to. You can see that Jesus taught us to do this when he taught the LORD’S PRAYER. It starts “Our Father”. He wanted the disciples and us to think of God as our Father and to address him as our Father. And most Prayers do this as in the prayer that we have for our Government:
Almighty God, guide and defend the President, Congress and all who administer and judge our laws. Change the hearts of those who would lead us away from Your justice and truth. Preserve in this land the freedom to serve You, and lead us to be faithful citizens. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer. You can see how the Prayer started with an Address to our God as Almighty. When you start to remember to start your prayers you start to address God directly. And sometimes you even address God in a way that makes sense for the Prayer. Here we praying for our leaders who seem powerful, but recognize that our God is the TRUE Almighty. SO the Next time you pray to God try addressing Him First, just like you would anyone else you have a relationship with. – Pastor Jacob Stuenkel
St Peter is observing Lutheran Hour Sunday on Sunday, February 3, 2019 in the regular worship service. The Lutheran Laymens League has been in existence for 100 years and the LLL began the Lutheran Hour Broadcasts in 1930 with Dr. Walter A. Maier as its first speaker and has continued that very special ministry of sharing God’s Word by bringing Christ to the nations and the nations to the church throughout the world. Many of our parents and grandparents have faithfully supported this ministry over the years with their prayers, financial gifts and by listening to the broadcasts. The present speaker is Dr. Michael Ziegler. A brochure and an attached envelope will be available which can use to make a gift to the Lutheran Hour . Our area is blessed to have the local Napoleon radio station WNDH 103.1 provide air time to the weekly Lutheran Hour broadcasts. There are envelopes on the narthex bulletin board to be used to sponsor the Sunday morning 9 AM program for $67.50 as a memorial or honor gift.
Care packages will be packed at the LWML meeting on February 12. College students for this school year are Dalton Krueger, Logan Helmke, Brian Weddelman, Lexi Henricks, Alexis Zachrich, Ashton Helmke and our adopted Seminarian: Ryan Pumphrey. The seminarian’s family includes two teenage daughters. If you can help with this project, you can place items in the designated box in the church narthex. Suggested items are snacks, candies, toothpaste, toothbrushes, quarters, pens and pencils, microwave popcorn, q-tips, hand creams and hand sanitizers and anything else you can think that students could use. Thank you so much for sharing in this ministry.”
Join us for our Chili Cook-Off on February 10, 2019. The meal will be following our 10AM church service. If you are interested in a challenge, sign up and let us decide which chili is the BEST!
President – Tim Buchhop
Vice President – Russell Krueger
Recording Secretary – Peg Dammann
Board of Trustees – Marty Helmke, Mark Oberhaus, Doug Dammann
Board of Elders – Roger Jones, Kevin Leaders
Treasurer – Jon Block
Financial Secretary – Judy Meyer
Board of Witness, Outreach & Stewardship – Deb Oberhaus, Nancy Michaelis
Other Elected Offices
Building Improvement Fund Treasurer – Judy Meyer
Sunday School Supt – Bridget Volkert & Emilie Parsons
Financial Review Committee – Marvin Michaelis
JoAnn Arens, Nancy Helmke
Endowment Fund Committee – Nancy Michaelis & Larry Retcher, Jim Meyer, Sharlene Bunke & Lavina Boesling
We had a wonderful month of December in Preschool celebrating the “reason for the season.” The students loved hearing about the birth of Jesus and why we celebrate Christmas. We absolutely LOVE our new floor. The room looks amazing. Thank you St Peter Church! Our Preschool sure is blessed!!! January is a slower month as we deal with weather and cold temps. We’ve already experienced a few weather delays and a cancellation. We have our pajamas and movie day which is always a big hit with the students! February we will celebrate Valentine’s Day, visit from Ms Barb and the library and also a visit from the dentist!! We start our “All About Me” weeks in February as well. Look for the student’s posters to be hanging up in the hallway and get to know the students of St Peter Preschool! Evie Leaders will be coming in monthly to do a bible lesson with the students and I am so thrilled she’s doing this for us! We can’t wait. Thanks Evie! Feel free to stop in anytime and see us! In God’s Blessings - Mrs Rees
Our entire service is available right here. The service features our Sunday school. The bells tell the story!
Thank you Roger Jones for being our videographer and Kristi Leaders for taking beautiful photos of our service.
It’s a New Year. It’s a time to celebrate. It’s also a time where people have New Year’s Resolutions. Here is one possible Resolution you could have, Pray more. I find people don’t often know how to pray or what to pray for. For this year I am going to have a small lesson on Prayer each month. I thought I would begin with a prayer for the coming year:
Let us pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs.
In peace, let us pray to the Lord: For the freedom of Gospel preaching, that the Good News of forgiveness and salvation in Christ would bring healing and hope to the nations.
For the students at our seminaries, that they would receive the Word planted in them, grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and be eager and willing witnesses to the saving power of Jesus Christ,
For the coming year, that our God would fill it with blessings of body and soul, that we would recognize each as coming from His hands rather than chance or our own efforts, and that we would render all praise and thanks to God, let us pray to the Lord:
These petitions, and every other matter upon our hearts, we bring to You, O Lord. Hear our prayers and answer as You think best. Blessed be Your name, Father! Amen.
[Taken from Prayer of the Church New Year’s Eve LCMS].
The LUTHERAN LAYMEN’S LEAGUE has been in existence for 100 years! Its theme is ‘BRINGING CHRIST TO THE NATIONS AND THE NATIONS TO THE CHURCH”.
How blessed we are to have this organization as an auxiliary of the Lutheran Church/Missouri Synod. The LUTHERAN HOUR radio broadcast started in 1930 with Dr. Walter A. Maier as its first speaker and to date there have been eight successive speakers. Even though the methods and mediums have changed, the same Word of God and His saving message have been delivered through tremendous opportunities and God’s blessings to proclaim His love to our world.
SOME MILESTONE EVENTS INCLUDE:
1940 - Lutheran Hour begins foreign broadcasts;
1950 - Dr. Maier, first Lutheran Hour speaker, passes away;
1951 - First Lutheran Hour float appears in Rose Bowl Parade and continues to this day;
1952 - “This is the Life” TV show premieres;
1963 - Lutheran Hour broadcasts commenced in Brazil;
1978 - First Spanish radio broadcasts;
1992 - First message recorded in former Communist USSR and in Slovakia in 1993;
1992 - Lutheran Laymen’s League begins involvement with Orphan Grain Train.
St.Peter congregation will observe LUTHERAN HOUR SUNDAY on February 3, 2019 giving us a special opportunity to support the work of the Lutheran Hour by using gift envelopes provided in our bulletins. We can also support the local Lutheran Hour broadcasts on WNDH radio 103.1 (Napoleon) on Sunday mornings at 9 AM. There are envelopes on the church narthex bulletin board for use in giving $67.50 for one broadcast as a memorial or honor gift.”
I hope everyone has a blessed holiday spent with family and friends. We had a wonderful December in Preschool. Thanks to everyone who helped donate and/or purchased cookies for our Annual Cookie Walk. We raised $875 for our preschool! Much appreciated!
We also held our 2nd Storytime & Craft - with 20 kiddos in attendance! We hope to have 2 more before the end of the school year.
The Preschool students performed the bells in church on 12/16! Such an amazing morning! We loved being with you all - your support for our Preschool is simply amazing - we hope you enjoyed the performance and celebrating St Peter Preschool’s 30th Anniversary!
We’re currently on Christmas break - we’ll be back in class on Monday, January 7th - with a new floor! Thank you so much for that! We can’t wait to see it!
January in Preschool will be Pajama and movie day, visit from the library, continuing with assessments and hopefully seeing some snow!!
Thanks for everything you do for our preschool!
In God’s Blessings - Mrs Rees
The Month of December is often thought of as the time of Christmas. Yet, in the church this actually the time of Advent.
“The season of Advent is all about awaiting the coming of the Savior, God's Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. The incarnation of God in human flesh and blood is the way of salvation for all mankind that could only have come to us from God Himself. We could never have imagined such a way of salvation for ourselves. Yet God even predicted this would be His way to make atonement for all nations through His chosen people, the nation of Israel. God's prophet Isaiah proclaimed: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14) In keeping with this prophecy, an ancient writer incorporated this and several other prophecies together in the hymn, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."1
December 24th – Christmas Eve 6:30pm St Paul Children’s Christmas Program
Service 8:00pm St Peter Children’s Christmas Program Service
December 25th – Christmas Day 8:30am St Paul Communion Worship Service
10:00am St Peter Communion Worship Service
All members of the church are invited to attend the Congregational Christmas Potluck to be held, Sunday, December 2nd following the service. Bring a potluck dish and share in the fellowship of the Christmas Season!
Do you need some storage room? Solution: Donate those Christmas decorations! Bring them to St Peter and place your items in the Christmas Exchange box or cry room. Need help picking up your items? Call 419.762.5716
A collection of items will begin on Nov 4th through Dec 2nd. Please place your donations in the cry room.
A suggested list of items needed are:
Canned Vegetables, Fruits, Soup, Stews, Meats, Macaroni & Cheese, Spaghettios, Spaghetti Sauces, Tomato Juice, Broths, Noodles, Macaroni, Rice, Spaghetti, Potato Mixes, Stuffing Mixes, Cereals, Pancake Mixes, Syrups, Crackers, Peanut Butter, Jelly, Pudding, Jell-o, Cake Mixes, Frostings, Fruit Juices, Coffee, Tea, Kool-Aid, Chocolate Drink Mixes, Toilet Tissue, Facial Tissue, Paper Towels, Bar Soap, Toothpaste, Shampoo
(Please NO microwave items. - Make sure the products)
Saturday, December 8th, 8:30-10:00am in the St Peter Preschool room. We are asking for donations of homemade Christmas cookies, brownies, puppy chow, fudge, etc. to be brought to the kitchen by 8:30am on the 8th. Whether you donate items or not, please come and purchase a box and fill it with a variety of goodies – easier than baking dozens of different recipes of cookies! Tell your friends and neighbors about our Cookie Walk. Thank you for all your kind support of the preschool by supplying and purchasing these Christmas Goodies.
The 2019 Flower Charts have been posted in the Narthex for both churches. If you wish to donate a floral arrangement for a special event, anniversary, in loving memory of someone or to the Glory of God, please choose a date and enter the information on the chart so your arrangement may be acknowledged in the bulletin.
Greetings from Preschool!! November is about being thankful and blessed for what’s given to us. We talked a lot about that in the classroom and how much we all have to be thankful for - including Preschool! We celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with a Thanksgiving Feast in the classroom - the students made their own placements, wore turkey headbands and tried delicious thanksgiving foods! We are blessed! December is another busy month in St Peter Preschool. We have the following events: Saturday, December 8 - Cookie Walk from 8:30-10am Wednesday, December 12 - Story time and Craft at 4:30pm Sunday, December 16 - the Preschool students will be playing the bells & singing in Church The students are doing fantastic in class, I am so blessed! We love our Preschool! If anyone would like to donate baked goods for our Annual Cookie Walk - please bring in your goodies on Friday, 12/7 or the morning of Saturday, 12/8. We appreciate the help and support of this very popular event! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! In God’s Blessings, Mrs Rees
