Southwood Lutheran Church

Youth to Nashville!

On Sunday, 30 youth and 10 adults from Southwood will depart for Nashville. This trip has been in the planning process for more than six months.

However, plans have changed. For one thing, Chip is no longer with us to lead the trip. However, there are 10 other adult leaders going, most of them who have gone on youth trips in the past. They give the youth continuity and help to show them that Southwood's youth aren't about following a person—they are here to do be Jesus in the world.

Another thing that has changed is where we will be staying and the work we will be doing. You may remember that Nashville had severe flooding a month ago. We were planning on staying in a Lutheran church camp. However, much of the camp was destroyed in the flooding. Fortunately, we found a motel to stay in. And—for at least 2 days of the trip (Monday and Wednesday)—our youth will be helping to get the camp back in order! We don't know exactly what we will be doing, but the people of Lutheran Disaster Relief tell us they won't have a problem finding work for us to do.

On Tuesday, our youth will be working in the warehouse of the Bridge Ministry. The Bridge Ministry is an organization that works to clothe and feed the homeless in Nashville. We will be working in the warehouse during the day, and in the evening, we will go "under the (Jefferson Street) bridge", where they have a worship service for the homeless. After the service, we will help to distribute food and clothing.

Thursday, we will either do servant evangelism projects around the city, or continue to help do clean up at the camp. On Friday, the kids will have a day to have fun - either sightseeing or a waterpark.

I have never been on a mission trip with our youth—pray for me! Seriously, I am looking forward to it. All these youth and adults have a great heart for service and I'm honored to be a part of their trip. Please pray for all of us, that we will be the hands of Jesus in the world on this trip.

Look Beyond

We are now almost two-thirds of the way through our Look Beyond Capital Campaign. We started this three-year campaign in April, 2008. All money given to Look Beyond is used to reduce our debt.

Just this morning, $100,000 from Look Beyond was used to pay down the principal on our loan. How does this benefit Southwood? The interest rate on our loan is a little more than 5%. By paying down $100,000, we will save $5,000 in interest over the next year. That may not sound like a lot in the big scheme of things. But, $5,000 would do the following:

• Pay for one week of VBS for 250 kids
• Pay for 50 kids to receive backpacks filled with food for one semester 
• Pay for 2 widow's homes in Honduras 
• Pay for 1/2 of the cost of Sunday School for the entire program year - for 500 kids! 
• Pay for all of our choir expenses for one year 

These are just a few of the things we could do with $5,000. It's why the Look Beyond Capital Campaign is so important! By paying off our debt, we free up money that we can use to help people grow in their faith and that we can use to serve others in our community and around the world.

Thank you for all of your generous giving to Look Beyond! We hope to pay off another $600,000 of our debt over the next year. I encourage you to be a part of it!

 

Good $ense Classes

On March 7 & 14, Duane and Kandy Wade will be teaching the Good $ense course here at Southwood. This is a two-session class, and runs from 2:00 - 5:00 PM each Sunday. This is a class on Biblically based financial management that will help you grow as a:

• Diligent Earner
• Generous Giver
• Wise Saver 
• Cautious Debtor 
• Prudent Consumer 

If you would like to attend this class, you can sign up at Southwood Central.

In the meantime, there are many blogs on financial management. Even though some of them are not Biblically based, they have good information. One I have been following is Frugal Dad. There is an excellent article on "Lifestyle Inflation" today. Do you have any blogs on financial management that you follow? This is an area where we can all learn something new!

  

Awkward Questions

One thing that I learned when I took classes to become an Associate in Ministry was that it’s okay to ask questions about our faith. In fact, it seems like the more we learn, the more questions we have. This video has some great questions!

Another thing that I learned is that it’s okay to have the answer be “I don’t know.” (Something the adult in the video could have used!) Some things are just too big for us to understand. But, we can always continue to learn. We are offering an opportunity this summer to learn more about the Old Testament. This is a 10-week class, offered on Wednesday nights starting June 10. We’d love to have you come and have a chance to stump the pastors with your questions!

Learn more about the Old Testament introductory class.

Living Debt Free?!

Did you read the article in last S unday's Journal Star that talked about a family that had made a decision to get out of debt? What an inspiration! With all the dreary and scary talk about the economy, it makes sense to honor God with our finances by being a good steward of what he has given us.

Southwood would like to help! Duane and Kandy Wade teach a great class here at Southwood called the Good $ense class. They will be teaching it again in January. It's a 2-session class offered on January 18 & 25 from 2:00 - 5:00 PM. This class will teach Biblical financial principles and you will leave with a financial plan that will help you honor God in your finances. It focuses on helping you be a:

• Diligent Earner
• Generous Giver
• Wise Saver
• Cautious Debtor
• Prudent Consumer

Watch for sign-up sheets for this class in early January!

Street Lights!

It's been a long time since I've written a "Construction Update." We do have some activity happening. ABC Electric has started to install the street lighting. This is one of the things that we are required to do as part of our annexation agreement with the city.

Just in time! As it starts to get darker earlier, it will help to have street lights installed so it won't be quite as dark out here when you come for choir, confirmation, or other activities that happen during the evening.

Storms

Who was that person in the current poll who said they liked thunderstorms? I normally enjoy them also, but our facility hasn't enjoyed them!

When we arrived here on Tuesday morning, we were greeted by shingles in the north parking lot. This was from the storm that blew through on Sunday night. The shingles were from the southeast portion of the lower sloped part of the roof over the sanctuary. We had a little bit of water in the sanctuary, but not anything major.

However, when we got here this morning (Friday), we were greeted by more shingles! This time we had some in the front lot, and many in the north lot. Our area from the storm earlier in the week was a little bigger, plus we lost shingles from the east portion of the building, right over the library. We were not as fortunate with the water coming in this time - the tar paper underneath blew away, and we had water in the library and some in the sanctuary.

Thanks to Ben and Jackie Schroetlin, our custodians, and to Diane Kacvinsky for picking up the shingles in the parking lot! We probably lost somewhere between 200-250 between the two storms. The roofing contractor will be out sometime next week to make repairs. The insurance company has been notified as well.

I'm praying for sunny skies this weekend!

High School Graduation

Our son, David, is graduating from high school at the end of this month. There have been many milestones with him over the years, but this seems to be a biggie! As he did the senior blessing on Sunday, Chip talked about parents needing to let go. I think God is trying to tell me something because this morning, I received the devotion below in my e-mail in-box. For those of you who are also going through big milestones with your children, it definitely gives us something to think about. . .

Landscaping Opportunity

In early spring and summer of last year, our contractor was responsible for installing and maintaining all the landscaping around the church. This year, we are responsible for it ourselves. What a great opportunity!

Would you like to adopt an area here at church? Your responsibilities would include pulling weeds, trimming, and whatever you think is necessary to keep our grounds looking nice. Maybe you'd like to take over one of the islands in the parking lot and plant some decorative grasses, or you'd like to dig into that planter in the front of the church and make sure it is free of weeds. Maybe you'd like that spot by the youth room and would like to add some snapdragons. What a great project for a family or small group! 

If you are interested, please contact me! The first people I hear from will get their pick of an area to adopt. I'm sure there are many of you out there with green thumbs who would do a great job! Once we get into spring and summer, I'll be spotlighting some of these areas on our blog. I know we have a lot of talented people out there.

Prayer - Where and When and How?

I hope I'm not the only one who is struggling with our Lenten theme of Prayer. Prayer for me has always been difficult. First of all, I'm not good about setting aside time to be alone with God. It seems the minute I have quiet time I either start thinking of all the things I need to do, or I think about some fun things I could be doing, or I fall asleep. Then, I find it difficult to know how God is answering my prayer. A clear yes or no would be good!

So, I've been hoping this time of Lent will help me with some issues . . .