Serving Ministry - September 2006 Update
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Contents POP
Mission, Vision, Targets and Goals Task Team Summaries
Benevolence |
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. - 1 Peter 4:10
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. - 2 Cor. 9:12-13 |
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. - Matthew 28:18-20
Our Vision
All people transformed to live and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness. - 2 Cor 3:17,18
My availability gives God the opportunity to transform me and someone else through me.
Critical Targets
Spiritual growth in Christ – God’s transformation work in us
Spiritual outreach in Christ – God’s transformation work through us.
Goals
1,000 people in weekly worship by October 31, 2008
– invite people to worship
12,000 critical events by October 31, 2008
– each one of us needs to share our faith with 7 people each year
Using the gifts you have received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms
Transformed into his likeness – being made into a disciple and being taught
Transforming others – letting Christ, who is in you, make disciples and teach through you
Serving Christ as your Lord and serving Christ in those being served
Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world’….‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. - Matt 25:34-40
Task Team Reports
Benevolence – (Ray Schaible, Phil Morrow team members)
 | Definition of
Benevolence
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| 13% of PoP income in 06-07 ($190k), up from 12.5% target last year | ||||
| 7.2% ($104k) goes to LCMS Southeastern District, next largest is 1.4% ($20k) for Grace Ethiopian mission and Scholarships 0.6% ($9k). |
Christian Responders – Tiffany Sears and Tom Lambiase (Nelson Latona, Andy Murphy, Michelle Schulteis, team members)
| Responding to show God’s love and care for victims of disasters, near and far - e.g., Katrina victims in New Orleans; flood victims in Huntington. |
| Preparing a readiness team at PoP for disasters among us |
| Establishing contacts/coordination with other responders - e.g., St. John's Alexandria; Our Savior’s Way Ashburn; Living Savior Fairfax Station; ; Fairfax County; Lutheran Disaster Response. |
| Planning servant event trips to New Orleans for Katrina victims help in December and April |
Christmas in April – Dave Thomas (Jim Rannels & Erika Kosterlitzky other team members)
| Project of several churches, led by St. John’s Lutheran, for those in need – elderly, very poor or infirmed |
| Many materials donated from builder’s supply stores |
| Major repairs, e.g. replacing a roof, building a porch, putting in a new bathroom, replacing broken windows, re-doing the electric |
| Repair and clean-up, painting, yard work |
Circuit 9, Southeastern District (SED) LCMS – Ken Watkinson
| 14 congregations in Northern Virginia, of the 215 in 5-state SED |
| 100 new mission start opportunities in SED – current funding permits 10 |
| PoP is a daughter congregation of St. John’s in Franconia |
| Living Savior in Burke is a daughter congregation of PoP |
| Mission start at PoP, Grace Ethiopian Church – 50% SED support Pastor’s salary |
| Mission start in Leesburg, daughter church of Our Savior’s Way, Ashburn |
Ecumenical Community Helping Others (ECHO) – Susan Irvine (Pam O’Leary, Darren Irvine, Sandy Watkinson team members)
| Dedication Service for the expansion of the ECHO building Oct. 15, 3pm. |
| ECHO counselors continue to assist on the average 200 clients (600 family members) with over 1000 bags of food per month plus clothing, linens, small kitchen appliances, computers, and monetary help for rent and emergency car repairs. |
| Transportation provided for elderly and infirmed – mostly for doctor’s appointments and trips for medicine |
ECHO Food Drive – Susan Irvine (Darren Irvine, Tricia Irvine, Jim & Susan Herbert team members)
| Provided supplies for Thanksgiving and Christmas family meals for 35 families – touching them with the Love of Christ through us. |
| Many small groups and families volunteered to take a family and many others donated supplies and delivered the food. |
| ECHO provides for over 200 families in our community with these meals. |
| The feedback from participants at Thanksgiving and Christmas always very positive and uplifting, encouraging many recipients to attend our church services. |
Endowment Fund, Prince of Peace – Maloy Jones, chairperson, Don Anderson, Finance Director, and Dick Atkinson, Secretary, Ray Schaible, Sherm Mills
| Established in 2003, has received over $100K in contributions to date. Most of the contributions to date have been funds designated for scholarships for students in the POP Pre-School. |
| Purpose: to receive gifts and bequests and to use them for the long-term growth of the mission and the ministry of our church. |
| Sponsored Estate Planning seminars to help members consider options for contributions through their estates. Additional estate planning sessions will be offered this fall. |
| The Fund is another avenue for members of POP to express thanksgiving to God for the gift of life, for his providential blessings, which have sustained us, for the gift of his Son Jesus Christ, and for his Grace and Love we have experienced throughout our lives. |
ESL, English as a Second Language – Karen Salomon and Rob Leonard
| Teaching English to our neighbors that need to learn it |
| Starting two classes at PoP September – basic and advanced |
| Need many new volunteers for teachers and registration |
Global Missions – Ray Schaible (Rod Higgins, Ken Watkinson , team members)
| Haiti
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| Cambodia, was in
Ghana, West Africa
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| Coordination with
other related POP efforts
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| E-Mail Mailing List |
Holy Comforters – Mary Lion (Barbara Higgins, Herta Wigginton, Shirley DeWitt, Eileen Douglas, Helen Holst, Hertha Schock, Sandy Watkinson team members)
| Meet every Thursday, January through May in room 27A & B. |
| Interdenominationl group, currently has 19 ladies who participate on a regular basis. (Only 8 of us are Prince of Peace members, one other member is a Lutheran, but not a POP member) |
| January to mid March, adult size quilts are made for Lutheran World Relief, resulting in 64 quilts this year. |
| Mid March to May, baby quilts are made, with 54 finished this year. |
| Also donated this year was fabric for Sewing Kits. Kits consist of 3 or more yards of cotton/cotton blend fabric, pack of needles, card of 6 or more buttons and thread. Several uses of these kits are: In the Ivory Coast, young Liberian girls who are refugees learn to sew in after-school home economics programs, and in Angola, women and men use sewing kits to help learn a trade and earn an income. In 2005 the sewing kits went to Azerbaijan, Eritrea, West Bank, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Phillipines, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda for a total of 29,925. |
| The adult quilts and sewing kits are delivered to the New Windsor Conference Center, New Windsor, MD, owned and operated by the Church of the Brethren General Board, which is the distribution point. These quilts are shipped to wherever a disaster has occurred, either in the United States or elsewhere in the world. For example, in 2005 quilts went to Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Eritrea, India, Indonesia, West Bank, Mali, Maritania, Pakistan, Phillipines, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania,China, Uganda, Thailand and Zambia and the US (10,500 went to Mississippi and Texas after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita) for a total of 429,660. |
| For many years we donated baby quilts to ABC Baby Quilts. They went out of business this year. Forty quilts were given to Project Linus instead and we will do so from now on. In 2005, as an example, Linus quilts were given to American Red Cross, Fairfax County Public Schools - Social Workers, Gleaning the World - Tsunami victims, Hurrican Katrina victims, Minnesota Shooting Victims families, and many other hospitals and facilities that care for children, including individual children in need. |
| A dozen or so of the baby quilts are given to ASSIST Pregnancy Center located on Backlick Road in Annandale. This organization has a free program designed to offer guidance and compassionate support to women who are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and are under pressure to abort. The quilts are assembled into layettes for the mothers-to-be. |
Inter-Ethnic Ministry – Hoppy Hohenstein, Andy Anderson (Pastor John, Ken Watkinson , team members)
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Grace Ethiopian Church (GEC) –
over 300 worshipping each Sunday
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| Urdu-Speaking (Pakistan) Church – Eric Gil leader, about 30 meeting Sunday afternoon, outreach to Muslims – looking for ways to support Eric’s ministry | ||||||
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Korean Church – has been at 20 to 30
for the past few years, small dedicated core
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Knit at Knite – Judy Meyer (Erika Kosterlitzky, Lois Anderson team members)
| Make the coverlets, shawls, small blankets for people who are ill and/or undergoing chemo – pray over them for the recipient and send them out |
| Make sweaters for the Guideposts project |
| Knit hats that were included in the Shoeboxes for the Homeless |
| Starting meetings in September |
Love In Action (LIA) – Rod Higgins
| Seminary
scholarship grants
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| Mission-outreach
projects
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| Since 1988 the generous contributions of POP members has enabled LIA to build a $500,000 endowment fund while simultaneously disbursing $794,000 in support of this outreach. |
Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) – was Vic Clevenger, no replacement yet
| Mission: to provide opportunity to make funds and services available in support of the Great Commission through LCMS. |
| A unique ministry-through-investment organization that offers LCMS members the opportunity to invest their money, earn interest, and help build churches and schools at the same time. |
Lutherans for Life (LFL & SLM) – Susan Herbert (Jim Herbert, Janet Totsch team members)
Completed in 2006:
| Advance Directive Bible Study |
| Life Chain – October 2, 2005 (an hour of prayer to end abortion) |
| Sanctity of Life Sunday Jan 2006 |
| LFL support for billboard on Rt 1 advertising Alexandria Pregnancy Help Center’s services. |
| Purchase of LFL Bibles for abortion minded individuals and given to crisis pregnancy centers. |
| Benevolences. |
Upcoming:
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SLM Baby Bottle Fund raiser. |
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October 1, 2006 Life Chain. |
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January 2007 Sanctity of Life Sunday and March for Life |
Ministry Fair – Karen Salomon, Jodi Weier, Ray Hohenstein, Lori Keenan, Jim Long, Linda and John Storm, Andy Murphy, Pat Cribb, team members
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 An Earlier Ministry Fair |
Northern VA Coalition of Churches (NOVACO) – Pam O’Leary (Eileen Douglas team members)
| A coalition of churches and other organizations whose members volunteer their resources to provide housing, childcare, education and counseling to homeless victims of domestic abuse, helping them achieve a goal of self-sufficiency. |
| Funding sources HUD, Fairfax County, corporate and church donations |
| PoP helps support a single-parent family in a local apartment – one of 7 apartments in the NOVACO Home-for-Every-Church program |
| Assistance: tutoring, food, childcare, citizenship, car repair |
| Recently started our 4th 2-year family – helping transition to renting their own apartment |
Open Arms Mission Start Exploratory – Lori Keenan, Judy Meyer, Ken Watkinson
| Exploring starting a Open Arms Child Education Center in the Lorton area |
| $2k/year for sons
and daughters of the congregation
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| Recent graduates – Jessica Wenger, Jessica Denninger and David Miller graduated from Concordia River Forest, Duncan McClellan St. Louis Sem, Ann Burnside Concordia St. Paul, Ray Van Buskirk, St. Louis Sem |
Sparklers – Shirley Dewitt (Lorraine Lutz, Betty Mills, Andy Aderson, Bob Kohnke, Bob Tucker team members)
| POP seniors who meet once monthly (except July and August) to enjoy fellowship, make wonderful, close friendships and to help one another in any way possible |
| 35 at most functions and up to 50 at special functions – like field trips but the trips have been curtailed lately because of the high costs of bus charters and the high costs of entertainment |
| Monthly meetings always consist of lunch plus lectures sometimes |
| No one is required to sign into the group but all are welcome – friends, family, guests |
| Weekly Bible study with Pastor Rich |
Thrivent – Melinda Reidy and Ellen Devantier
| 3 possible sources for funds, matching funds and grants – congregation, community, region – large amount of funds available when teaming at the regional level – e.g. $50k |
| As the dollar amounts requested increase, so does the amount of hands-on involvement. |