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Strengthen Faith, Build Hope, Share Love in Christ Our Savior
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Christ Our Savior
Lutheran Church
ANDY KELTNER, PASTOR
5 South 8th Street
Louisburg, KS 66053
(913)837-4502
Worship 8 a.m. 10:30 a.m. & 7 p.m.
Sunday School 9:15a.m.-10:15a.m.
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Pastor Andy Writes...
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Pastor Andy Keltner
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Joy in Heaven
In a series of parables about seeking and saving the lost in Luke chapter fifteen, Jesus shares a remarkable truth. "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "(Luke 15:7) Again Jesus says: "Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10)
Joy in heaven is a remarkable thing. That is something we should look forward to as the redeemed children of God. It would be amazing to see the angels rejoice. The first week of July we concluded a Bible study on "Angels and Demons". Angels are God's foremost invisible creatures. God created them to serve his foremost visible creature. We are God's foremost visible creature. The angels rejoice when a sinner repents.
Every Sunday during worship there is a public confession and absolution. It is a time for repentance. It is a time to be pronounced forgiven. We confess our sins and we are forgiven. This should bring us great joy. As I read Luke fifteen, verses seven and ten, there is joy in heaven when sinners repent.
I have had people tell me that they could not come to church because the church building would fall. I have a friend who says he might burn up if he came to church. I have been a Pastor for thirty-five years and I have never seen either of these things happen. I have seen sinners repent. I have seen the broken healed. I have seen manifestations of the peace of God in lives that are changed by the God's grace. One day I anticipate I will see the angels rejoice.
The Kansas City Chiefs look like they will have a good football team this year. I wonder how good the Chiefs would be if only a third of the team showed up for games on Sunday. It does not matter how good the individual players are, football is still a team game. The players need to show up on Sunday to have a winning team.
Those of you who go to Chiefs games, what if there were no ushers at the stadium? What if no one showed up to run the sound system? What if the stadium staff decided to take a Sunday off and not have any replacements? I am guessing you might not enjoy the game very much, even if the Chiefs played a good game. We sometimes take for granted all the people who support the worship on Sunday.
I celebrate all those who are faithful in serving at the church. There are always opportunities to serve at this congregation. You are called to be servants of God. There are opportunities to participate in the ministry of the church in community. There are even ways to get involved nationally and internationally. I celebrate all of you who are already investing in community activities and service projects.
This fall we will start confirmation classes again for seventh and eighth graders. We will begin Sunday School on Sunday mornings. Wednesday evening Bible studies will continue. This year Christ Our Savior will celebrate fifteen years as a congregation. There will be opportunities to plan and participate in special worship and celebrations. The most amazing thing that happens at Sunday worship is that sinners repent. 'There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
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2019/2020 Confirmation
We will begin confirmation on Wednesday, September 4th, at 6:00 p.m.
A welcome letter with details will be sent to our confirmation students in the next week or two.
If you have a 7th or 8th graders, please contact the office ([email protected]) if you do not receive a letter from us.
Thank you!
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Another Successful Meals on Wheels Dinner and Pie Auction
Christ our Savior hosted the seventh annual Meals on Wheels Dinner and Pie auction on Saturday, July 13th, at the American Legion Hall. The dinner of smoked pulled pork and brisket, potato salad, baked beans, cheesy corn, coleslaw, homemade barbecue sauces was just plain delicious! 64 pies were sold by our auctioneer, Bill McNatt. We raised $3,600 (final total) for the Louisburg Meals on Wheels program. God has richly blessed the efforts of the following people:
- Walter Chester for preparing the meat and barbecue sauces and Kathy Chester for organizing and preparing the necessary information for Walter.
- Christine Fauss, assisted by Linda Newman for cooking all of the side dishes. Christine also baked 8 of her famous pies.
- Don Newman and Richard Fauss for transporting food, supplies, etc., as well as setting up before and cleaning up afterwards.
- Kristen Bell for assisting with take down, cleanup and transportation of supplies afterward.
- Bob and Gloria Rolofson for manning the front table, selling tickets, distributing auction paddles, collecting pie money, organizing all of the paperwork, and printing flyers and tickets.
- Gwen LawRance, Molly Strubbe, Lois Rausch, Harvey Lightner, Rhonda Kerr, and Allison Walania (our youngest baker made 12pies!).
- Paul and Linda Richards for applying for and receiving a $250 Thrivent Card to help with expenses. They also helped with setup for the dinner/auction.
- COS members who donated funds.
- Faithful members of the community for donating pies and money.
- Louisburg Nursery or generously donating plants every year for decorations and prizes.
- Everyone who supported this event, whose name has not been listed.
May God bless all of you and continue to bless our efforts on behalf of Meals on Wheels. Thank you!
Beth Ramsey
P.S. If you would like to donate money this coming year to defray the cost of next year's event, please write on the memo line of your check "Meals on Wheels account." Thank you!
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Lutheran Witness Subscriptions
The Lutheran Witness is the flagship magazine of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. This magazine is a monthly publication (11 issues per year) that offers Synod news, features, columns, Q&A, and more.
New and renewal subscriptions for The Lutheran Witness are due by August 18th
. If you currently subscribe or wish to start a new subscription, please use the envelopes in the church entry hall. Sample copies of prior issues are also in the entry hall if you would like to "look before you subscribe". The cost for this year's subscription will be $18.00.
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National Youth Gathering Update
The Minnesota part of the Youth Group - Micaela Eickhoff, Drake Varns, Brock Varns, Koell Smith, Grace Walania, Allison Walania, Tricia Rausch, Gerry and I would like to say "Thank You" to the entire congregation for supporting us the past three years. Without your help and support, we would never have had the chance to make it to Minnesota. We had a great ride there in a van we were able to rent and arrived without any problems! Once we were there it was amazing to be with 28,300 other young people/leaders who shared the same faith as you. You could feel the excitement and comradery among everyone. They were all so friendly and we made lots of new friends from all over. I personally met and talked to people from Australia, Tennessee, Hays-Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, Texas, Wyoming, Montana and Alaska to name just a few. Everyone would always ask - "Where are you from?" "Where's that?" or say "We're so glad to see you." We were blown away by the Bible studies every morning (at least the ones we could get into since most were closed due to so many people attending the same sessions as us) as well as the interest centers that you could go to. We also had a fun time in the "Fun" room as well as the booth areas were we learned about various organizations and got lots of fun "Free stuff." We LOVED the pins!!!! The Mass events in the evening were awesome! You could feel the excitement from everyone at US Bank Stadium and once we all started singing - WOW! We learned, we laughed, we sang, we cried (or I should say I cried!), we prayed. Again, it was quite an experience. Gerry and I had a great time with the kids - learning more about them- their joy, their happiness, their hopes and dreams. We pray that from this gathering the kids learned at least one thing new about their spiritual lives and how to be Real, Present and share God in this world. I know personally this Gathering challenged me to continue to be real in my life, to be Present, and to know that God is always there with me and has never and will never abandon me. The speakers at the mass events were awesome and inspirational and the reenactment of the crucifixion of Christ was a sight to behold. Gerry and I hope that a group of youth from our church will go to the next Gathering, which will be held in Houston, TX in 2022. We have talked about possibly going as CLBs (Community Life Builders) as the Gathering experience has been so beneficial to our lives and we hope that we can share it with others as well.
To hear more about our trip, we would like to invite you all to the Biscuits & Gravy Breakfast to hear all about our adventure at the Gathering and see our video we put together for you. Plus, hopefully, you can hear from each of the kids about their experience. Again, we would like to say "Thank You" for your support and prayers.
Gerry and Michelle Eickhoff
We wanted to share just a few pictures from our Trip! We don't want to spoil our video presentation fro you all!
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"Thank You" Biscuits and Gravy Event
| What: |
Come on down for our monthly "All you can eat" Biscuits & Gravy, eggs, hash browns, cinnamon rolls with fruit, coffee and juice.
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| Cost: |
Suggested $5 donation - for future events
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| For: |
Come hear about our trip to Minnesota! Youth will share their experience at the National Youth Gathering as well as a video of our experience in Minnesota.
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| When: |
Sunday, August 4th |
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Between church services (9-10:00)
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| Where: |
COS Basement
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| Youth: |
Wear your "Walk in Faith" shirts
We are asking you to bring- 1 bag of hash browns, 1 can of already cooked biscuits and one gallon of milk (white or chocolate) or juice and/or some fresh fruit (strawberries/ grapes). We are also asking that you come down to help prep, cook, serve the meal and clean-up
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