St. John's Evangelical Lutheran

Super Bowl Sunday is Sunday and we as a nation will be enthralled with glitz, commercials, and of course food. However, before the game the youth of St. John’s will be asking you to consider food in a different way.

We are asking you care for the people who do not have enough food by bringing soup to help feed the hungry in our community. Through the Souper Bowl of Caring we will be collecting canned soups to take to the Littlestown Food Pantry.

This is part of a national effort to help us respond to those who are hungry. Please help us make this a really Souper Sunday.

We will be starting new member classes for people interested in membership in the church. The classes will be held March 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th at 9:00am on Sundays.

The new members will be joining on Sunday, April 1st which is Palm Sunday.

If you are interested or know someone who is interested in membership at St. John’s please contact Pastor Jim so he can prepare the right amount of materials. If you would like a refresher in the Lutheran Faith and an opportunity to meet our new members, feel free to join us.

We will be having a Lenten Soup and Study again this year on Wednesday nights. We will gather for six week in Lent on Wednesday nights at 5:30 for a light meal of soup and bread. We will ask people to volunteer to bring the meal for one of the weeks. The meal will be followed by a study. This year the study will be “Making Sense of the Cross”. There is no expectation that you have prior knowledge of the Bible or theology. Just bring your questions and openness to talk about matters of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. It will be a great opportunity for fellowship, conversation, and learning.

We will begin on February 29th and finish in Holy Week on April 4th. A signup sheet will be on the bulletin board.

The Parish Life Committee invites everyone to join together in fellowship and enjoy a traditional pre-Lenten meal of pancakes and sausage on Shrove Tuesday, February 21st from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. You may come at anytime between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m.

Once again we will be featuring Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundae Bar. In order to encourage your participation, there will be NO CHARGE for this event. A free-will offering will be accepted, just give what you think is fair. Please sign up on the bulletin board if you are planning to attend.

BOOK STUDY April 1st – 4:00 p.m.

The Book study group: which meets periodically has selected a new book for discussion, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family cannot afford health insurance

Soon to be made into an HBO movie by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball, this New York Times bestseller takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers filled with HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia, to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. It’s a story inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we’re made of. This book was named by over 60 critics as one of the best books of 2010.

Have you tried our Thursday night service?

It is an informal communion service held in the Adult Sunday School on Thursday night at 7:00pm.

The service is the same texts and sermon for the coming Sunday. There are two of hymns from the Sunday School Hymnal accompanied by piano, the chairs are comfortable, there is no standing except for communion, the service is only forty-five minutes and there is are a small and friendly group present for the service. It is perfect if you are not comfortable with the seating Sunday morning or you are going to be away the coming Sunday.

Please consider joining us.

For Advent in 2007 through 2010, we as a congregation produced a daily devotion
book to strengthen the spiritual life of the congregation leading into Christmas. This year we have decided to produce a devotion book for the congregation to prepare ourselves for Easter during the forty days of Lent. Each family in the congregation will receive a copy of this devotion book in either print at the beginning of Lent or electronically each morning during the season of Lent.

We are soliciting people who would be willing to write for the book. If you are willing to contribute to the devotion please contact the office or Pastor Jim. We will be assigning dates to people to write in the beginning of January. We ask you to consider helping to enrich the spiritual lives of your brothers and sisters by writing for this year’s devotion book.

Each week, St. John’s distribute a newsletter of upcoming events, news, and more. To read this week’s edition, please click the link below.

This Week 2 1 12  [pdf]

Each month, St. John’s publishes The Messenger.  This monthly newsletter contains news and information about happenings at the Church, resources for learning, and other important items.

The newsletter is emailed or mailed each month to members.  Would you like to be emailed a copy each month?  Just send us an email and let us know!

February 2012 Newsletter  [pdf]

Previous Newsletters:

• January 2012 Newsletter [pdf]
• December 2011 Newsletter [pdf]