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What’s Coming Up

This Weekend

• Worship Theme: Spirit of Creation: Pentecost is the day of the descent of the promise Holy Spirit and the birth of the church.  Acts presents the Holy Spirit as pure power, power from “on high,” power that sweeps into the church and enables the church to be God’s people on earth. It is the same power that moved over the waters at creation—and brought life!  It was the same power that Ezekiel saw give life to a valley full of dry bone.  The Holy Spirit is the breath of life breathed into the church—and is it any wonder why when it comes; the church breathes, lives and grows?  The Holy Spirit is that gift of God that enables the church to move and grow—even if that Spirit-induced movement and growth is not what the church wanted.   The people gather, they move through the familiar acts of worship, singing the old familiar hymns, and then something unfamiliar happens to them.  They become recipients of God’s own spirit, descending upon them, like tongues of fire.  People start acting strange, the whole building rumbles, the once secured church doors fall off their hinges.  A fire breaks out.  Welcome to the celebration of Pentecost!

• Sunday School Registration has begun for the fall.   Please stop by the sign up desk in the Welcome Center to register your child/children

• Registration Has Begun: Modern Day Disciples Camp, (previously known as Marketplace), will be August 4—8 from 9:00—11:45 a.m. Cost of the camp will be $5 per child or $10 per household. Registration forms can be found at the receptionist window on the 300 level. We are also asking volunteers who will help with the camp to sign up on the display in the Welcome Center or on a registration slip. Youth, seventh grade and older, may also sign up to be aides.

• Bethlehem’s Annual Youth Flower Sale has begun.  Our young people will again be selling top quality bedding plants, hanging baskets and planters. Funds raised will financially support their summer mission trips. Spread the word about the great selection and quality!

• On Pentecost a Special Offering will be taken on May 10 & 11.  Our gift will go to help support four Lutheran Schools in Palestine that desperately need our help.

• Hear An Amazing Story: Libby Johnson and Leigh Gunther will be sharing the story of their recent trip to Haiti with Feed My Starving Children on Sunday, May 11 in Education Hall after all three worship services. Please come, bring your (well fed) children and see the pictures from their trip.

Coming Soon

• Annual Meeting: Join Us for the Annual Meeting Sunday, May 18th immediately following the 10:30 a.m. worship service in Fellowship Hall.  Come and hear the story of Leigh Gunther and Libby Johnson’s trip to Haiti with Feed My Starving Children in case you were not able to hear it on May 11.

• God’s Work, Our Hands: The 2008 ELCA Global Mission Event will be July 17-20 at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse. People from all over the world will celebrate God’s mission and encourage and strengthen one another for global ministry at this event.  All interested persons are invited to an organizing meeting on Sunday, June 1, following the 10:30 worship service.

• Bethlehem is joining with Feed My Starving Children again to pack nourishing meals for the hungry around the world.  We will pack on Wednesday, June 4, from noon until 2 PM at the new facility in Aurora. If there is enough interest we will use the church bus to transport folks.  Please sign up on the registration sheets or in the Welcome Center.

• We will take a special Father’s Day Offering to benefit Habitat for Humanity.  Donations of $10 may be given now in honor or in memory of a beloved Father whose names will be printed in the Father’s Day bulletin.

• As you know, almost twenty of our Bethlehem disciples will be joining with St. Andrew Lutheran Church on a mission trip to El Salvador this summer. Even if you can’t go yourself, you can be a vital part of this effort by supporting the trip financially, with your prayers, and by donating items the group will be taking with them. A fund-raising Fiesta will be held here at Bethlehem on Sunday, June 29, from 4-6.  There will be more details about the needs list later.

• Save those Winter Coats & Jackets! All sizes are needed, as well as children's and teen clothing, for the Clothing and School Supply Give-Away August 8-9 at Hosanna! Lutheran. Last year the demand far exceeded the supply, so begin cleaning out your closets now! Your donations will be accepted here at Bethlehem after the first week in July.  More information about the event will come later this month.
  

ELCA Link of the Week

We have all watched with horror at the devastation from the cyclone in Myanmar as well as that government’s slow response to allow humanitarian aid reach the suffering.  Check here to see what the ELCA is doing:

http://archive.elca.org/ScriptLib/CO/ELCA_News/encArticleList.asp?article=3859