Welcome to the October Tidings!
I recently traveled to South Dakota for my uncle Pete’s funeral, and while I was home I visited my home church, First Lutheran Church of Sioux Falls. I took a seat in the darkened sanctuary, towards the front, the blue stained glass windows illuminating the space lightly. And my eyes became fixed on the kneeling rail cushions, and there in front of me was my cushion, the one that as a child I claimed as my own, because it had my initials on it, capital A, lowercase n, An. I always felt I belonged there because of this and I felt connected to God. Of course many years later I came to understand that those were in fact the symbols for Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end in Greek, the all in all. But even though those were not my initials, they for me made me realize that I and all of us may as well put our initials in that idea of beginning and end, because we are connected to God who is the Alpha and Omega, we play a role in the cycle of ongoing life with God, we are players in the tale, and the characters in the story. Maybe it was no accident for my kid self to see it that way, because it made me feel so at home, and I give thanks for
that realization because we are all a family under our mothering God, like a hen and it’s chicks, we are under the wings of the one who walks with us and watches over us. You are a part of Gods ongoing story and you are so important in the story, may that bring you peace dear church, and may we take joy in knowing that we are in the circle of Gods unending love of us. Thank God.
In Christ,
Austin Nickel
Council will be discussing Zoom worship on October 14th, with an announcement soon to follow. Stay tuned.
We will be having a Halloween-themed Faith in Film on Oct 22 at Janice Jones' home! Feel free to dress up if you like, as we watch a fun Disney Halloween movie outdoors on the big screen. We will begin at 6:30 pm. Let Austin know if you plan to attend.
We are having congregational devotionals Sunday mornings at 10 am. We are looking for people to lead devotionals in order to get to know one another better, if you are interested let Austin or Shelly know.
This will be the last month we will be collecting items for kits for LWR this year. We are collecting for Personal Care Kits for October.
Any or all of these items you would like to contribute would be very much appreciated. Cash gifts are welcome also. Bettye Spears & Ann Pierson
Ladies.....
The synod Board has planned the upcoming Convention that will be held VIRTUALLY on Saturday, October 23 from 10:00 am until 4:00. We will do this as a group at the ESC. We will all be able to take part together listening to the speaker, bible study, business meeting and elections. I hope you will plan to attend and take part at the ESC for an interesting and informative time together. There is more information on the poster that is included. Please contact me if you are interested. I will have registration forms available.
Bettye Spears,
President FLCW
Join us September 22 at 5:30 as we begin a new Wednesday night study series discussing the different social statements that the ELCA has adopted over the years. Through this process, we will be exploring how our congregants currently feel about these policies and how they impact our lives. Each week we will read the brief summary before meeting which you can find at the ELCA Website (you are invited to read the statements in their entirety if you like, but we will use the summary as a guide for discussion.) Please let Austin know if you are participating and if you need the documents printed for you.
We will be going over them in the order they were released:
Family of Rex Huse, Kersey Family, the Nickel Family
Oct 1- Sandra Edwards; Oct 4- Ashley Bogisch; Oct 5- Brannon Squyres; Oct 6- Bob Bronstad; Oct 14- Don Pierson; Oct 15- Jennifer Hunt; Oct 21- Raven Lillard; Oct 22- Elizabeth Lorenz; Oct 24- Meredith Reeves; Oct 25- Doris Schuetze; Oct 28- Liz Lessman; Oct 29- Michael Dean Hodde
Nathan & Crystal Lillard- Oct 8, 2002; Henry & Shirley Kasper- Oct 14, 1967; Ken & Christi Coker- Oct 28, 1989