This Week @ St.John

Linda will be gone this week, but the office will be staffed by volunteers 9:00-Noon

• Mon-Tues Oct 1-2, Pastor at the Fall Pastors' Conference in Urbandale
• Tues Oct 2- 1:00pm Quilting, Church basement
• Wed Oct 3- 9:00am Women's Bible Study
• 3:30pm Confirmation
• 8:00pm Budget Meeting
• Thurs Oct 4- 1:30pm LWML Meeting
• 7:00pm Board of Education Meeting
• Sunday Oct 7- 8Mite Box Sunday
• 8:45am Sunday School & Bible Study
• 10:00am Worship with Communion
• 7:00pm "Truth Project" Bible Study at parsonage

This Week @ St.John

• TUES Sept 25- Pastor returns to office
• 8:45am Pastors Circuit Conference, hosted by St.John's
• WED Sept 26- 9:00am Ladies Bible Study
• 3:00pm Confirmation
• SAT Sept 29-St. Michael & All Angels Day
• SUN Sept 30- 8:45am Sunday School/Bible Study
• 10:00am 5th Sunday Contemporary Worship

This Week @ St.John

• MON Sept 17- Constitution Day
• WED Sept 19- 9:00am Ladies Bible Study
• 1:30pm Confirmation
• 8:00pm Elders Meeting
• THURS Sept 20- 9:00am LWML Rally, hosted by St.John's
• Pastor leaves, will return to office on Tues 9/25
• FRI Sept 21- St. Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
• SAT Sept 22- First day of Autumn
• SUN Sept 23- 8:45am Sunday School/No Bible Study This Week- Pastor in Wisconsin
• 10:00am Worship

ORPHAN GRAIN TRAIN- Volunteers welcome to help load a shipping container at the OGT warehouse in Ida Grove on September 20th at 9:00AM.

LWML FALL RETREAT- Sept.22 at Mission Central, "Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord." All women are invited. Registration at 9:30 AM, Retreat 10:00AM-3:00PM. Guest Speaker Dr. Jeffery Burkart, Missionary to Asia Dennis Denow and Gary Thies. Cost $15, limited to 150 guests. Sign up in the church office. As an offering, please bring gift cards to retailers like Walmart, Costco, Fareway, HyVee, or Target.

ADULT INSTRUCTION CLASS- Pastor plans to begin a new adult confirmation class beginning on September 30th. If you or someone you know is interested in reviewing the Lutheran teachings please let him know.

COMING UP NEXT MONTH- Quarterly Meetings; Council Meeting on Wed. Oct. 10, Voters Meeting Oct. 17

Write it on your heart...

"My child, keep my words and store up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister’, and call insight your intimate friend."
- Proverbs 7:1-4

Fall in love with God by reading His Word. Start today. The 3 fastest ways to get closer to God are to 1) Read the Bible, 2) Pray, and 3) Come together with other Christians at Church or Bible study and share in His Word and sacraments. Make this the 'Year of the Word,' read your Bible.

Faith not Fear

This week, Sunday School students learned about how Moses sent 12 scouts into the promised land. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb came back with good news about a land flowing with milk and honey, but the ten other scouts warned about the inhabitants being giants, which led the people to complain and want to return to slavery in Egypt.

God complained to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?" (Numbers 14:11).

Moses prayed for the Israelites, reminding God of His promises, The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion." (Numbers 14:18a).

God rewarded Joshua and Caleb and once again forgave the grumbling Israelites, although their rebellion cost them another 40 years of wandering in the desert. God wants us to trust Him and faithfully follow where He leads us. It disappoints Him when we let our fears eclipse our faith in Him, His promises and His plans for us.

Rally Sunday 2012

To launch the new school year, five First graders received Bibles and four Fifth graders starting Confirmation were presented with Catechisms. Pictured here with Pastor Merrill in the back row are Fifth graders Tanner Hoffman, Ellen Mallory, MaKenzie Smith and Evelyn Henschen. In the front row are First graders Lily Schwarz, Kennedy Goslar, Garrett French, Marissa Galvin, and Caralyn Henschen.

Today new Sunday School and Confirmation teachers, helpers and memory-work listeners were officially installed during worship. Please remember to pray regularly for these volunteers and all of the children of our congregation, that God would nourish their faiths and that they might all grow in relationships with Him.

It has been discovered that a number of Confirmation students didn't receive Bibles as First graders since their families have transferred to St.John when they were older. We are looking through our records to find out who they are and will try to make sure that they also receive Bibles which they can use in Confirmation class, Sunday School, or for personal reading and devotions.

Lutheran School Memorial

This memorial marker was erected last week on the corner across from St. John where the Education Building used to stand. It was made with bricks from the building itself and now stands as a reminder of Charter Oak's commitment to Christian education.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it" ~Proverbs 22:6

This Week @ St.John

• TUES Sept 11- Patriot's Day
• 8:45am Pastors Circuit Conference, hosted by St.John's
• WED Sept 12- 9:00am Ladies Bible Study
• 3:00pm Confirmation
• FRI Sept 14- Holy Cross Day
• SAT Sept 15- 6:00pm Worship with communion
• SUN Sept 16- 8:45am Sunday School/Bible Study
• 10:00am Worship with communion

THANK YOU- to all the volunteers who helped with painting the new Fellowship Hall last week and to all the volunteers helping with Sunday School & Confirmation this year!

ORPHAN GRAIN TRAIN- Volunteers welcome to help load a shipping container at the OGT warehouse in Ida Grove on September 20th at 9:00AM.

LWML FALL RETREAT- Sept. 22 at Mission Central, "Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord." All women are invited. Registration at 9:30 AM, Retreat 10:00AM-3:00PM. Guest Speaker Dr. Jeffery Burkart, Missionary to Asia Dennis Denow and Gary Thies. Cost $15, limited to 150 guests. Sign up in the church office. As an offering, please bring gift cards to retailers like Walmart, Costco, Fareway, HyVee, or Target.

ADULT INSTRUCTION CLASS- Pastor plans to begin a new adult confirmation class beginning on September 30th. If you or someone you know is interested in reviewing the Lutheran teachings please let him know.

Philippians 1:3

This Week @ St.John

• MON Sept.3- Office closed for Labor Day
• TUES Sept 4- 6:30am Mens' Bible Study
• WED Sept 5- 1:30pm Confirmation
• THURS Sept 6- 1:30pm LWML
• FRI Sept 7- 6:00pm Wedding Rehearsal
• SAT Sept 8- 1:30pm Vicki Magill & David Stevens Wedding
• SUN Sept 9- 8:45am Sunday School & Bible Class

• 10:00am Worship- "RALLY SUNDAY!"
• 1:00pm Pastor at Denison Care Center
• 2:00pm Pastor at Eventide Lutheran Home
• 4:00pm LYF Meeting

PAINTERS NEEDED- 

If you would like to help paint the new fellowship hall this week, please call Byron Weiss at 267-9740 or 678-3590 or call the Church office.

RALLY SUNDAY- 

Next Sunday, Sept. 9th, the 1st Graders will receive their Bibles and 5th Graders will receive their Chatechisms. Sunday School, Confirmation, and VBS teachers, superintendents, & memory-work listeners will be installed at this service.

SUNDAY SCHOOL HELP STILL NEEDED- 

Memory Listeners, & a co-superintendent for Sunday School. Please contact Peggy Sue Henschen

FALL BIBLE SALE-

Be sure to check in the Church office for Concordia Publishing House's (CPH) Fall 2012 sale on Bibles for you and your family. Remember that this is the "Year of the Word." Use Back-to-School time as another opportunity to commit to digging in to God's Word.

LADIES BIBLE STUDY-

Begins Sept.12 at 9:00am

LWML RALLY-

Sept.20 at 9:00am with coffee & rolls and opening devotions at 9;30am.

What churches do

"And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy. And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near." ~Hebrews 10:23-25

This is something else that 7/8th Grade Sunday School learned today, that Christians through their churches and as fellowships do certain things as a body. Here's what we should strive to do together:

• Hold on to the hope Jesus gives us
• Spur one another on and encourage one another
• Keep on meeting together to share in God's Word and sacraments

As a matter of fact, we thought that it might just make a good theme for Junior High Sunday School this year!

First Day of Sunday School

(NET) Hebrews 10:11-12 "And every priest stands day after day serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again - sacrifices that can never take! away sins.But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God"

7-8th Graders this week compared and contrasted Exodus 35-40, when God directed the Israelites to construct the tabernacle with Hebrews 9-10, where the Author (possibly Peter) makes clear that Jesus is our new high priest AND He Himself is the once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins, so that we no longer need a daily animal sacrifice.

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Bethany & Ted Mallory are the new Junior High Sunday School teachers. Both attended Concordia University, Nebraska where they received Lutheran Teaching Diplomas. Before returning to Iowa, they taught at Los Angeles Lutheran Jr/Sr High school (now Concordia Lutheran MS/HS). Bethany was the Jr Hi Religion teacher there and later Spiritual Life Director. Bethany now Teaches English and is Elementary Guidance Counselor for Maple Valley Schools in Mapleton and Ted teaches Civics, Art and Yearbook at Boyer Valley in Dunlap.

Our hope is to help St.John students to grow in their relationship with God. We want to help take God's Word from their heads to their hearts.Please pray for us and for our students this year.So that God will become real to these kids so that they will want to continue growing in their faith long after Pastor confirms them. Thank You.

Seventh Graders:
Connor Beeck
Alayna Castillo
Riley Elwell
Jordyn Pester

Eighth Graders:
Jesse Hupp
Allison Maack
Grace Mallory
Hallie Neddermeyer
Travis Pautsch
Dalton Smith
Emily Steffen