MAKING GOD

Our church wants to spread the Word of God, ignite a mission movement, be involved daily in God's mission, and share the Word of Jesus Christ through our work, actions and deeds.

Jeremy Shears, former member of ILC now living in Pennsauken NJ, is an SMP vicar at Martin Luther Chapel. What is an SMP vicar? SMP stands for Specific Ministry Pastor, a pastor who is tasked with fulfilling a specific pastoral role in a congregational or missional context. This role might include mission pastor, elder-care pastor, youth pastor or whatever other mission need which might be appropriate for the local setting. In the SMP program vicars are placed in service while receiving their seminary education remotely; the length of the training program is four years of intense study. This program is an exciting new step in LCMS’s attempt to spur mission development in the 21^st century.

Jeremy was placed as a vicar at MLC last fall and is actively serving in this new role; he maintains a full-time job for support while he completes his seminary education and ministry training. In his SMP role, Jeremy is responsible for mission development at Martin Luther Chapel. He plans programs to reach out to local community residents (mostly urban, working-class), to minister to school families of Martin Luther Christian Scholl, and to assimilate new members into the larger church body. Some recent events included a church picnic, which was open to the community; a one-day Christmas VBS; a free seminar on home-buying.

Jeremy and his wife Amanda and their three kids, Aurelia, Juliana and Michael are thankful to ILC for their wonderful experience there as members. Also, they are thankful for the prayerful support of those who pray for them. The Church of God extends beyond time and space, so that all of God’s people are truly one in Him! Through the work of the saints, in whatever their various roles, the work of God is well done

Hello All,

I hope you all are well. Attached is the link to this past week’s sermon; it begins with Pastor Vogel reading the Gospel, followed by my sermon. The readings are from Genesis 17, Romans 5 and Mark 8.

www.mlchapel.org

In other news…

The cast is off! What a relief to have my left arm back…

We continue the process of planning for the vacancy. Pastor Vogel’s last Sunday is April 19^th. The congregation has called a part-time vacancy pastor who will provide overall supervision for the church. However (as you can probably guess), part-time is only part-time. I will provide vacancy care for the congregation as well, in addition to my regular duties as mission pastor. I probably don’t really know what I’m in for until I get there, but I believe God will keep us through this time.

The district president has authorized me for full Word and Sacrament ministry for this congregation during the vacancy (for non-Lutherans out there, this means I can administer Communion to the congregation). This was a big concern for the congregation, which has been put to rest.

This past weekend we completed another quarterly outreach event: personal finance and home buying. I led most of the session, given my professional background and experience buying homes. We also had local bank reps and realtors in attendance to help. We got a good turn-out from the church and a few parents from the school (always good to see them). We also got a few people from the community who have no church affiliation. This was a soft-sell on the Gospel, but it was good to be able to introduce some church members to nonmembers.

Our next community event is a health fair in late June; we’re expecting a lot of traffic in the building…

Our first house still has not sold. Please pray for us as we enter the real buying season up here. We very much want to unload it this summer.

Amanda and the kids are well. We’re as busy as ever between the pastoral transition, normal schedule and my schooling. Honestly, we don’t know how were getting it all done, but everything seems to come together when it needs to. It’s a hectic time for us, but not without joy.

Blessings to all of you this Easter season!

Jeremy

In 2008, as part of our continued support of LCMS Thailand Missionary Pastor Robert Hedtke, Island Lutheran Church sent a mission team of four members to Thailand. Our Mission Team had a wonderful experience this past October. Please read their daily " Thailand Mission Team Journal" on the lower portion of this page.

Pastor Hedtke is retiring as a missionary to Thailand and returning home to the United States in March, 2009. However, the Thailand mission needs your support and prayers now, more than ever. Please pray for their new leadership and continuing program. Also, please support the Beds for Christ fund. The ILC Thailand Mission Team is looking into a return trip in June, 2010 with Rev. and Diana Hedtke as team leaders !!!

Greetings from Atkins, Iowa!

More importantly, greetings in the name of our Living and Loving Lord Jesus!

Diana and I are now stateside and enjoying Family and Friends. But, like the song says "I left my heart in San Francisco" (Actually Bangkok and Beyond!). We so sincerely pray that God's Work in Thailand continue that we pray for it and for the people with whom we worked, everyday.

I would like to extend an invitation to you to continue your support for the Mission Work begun and continuing in Thailand by praying for, and contributing to, the support of Pastor Carl Kaye. He, and his Wife, Grace and Son, Nathaniel, will begin working there this Summer. They desperately need your help. Please consider continuing your support for my by supporting them.

God has richly blessed the work in "The Land of Smiles!" He will continue to do so whether or not we help; but what a joy to work with Him! God Bless you!

Your Friend in the Lord of the Church!

Pastor Bob and Diana Hedtke

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Kathy White and Dave Jording leave at 6:45am from Savannah airport, fly to Atlanta, to Los Angeles, to Seoul, South Korea and finally arriving in Bangkok around midnight Monday evening or in reality Tuesday morning.

Friday, October 24th:

Today we rode by van from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai and checked into the International YMCA. When we arrived, Pastor Prajak, leader of the Mae Rim Hmong Student Center, was waiting to meet us. After a quick lunch we loaded into the back of his truck for the 30 minute ride to the student center. What an adventure that was! We arrived at the student center and went right to work painting the inside and outside of the boys' dormitory and kitchen area. We worked side-by-side with the boys, and sometimes right below them as they worked atop a bamboo ladder. As the day passed into late afternoon, the young girls and some of the boys began preparing a meal for us all to share - juicy watermelon, the sweetest pineapple, purple "dragon" fruit, "veggies", chicken and of course RICE!! Painting with the students and sharing a meal with them and Pastor Prajak was very gratifying but the most inspiring part of the day came as it began to get dark and we all gathered in the open-walled worship area. Pastor Prajak welcomed us all and prayed with us. Then all of the students went up front and sang two of the most beautiful songs we've ever heard as a young boy played guitar. Following each song one of the girls explained the message of Jesus Christ of which they had sung. Then it was our turn! Pastor Prajak invited us to come forward and give our testimonies of how we came to be here with them in Thailand., We spoke of the call of the Holy Spirit to be the hands and feet of God to help them and to encourage them in their Christian faith. We even sang an impromptu song for them "Our God is an Awesome God". They all stood and joined in as we sang and taught them hand motions to go with the song. Following our "concert" we gave out gifts (wooden cross necklaces, 'Walking with Jesus' bracelets, and ILC pens) to the very grateful students, who we found out had given up their holiday time from school to come back to the student center to spend the day with us. We are the ones who were most grateful for the uplifting experience. To see the conditions in which the students live is quite humbling. Just as we stepped out of the worship area, the skies opened up and it began to pour. . . . so we enjoyed God's blessing of a DRY place to sit and wait for our ride home. Just a few minutes sooner and we would have been on our way back to the YMCA in the back of the open bed of the pickup truck again. . . .BUT . . . God's timing is always perfect so we were spared "a drenching" and rode all huddled together in the back of a small "sang tao", a two-row COVERED pickup truck. A fitting ending to an eventful day!

Saturday, October 25th:

This morning we got up and met Pastor Prajak downstairs for breakfast. Then we all loaded into the back of a much larger "sang tao" and headed to visit four different Hmong villages way, way, way up many winding jungle-lined roads to the top of a spectacular mountain. At the first village we gave out stickers to village children we met along the way. We visited Pastor Prajak's Maesamai Church which was quite nice compared to many of the facilities we have seen thus far. It even had wooden pews and tiled flooring. Pastor Prajak took us to visit one of the villagers, an 89 year old Christian lady named Jong, who lives in a rather large wooden structure with rutted dirt flooring. She turned on the one overhead light as we entered and we sat together with her and she asked if we would pray for her. Pastor Hedtke led us in prayer as our ever present and helpful guide and interpreter, Dang, translated. That was quite a moving experience to know that God was in that place and working His mighty power! The rest of our journey was quite a "rollicking" adventure in the back of that truck! We were bounced to and fro but wouldn't have traded one single moment of meeting the people or seeing God's magnificent creation in those breathtaking mountain views.

Looking forward to the dawning of a new day as we head back to Bangkok and start working with the Bang Na Children's Center located in the slums of Bangkok.

Monday, October 27th:

Very busy day...

Arrived in Bangkok from Chaing Mai Sunday night. Today we traveled to downtown Bangkok to the sum area of Bang Na. There we visited some of their homes. The children at the daycare sang songs for us in English. We started painting in one of the classrooms. The children were so sweet and they loved to learn our songs as we sang painting. Tomorrow we go back to paint some more areas in the daycare.

It has been a long day . . . .will share more with you tomorrow.