LWML Rally, Catechesis, and Key

On Saturday September 28th I was at an LWML Fall Rally hosted at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Latimer.  I enjoyed a wonderful devotion by Pastor Travis Berg, gave my usual presentation, and was encouraged to hear of all the grants and projects that were approved at the last LWML National Convention.  But I have to say, what I'm going to remember most as I look back at this particular rally is the response of the ladies.  There's a door offering at all the zone rallies that typically goes toward whichever mission they're hearing from that day.  Now there were 65 people present at this particular rally.  That's counting 5 clergy and some other guests.  And these ladies managed to raise over $1,100!

As if this were not enough, when I was first asked to come the ladies were wondering how they might support St. Silas with some sort of tangible gifts.  I said, "Well, we're going to be moving into a space soon that has a kitchenette.  We've never had a kitchen before and don't really have anything to put in it."  Now I should have known what was going to happen, given I asked LWML ladies to help stock a kitchen.  But look at the picture up there.  Wow!  And that's not even all of it!  There's another plastic tray, plastic pitcher, and insulated pitcher that aren't in that picture (and I'll explain why in a moment).

Thank you, ladies, for supporting our little congregation.  Because of gifts like yours we've been able to keep a tight budget and not worry about how we're going to pay for things.  We just had our subsidy meeting at the district office and the Mission Committee was impressed with our budget.  Their financial plan for St. Silas was counting on $140,000 for 2014.  We requested $114,000.  There's a big difference between those two numbers, and it's because of ladies like yourselves who give us such support.  Thank you!

So the missing tray and pitchers.  Last night we had our sixth session of Wednesday evening catechesis.  We have three who are enrolled in our catechumenate, plus their parents come as well.  It's open to the whole congregation.  Currently my wife, Renae, and I are hosting at our house since the congregation only has a space on Sunday mornings.  It's been nice having everyone over.  Last night since we had all these new kitchen items we had to try some of them out: a pitcher of ice water, an insulated pitcher of hot water for tea, and a tray of apples with peanut butter.  Maybe next week we'll have caviar and pate.

Kids are enrolled in the catechumenate when their parents feel they're ready.  It's a two year process of catechesis followed by confirmation and reception of the Sacrament of the Altar.  The first year we'll be going through Rev. Peter Bender's "Lutheran Catechesis," which is structured around the Small Catechism with Scriptural narratives.  The second year the Divine Service will serve as the structure as we study how faith and practice interact, how we're drawn into the events of Scripture through the liturgy, and how through the Divine Service Christ gives his lifeblood to his Church.  After an hour of catechesis we currently head upstairs where everyone joins Renae, Alexi, and me for evening devotions.  Once we're in a space we'll have an actual service after catechesis.

Yesterday we finally got all the paperwork in place to prove we have insurance at the storefront.  That means today we get the key.  Now we can let in contractors so they can get it ready for us!  This was a seemingly small step, but in the grand scheme of what has to happen it was the next big thing.

Continue to remember us in your prayers.

In Christ

Pastor Andrew Richard

St. Silas Lutheran Church
www.stsilaslutheran.org
www.facebook.com/stsilaslutheran
stsilaslutheran@gmail.com