Thank You Utah Zone!

I just received this thoughtful thank you card from Pastor Krause, the new Pastor at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Bountiful. I thought I would share it with you all........

Our Teen LWML/Fall Rally Event...

Saturday October 18th was our Teen LWML Event. It was new and different, we have never done anything like this before. It is so important that we include women of all ages in the LWML, because serving the Lord is something we do with gladness our whole lives! We met some wonderful young ladies that day. Here are some pictures from our event.

Thank you everyone who brought hygiene items to donate!

Thank you Valarie and Tia from Mary Kay for the mini pedicures- my feet are still tingling!

Mini-pedicures.

Our Savior Jesus washed His disciples feet, then told

us all to go and do the same for each other.

Here the girls are making bags for the hygiene items they collected.

We had a drawing for prizes!

Thank you Mr. OZ (Eric Oswald DCE at Grace Lutheran Church)

Thank you ladies of Grace Lutheran Church for hostessing us,

and for the wonderful soup buffet for lunch. It was delicious!

Thank you Pastor Erickson for leading our bible study,

serving the last two years with us and reading this blog for me right now!

Multi-generaltional: Jan (Christ, Murray) and Granddaughter, and some new LWML friends!

Registration table

Another multi-generation LWML.

Mother (Cindy Grace-Sandy), Daughter (Heather) and Granddaughters (Haylee and Mckayla). Awesome!

Thank you everyone who attended, especially those who traveled! It was so nice to meet all you beautiful young ladies, keep serving the Lord with gladness! Watch for announcements and let's do it again soon!

The Countdown Begins!

Okay ladies this Saturday is our Teen LWML Event and Fall Rally! We will be having an in gathering for a Girl's Group Home in Salt Lake City. They care for teenage girls who are in state custody for a number of reasons which may include abuse and/or neglect. We thought it would be a great opportunity for the young ladies at our event to give back to girls their same ages, who maybe aren't quite as fortunate. We will be collecting Hygiene items and assembling kits to take to the Girls' Group Home, so PLEASE while you are out this week at the store (or make a special trip) pick up a few items for the young ladies at this girls' home.

Here are some suggestions:

Shampoo
Conditioner
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Non-aerosol hair care products
Hair Gel
Deodorant
Perfume
Body Spray
Lip Balm
Hair Bushes
Combs

Here is a link to the Girls' Group Home's website: http://www.slcoyouth.org/html/girlsGroupHome.html

Thank you everyone for your care and support, and we will see you Saturday! I hear the teen girls are really excited. Here is the info.

Teen LWML Event and Fall Rally
Saturday Oct. 18 10 am- 3 pm
Grace Lutheran Church in Sandy 1815 E 9800 S Sandy, UT
(801) 572-6375

God's Grace Filled Seasons

Special Guest Speaker: Elaine Bickel

God's Grace Filled Seasons

A Women's Retreat at St. Paul's in Ogden, Utah

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh.

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Last Saturday (Oct. 4th) we spent some time together as friends in Christ. St. Paul's hosted a wonderful event and invited everyone to attend. Elaine Bickel was our special guest speaker, and wow... was that ever a treat. I had never met Elaine, but ever since St. Paul's announced her as the speaker I have not stopped hearing about her! She spoke to use throughout the day about the different seasons of our lives. Let me just say, there were a few times I was laughing so hard I was worried about what I was involuntarily going to do! She has a wonderful gift of seeing God's promises and miracles in every single part of daily life, and then sharing those promises and miracles with others.

Here is a link to Elaine's website for more information.

http://www.elainebickel.com/upcoming.html

King Solomon (possible author of Ecclesiastes) has always fascinated me. Son of the great King David, he sure had some big shoes to fill. But he knew he couldn't do it alone, in 1 Kings 3:7-9 Solomon asks this of God:

" Now, O Lord my God you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among people you have chosen, a great people too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours? "

God grants this to him and Solomon lives his life and governs God's people using this God given gift. But just like us, Solomon and David were both sinners and made mistakes. Our loving Lord showed mercy on them, just as he does us each and every day through His son Jesus. Let us all follow Solomon's lead and ask God for what we desire, and take our worries and concerns to Him.

Thank you ladies of St. Paul's for putting on and inviting us all to your event, it was very uplifting. Also, thank you Elaine for sharing your time with us.

Teen LWML Event

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you,

saying, "This is the way; walk in it. "

Isaiah 30:21

October 18th at Grace Lutheran Church in Sandy

from 10-3pm will be our Teen LWML Event

Teen Activities Include:

* Special Teen Bible Study given by Mr. OZ, DCE there at Grace

* Shelly Davis from Salt Lake Lutheran High will be there doing a breakout workshop especially for you!

* A Servant Event- helping others because we have been so blessed!

*Mini Pedicures

*Luncheon

* Special gifts and door prizes

*Come and hear what the LWML is all about!

Women's Activities Include:

*Bible study given by Pastor Erickson

* Fall Business

* Servant Event

* Mini Pedicures

* Luncheon

* Let's show our little sisters in Christ what LWML is all about!

Let's all come together as women in Christ on October 18th for an event centered around God's Word and serving Him with gladness! We are so excited to invite teen girls to our event this year. Ladies, start thinking about some teen girls in your congregation, neighborhoods or families to bring with you! Child care will be provided for the entire day so those of us with little munchkins can attend. We need each society's help to put on a great event, so please ask your Society Presidents how you can get involved!

Please email me (Ashley Willoughby- ashleywby2@aol.com) or the Society President at Grace (Cindy Sinclair- csinclair@gracesandy.org) with any questions or to RSVP.

See you there!

Thought for the day

Joan (St. Johns, SLC) gave me this, she found it in a magazine- thanks Joan.

Answered Prayer

If you rise from prayer forgiven and clean inside, prayer has been answered.

If you rise more conscious of God's greatness, goodness, mercy, love and nearness prayer has been answered.

If you rise with greater love and compassion for other people, answered prayer is transforming your selfish nature.

If you rise with an abiding sense of peace in spite of the great problems that beset your life, God has answered by preparing you to confront these difficulties.

If you rise with clearer vision, greater purpose, a more positive outlook, renewed strength, and fresh inspiration, rest assured that your prayer has been answered.

The Epistle

Timberlakes Retreat

"As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."

Psalms 42:1

As I was traveling to Timberlakes for our Zone Retreat early last Saturday morning this was just one beautiful example of God's creation that He shared with me. It has been an annual event for the past five years or so to meet at Kris' (St. Marks) cabin in Timberlakes which is just east of Heber. She welcomes us into her beautiful home and we have a wonderful time talking, laughing and being together in God's word. We started off the morning with muffins and coffee along with a bible study. After talking about some upcoming events, we had a wonderful luncheon complete with hamburgers, hot dogs and all the fixins.

Kris surprised us all with the cutest post-it note holders with matching pens she and a friend made. They were complete with quotes from all our favorite hymns, the hard part was deciding which one to pick! The rest of the day we were all walking around humming and singing, it was wonderful. We spent the last hour on a "Walk with Jesus", we went out for a walk on the trails and found things to remind us of our Savior. For example; something prickly for Jesus' crown of thorns, something dead for the savior truly died, a rock to remind us of the huge stone that was rolled in front of His tomb, and something alive because Christ lives! The best part was when Elaine Holt tried to capture a bumble bee for her living thing...we were all laughing, it was quite the sight! Thank you to everyone who made the trip, your company was wonderful!

Special thank you to Kris for

sharing your home with us,

it truly is a beautiful place.