Merry Christmas!

I received this card from a friend and absolutely loved it! Merry Christmas all my fellow sisters in Christ! I hope your Christmas is full of family and friends as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Please take notice of our Janruary planning meeting it is on Saturday Janruary 16th 2010 at 9:30am at Marie Callendars in Holladay (right across from St. Marks' Hopsital) We have lots of stuff to go over so society presidents/congregational reps please plan on attending. If you are not able to make it please send representation from your congregation. Some of the things we need to discuss are listed below. Please bring your theme ideas and suggestions along with you:

*Bylaws
*Spring Events
*Elections: Zone President, Vice President Pastoral Counselor
note: (Nominating Committee Carole, Charlotte, Cindy and Elaine)
*Timberlakes Retreat
*Fall Rally
*Bible Brunches/Mission Activities
*Teen LWML
*Convention Update

Also, check out our new District website http://utahidaholwml.com/
Nice job Julie!

May God bless you and your service to Him in 2010!

St. Paul's Retreat

"Sweet Life Cafe"
Where Women Savor Time With God

At Sweet life Cafe you'll satisfy your cravings for friends, God and spiritual growth. It's a retreat you won't want to miss. Join us as we savor time with God and with girlfriends. Together we'll experience meaningful Bible studies, flavor-filled activities, and scrumptiously delicious Fun!!

St. Paul Lutheran Church in Ogden
Saturday November 14th, 9:30-4:00pm
$20.00 per person--lunch included
Pre-registration is required so please email (with questions too)
Jeannie Barrette- wbarrette1@msn.com

There will be a collection of non-perishable food for the local food bank and stuffed teddy bears for the Odgen Police Department. Thank you!

Want to see what we did last year? Check out our "older posts" labeled God's Grace Filled Seasons in October of 2008. You won't want to miss it!

Check this out...

Hey ladies!

Our idea is catching on! Check out this link for a new blog that LWML President Janice Wendorf just launched! We love it President Jan!
http://www.lwml.org/blog/


Have a wonderful weekend!

Pictures From the Zone Retreat in Timberlakes

At the beginning of the month we traveled to a beautiful place East of Heber City call Timberlakes. Our sister in Christ, Kris (St. Marks) offers her home to us every year for our Zone Retreat. We shared a bible study, fellowship, lunch, some brainstorming, recipes, prayers and a craft. Here are some pictures from the day. Thank you everyone for coming!


A buck that wanted to check us out, maybe he smelled the coffee.
He wouldn't hold still for a good picture!





The lovely lady in the yellow shirt was our "creative consultant"
thanks Jean for the craft project!







Listening closely to directions...


After some serious concentration and a few do-overs...this is the finished product! Jean picked out a beautiful cross stamp just for us! Then Kris found some verses and prayers from Portals of Prayer and we chose our favorite for the front cover. Aren't these notebooks so cute??? And..the pens match! Some of us made 2 and gave one away to a friend, others said they were going to use theirs as a prayer journal. Cute, cute.

Thank you Kris for sharing your home with us!

We sure enjoy our time together every year!

Fall Rally at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Logan, Utah

We are headed up north this year on Saturday September 19th 2009. We are going to have bible study, business. lunch and a Dessert In The Dark. There will be devotions and activities geared towards learning more about and even experiencing a "taste" of what it would be like to be blind. All proceeds from the Dessert In The Dark will go to Lutheran Blind Mission below is a link to their website and an article from their organization. Please share this information with your congregations and friends at church. Ask them if they would like to donate to our Dessert In The Dark. Invite all women to join us and if they are not able to make it, maybe they would be willing to send a donation with someone else. I found this article on their website that could be read during announcements at church or put on a flyer to hand out to the congregation. Please take advantage of it and we will see you in Logan on September 19th!

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Missionary Moment Narration

Mission work is an important activity of our church. In fact, it was Jesus’ last mandate: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

And so the first disciples went to many nations. Paul and Barnabas, Philip and Peter, and so many more, were sent by the Spirit to share the good news of salvation. And so, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has sent missionaries all over the world.

One often overlooked group of people right here in the United States are those who have lost their physical sight. Often, when people lose their sight, they become isolated and separated from society. Sitting alone, with little or no physical sight, they become angry at God.

In the United States there are 12 million blind and visually impaired people and 95% are unchurched. They are of all ages.

Lutheran Blind Mission is LCMS World Mission’s mission arm to reach blind and visually impaired people. It has reached out and served this group of people for over 80 years.

The Lutheran Library for the Blind is North America’s largest lending library of Braille, large type, and audiocassette Christian materials. Thousands of people are strengthened through the magazines and devotionals such as Portals of Prayer.

Through Lutheran Blind Mission’s outreach centers hundreds of blind and visually impaired people are helped and the Gospel is shared.

One of these people is Ruth. She was a Braille reader and an active user of The Lutheran Library for the Blind. She enjoyed receiving books that were inspirational, spoke of God, and not full of sex and violence. During the past few years, however, arthritis took its toll. Just as age can take the sight of some people, the arthritis took the use of Ruth’s hands. It became too painful for her to read Braille any more.

Ruth didn’t lose her joy nor did she give up reading. She turned to the recorded books the Library has on audiocassette tapes. She continues to keep an active mind, a healthy heart, and an active faith in Jesus. She is thankful to Lutheran Blind Mission for its materials that she can read.

Because most of the people served by Lutheran Blind Mission are living below the poverty level, all of our materials and services are provided at no cost.

There are many ways we in this congregation can help. Please consider a gift in today’s door offering. Keep this work in your prayers. Consider volunteering your time. You can look at the bulletin insert for ideas and contact information. In this way we play an important role in mission work right here in the United States.

Lutheran Blind Mission

Helping Blind People See Jesus

http://www.blindmission.org/index.asp

Zone Retreat at Timberlakes

Join us in two weeks for our annual Zone Retreat in Timberlakes. Kris (St. Marks. Provo) is kind enough to let us invade her quite cabin every year for a few hours of fellowship, food, bible study and devotion. And... a little bird tells me that she has a fun craft project up her sleeve so bring $4 to participate. (Anyone remember the cute post-it holders she made for us last year? I have a feeling it will be fun!) Email me for directions, food assignments or for more information ashleywby2@aol.com
I hope to see you all there!

As we speak there aproximatly 10 women for our district in Alaska teaching VBS! They are sleeping on cots, cooking meals and showering there at the church which is 45 miles outside or Anchorage, Alaska. In fact, our very own Cindy (Grace, Sandy) made the long journey to share the love of Jesus with children. Please keep them in your prayers this week.

Also, Camp Perkins was last weekend. I know there were a few ladies from our zone who went, did you have a good time? Please email me with pictures and let me know how it went! I wasn't able to make it this year and we'd love to hear all about it!

Our Banner

Here are the pictures of our banner (sorry it took me so long..) It was Utah Zone's turn to make the District banner for convention this year. May I just say; ladies of the Utah Zone....WOW! You're amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you to the many hands that put this beautiful banner together. Everyone loved it, I heard lots of wonderful comments!