This Week at Mt. Olive

Good evening, fellow redeemed!

The month of January 2010 now fades into the file labeled "Past" as we barrel into February. The way this world progresses, it seems more like a high speed centrifuge instead of the days and months and years of this planet's annual path.

It would be really easy to marginalize many in our society, especially as there seems to be less time and fewer resources than there were yesterday. I was reminded of how easy marginalizing someone can be this afternoon while conducting a chapel service at Bokenkamp. Talking to these young people who little or no English, I was the one stumped in communicating. I had to rely on a translator to help me as we sang and discussed. But, how easy it would have been to dismiss this handful of young people as insignificant, unimportant, in short, a bother.

In the Gospel for the Day, Jesus is confronted with those who were the bothersome of the day: the demon possessed and the ill.

What is the antidote for the marginalized, the insignificant? Our Lord Jesus says it in the Gospel: It is necessary for Me to preach the Gospel. The Gospel is Christ our Lord, the crucified who was raised. It is this Gospel that forms the basis of the ministry entrusted to us by Jesus.

February 2 is the day set aside in our nation for a little critter of the earth to look for a shadow. Big deal. The same day is when the Church celebrates the purification of Mary and the presentation of the infant Jesus at the temple according to Law. You can read about this episode of salvation history in Luke 2.

February 17 is Ash Wednesday. As has been the practice at Mt. Olive, meals before Lenten services will be available. At the meals, a free will offering will be received.

February 21 Mt. Olive's Fellowship Committee will host a Spaghetti Dinner to benefit Camp Lone Star. With changes in funding from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, this part of Lutheran Outdoor Ministries of Texas will be scrambling to find funding, and perhaps become more creative in the way things are funded. It is our hope that, with this dinner, we'll be able to make a contribution to keep this important ministry ongoing.

February 26-28, Ongoing Ambassadors for Christ, or OAFC, will be at Mt. Olive. These young people, mostly college students, will be partnering with our young people, along with some from our sister congregations hopefully, to tell the good news about Jesus in the community around our church. Needed will be: young people, of course; lunch on Saturday and Sunday, and dinner on Saturday night; host families for the team that will be visiting. I'm told by the leader, who lives in Illinois, that many of these folks jumped at the chance to come to south Texas from places like...Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, etc.

I will be out of the office most of the day on Tuesday for the monthly circuit conference.

Prayer Concerns:
Those who serve in our armed forces: Andrew Epley (Iraq), John Miller's niece (Afghanistan), Rob Vadney (Ft. Campbell), Richard Rhode (North Carolina), Ryan Radtke, John Sorensen, Dru Blanc (NAS Corpus Christi), William Worley (NAS Kingsville), Michael Baker (returned from deployment).
The families of those who serve in our armed forces - of all those who serve, the families are under some of the greatest stress.
Leon and Barbara Dube and their daughter Jennifer as she undergoes surgery this week
The President of the United States, the members of Congress, the Judiciary, our governor and state legislature, and our local leaders, that they would pursue the causes of peace and justice, and serve to protect all of life from conception to the grave.

In Christ,
PKJ

This Week at Mt. Olive:
Wednesday, February 3
School Chapel, 8:30 a.m.
Bible Study, 9:30 a.m.
Choir Rehearsal, 6 p.m.
Zumba Aerobics, 7 p.m.
Guitar Worship rehearsal, 7 p.m.

Thursday, February 4
6:30 p.m.
Cub Scout den meetings