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January 2013 Newsletter

Worship Services:
January Time Changes:
Worship times will be changing beginning Sunday, January 6th. Trinity Worship Service: 9:00 a.m. Aurora Sunday School: 9:15 a.m. Aurora Worship Service: 10:30 a.m.
*Please note there will be a time change on January 20th for the Trinity Annual Meeting. Aurora: 9:00 a.m. Worship Service 10:15 a.m. Sunday School Trinity: 10:30 a.m. Worship Service

Annual Meetings
The annual meetings for Trinity and Aurora will be taking place on the following Sundays. Please note Worship Service and Sunday School time changes on Sunday, January 20, 2013: Trinity Annual Meeting will take place on Sunday, January 20, 2012 following the Worship Service. Please note the time change for January 20th only. Aurora: 9:00 a.m. Worship Service 10:15 a.m. Sunday School Trinity: 10:30 a.m. Worship Service Aurora Annual Meeting will take place on Sunday, January 27, 2012 following the Worship Service.

***Annual Report Information Needed***

In order to get the annual reports completed by Sunday, January 13th, all the information needs to be turned in by Sunday, January 6th. Information can be emailed to auroratrinityoffice@gmail.com

Communion Worship Services:

Sunday, January 6th Sunday, January 20th

Newsletter Information Deadline

Please have all information for the Feb. newsletter and calendar to Lisa by Monday, Jan. 21st. Information can be sent to auroratrinityoffice@gmail.com or call 4560740.

7 & 8th Grade: Monday, January 7th @ 6:30 8:00 p.m. Monday, January 14th @ 6:30 8 p.m. 9 Grade: Sunday, January 20th @ 2 p.m. @ Aurora Sun., Jan. 27th @ 2 p.m. @ Michaelsons Funeral Home
th

Confirmation:

Young Adults Group

The January Young adult gathering will take place on Friday, January 11th. We will be meeting at Aurora church at 6:30 p.m. to participate in the WELCA Game Night. Bring games you enjoy! Please bring a snack to share and your own beverage. Day-care may be provided, if needed!

The Book of Revelation and

the End of the World
Revelation is one of the most curious books of the Bible. It is filled with incredible symbolism and imagery that is fascinating, weird, and downright disturbing. Is it a prediction of the future? Does it give us a play-by-play of how the world will end? We will read, learn, and work through this together in our Revelation Bible Study during January and February. On Thursdays in January and Feb. 7th, join Pastor Jon at Olivias Restaurant at 10:30am or at Ken and Anne Prestegards at 6:30pm to dig deeper into this unique book of the Bible. Each participant will receive a study guide. Cost is $12. If you are interested but unable to cover this cost, please speak with Pastor Jon and it will be taken care of. While signup has already passed, anyone is welcome to attend.

334 Cedardale Dr. SE #19 Owatonna, MN 55060

Prairie Manor The Prairie Manor Annual Meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 15th at 7:00 p.m. All are welcome to attend.

Welcome Corner:
On December 9th, we received 23 new members into our parish. We welcome them to our church family and are grateful to have them as part of our community. At Aurora and Trinity, we enjoy seeing new faces and look forward to getting to know them better. Please Welcome: Aurora Tanya Artmann The Hackerson Family (Andrew, Alisha, Evan & Brynn) Josh Lehman The Martin Family (Eric, Annette & Carter) The Mueller Family (John, Becky, Jaxon, Mason & Ayla) The Ripka Family (Brad, Crystal, Alexis, Brandon & Miley) Trinity Tammy Anderson The Hotovec Family (Calob, Brock & Aaron)

Aurora Nursery
Bonnie Johnson is willing to staff a nursery for babies through 4 years old every second Sunday of the month. This way you can enjoy the service and your little one is happy too. Bonnie will be available in the preschool/kindergarten room.

WELCA GAME NIGHTS WELCA will be holding adult social/game nights on Friday, Jan. 11th and Friday, Feb. 8th at 6:30 p.m. in the Aurora basement. Bring a game that you enjoy! Please bring a snack to share and your own beverage. Daycare may be provided, if needed. Birthdays and Special Occasions: Ruth Wendlandt will be celebrating her 90th Birthday on January 5th. If you would like to send wishes, cards can be mailed to her new address: Ruth Wendlandt

***Photos of this special day will soon be posted in the Narthex at Aurora.

Baptisms:
Three infants became members of our parish and the family of God through the Sacrament of Baptism:

Elliot Griffin Davis, son of Jonathan & Lauren Davis on Nov. 18th, 2012 Carter James Martin, son of Eric & Annette Martin on Nov. 25th, 2012 Colin Bradley Eckel, son of Bradley & Angela Eckel on Dec. 23rd, 2012

Feeding Body
What many of us miss is that our bodies remain Gods best way of getting to us. -Barbara Brown Taylor

With the Love of Jesus

God loves bodies. This is the heart of the resurrection of Jesus, according to Barbara Brown Taylor, and her incredible book An Altar in the World. God does not just love our souls; God loves our bodies too.

Taylor also states that as followers of Jesus, we are called to honor the bodies of our neighbors. To care for them as we care for our own. Throughout the Scriptures, Jesus is looking after peoples flesh and bone. He encounters leper bodies, possessed bodies, hungry bodies, sick and broken bodies. What many of us miss is that our bodies remain Gods best way of getting to us, Taylor writes. In 2013, we have a focus for the year: feeding body with the love of Jesus. This is the first of a threeyear focus using our mission statement to lead us into mission and ministry within our community. We believe that God is calling us to feed the people of God in body, mind, and spirit. A place to start is by asking what are the physical and bodily needs of the people within our community? The truth is our bodies need care in so many ways: food, shelter, health care, touch, intimacy, transportation. Sometimes our bodies need specific things for survival. Other times our bodies just need the presence of another to remind us that we arent alone. We also live in a culture that treats bodies with shame and scorn. Celebrities and models set up unrealistic body images; people often think that their value as a human being is tied to how they look. Where do we begin? Our councils have helped identify three goals for the coming year around this theme: 1. Set up a ride-share system for members of our congregations who dont drive or have a hard time getting to church 2. Find volunteers from our congregations to visit our members who are not able to leave their homes easily. 3. Develop a relationship with the homeless shelters and transitional housing to get a deeper sense of the needs of people in our community seeking shelter, with the possibility of offering a free meal to this community at some point. This is just the beginning. Who knows where God will lead us and what we might learn this year! I invite you to join us on this journeyto pay attention to peoples bodies and the needs they have. May the Spirit of God inspire us to take action and lend a hand. Grateful for you, Pastor Jon

Aurora Lutheran Church Council Meeting December 12, 2012

The regular monthly meeting of the Aurora Church Council met on December 12, 2012, at 7:30 PM. Those present were Pastor Jon Davis, Jeanne Pichner, Mark Prestegard, Jodi Keck, Dwight Jensen, Ryan Schrom, Roger Carroll, Brett Paape, Curtis Jensen and Michelle Williams. Pastor Jon led devotions during our Joint council meeting held before our regular meeting. The Secretarys report was approved as read. The Treasures report read and subject to audit. General Fund $526.49; Building Fund $4,004.60; Memorial Fund $8,270.55; Parsonage Fund $1,792.45; Cemetery Fund $7,843.44. *Monthly Offerings: We have been running short on monthly offerings. We are running short on our December offering and will be unable to make all of our payments for this month. It was decided that Jeanne Pichner and Jodi Keck will speak to the WELCA and ask for them to donate $3,000. This money will be used to pay the Synod, which will help us to be current on our bills going into the New Year. *It was decided that Jodi should have access to pull money from the parsonage fund if she were to run short on funds at any given time to make payments. This is to help ensure that the monthly bills are paid on time; since she would not have to wait until the next council meeting to ask where the money should come from to make such payments. She will have a limit of $1,000 that she can take out of the parsonage fund. Any higher dollar amount would need permission from council. She is to repay the money to the parsonage fund when enough funds become available. This will be affective 1/1/2013. *Pastor Jon will be gone December 30. Jimmy Coker will be performing the church service for him that Sunday. *Windows: Roger and Brett brought information about the windows from Kirchners and Larsons. It was decided that we still didnt have enough information to make a decision. Roger will contact both Kirchners and Larsons to get comparable information from the two places. He will report back in January. *Greg Spatenka will be doing snow removal for the church. We need to let him know when there is a special event that he should plow for. *The council will be meeting to discuss the constitution with the ladies who have been working to update it. Sunday, February 17, 2013 after church was discussed as a possible date to meet.

*The council decided to pledge $2,000 to the Synod in 2013. We will be making a monthly payment next year, instead of paying a lump sum at the end of the year. *Council decided to give $75 in 2013 as a donation for all of our baptized members. *The next council meeting will be the annual meeting on January 27, 2013 following the 10:30 worship service.

Submitted By: Michelle Williams