Newsletter

April/May 2015
The Summer Campout will be held July 2426 at Quartz Creek Campground. The
campground is located on beautiful Kenai
Lake and Quartz Creek . There are 11 first
come, first serve sites available, but you
need to arrive early to get one of those sites,
We suggest Wednesday, Thursday, or as
early as possible on Friday. it is strongly
recommended that you go online to
recreation.gov and reserve a site.. There are
a number of double sites available where
two families can share a site. Mike and Lisa
Wilkinson will be in charge so please let
them know if you are coming and what site
you will be in. mwilki@gci.net or 8683901. It is a beautiful campground and a
great location.

Congregational Assembly Meeting

Terry Callies
President, Anchorage Lutheran Church

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! I

hope you are still celebrating the resurrection
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. The joy of Easter
should be celebrated all year long. Jesus calls
each and every one of us to join Him in His
ministry and thats what we do at Anchorage
Lutheran, because it is truly His ministry, not
ours.
We will be having a Congregational
Assembly (Voters) Meeting on Sunday, April
26th following the late service. Immediately
following the late service we will provide a
pizza lunch. When lunch is complete, we will
start the meeting, sometime between 12:45 1:00 pm. Child care services will be provided.
The agenda for the meeting will be:
Presentations of Jesus Ministry at ALC
Paying for Jesus Ministry at ALC
Presentation and Approval of Proposed
2015/2016 Budget
Election of two At-large Members to serve
on the Mission and Ministry Council (MMC)

Jesus is very busy in His redemptive mission

in Anchorage and it is exciting and fun to join
Him and work with Him in His mission. There
will be some exciting and important
information presented and some important
business decisions to be made. I encourage you
all to make every effort to attend.
God Bless You!

Dear Fellow Disciples,

For the past thirty weeks my wife, Kathy, and I
have hosted a group of people on Monday nights to
come to our house for dinner followed by a study of
the Bible through the Bible Study called The Story.
There are groups that also meet at other peoples
houses doing the same thing. In the second lesson
we learned that because of His love for us God put
together a plan to relentlessly pursue all people to
bring us back to a right relationship with Him
following Adam and
Eves fall into sin in the
Garden of Eden. The
punishment for that
sin meant death and
total separation from
God and there was
nothing that we could
do on our own to save
ourselves from this
punishment. Everyone
in our group was
moved that God would
relentlessly pursue
each of us to bring us
back to Him, and as we studied the Old Testament
we saw how God shaped history to make sure that
His goal was accomplished. We all know from the
Gospel messages of the New Testament that Gods
goal was accomplished when His Son, Jesus, was
born at Christmas. Jesus lived on earth and lived the
perfect life that we could not. He suffered, died, and
rose from the dead to pay the penalty for all of our
sins. And now, through faith our relationship to God
has been restored.
As of this writing, we only have three lessons
left. Our last lesson that we had told us how the
early church got started in the Book of Acts. Before
ascending into Heaven, Jesus tasked His followers
(disciples) to make disciples of ALL people, telling
and showing them of Gods love for them. The early
church met in homes sharing a meal and telling new
people about Jesus love for them similar to our
groups studying The Story. Empowered by the Holy
Spirit their efforts were blessed and the number of
Christians grew rapidly.
Today, there are more people in the world than
during Jesus time and many of them dont know
Jesus and dont have a relationship with God. But
God loves ALL of them and He still relentlessly

pursues them to bring them to a right relationship

with Him. God uses us with Jesus help to tell and
show others about His love for them through Jesus.
Jesus is very active, stirring up people in our
community. Some of them come to Anchorage
Lutheran looking for answers, seeking help. We
have many visitors and guests that join us for
worship on Sundays. I have been a member here for
over 40 years and know most of the disciples here,
but there are more people that worship with us that
I dont know than at any
time in the past 40 years.
If there are people that
you dont know take
time to introduce
yourself to them and
help them to feel
comfortable here. I
spend a lot of time
during the week at the
church as some of you
do. I am very much
aware of the time that
our pastors spend
ministering to our own
disciples as well as reaching out with the love of
Jesus to make a difference in peoples lives who
come to us seeking help and answers.
There is more to be done than what our pastors
have time for. We need your help. Let the Holy
Spirit empower you and move you to volunteer to
help out with Jesus ministry here at ALC. We will
be talking more about this in the weeks ahead.
God bless you!!!
Terry Callies,
President and Licensed Deacon,
Anchorage Lutheran Church

Weighing Anchor

Jim Scriven, School Administrator

Mr.Scriven@ALSalaska.org
522-3636
Our architect recently
presented 35% designs for our
expansion. Im looking to soon start
hosting small gatherings with members of
our churches, school families, and
community supporters, sharing the vision
that will be brought to life through this
facility expansion. This month I would like
to share some exciting details about the
expansion:
- Its 43,000 sq. ft., linked to our current
facility via the southwest back door. This
triples our square footage for ministry.
- It includes two stories, the top floor level
with our current structure, and then
heading downstairs for a lower story. Well
build into and up against the hill just south
of our building, allowing the two story
structure.
- It features a full gymnasium with
performance stage, with classrooms and
other spaces around three sides.
- Additional rooms allow us to extend
through high school, and grow the
preschool (an additional pre-kindergarten
room).
- Specialty rooms to be utilized across the
program: Music Room, Art Room, Science
Lab.
Other ministry impacts include:
- A youth room with adjoining Director of
Christian Education office.
- Locker rooms with showers, enhancing
our hosting ability during summers for
Alaska Mission for Christ mission groups.
- Gymnasium and stage will cause a change
in our current Multipurpose Rooms use,

able to more permanently be

beautified for worship and
fellowship.

This month is about

excitement, good news,
and possibilities coming to life
for the future ministry of the
Lutheran Center and Anchor Lutheran. Im
not spending time this month on funding.
The project will not be cheap, nor should it
be; facility expansion will be a tremendous
tool in ministry growth, and quality growth
requires quality tools. I feel deep conviction
that God has prepared us to move in this
direction, and so I have confidence He also
knows how well pay for it. We will be
working in the coming months to discover
that plan, and act upon it. I ask for regularly,
daily prayer that God lead and bless our
expansion process. I look forward to seeing
God amaze us in the months and years
ahead.

LWML Notes

Joanne Fritz, Womens Guild President

LWML Spring Joyshop will be Saturday,
April 18 at St. John Lutheran Church in
Palmer, 8:30a.m.2:00 p.m.
Breakfast
Program
Luncheon
Communion Service
Ingathering for Womens Shelter in
Palmer

Lutheran Social Services

of Alaska

Alan Budahl, Executive Director, LSSA

1303 W. 33rd Avenue
272-0643

Thank you to all who donated Easter

baskets to the food pantry this year. The
baskets were of many different styles and
colors but they all were similar as they
contained the message of Easter. What a
blessing it is to be able to share the Gospel
in such a heartfelt way. These baskets come
as a huge relief to parents who may not have
otherwise been able to afford an Easter
basket and a great surprise to the children
who receive them!
The LSSA food pantry is in need of food
as we continue to serve a large number of
families this year. Anything helps but here is
a list of things that we could use
immediately; canned fruit, chili, spaghetti
noodles and sauce, hamburger/tuna/
chicken helpers, cereals, peanut butter.
Thanks to everyone who has donated
recently or in the past, your donations are
greatly appreciated! We need volunteers in
the pantry and shopping at the Food Bank.
Call us if you can help.
As you begin your spring cleaning, think
of donating your gently used coats to be
distributed through HUGSS and Coats for
Kids. The event takes place in August and
distributes school supplies and winter coats
to kids who would otherwise go without. All
sizes are needed (some kids only fit into
adult sizes). Also keep a look out for coat
closeout sales as the summer season
approaches and consider purchasing a coat
to donate. Thanks to donations throughout
the community, the event helped 5,545

school aged children with coats and school

supplies last year!
Plans are under way for the annual
Harvest of Hope Auction to benefit the
ministries of LSSA. The event is scheduled
for Friday, November 13, 2015 at the
Sheraton Anchorage. We are looking for
volunteers to help with the planning this
years event. We are also looking for items
for the silent and live auction. If you can
help us out in any way, please contact the
LSSA office.
Save the dates:

May 8th- Visitor Industry Charity Walk: The

5K "Graze to Raise." Pre-registration fee is
$35 for adult and $20 per child, plus any
pledges you are able to acquire. Please
register on or before May 3rd. Sign-up online looking for Lutheran Social Services or
our group name Luther's League. LSSA staff
will pick up the bibs on May 4th and will
distribute them at the Dena'ina Center
beginning at 5 p.m. The walk begins at 6
p.m. We hope to see you there!

November 13th Harvest of Hope Auction

Sheraton Anchorage 6 p.m.