November is a month of transitions.  We "fall" back with our time and the days seem shorter.  The beautiful leaves are falling from the trees and the temperatures start to fall as well.  In the Church year, November marks the last Sundays - in preparation for the new Church year with Advent.  For our nation, November also marks our National Day of Thanksgiving.  We have a section of hymns in our Lutheran Service Book dedicated to "Harvest and Thanksgiving".  Perhaps the best known is "Now Thank We All Our God" (LSB 895)  This hymn, written by Martin Rinkart, like many others, was born out of adversity.  Martin was born in Germany, the son of a poor coppersmith.  Part of his boyhood was spent singing in the choir at St. Thomas Kirche, the church made famous by J.S. Bach.  Rinkart later was ordained as a Lutheran pastor and served in Eilenberg, Germany.  The terrible Thirty Year's War was beginning to escalate, and the walled city of Eilenberg became a refuge for many. More tragedy followed when several bouts of pestilence also attacked the people of Europe at the same time, and Rinkart's home was turned into a haven for the sick and dying.  It is said, that on some days he performed as many as 50 funeral services.  Yet during this time he still wrote over 60 hymns.  "Now Thank We All Our God" was written for the survivors of Eilenberg, Germany, to show the great amount of thanks they owed to their living God.

                        All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;

                        The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;

                        The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heaven adore;

                        For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

-Denise Hennig, Choir Director

PTL NEWS

Thank you to everyone who helped with and attended the fall festival. Together we raised $450 in tickets and $1600 in the silent auction.

We are in need of volunteers to help with the concession stand and the admissions table and one person to run the clock for the Nov 6-7 volleyball tournament. You can volunteer in 2 hour increments. We especially need the help on Friday, since most of our parents work during the day. We will also be accepting baked goods to sell in the concession stand. They can be brought in as early as Nov. 5th and left on the concession stand counter. Thank you in advance for volunteering.

Everyone is invited November 20^th for the basketball jamboree and chili cook-off. The jamboree starts at 5:00pm and the chili will be available starting at 4:30pm. Chili, drinks and desserts will be available for a free will offering. If you want to enter your chili, bring your crock-pot to the basement by 4:00pm. Prizes will be awarded. We are also looking for volunteers for this event. We need you for the concessions stand, admissions table and clean up for the chili cook-off. The school kids have also been asked to bring:

Preschool: Ketsup, mustard, pickle relish and desserts

Kindergarten: grated cheese (for chili) and desserts

1-2 grade: gallons of tea or lemonade and desserts

3-4 grade: hot dog buns and desserts

5-6 grade: hot dogs and desserts

7-8 grade: chili crackers, napkins, desserts

LWML

Our next meeting will be November 19^th at 6:30pm! Hope to see all of our women there!

The LWML will be delivering cookies to our shut-ins for Thanksgiving.

Anyone who would like to donate cookies, please bring them to the office by November 19^th.

Questions, contact Kate B., Patty H. or the church office.

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Questions? Call the office or contact: Amy M.

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blankets, mattress pads, bedspreads and other materials to be used in the making

of their " Ugly Quilts." Please bring the items to the church office, your help is appreciated.

Also, watch for upcoming information regarding helping with the quilting as well.

You don’t have to know how because we can teach you very quickly.

We give our quilts to our shut-ins and to nursing homes. Please join in the fun and fellowship.

Gift tags will be sent home with the children closer to the ate of the event, to fill out a few days prior to the sale. This is a good time to begin helping the children make out their shopping lists. The children cannot buy for themselves. The items are to be purchased as gifts.

Baptisms: James L. 11/01/09

Confirmed: Paul H. 11/01/09

James L. 11/01/09

Jennifer L. 11/01/09

Funerals: Jack G. 10/14/09

Tranferred: Terri S. from St. Johns Lutheran in Chatham 10/13/09

Kelsi S. from St. Johns Lutheran in Chatham 10/13/09

Date Worship Gen. Fund Receipts

October 4th 65 + 112 = 177 $ 12,227.00

October 11^th 51 + 171 = 222 $ 9,863.72

October 18^th 72 + 94 = 166 $ 7,113.82

October 25th 45 + 139 = 184 $ 3,381.74

(The weekly budget need is $ 11,516.84)

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As we approach Thanksgiving, we are reminded of the many blessings God has given to us. The question we should be asking is, "How do we begin to thank God for all that He has done and continues to do for us?" High on our lists of things for which to thank our Heavenly Father should be our new lives in Christ. In spite of our sinful ways, God demonstrated His awesome love for us by sending His only Son to the Cross on our behalf. We certainly will also thank Him for our families as well as our health and material blessings. How blessed we are that God provides for all we need to sustain our lives, and, through faith He provides, He gives us life forever with Him.

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I want to send out a big THANK YOU to Diana Taylor for all of the time she has spent helping me while Sharon has been out for surgery. I also want to thank everyone else who has helped do things for me in the office this whole year. It has been a year since I started and everyone has made me feel so welcome. Thank you, Lora

CHANGE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER?: The changes in the monthly newsletter were made to make it easier to put on the web and send via email to those who wish to receive it that way. In an effort to conserve on postage, paper, ink, etc we have emailed the newsletter to everyone who has given us their email address. Please let us know what you think of receiving the newsletter via email and if you would rather get it that way exclusively, we will take you off of the paper copy list for next month. If you did not receive it via email, we need your email address in the office. Another effort to try and conserve on postage, instead of mailing all of the paper newsletters, we had the shut in copies hand delivered and everyone else’s copy was ready for pick up on the narthex table. We will then only have to pay the postage for a few out of town copies.

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To My Church family:

One of the greatest thought processes I took away from the Doxology was the thought that our Church should be thinking more as a family and less as an organization. I cannot believe how many times I have heard people referring to money and numbers as though our Church were a spread sheet. They think only of the finances and the politics and forget the reasons why we should be here. I have seen people act as though they have to be here and NOT as though they enjoy being here. Why would members of the body of Christ not act as though we are all a part of one family?

I know some of you will think that you do not need Church to be your family and that you already have a family, but I would attest that it is not the way that God intends us to think. ("For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body" -1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

One of the things I try to keep in my mind is a sermon that Pastor Hennig gave regarding numbers. He said that when we look at the stewardship numbers in the bulletin, we should focus on the attendance numbers. If we place our focus on being here and others being here, the other numbers (the financial ones) will take care of themselves.

We are all apart of the body of Christ and we have to remember that we are not all the same. We are all very different parts. Some the arms, some the legs and some are the feet. ("If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body." 1 Corinthians 12:15) I know what you are thinking. I do not want to be the stinky foot. But, how can our body walk without the all important foot?

"Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

 -1 Corinthians 12:27

Your sister in Christ,

Lora Beavers

Remember anytime Concordia can be of any assistance to you or your family, please come in or call and speak with one of us.

Thank you, Sharon and Lora

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My healing is underway!

God’s blessings, Karen U.

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS

02: Margaret D.
04: Karl L.
Nicholas S.
07: Rick C.
Connie J.
09: William S.
12: Isabelle N.
Clara S.
13: Zack B.
Vonda W.
14: Twila C.
Mark W.
16: Kimla C.
Toni I.
Cindy L.
17: Gina W.
18: Sherilyn P.
Lexi R.
19: Dylan E.
20: Bob U.
21: Jesse B.
23: Betty K. 
25: Katie E.
26: Todd R.
27: Connie S.
28: Lora B.
Cheryl H.
Erin H.
29: Peggy Q.
30: Gabryella R.

NOVEMBER ANNIVERSARIES

04: Sandy & Daniel R.
08: Mac & Marilyn W.
17: Mark & Kathy S.
24: Gerald & Ann P.
30: Larry & Shirley E. 
Jason & Tracy M.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: There is now a sign-up sheet in the office. The dates are: November 5th and 6th. There are a couple of teachers not making appointments on the 6th however, due to the sports schedule. Feel free to call the office or stop in and set a time. If you have more than one teacher to visit, we will try to schedule them as close together as possible.

SPELLING BEE

Concordia Lutheran School held their annual Spelling Bee on Friday, October 16th. It was good to see the children using their talents and abilities to thank God for His gifts to them. The purpose of the spelling bee was to choose participants for the area wide Lutheran Spelling Bee at Lutheran High in January. Congratulations to all the students who participates. The second place winners received a trophy. The first place winners received a trophy and went out to lunch with Mr. Henschen. Special congratulations to the winners who are as follows:

2nd grade: 1. Jacob W. 2. Abby R.

3rd grade: 1. Nick V. 2. Natalie B.

4th grade: 1. Alicia B. 2. Jack W.

5th grade: 1. Katie E. 2. Kaitlyn W.

6th grade: 1. Adam M. 2. Nick L.

7th grade: 1. Hanna W. 2. Emily M.

8th grade: 1. Kyle D. 2. Jordan B.

In honor of all who have served our country, Concordia will be presenting a Veteran’s Day program. Everyone is invited to join us Wednesday, November 11th at 10am in the gym!!!

*Reminder, everyone is invited to attend chapel at 8:45 am on Wednesdays with our children. The schedule for chapel leaders in the next few weeks is:

November 4 - Pastor Hennig November 11 – Dan Henschen

November 18 – Pastor Koschmann November 24 - ???

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The date of the annual Thanksgiving Day dinner will be

Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 2:00pm!

Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, coffee, tea and punch will be served. The rest will be potluck. Please bring your favorite dish or dessert to share. Also, to help share with others, the gifts which God has given to us, we will also have a table for donations for our food pantry. The pantry takes non perishable items, and is always in need of such things as peanut butter, jelly, spaghetti sauce, canned items and kids cereal. Please come and join in the fellowship with your Church family. Bring a dish to share and items for our pantry to help others who are unable to have such a wonderful Thanksgiving.