Over the last couple of weeks, Bette and I have experienced quite a bit of change in our family. Our oldest son Tim was married to Stephanie and soon they will head to St. Paul to start their life together. John has transferred to Iowa State and is living at his fraternity now. Allison has begun her first year of high school and all too soon she too will be leaving the nest. All this change at the edge of fall has me thinking about another season of change, the Easter season. As glorious and joyful as the celebration of our Lord's resurrection is, it is also a season and story of transition and tremendous challenges. Soon, on Ascension Day, the disciples realized that the resurrected Jesus was not going to be physically with them. Turns out that after 40 days of making appearances among his disciples, Jesus returned home, leaving behind a bunch of rag-tag disciples barely able to stand on their own feet.

Taking leave, sending off a loved one, saying goodbye, is hard. But it is an unavoidable reality of our lives. But, more than that, it seems to be necessary for a person's growth and maturing. We send our children off on their first day of school and before we know it, they are off to college, each year is a step of growth toward independence and maturity. It makes us sad to see them go, yet we are also proud of them.

As we journey from one stage of life to another, from birth to infancy, to adolescence, to adulthood, to mature adulthood, to the ultimate homecoming with Christ, the common link between each of the stages seems to be a difficult transition. Change is hard. Each of these times of change challenge us to grow in our faith. It takes a tremendous amount of faith and trust to be able to send a child off on that first school day, or away to college, or off on their own life together with another. All this takes faith on the part of the child too.

Following Easter, Jesus prepared his disciples for that next step of spiritual growth. By the time Ascension Day rolled around, Jesus had all the faith in his disciples that they would do well, with the help of the Holy Spirit. What was the next stage of spiritual maturity? Part of it is trusting in God for guidance. The other is reliance on each other's strength and faith. Again and again we find this theme in Jesus’ last days on earth. He instructed them to trust and love God, and love one another, to rely on each other, to help, encourage, and empower each other. So in the book of Acts, that is what we see them doing. That's how disciples of Jesus survive and live out their faith.

5:45-6:30
Keep-It-Simple Meals
All Ages
All are encouraged to gather together for fellowship as we break bread together.

6:15-7:15
Joyful Bells rehearsal
High School-Adult
Join the fun and fellowship as we ring God’s praises. We would love to have you join us. Led by Jan Nyhus.

6:30- 7:15
K-5th Grade Elementary Pre-Confirmation.
Each class will spend two or three weeks learning with a parent or a sponsor about God, the church, and each other. Led by Pastor Tim and Anders.

First Group: 3rd grade, Sept. 8, 15, and 22
Topic: God’s word and you

6:30-7:10
7th-8th Grade Middle School Confirmation presentation.
We will learn about the Apostles’ Creed, The Lord’s Prayer, and our life as disciples. Led by Pastor Tim and Anders.

7:10-8:00
7th-8th Grade Confirmation small group time.
Time to discuss the day’s lesson, our faith, and our life together.

7:30-8:30
Senior Choir
7th grade-Adult
Join the fun and fellowship as we sing God’s praises. We can always use your voice. Led by Diane Lande.

Bishop Mark Hanson 
Presiding Bishop
ELCA Churchwide Organization
Office of the Presiding Bishop
8765 W. Higgins Road
Chicago, IL 60631

1:30 p.m. Mary Bible Study Group meets at Ballard Creek.

Sunday, Sept. 12
10:15 a.m. Rebekah Bible Study Group meets after worship service at the home of Marilyn Greene. You can attend the Rally Day activities at the park by 11:00 a.m. The park is right across the street from my home.

LUTHERAN WOMAN TODAY
THE PEOPLE OF GOD: UNITY IN THE MIDST OF DIVERSITY
Session 1--Reading the Bible
Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3

Theme Verse: Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope."

MAIN TEXT: Romans 15:1-4

We begin our new nine month study for this year written by the husband and wife team, Rev D. Jensen Seyenkkulo, Ph.D. and Rev. Linda Johnson Seyenkulo, M.S. One from Liberia and one from Minnesota who truly live within and understand diversity. Our study will take us through the months of September-May.

As our experiences of reading the Bible have changed throughout our lives, we are challenged to add four new methods proposed by the ELCA Book of Faith Initiative. These four methods invite us to study God's Word using the four lenses or reading approaches: devotional, historical, literary, and Lutheran theological. Some of you have already begun this kind of deeper reading and study with the new Lutheran Study Bibles that you recently purchased.

We have had the Bible read to us when we were little children by parents, older siblings, and Sunday school teachers. Then we started on our own with the picture and easy read Bibles, then the other translations that spoke to us through our confirmation and high school years. Then many sought the helpful study Bibles. But often times, don't you wish the verses were more clear? What does this really mean? Am I understanding this? Is this the message that the Holy Spirit is helping me to receive? Do you sometimes feel almost overwhelmed?

Our authors will start us out with Lectio Divina (or Sacred Reading), TRIP, and SPECK methods for Devotional Reading. Then we have great questions to help us in HISTORICAL READING. Different questions will help us focus on LITERARY READING. We act as detectives looking for certain clues and a point of view from which Lutherans read the Bible when we focus on the themes of :
- Law and Gospel
- What Shows Forth Christ?
- Scripture Interprets Scripture
- The Plain Meaning of the Text
- Public Interpretation
in LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL READING. Won't it be a joy to try these new methods and become detectives as we squeeze out even more meaning from the words of the book that we love--our Bible? Yes, we will have the coffee and treats, but we will have food for the soul as we have those great discussions while gaining even more meaning from our beloved B-I-B-L-E-that's the book for me! Don't think that this sounds hard. It will be fun! Come join us in this walk of faith.

Now, remember I told you I could sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Beautiful Savior” every Sunday? Well, I bought an arrangement of “Holy, Holy, Holy!” in honor of my 60th birthday and we will be singing it on Sunday, Sept. 26th at 8:30 a.m. and Oct. 3rd at 11:00 a.m. We are using a CD that has organ, piano, flute, timpani and handbells. You don’t want to miss this special song. It is powerful. I am so excited!

SERVE at & beyond Fjeldberg: In response to God’s amazing grace, disciples give of their time and talent. The Spirit of God has equipped us with many gifts to be used in building up our congregation and community through ministry. God created us to be servants of God and servants of one another. Through the giving of our time and talents, we live out that servant hood to which we have been called.
UNITE and be in
RELATIONSHIP with others: Through relationships with other Christians, we encourage spiritual growth in one another. We would like all disciples at Fjeldberg Lutheran to strive to be involved in small group ministry where prayer, study, fellowship, and service take place and relationships are created and grow. Through our relationship with those who don’t know Christ, we help share God’s story of love in Christ. As Matthew 28 says, we are all to go out and make disciples.
GIVING of our time, talent, and resources: Jesus spoke often about money. The income we have is a result of God's good and generous gift of resources to our world and to us. It is a gift, which implies responsibility to return for the Lord's use a certain portion of what we are given. All Christians are encouraged to strive toward the goal of giving 10%. Not everyone can start at that level. However, we are encouraged to grow each year in what we give. This is a good discipline for us. Through our giving we grow in our expression of our love for God.
E

May God guide us in our mission and ministry.

UPCOMING EVENTS WHICH STORY COUNTY THRIVENT HAS PROVIDED FUNDING:
Float for Lincoln Highway Days in Nevada on August 28th
Puffer Billy Days Breakfast on September 9th
5K Fun Run for Ames High Band on September 18th
2010 Scandinavian Coffee on October 8th
 
If you know of someone with a medical need, or a fundraiser needing matching funds, please contact Gary Wirtz at gswirtz@huxcomm.net. Story County Thrivent has funds available for the remainder of 2010 to help fund these events.

MEALS FROM THE HEARTLAND
The 3rd Annual Meals from the Heartland event will be held September 2 - 5 at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. Last year, 15,000 Iowans volunteered to package more than 4 million meals of a rice, soy, dried vegetables and vitamin mixture to be shipped to Haiti and other developing countries where hunger is very real every day. Watch the bulletin for more info on how you can be involved.

DO YOU NEED A RIDE?
We are fortunate to have several volunteers who will provide you with a ride to the doctor, pharmacy, bank, post office or grocery store if you are unable to drive yourself. If you need a ride, please contact our parish secretary Teresa Dalton at 597-2831. She will need to know when and where you want to go. She will then contact a volunteer. That volunteer will contact you to make arrangements.  Please try to give the volunteers a few days notice if possible.  Also, please keep ride requests to the local area.  Thank you.  Social Concerns Committee. 

PRAYER CONCERNS
If you would like us to pray during worship for you or a loved one who is ill, mourning or serving overseas in the military, please contact the church office. Due to privacy concerns, we will only pray publicly during worship for those whom the church office has received information from the individual or his/her family.

HOSPITAL VISITS
Associated with this, if you or a loved one is hospitalized or homebound due to illness, please contact Pastor Tim or Teresa in the church office so that you may receive pastoral care. Because of HIPAA regulations, we seldom receive information from hospitals, so please let us know. Pastor Tim would like to visit you and pray with you, but cannot do so if he does not know. Thank you.

ANGEL FOOD MINISTRIES AND SHARE
Are you looking for help with your monthly food bill? Or are you simply trying to save money on groceries? If so, Angel Food Ministries and SHARE may be options to consider.

Angel Food Ministries offers medium sized boxes of food for approximately $30. Each box contains food staples from each food group. One box will feed a family of four for approximately one week, or a single senior citizen for almost a month. The menu varies each month. There are no applications to fill out and no financial qualifications for eligibility. Harvest Assembly of God is a host site. Monthly menus and order forms can be picked up from the Angel Food Ministries information box at the church. It is outside for easy access. You can also print a copy from the church website at www.harvestaghuxley.org.

SHARE (Self Help And Resource Exchange) is very similar to Angel Food. The main difference is that SHARE requires participants to volunteer two hours of their time on a monthly basis. Menu information can be found on the SHARE website www.shareiowa.com For information on who to contact in your area, call SHARE Iowa at 1-800-344-1107.

Current menus are also available at the food pantry or the Fjeldberg church office. ~ Social Concerns Committee