The Wonder of Being Loved - First Lutheran Church of Sioux Falls

Worship and Music
Sponsor a hymnal
Bless the ministries of First
Lutheran Church and honor the life
or memory of someone dear to you
by donating one or more copies of
Evangelical Lutheran Worship.
The cost to sponsor a book is $22.
Sponsored hymnals will include a
book plate on the inside cover. Please
complete the form below and turn it
in to the reception desk along with
your payment made payable to First
Lutheran Church.
Yes, I would like to sponsor a hymnal
Donor name:_ ___________________________________________________
Number of hymnals sponsored __________ x $22 each =_ _______________
In honor of: _____________________________________________________
In memory of:___________________________________________________
First Word • February 2009
Make a Joyful Noise
Organ recitals dedicating the newlyinstalled
Alfred Führer pipe organ
continue in Christ the Victor Chapel:
• Sunday, Feb. 22, at 4 p.m. featuring
First Lutheran Church organists
• Sunday, March 22, at 4 p.m. featuring
Michael Elsbernd, organ; Lisa
Grevlos, soprano solo; Jason
Burggraff, cello; and Anna Vorhes,
harp.
A reception will follow each dedication.
Pastoral Care Ministries
By Paula Bartels, Parish Nurse
Writer’s note: Thank you so very much
for the way you have showered me with
your love by cards, phone calls, visits and
especially your prayers. They have been of
great encouragement to me since learning
I had breast cancer and then surgery in
December.
February is the month of letting
others know of our love for them.
Parents, do you have a written family
health history
going back several
generations for
your children and
grandchildren? It
could prove to be
very beneficial in
the years to come.
From personal
Paula Bartels
Let others know you love them, this month and always
experience, I’ve
learned that a
family history can be instrumental in
determining a plan of treatment.
When doing a post hospital call, one
parishioner said, “I never realized how
much it meant to get a card in the mail
until I was hospitalized! I’m going to be
sure I send cards to those who are ill in
the future.”
It doesn’t take long to be kind!
You never know how much your
thoughtfulness will help someone along
their journey. Such acts of kindness
have helped my journey become an
adventure. When God gives you
opportunity to reach out to someone,
do it. You will be rewarded. It will
be good for your own emotional and
spiritual health. God encourages us
in 2 Corinthians 1:3–4, “Praise be to
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the father of compassion and
the God of all comfort, who comforts
us in all our troubles so that we can
comfort those in any trouble with the
comfort we ourselves have received
from God.” So many of you do this.
There is a bond when we share a
common journey. Some of you have
given me permission to give your
name to another parishioner that is
going through a similar illness or life
situation, thus living out the verses in
2 Corinthians. If any others would like
to give me your name for a resource file,
please let me know by calling 339-1983,
ext. 24, or email nurse@flcsf.org. It is so
helpful for others to be able to connect
with someone who understands what it
is like to be in their situation.
Being proactive in your health is a
good way to take care of your temple.
You never know when your world may
change, so to try to be in the best shape
possible:
• Exercise 30 minutes daily, eat
healthy, get enough rest and drink six to
eight glasses of water daily
• Have a yearly physical
• Stay up to date with your
immunizations
• As you get older, get mammograms,
prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests and
colonoscopies as needed.
We need to take care of our spiritual
health as well. Spending time reading,
studying the Bible and praying are
essential. Good spiritual health will
help you along the journey of life.
Whatever challenges you may be facing,
take heart. Think on these encouraging
words of Jesus in John 14:27, “Peace I
leave with you, my peace I give to you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and
do not be afraid.” Or Hebrews 13:5–6,
“Keep your lives free from the love of
money and be content with what you
have, because God has said, ‘Never will
I leave you; never will I forsake you.’
So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is
my helper. I will not be afraid, what can
man do to me?’ ”
I think of you all often! When I was
to go for the second surgery, I asked to
walk instead of ride. It challenged the
norm a bit, but when the time came,
the transporter left the wheelchair
outside my room.
“You realize it is several blocks from
your room to surgery?!” she said.
I replied, “I don’t think that’s a
problem, I’m used to walking a half
hour a day. I’m a parish nurse and
walking is one thing I encourage my
parishioners to do. I think it would be
fun to tell them I walked to surgery!”
Have fun taking care of your
temples! You may need to be in the best
shape possible, physically, emotionally,
and spiritually when you least expect it!
Lenten Love
Yearning for God’s presence within our own spirits
One of my best memories of the
Valentine season is of sitting in a
one-room schoolhouse full of excited
students surrounded by red streamers
and paper hearts, red and white frosted
cookies and red Kool-Aid, as we
opened our Valentine treasures from
our teacher and
classmates. We’d
spent the night
before writing
valentines and, in
true “community
fashion,” there
was one for each
of us—even for
Pastor Barbara
Wangsness
those classmates
we weren’t so close
to. Valentine’s Day
was a time to think about love—about
friendships and how lucky we were to
know we were also special to others!
Often the “Valentine season” was
close to the start of Lenten services
in our small, white framed church set
among the rolling, wooded hills of
northeast Iowa, and it was here, as a
little girl, where
I first heard
the profound,
lyrical question
in the beautiful
hymn, “What
Wondrous Love
is This?” I’ve
since learned
this North
American
hymn, often
considered
anonymous,
was actually
written down
by William
Walker, as he
traveled through Appalachia in the
early 1800s.
Both the song and its title question
God Loves You!
continue to be favorites of mine as
its melodious and lyrical love song
combines to gently caress our ears,
stirring the
very depths of
our souls with
a yearning for
God’s presence
within our own
spirits. It is a
love song of the
highest kind
possible! A
gentle reminder
of Jesus’ deep
love for us
and for all of
God’s creation;
a “Valentine
reminder”
that addresses
us each Lenten season! Perhaps the
original songwriter was thinking of St.
Paul’s words to the church at Galatia,
about how, “Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed
is everyone that hangs on a tree’—in
order that in Christ Jesus the blessing
of Abraham might come to the
Gentiles, so that we might receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith”
(Galatians 3:13–14). Yes, indeed—
what wondrous love is this?
As we draw near to another
Valentine’s Day and Lenten season,
may the touch of God’s grace on our
conscience remind us that the biggest
gift of love/the biggest valentine we’ll
ever receive is God’s gift to us of the
birth, death and resurrection of Jesus,
the Christ! For this is the One—our
Savior and Lord—who lovingly claims
us as God’s own and empowers us to
walk through whatever Lenten journeys
we will also face in our faith walks
through this earthly life.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you!
First Lutheran Church • 327 S. Dakota Ave. • Sioux Falls, South Dakota • Phone (605) 336-3734 • Fax: (605) 336-8370 • www.flcsf.org