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Senior Recognition Sunday

May 19 at the 10:30 a.m. service


Join us at the 10:30 am. service on Sunday, May 19th to receive a prayer blanket and blessing.


This is also an opportunity to share with the Messiah community your student's plans for the next year.


Please let Teresa know if you plan on attending so that we can have the appropriate number of prayer blankets.

EDUCATIONAL GRANTS available to all graduating seniors.


All graduating seniors are eligible for a Joan Shropshire education grant/scholarship.   


Joan Shropshire Grant Application   

Grant Guidelines


This is a very easy process. Don’t miss this great opportunity!!

 Messiah wants to support your senior.


May is Mountain of Food Drive


May is our Mountain of Food drive in support of St. Stephen’s Food Pantry and St. Mark’s Food Pantry. We would like to thank each of you for your continuing support of this drive. As we all know, the price of food has gone up and the number of clients has also gone up. The pantries are reaching more and more families in support of their food needs. 

 

Messiah has always been very generous and we can’t thank you enough.

Your continued support during May would be much appreciated.

 

Dee Schwoegler and Terry Tiffany - St. Stephen’s Food Pantry


Mountain of Food Donation envelopes are available on the Offering Table in the Gathering Space.

 

Kennedy Elementary School Thank You!


Thank you Messiah Family for the continued support you provide to the Kennedy Grade School families and staff. Because of your generosity we’ve provided families gift cards to help with the cost of needed items, treats for the staff, the on-going children’s clothing collection, 3rd grade level books and also transportation funds for Give Kids a Lift. 


As you go through your kid’s clothing or shop any garage sales, Kennedy always needs gently used sweatpants and jackets. We also continue to collect unopened packages of kids socks and underwear.


Paula Darr
MMSD Adopt a School Partner Rep  

We are feeling the love during Teacher Appreciation Week! Thank you Messiah Lutheran Church!

Annual Messiah Gunderson

Blood Drive


This year's Blood Drive will be Tuesday, May 14th.


1:00 - 6:00 pm



We still need 27 donors to be completely full.


Sign-Up Information


The 2024 Messiah-Gunderson Blood Drive is Tuesday, May 14th from 1:00 - 6:00 PM. We are looking for 27 donors to be completely full.


There are many options to sign up:


The Red Cross is always looking for a few Power Red Donors of O, A and B negative blood. Read more about that here. 


Save 15 minutes when you use Rapid Pass www.redcrossblood.org/rapidpass


No Service time change for the Summer




There will be NO time change

for the late service during the summer.


Late service will remain at 10:30 for the entire year.


Godspeed Pastor Gil Splett - May 26, 2024


At the end of May, Pastor Gil will be moving to Montana to live with his family.


On Sunday, May 26, we will wish him good luck and Godspeed as we celebrate his time among us as a member of Messiah.


After the 8:15 service, we will have a special cake during coffee hour to honor Gil.


Helping Children go to Camp


Bethel Horizons Bike-A-Thon

Military Ridge Trail, Mount Horeb, WI
Saturday, June 1, 2024 – 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

Everybody deserves transformative experiences in nature. In a world where people spend hours on screens and minutes outside, you can reverse that and help people spend hours outside and minutes on screens by participating in the 39th Bethel Horizons Bike-A-Thon.


This fundraiser supports the Adventure & Environmental Education programs at Bethel Horizons, which provide hundreds of field trips to thousands of students each year.

Every year since Pam and I moved back to the Madison area we have been participating in Horizon's Bike-a-thon.


It is a way to raise money for camperships for children to be able to go to camp and experience God in Nature and to learn about "God, Self and Others".


The Horizons Bike-A-Thon starts at the Mount Horeb Train Depot and participants ride on the Military Ridge State Trail between Mount Horeb and Barneveld and back or Mount Horeb and Ridgeway and back, giving the option of a short ride, a long ride or anything in between.


The ride is supported with rest stops along the way and a lunch is provided by Horizons at Barneveld Lutheran Church.


Judy

Click Here to Register

June 23, 2024 after the 10:30 service.


Well friends, the time has come! We have finished revising and have received approval by both our church council and from the synod! At the end of this month, you will receive a copy of the constitution to review before we gather in June to approve and adopt this as our new constitution during our congregational meeting! All of this would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of Tom Boehnen and the wisdom he brought to this process! Tom, on behalf of Pastor Jeff and myself, and the entire Messiah family, we give you so much thanks!!


Items we will be voting on:

  1. Approve and adopt our new constitution.
  2. Vote on new members to the church council.


Topic of Discussion

  1. Solar Panels 

Senior Adult Ministry

Friday, May 10 – Governor Nelson State Park 

5140 County Highway M, Waunakee, WI 53597

 

We will walk the Woodland Trail. There are a couple of short hilly spots on the trail but overall it requires moderate exertion. With any luck we will see spring flowers!

 

​Afterwards, those who bring lunch can have a picnic in the pavilion overlooking the beach. There is a vehicle admission fee to the park. The day use fee is $3 per car (age 65 and older), $8 under age 65. If you have a 2024 state park pass ($13 per vehicle for age 65+) there is no additional charge.

 

Leave Messiah promptly at 9:15 am or meet at the beach parking lot at 10:00 am (it is the second turn off the main park road. If you miss that turn you will end up in the boat launch parking lot). There’s road construction in the area, so allow a little extra travel time. 

 

Thursday, May 23 – McCarthy Park

4841 Co Hwy TT, Cottage Grove, WI 53527

 

This 1.5 mile walk on unpaved and uneven trails in woods and along fields with

open views and gentle hilled areas is a favorite of Barb and Walt Herrod. It can be muddy in areas if there has been rain recently. Meet at the McCarthy Park parking lot at 10:00 am.

 

Coming from Messiah: Go left on Cottage Grove Road past Metro Market and turn left at the light onto Sprecher Road. Continue through the Milwaukee St. intersection (4-way stop), then turn right at the next intersection’s traffic light onto County Road T. Continue straight ahead onto County Road TT. When you arrive at the traffic circle, proceed through it, and stay on County TT. The park entrance is about a half mile ahead on your left.

 

To see the route mapped out, go here: https://goo.gl/maps/kzVCofdQ2sqtZML89. GPS might try to put you on Pierceville Road, but that will take you past the park entrance and way out of the way!

 

Vertical Farming - May 29, 2024, 12:00 pm-1:30 pm

 

Vertical farms are artificial, indoor environments where layers of electrically lighted crops that would otherwise spread out over acres of farmland can be stacked on top of each other.

 

The promise of vertical farming — grow crops anytime, anywhere — is fantastic. Promoters speak of a world where wheat cultivated in a repurposed warehouse is milled for flour and baked into cupcakes, all on the same city block. The benefits of vertical farming are real, but so are the costs. Like other innovative technologies, vertical farming is a tool, but is it always the best one for the job?

 


Johanna Oosterwyk is a Teaching, Learning, and Technology Specialist in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Volunteer Slots at the Food Bank Are Popular!

 

Volunteering at SHFB is very popular! Our next openings are May 20th, June 3rd, and June 17th. Check-in is at 12:15 pm and our shift is 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm.

 

Yes, we have recess!! That is at 2:00 pm and includes a home-made treat made by one of the SAM volunteers. We share a lot of fellowship as we work towards the mission of Second Harvest Food Bank. To check for availability on a certain date, send an email to SAM@messiahchurch.com 

 

This is a wonderful way to have fun, give back to our neighbors in need, and meet members of Messiah’s Senior Adult Ministry Family (SAM Fam).


At our May Ladies Lunch Bunch we collected

 donation for the Mountain of Food Collection.


Ladies Lunch Bunch


 Door Creek Country Club

4321 Vilas Rd, Cottage Grove, WI 53527


Wednesday, June 12th at 11:15 am - 2:00 pm

Please be there before 11:30 am     


Sign-up is on the Kiosk in the Gathering Space


We will be outside under the gazebo. If it rains we will be indoors.

No Limited Menu.


   If you have any questions or would like to be placed on the waiting list, please contact Claire Gensch at (920) 319-6731.


If you cannot make it, please contact Claire to cancel. 


Women’s Self-Defense class opportunity being offered HERE at Messiah!

 

Saturday, June 8, 2024 starting at 9:00am


Instructors: Brad and Sue Meng. Brad has 40+ years of Martial Arts experience, 25 years of Law Enforcement experience and has been teaching this course, with Sue’s assistance, for almost 20 years.

 

Please see the Kiosk in the Gathering Space for a flyer and contact Sue at smeng100@hotmail.com with questions.

 

Summer Mission Trip: July 15-18.    Explore and serve Madison with helping hands and open hearts.


Youth in grades 7-12 are encouraged to join us for this mission trip at home where we serve our neighbors. We will be working in a number of social ministry sites throughout the Madison area to help other children and youth, address hunger and food insecurity through food pantries, community gardens, and distribution sites, and assist and visit with the elderly. Youth will spend Monday night at Messiah while the other nights will be spent at their homes while serving during the day. 


To register for the summer mission trip, go to 2024 Summer Mission Trip: Explore Madison

Garden Volunteers Welcome!!!!


As spring approaches and summer will be around the corner we are looking ahead to some of the gardening jobs that we will need help with this spring/summer.


During the spring/summer we will need people to come a few times a week to water, deadhead and weed the three flower beds. The bed by the sign on Cottage Grove Rd., the bed at the main entrance of church and  and the bed by the hill at the end of the church building (Kingsbridge side). We need this to happen Monday, Wednesday and Friday (unless we have a good rain) so we are hoping one person will take each day to spread the work.


If you are interested in either of these jobs, please contact Judy in the church office : ourchurch@messiahchurch.com or 608-222-3833.


Thank you for your consideration of these ministries.

Black History for a New Day Course Reflections


The information in the last third of the lecture series was especially difficult to hear. As the course winds up, it is natural to hope that we would hear that things are now better for Black people in the United States. We all know Reconstruction did not achieve its goals, but surely the Civil Rights movement did, right? Sadly, the lecturers make it clear that this belief is misguided. This is not surprising because even in a progressive and highly educated community such as Madison, many people find it difficult to access reliable sources of unbiased information. 


The statement “Do not judge until you have walked a mile in my shoes” seems applicable as short of that, we who are not Black cannot understand the effects of generational trauma. In recent years, it has been proven that things that happened to a person “long ago” do not just disappear in order for people to be able to just “get over it.” Generation after generation, each person carries trauma in their DNA and passes it onto their next of kin.


Consider the trauma that was passed down from the enslaved Black women who were forced into sex with their enslavers and the resulting child then being claimed by the enslaver and sold for profit. Consider the trauma passed down from families living in constant fear of lynching or unjustified imprisonment, after they had supposedly been freed. 


Consider how economically disadvantaged a family is when in our lifetime, redlining was still a thing in Milwaukee, and even in Madison where it has only been in the past several years that some neighborhoods have adjusted their bylaws to allow minorities to live in their there. Does that sound unbelievable? Consider taking about an hour to listen to Alex Gee's podcast with Dr. Richard Harris about growing up in Madison.

Habitat for Humanity Group Returns -  August 12-16.


After a few years hiatus, we are reestablishing our connection to Habitat for Humanity. 


Habitat is looking for volunteers to help with some repair jobs, rather than new construction. To give you an idea of what that means, it could be taking out bad sheetrock or flooring and replacing it with new material. In the past, repair work has included removing old trim around doorways and taking down walls and shelving. There is no roof work, and no plumbing, no electrical. They are very accommodating and will cater the jobs to the volunteers they have. There will be professionals to supervise and help, and they will make sure the task you are assigned is appropriate for you.


Jim Stolzenburg is going to be our leader and we will be volunteering the week of Aug 12-16. You do not need to come everyday or even for a whole day. Any time that you can give to this work is terrific! We will be based out of the Baraboo branch, but the actual location of the project could be anywhere in Sauk or Iowa Counties. We can definitely carpool.


Please contact Elizabeth at volunteer@messiahchurch.com or 608-235-6910 to sign up. Please confirm (with  Elizabeth) if the August dates work for you , if you have not already done so.


Weekend Service Ministry Highlight - May

Ushers are Ministers of Hospitality.


They communicate

Descriptions of the Weekend Service Ministries can be found on the Kisok.




Prior to the Service

· Ushers for the 5:00 pm service should expect to be scheduled 1-2 times a month, the early service every 6 weeks, and the late service every 5 weeks. Ushers are drawn from all three services for special services like Christmas, Ash Wednesday, etc.

· Ushers should arrive 20-30 minutes prior to the service, earlier in the winter. 

· Find your name tag in the bin with the bulletins which will be on the counter in the Hospitality Kitchen window and make sure hearing devices are out and accessible on the counter.

· Large print hymnals and bulletins, as well as children’s bulletins should be placed on the high table closest to the doors.


Things to double-check:

· The light should be on before the first service, but check to make sure the lights in the Sanctuary are on. 

· The thermostats should be set for “occupied.”

· The Gathering Space sound controls should be turned on just before the service begins and turned off when the service has ended. 

· Light the altar and Christ candles about 10-15 minutes before the service.

· Distribute bulletins to people as they arrive.

· If needed, help people to find a vacant seat. Anywhere is fine as long as there is not a

baptism or other special occasion. If there is, seats will have “reserved signs.” 

· Guest Pastor: If there is a guest pastor, an usher should check with the pastor to see if there are any questions or special instructions for the day. 


During the Service

· If the Gathering Space is particularly noisy, you can close the doors at the rear of the Sanctuary.

· If people arrive after the service has begun, you might encourage them to wait for an appropriate break in the liturgy, such as after one of the readings or during a hymn. 

· During services when we have larger than normal crowds, you may need to assist late

arrivals to find a seat and you may need to set up chairs in the Gathering Space. 

· Count all the worshipers in attendance by walking down the outside aisles, remember the choir, musicians and small children. The completed sheet should be placed in the office “incoming” black tray. Please remember to complete how many large print bulletins were used.

· 10:30 am ushers should also write in the notes section of that sheet if there were any

      remaining children’s bulletins or if they were all used.

· 10:30 am ushers should check if the cookie plates are low or empty. Please refill them  from the freezer on the left, in the kitchen in the Social Hall.

· Ushers may participate in the service in the Sanctuary, as long as at least one usher remains in the Gathering Space to be attentive for anyone needing assistance or arriving late, and to occasionally look out at the parking lot for any unusual activity. 

· Conversation should be done in a manner and location so as to not disturb the service. A telephone is located in the church office which may be used for emergency purposes  and should be answered if necessary.

 · There is a small red binder In the Reference Cabinet in the office that has emergency contact numbers for many of our members.

· People are asked to leave their offerings on the table in the Gathering Space. Part-way through the service, take the contributions out of the plate and place them in a bank bag which is located on top of the file cabinet in the copy room and slip the bag into the slot in the top of the file cabinet. 

· At communion time, two ushers should proceed down the center aisle to the front of the church and wait while the communion ministers and choir receive communion.

· There is a first aid kit, blood pressure cuff, stethoscope and some candy in the event of low blood sugar in the cabinet in the Gathering Space upon which is placed the Care Notes. There is also a first aid kit and an AED in the Hospitality Kitchen.

· Ushers are encouraged to attend Messiah emergency response trainings.


Following the Service

· Sound System: the sound system in the Gathering Space should be turned off as soon as the service is over. 

· Stand at the rear doors of the Sanctuary while the congregation leaves to collect any

     bulletins they wish to leave, recycling them in the blue bin near the coat racks.

· Extinguish the candles. 

· Clean up the pews, straightening hymnals, tossing any trash and putting items left behind into the lost and found bin.

· Check the collection plate once more after the service and any additional offerings can just be placed in the safe, no bag necessary. Check the Hospitality Area after the late service for any coffee money and put it into the safe in its labeled bag.   

 


Opportunities to provide meals to those in need in our community


Healing House -  Our next Healing House week is June 16-22.


The first shelter of its kind in our community to provide a safe place when someone needs to prepare for or recover from a medical procedure, childbirth, hospitalization or something similar. More than just a shelter, Healing House offers care by medically trained staff and volunteers for up to 28 days. The eight-bed facility provides clients with three meals a day, child care assistance and case management.


Messiah members prepare a meal for 12 people and bring it to Messiah and Scott DeBroux will deliver it.

Meal should include a mail course, and dessert.


Please contact Elizabeth at volunteer@messiahchurch.com to be added to the groups in REALM to receive updates and to sign you up if you cannot make it in to sign up on the Kiosk in the Gathering Space.


Triangle Community Ministry - Our next meals are July 8 and October 7.

 

TCM serves over 300 residents living in the Triangle Neighborhood of Madison, WI, most of whom are challenged by chronic mental, emotional, physical, and/or developmental disabilities. TCM is dedicated to the development of personal dignity, self-empowerment, and community building among its residents.


Give Kids a Lift


Transportation for May13 - May 17, 2024 


Wynne & Margaret Williams, Jenna & James Shinstine

 Joan & Steve Andrusz, Don & Sandi Hendrikse

 Marty & Sandi Strand, Zeke Wiske


A huge thank you for the very generous donations to ‘Give the Kids a Lift’!


Social Outreach Ministry Opportunities - Next Social Outreach Ministry Meeting will be

June 17, at 6:30pm in the Conference Room downstairs at Messiah.      All are invited!!!


The Dignity Project Group will meet on Saturday, May 11, from 9:30 - 11:30am in the 3rd grade Sunday school classroom.


The Prayer Shawl Ministry will meet on Monday, May 20, from 3:00 - 4:30 pm in the lower level Conference Room.


Boomerang Bag Workshop

The next time our group will gather to sew Boomerang Bags will be Tuesday, May 21, from 10:00 am - 12:00 noon in the Social Hall.

Adult Education Webpage


We have a new webpage for Adult Education. To begin, there is information about the Liturgical Year and information about Martin Luther and the Reformation.


You can get to the Adult Education page by going to the homepage and click on "Christian Education for All Ages".

Go to the Adult Education section, and click on "Click Here" to go to the Adult Education page.


You can also click here.

Click Here to find the notes from a recent visit to Briarpatch services that several of us made.


Briarpatch offers programming for 11-18 year olds at risk of becoming homeless, and temporary housing to homeless youth ages 12-18.


Thank you for your continued interest in this ministry.

Looking Ahead with the Racial Justice Team


This June the Racial Justice Team will launch a Bingo game which will run through December in which you can choose from a wide variety of activities designed to increase your awareness of racial justice and diversity in our world. Activities include books, movies, church services, food, TedTalks, etc. Each row or column completed becomes an entry for a prize drawing to be held in December. We hope this might give you ideas of informative and fun things to do this summer! Look for game boards in late May/early June.  Here is the LINK to the Bingo board if you want to print your own.


Have you read and enjoyed How to Be an Antiracist and/or How to Raise an Antiracist? These books are both by Ibram X. Kendi and we explored the 2nd book in a Racial Justice Team book study last year. We are inviting you to share your copy of either book with a friend, or see if there is one on the shelf in the conference room on the racial justice bookshelf for you to borrow. We are going to look for a date in the fall to come back together and continue our discussions with a now larger group. Share those books now so people have time to read them!


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