Current Mission Project - SCHOOL KITS!
We are collecting school supplies that will be assembled into backpack kits. The kits will be packaged at our annual Ice Cream Dinner on August 25th. The school kits are shipped to kids in need by Orphan Grain Train. This is the list of items needed for each school kit: two spiral notebooks (70 pgs. wide or college rule), a ruler (with inches & centimeters), pencil sharpener, blunt tip scissors, pencils (#2 with erasers, unsharpened), pens (blue or black ball point), box of 24 crayons, 2-1/2″ eraser, glue sticks, and a 12-count box of colored pencils. Optional: backpack (drawstring or other). Thank you for helping kids in need succeed in school!
COMING UP IN SEPTEMBER – Our congregation collected over $5,000 for Mercy Meals earlier this year. We will be packing over 25,000 meals (more than 4,000 packets) with the funds. Thank you for your generous spirit of giving! Please mark your calendars for September 15th when we will pack the meals at MLC after worship.
Noisy Offering
Each Sunday, the children collect “Noisy Offering” during the worship offering time. The collection of coins from churchgoers and the clinking sound made in the large metal bowl as the children drop what they’ve gathered bring smiles to both the children and the adults. This year the children of MLC Sunday School decided to begin sponsoring two children in need through the Compassion International Program with the funds collected thru the Noisy Offering.
Compassion International works in 25 countries around the world, partnering with local churches. At the Compassion Child Development Center ran by the local church and volunteers, a sponsored child is provided with Bible studies, health screenings, health and hygiene educations, games, community service opportunities, counseling, and school fees. The center staff will also provide meetings and parenting education for the parents or guardians of the sponsored child.
Our Sunday School children are sponsoring Milkah from Kenya and Lawrence from Uganda. They look forward to the relationship they will be building and the encouragement they provide Milkah and Lawrence who are half-way around the world! The Sunday School children also remember Milkah and Lawrence in their prayers!
BackPack Program
MLC has been a long time supporter of the local BackPack programs at Johnson-Brock Public School and Johnson County Central School. The BackPack Program’s mission is to help alleviate child hunger in southeast Nebraska by providing hungry children with nutritious and easy to prepare food at times when other resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations. Martin Luther Church regularly supports the BackPack Program at different times of the year by designated offerings, proceeds from our annual consignment sale, and special projects; as well as by members’ volunteer time.
Quilting
The “Sewing Ladies” are another proud organization of the church. They meet weekly except during the summer to sew, tie and/or quilt pieces of fabric together into beautiful blankets that are then sent through Lutheran World Relief to people in need, to local charity organizations, and to local care homes. These past several years, the ladies have graced our young people graduating from high school with blankets to take with them wherever they may venture, remembering along the way the warm memories of growing up in the Martin Luther Church family.
