The Eagle - St. John Lutheran Church & Preschool...a little book of songs entitled Dainty Songs for...

The Eagle December 2016

St. John Lutheran Church & Preschool 122 Cheyenne Mesa

Hamilton, TX 76531

Phone: (254) 386-3158

Preschool (254) 386-3332

Fax: (254) 386-3159

Pastor—

[email protected]

Secretary—

[email protected]

Preschool—

[email protected]

Website: www.stjohnhamilton.org

May we continue to be used by God and share

the Gospel with A Heart for Hamilton

County and the World!!

Advent

It is hard to believe that we are al-ready to the month of December. I know that the commercial world is in full swing with Christmas, but in the Church Year we are in the season of Advent. Advent means “coming”. The season of Advent originally was more of peni-tential season similar to Lent. A lot of focus was placed on mankind’s sinfulness as we await Christ’s final return. Therefore the liturgical color was purple, thus the use of pur-ple candles on the Advent wreath. Over the years a shift has been made and the season of Advent has taken on more of a sense of hope and anticipation rather sorrow and repent-ance. The liturgical color has shifted to blue, thus the use of blue candles on the Advent wreath.

During the Advent season, we will be looking at the Ad-vent wreath and how each candle is a reminder of hope, love, joy and peace as we approach Christmas. An addition-al candle is lit each week. As more light is added each week, we are reminded that we are getting closer each week to the Light of World, Jesus, being born. This Advent Wreath Series will be what we look at on our Wednesday evening Advent services.

On the Sunday mornings during Advent and Christmas, we are going to be looking at the word Christmas as an adjec-tive. We will be looking at different words we attach to Christmas like Christmas Cookies, Christmas Shopping, Christmas Cheer, etc., as they pertain to different attitudes and behaviors of our lives and most importantly how we can be Christmas People throughout the entire year.

Advent is certainly a time where we prepare ourselves to celebrate Jesus’ birth, but it is also a time where we wait in anticipation for Christ’s final return. May we continue to be used by God to share the message of Christmas with A Heart for Hamilton County and the World!


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Birth

days

, Bap

tism

s &

Anniv

ers

arie

s Birthdays 1st Jaley Reich

3rd Phillip Pierce

Jimmy Whitt

4th Marjorie Seider

6th Kade McKandless

8th Cora Hurst

Grace Hurst

Debbie Roberts

Doyle Roberts

9th Laverne Brown

James Janisch

Danny Rudd

10th Travis Odom

11th Chrissy Kensing

13th Jerry Zschiesche

14th Kasey Kunkel

15th Lorin Lange

Grant Surley

Mitch Surley

16th Karen Johnson

17th Avery Hall

19th Doyle Cook

Brianna Hill

Amber Tyson

20th Johnny Clark

Brad Surley

24th Reagan Wagner

25th Melissa

DeLaGarza

David Tyson

26th Henlee Wagner

27th Josh Chorenziak

Bonnye Wenzel

Irene Zaruba

28th Lindsey Hanson

29th Joe Sommerfeld

30th Emiliegh Burton

Jane Wagner

Baptisms 3rd Alice Jeschke

Steve Young

5th Auden Martinez

7th Jaley Reich

8th Brenda Schrank

9th Bert Schrank

10th Ima Jean Roberts

11th Ted Jahns

Judy Knoll

12th Jacob Robertson

Martin Wenzel

15th Lois Hungerford

16th Casey Finstad

Sharolyn Lawson

Billie Looney

Cole McCown

18th Joseph Polster

19th Geraldine Kauitzsch

Cade Robertson

Colton Robertson

21st Mary Jeffers

Charles Rudolph

Gretchen Rudolph

Michael Rudolph

22nd Danna Hurst

Eddie Krueger

23rd Myron Kauitzsch

24th Emily Wagner

26th Tyler Peace

27th Majorie Seider

30th Jacob Dossey

Trever Sellers

Tyler Sellers

31st Reagan Wagner

Anniversaries 9th Patrick & Debbie Roberts

42yrs

11th Quin & Lindsey Hanson

12yrs

14th Joe & Michele Cathey

31yrs

21th Robert & Julie Stanley

42yrs

23rd Gary & Tootie Schoen

50yrs

26th Dickie & Kathy Coleman

45yrs

27th Carlos & Fabiola Olalde

25yrs

28th Louis & Frances

Donahoo

31yrs

Memorials Given

General Fund:

In Memory of : Given by:

Jean Bottlinger Natrell Love

Jean Bottlinger Travis Odom

and Family


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Jr/Sr Youth NEWS

Important Dates

December 1st– Singing on the Square

December 3rd

or 4th

– Main Street Bethlehem in Burnet

December 6th

—Youth Quake– DEADLINE-$50 dep due

December 24th

– Children’s Christmas Eve Program 6pm

To everyone who

helped with the pie

fundraiser. 276

pies sold

Opening/Breakfast

Sundays 8:30am

Sunday School

Sundays 9:00am

Church Worship

Sundays 10:00am

B.L.A.S.T.

Wednesday 3:30

Pre-K thru 2nd

Pre-Confirmation

Wednesday 3:30

3rd thru 5th

Jr. Confirmation

Wednesday 5:30

6th thru 8th

Sr. Youth

Wednesday 6:30

9th thru 12th

$ 3,044 Current

$ 50,000

$ 100,000

$ 150,000

$ 200,000

$ 230,000

At the Voters’ Meeting on October 25, 2016, Charles Jahns presented the build-ing plans that the Planning Committee has been working on. We are still very ear-ly in the planning stages, but it was decided to start a Building Fund that members can start contributing toward as we go forward with the planning stages. The cur-rent plans can be seen in the narthex outside the church office. Additional input that anyone has is welcomed and encouraged.

The Building Fund currently has $2,044. It was reported at the Voters’ Meet-ing that the concrete work and insulated outer structure would cost approximate-ly $130,000. This does not include the plumbing, electrical, heating/cooling, interi-or walls and finishing. A goal at this point has been set at $250,000.

The expansion project would give our youth a large room to meet in, another nice size meeting room and the preschool the space they need to have everything contained on one side of the building. Also included in the plans for expansion is the plan to remodel our current kitchen. If anyone has any questions or ideas do not hesitate to share your ideas.

(portion outlined in yellow is the possible addition of the back of the FLC)


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Parent News

•Thank you for completing our program evaluation survey. Your feedback is helping us better meet the needs of our families.

•Have you used our half day drop in coupon from open house yet?

•Ask us about our upcoming Holiday Care!

Important Dates

•Christmas Program- Sunday, December 18th at 3:00pm •Early Release – December 21st at 12:00 noon •Christmas Break- December 22nd- January 6th

•Holiday Care-

December 26th - 30th &

January 2nd – 6th

PRESCHOOL NEWS November [email protected] (254) 386-3332

A Note from the Director

Another month has flown by quickly. I can not believe how fast the school year is moving along. The children are really getting settled in and building strong foun-dations for their Christian education. It is such a blessing to be a part of your chil-dren’s early years, and we feel so thankful for the opportunity to help guide their development. Thank you!

Our learning themes for this month have included: Fall, Thanksgiving, and the stories of Ruth and David & Goliath. Our upcoming themes focus on Friendship, Daniel and the Lions, and the story of Jesus’ birth. Each week we offer opportuni-ties for our children to grow spiritually, academically, and emotionally.

We will also start practicing for our Christmas program which will take place on Sunday, December 18th in the Family Life Center. Kids love telling the story of Jesus’ birth through song. Please plan to join us that day to celebrate the Christ-mas story.

In Christ Love- Tiffani Logan


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Spotlight On…

Promoting

Independence

Preschoolers are typically able to do more than we give them credit for. Try these tips to help foster self-esteem and inde-pendence in your child.

•Expect more, they are up for the challenge and enjoy learning new things

•Resist doing for him/her what she/he can do him/herself

•Don’t redo what they’ve done

•Let them solve simple prob-lems

•Assign a chore

•Develop predictable routines

•Let your child work out

minor squabbles

•Prioritize play

•Give structured choices

•Add music when working on tasks

Kinderoo

CLASSROOM NEWS Little Lambs Mighty Lions Kinderoos

Some of the fun and learning the Little Lambs had this month included:

•Creating special art from objects they gathered on their nature walk

•Developing their social/emotional, writing, and math skills at their farmer’s market and pumpkin patch dramatic play centers

•Continuing to work on their shapes, colors, and letters of the week

Little Lambs

Learning took place for the Mighty Lions this month when they…

•Practiced writing their names, letters, and numbers in the sand and salt sensory center developing their letter recognition skills

•Discussed how God can help us overcome big ob-stacles like the story of David & Goliath

•Worked on their fine motor skills through building turkey’s out of play-doh

Mighty Lions

The Kindergarten adventures included…

•Exploring the pumpkin patch with their friends and family

•Preparing a Thanksgiving meal for their fami-lies

•Visiting the Historical Museum in Goldthwaite

•Working on letter sounds and number recog-nition

•Continuing to build math skills with graphs, surveys, and ordinal numbers

What’s Happening

This Month


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This is commonly known as “Luther’s Cradle Hymn.” But did the great German Reformer, Martin Lu-ther, really write the words? Did he sing them by the cradle of his little son, Hans? This is a great mystery in hymnology. In 1887, “Away in a Manger” appeared in a little book of songs entitled Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses, published in Cincinnati by the John Church Company. The songbook was compiled by James R. Murray. A notation beneath “Away in a Manger” said: Lu-ther’s Cradle Hymn (Composed by Martin Luther for his children and still sung by Ger-man mothers to their little one.) Only stan-zas one and two were given.

And she brought forth her

firstborn Son, and

wrapped Him in swad-

dling cloths, and laid

Him in a manger, be-

cause there was no room

for them in the inn. Luke

2:7

Music Notes by:

Gary Gromatzky

Away in a Manger Anonymous

“Away in a Manger” quickly became America’s favorite children’s carol, the words being sung to forty-one different tunes! Everyone assumed the poem

had been written by the great Reformer, Martin Luther.

Then in 1945, Richard Hill published a fascinating article entitled “Not So Far Away in a Manger” in which he announced he had discovered the first two stanzas of “Away in a Man-ger,” in an 1885 songbook entitled Little Children’s Book, published by German Lutherans in Pennsylvania. No authorship was given nor could Hill find any appearance of this carol in Ger-man church history or in Luther’s works.

After extensive research, Hill concluded: “It seems essential to lay (aside) once and for all the legend that Luther wrote a carol for his children, which no one else knew anything about, until it suddenly turned up in English dress 400 years later in Philadelphia. Luther can well afford to spare the honor.” But he adds, “Although Luther himself had nothing to do with the carol, the colonies of German Lutherans in Pennsylvania almost certainly did.”

So the mystery endures. Who wrote “Away in a Manger”? There were apparently two unknown writers: A German Lutheran in Pennsylvania who wrote the first two stanzas, with another unknown author adding a third verse which first appeared in an 1892 songbook pub-lished by Charles H. Gabriel.

Well, who cares? Certainly not the generations of children around the world who have come to love and know the little Jesus through this sweet carol, and who have gone to sleep praying:

I love Thee, Lord Jesus; look down from the sky And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

Away in a Manger

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,

The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.

The stars in the sky look down where He lay,

The little Lord Jesus, a sleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,

But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.

I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky

And stay by my cradle till morning in nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask Thee to stay,

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,

And take us to heaven to live with thee there.

Ref: Then Sings my Soul – Book Two, Nelson Reference & Electronic (A Division of Thomas Nelson Publishers.)


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Seminary

Family

Christmas

Gifts

Our family this year is the

Terral Family

Paul and Jamie

Madelyn (9)

Lillie (7)

Samuel (4)

Baby Boy (due in Nov)

There is a “stocking & bag”

in the Narthex to place gift cards.

Please put cash or checks on the

desk in the church office with a

memo on them

“for seminary family”

Please attach your name and ad-

dress so they have the opportunity

to send thankyou notes.

Questions?

Contact the church office or

Kay Zschiesche

Deadline is December 1tth

Nov 30th-Men’s Club/Soup

Dec 7th- Bd of Ed/Youth/Chili cornbread

Dec 14th-Ruth Guild/Spaghetti

Dec 21st-Clark Family/Baked potatoes

Meals begin at 5:30p Services begin at 630p

Christmas Caroling/Hay Ride

December 11th @ 4pm

Wear warm clothes

Cookies and Cocoa to follow


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St. John Lutheran Church & Preschool

122 Cheyenne Mesa

Hamilton, Texas 76531

Advent Schedule

Nov 30th The Gift of Hope

Dec 7th The Gift of Love

Dec 14th The Gift of Joy

Dec 21st The Gift of Peace

Dec 31st The Gift of Jesus

The Eagle - St. John Lutheran Church & Preschool...a little book of songs entitled Dainty Songs for...

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