NT-NL is entering the digital age, and we have created a Guidebook app for this year’s Assembly and its University.
If you have a smartphone or tablet, find the app here for iPhone/iPad devices, here for Android devices, or search “ELCA Organizations & Events” in your device’s app store. Download the app, and you will see 2014 Mission Assembly of the NT-NL Mission Area, ELCA as one of the available guides. Download it and go!
If you do not have a smartphone or tablet, you can access the information in the app by visiting http://m.guidebook.com/guide/18479/.
In the app, you can read our keynote speakers’ bios, see the courses we’ll offer as part of the University of ¡SAMARIA!, read course descriptions and even create your schedule.
You can also access the Book of Reports and other important Assembly documents. (Fear not! We will have old-fashioned paper copies available too… the app is a way to reduce, not eliminate, our paper use, and it gives you access to the information ahead of time!)
University of ¡SAMARIA! is a day-long event where you will hear gifted, passionate speakers present on a wide range of topics related to our call to serve the “Samaritans” in our world today, to walk with them as Jesus did. The 48 “class” sessions and three excursions will introduce you to some of the people living “on the margins” (literally and figuratively) today, as well as some of the issues they face daily.
Joins us, and help us spread the word! Download a poster and bulletin inserts here!
You don’t have to be registered for the whole assembly—just come for the University! The $35 fee includes lunch. Find out more at NTNL.org.
(If you are attending the Assembly, you do not need to register for the University.)
Youth in grades 9-12 are invited to join us for the Assembly and University. They will embark on their own Choose Your Own Adventure trip with three options: Friday only, Friday & Saturday, or the whole weekend (through Sunday noon).
For more information, contact Jonathan Lys, Adventure Coordinator, at jonathan.lys@sbcglobal.net or visit the Adventure: ¡SAMARIA! page.
Looking for something to put in the kids’ Easter baskets? How about some cute baby chicks—for people who need them (and have the resources to care for them)?
ELCA Good Gifts are the best way to give a “pet”! You don’t have to worry about anyone messing with your carpets or furniture, and a family in need gets a lasting supply of nutritious, protein-rich eggs, with enough extra eggs to sell for additional income.
(And you don’t have to stick to chicks and eggs for Easter… how about giving a pig? Or a goat? Or some honey bees!) Give life-changing—and life-giving!—gifts this Easter.
As you celebrate the the joy of the risen Christ with those you love, share that joy with someone in need, through ELCA Good Gifts.
Make sure to subscribe to the DiscipleLifeMission YouTube channel!
NT-NL Mission Area continues to increase its giving toward the ELCA’s Malaria Initiative. As of February 1, 2014, our contribution totals $115,000 (of $160,000 pledged for the four-year campaign)—THANK YOU!
Every year, millions of people across the globe commemorate World Malaria Day on April 25. This year, the ELCA is encouraging all congregations to set aside April 27 as World Malaria Sunday.
On World Malaria Sunday, we honor those who have died, pray for those who suffer, and support those who work to end malaria.
Your gifts during World Malaria Week will be matched for extra impact up to $100,000! This includes our Mission Assembly offerings (which will be split between DLA! and Malaria), so please send donations with your voting members!
The ELCA Malaria Campaign has developed a World Malaria Day Action Kit, which will make planning easy. Download those resources here!
Briarwood’s Run for the Roses Gala
Disciple Project
Give yourself and youth a gift by sharing time at Texas Lutheran University at the only intentional cross-generational leadership school in our church. The Disciple Project is a learning community where we stretch our imagination and increase our capacity as leaders. This is time away from our busy lives to learn practices and skills for following Jesus in a changing time. People in 8th grade through adults are encouraged to be part of this special experience! This event is offered by LEAD, a ministry of the Texas-Lousiana Gulf Coast Synod. Information flyer TLU Health Form
You may have heard in the news about the stabbings April 9 at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania (here is one link with information on the stabbings).
Christ’s Lutheran Church in Murrysville, PA, an ELCA congregation, happens to be located a couple of blocks away from Alex Hribal’s family (though the family does not seem to have any church connection). Pastor Wayne Gillespie and the congregation council met with Bishop Kurt Kusserow’s staff to talk about how best the congregation can engage a helpful and long-term response to the stabbings last Wednesday at Franklin Regional High School.
Pastor Gillespie, who has been in touch with Alex’s family, made one specific request of Bishop Kusserow: that he solicit cards and notes of support from their brothers and sisters around the church. Christ’s Lutheran are dedicating a bulletin board in their narthex to display the cards and notes.
When events like this take place, it can be hard for us to understand why someone would commit such an act of violence. It is hard for us to forgive, especially if the violence affects those close to us, or we can see ourselves and our loved ones in the faces of the victims.
Jesus calls us not to judge. Jesus calls us to forgive, and to love.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is no easy explanation for why things like this happen. There is no easy way to understand it. And there is no easy way to forgive. But our job is not to explain or understand, but to love, to heal, to forgive… to drive out darkness with light, to drive out hate with love.
Please share the contact information below with anyone in your congregation who may wish to send a card or note of support:
Pastor Wayne Gillespie
Christ’s Lutheran Church
5330 Logan Ferry Rd.,
Murrysville, PA 15668
Thank you.
Upcoming Events in the NT-NL Mission Area and Beyond:
- Apr. 25-27:2014 NT-NL Mission Assembly: ¡Samaria!
- Apr. 26: University of ¡Samaria!
- Apr. 27: World Malaria Sunday
- May 3: Briarwood’s Run for the Roses Gala
- May 25-30: Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest’s Spanish Language and Hispanic Ministry Intensive
- Jun. 22: Refugee Day
- Jun. 23-27: Disciple Project at Texas Lutheran University (Gulf Coast Synod)
- Jun. 30-Jul 2: Association of Lutheran Church Musicians Region 2 Conference, “Many Voices, One Choir” in Charlotte, NC
- Jul. 18-20: Lutheran Men in Mission’s Triennial Gathering, “Guys, Guts, and God’s Glory”
- Jul. 24-27: Women of the ELCA’s Ninth Triennial Gathering, “Of Many Generations”
- Jul. 28-30: Association of Lutheran Church Musicians Region 3 Summer Conference
- Sep. 7: “God’s Work. Our Hands.” Sunday