A Message From Nathan
July 2010
A God Centered Marriage
The past two months I have been privileged and honored to be a part of two weddings. The first one was my former roommate’s from college and the other was my Sister-in-law’s. Being a part of the weddings got me thinking about what it really means to be married. I know that I am not the best person to give advice because I know I am still learning every day, but then again I think in any marriage of any length we are all still learning. As I wrestled with these thoughts about marriage, the role of God kept coming to the forefront of my mind. In a marriage, especially at the wedding, we acknowledge God and his role in marriage, but as the couple lives and strives to understand what it means to be one and to learn to love each other more each day, the acknowledgement of God can seem to fade.
As I pondered these ideas I decided to go back to my own wedding day. I found the CD of our wedding and popped it into the CD player in my car to re-live that wonderful day. Listening to my wedding after the fact was quite enlightening. It was very interesting to go back and see that the things that were said then did not stop there; they have continued 4 years later and will always matter to my wife and me. One portion that really stood out to Mindy and me was the part about how even though we may have chosen to marry each other, God first chose us. We must also remember that not only was he the first to choose us, he is the first to love us. As a couple strives to grow closer and learn to love each other, the love between them may over shadow what God has already done. Because this growing love is so new and fresh and we see it every day, our significant other may seem to become the most important thing in our lives. I have heard from different people that there is a struggle to understand which is the most important, family or God. My answer goes back to what was said in my wedding we are capable of loving because God first loved us and though we chose each other God first chose us. Without this I do not believe we would be capable of having such a beautiful union.
It’s because God first loved us that we are able to love others. God created love and he created us, so why wouldn’t he be in the middle of our love for each other? Ecclesiastes 4:12 says this, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” One has a chance, two is better, but three guarantees success. Since God first loved us and taught us how to love each other, we need to include him in that love that we share. When God is in the middle of our marriage, we move from ‘better’ to ‘guaranteed success’. If we are able to make God the top priority in our lives and in our relationships, those relationships will then become a top priority as well. Yes, it is important to work on your relationship with your spouse each day, but we can’t forget to incorporate God into the equation as well. God is the ultimate lover and teacher. He is the one we can learn from about how to love our spouse in the best way possible.
God Bless,
Nathan Heimer “We love because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19
Links
FLY (Faith Lutheran Youth) Web Page
Join FLY on FacebookAcolyte Schedule (Power of 12)
FLY and Confirmation Summer Schedule
- July 7..................Mandatory meeting for all Camp Red Cloud participants and their parents
- July 9 .................Bowling and Laser Tag
- July 18-23 ..........FLY Summer Trip to Camp Redcloud
- Auust 4 ...............Waterworld
- August 15........... Back to School BBQ
SCHOLARSHIP AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The Faith Endowment Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of college scholarships for the upcoming school year. Congratulations go to ERIN BURNS, SIERRA EVANS, MACKENZIE JOHNSON, LOGAN LENZ AND OLIVIA QUIMBY. Each individual will receive $300 to be used at the college of their choosing. These awards will be handed out at the worship services on Sunday July 11th. Congratulations to each of you and good luck in your studies!
The Faith Endowment Foundation was established through the generosity of our former member, Helena Ludvigsen, remembering Faith in her will back in 1999. Since then, many more members have made contributions to the foundation and the proceeds of our annual fall golf tournament have helped grow this fund. Due to this ongoing generosity The Foundation was still able to award scholarships this year despite the performance of the stock market.
FLY SUMMER TRIP
July 18th – 23rd FLY and incoming 9th graders will be heading on an outdoor adventure to Lake City, CO. Cost will be $400 per person. We will be spending a week in the outdoors experiencing and seeing what Colorado has to offer. We will be enjoying a different activity each day. Some of those activities are climbing a 14er, rock climbing, rafting, and a high and low ropes course. Want to go? See Nathan to sign up! For more information, please grab a brochure from the bulletin board.
There is a mandatory meeting on July 7, 2010 at 7pm for all trip participants and their parents. Please plan to attend and bring your final amount due at that time. This meeting will provide all the necessary information needed for packing, travel info, and any final questions about the trip.
Bowling and Laser-tag
All youth in Jr. and Sr. high: Come join us on July 9th for an evening of bowling and laser-tag. Meet at the church at 5:30pm with $20 and all the appropriate forms (Faith permission slip and Faith Liability waiver). Friends are welcome! There will be unlimited pop, fun, and a rolling good time! (get it, rolling like a bowling ball…) See you there!
JumpStreet
Tuesday, June 22nd, youth from FLY and Confirmation took a trip down to JumpStreet! This warehouse full of trampolines is always sure to make for a great time. We spent two hours doing back flips, front flips, ariels, and any kind of jump you can think of. On top of this a few ventured over to try their skill at trampoline dodge ball. The night was a lot of fun and definitely a great work out. Thanks go to Tom Overstreet, Debbie Knauff, and Mindy Heimer for driving and spending time with the youth.
Thank you to all that supported the youth! Whether you came to Chick-Fil-A, Boulevard Pizza, Chili’s or any combination of these, we hope you
enjoyed the food and we greatly appreciate your support to help the youth attend the summer trip. We raised $300. We are so excited to go and can’t wait for the week to arrive! A big thanks goes to Dianne Iannone for setting up the fundraisers at each restaurant.
Yard Sale
We would like to thank everyone who contributed to our yard sale with donations. Your contributions are greatly appreciated. A big thank you goes out to the adults who helped Royce Stein, Elsie Schwecke, Mindy Heimer, Tom Overstreet and the youth that served Britta Strom, Sam Petersen, Weston Iannone, David Becker, Daniel Becker, Makell Overstreet, and Brady Overstreet. Without your assistance this fundraiser would not have been the success it was, we raised $1300.00.
30 Hour Famine
This year’s 30 Hour Famine was a total success! All the youth from the four different churches who participated made it through all 30 hours of fasting and had a fun time serving God. We did different service projects around town including painting, yard work, preparing food, and a whole bunch of cleaning! We raised $522 that will be given to World Vision to help relieve world hunger. The government will be given a matching grant up to ten times the amount we raised! A big thanks goes out to Carl Kopp, Royce Stein, Mindy Heimer, Jessica Bejot, and Tom Overstreet for hanging out with the students and for all your hard work!!
Faith Youth Annual Ski Trip
This year’s Ski Trip was a BLAST! Or as some students would say, it was “gnar gnar!”(short for gnarly). We had fresh snow to ski on and new friends to ride with. There was even a race or two down a 2 mile run called Ute. After a hard day of shredding the fresh pow, we spent a relaxing evening in the Hot Springs! Everyone’s legs were sore the next day, but we were thankful to God for holding the huge boulders from falling onto the highway until after we made it safely through the canyon. Everyone had a great weekend as we discussed how we can bring our ‘Mountain Top Experiences’ down the mountain. I would like to say a big thank you to Brad and Leanne Becker, Brian Stopps, and Mindy Heimer for driving and spending a weekend with our youth.
The Rock & Worship Roadshow
The Rock and Worship Roadshow turned out to be exactly that! We had a blast seeing bands like Mercy Me, David Crowder Band, Family Force 5, and Sidewalk Prophets, to name a few. We had a great time dancing around while worshiping our Lord. This was an incredible concert and was such a blessing that it was only $10!