ADDING SOMETHING FOR LENT

The season of Lent begins this year on
Ash Wednesday, March 9.

Lent is not all about giving things up. It's also about adding good things to our lives or to others' lives -- the kind of good things that follow on what Jesus asks of us. Try these:

·         Reconcile yourself to someone you don't like.

·         Do acts of kindness for people, just because.

·         Take the time to be in a refreshing, natural spot.

·         Study about what causes poverty.

·         Meditate, and pray over one or two Scripture passages each day.

·         Choose something ordinary that you do every day, and think about God while doing it.

·         Check out your ethnic heritage, and learn how Christians in it mark the season. 

·         Attend special worship services.

·         Find a new way every day to remember Jesus' death on the cross, and why it happened.

-- Submitted by Pat Gibbons, from the Mission Focus Team

    (Adapted from http://www.spirithome.com/lent.html#adding)

Join the HOSANNA Team to WALK to Fight Hunger

When: Sunday, April 3, 2011, 1:30pm
Where: Woodlands Christian Church
             1202 N. Millbend Drive
Who: The Hosanna Lutheran Walkers and Rockers
Why: Help fight hunger globally and locally.
        From Matthew 25: 
                     Jesus said, "I was hungry and you fed me."
                     "When Lord did we ever see you hungry and feed you?"
                     Jesus replied, "Whenever you did this for the least of these brothers
                     of mine, you did it for me."
How: Sign up to walk with the Hosanna Team; sign up to "rock" if you are not
                     a walker; sponsor our walkers and rockers.
Go to the Greater Northwest Houston Crop Walk Site to find out more.
     
-- Contact Pat Gibbons or Lois Heckart from the Hosanna Mission Focus Team for more information.

A GLORIOUS CELEBRATION SUNDAY!

Sunday, February 13, was a glorious day at Hosanna! In case you were not able to be there, here are some of the things that you missed:

Ten beautiful hand-made quilts were blessed to be a blessing to future recipients.

Five new members were welcomed into ministry with us: Ron and Darlene Lindquist, Josh Roszak, and Susheela Beteet and her son William.

It was the "duty and delight" of members to submit covenant cards indicating commitments of $205,560 toward Hosanna's ministry in 2011! [Cards not submitted today can be mailed to the church office. See John Gabrielson if still need one.]

A delicious luncheon was offered by the Stewardship Team chaired by Jeff Hartmann, enhanced by the hospitality skills of Connie and Jeff Chestnut, Jan Dietzmann, Valerie Oden and others.

Ron and Heda Christ, with the technical help of Dale Bargmann, shared stories and photos from their two-year mission to Botswana. What a Spirit-filled adventure!

And these were just the highlights! Good News abounds at Hosanna!

-- Nancy Agafitei, President

HERE WE STAND! THE LUTHERAN COURSE

Now is the perfect time to keep your New Year's Resolution that you will grow as a disciple in 2011! The adult Sunday School class is beginning a new series based on "The Lutheran Handbook." The cover of this book shows a winking Martin Luther. This image combines the serious, formal scholarship that was Luther's life work, with the humor and lightheartedness that characterized his personality.

This course will teach you how to respond when someone sits in your pew; how to survive the service if the AC goes out; and what to bring to a church potluck (by region of the U.S.). Of course, along the way you will also learn a few other important things, like how to defend your faith against attack, how to forgive someone, and how to be saved.

Come and see! It's 9:00-9:50am in Classroom 5.

-- Sue Loudermilk, Class Facilitator

ANNUAL MEETING ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 16

Join us Sunday after the worship service to celebrate our past year of congregational life together, and to do the business we need to move into the future. We will

• Receive the annual reports from all of our ministry teams, support teams, officers, and staff
• Approve our spending estimates for 2011
• Elect delegates to represent Hosanna at the Synod Assembly in Galveston in May
• Welcome home Ron and Heda Christ from their mission service in Botswana

See you there!

-- Nancy Agafitei, President

AN "APP" FOR A NEW AGE

Lutherans have long admired Martin Luther's ability to capitalize on the new technology of his day (i.e. the printing press) to communicate with people. This is a practice we need to continue!

Here is something new for those of you who like the new technology of the Smartphones using a Droid, Blackberry, or iPhone. Call on Faith is a new all-video "app" just released by Odyssey, a non-profit organization comprised of over 50 members representing America's major denominations.  The ELCA is one of Odyssey's oldest members.

Call on Faith currently is offering short videos to inspire, encourage, and inform. There are sections on prayer, wise words, compassionate acts, meditations, and more. I just spent a few minutes listening to Desmond Tutu talking about the difficult but essential task of reconciliation, a harpist discussing her music ministry to hospitalized patients, and a young lawyer talking about her efforts to improve an impoverished area of Dallas.

Call on Faith is available for $3.99 or less (I got it for free!) in the app stores of the various smartphone providers.

-- Nancy Agafitei, based on an article in Seeds for the Parish

The Christmas Story As Told by Children