September 14, 2019 The Waja team has had some setbacks in the last month. The internet connection with Nigeria was not good, and the main translator had some health issues. They have completed their team check of 1 Corinthians, so I’m preparing notes for checking the last seven chapters. It’s a difficult book to translate! Pray that I would be able to finish before we leave for Nigeria on October 3. The L team now has five chapters in Matthew left to team-check. Pray for them to finish soon so that Tom can check it while we’re in Nigeria. We will have a young woman named Angela with us on this trip. She’s interested in becoming involved in the ministry of Bible translation. Pray for a special time for her. And please pray for all of us, for safe travels, good health, and a productive time of working together. Thank you for your prayer and financial support! Warmly in Christ, Mary and Tom Holman

This will be a great time to incorporate our new mission: We share the Resurrection by: Loving Jesus, Changing Lives and Reaching out to Serve into our sermon series, so we can explore what God has in store for LCR. The one thing we do know is that the mission cannot happen without all of us…as the hands and feet of Christ, cheerfully giving and being faithful stewards of what God has first given to us. Don’t forget to join us for our One Service Sunday at 9:30am on October 20, 2019 as we share our financial commitments during worship. Bishop Paul Erickson will be joining us for the day and sharing the message with LCR. After worship we will enjoy a potluck meal  in our fellowship hall for a time of conversation and fellowship together. Let’s join along in prayerfully exploring this series and commit ourselves to moving forward and giving thanks for our life, LCR family, ministry and mission.

Welcome People of God! It is a gift and blessing to gather at LCR for conversation, worship, to grow in our faith, change lives, to be fed and nourished with grace, lift one another up in prayer and be sent back into our community and the world to serve in Jesus’ name. Intern John and I know that this summer was busy for all of us with vacations, life, and fun. We were blessed at LCR to host our first neighborhood camp with up to 50 campers, 12 staff, plus many volunteers. It certainly could not have happened without the many generous gifts that were given by the congregation in many ways and we want to thank you.  It was also a gift to share with the Siebert Foundation a verbal report of our camp at a luncheon last week. I thanked them for sharing their gifts with us and the blessing this camp is to our Racine community. We are also excited to start up all our fall programming for Sunday School, Confirmation, Youth Group, Adult Bible Studies, Adult Forums on Sunday Morning and so much more. Please keep up with the information in THE CROSS about all the faith learning opportunities that can help you grow in your relationship with Jesus and with one another. It’s amazing how it can transform your life, and prepare you to transform other people’s lives with ways you never can imagine with the gift of love, grace and forgiveness. In the next few weeks LCR looks forward to hearing ministry moments from a handful of our congregation members who will be telling their stories of faith and how they have shared or experienced the Resurrection of Jesus recently in their lives. This will be part of our stewardship series as we celebrate the incredible ministry LCR has committed to, plus reaching out to the Racine community and beyond. We will also explore how God continues to call us to be cheerful gives of our time, talents and financial gifts. Grace & Peace – Pastor Karen & Intern John

Greetings LCR! What an incredible summer of ministry it has been!  We have been blessed with outdoor worship, although we have only been outside a few times because of our wet summer.  We were also blessed to join in with the Racine ELCA Neighborhood Camp with three other churches and have 50 kids 5^th grade and younger along with the SALT middle school youth serving around our community. Many of these kids went home every day with new relationships, smiles on their faces, excitement for the next day and a full stomach. It was amazing to see all of our staff and volunteers step up to make this camp come to life and happen for the last 5 weeks.  This would not have happened without them and without the generous financial and resources gifts of supplies that were given by you the congregation and it’s friends.  We cannot thank you enough!!!   Over the next few weeks we are asking you to give us your input on which mission statement you best think reflects the life and ministry of LCR moving forward.  You have shared your thoughts, comments and input of what you value as a congregation which includes; preaching, teaching, community, prayer, fellowship and worship. You also lift up the importance of our children and youth along with the importance of reaching out to serve in our Racine community and beyond.  The Congregational Council has kept your thoughts, comments and the life and faith of this congregation at heart as we pulled together the three mission statement options for LCR. We want this mission statement to be an anchor for our ministry as we have been called to unfold amazing ministry in Jesus’ name each and every day.  Please take time to fill out the mission statement survey and rank the options so we can make a final selection for this fall!

August 10, 2019 The one-volume publication of the first five books of the Old Testament in Anufo has been completed, and the team has taken delivery of the books! Praise God. Thank you for praying! We hope to have our own copy for you to see when we come to visit. Pray that the stories of God’s chosen people and his dealings with them in these books will touch the hearts of the Anufo, including those who still follow their traditional religion and those who follow the other majority religion in the area. Tom is helping the Anufo team with exegetical issues in 1 Samuel. Second Samuel is also ready for checking. He is also helping the L team in Nigeria make 1-2 Timothy and James ready for printing as well as making preparations to check the rest of Matthew with them in October. The Waja team and I are making progress on 1 Corinthians because the internet connection has been good lately. Pray for good health and strength for them as they work on 1 Corinthians and other books in preparation for our visit there from October 3-26. Warmly in Christ, Mary Mary and Tom Holman

A Special Thank You—from Barb Tuttle My time with Neighborhood Camp: what a group of faithful people at our church along with a group of neat kids! Thank you for the joyful notes, pictures, gifts and kind words. I’ll never forget my fun and joyful time. Blessings to Pastor Karen, Intern John, and each and ever one of you!

Biker rides (walks) in… Congratulations on a successful neighborhood camp this summer!  Isn’t it wonderful that Outreach for Hope sponsors such a great activity for so many kids…not only at our church but around the area.Did you know that there is an Outreach for Hope activity coming up – can you guess what it is? John – I’m guessing a bike ride??

Know this: We (Pastor Karen or Intern John) will NOT text you to request gift cards for someone in need. If you do get a text from “one of us”, with this request, please ignore and call or email us immediately. Our normal process for giving is directly through the church or through our approved giving portals. Thank you!!! Pastor Karen & Intern John