10/14/09
Dear St. John Members and Friends,

I saw something that gladdened my heart last week – a group of adults talking and praying with our Confirmation Students, or mentoring them. 

Our Confirmation staff was looking for a way to individually support our confirmation students, and looking for a way to get adults involved in our confirmation ministry.  Our confirmation staff thought of asking for mentors.  A mentor is an adult who helps a young person grow to maturity.  Our hope is our mentors will help our young people grow in spiritual maturity.  We asked parents and congregational members to meet with our students during closing Confirmation worship.  The mentors were to ask the student 2 questions.  First, what did you learn today?  Second, how does what you learned affect your life as a Christian?   Then we asked the mentor to pray for and with the student. 

We weren’t sure if our mentoring plan would work.  It has only been one week.  But what I saw last week was adults and children talking about God’s love, and praying with one another.  I was thankful.

We have a number of examples of mentoring in the Bible, such as Moses mentoring Joshua, perhaps Naomi mentoring Ruth, and Paul mentoring Timothy.  In each case the young person grew as a child of God, in part because of the example, the patience, and the help of the adult.

A week ago in church we heard Jesus say, “Let the little children come to me.”  Jesus died to save the whole world, but He often expressed special concern for little children.  Unfortunately, we know many situations that lead children away from Jesus, or are even dangerous for them in our world today.  What a wonderful opportunity it is to help a young person grow closer to our Lord Jesus! 

Did anyone mentor you?  Is there anyone whom you are mentoring?

A Fellow Child of God,
Pastor Rockey

P.S.  If you would like to help mentor one of our Confirmation Students during closing worship, please come to St. John no later than 5:00 p.m. on Wednesdays.

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ABOUT ‘THOUGHTS FROM THE PASTOR’ -   I am sending these e-mail messages, hopefully weekly, to all St. John members and friends whose e-mails I have.  (I am always adding new names of friends and members – in case you are just receiving this e-mail for the first time.)  However, if you don’t want to receive this e-mail, please let me know, and I’ll gladly leave your name off my list for this message. . . Or, if you know someone who would like to receive one of these e-mails, please send me their e-mail address.
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PRESIDENT PAUL LINNEMANN, Northwest District President, will be in Alaska next week for the Alaska Workers Conference.  President Linnemann will be at Zion Lutheran Church on Boniface in Anchorage on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.  You are welcome to come and hear what he has to say, and ask questions.

THANK YOU   St. John members responded very generously the last 2 weeks in our offerings.  We are still behind financially for the current year.
In some previous years we have made up deficits in the last quarter of the year.  Also, many are tithing off their Alaskan permanent fund checks.  Please consider how you can respond to God’s love for you in your offerings.

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DID YOU KNOW THAT MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT ST. JOHN is available on our church website?  The link is:  http://www.st-john-lutheran.org  Our web master is Jacki Rose.