Last Sunday afternoon, Red Oak Grove hit the bowling alley in Hayfield for a couple hours of pizza, fellowship, and bowling!
We had fun throwing bowling balls down the lanes, sometimes backwards and sometimes straight to the gutter.
Rumor has it a bowling trip happened last year too. Perhaps it will become an annual Sunday afternoon event to break up the winter monotony! You should come next year. It will be fun.
Uh oh.
Even though it is winter, pesky mosquitoes have invaded Red Oak Grove – have you seen them hanging out in our building? [Kids challenge: Count how many mosquitoes there are in the building and tell Pastor Lindsay your final answer. Get the number right for a prize!] The bad news is that the mosquitoes won’t leave until mosquito nets are purchased. But that’s also good news – for each mosquito net we buy, a family in Africa will be safe from a deadly disease!
The next couple weeks we will focus on the disease malaria and what WE can do to save people’s lives. One child dies every 45 seconds from malaria – and we can stop that from happening! The Sunday School children are all over this cause and collecting money for nets. WELCA is in on it too! Keep this initiative in your prayers, check out the bed net hanging in the Sunday School wing, and watch the bulletins for more ways that you can help!
Check out this website and this one for more information!
It’s hard to believe it’s the week of Christmas. December has flown by at lightning speed and now we rush, rush, rush to put those last holiday presents under the tree and the last decorating touches on our home. Christmas plans are made. Menus are planned.
The children and youth of ROG shared the Christmas story in a new and wonderful way yesterday during their Christmas program in worship. The children were different animals – bees, bugs, donkeys, birds, roosters, and sheep. Each of the animals shared the great news of Jesus’ birth in their own unique way. A buzz. A baa. A song.
How will you share the news of Jesus’ birth this Christmas? Pushing the stress of the season to the side, how will you celebrate Emmanuel, God with us? What will it sound like when you take a deep breath, recall the story from the gospel of Luke, and tell the tale again?
Will it sound like reading the gospel story before opening gifts? Will it sound like being there for those who need it this season? Will it sound like “Merry Christmas!,” a hug, and an “I love you” to those who surround you?
How will you share the great news of Jesus’ birth in your own unique way?
Wait.
What?
Happy new year!
… new church year, that is.
It’s the season of Advent in the church. The season of the color blue and the season of waiting. Anticipation. Expection.
We wait for Jesus’ birth in a lowly manger. We wait to hear the angel’s proclamation, for the star’s appearance, and to hear of the wise men’s journey to visit the newly born baby.
We getting ready for Christmas here at ROG. Our sanctuary is decked in blue and Christmas trees. A nativity sits outside; a scene of what is to come.
How do you make ready for Jesus? How do you prepare for the Christ child to be born? How is the season of Advent marked in your life?
Here at Red Oak Grove, the ladies [and gents!] quilt for a series of Mondays in the fall, take a break for the winter, and then pick up again in the spring. We have to leave space to stay safe in those pesky winter snowfalls! On the Mondays that they meet, anywhere from ten to twenty people gather in the fellowship hall of the church as it’s transformed into a quilting space. It doesn’t matter if you have quilting or sewing experience or not – if you can tie a knot, you can have a job!
Today was the last Monday we will meet until the snow is done flying. The quilts that we have made so far with love and dutiful attention will go in various directions. To Lutheran World Relief and to agencies in the Twin Cities that need blankets to hand out to others. There are also baby quilts for newly baptized at church and potential quilt auction pieces that will benefit the church.
The total number of quilts completed this fall? Fifty-two. Fifty-two quilts!
Awesome.
To be continued in the spring!
What might happen?
At Red Oak Grove, we’re about to find out. This coming Sunday we’re presenting the three year olds with story Bibles and the third graders with study Bibles. [The confirmation students have received study Bibles too.] Actually, I will present the Bible to the parents. The parents will present the Bible to their child as they promised to do when their child was baptized.
If you give a child a Bible …
We as a church community will hope that the child will dig into its stories and truths. May they read and tell the stories that are inside the covers. May they honor the commandments given. May they open the Bible and not just keep it on a shelf to look pretty.
If you give a child a Bible …
They might ask to hear a story before they go to bed. They might read their story Bible front to back many times over. They might become utterly engrossed in the tales of Daniel, David, and Paul.
If you give a child a Bible …
We can all dig into Scripture together. Show your child how you use the Bible. Read the Bible with your child and grandchild, niece and godson. Be an active example of the Christian faith that you hope your child will embrace as you do.
If you give a child a Bible …
I think we give permission to all learn together. The children might not know where to begin. They might not know where to find a verse or a chapter. The difference between the Old Testament and New might be a mystery. That’s us too. We all have learning ahead of us. Let’s do it together – all age levels, all knowledge levels, all people together.
If you give a child a Bible …
It might unite a community in faith and in the Christ that the Bible proclaims. It might join people of all ages together. It might help us each tell and share our own stories.
If you give a child a Bible …
What might happen?
Let’s find out together.
The confirmation students dug into the story of Noah this week.
Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. [Genesis 6:5]
As God calls Noah to build an ark for a flood will come, it’s these building instructions He passes on. He is to build this giant boat, take aboard his family, and gather two of every animal.
Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. [Genesis 6:22]
Noah believed. Noah had faith that God was at work. And so an ark he built.
A HUGE ark! Did you know a cubit is approximately the distance from a grown man’s elbow to the tip of his finger? At confirmation, we did our own approximate cubit measurements.
We determined that the ark was about ten fellowship rooms long. Holy cow! That’s huge!
We know the story. God had seen that the world was overcome with sin and it grieved him. The rains come. The flood happens.
And then there is promise.
I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. [Genesis 9:13]
Never again. A promise worth a whole lot of cubits.
People of all ages – from young to not-as-young – met at Red Oak Grove on Sunday afternoon for a fall festival. The event began with a scavenger hunt for families that led them from one place to another, all while decorating a gourd pumpkin as they went. Next, we hopped on hay wagon racks and rode on bales of hay to a bonfire of cider and s’mores. We kept our jackets on and hoods up but had a lot of fun sipping hot cocoa and watching the river run. Next year, we’ll hope for a little less wind but otherwise, there is lots of hope to keep this fall tradition going. You should definitely come next year.
Want to see more photos? Check out the photos tab at the top of the site!
It’s already October. October 10th to be exactly.
The leaves are falling and there are pumpkin bars appearing at church events.
Autumn is in the air … even if it’s not in the temperatures. [It's been a crazy 80 degrees lately!]
October at Red Oak Grove means confirmation is beginning. A fall festival to hang out as a community. Quilting has began on Monday mornings in the church basement and great ways of ministry are continuing.
We’re embarking on a new way of ministry and conversation this fall – we’re calling them “cottage conversations.” These conversations of small groups of people will take place in people’s homes as an opportunity to dream about ministry and the future of the church. Where is God calling us as a congregation?
Dare to dream and pray with us? Contact Pastor Lindsay to get involved!
I’ll fess up right away – I’m new to Red Oak Grove.
Not only that – I’m new to full-time solo ministry!
There are lots of new beginnings. Beginnings come with excitement, anxiousness, and deep anticipation.
It’s fall at the church. A new year of children’s education on Sunday morning. Confirmation for middle school youth is about to commence. A new year of quilting. New and different mission focuses. [The children are aiming high to buy mosquito nets. Such a wonderful mission!]
New and exciting things are happening at Red Oak Grove.
Including a new website! What do you think?
