LCM News

Lutheran Campus Ministry

at the University of Delaware

The mission of Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Delaware is to express our Faith in God through fellowship, outreach and service.

Message from the Pastor

Greetings, friends.

The days are shorter and the nights are longer. We’re coming to a time of festivity and holiday: We’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and we’re beginning Advent. That’s a funny word, “Advent”. My Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church tells me that it means “coming,” as in “the coming of Christ.” For many, it’s a favorite time of the year, marked by anticipation and expectation — and even urgency. And, what we wait for will not be rushed. Christ will not be rushed: He’ll come when he’s ready, and not sooner and not later.

It’s also the end of the semester. There’s another waiting! We want to get those final exams over with and go home … or maybe we don’t want to get them over with — not quite yet. If only there were another day to study …

How to wait patiently for an end that is inevitable but will not be rushed? How to wait patiently for something promised and expected but that is not quite here, not quite yet? Well, the way we always wait: we breathe deeply. We pay attention to what’s around us. We smile quietly. And we keep busy with us, faithfully attending to what is given to us to do.

And suddenly there he is: the One we’ve been waiting for, the Promised One … In an unexpected way, in an unexpected place. Perhaps in a barn …

Have a good December: do well on finals, enjoy Advent, with all its gifts, and have a blessed Christmas.

Peace and Power,

PB

Service Spot

Please contact Amelia Blenderman at ameliaib@udel.edu if you are interested in helping out with Fellowship in Serving the Hungry (FISH) and any other service projects.

Looking for an opportunity to volunteer as the holiday season is approaching? You have come to the right place!

Join us as we tutor elementary students in math and English at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday nights.

Join us as we help those in need of supplementary groceries at our next FISH distribution. Our next distribution will be at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Friday, Dec. 19 from 2 to 6 p.m.

Throughout this semester, LCM has had optional offerings during Tuesday night worship. We would like to ask you to consider bringing non-perishable items to be used toward FISH. Of course, any non-perishable item is fantastic, but here are some ideas. Any monetary donations will also be put toward FISH groceries.

December 2 - Jelly

December 9 - Any non-perishable item

December 16 - Any non-perishable item

We hope to see you at these events!

A special thank you goes out to everyone who donated pasta for the Basket Brigade of Delaware in November!

Help with this newsletter

Would you like to contribute to the LCM newsletter? We need you. The task is pretty simple. You can share your photos, announcements about upcoming activities, your thoughts for “Why Christianity?” or anything else you find important to be heard! Please contact Jen Heine at jheine@udel.edu with any future newsletter contributions or questions!

Why Christianity?

This month’s contributor is Julie Leinhauser, a freshman majoring in environmental science who is also interested in music.

To start off, I have to say that I wasn’t raised in a Christian household. We weren’t NOT Christian, we just never went to church, and I had never really heard the good news or even what the Christmas story was all about. I don’t fault my parents for it at all — it’s just the truth of the story. In third grade, a neighbor whose sons I played with took me to their church on a Sunday morning, and just like any other visitor, I was plopped into a Sunday School Class. It’s all history from there. My parents joined our church and I began to get more involved in our youth group. The friends I made in youth group and the people there totally changed my perspective. They taught me a lot about acceptance. I can talk to them about anything. One of the great things about it is that I was able to meet people with the same Christian views as me that believed in me and lifted me up. I could write a whole page about them. But I’ll fast forward to coming to college. Here, the first on-campus group I found was LCM and then later Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Both of these groups gave me that accepted feeling that I missed from home right away without even knowing what it was. It was all through their love of God that they would be able to take a group of people they didn’t know, freshmen, and say, “Hi, you’re welcome here anytime to talk about whatever you may need to.” One thing I have learned so far is the virtue of forgiveness through Christ. I came to college with a lot on my mind — a lot to forgive for and a lot to be forgiven for. A good friend of mine reminds me every time I’m upset about something dumb I’ve done, “Julie, you’re forgiven, don’t forget the whole point of Christianity.” So no matter what I’ve done or thought about doing, I know that I’m forgiven and there is a group of people who accept me for who I am because Christ accepts me for me.

Fundraising Dinner a HUGE Success! But, now what?

For those of you who attended the LCM Fundraising dinner on Oct. 25, you will agree that the event was a huge success. We raised over $15,000 with money still coming in. We had a great speaker and we were blessed by all the support from all those who attended.

With all that excitement comes great anticipation for the next stages of mission development. As some of you might know, our chapel space is becoming smaller and smaller. This year alone we have hit a seating maximum during Tuesday night dinner. We only have space for 21 people and usually we have 18 to 21 people come every week. This is not a horrible problem to have. It is great when a ministry bursts at the seams with people. We do have to face one difficulty, though — we need to be able to keep this growing energy moving, and that will be hard if we have no seats to put people in.

We also are looking forward to new staffing. We already have hired an administrative assistant for the ministry. We need more though. We currently have two peer ministers. These are students in the ministry who have a specialized focus in the ministry. Right now we have one for outreach and one for service. LCM’s mission, however, says that we express our faith in God through fellowship, outreach and service. Therefore, we will be looking for another peer minister to handle fellowship. We also increased the pay for these peer ministers from $500 per year to $750 per year. This salary in no way reflects what these individuals truly mean to us, and we hope that in the future we can increase this line item even further.

We hope that you will continue to be a part of our mission with us. We ask you to continue to keep us in your prayers as we seek to grow and serve God’s mission on this campus.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

LCM Christmas Party

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

7:00 p.m.

Pauls’ Chapel

247 Haines Street

Newark, DE 19711

E-mail lutherans@udel.edu for more info.

LCM WINTER SESSION SECHDULE

Winter session classes start January 5, 2009. LCM never stops, not even for Winter Session.

During Winter Session:

· Tuesday Night Dinner and Worship happen every week at 6:00 p.m.

· Tutoring still goes on every Thursday at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Rides will leave from the chapel at 6:15 p.m. Extra Tutors are needed especially during this time since some students are out-of-town.

· Sunday morning worship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church is at 10:45 a.m. with rides leaving from various locations. There will be NO Sunday brunch during Winter Session.

· No Monday night Bible study and Wednesday lunch.

· FISH will happen on January 16, 2009 from 2 to 6 p.m. Volunteers are always needed. Rides will leave from the chapel at 1:45 p.m. FISH Ordering will be sometime before that. The date has yet to be determined.

Contact lutherans@udel.edu for more information or visit us on the web at www.lutheransatud.org.

Lutheran Community Services News

Food Drives Help Keep LIFE Pantries Open

In the past months, many LCS pantries (we have 11 food distribution sites) have had to cut down on their hours or the amount of food given out. Food drives by mission-driven people have been an important piece of the strategy to keep the pantries stocked and open. One of the most exciting approaches was employed by the folks at Good Shepherd. Instead of trying to get the congregation to bring in more food from their own cabinets, they suggested that members go out and start their own food drives. To make it easy, they supplied them with empty boxes — and asked them bring them back full! Inspired by this model, St. Mark’s has done the same.

Bags Available for Filling!

Two initiatives came together and created yet another solution. At around the same time LCS was hearing about these food drives, Samantha K., a Girl Scout who cleaned, repainted and even restocked St. Stephen’s pantry, stepped up with 44 environmentally friendly reusable shopping bags. (Thank you Sam!). Folks at LCS thought, Why not use these bags for food drives? We asked Sam, and she said OK. So, here’s the plan. We are decorating these bags with our message: “FILL UP AND RETURN TO LCS.” They are now available, first come, first served. We suggest that you get them for your church and make them available for folks to go out and start their own food drives — take them to your school, club, workplace or neighbors. When we empty them, we’ll send them out again! Call Dara Snyder at 302-654 8886, x104.

Home Repair Specialist Goes to Work

Charlie Cozamanis has joined the LCS Home Repair Program as our newest home repair specialist. Charlie recently retired from his state job and came to us via RSVP. The LCS Home Repair program provides low-cost (and sometimes no-cost) repairs for senior and disabled homeowners. Charlie completed his first job Nov. 7, repairing an attic floor for an elderly widow who was full of gratitude when she told us, “He was a real gentleman and did fine work.”

Lutheran Campus Ministry

wishes you a safe and

happy holiday season!

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” - John 1:14