VOLUME 8, ISSUE 5 MAY 2012

Compassion Int’l Page 2

“table”, TNDP Page 3

Worship Page 4

LifeGroups Page 5

Habitat Build Page 6

Bedding Plants Page 6

LifeLight Page 7

LWML Page 8

Primetimers Page 9

Women’s Ministry Page 9

Theater Camp Page 10

KidzClub Page 10

May Calendar Page 11

Coffee News Page 12

Breiderts Retirement Open House

Thank You and God

Bless You!

Join us on Sunday, May 6 from 12-3pm in the school gymnasium to honor and celebrate Dennis and Kathy Breidert, who have faithfully served Beth-lehem Lutheran Church & School and students for 42 years and 33 years, respectively.

Light refreshments will be served, and a special presentation & ceremony will begin at 1pm. Walk them down memory lane! Bring pictures or memo-ries to help create a keepsake photo album.

Gifts may be given directly to the Breiderts to help them fulfill their bucket-list wish for an ―Alaska Vaca-tion‖ of their dreams!

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Compassion Sunday is Coming to Bethlehem! By Bob Jones

Change the Story for a child living in poverty

Compassion Sunday is about how our church family can change the lives of children living in poverty. Sponsoring a child through Compassion International provides educational, social and health benefits through a local church in the commu-nity where the child lives. Your sponsored child will also learn the love of Jesus.

You have the power to change the story for a child living in poverty and help a child feel loved, valued and cared for. Help break the cycle of poverty and give a child hope for a future. It can begin with you!

Visit us at our Compassion Table on Sunday, May 6, 2012, to learn how you can make a difference.

IT CAN BEGIN WITH YOU!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

CHANGE THE STORY

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One Brick at a Time by Ron Tonniges

One brick at a time is the way a building is built. One brick at a time also applies to how Bethle-hem's pledges are being tracked. Pledges cur-rently total $2,274,290.

Each brick represents $5,000. All the bricks were originally placed in the chapel. Today many have

been moved to the main sanc-tuary. The bricks in the sanctuary rep-resent dollars already received. To date those bricks represent $661,593.

My Journey with the “table”

by Katie Winterhof

I have been attending “the table” since its early beginnings over in the fellowship hall. It seems ages ago when these seedlings were planted. It has been an amazing journey to see how God has grown, molded, changed hearts and lives, and continues to evolve this ministry.

I must admit that I had reservations at first when bringing my children to “the table.” The “mama bear” came out in me a little. I wasn’t sure I wanted our children to encounter the realities of life at such a young age. I also was nervous when it came to a few people who had been drinking or had a severe mental illness because it wasn’t predictable. I was also nervous about what to say. I’m not very outgoing until I get to know people, but I found that most people just want you to listen. That I can do! I discovered so much about people just through listening to their stories. God also made it clear to me that I’m not here to fix their problems; that’s His job. Once I understood that concept I was able to be in a true relationship with people which allowed me to suf-fer with them and rejoice with them.

Through prayer and consistency of attending “the table” God truly changed my heart. I have been able to see people through my children’s eyes. This is very convicting, but such a blessing! I see people as people… we all have baggage- some

just wear it on the outside.

Through the last few years of attending “the table” I have found a true, honest, forgiving, and Godly com-munity. I have friends who I adore and love and they live on the streets, in a motel, an apartment, or a house. It really doesn’t matter where they live; they are my friends because of who they are. God sees people’s hearts, not their clothes, hair, smell, or anything external. God has taught me through significant relationships and His Word that I need to see people that way as well. I now come to church Thursday nights knowing our children are loved and taken care of by a community of God-fearing people. This brings comfort to the “mama bear.”

Children have the ability to love as God loves. I have been able to understand God’s love more fully through observing the interactions our chil-dren have with “the table” community. God has shown me His love through seeing and experi-encing the realities of this world and loving peo-ple’s hearts.

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I’ve been led, it seems, to think about the power of praise. I’ve been reading through the Old Testament again. I love it, for some reason. There is so much to be learned from our ancient families there.

Last week I read about Jehoshephat in 2 Chronicles 20. He was the great-great grandson of Solomon and reigned for 25 years. He received a report one morning that the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites were coming toward Judah to destroy them.

Now, how would you respond if that report came your way? I don’t know, but I do know this – how you respond will make a big difference in how the situation actually develops – perhaps even before it starts to develop. Verse 3 of chapter 20 says, ―Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.‖

It seems that, based on his response, we might be best served to get down on our knees and give it to God because we make a move based on emotions — before you respond to negative news, before you take on the enemy.

The story goes on to share how they fasted and praised God. God, through Jahaziel, gave them words of encouragement that He was indeed in control. Then they praised God again.

When they finally went to war, the ―praisers‖ went out before the army. They led the way, praising God for the victory, based on God’s promise to them.

In a nutshell, what did I learn from Jehoshephat? There is amazing power in praise. We need to keep that in mind whether we are praising God alone in our daily worship or gathered together as a choir of soldiers in church. If you go singing into battle, you’ll hear your praise song above the en-emy’s voice. Your praise song to the Lord will have a soothing effect on your mind, will and emotions. Go ahead and sing to God with a voice of triumph. Put your faith in the One who loves you and calls you by name. See you in worship on Sun-day!

Remarkable Worship by Marilyn Havekost

“There is amazing power in praise.”

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Serving— the Way of Life by Pastor Tim Ahlman

Matthew 20:25-28 25 But Jesus called them (the disciples) to him and said, ―You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones

exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and who-

ever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a

ransom for many.‖

I will admit that service does not come naturally to me. I’m much better at being selfish with my time, my gifts and resources. I’m much better at receiving than I am giving. I’m much better at looking out for myself than I am at looking out for my neighbor. Can any of you relate?

I’ve come to realize that every morning I need to hit a ―reset‖ button. I need to daily ask God to put the ―old me‖ to death so that the ―new me‖ in Christ may be raised up. I need to daily dig into His life-giving Word. I need to aggressively seek out community with brothers and sisters in Christ

who can challenge my tendency toward compla-cency and comfort. I need someone to model a life of service.

Praise be to God for Jesus Christ, our Lord – the per-fect embodiment of a ser-vant. Jesus had every right to be served and yet He served us through His per-fect life, death and glorious resurrection. He now in-vites us to a new life of ser-

vice to be experienced with others. Please con-tact me (tahlman@bethluth.net) if the Spirit of God has piqued your interest in joining or starting an exciting service LifeGroup at Bethlehem!

A Clash of Cultures by Ron Wahl

"A Clash of Cultures" is the last six-week offering by Christianity and Contemporary Culture until next fall. These sessions start April 29th and end June 3rd. On May 6th-20th we will feature the Reverend George Naeem. He will present an in-depth review of Islam showing how it is and will affect us here in the United States.

For example, did you know that the city of Hom, Syria was home to about 80,000 Christians be-

fore the uprising? Since the uprising only about 1,000 Christians still live in the city. The rest have either fled for their lives or have been killed.

Everyone is welcome. On April 29th the group will meet in the Student Life Center, right next to the Chapel. The remainder of the meetings will be held in the Chapel. All meetings start at 9:15am on Sunday mornings. Hope to see you there.

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Colfax Marathon Sunday, May 20 from 7-11am

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V O LU ME 8 , I SSU E 5 P AG E 6

Thrivent Builds Day for Bethlehem: June 15 by Deborah Albrandt

Thrivent Financial first partnered with Habitat for Humanity in 2006 and is offered because Thrivent is a fraternal benefit society. Through this $140 million sponsorship, Thrivent has mobilized 365,000 volunteers, most of them members and other Lutherans, who have donated over 2.3 million hours in building more than 2,000 houses…..all in just 6 years!

Right here in our region, that translates to 92 homes built with Thrivent Builds in Colorado, Wyoming, and South Da-kota since 2006. Thrivent has contributed grants totaling approximately $6.5 million. Local Lutheran congregations fund-raising has contributed over 10% of that amount!

Local Habitat for Humanity affiliates have contributed an ad-ditional 35% of that amount to complete these projects. Thrivent Builds grants for 2012 in our region are for 15 houses. We would love to have you join us! You can help by volunteering for a work day or by making a financial con-tribution.

A Bethlehem/Thrivent Builds volunteer day has been sched-uled for Friday, June 15 at the Belmar site. Watch for details and a signup sheet or contact Dean Bartels at 303.303.985.9874 (d.bartels@hotmail.com); Ron & Tammy Uecker at 303.568.7077; or Keith Stechmesser, 303.962.6265 (keith.stechmesser@thrivent.com). If June 15 doesn’t work for you but you would like to volunteer, let Dean or Keith know and they can work out a day that fits into your schedule.

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Youth Spring Bedding Plant Sale — May 4-6, 2012 Stop by the Novacek Greenhouse, 2635 N. Youngfield St., Golden from 8am-7pm on Friday & Saturday, and 8am-5pm on Sunday and support the summer youth mission trip.

Sale items include: vegetables and herb plants, flowering planters and hanging baskets, tomatoes, geraniums, flower-ing annuals and perennials, seeds and soil products.

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Fully Alive

Bethlehem Lutheran Church & School

2100 N. Wadsworth Blvd. Lakewood, CO 80214

Church office: 303-238-7676 School office: 303-233-0401

Visit us online at

www.bethlehemfullyalive.com E-mail Bethlehem@bethluth.net

KLTT 670 Radio Broadcast 11:00 AM Sundays

David J. Langewisch, Pastor

Tim Ahlman, Pastor

John Petersen, Pastor of

Visi tat ion & Older Adul t Ministry

Michael Heiden, Vicar (Student Pastor)

Michel le Fischer , Princ ipal

Sandy Wendel in,

Director of Discipleship and Early Learning Center

Administrator

Mari l yn Havekost, Director of Music Minis try

Scott Bubke,

Director of Operat ions

Paul Beasley, Director of Information Technology

Adam Winterhof,

Director, Student L i fe Ministry

Suke Gnagy, Preschool Director

Karla Hal lac y, Mel issa Meuzelaar & Timi Schuessler

Cornerstone Counsel ing, 303-238-7676, ext . 315

Fully Alive is published monthly for the members and friends of Bethlehem Lutheran. It focuses on news within the congregation and activities in the church each month. Articles may be submitted to the church office by the 15th of each month for the next month’s issue.

e-mail to: bethlehem@bethluth.net

Can You Smell the Past?

by Annette Gunther

Do you ever notice how certain smells bring back memo-ries from your past? When I smell cucumbers I am re-minded of spending summers in Germany at my Oma’s house. ―Oma‖ is German for Grandma. She was a para-plegic and lived with my uncle in a small farming commu-nity where everybody knew everybody. In fact, the locals called us the ―Ami’s‖ because we came from the U.S. It was, and still is, a simpler lifestyle. My brother and I had a lot of friends there, most of whom lived on farms. We spent a lot of time on those farms helping out with the ani-mals (especially the pigs) and playing in the haylofts until my brother would suffer from extremely scary asthma at-tacks. We would stomp around in cow excrement in our little rubber boots and we would ride on tractors to the fields to spray cow urine on the grass as fertilizer. That, in itself, is an education in the circle of life. We also rode our bikes with buckets on the handlebars to the strawberry fields where we picked as many as we could carry and ate as many as we wanted. They would weigh the buckets and charge by the kilogram. It’s a good thing they did-n’t weigh us before and after!

Being in a small town and getting back to basics really makes you think about what’s important and what isn’t. You also learn what you can and cannot control. Take a garden, for instance. You can do everything right and still not succeed sometimes. My rhubarb plant, for example, is coming back very slowly this year. It apparently needed more rain or snow over the winter. We can’t control the weather – only God can. Despite the hard work of plant-ing a vegetable garden, I never feel closer to God than when I’m digging in the dirt or harvesting the delicious veg-gies.

That’s the same feeling you get in Lifelight. Being in the Word and studying in small groups with other believers makes you feel closer to God. He speaks to each member through the daily studies, group sharing and lectures. Find out more about what God has in store for you by checking out the Lifelight website, www.lifelight@bethluth.net. This fall we will be studying the Life of David, followed by Se-lected Psalms and 1, 2 and 3 John. It should be an excit-ing year! Don’t miss out!

V O LU ME 8 , I SSU E 5 P AG E 8

LWML Update by Janet Krogh

The ladies of LWML want to thank you for your very gener-ous donations dropped into the purple men's and women's purple feet, as well as purchasing over 300 specially wrapped chocolate bars. The money dropped in the boxes along with the feet went toward Mites to meet the goal for the Rocky Mountain District LWML mission goals which were due on March 31, 2012. Praise the Lord! That goal was met on time. Your generous coins were certainly blessed by our Savior to help meet the goal.

Any and all women are cordially invited to attend our LWML meetings. Watch for announcements of dates and times of those meetings in the bulletin. If you would like to learn more about LWML, be sure to visit the website -- www.lwml.org -- or www.rmdlwml.org -- to find out about the events happening in the national and Rocky Mtn. Dis-trict.

The ladies of Bethlehem are one of the thirteen societies that are part of the North Central Zone. We are already making plans for an LWML Rally this fall which is sched-uled October 20, and hosted by the ladies of Gethsemane Lutheran in Broomfield. The theme is going to be based on the acronym P.R.A.Y.E.R. -- Praise, Remember, Ask, Yield, Excitement, Rejoice -- to remind us that we speak to God in prayer, and assures us that He readily speaks to us in His Word and in the Sacraments, as the Holy Spirit gives His divine counsel through very clear direction or sometimes His "nudging." Watch for upcoming information on this very special event.

Your Mites will help toward this month's highlighted Mis-sion grant:

Grace Place for LCMS International Missionaries -- $75,000. Grace Place works in harmony with LCMS World Mission, Commission on Ministerial Growth and Support, Congregational Health Ministries (World Relief and Human Care), Concordia Plan Services, and other entities of Synod to focus on keeping church workers healthy: physically, emotionally, relationally, fiscally, and spiritually.

A grant of $75,000 provides underwriting for three LCMS International Missionary Grace Place events in Asia (2012), Eurasia (2013), and Latin America (2014) to serve all LCMS missionaries in those regions.

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Primetimer May Activities By Pastor John Petersen

May 1 Bible study at 10am in the PAC May 5 Bunco from 1-4pm in the PAC May 15 Bible study at 10am in the PAC May 15 Out-to-lunch bunch to Lone Star Steakhouse. May 20 Annual Barbecue at 4pm in the Courtyard

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Save the Date: June 2, 2012 Women’s Event for all Women & their Friends Time: 2:00-4:00pm in the PAC

Speaker: Miranda Naeem (wife of Dr. Naeem from Egypt)

Topic: What it is like to be a Muslim Women in the Arab World

More information will follow.

Contact Margaret Wahl 303-238-3465.

If you are interested in being the Group Coordi-nator for this year’s Women of Faith event, please contact Mary McFarland at 303.426.0660.

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Summer Theater Camp By Marilyn Havekost

Still basking in the glow of the wonderful production of ―Beauty and the Beast‖ last summer, we’re busy preparing for this year’s show, ―Alice in Wonderland.‖ The sign-ups are coming in, planning for stage and costumes has begun, and prayer teams are in place to cover us with God’s blessing and protection.

One of my favorite memories of last year occurred at our Thursday night show. The swamp coolers were down, the temperature was continuing to rise to uncomfortable levels, when one of the actors ran back and said we needed an in-termission because we had several actors ready to pass out from the heat. We quickly called an intermission, and we got several adults running around the building getting fans and water for the kids. A few minutes later I ran down to the girls’ locker room to find the kids all huddled together on their knees in prayer. It was completely kid-led and kid-generated, and it was truly touching. We had several campers from out-side our little community here, and we saw it as a great op-portunity to reach out to them.

I’m looking for some of you who would like to offer a scholar-ship of any size to kids who would love to come but for whom the $250 camp fee is just a bit too high. If you feel led to help out in this way, please let me know soon. I have several needy campers waiting for assistance.

Sharing Our Universal Love

Sunday School is partnering with the Weiman family of Beth-lehem to bring Sunday School supplies to a small church in Uvita, Costa Rica. The church is located in the south of Costa Rica near the Pacific Ocean. Sunday School will be using this as their outreach mission over the next year. A box is in the school entryway for the school supplies. The following materials are needed: construction paper, markers, rulers, watercolor paint, scissors, crayolas, glue, pencils, etc.

Jesus said, ―Let the little children come to me.‖ Your dona-tions will be a blessing to the children and community of Uvita. Thanks for sharing the Gospel to all the children of the world.

KIDZCLUB Sunday School concludes May 13.

Project Soul

by Marva Tonniges

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Non-Profit Org.

U. S. POSTAGE PAID

WHEATRIDGE, CO

PERMIT NO. 68

As many of you know, the coffee house and coffee cart have been cutting out a few items in the menus. We have cut out items that don't sell as much as other items, and we can't keep them fresh enough for you — our customers. WE STILL HAVE VERY YUMMY HOT AND COLD DRINKS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT.

COFFEE HOUSE SUMMER HOURS:

The coffee cart will be CLOSED all of June, July, and part of August. The Coffee House located in the Chapel will be OPEN on SUNDAYS from 7:30am-12:00 Noon. Please come see us on Sunday in the Coffee House. We have the best Peach Smoothie!

Coffee Specials: Cherry Almond Latte/Steamer Caramel Apple Latte/Steamer