Mission Servants Activity of the Month

Bake a Birthday Cake for Someone Who Otherwise
Won’t Be Able to Celebrate their Special Day!
 

Birthdays are special days for everybody, whether you are “two” or “one hundred and two”! Many people are recognized on their special days, but there are many that aren’t. The two particular age groups that I’m referring to are the young and the old. You could help them feel special by gifting them a birthday celebration.

There are many ways to do this.

1. Put together a birthday cake gift bag and give it to the family. Purchase a cake mix, a jar of frosting and a box of candles and put them all in a gift bag with the child’s name on it. Put a Christian book inside that is age appropriate, too. Perhaps your society or woman’s group could adopt a classroom of children. Each child would be remembered with this gift on their birthday.
2. Your ladies may want to bake and decorate birthday cakes for your shut-in seniors or bake for an “adopted” nursing home group, and deliver the cake to the person wherever they live, whether it is in a nursing home or at their residence. You might include a Christian book or tract (large print preferred) or possibly a small gift to go with it.

Have fun! Be creative! Enjoy sharing joy on their special day!

Download this flier to print and share!

Sharing Your Servant Activities

At the Lakeland Zone Rally of New Jersey District, the ladies participated in a servant event of sending flowers to the shut-ins and/or elderly within their churches. A potting table was set up outside and the weather was perfect for the event.

The ladies decorated dollar store plastic cups with stickers and then planted petunias in them. To accompany their plants, they added a note card and placed a message from their heart on it. The ladies took them back to their own churches to give to their elderly LWML sisters or to give to someone they knew who could not make it to the rally.

The Lakeland Zone ladies enjoyed the servant event and loved the idea.

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Servants Activities

Mission Servants Activity of the Month

Support Our Military Personnel, Chaplains and Our Veterans!
 

Through The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod there are many ways to do this.

The LCMS encourages congregations to reach out to military families in the following ways:
Pray for our troops.
Recognize veterans in your congregation at least once a year.
Celebrate and remember our nation’s military veterans, service personnel, chaplains and families.

Assist your congregation in becoming an Operation Barnabas Chapter. These chapters meet monthly around the specific goal to actively engage military members in your community. Through volunteerism and the leadership of this chapter, group members actively serve in your community and share the love of Christ with those who have borne the burden of defending our nation. Operation Barnabas will help train and assist local congregations in their care and support of local military members and their families and veterans.

Financially assist The LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces (MAF). They support almost 200 chaplains, who represent the church on active duty, the reserves, the National Guard, and Civil Air Patrol. Chaplains meet the needs of military personnel and their families. MAF is seeking funding (a $5,000 grant) to be a part of the HEROES Care network. It is a nationwide organization that reaches out to Veterans, Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve Forces. HEROES Care is a robust and ‘in-depth’ organization. The organization provides a network of housing repair professionals, auto mechanics, emergency funding, and a catalog of counselors. In addition, corporations donate toys, clothing, job counselors, furniture and even hotels that assist homeless veterans. HEROES Care also has access to military bases, USAR facilities and legal agreements with some State National Guard facilities. They are recognized by the VA.

Download this flier to print and share!

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Servants Activities

Mission Servants Activity of the Month

Share Your Easter Joy!
 

Easter gives joy! Share the joy of Jesus’ resurrection with people of all ages during this blessed and holy season!

Remember the thrill of getting an Easter basket as a kid? Create a basket for a non-Christian friend, but in addition to the perfunctory Peeps and chocolate eggs, add a book or DVD that focuses on the first Easter.

Don’t forget those seniors in nursing homes. As many celebrate Easter with family and in church services, there are some seniors that will not receive visits and have opportunities to spend with their family for Easter. Consider a small basket or little bin that they can snap to their beds, wheel chairs, or walkers filled with a few non-candy Easter goodies such as fuzzy socks, post it note holders, pens, small journals, bookmarks, and a personal note from a child. Give an Easter lily to put into a window to symbolize hope and life.

Share the message of Christ with a beautiful “He Is Risen” Easter ornament. Fill them with jellybeans, a prayer, small toy, a tea bag, or anything your heart desires. Directions and the downloadable ornament can be found on the LWML website.

Download this flier to print and share!

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

Related Resources

• Mission Service Activities Archive
• Spring Resources
• Resources for Easter

Mission Servants Activity of the Month

Fill a Backpack Full of Nutritious Food for “Feeding America”!
 

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 13.1 million children under 18 years old in the United States live in households where they are unable to consistently access enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life.

The Feeding America BackPack Program has been helping children, who often only receive one daily nutritious meal (their school lunch). This backpack program gives them nutritious and easy-to-prepare foods they need on the weekends. Backpacks of food are assembled at more than 160 local food banks and then they are distributed to more than 450,000 children at their schools on Friday to be taken home over the weekend. You can learn more about this program and find a local backpack program near you at feedingamerica.org or you can contact your local school or food pantry and ask if there is a local backpack program in your community.

Download this flier to print and share!

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Servants Activities

Mission Servants Activity of the Month

Knit a Stocking Cap for those in Need
 

Do you know how to knit? There are so many people that need stocking caps.

• Nurseries in your local hospitals for newborns
• Cancer patients
• Homeless
• Poor in this country and around the world

Oh, you are saying, “but I don’t knit”. There are inexpensive knitting loom kits available for purchase at many craft stores that offers looms in four different sizes, so caps could be made to fit everyone from newborns to adults!

The looms are easy to use, caps are quick to complete and economical, too. A few brands that carry these looms are Boye, Darice and Knitter. There are other brands, too.

This project could be done as an individual or with your ladies group. Completed stocking caps could go to hospitals, homeless shelters, or to mission organizations. Wherever they go, you are sharing God’s love, His warmth, and His comfort! Thrivent Action Team cards are a great financial resource for looms and yarn, too! HAPPY KNITTING!

Download this flier to print and share!

St Peter’s Church in Deshler, Nebraska put out a request for people to donate their unused bicycles to be given to Orphan Grain Train, “Don’t Leave Your Bikes in the Shed”. People generously gave, whether it was the gift of a bike, or the gift of a talent from God, their gifts overflowed. This project collected 48 bikes for Orphan Grain Train! They also had volunteers to make necessary repairs, to transport the bikes, and volunteers who knew where the bikes were needed! To God be the glory!

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Servants Activities

Mission Servants Activity of the Month

Assist Your LWML Group to Send Valentines to Your Church Members That Are "Shut-In"
 

The internet has many free printable Christian valentines. Print off a different type of valentine for each lady in your society or Bible study group, making sure you print enough of each type of valentine for each to be sent to all your members that are shut-ins. After printing these off, make a packet of valentines, envelopes, and address labels for each lady in your group. At your next meeting, spend a few minutes signing and adding a personal note to the valentines. You may want to encourage your ladies to bring postage stamps to the meeting; then on the way home all those wonderful valentines can be put in the mail. Think how wonderful it will be for your shut-in members to receive all these different valentines! 

Send such words that these would see; the love of Christ all given free. A blessing then that's heaven sent; a moment in time that is well spent. So write if you will; His joy to share; for these are His; they're in His care! Poem by Frank Sivacek

Download this flier to print and share!

During this Advent Season one way the ladies at St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Dedham, MA began preparing their hearts for His coming, was to make and fill with food, 15 Reverse Advent Calendar Boxes. Each day something is added to the boxes. These boxes were completed on Christmas Eve and were lovingly given to the Dedham Food Pantry. What a wonderful way to prepare for the coming of the Lord - giving to those in need. 

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Servants Activities

Mission Servants Activity of the Month

Cancelled Stamps Program

updated 8/2020

What do you do with your cancelled stamps from your incoming mail? Do you do like many of us and leave them on your mailing envelope to put them with your recycling? Did you know that you can donate your cancelled stamps for charity? Save your stamps that have their perforations intact, are not too heavily cancelled, and are not torn, cut or stained. Leave at least ¼ inch on each side of the stamp when cutting it on each side of the stamp when cutting it from the envelope or postcard. Nonprofit and not-for-profit organizations take donated used stamps – also known as charity or recycled stamps – and sell them individually or in bulk direct through auctions to stamp dealers or collectors to raise funds for various charitable programs. You may want to check with your local organizations if they have their own stamp program. Several charities that collect cancelled stamps are Wycliffe Associates to fund Bible translation around the world and Sisters of the Holy Cross Ministry with the Poor. 

Wycliffe Associates Stamp Ministry
C/O Ardy Bandstra
4330 Indian Spring
Grandville, MI 49418
Phone number for Wycliffe Stamp Ministry: 616-295-5764

Sisters of the Holy Cross — Stamp Ministry
100 Augusta Hall – Saint Mary’s
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

Melissa Gier, Caring Service Chairman for the Manhattan, Kansas Zone LWML used the February 2016 Blessing Bag idea found on the Mission Servants Website as the Servant Event for their Zone Fall Workshop. Each woman attending was asked in the pre-workshop publicity to bring a $5 gift card from a local fast food restaurant or grocery store.  In addition, a Thrivent Action Team Grant was used to purchase, bags, snacks, gloves, socks, and toiletry items for the Blessing Bags. During the Servant Event time, Melissa explained not only how to pack the bags but gave ideas on their distribution and shared personal stories of people who had received Blessing Bags. A total of 27 bags were assembled and attendees each took a bag to distribute in their home community. 

The Gospel Outreach Committee would love to hear about, and share, your mission service activities! Please contact the Vice President of Gospel Outreach here. Thank you!

View past Mission Servants Activities