Christmas Canes

Two stories touched my heart this Christmas. Both were connected and both were examples of how people can go beyond to make radical generosity a way of life.

One of the collections we had at Christmastime was a project called "Christmas Canes." We collected aluminum, collapsible walking canes to be given to the people we serve in Honduras, many of whom use brooms or tree branches when they have trouble walking around.

A young girl heard about this project to collect Christmas canes and was inspired to help. So when she went to visit Santa Claus this Christmas, can you guessed what she asked for? You guessed it. She asked Santa for an aluminum cane. The girl did end up getting a cane, which she joyfully donated to our drive.

This story was shared during one of our Christmas Eve services. After the service, a man came up to me. He was using a cane to walk. When he got to me, he paused and held up his cane. "Can you use this?" he asked. Before I could really answer, he handed the cane to me and hobbled off.

I love stories like this, especially at Christmas, because they reflect the radical generosity of our God who has given us so much, including his one and only Son. May we all be inspired this year to go beyond by making radical generosity a way of life. Happy New Year!

Behind the Scenes of Christmas

Many people are going beyond to make Christmas Eve a special celebration of Jesus for all. This is a huge opportunity to reach people beyond our church. I bet you didn't know about this awesome serving team!!! They are scraping wax so everyone can have clean candles for Christmas Eve! Seriously, sooooo many serving teams of unsung and unseen people here at Good Shepherd! Let's take a moment to celebrate them!!!

Beyond Update November 2015

Read an update of how God has taken our church beyond through the generosity of our congregation: UPDATE.

Teen Leaders

Teens can lead the way in our generosity journey. Below our Director of FUSION (special needs ministry) tells about two teens who went beyond to help a family with special needs.

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I have 2 amazing teen leaders—Matt and Sara. They are not members of Good Shepherd, but heard about our program from Sara’s mom. Sara and Matt have been helping with Buddy Break for the past eight months and are two of my most passionate leaders. They arrive early to connect with other leaders, stay late to help clean up, and keep their energy level high and contagious for the entire 3 hours of Buddy Break as they play with the kiddos.

About two months ago, Matt approached me, saying he was interested in babysitting for kids with special needs. Having no experience with kids with special needs before Buddy Break, Matt had grown to love working with them so much, he wanted to use that passion to possibly make some money and serve families. Matt also recognized that their parents rarely had a break and he wanted to be able to provide them a break. I told him I would keep him in mind as I often hear from families that need babysitters.

About a month later, a FUSION family approached me saying they needed help finding childcare for their 2 kids. They would need extensive help for a week and wanted to know if I knew of anyone. I looked over my list of FUSION leaders, asked a couple people who were able to fill some of the hours, but there were still holes. I prayed that God would show me who I could ask… and immediately Matt and Sara came to mind. I contacted Matt and Sara and they were able to take all the hours that were left! They didn’t know what they would be paid, or if they would be paid… They saw a need and with their generous hearts, decided to fill it! Now, this family has 2 students they can call on to watch their kids if needed, knowing their child with special needs and his sibling are in good hands!

Danielle Schaeffer, Director of FUSION

Transforming Students' Lives

Every dollar counts.  The generosity of our church is reaching and transforming lives.  Check out how our Beyond journey is impacting the lives of students through our Student Ministry...

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Since our congregation went to one-fund and no longer charges for Student Ministries registration, the number of students who have registered has increased. Resulting in the following:

• This has allowed us to connect to more students and families with the unfailing love of Jesus. 
• It also encouraged families to register early so we were able to know the number of leaders needed to meet our students' needs. 
• This also allows students to enthusiastically invite their friends and not have the awkward moment of asking them for money to get registered for ministry opportunities at Good Shepherd. 

Through the generosity of Good Shepherd Church we have been able to mentor and lean into student leader development.

• One of our college students spent 7 weeks in Guatemala, will return for 2 more weeks at Christmas and is part of taking a team from his college to serve with him too over Christmas break. Many relationships with young children were developed as he spent part of his time living in the orphanage. He was able to do follow up work checking on the success of the water filters that Good Shepherd had installed. 
• Another college student is spending the year in Berlin being a missionary on college campuses. 
• 5 of our students were accepted through a grueling interview process to be staff for Group Mission trips this past summer. These positions are highly sought after. They spent the summer in various cities in the U. S. assisting teens as part of Week of Hope and Workcamp mission trips that we have been participating in for over 20 years. Their experiences at Good Shepherd led them to this serving opportunity. 
• Good Shepherd was able to hire a summer part-time employee to focus on our college age students who live local and those who return for the summer. Many were able to reconnect with church and relationships here. 
• One other college student spent the summer serving with Greater Europe Mission (GEM). We 
• as a church have supported the Raineri's, missionaries with GEM.

Janice Rubin, Director of Student Ministries

Instagram bio

One of our high school students included the Core Values of our church in their Instagram bio.  How cool is that?!?  Or should I say, "How beyond is that?!?"

Mission Impact 10-22-15

In our last Directors meeting, Pastor Gary shared some exciting statistics that reveal how the generosity of Good Shepherd is going beyond to make an impact locally and globally.  Good Shepherd is:

· The #1 contributor to the Malaria Campaign in the whole Metro Chicago Synod (this Campaign recently reached its $15 Million Goal nationwide…and the monies have been utilized to reduce malaria and malaria related deaths in Africa by 60% while proclaiming the Gospel and watching many lives being transformed by God’s love).

· The #1 contributor to Feed My Starving Children in the greater Naperville area for Feed the Need as well as being the #1 contributor among churches in the whole Chicagoland area.

· The Primary Sponsor for Cheryl’s Children’s Home in Nairobi, Africa.

· Supporting the year of “Quadruple 2’s” (2 Mission Trips to 4 different locations this past summer and early fall…including Guatemala, Honduras, Michigan, and Pine Ridge, South Dakota)

If you give to support the ministry of Good Shepherd, you play a part in making all this happen.  Way to go!

From scraps to glory

Last Sunday our Quilting ministry covered the chairs and pews in our Worship spaces with the 159 quilts they made this past year.  Below they share what inspires them to go beyond in their generosity and how the impact of the ministry is going way beyond our church...

Quilts are a tangible way to help people. A quilt may be used in a third world hospital, might wrap an orphan, could be used as a sack to carry a refugee’s goods, serve as a baby carrier, it may become a sunshade or a warm blanket, or be used as a room divider.

What might be considered scraps are transformed into something God uses for His glory. We take what are seemingly minimal resources – donated pieces of fabric and discarded sheets in good condition – combine them with the generous ongoing contribution of batting by a member, and tie the layers together. Each quilt is not only a work of art but more so, a representation of love.

The quilts first go to Lutheran World Relief (LWR) and then to their affiliates around the world for distribution. Last year, nearly 500,000 quilts were distributed by LWR worldwide. We were able to track the last shipment of Good Shepherd quilts sent to Lutheran World Relief. They went to Nepal, the area of a devastating earthquake in April, 2015. Over 9,000 LWR quilts have been distributed there.

Other quilts made this year have gone to Malaysia, the orphanage in Africa, Lifespring of Wayside Cross, and Lutherdale’s annual quilt auction. Some small quilts and blankets were given to Hesed House. An interesting fact: The scraps left over after making the quilts are bundled and given to Wayside Cross to be made into rags and sold to help fund that ministry.

Our Quilt Ministry team has also sent quilts to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where winters are brutally cold. This year, our friends at the reservation requested help as they wanted to start their own Quilt Ministry to especially serve the elders and children. One member of our congregation helped buy sewing machines which were shipped along with several boxes of fabric and supplies.

Linda V.

Translating God's praises

One of our young adults is going beyond by serving in Madagascar for a year with Young Adults in Glogal Mission (YAGM). Recently, she got to join with kids in singing God's praises in both English and Malagasy. Read her story below...

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At my home church in Tanjombato, I work with a group of level 2 English students (who are amazingly smart and good at English after only 6 months). My students usually work through having conversations, so we had a 'get to know you' conversation about likes and dislikes. As an example, I said that I don't like to dance, but I like to sing. And of course, that lead to them wanting to hear me sing. Oof. But it turned out to be a good thing.

In my mad scrambling to try and find a song that was both 1) something I knew well enough that I could teach; and 2) easy enough that the students could remember it, the only thing that was in my brain was the Doxology. Lutherans are fond of singing it, before offering sometimes. Our YAGM group sang it often as a mealtime grace. 

You might know it:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Amen

So I taught my group of 15 Malagasy kids the doxology. And when we still had time left, we went over vocabulary. I asked them to try to translate it into Malagasy, and they came up with this:
Ry Tompon'ny harena o!
Fanatitra an'tsitrapo
Atolotray anao izao
Mba raiso ka tahionao!
Amen

I love it. Half of us sang the English, while half of us sang the Malagasy. The words mushed together, our voices melded imperfectly, our pronunciation terrible. But I believe God wept tears of joy in Heaven to hear us. It was beautiful.

Hannah K.

Big Wins

Did you know ... The company who made a video of our children's and student's Beyond commitments won an award for their video. That's pretty neat. But the biggest wins were in the hearts that were touched and in the youth who made generosity a way of life. Watch the video below...