Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Holy Trinity’s Loose Change Jar Rises to $1,347

11/1/2004
By: Holy Trinity Lutheran

What woke you up this morning? When we and our three small children lived in a village in Liberia, West Africa, we were often awakened by the indignant crowing of a rooster, apparently ashamed of us all for still sleeping, or the happy bleating of goats, eagerly anticipating a new day. These are happy sounds to awaken to for rural African people!

Thanks to your loose-change emptied pockets and purses, many parents will rise in these mornings grateful to God that they have chickens and goats, seeds and trees. Many children will rise up singing as only African children can sing, with jubilant trust that all will be well: they will have milk to drink and food to eat.

Perhaps when we awoke this morning, many of us were already tensed by the problems we knew we faced on this day. Perhaps those problems were what woke us up. Your Stewardship Ministries committee would like you to awaken with something else on your mind. It may not solve those problems, but it could help to put them in perspective.

When you wake up, first thing, thank God for at least THREE things you can look forward to in the day Blessings from God. If that doesn’t work, thank Jesus that in the present day YOU have played an important part in the blessings the villagers throughout many places in Africa will rise to thank our Lord for. Just think of that kind of power, that kind of blessing for us.

God Bless you for your added ministry through our Helping Through Loose Change Jar. Let’s keep those roosters crowing and those goats bleating, those parents giving thanks, and those children singing! — IlaJean Kragthorpe