Garage and Bake Sale:

Friday, Oct. 1 and Saturday Oct. 2 , 8:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

My church family will be holding a garage and bake sale on Friday, October 1 and Saturday, October 2 at Christ Lutheran’s Activity Center to start fundraising for my second year of mission work in Shongweni, South Africa.

There will be a lot of great items at the sale, so I hope you can come and enjoy some shopping while helping to support the mission work here!

If you have some gently used clothing, toys, books or household items* that you want to get rid of before winter or if you are thinning out your closets and drawers, we can use your donations at the end of September. We appreciate your donations!

* We are sorry, but we are unable to take individual computer components.

Christ Lutheran’s Activity Center is at 311 N. Hershey, Normal, IL 61761

Southwest corner of the church’s property.


Donations can be dropped off at the following times at the Christ Lutheran Activity Center:
Sunday, Sept. 26: from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m **We can use volunteers until 8 p.m.
**Monday, Sept. 27: from Noon to 7:00 on these days and Thursday,
**Tuesday, Sept. 28: from Noon to 7:00 Sept., 30 from 11- 8 p.m.
**Weds. , Sept. 29: from 1:00 to 8:00 1 or 2 hours or more is appreciated!

We need volunteers to help Sunday – Thursday until 8 p.m.
Want to volunteer, have questions or need something picked up? Call Marilee Wehrenberg at (309) 830-2563.

Baked goods can be left in the church kitchen or brought to the activity center on

Thurs. , Sept. 30 from 9a.m. to 3 p.m. (kitchen) or noon to 7p.m. (Activity Building)
or
Friday, Oct. 1 during sale hours (Activity Building)

No items to donate and no time to cook? Take part in our “bakeless” Bake Sale and donate what you would spend on the item(s) you might make. i.e.: Cherry Pie=$8.00


Regardless of whether you can help with donations and/or time, we appreciate the prayerful support of the mission work God has made possible for me to do through people like you!

To be added to my e-mail newsletter list, send an e-mail
message to:
Julia.Wehrenberg@lcms.org and put the word “ADD” in the subject heading.
It is a great way to keep up with the mission work going on in Shongweni and
get my prayer requests for the mission.

Thank you and God's blessings on your week!

Love in Christ,

Julia

August Picture Book

Jesus is our ultimate supporter as our savior! Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” This is a picture from our first support group at the church community center. Shara and I assisted social workers Eldah and Primrose from Christian Social Services run the support group for the caregivers of orphans in the Shongweni rural community.

Shara, Bishop Weber, Pastor Thwala and I will continue to work together through the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa to do mission work in Shongweni for one more year! I am thankful that Shara will also be extending so that we can continue to do this work as a team. I would love the opportunity to share more about the mission work here in Shongweni with you and your church when I am back in the States!

Bishop Weber visited our class taught by Deaconess Grace Rao from LCMS World Relief and Human Care. These women came from Botswana, the Congo and throughout South Africa to learn about serving God in their churches and daily lives. It was a blessing to learn a lot from the course and very encouraging to spend time with these great women of faith!

Deaconess Grace Rao had each of the nine women that attended the ministry course lead a Bible study. It was great to learn from all of the women and be encouraged by their messages!

The support group enjoyed an exercise where they shared about themselves and learned how they are all connected.

Shara and I spent time at another crèche to learn more about how to run childcare programs in Shongweni.

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Greetings from sunny and beautiful South Africa! Another month has flown by that was filled with lots of opportunities to grow in my faith and service. I am happy to share that all of the paper work for the crèche has been handed in to the government, and we are on track for opening the crèche in November! I am looking forward to having the church provide a safe and caring environment where the children can be taught about God’s care for them daily. I also had the opportunity to learn a lot this month when I attended a two week course at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Pretoria about various ways women are able to support ministry in the church and community. Throughout this month it became very clear that learning never stops and that the more that we are able to learn the better we can be at
supporting one another.
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“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Corinthians 2:3-4)

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All of us support various people and things in our lives. We support our families and we support our favorite sports teams. Being a source of support can be a lot of hard work, but it can also be a lot of fun! Whether we show support by listening to someone going through a challenge or by decking out in our team’s colors for the game, we know that our encouragement is needed and appreciated. This month, my missionary partner Shara and I joined forces with local social workers from Christian Social Services to provide support groups for the caregivers in our orphan project and the local community. These groups are designed to help the caregivers address the challenges that they face, while also providing time to socialize and develop friendships. Over thirty of us gathered at our first meeting and enjoyed sharing a little about ourselves and what topics we would like to have for the group.

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The support group is now taking place the first and last Monday of the month and looks at how other people and local resources can help, but points first of all to our biggest supporter, Christ. Not all of the people who attend are Christians, but they still want to be a part of the group and are being shown God’s care by the other people. As the group meets in the church community center the members begin with praise songs and prayer. Pastor Thwala also comes down and greets everyone, so I am happy that these groups have become another opportunity for the church community to open its doors and invite people not just to the church building, but also to encourage them in their personal relationship with Christ.

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I want to thank you for the support you have given me throughout my time as a missionary. It is with great joy that I want to share with you that I have been asked to extend my time of service here with the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa. I have accepted and will remain serving under Pastor Thwala with the Shongweni Orphan Project for one more year! I have been blessed to develop many relationships in the rural community, and am thankful that doors have been opened to care for spiritual, emotional and physical needs during this next year.

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I will be coming back to the United States to fundraise in December and January and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider continuing to support me this next term of service. One of the upcoming ways of supporting the effort to raise the funds needed is to be involved in a garage and bake sale being held at Christ Lutheran Church in Normal, IL on October 1st and 2nd. Donations, volunteers and shoppers are all needed and greatly appreciated. I cannot thank you enough for your help and care as I prepare to serve again!
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God’s blessings on your day now and always,
Julia
Hamba kahle!
(Go well!)

July Picture Book

July was a wonderful month! Enjoy the pictures and stories that show a few aspects of the culture and mission work going on here in Shongweni!

The kids enjoyed the story and song about Zacchaeus being a little man who Jesus cared about and forgave. After tracing a lot of hands to make the tree the kids drew Jesus coming to get Zacchaeus and celebrated God’s forgiveness and love for us too! During VBS the children enjoyed drawing and taking pictures home for their caregivers. I assisted in the seven year old and under classroom until VBS ended
July 9th.

In the Zulu culture the tombstone unveiling ceremony is a big celebration for the lives of the deceased. Here four tombstones had just recently been purchased for family members that had died in the last few decades. Tombstones are very expensive so how long a person waits to have this ceremony can greatly depend on the financial resources. Unlike a funeral, this is a very happy event!

Before the tombstones were unveiled there was a worship service with logs of singing, dancing and thanking God.

Once the tombstones were unveiled family members gathered around for pictures and talked about the life of their loved one.

There were several hundred people who attended the tombstone unveiling party, so lots of cooking was done in the large iron pots and on the open grill.
Shara and I joined social workers Eldah and Primrose from Christian Social Services in designing and creating support programs in Shongweni.

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July was a very busy and exciting month here in Shongweni. Although there were no big gatherings with fireworks and cookouts for the 4th of July, my missionary partner Shara and I have had a lot of experiences to celebrate! The month started out with a final week of Vacation Bible School where the children continued to learn about Christ’s saving love for them through Bible stories and activities. Pastor Thwala, Shara and I have also been progressing in getting the crèche registered and staffed for the upcoming months and have developed a lot of local contacts to help with this process. The sewing classes that we have on Wednesdays for ladies in the community also continued and one of the women has now become the main teacher! It is great to see the programs become self-sustaining and enjoyed by the people in Shongweni. Although each of these programs has various obstacles to work around, God has opened so many doors for this ministry. Thank you again for your prayers and encouragement!

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“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Corinthians 2:3-4)

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In addition to the continued programs, this month has also been filled with a lot of firsts. I attended my first Zulu funeral, and went to my first tombstone unveiling ceremony and family party. As I am becoming a part of the community I am being invited to more events, which helps me to better understand some of the Zulu traditions. I have had many unique experiences that have already allowed me to talk more about how faith plays a role in the traditional customs here.
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Another exciting first occurred when Shara and I met with all of the social workers and helped to plan a support group for the caregivers of the orphans. We are looking forward to hosting these programs at the church community center as another way to reach out to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the families in the orphan project. Throughout the old and the new aspects of the mission work here, God has been faithful in providing opportunities to witness about Christ, and to work as His hands and feet with wonderful local partners.

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One church that we Skyped with this month asked what Shara and I do as missionaries here that they could do in their community. The answer was that they could do the same things. Perhaps the culture, population or location is different, but the need for all people to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior is the same all over the world. You do not need to leave your world to impact the world of someone in your life. As you go into your week find strength and encouragement in knowing that God calls all people to be missionaries in their daily life. Whatever experiences you have God will help you use in your witness. From one forgiven sinner to another, I can say that perfection is not a quality God requires of us by ourselves. The perfection of Christ is our hope, our strength and our salvation message. Please know that as you pray for me I am also praying that you would be in God’s Word, in prayer and being shown how God is with you and leading you in His will. Dearly loved sibling in Christ, thank you for your ministry and blessings on your work as a missionary.