Monday, October 24, 2016

Parent Connection October 24th

I Dreamed about…
          In the Bible we read about some of the many dreams people had, special visions which God sent them. Many of the people who received these dreams were people in leadership positions. Often these dreams troubled the minds of those receiving them, especially those who did not know the God who sent them.
          Along with these dreams, God would send someone to tell the meaning of such dreams. Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh and his servants; and Daniel interpreted the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar.
With these dreams God was providing warnings about things to come or promises of good to happen.
          But what about our dreams, does God still communicate through them? God certainly could still use dreams for his good purpose. But everything we need to know from and about God is already available to us in his recorded Word. Certainly, some dreams trouble our minds, we wake up and can’t get back to sleep because of the dream. But do those things come from God to perplex us?
          I know one thing for sure. God is in control of everything and there is nothing that can take us out of his hand. He commands his angels to guard us and protect us. His promises surround us. His love provides for us and calms our troubled minds. He reminds us that we have nothing to fear because he is with us always and everywhere. He is going to bring us safely to our eternal home to praise and thank him forever.

Birthdays this week
Saraya Hegerberg October 24th
Viviana Mata October 27th
Have a blessed day!

Conferences
If you have not signed up for a conference time, please do so at: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090844aaae2aa0fc1-parent

No School – October 31st and Nov 1st
The annual meeting of the Alaska Conference of Pastors and Teachers will take place on October 31 and November 1, next week Monday and Tuesday. There will be no school those two days. There will be basketball practice on Tuesday at the regular time at APU’s Mosley center.

Reformation Service
            The school will be singing for the Reformation Service on October 30th at 4:30pm.  Please make every effort for your student to attend.  Arrive at 4:15 pm, no uniform is required, just attire appropriate for a church service.

Trunk or Treat
          Trunk or treat is October 28th 5:00 to 8:00 P.M.  This is open to all kids and kids at heart.  Put on your costume and come enjoy getting treats in a safe environment.  Remember no fake weapons or inappropriate (gory or evil) costumes. We will have popcorn, hot cocoa, cake walk, pumpkin decorating, photo booth and more to enjoy.
          Parents:  We need volunteers to decorate their trunks and to help with a couple of the activities.  We will also need small baked goods for the cake walk to be dropped off on the 27th or 28th.  Oh and candy!  Please bring all candy donations to the office.
          Signup to volunteer online at: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a49aca922a6f49-trunk or contact the office.

Spirit Wear
          New Faith Lutheran School t-shirts and sweatshirts have been designed.  We are trying something new this year.  You will order your items online, and pay online through CustomInk.  You should have received an email last week with the links to the shirts and the sweatshirt.  These items are optional for you to buy.  If you would like to order but prefer not to do so online, please contact the office.

Basketball
          Practice continues on Tuesday and Thursday, 4:00 – 5:30pm at APU.
         
Math-A-Thon
          The printed booklets have been ordered and should arrive this week.  You may start recruiting donations for your support to St. Jude’s.  Our goal for this year is to raise $500 to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The completed Math-A-Thon is due on November 4th due to the delay in receiving the booklets.

BoxTops
            Please bring any BoxTops you have been collecting into school and place in the collection box or give to your teacher.  The deadline for this submission is October 28th


Monday, October 17, 2016

Parent Connection October 17th

Slavery?  In Our Time?
For our reading class the fifth and sixth graders are finishing off a book called “Stealing Freedom”. It is the story of a real slave in the time before the Civil War. The story tells of families being torn apart when some of the sons were sold to pay off debts of the owner. It mentions how some slave owners beat their slaves for even minor offenses. Sometimes the female slaves were more highly valued because of their ability to produce offspring that could be sold as slaves.
This particular slave’s parents and siblings were purchased by a group working to end slavery but they didn’t have enough money to secure her freedom too. They wind up kidnapping her and sending her along the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada.
The horrors of slavery assault our sense of decency and morality. Yet even in our modern world, we wouldn’t have to look too far to find examples of the very same cruelties.
Even if we were able to eradicate all slavery in the world today there would still be a slavery going on among us. It is the slavery that began with our first parents way back in the Garden of Eden. All of us have been slaves to sin since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. In our natural condition, from the time we were conceived in our mother’s womb, we were slaves of Satan. Our condition was even more hopeless than the slaves in our novel, we could do nothing to save ourselves, there was no escape.
But thanks be to our God! He saw our condition, our slavery, and had compassion on us. He loved so much that he sent his own Son to save us from this slavery. He took up the punishment we deserved and paid the price to buy our freedom from Satan, freedom for all the slaves. Then he reached out to each of us through his Word and created faith in our hearts to believe his promise of freedom. We praise him for his amazing love!

 Half Day on Friday
          The first quarter of school ends on Friday October 21st.  School will dismiss at noon.  There will be no aftercare on this day.

Basketball
          Practice continues on Tuesday and Thursday, 4:00 – 5:30pm at APU.
          Our first game is this Friday at Anchor Lutheran beginning at 6:00pm.  All players must there ready to warm up at 5:45pm. This will be a coed game, and the only game of the night.  Go Huskies!

Hot Lunch
          For those new to Faith, PTF prepares a hot lunch once a month.  The students all eat together in the fellowship hall.  Parents are welcome to come enjoy lunch with their student.  Money is collected by PTF to cover the cost of the lunch.  All checks must be made out to Faith Lutheran PTF. Hot lunch will be:
                   Sloppy Joes
                   Chips
                   Carrots & Celery
                   Juice
                   Dessert
The cost is $4.00, please complete the hot lunch sheet and return by Wednesday.

Kindergarten Zoo Trip
          On Wednesday the kindergarten class will leave at 12:00pm for a field trip to the zoo.  The class will eat lunch before leaving.  While on the trip they will enjoy Critter Tales, featuring the tigers.  The cost is $9 for students and $10 for chaperones.  One more chaperone is needed.  Please remember to send car seats.  They will return to school at 3:00pm.


Library trip  
The upper grade classroom will be returning to the library this Wednesday to return our books and to get started on another assignment. We will be eating lunch at Wendy’s on Tudor.

Parent-Teacher Consultations
          Conferences will be held on the evenings of October 25th, 26th and 27th.  Please use the following link to sign up for a time.  Be sure to sign up for each of your students.

Trunk or Treat
          Trunk or treat is October 28th 5:00 to 8:00 P.M.  This is open to all kids and kids at heart.  Put on your costume and come enjoy getting treats in a safe environment.  Remember no fake weapons or inappropriate (gory or evil) costumes. We will have popcorn, hot cocoa, cake walk, pumpkin decorating, photo booth and more to enjoy.
          Parents:  We need volunteers to decorate their trunks and to help with a couple of the activities.  We will also need small baked goods for the cake walk to be dropped off on the 27th.  Oh and candy!  Please bring all candy donations to the office.
          Signup to volunteer online at: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a49aca922a6f49-trunk
          Or contact the office at faithlutheran@gci.net or see the signup sheet in the office.

Spirit Wear
          New Faith Lutheran School t-shirts and sweatshirts have been designed.  We are trying something new this year.  You will order your items online, and pay online through CustomInk.  You should have received an email today with the links to the shirts and the sweatshirt.  These items are optional for you to buy.  If you would like to order but prefer not to do so online, please contact the office.


Math-A-Thon
          The printed booklets have been ordered and should arrive this week.  You may start recruiting donations for your support to St. Jude’s.  Our goal for this year is to raise $500 to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The completed Math-A-Thon is due on October 28th.

BoxTops
            Please bring any BoxTops you have been collecting into school and place in the collection box or give to your teacher.  The deadline for this submission is October 28th

Reformation Service
            The school will be singing for the Reformation Service on October 30th at 4:30pm.  Please make every effort for your student to attend.  Arrive at 4:15 pm, no uniform is required, just attire appropriate for a church service.

No School
          On October 31st and November 1st there will be no school.  The teachers and pastors will be attending the Alaska Conference of Pastors and Teachers.

Birthdays   
          Emma Richardson
          Amy Richardson
          Eva Mendez
          Ewan Flynn
          Ava Taylor
          Skyler Harris
Sorry we missed your birthdays in the previous weeks.  May God richly bless you in the coming year.
         

          

Monday, October 3, 2016

Parent Connection October 3rd

Where to Find Rest
On your license plate, you probably have a representation of the prospectors lined up on the “Golden stairway” to Chilkoot Pass heading for the Klondike. The Canadian government required each of the prospective miners to have a ton of supplies with them that would last them for an entire year. Each miner had to get that amount of supplies up the mountainside to the pass and on to the Klondike gold fields. I can imagine that the lure of gold may have dimmed a little bit by the time they had carried their gear up and over the “stairway”. Once you started up the stairway, you dare not stop and rest because you may not be let back into the line to continue. You could pay some of the natives to carry your gear for you if you had that kind of money.
          Once you got to the top of the pass, you still had miles to go to get your cache of gear down to the head waters of the Yukon River. You had to get there before the snow melted so you could get a boat built to float down the Yukon to Dawson and the gold fields. All of this to strike it rich, maybe.
          Sometimes our walk through life could be like that of those miners, arduous and long, without a chance for rest. We long for a place to set our burdens down and take a breather. Our Savior invites us to do just that in our Bible verse this week: “Come unto me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29. He says we can take our burden of guilt and shame and lay it at the foot of his cross and find true rest for our souls. That burden no longer troubles us because he carried it for us and paid for it completely. We can rest safely in his loving arms forever!

Picture Day-October 4
Individual and class room pictures will be taken in the morning.  Students do not have to wear the school uniform on Tuesday. 
Students must bring the completed order form with them on Tuesday.  If you completed the form online please send a printed receipt with your child. To complete online visit AlaskasFocus.com and use code FL16. All online orders will receive 4 additional wallet photos.  All orders over $65 will receive a full resolution digital file. Contact Alaska Focus for questions.

PTF Meeting
Thursday, October 6th at 7:00pm.  Be sure to attend.  We are in the final planning stages for Trunk or Treat.  If you can help in anyway plan on coming.  We need volunteers to decorate their trunk and to help with some activities we have planned.
We will need lots and lots of the sweet stuff!  We are now accepting donations of candy to pass on to the kids at Trunk or Treat.  Drop it off in the office.  We would also like some non-sweet, and allergy friendly snacks as well.

Health Fair at Faith
Join us for a Health Fair on Saturday, October 15th, 8am to noon, hosted by Faith Lutheran Church and School. This is a free event for basic health screening, lab work and health care information.  Everyone in the school, church, and our community is invited.  
We need volunteers to help with snacks and to help at the event.  Please visit this link to sign up:
www.signupgenius.com/go/904054ba5a72ba57-10151
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Mission offerings
          The offerings from our chapel services for the first semester will be sent to the WELS Committee for Relief. This effort helps churches and members of those churches who have suffered losses by some sort of natural disaster. Funds have been distributed over the years to victims of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and fires in the United States and around the world.

Basketball
          Our practices continue this week on Tuesday and Thursday from 4:00 until 5:30 P.M. at the Mosley Sports Center on the Alaska Pacific University campus.
          Our first game is October 21st at Anchor Lutheran.  Girls will play at 6:00pm with the boys to follow.  Our next game is November 4th at Anchor beginning at 6:00pm for the girls with the boys to follow.

Calendars
        Just a reminder you can find updated calendars online at the school’s website and on the Educate website.

Educate Communications
          Last week two notifications were sent.  One was sent as a school closing notice, the other was a general message.  If you received too many of these messages or did not receive them, log on to your Educate account and adjust your alert preferences. 
          If you have trouble with the log in please email Sheila Lillo at faithlutheran@gci.net.


Central African Medical Mission (CAMM)

Are you looking for a way to serve our Lord?  Teethsavers, a non-profit Christian organization, is teaming up with the Central Africa Medical Mission to provide toothbrushes and toothpaste for all children seen by the Malawi clinic.  Over 60,000 patients receive medical care at the clinic in Malawi every year.  If you would like to help, please bring soft child-sized toothbrushes to Faith and leave them in the collection boxes located in the church and school entry ways by Sunday, October 23rd.