Outreach Center Network News Letter
November 2017
In this issue:
Give thanks? - A Devotion
Outreach Center Helps
Failure and Success
Spotlight on a Center
Transferred to Glory
Kids Humor
Final Thoughts
Each article will begin with ###. You may move to the next article by searching for this.
### Give Thanks?
Luke 17:12-19
12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance
13 and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"
14 When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.
16 He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?
18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"
19 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
As we are in the holiday season, we often here that we are to give thanks to God. We thank him for the blessings we have and the serious things that we do not have. Yet many people grumble and complain. In any given day, I too am not always giving thanks but rather grumble.
These ten men can teach us all a big lesson. We might think we have it bad yet leprosy separated people from society. They had to live a lonely, isolated life. Family left them and they struggled in isolation simply to eat.
You know, this sounds a lot like some blind people I know.
One man came back and thanked Jesus. He realized that not only was his separation from people over, but also the inner separation from God was gone. Eventually all ten of them died. We don’t know about nine of them. We know that the one who came back and thanked Jesus had his heart cleansed. Jesus said so. His faith or trust reflected that Jesus had made him well.
Leprosy separated them from society, sin however separates us from God. Jesus changed that.
This is why we give thanks during this holiday season. We thank him for our blessings yes. Even more so, we thank him that he came down and lived, died and took sins separation for us on the cross. We now know God and his love.
As you meet together; encourage one another to give thanks. Encourage one another to speak to others about Jesus that their isolation and separation may be gone.
### outreach Center Helps
The goal of what we do is focused on the future. We can not do it alone. It requires teamwork, delegation and accountability.
Teamwork: this brings two facts to mind. First, there is a goal or object to be gained. The team is working to accomplish this. Second, this goal or object is not done by one person, but many people; the team.
Delegation: Everyone on the team does something. A good team understands who does what and lets each team member do their part.
Accountability: Sometimes team members stop doing their part. The reasons for this are countless, and usually not important. Instead team members help one another know when a person is not doing their part and helps him or her do it.
So how is it going, or should I better ask, what will you be doing with this?
### Failure and Success
What is failure? It is not learning from your mistakes or learning from what didn't work.
What is success? It is continuing to try and never giving up.
Success is learning from the past to do the present and plan for the future
Success is the action, the process, the next step
### Spotlight on a Center
The Charlotte Outreach Center for the Blind opened in July 2002. It was the eighth center to open. Mary Klattenhoff, blind since birth, had joined a small group of Faithful Christians to start a new church. This new church began with a day-care center, and met in the same building. Mary was excited to learn of the efforts to start faith based support groups for people who are blind. She suggested the outreach center start as the new church started.
I, Pastor Dave Andrus, was invited to come and hold an open house and worship service on a Saturday night. Over a dozen people who were blind came. The next morning, seven of them returned and attended the worship service held by the new mission church and joined immediately. These seven joined because they understood and reveled in the fact that they would be part of the mission start and called upon to be active volunteers.
### Transferred to Glory
Mary Klattenhoff helped open the Charlotte Outreach center. During the past year Mary had been struggling with her health and died in September of this year.
Mary Klattenhoff (1937 - 2017)
Obituary
Mary Louise Klattenhoff, age 79, of Charlotte, North Carolina, formerly of Quincy, died in Christ on September 29, 2017, after a short, courageous battle with cancer.
Memorial Service: 6:00 pm on Monday, October 16, 2017 at Ascension Lutheran Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Friends are invited to gather beginning at 5 pm.
Burial: Greenmount Cemetery, Quincy, Illinois
Memorials: Metrolina Association for the Blind or Abundant Life Lutheran Church
### Kids Humor
A little child in church for the first time watched as the ushers passed the offering plates. When they neared the pew where he sat, the youngster piped up so that everyone could hear: "Don't pay for me Daddy, I'm under five."
A little boy was attending his first wedding. After the service, his cousin asked him, "How many women can a man marry?" "Sixteen," the boy responded. His cousin was amazed that he had an answer so quickly. "How do you know that" he asked. "Easy," the little boy said. "All you have to do is add it up, like the pastor said: 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poorer."
A boy was watching his father, a pastor, write a sermon." How do you know what to say?" he asked. "Why, God tells me." "Oh, then why do you keep crossing things out?"
Terri asked her Sunday school class to draw pictures of their favorite Bible stories. She was puzzled by Kyle's picture, which showed four people on an airplane, so she asked him which story it was meant to represent.
"The flight to Egypt," said Kyle. I see.. And that must be Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus," Ms. Terri said. But who's the fourth person?" Oh,
That’s Pontius - the Pilot.
The Sunday School Teacher asks, "Now, Johnny, tell me frankly do you say prayers before eating?" No sir," little Johnny replies, "I don't have to my Mom is a good cook."
After a worship service at First Baptist Church in Newcastle, Kentucky, a mother with a fidgety seven-year old boy told me how she finally got her son to sit still and be quiet. About halfway through the sermon, she leaned over and whispered, “If you don't be quiet, Pastor Charlton is going to lose his place and will have to start his sermon all over again!” It worked.
A little girl was sitting on her grandfather's lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately stroking her own cheek, then his again. Finally she spoke up, Grandpa, did God make you?" "Yes, sweetheart," he answered, "God made me a long time ago." Oh," she paused, "Grandpa, did God make me too?" Yes, a little while ago."
Feeling their respective faces again, she observed, "God's getting better at it, isn't he?"
### Final Thoughts
In upcoming issues we can and will look at many of the same topics as well as others. If you have questions, thoughts or suggestions, please send them to me or post them on the blind ministry email list.
Pastor Dave