St. Andrew's Church / Newsletter January 2020

FEBRUARY 2020

BLESSED TO BLESS!

Dear members, dear friends of St. Andrew's,

We start a MAKING A DIFFERENCE - campaign at the beginning of February. Its goal is to reduce the budget strain of the loss-making summer months to our church. We in the Council have set a moderate and achievable target of 10,000 dollars to the campaign and have committed ourselves to an extra 1,000 dollars donation.

The campaign will last 12 weeks and it will end on Easter Sunday. We will hand out a special campaign envelope each Sunday in which we hope you would include an extra donation to support our year-round activities.

With the well-prepared and well-managed sale of our church building we have aimed at keeping our doors open during the next years. We do not want to touch the revenues from the sale, but to save them as a nest egg for the years to come. That is the least we can do for the past generations who have donated money to the church. We want to stabilize the church finances so that the eating up of the capital that has lasted for years will be brought under control and our financial situation brought as viable as possible.

Our congregation follows Jesus’ command to make disciples and to teach how to live as His followers. We are called to be the salt and light and to proclaim the Good News both in Finnish and English in our Finnish-American community.That is why we are here and that is why we aim to remain here still for decades to come.

Thank you for supporting us in this work!

Pastor Mia

Click Here To Read My Blog

Preschool News

We began the New Year learning about time, making “clocks”, counting with our calendars, and talking about winter.

We built “snowmen”, played with shaving cream “snow” and painted snow.

Florida even experienced a few days of cold weather - we actually turned the heat on for a day and had to wear jackets!

We finished the month of January and begin February with a unit on Healthy Habits. We will learn about the importance of washing hands, eating healthy foods, taking care of our teeth and getting enough sleep and exercise. (These are lessons for a lifetime!)

February is also the month of Valentine’s Day and learning about kindness and being a good friend. We’ll decorate mailboxes and make valentines for each other.

There will be cutting, painting, and gluing of hearts and baking of heart cookies. On the 14th, we will have a party- play games, dance and eat our cookies.

Our artist of the month is Henri Matisse. The children will study his many masterpieces and then create their own art in his style.

We finish the month talking about community helpers, fire prevention and safety rules. The highlight of this week will be a visit from our local fire department. The children get to go inside the fire engine and the rescue vehicle, hear the sirens and even squirt water with the fire hoses.

Stay warm and God Bless,

Pirjo Komonen Campitelli

Music News

T hank you to all the wonderful musicians who gave their talents to our church and God during the month of January and beginning of February. The fun afternoon at the Resthome began the month as it brought joy to the residents there, as well as our congregation members in attendance, with a variety of magnificent music performances.

Then, the next morning, the accordions-10 strong, rang out in church on Sunday morning. What a great start to the new year! It is a joy to have such nice music at our services and evangelism events. We welcome new musicians!

We began a new contemporary service on the English side on January 26 ^th , which brought a fresh outlook to our services. Our praise band took care of the music- guitar, electric bass, keyboard, accordion and drums rounded out the group. Be bold, surprise yourself, and join us for these new services, they are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are thankful for all our choir members who play a big part here at church. If you love the Lord and love to sing, we would love to have you as part of our group. Both our choirs will be singing at Finnish-American Days at the Kerhotalo on Saturday February 8th at 1 p.m. , please come and support us as we share God’s word through song.

The next music concert will be our annual Lenten concert, which will take place on Wednesday, March 18th at 6 p.m. Put this date on your calendars now, you don’t want to miss it. There is a lot of great events happening at our church, which everyone is warmly welcome and encouraged to attend. Music is very a powerful and enjoyable way to spread God’s message. Come and be part of our church family as we praise Him through song and word.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. (Psalm 95:2 )

My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul. (Psalm 108 :1)

With Blessings,

Michael

Should you notice that we have missed someone's birthday, please let us know.

President's Corner

In January we have enjoyed many interesting events, concerts, birthday parties and travel. Especially the trip to St. Augustine, organized by the Activity Committee, was a great success from financial as well as from over 50 participants’ point of view. We had an opportunity to admire the beautiful Christmas lights and learn to better know our travel companions.

Someone may still worry about the selling of the church, but I believe that everybody has already realized that our functions and activities continue now like before the selling. We have paid our first monthly rent and received the first mortgage payment and co-operation with the new owner runs perfectly. I would like to remind one more time that our financial situation forced us to sell. Almost all the last year we still operated in the old mode and our financial losses were accordingly significant. We will explain that in more detail in our Annual Congregation meeting in March.

Although the selling of the church gave us the opportunity to get closer to the financial balance it still requires a lot of effort and dedication. During February-March we plan to put more effort into fund-raising to cover the silent summer months. We will hear more in coming weeks. As members of the congregation we have to support our operations, of course keeping in mind our realistic capabilities.

Many activities will keep us busy also in February and after that. Active volunteer work is the basis for all of our work. The volunteers have used and will need to use a lot of their time and effort to ensure that we can complete all we have planned. Thousands thanks to everyone! Grazie mille!

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith. (Romans 1:16-17)

Pertti Pietarinen

Council President

SARAI'S GREETINGS FROM FINLAND

Tons of love and greetings from the snowy countryside of Hollola! I wanted to share something with you and let you know how we are doing. Congregation of St. Andrew’s is in my mind and prayers almost every day. I miss you all dearly! I must admit that I have also missed the sun quite a lot recently. Especially since it has been “a black winter” without snow. Until now! Most of you have probably heard our latest exiting news! We are expecting a baby boy! The due is at the end of April. We are beyond exited! The pregnancy has gone so well and it’s been wonderful. I work as a part-time Physical Therapist. I work with seniors and war veterans at the rest homes. I’ve still had the energy to work as a group fitness instructor once week. I’ve been also studying psychology at the open university in Helsinki. Things will slow down after February when my maternity leave begins.

Moving from Florida to Finland happened so quickly. We’ve been renovating the house. Finding a new routine has taken a while, since living in the countryside here is quite different compared to the life in West Palm. The change has been huge for my husband Rodney who has never lived in Finland before. He has taken the change quite well except the dark winter takes its toll from a guy who is born and raised under the Florida sun. It’s not a surprise though. It’s been challenging for me too. I forgot how dark the winters here can be. Expecting our first baby has definitely made this change a lot easier. It’s been so exiting! It kind of takes the focus away from yourself since you are so exited and happy planning everything for the new baby. I’ve been so happy about it that it almost scares to say it out loud!

During this pregnancy I’ve been thinking a lot about LOVE. Becoming a parent has made me think a lot about our Heavenly Father’s unconditional love towards us. Nothing lifts and builds people up like love. Love builds the security and foundation in our lives. This subject has become very familiar as I’m taking a course of developmental psychology. We’ve been talking about secure attachment that is formed during the very first years of our lives. It is hard to have courage and be loving if one has never felt unconditional love. How wonderful it is that no matter what kind history we have in relationships, we can always experience the greatest love, security and attachment with our Heavenly Father. He’s love is so overflowing and supernatural that it never runs out. It should spread out from our families to others. This love and security should be also the corner stone of a congregation.

I was visiting one church couple weeks ago and I saw there something that touched me deeply. When the service started a special needs boy went to sit right at the front row with his electric wheelchair. The Pastor hugged him and welcomed him like his own son. The boy was so happy! They were throwing high fives and during the songs the Pastor sat next to him and during the prayer they prayed to together. How often in this world is this boy overlooked and how many times he probably stays at the back where no one notices him. I started thinking what defines the quality of a church. I think it’s how we treat those who don’t receive love. Those that the world sees as weak, hard to communicate with, failed or broken. We should shine the unconditional love to them! Unfortunately our own love is usually conditional. That’s not what we are called to do! How else can we teach people what God’s love is if we don’t show them! Words are empty without love. Words don’t have the power to change and heal, only love has.

It’s hard to share this love if you have never experienced it. That’s why I want to remind you that God Loves You! He loves you with perfect love, unconditionally. Think about it for a sec. No matter what kind of prodigal sons we are or have been, our Father is always expecting us with loving arms and running towards us. You are His joy! Even though I’m overwhelmed with the amount of love and excitement about our own little miracle, it’s nothing compared to Heavenly Father’s love. HE IS the perfect LOVE. The greatest healing and changing power. When this love is the foundation of our lives, we have everything.