“Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:34

 

Mazes have often been used to measure intelligence. Researchers claim that the faster one winds through confusing twists and turns before escaping into freedom, the smarter one is. What does that say about those of us who wander aimlessly through those corn mazes at every pumpkin patch?!

 

While scientists may not have a high opinion of the directionally challenged, our missteps say that we’re human, as pronate to the same missteps in life as we are in the corn maze. Our path on earth isn’t usually a straightaway, free of bends and rocky ravines. In fact, we may feel so lost and alone on the path that anxiety and fear capture our hearts and minds. But we don’t navigate this maze of life alone. Our heavenly Father guides us, shelters us, and provides for us, even when we feel hopelessly lost. Though we do not know what tomorrow will bring, we can rest in His grace and provision today. After all, He cares for the birds and the flowers, and He cares for us too, even to the end of the maze that leads us home into His arms. 

 

Heavenly Father, give us direction in the maze of this life, shelter us in Your hands as you shelter our students, and help us to trust You when we feel lost and alone. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Please join us in praying and thanking God for the following schools this week:

Concordia Christian School and Preschool, Granada Hills, CA

St. Mark Lutheran Preschool, Encinitas, CA

Holy Trinity Lutheran Preschool, Hacienda Heights, CA

Below are photos from Concordia Christian School and Preschool, Granada Hills, CA:

Dressing in Yellow for Pediatric Cancer Awareness

First Grade Science - Reactions

Outside P.E. Time

Preschool PJ and Sock Drive for the BumbleBee Foundation

Second Grade Students Receiving Bibles

Time to Build in Preschool!

Below are photos from St. Mark Lutheran Preschool, Encinitas, CA:

Children in Chapel with Pastor Joel Beyer

Students after a lesson on lines and Pablo Picasso with a guest teacher

St. Mark's PreK class on a nature walk, talking to God's creatures!

LEC 2019: November 24 – 26

JW Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert, CA

Registration website

896 people have already registered for LEC 2019! Don't forget to reserve your hotel rooms as well!

LEC Offerings

Two offerings are taken each year at LEC. The first, during worship on Sunday, is designated for an organization that you, the attendees at LEC, vote on in the previous year. This year that organization is Grantparent . Grantparent is a mission project of School Ministries in the Pacific Southwest District that sponsors children in our inner city Lutheran schools to help offset the cost of their tuition. Please take some time prior to LEC to prayerfully consider how God is asking you to gift this mission project with your offering.

The second offering is taken during the banquet on Monday evening. This offering is designated as a Thankoffering. This is a suggested “one dollar per year of service” gift in thanksgiving to God for your personal years of service in Lutheran ministry. The monies collected for this Thankoffering are given – dollar for dollar – to children of PSD Lutheran educators who are attending a Concordia university in preparation for a career in Lutheran ministry. A special envelope was sent to every administrator at each PSD school in early September to collect those specific offerings. Please collect this Thankoffering as a staff prior to attending LEC. We will ask that you bring your Thankoffering to the banquet where we will collect them. 

 

LEC Charging Stations

There is still time to commit to be a charging station presenter or to encourage someone to present a charging station at LEC! This is an important piece of our Monday afternoon Collaborative Session. We would especially like to add some charging stations from our High School educators and from our Admissions Directors and Resource Teachers ! If you are reading this and think you have something to offer – YES YOU DO!  Click here to sign up today !  Feel free to sign up with a buddy, too. Several of our stations have more than one person presenting the idea.

Apply for a PSD Mission Grant today! Our schools, as mission outposts, can apply! If you're interested in submitting a mission grant application to the Regional Mission Councils, information and forms are now available from the PSD website . Information includes revised and standardized application and quarterly report forms, policies, approval criteria, deadlines and more. Note that the application and quarterly report forms are both now in an electronic, fillable PDF format. Simply download to your computer, complete the forms and send as an email attachment to the appropriate Regional Mission Council chairperson(s). The deadline to submit applications is October 31 .

Thank you SO MUCH to the 85 schools who have already submitted your Synodical statistics! We appreciate and thank you for taking the time to honor the request from Synod to report this important data. We still have 32 schools to go! Those schools received another reminder email yesterday and will probably get an encouraging call again this week.  There are just EIGHT days left to submit this data.  Please let us know if you are having any difficulties with your submission. We are happy to assist you!

We are grateful to all those who took the time to nominate an educator, and we congratulate all those who were nominated for a PSD Educator of the Year award! Finalists have been selected for the four categories for 2019.

 

Below are the finalists in each category. The winners will be selected by the committees in the next couple of weeks and will be honored at LEC. The committees would appreciate prayers for wisdom and discernment as the decisions are made. We have so many outstanding educators in the PSD!     

 

Early Childhood Educator of the Year  

Martha Betcher, Desert Foothills Lutheran Preschool, Scottsdale, AZ

Jaci Gloss, Christ's Greenfield Lutheran Preschool, Gilbert, AZ

Emily Martinez, St. John's Lutheran Preschool, Orange, CA

Tonia Tate, Faith Lutheran Preschool, Las Vegas, NV  

 

Elementary Educator of the Year    

Molly Benally, Trinity Lutheran School, Litchfield Park, AZ 

Sally Brink, St. Paul's Lutheran School, Orange, CA

Lisa Ellwein, Salem Lutheran School, Orange, CA

Kim Hood, St. Paul's Lutheran School, Orange, CA  

Casey Sitze, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, CA

Shelly Surridge, Salem Lutheran School, Orange, CA

 

Jr/Sr High School Educator of the Year    

Daniel Cattau, Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School, Las Vegas, NV

Timothy Fote, Valley Lutheran High School, Phoenix, AZ  

Daniel Smith, Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School, Las Vegas, NV

Rick Young, Orange Lutheran High School, Orange, CA     

 

Administrator of the Year   

Lucas Fitzgerald, Pacific Lutheran Jr./Sr. High School, Gardena, CA

Jake Hollatz, St. John's Lutheran School, Orange, CA

Daniel Moyer, Crean Lutheran High School, Irvine, CA

The National Lutheran School Accreditation (NLSA) team shared the first of the 2019-2020 school year’s NLSA Powerful Practice Webinars last week. This webinar was led by staff members from Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine, California.

 

Topic: "Keeping Crean Lutheran"

An intentional effort to work with faculty who are not Lutheran to educate them on the Lutheran faith, “Keeping Crean Lutheran” takes place during faculty Bible studies, is led by Theology faculty, and gives an introduction to Lutheran doctrine.

 

Their webinar is now available in recorded format at this YouTube link and is also available through the NLSA Powerful Practices page on LuthEd for the remainder of this year.

The message below is from Bill Schranz, Director of Education and Synodical Careers - Concordia University, NE:

Greetings Calling Entities,

Your Concordia University System Institutions have begun the new placement year and we have a number of candidates ready to begin the interview process, with more candidates becoming available later in the semester. We have already had 35 calling entities submit requests for candidates. Some of these requests are for starting dates of Jan. 2020 and others are for the 2020-21 school year. If you know you are going to need a candidate, I would encourage you to submit your request as soon as you can. The CUS placement directors have taken some preliminary numbers of potential candidates and unfortunately the numbers of candidates who will be graduating this year continue to be low, not only for Synodical candidates (teachers, DCE, DPM, etc…) but also for public teaching candidates.

For all schools who have contacted us in September or early October, your request has been processed. Candidates who have been approved by the faculty and have their credential files completed are able to view the ministry job board and can request that their files be sent to requesting sites. Once your ministry request is processed and posted on the Ministry Job Board it will remain visible for candidate to see until you inform us that you have filled your ministry position or we come to the end of the academic year, which would be August 31, 2020. Placement Directors will be notifying requesting sites as soon as they can to share interested candidates' files or to inform them if they do not have candidates available at this time.

If you are interested in seeking a Synodical candidate (Lutheran Teacher, Director of Christian Education, Director of Parish Music, Deaconess, Director of Family Life Minister, Director of Christian Outreach, or Lay Minister) you can fill out and submit your request at this website .

Click here for the Guidelines for Designation, the protocol used for interviewing and extending calls to candidates. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. God’s blessings as you touch lives for Him!

Bill

[email protected]

From Concordia University Irvine:

At Concordia University Irvine we value the formation of future leaders for our church. Therefore we are pleased to announce that, for the 2020-2021 school year, we are offering qualified LCMS church work students a guaranteed total of $22,000 per year in institutional aid and an on-campus full housing grant. To learn more about the church vocations scholarship, who is qualified, and additional application requirements for church work programs, go to  cui.edu/churchworkscholarship .

The 2019-2020 Hearts for Jesus information packets were recently mailed to all administrators. Included was a sample of the poster, postcard, and student workbooks that can be downloaded and printed from the website. Please take a few moments to click on the link to see what a wonderful project Mission India has prepared for your students: Experience India . Our goal is to provide the funding for 1,500 students to attend the after-school Children’s Bible Clubs. 

 

To save postage and to make this as convenient as possible, please order your contribution/coin collector Rice Bags by November 1, and you can pick them up at LEC. Contact Ellen Pratt at [email protected] and let her know how many bags you need for your students. Thank you for supporting Hearts for Jesus!

Click here to read the most recent CAPSO Midweek E-Mailer. In this issue:

Join us June 16-18, 2020, on the campus of Concordia University Irvine and hear from keynote speaker David Kinnaman of the Barna Group and others on the theme of "Rally Together." 

 

Early Registration: $110 - Deadline: March 2, 2020

Early Group Rate (4+): $90 - Deadline: March 2, 2020

Late Registration: $140 - Deadline: June 2, 2020

 

Housing is available at Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, John Wayne Airport as well as on the Concordia University campus.

 

Hotel Rates: King (1-2 per room) - $119/night; Double (2-4 per room) - $129/night

CUI Rates: Double Occupancy - $45 for 2 nights; Single Occupancy - $65 for 2 nights (No air conditioning in dorms)

 

For more information and to register starting November 25, 2019, click here .

From the CA Department of Education:

As educators get into the routine and “busyness” of school life, we are aware that extra tasks are not on the top of your to-do lists. 

So, this is just a friendly reminder about some great PD opportunities we have coming up in the near future. All of these professional development opportunities are FREE!  There are still spots available for workshops in Corona and San Diego. If you are interested, you can sign up at www.capspdnow.com .

Each week, prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for teachers, administrators, support staff, pastors, students, and families of the Lutheran schools, early childhood centers, and churches of the Pacific Southwest District are listed. To include names on the list, please send information to [email protected] by noon on Wednesday of each week. This week we pray for:

Week of October 27

Christ the King Lutheran Preschool and Kindergarten, Newbury Park, CA

Child of Faith Early Learning Center, Huntington Beach, CA

Redeemer Lutheran Preschool, Huntington Beach, CA