Strong Words

It happened at the market not long ago; I know, I was there.

A very young child, enchanted by the goodies, wandered too far.

Suddenly a cry! The answer was quick in coming, but already there were tears. I heard the mother’s words of comfort:

“You know I wouldn’t leave you; you’re my boy!”

Great words, strong words to set a child’s world right again.

But where can I find words in the eclipses and blackouts of despair? Are there words big enough to match my human cry?

“Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.”

God’s answer in the darkness, big enough and strong enough for me.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” -Colossians 2:13-15

The comic above was created by Mr. Clarence Wagner III, a member at St. James, Imperial Beach, CA!

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

iRemnant Preschool, Fullerton, CA

North Valley Christian Academy and Preschool, Phoenix, AZ

Ascension Lutheran Preschool, Torrance, CA

Below are photos from Desert Foothills Lutheran Preschool, Scottsdale, AZ (from last week's prayer list):

Pastor Jeremy baptizing a preschool student

Saying the pledge at chapel

With Gracie, our school's comfort dog

Below are photos from Ascension Lutheran Preschool, Torrance, CA:

Pastor with the students during morning pledges and prayer at the flag pole

Students observing worms from the worm bin

Pumpkin exploration

St. John’s Lutheran School in Orange, CA, was recently recognized by Apple as a Distinguished School for continuous innovation in learning, teaching, and the school environment. Principal Dr. Jake Hollatz and Director of Innovation Mrs. Sarah Grack-Moritz were presented with the distinction in church on Sunday. Click here for the press release. Well done, St. John's!

LEC APP

Ready to attend the Lutheran Educators Conference 2022? We will use an online platform called Whova for our event. Here is all the Whova information. You can Download the Whova app to access the event:

• View the event agenda and plan your personal schedule
• Access to documents and slides shared by organizers or speakers
• Find who else is attending this event and reach out to people ahead of time
• Plan some social activities such as a morning run, coffee hours, or meet-ups with your fellow attendees. You can even post job openings.
• Receive updates such as last minute session changes from the organizers

After downloading, use your email address when signing up on Whova mobile apps or web portal. Make sure you choose a strong password. You can also sign up using a social media account. Once you have signed up, you should be taken directly to your event!

If you aren’t directly added to the event and are asked for an event invitation code when accessing the event, please type in this invitation code: LEC2022SAN (Please do not share this invitation code with people who are NOT attendees of the event).

Already used the Whova app in the past? Double-check that it is installed on your phone, and log in using your existing account email and password.

If you need more guidance on how to use Whova to attend the event, please visit Whova User Guides.

REGISTRATION UPDATES

We are excited to welcome 1,057 educators from the CNH and PSD districts to LEC! If you haven’t registered yet, now is the time to register! There are a few rooms left at the Hilton Bayfront at our conference pricing of $112 per room, so please book your room before they are gone and the room price goes up! 

Important dates –

• Cancellations before November 4 will receive a full refund.
• Cancellations between November 4 and 11 will receive a 50% refund. 
• Any cancellations after November 15 will be considered on a case-by-case basis for refunds. The last day to register for LEC is Friday, November 11. 

ED CAMPS

LEC is pleased to bring Ed Camps to this year’s conference! Ed Camps are informal, informational sessions led by educators for educators! The focus of an Ed Camp is on collaboration and connections, group expertise and sharing, student learning, instructional design and tech tools. Each Ed Camp will vary according to topic and grade level/leadership audience. Attendees will gain new ideas, perspective, tools, friends, energy and “equipment” for the profession! Click here for the list of Ed Camps that will be offered and plan which you will attend! For a listing of the Ed Camp presenters, please go to the LEC Registration site and click on the Program Information section. 

PRE-CONFERENCE DEVOTIONS

These 10 pre-conference devotions were written to prepare our hearts and minds for LEC 2022. Please use them as staff devotions in the days leading up to LEC. A special thank you to Mrs. Conni Schramm from Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine, CA, for her blessing, wisdom, and insight into our theme verses from Matthew 5:13-16.

Thank you to the 104 of our 109* schools who submitted their statistics within the reporting period of time. We are so grateful and thankful that you recognize and understand the importance of submitting this data each year. While the information that is collected from schools in previous years is always put to good use at the district and national levels of Synod, this year’s data will be extremely important in guiding the decision-making process at many levels in the years to come. 

We encourage you now to be sure to bookmark the LISN website and save your user names and passwords. You can log into this website throughout the year to upload any staff changes or contact changes. You will also now have everything you need when you get the email from Synod to report your statistics in September of 2023. Again, thank you so much for your partnership!

PSD Reporting from Synod: 95% Reported



*Synod counts preschools and elementary schools as one entity oftentimes, but not always consistently. We have addressed this with Synod.

We are grateful to all those who took the time to nominate an educator and we congratulate all those who were nominated for a 2022 PSD Educator of the Year award!

Below are the finalists that were selected in each category. The recipients of the awards will be announced in Connections next week and will be honored at LEC. We thank God that we have so many outstanding educators in the PSD!     

Early Childhood Educator of the Year  

Annie Caamano, Red Hill Lutheran Preschool, Tustin, CA

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

Eva Mercado-Perry, Atonement Lutheran Preschool, Glendale, AZ  

Molly Nagel, Abiding Savior Lutheran Preschool, Lake Forest, CA

Stephanie Rivers, Abiding Savior Lutheran Preschool, Lake Forest, CA

Elementary Educator of the Year   

Kyle Duport, St. John's Lutheran School, Orange, CA

Stefanie Hinrichs, Bethany Lutheran School, Long Beach, CA

Stacy Hottinger, Loving Savior of the Hills Lutheran School, Chino Hills, CA  

Ashley Steele, Christ Greenfield Lutheran School, Gilbert, AZ

Tim Warneke, Emmaus Lutheran School, Alhambra, CA

Jr./Sr. High School Educator of the Year   

Connie Calderon, Pacific Lutheran Jr./Sr. High School, Gardena, CA

Rebecca Cheney, Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School, Las Vegas, NV

Marci Nuoffer, Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School, Las Vegas, NV 

Robyn Strohschein, Orange Lutheran High School, Orange, CA    

Administrator of the Year   

Meredith Binnie, St. Paul's Lutheran School, San Diego, CA

Sarah Harper, Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School, Las Vegas, NV

Dave Stuewe, St. John's Lutheran School, Orange, CA

Our deepest gratitude to the 41 early childhood centers, 31 elementary schools, and eight high schools who have partnered with School Ministries and sent in their School Services contributions! As of this date, we have received $103,458.50 for K-12 School Services and $35,116.00 for Early Childhood School Services, for a total of $138,574.50! Praise be to God! Thank you for your partnership!

It is our hope that the remaining early childhood centers, elementary schools, and high schools who have not yet partnered with us will do so in the months ahead. We share a partnership through our office which provides a myriad of resources, including: conferences, accreditation services, in-services, School Consultancies, call lists, workshops for professional growth, information on new or changing laws, our Admissions Director, Resource Teacher, and School Counselor networks, trends in education, curriculum and assessment resources, the Rigor and Relevance Framework training, and our Coaching Initiative. Additionally, we maintain membership with CAPSO, AZ CAPE, and NV CAPE. We communicate with the state legislature key agencies, the Offices of the Governors, the WASC Accreditation Commission for Schools, and the California Interscholastic Federation. Your partnership is instrumental in making all of this happen. If you would like to confirm if your school has contributed, please contact Kim Violette. Most importantly, thank you for your partnership in the Gospel!

Our November devotion is now posted on our website. It is written by Dr. Jake Hollatz, Principal at St. John's, Orange, CA, and this year's LEC President. It is based off the theme of LEC and titled Distinctively Different: Salt and Light. Click here to read it. Thank you, Jake, for reminding us that Jesus needs us in the world to show the world how distinctively different life in Christ is!

Click here to read all about how God is at work through a new property at Trinity Lutheran Church and TLC Preschool in Casa Grande, AZ, in the latest #AroundthePSD article!

Our annual PSD Service Day is Wednesday, November 16. How are you and your students planning to serve your school and community?

Do you suffer from excessive Lutheran humility?

The symptoms are numerous. You claim quality academics but don’t report test scores. You imply that graduates are better off having attended your school but you don’t report their successes in high school and beyond. You hint that parents like your school but you don’t share any testimonials. Don’t brag. Just share the facts! Ask for testimonials and print them on brochures, your website, and share them during presentations. Telling a true story about a child whose life was turned around through your school’s ministry is so much more meaningful than the principal saying again and again that “____________ Lutheran School makes a difference.” 

Enrollment for the 2023-24 TEC21 workshop program opened November 1!

It’s time to register for Season 15 of the TEC21 Workshop Program! Visit the registration page now at tec21connect.com/registration/. Principals, you can hold seats using your names until you identify which teachers to send. Ready to explore something new in Season 15, launching September 2023? In addition to cohorts for early childhood, elementary, middle level, high school and higher education, we offer a virtual STEM cohort and brand new, virtual music cohort! Yes, even niche educators like music teachers seek to learn how to use technology to enhance their ministries!

If you missed the opportunity to enroll teachers in this current season of the TEC21 Workshop Program, look ahead to the 2023/2024 school year and register now to hold seats. According to a 2017 research study on effective teacher professional development by the Learning Policy Institute, our Workshop Program meets all the benchmarks of effective teacher professional development:

Content focused

Incorporates active learning

Supports collaboration

Uses models of effective practice

Provides coaching and expert support

Offers feedback and reflection

Of sustained duration

• A prayer from North Valley Christian Academy, Phoenix, AZ: One of our students has been in a coma for over a month. He’s the son of Lori Fox, our special education director. Click here to read about the accident, and please keep Christian in your prayers for a miracle.

Schools we are praying for the week of November 6:

TLC Lutheran Preschool, Casa Grande, AZ

Shield of Faith Christian School, El Monte, CA

St. Paul’s Lutheran School and Preschool, San Diego, CA

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 Tuesdays.