Are you preparing? What are you preparing for? I see Christmas decorations up in many places I drive. Oops…. let me clarify… I have seen many Christmas decorations up in many places I drive. It seems that some have been up for several months already. I guess some of the public feels decorating somehow brings the holidays closer. Maybe it sends a message of hope during this unusual time of pandemic.

As Fran Michael Franzen wrote so eloquently in his hymn ‘Prepare the Royal Highway’, we are always to be preparing for the coming of Jesus. We fall short each day due to sin, selfishness, and inward thinking. It is very easy in challenging times, to focus on ourselves and enter that ‘me zone’. That is not the zone God wants us in. He wants us to be outward focused on others, their needs, and how we can use our gifts and talents to serve.

Due to our sinfulness, God sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world. He prepares our heart by His Law and Gospel. He cleans us up and makes us presentable to a Holy God. It’s called righteousness. Each day we must be preparing for that return. Let’s be about serving the kingdom and preparing the royal highway for that glorious day.

As we place our faith and trust in God (no matter the stresses we face), we can all be thankful that God holds us in the palm of His hand and gives us what He knows is best for us. So, when trials come (including the stresses of COVID19, keeping your school safe, or taking care of those in need), step back and know God’s plan is perfect. Stay in the Word. Take care of yourself to be Well. Use your words and life as a Witness.

Remember each day – Christ loves you and holds you close.

Serving the Master Teacher,

Lois Stewart

Please watch this video and know that you are valued. And, please share with other teachers you feel may need to hear these words of encouragement.

·        Access the LCMS Locator at locator.lcms.org.

·        Do a search for your school and click on the tab for Rostered Staff.

·        Check the list of names that appears on your school page.

·        If there are Rostered Workers missing from your list OR that are on the list and shouldn’t be, contact the NID office (sue.green@nidlcms.org). Be prepared to let her know what corrections need to be made.

The fund is set up to provide financial relief (up to $2,000 per grant) for anyone employed by one of our NID churches, schools, RSOs, or ministries, whether they are called, rostered, non-rostered, salaried, or hourly workers. Is a worker has been financially impacted by Covid-19, whether directly dealing with the disease or simply by the economic impact the virus has had on their place of employment, affecting their own compensation, that worker is encouraged to go to our website www.nidlcms.org , click on our COovid-19 resource button and scroll down to Crisis Support – Responding to Church Workers Suffering Financially. At the bottom of that subsection, you’ll find the Soldiers of the Cross Covid-19 grant application. Simply fill it out electronically and email it to our Soldiers of the Cross Covid-19 Response Administrator, Rev. Kris Whitby at kris.whitby@nidlcms.org.

Lutheran Church Charities is a blessing to all of us. If you would like to schedule a virtual visit with one of the Comfort Dogs, go to www.lutheranchurchcharities.org and click on K-9 Ministries. The first tab that appears is ‘request a virtual visit’.

 “I had a board member early on in last year’s shutdown urge me to over communicate. I am glad that we did. I know that the pain of doing another video and drafting another email was time well spent towards calming fears and communicating a sense of calm for our school families in a very much shaken world. Our social media team worked hard to plan a campaign with media rich graphics and targeted messages… meeting with them for hours at a time via zoom was definitely a grind.

Your teachers are unimaginably stretched as they manage a variety of teaching and learning scenarios in this unprecedented time. The TEC21 Workshop Program boosts the mental and spiritual health of teachers, while equipping them for a new educational frontier. We recently heard this from Joel Wahlers, former principal at St. John’s Lutheran School in Napa, California, now serving as the District Education Executive in the California-Nevada-Hawaii District: “I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank you for TEC21. We have three individuals that have gone through TEC21 (including a facilitator, Kari Perna) who are now technology coaches for the rest of our staff. Each of our grade-level groups (K-2, 3-5, and 6-8) have one TEC21 teacher helping the others, and I cannot tell you what a blessing that has been in our conversion process to online or virtual teaching and learning!”

As the school year begins, please know, once again, that professional development credit is available through Concordia University Chicago. Administrators are asked to contact Catherine Nessling at Catherine.Nessling@cuchicago.edu. She is the person that will process the request. All professional development sessions that are directed to student growth, curriculum development, etc. related to state standards may count.

Illinois state law requires that all employers provide all their employees sexual harassment prevention training. In order to be in compliance with this law, commonly known as the Workplace Transparency Act, this training needs to be completed by December 31, 2020.

The Illinois Dept. of Human Rights has put together a training model, complete with certificate of participation, which can be used to meet this law’s requirements. This training model can be found at this website.

The model takes no more than an hour to complete and can be used individually or as a team.

The training PowerPoint can also be found below.

The Jesus Time Chapel videos are available for Lutheran School chapels or classrooms. Simply go to www.voiceofcare.org and click on the latest Jesus time link. It will take you to the page where all the videos are posted. Starting November 29, the chapels will be Advent themed. If you would like a Voice of Care team member to visit, or customize a chapel for your school, please contact Dennis Pieper at dennis.pieper@voiceofcare.org .

Please continue to be encouraged to visit www.nidlcms.org website for updates in the Coronavirus block.

Visit the LCMS website to download the 2021 National Lutheran Schools Week resources and the 2021 chapel talks.

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