St Paul Church

Winneshiek Evangelical Free Church will host the Good Friday worship service sponsored by the Stateline Ministerial Association on April 10th. The service will begin at 1pm and Pastor Dick will be speaking.

Our Maundy Thursday service will be held at 7pm on April 9th. This will be a service of song and reflection as well as Holy Communion. Please plan to attend this service. Confirmation students are expected to attend this service.

Come to SonRock Kids Camp — an adventure camp like no other! Mark your calendars now to join us for a week of fun and adventure July 20-24, 9am-noon! Kids ages 3 by January 1st through 7th grade completed, will participate in fun-filled activities and learn how each one of them is loved by Jesus! We will have a great time with lively songs, hilarious skits, creative crafts, Bible stories and tasty snacks — all of the things that make Vacation Bible School so much fun for children!

If you would ike to help out at VBS this year, please contact the church office or watch for a sign-up sheet in the narthex. We can’t do this without you, so please pray about this wonderful opportunity to share God’s love with our kids! If you have questions or concerns, please call April at 815-865-5314. We are looking forward to a truly exciting week!

Please help us welcome the newest additions to St. Paul by joining us in Greeting our Families of the newborns immediately following our morning worship service on Sunday, April 5th.

There is a container in the hallway for your monetary donation, as well as a signature card to wish them a special greeting. A group gift will be purchased with all donations.

Please help welcome them with your presence on Sunday, April 5th!!

St. Paul will be hosting Life Line Screenings again this year on Tuesday, June 2nd. Please share this information with your family and friends.

These health screenings will be offered for people 40 years old and older. The vascular screenings are performed using Doppler color flow ultrasound and include the following:

1. A Carotid Artery Screening – visualizes the buildup of plaque in the carotid arteries, which leads to stroke. (Most strokes are linked to carotid artery blockage.)
2. An Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) test – looks for an enlargement in the abdominal aorta that could lead to a ruptured aortic artery. The vast majority of people who have an aneurysm have no symptoms.
3. An Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) – screens for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in the lower extremities, which is closely linked to coronary artery disease.
4. Bone density screenings – which tests for the early signs of osteoporosis.
5. Atrial Fibrillation (Afib) – a test to measure irregular heart beat, may be added to any vascular package for only $20.
6. Complete Lipid panel and Glucose blood tests are also available for an additional $50 when added to a vascular package. These blood tests require an 8 hour fast.

You must pre-register by calling 1-800-324-1851. These screenings are completely painless, non-invasive and require 60-90 minutes of your time. The cost for all 4 vasular screenings is 4139, or all five tests (which includes the osteoporosis screening) for only $149.

7-10% of all screenings result in ABNORMAL TO CRITICAL FINDINGS. The screenings are effective and are saving lives!!!

The Stephenson County Senior Center is excited to announce the availability of Free Senior Ride in the outlying communities of Stephenson County. The funds to provide county transportation come from grants we receive through the State of Illinois, as well as local and individual donations. There is no charge for Seniors age 60+ to ride. There is a flyer posted on the bulletin board with more information if you or someone you know would be interested. The Freeport Community Foundation, provided the Senior Center with additional funds needed to purchase a minivan to provide this service.

If you have questions or would like to reserve a ride, please call 815-233-5678.

St. Paul’s 7th Annual Garage Sale is scheduled for April 17th and 18th from 8 AM to 4 PM.

Spring cleaning? Don’t forget your church. We will be having our annual garage sale again this year. You may drop off your items April 12th (pm) – 15th (noon) in the choir room.

Here are some helpful hints to make it easier:

1. Separate our clothes by women, girls, men, boys and infants.
2. Put all household items in a separate box.

These two minor requests would make our job of setting up much easier.

We again this year will be offering Bake Sale & Lunch Stand.

If anyone is interested in helping this year, please sign up on a volunteer sheet posted on the bulletin board. If you would like flyers to distribute at your place of work or business, they are located under the bulletin board. Please contact the church office at 815-865-5314 with any questions you may have.

– Your Finance Committee

As our AWANA year comes to a close, we would like to invite all of the congregation and friends of our students to join us the evening of March 18th for our final club night of 2009. At 6:30 there will be a time for the club members to share favorite verses and some of the other things they have learned this year. We will also have refreshments and a chance for fellowship. We hope that you will come and offer your support and encouragement for these dedicated young people of our congregation and community!

The Father-Son Banquet will be held on Saturday evening, April 4th. This will be a time of food and fellowship along with an inspiring messaeg from Terry Simmons, Vice President of Student Success at Gateway Technical College. Terry is the son-in-law of Fred and Pat Smith and the topic for the evening will be “Mett my Father’s Fathers and Sons.” Tickets for the event will be on sale before and after worship on Sunday March 22nd and 29th. Please watch the bulletin for further details.

The Committees for the banquet are as follows:

• Program: Fred & Pat Smith, Gil & Darlene Koch, Russ & Carol Ellis
• Food: Dennis & Mary Jane Zimmerman, Rich & Jeanne Fiene, Cliff & Cheryl Bradt
• Decorations: Cathy Ludeking (chair), Sarah Holweg, Diane Hayes
• Tables: Jerry & Carol Olsen, Ralph & Loretta Jones, Jim & Barb Leifheit
• Chairwoman of Waitresses: Connie Marty
• Reservations: Ruth M. Fiene, Helen Schneeberger

This is a reminder that all winter items need to be removed from the cemetery by April 1st. New items may be placed after May 1st. Thank you for your cooperation!

It’s that time of year again, time to start thinking about the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. The event will be held at Aquin High School on June 19th. We would love for you to join our team and help raise money for the American Cancer Society. If you can’t walk with us, but would like to make a donation to our team, please see April Zettle. A box for donations will be in the narthex beginning the first Sunday of April. Thank you for your support!

The date for the 61st Annual Meeting of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference is set for July 20-23 at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center in Waterloo, Iowa. This is probably as close as the Annual Meeting will get to us, so we would like to encourage members and/or friends of St. Paul to attend. If you would like more information, please speak with Pastor Dick or contact the church office.

The Women’s Ministry group at St. Paul will be sponsoring an outreach project to support the Stephenson County Nursing Center Activities Department. They are in need of clean stuffed animals, figurines, costume jewelry, word search books, puzzles, diet soda and small bags of chips to be used as prizes for bingo and other activities at the nursing home. If you have items that you would like to donate toward this service project, please bring them to the church and place in the bins in the narthex. We will be collecting items through the month of March. Than you for your willingness to help us help others.

Freeport Industrial Roofing has completed the re-roofing of the fellowship hall and Sunday school wings and has come in $2900.00 under their bid. The final cost of the roofing project is $81,100.00. Of that, $24,457.54 will come from the Capital Campaign, $13500.00 from our PrimeVest Account, and $1,642.46 from Garage Sale proceeds, leaving a balance of $41,500.00 borrowed from the Endowment Fund. The Council would like to let you know that you can contribute tot e cost of the new roof by earmarking your gifts to eitehr the Roof Project or Capital Campaign. Thank you to those that have already contributed to this project and for those that will now that the project is complete. May God guide you as you give.

The Board of Christian Education continues to sponsor monthly food drives for The Salvation Army and the month of March will be a general collection with an emphasis on canned meats, pastas and mac and cheese. As always, thank you for your continued support of this outreach to our local communities.

The Board of Christian Education met on February 9th discussing the following:

• Secretary and Treasurer reports read and approved with a treasury balance of $1,578.35
• Angel tree misssion project — $900 given to the Geiseman Family
•  College boxes — 26 boxes sent. Will ty and organize earlier for 2009
• Christmas Eve refreshments
• Sunday School Secretary update
• Salvation Army collection for March — pastas, mac & cheese, canned meats
• Rotation Sunday School — could still use more teachers, specifically for Geography room for March/April
• Teacher Recognition — May 17th during worship
• Easter Outreach — March 29th as this is a 5th Sunday and works well with the rotation schedule
• Election ofOfficers — Karen Kleckner, President; Brooks Henneman, Vice President; Ann Kriens, Secretary and she will serve thru 2009
• Bible School — dates are being discussed with decision to be made at the March meeting

Next meeting will be March 9th at 7pm.

It’s time to start thinking about things you can donate for the church garage sale set for April 17th and 18th. Start cleaning those closets, dressers, cupboards and basements and start sorting. Please box your items accordingly, label them and after Easter Sunday bring those boxes to the church! Thank you in advance for your willingness to donate items that you no longer want or need.

We are in the season of lent for 2009. This is preparation for Easter. As usual, the music of the church reflects the mood and the message for this part of the church year. The schedule for choirs is as follows:

• Senior Choir will practice Thursday, February 26th  at 7pm. We are due to sing Sunday, March 1st. The reason practice is planned for Thursday is to avoid the conflict with the Ash Wednesday service at Dakota UMC. We will be working on music for Palm Sunday and Easter as well. This is the start of another busy season for church activities as well as school events.
• The Women’s Chorus will practice March 4th at 7:30pm for Sunday, March 8th.
• Men’s Chorus will practice Thursday, March 12th at 7:30pm. They will be singing March 15th.

At this point, the next two Sundays are open. One of them will probably be the bells but will need to hear from Bonnie and what is scheduled.

The evening of March 25th should be a night when several of the choirs may be rehearsing for Palm Sunday. Watch the Sunday bulletins for times.

A reminder to everyone that Palm Sunday is April 5th this year. This is our usual service with all choirs participating. Dates like this creep up on us quickly so I am reminding our choir members to mark their calendars.

There were six of our bell choir members and Lonny who attended the “Agape Ringers” concert in Rockford on February 22nd.  We were greatly impressed by what we saw and heard. The church was packed and Rockford is fortunateto be able to schedule their appearance because they are in great demand!

The Freeport Choral Society will hold its spring concert Sunday, March 29th at 3pm at St. John UCC, Freeport. The program consists of sacred and secular music fitting for the season. A bell choir will be part of the program. Hope that some from our congregation can attend and enjoy the music of the season.

Plans are being made for obtainnig Easter lilies again this year. However, at this point, we do not have a quote on the cost but information will be available by the middle of March. Order slips will then be on hand in the narthex of the church and an order blank will be in the next “Visitor.” All orders, with payment should be in no later than Palm Sunday.

March 29th at 9:30am

March 29th at 7pm – location to be determined

March 22nd at 7pm

March 15th at 7pm

March 8th at 7pm

March 1st at 7pm