INSIDE: Celebrating 150 Years THIS Sat. and Sun., Trunk-or-Treat, and Lyle Griner’s Leadership Training

INSIDE: Confirmation Sunday, Celebrating 150 Years & Trunk-or-Treat

INSIDE: ABCs of Refugee Resettlement, Monday Night Community Meals, Butter Braid Fundraiser

INSIDE: Coulee Region Hunger Walk, Choir Starts Wed. Oct. 13, Clothes Closet Needs

INSIDE: THIS Sunday: Outdoor Worship & Faith Alive! U: Homelessness; Monday: Value of Core Values

INSIDE: Worship Times Change THIS Sunday; Outdoor Worship at 10:30am at Sugar Creek; Blood Drive

INSIDE: First Fest, Confirmation Orientation for Gr 6 & 7, First Lutheran Play Days

INSIDE: Quilters resume, Wed. worship in-person, new Thur. small group

INSIDE: First Fest, 150th Celebration, First Lutheran Play Days @ Sugar Creek

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INSIDE: Blessing Backpacks & Devices, Sunday School Volunteer Orientation, Choir Begins Rehearsal, Afghan Immigrants Arriving at Fort McCoy

INSIDE: Masking during worship, Peer Ministry Commissioning, OWLS fly to La Crosse Queen River Cruise

INSIDE: Outdoor worship this Sunday, ELCA Youth Gathering & Mission Trip Info Meeting, OWLs Fly to the Movies

The image that keeps coming to mind as First Lutheran returns to in-person worship, offers in-person Vacation Bible School (August 1-5!), gathers for in-person OWLs potlucks and prepares for in-person confirmation and Sunday School in just a few weeks is… a lawn mower. Have you ever tried to start an old lawn mower after a long cold winter? That first pull can feel like trying to pull a sword from a stone. The second pull may be no better. By the 10th pull, I wonder whether this thing is ever going to fire up!

For years now, as I continue to study human behavior, I have heard from people far smarter than myself about the importance of making time to think a regular part of your daily routine. On those days when I manage to carve out such time, I find that I am better able to face whatever comes my way, so when Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter, Faster, Better, said this thing during an interview, I shouldn’t have been surprised. It certainly shouldn’t have stuck with me days later. Except that I don’t remember my other teachers making the connection between deep thinking and productivity so clearly. Except they did, if we consider productivity to be more about staying connected to your “why” than about getting more things done. I haven’t finished listening to the interview, mostly because I keep going back and listening to sections again, but I have been led more deeply into the connection between deep thinking, productivity and my “why”, which is nothing more than another way to think about living out your values, stating your purpose statement, your personal purpose statement.

The First Lutheran Foundation Fund Committee is excited to share with you some news of how we are reaching out to help people in our community. Recently, we awarded grants to several worthy organizations, including Causeway Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater La Crosse, Holmen Area Community Center, Coulee Region Hunger Walk, Lutheran World Relief, Sugar Creek Camp Counselors, along with our very own Prayer Shawl Knitters, First Teen Clothes Closet and First Helping Hands Fund, We also are supplementing painting the “house”, owned and used by First Lutheran. In May, we awarded scholarships to five deserving high school seniors who are members of our church.

Since January 1, 2021, First Teen Clothes Closet (FTCC) has hosted 44 guests and given out more than 628 items (clothes, shoes, toiletries, hair care kits for black teens, and accessories. In January, we reopened by appointment only, and in mid-May, we returned to open shopping on Monday nights.