Children's Church

Yesterday was our first Children's Church and it was a huge success! Children's Church is held during the 10:30 worship service every other Sunday for children from prek3-5th grade. Children are dismissed from church and meet over in the CLC to enjoy a time of praise, Bible lessons and crafts. Our first series is called "Bugs" and we are learning some important lessons from our bug friends. The first lesson was from the Praying Mantis who taught us about prayer. On April 5 we will be hearing from our friend the Stink Bug. Children's Church is a great new ministry at First Lutheran and we are grateful for all the volunteers who are making it a reality. We are anxiously looking forward to our next Children's Church on April 5 and having many more children. Come and grow in Christ with us!

Herd of Cows?

Herd of cows? Of course I've herd of cows! Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Drive by during school hours and check out our herd. They were painted by our art students with the help of their teacher, Mrs. Barrow. Each cow is painted in the style of a famous artist. We have Jackson Cow-lock, Georgia O 'Calf. Vincent Van Cow and Moo-ndrian. You'll have to drive by during the day. We bring our cows in every evening so they don't wander off. Our cows tell everyone driving by to "Followthe herd and enroll at First Lutheran School. We are currently enrolling for the next school year. Over the last 2 weeks we sent out over 6,000 postcards to families with school age children. We also sent fliers and letters to approximately 50 churches and pre schools in the area to let them know about our us. We are also offering them an incentive ($100 per month per each new student) to let their families know about us. Don't forget we have School Tours every Thursday so interested families can come and see us in action and see what a great program we have. Please continue to keep school enrollment in your prayers asking the Lord to send us many families for next year. Every day our students receive a quality education in a safe environment with the added blessing of hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ. What a great benefit to families!

Christmas Programs

I want to make sure you are all marking your calendars for our 2 Christmas programs this year. You won't want to miss either of them. Our Pre school and Kindergarten classes will have their Christmas program on Saturday December 13 at 6:30. It will be part of our Saturday evening worship service. The joy of the Christmas story is always told so beautifully by these younger students. On Thursday December 18 students in grades 1-8 will have their performance of "Joyland" at 11:00 am and 6:30 pm in the CLC. I've only been to a few rehearsals but I can tell you its going to be great. Again, the Christmas message is shared so beautifully in story and song. The story centers around Chrismas gifts and the greatest gift of all, our Savior Jesus Christ. In keeping with that theme, we are asking that people attending the performance bring an unwrapped Christmas gift for a child for our Angel Tree. The students of First Lutheran School are looking forward to sharing the Christmas message with you.

....and a little child will lead them. Isaiah 11:6

Service Day November 21, 2008

"Living a Life of Service and Praise" is our theme for this school year. On November 21, the day before our Thanksgiving break, the students of First Lutheran had a great opportunity to put that theme into action. Many of our classes participated in service projects around the community. Our pre schoolers helped collect trash around our campus. The kindergarten class visited Highland Manor and did activities with the residents there. And our middle schoolers had 3 different projects that they participated in. Some of them took part in Adopt a Mile and picked up trash in our neighborhood. Some went to Grace House and did yard work and clean up. Another group delivered the canned goods and perishable items we had collected to RCS and spent time working there unloading trucks and sorting food. First RCS weighed the food we brought in and we were proud to find out our total was 1,330 pounds of food. Our goal had been 800 pounds (10 pounds for every run the Rays had scored in the post season). This day was such a huge success that we look forward to more service days during the rest of the school year.

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. I Timothy 4:12

PTL and You

Our PTL (Parent /Teacher League) is hard at working finding lots of ways parents and friends can help support First Lutheran School with easy fundraising ideas. Here's a quick list:

1. Collect Boxtops for Education

2. Collect Campbell Soup Labels

3. Collect labels from Nestle water bottles.

All of these can be sent in to the classrooms and we can redeem them.

4. Ink/cell phone recycling - bring in empty ink cartridges and old cell phones to the school office.

5. Office Depot will donate 5% of your purchase. Just mention First Lutheran at checkout.

6. Target - Use your REDcard and designate First Lutheran.

7. SCRIP buy scrip gift cards. You get the gift card at face value and First Lutheran gets a percentage of the sale. A definite win-win deal. Also now we have gi ft cards pre ordered and on hand so you can simply stop by and purchase them the day you need them or you can still order ahead.

8. Shop at Sweet Bay and purchase designated items in groups of three. The school receives $2.00 for each group of 3 purchased. Just bring in the receipt to the school. A complete list of the Sweet Bay designated items can be found on the school web site under the link misc. helpful forms. Remember this fundraiser only goes until Dec. 4. So shop often between now and then.

9. Mark your calendar for Saturday Nov. 1 from 9:00 - 12:00 for a shred a thon. For $5 a box you can have all your sensitive papers shredded and the school receives the money. Tell all your friends and business owners about this great opportunity to have all their papers shredded and help FLS at the same time.

In these challenging economic times these are all great opportunities for you to support FLS while carrying out a lot of every day activities. Thank you all for the many ways you support the important ministry at FLS.

A Trip to Panera Bread

Today, Mrs. Hinz, Emma, Michael, Emily and I all had the opportunity to go off campus and have lunch at Panera Bread in Clearwater Mall. It was all part of something new we are doing this year in the middle school to award positive behavior. When middle schoolers are "caught" in good behavior their name goes on a ticket for a drawing held every 3 weeks. We had our first drawing last week and Emma, Michael, and Emily were our first winners. Good job! They selected as their prize to go to lunch at Panera Bread. So this afternoon they got to get out of class and off we went. We had a great time enjoying lunch, laughing, talking and just being off campus. Its a really neat experience to be able to just sit and get to know our students outside of the classroom setting. I am really proud of our students and the positive atmosphere we have in our middle school. I'm looking forward to our next reward day. Wonder who it wll be and where we will go?

We're Back!

Sorry for being gone so long. A few weeks of not posting a blog turned to months. But I'm pleased and happy to announce that First Lutheran is back in session for the 08/09 school year and we're off to a great start! We have been blessed with a fantastic student body of 139 students. Each day we have the opportunity to teach academics, important life lessons, and the Good News of Jesus Christ. What a privilege. This year our faculty has set high goals for themselves and the school. We call them "Our Rocks". They are the things you want to out in your jar first before adding anything else. They will be our focus for the year. Our Rocks are: 1) Building Community - between staff, students, parents and church, 2) Communication, 3) Clear Policies and Procedures, 4) Clean and Safe Environment, 5) Prayer, and 6) Always End with the Gospel. With these Rocks as our focus I am confident this is going to be an awesome year for First Lutheran School.

Middle School Discovery Night

Last night our 4th and 5th grade students and their parents attended a Middle School Discovery Night on our campus. Students and parents spent about an hour visiting the classrooms, getting to know the teachers and participating in various middle school class activities. at the end of the evening they were able to hear some FLS graduates talk about their thoughts and feelings about how well FLS middle school prepared them for the next step into high school and how much they enjoyed other aspects of middle school life here such as Student Council and athletics. It was an informative and fun evening for students and parents alike as they get excited about the next school year. We are extremely proud of the academics and extra curriculars offered in our program, but even more importantly the strong spiritual foundation we are able to share with our students and their families. Come and check us out!