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"For I know the plans
I have for you,"
declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you
and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope
and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
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10111 W. Jomax Rd.
Peoria, AZ 85383
623-224-8839
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Upcoming January Events
1/1/2017 New Years Day Worship 10:00 am
1/17/2017 ACSTO Open House 5:00 - 7:00 pm
1/19/2017 ACSTO Open House 3:00 - 7:00 pm
1/19/2017 VBS Planning Meeting 7:00 pm
1/22/2017 Christian Education Sunday
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That's a Nice-looking Future
You've Got There!
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Well, 2016 has gone the way of all the other years that came before it, and the consensus seems to be: good riddance! A quick search online yields a number of reasons why 2016 was such a bad year. Included among them are Britain's decision to leave the EU, the continuing conflict in Syria, the many terrorist attacks across the world, the Zika virus, and the many wildfires that have raged through the forests. The recent election, too, was certainly stressful for many people because of the way each candidate's campaign was run. Though the year certainly had its high points as well, it seems that people are more than ready to move on and see what will happen in 2017. I even read someone's comments in a newspaper that he expects everything in the coming year will be extra good to make up for all the bad of last year. That sure sounds like a nice future, doesn't it?
But it's foolish to think that this year will be full of only good. As far as I know, this world is still corrupted by sin and will be until the day it is destroyed by God. And sin has a way of making everything worse, not better. So I feel pretty safe in saying that 2017 will see more of the same - wars and rumors of wars, plagues of sickness, natural disasters, and the love of people growing cold, and plenty of false teaching to boot (check out Matthew 24 for a more complete list of all the bad things we can continue to expect in the future of this world). So maybe this new year isn't going to be so great after all.
But don't let that news get you down. The way the world looks at things, the new year is supposed to be a time of hope, when we let go of the problems of the past and bet on a better future. The truth is, we don't have to make any bets or blindly hope for the best. We know that the best will be ours! We know it because the Lord has promised it: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). We also know that we really can let go of the problems of the past. Our sins are the real problems of the past, horrible thoughts, words and deeds for which there was no solution. Then Jesus came and revealed himself to be the Word made flesh and the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. His sacrifice paid the penalty of our sins, doing away with those spiritual problems of the past and making the future something we can look forward to with eager anticipation. For now we know what the future holds for us - eternal joys as we bask in our Savior's glory in the home he has prepared for us. And yes, there might be a few unexpected bumps along the way as this or that hardship or even tragedy strikes our lives, but what are those things in comparison with the great plans God has for us?
Now that's a future worth looking forward to! God bless you as you look to Jesus, who reveals to us God's gracious plan for our future!
- Pastor Foxen
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Cross of Glory School News
Greetings from your school for Christian education! The Lord has blessed us this year with some growth throughout the grade levels. Our Preschool rooms have had a pretty steady stream of inquiries throughout the year which has added to enrolled students. Our program now has 39 students in its first year of being split into two classrooms. We expect that we will continue to see growth in this setting so that more little lambs can hear about their Savior. The LES also has seen growth. With an enrollment of 42 students, almost half are in grades Kindergarten and 1. We ask for your prayers that the Lord continue to bless our growth and sustain it to build up our school over the next number of years. We have also been blessed to receive several upper graders this year which doesn't always happen.
Our middle and upper grades have also been blessed with some additional tools in Chromebooks. We have a 1:1 student to device ratio in those two classrooms. The Chromebooks allow the teachers to have their students access various websites and resources available online throughout the day. Students use them for typing, reading assessments, spelling tests, writing, educational videos, producing presentations, and more. They are a blessing in this technology driven world which expects students to know their way around a computer.
Thank you for your support in the spread of the Gospel. Through your gifts and donations through ACSTO we have a more stable budget to work with. Through your prayers, God has been blessing us with excellent teachers, great staff, and an increasing enrollment. Continue to pray that our ministry at Cross of Glory be blessed for both the church and the school.
Micah Foelske, Principal
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Right around New Year's, an email went out from Pastor Foxen explaining a plan for our congregation to maximize our benefit from ACSTO. That letter is repeated below in case you missed it. Together we have the potential to fund our school and make Christian education available to more people!
Dear members of Cross of Glory,
Greetings in our newborn Savior’s name! How blessed we are to be recipients of the wonderful gift of God’s Son! By his birth, he has brought light into this world darkened by sin and has shown us the truth of who our God is and what he has planned for us – life eternal at his side. The Word made flesh continues to communicate these divine truths to us through the words recorded for us in Scripture.
These truths are not for us alone, but for all people. Here at Cross of Glory, we have dedicated ourselves to reaching outside our walls to tell those who do not yet know of their God’s love. One of the major ministries we have undertaken is to pass these truths on to children. Through our school we’ve been educating our members’ children and the children of our community. God has blessed us with the means to do this for over ten years! Our God is certainly great!
But I wonder if we could do more. The cost of running a school is great, and we’ve run into problems in the past with paying all the bills for the school. Our teachers would like to add other programs and improve existing ones, which also costs money. In addition to this, parents of children in the school struggle to pay the cost of a private school’s tuition.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could find a way to make our school more accessible to people while still paying all of our needed expenses? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could do that without asking the congregation to carry the added financial burden this would create?
By God’s grace, there is a way to make this happen! Many of you have probably heard of the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization (ACSTO). It’s an organization that exists to make private Christian schools an affordable option for any family. It accomplishes this purpose by providing scholarships to children. The money for these scholarships is provided by Arizona taxpayers. Arizona law allows its taxpayers to divert to ACSTO the money they owe in taxes to the state.
This is how it works: a person donates to ACSTO an amount equal to what they owe the state, and he or she then receives a tax credit from the state, which means the person is reimbursed for the amount of the donation.
Taxpayers can name a child that they would like the scholarship to go toward. The result is a win-win situation for all involved – the state wins when children attend private schools, lessening the financial burden caused by funding public schools; families win when their tuition payments are lowered because of the scholarships their children receive; taxpayers win by knowing that they’ve helped a child receive a Christian education at no real cost to them; and private schools like ours win by getting extra money to run the school. More information regarding the program can be found at www.acsto.org.
Many of our members, I know, already take advantage of this program, for which I thank and praise God. I think we can be more organized about it, though. I would like to create a list of people who give to ACSTO and match each person or married couple with a child that attends our school, so that as many families as possible can benefit from these scholarships.
Let me share a simple calculation to show what we could accomplish as a congregation with this program. We have about 100 households in our congregation. It’s possible that not every household ends up owing taxes in a given year, but most certainly do, so we’ll use all 100 for the sake of this example. Each married couple can receive a tax credit of about $2,000 when they give to ACSTO. By my estimate, we have about 50 married couples in the congregation. That means we have another 50 unmarried members who are able to receive about $1,000 as a tax credit when they give to ACSTO. So let’s see the math:
50 x $2,000 = $100,000 in scholarships for students
50 x $1,000 = $50,000 in scholarships for students
42 kids in our elementary school x $4,700 in tuition = $197,400
So, as a congregation, we could be bringing in about $150,000 of scholarships for Cross of Glory students, eliminating 75% of every child’s tuition payment, just by designating the tax dollars we are already paying!
This would be an enormous blessing for families and for Cross of Glory, and these numbers don’t even include people outside of the congregation who participate in the program. With their help, we could potentially eliminate families’ tuition payments at no cost to anyone!
In the past, however, we’ve not come close to achieving this. Part of the problem, I think, is that people have been unaware of the program or don’t understand how it works. Parents are shy about asking people to donate for their children. We would like to help both sides. This letter is the start of an effort to educate all our members about this program. As stated above, we would also like to build a list of people in the congregation who participate in the program, so that we can then pair these people with specific students in the school. The goal of this would be to ensure that every child attending our school is receiving scholarship money. In this way we can lessen the financial burden on every family that has chosen Cross of Glory to be the school for their children.
We will need to move quickly on this.
Over the next days, Paul Pappenfuss, Christine Slater and I will be calling you to ask if you would be willing to be on our list of scholarship providers.
This would be an internal list (not a public one), used only to pair you with children in the school, so that you can recommend them as a recipient of the scholarship you provide with your tax dollars. We will also be contacting the families who send their children to our school in order to ask them if we can pair their children with people on our list. We will encourage them to contact friends and family outside of our church and invite them to participate in the program as well, and if they are willing, we will add them to our list in the hope that they would continue to support Cross of Glory’s school-side ministry in the future. This system will enable us to be aware of how much each child is receiving and direct scholarship funds to where they are most needed.
It’s not often that you can get something for nothing in this world. The salvation won for us by Christ is certainly the greatest example of that we will ever see! Our opportunity to share that salvation with children within and outside of our congregation at no cost to them or us is another one.
Please search your hearts on this and consider allowing us to add your name to our list of scholarship providers.
May the Word made flesh reveal to you more and more the greatness and goodness of our God!
In his name,
Pastor Foxen
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Get ready! On January 22nd, we'll be celebrating Christian Education Sunday. The focus for this Sunday is often put on children, but really, Christian education is for all people, adults included! With that in mind, we'll be kicking off a number of opportunities to be in the Word and grow closer to each other at the same time! We're calling these opportunities "Growth Groups." What's a growth group?
- It's a weekly meeting of small groups of members for about 1.5 hours
- It's a meeting that can take place anywhere - someone's house, a restaurant or cafe, the White Tanks - you name it!
- It's a meeting designed to get people closer to one another, doing activities that you love!
- It's a chance to grow spiritually as the group leader facilitates a discussion based on the previous Sunday's sermon
We have a number of people willing to lead and/or host one of these groups. Please look for sign-up sheets in the church-side lobby to become part of one of these groups. Our goal is to have everyone involved in one or another of these groups, so that we can all support each other better as brothers and sisters in Christ.
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Hey, parents! Use this section to prepare or review the lessons your kids will hear in Children's Church. Remember, though we happily teach your children, the main responsibility for their spiritual growth lies with you. Make it a priority, and they will learn to make it a priority as well. This training produces eternal results!
Please note this change: Children's Church will now be for children PreK3 - 4th grade (ages 3 - 9). We encourage the 5th and 6th graders to join the rest of the congregation for the whole service. Note helps will be provided to help them benefit from the readings and sermon. If you have any questions about this change, please speak with Pastor Foxen.
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1/1 - The Importance of Jesus' Name (Luke 2:21)
1/8 - Who Among You Is Wise? (Matthew 2:1-12)
1/15 - Look, the Lamb of God! (John 1:29-41)
1/22 - Jesus Is the Light of the World - Christian Education Sunday (Matthew 4:12-23)
1/29 - Being Blessed Believers (Matthew 5:1-12)
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As believers in Christ, we are all members of the his body. He's blessed us with each other, and we thought it would be nice for us all to get to know one another a little better. With that in mind, we'll feature a different family of members each month in our newsletter.
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Nick and Ally Kelley
Tatum and Noah
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Nick and Ally Kelley along with their kids, Tatum and Noah, are in the spotlight this month as we take a deeper dive into getting to know one Cross of Glory family each month. Back when the Kelleys were house-hunting, it was top priority for them to be close to a Lutheran Elementary School. Although they had been members at Emmanuel in Tempe, they found their dream home close to Cross of Glory and were thrilled to learn that Cross of Glory also has a K-8 school! As Ally said, “God placed it literally 7 minutes from our front door.” God-willing, their daughter Tatum will be able to go to Kindergarten at Cross of Glory next year.
Nick and Ally first met when they worked at the same Starbucks in North Phoenix. After a few months of working together, they started dating. Today, Nick manages a Commercial Truck Rental branch for Enterprise. Ally is a full-time mom to their young daughter and son. Tatum and Noah have birthdays at the end of January and will be turning 5 and 2. They both like to dance and listen to music. Tatum likes to do arts and crafts and Noah likes playing with his cars and trucks.
A passage that the Kelleys find particularly comforting these days comes from Proverbs 16:9. “A man plans his ways but the LORD directs his steps.” They explained their choice, "This one always sticks in our heads because countless times already in our marriage we have had certain plans turn out different but better in the end. It reminds us that God always has our best interest in mind.” One of their favorite hymns conveys a similar message.
CW415: Be Still My Soul
"Be still, my soul; the Lord is on your side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to your God to order and provide;
In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; your best, your heav'nly friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Until recently, Nick’s big secret was that he plays piano, but we are glad it is not a secret to us at Cross of Glory anymore! Nick uses his keyboard gifts to edify our Sunday morning worship as part of the ensemble! Nick also brews his own beer at home while Ally enjoys playing league volleyball every week.
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A non-profit independent living retirement center is located on the First Lutheran Church property in Prescott Arizona. There are 12 units for members of Christian Churches. Each unit is approximately 1,100 square feet and includes Clubhouse privileges. Units are available on a first come - first served basis. One unit becomes available on February 1, 2017. Call the manager for rental rates (928-708-0426). When all 12 units are filled, interested renters will be put on a wait list. For more information, go to firstlutheranprescott.org and click on the Smoke Tree Village link. |
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W.I.L.D. Day at
Pilgrim Lutheran Church
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Mark your calendars and save the date for Pilgrim Lutheran Church’s annual W.I.L.D. (Women Inspiring, Learning, and Doing) Workshop that will be held Saturday, February 18 from 8:30am – 1:00pm in Pilgrim’s Fellowship Hall at 3257 E University Drive in Mesa. This is a great opportunity to network with the ladies from other WELS congregations and hear speakers from our missionary field including Betty Pfeiffer who has authored the book “Who’s Got Dibs On Your Kids” and Becky Foxen discussing her six years as a missionary’s wife in Russia. Morning coffee and pastries as well as lunch are included in the workshop. The cost is $10 per person on the day of the event. The ladies from Pilgrim appreciate your past participation in our W.I.L.D. day and hope you will come again.
If you have any questions, please contact Mary Ann at (480) 654-3706 or maryannwe@cox.net.
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'A Story of God's Grace'
by Author/Lecturer
Mahtob Mahmoody
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Thrivent Financial is sponsoring
a lecture and book signing by author Mahtob Mahmoody.
Mahtob, the author of My Name is Mahtob, is currently lecturing about her experience since escaping from Iran as a young girl. Her mother, Betty Mahmoody, is the author of the international bestseller, Not Without My Daughter, which was subsequently made into a film starring Sally Field. After their safe return to the United States, Mahtob was enrolled in Salem Lutheran School, Owosso, MI. It was in the Lutheran Elementary School where young Mahtob first heard about her Savior’s Love. She shares her story to show God’s love and guidance and how He used these adversities to bring her to faith. The story is summarized in the August edition of Forward in Christ. For more information about Mahtob, visit her Facebook page: Mahtob M. Mahmoody; LiveStream an archived MLC Lecture at https://mlc-wels.edu/streams; Watch the movie “Not Without My Daughter” or peruse any of Betty or Mahtob’s books via Amazon.com.
The lecture will be held Saturday, February 11, 2017 at Arizona Lutheran Academy, 6036 S. 27th Avenue, Phoenix, beginning at 1:30PM. Please RSVP the number of attendees so we can efficiently plan for seating. This event is open to all who are interested-both men and women!
Contact Pat Stern if interested: Flagsterns@gmail.com
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Items Needed
Our members Jim & Trish Barnes are in the process of becoming foster parents. If anyone has an infant car seat or crib they are willing to donate or sell please contact them at 623-341-0304. Thank you!
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If you'd like to post an announcement in the newsletter, please send it to our secretary at cog.secretary@crossofglory.org.
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