Messiah Hosts Rebuilding Crew

From 2011

During the week of 1-8 August, Messiah Lutheran Church will be hosting a team of volunteers from Grace Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC.  This group of skilled carpenters and masons will be helping to rebuild tornado stricken areas (most likely the Harvest area).  

They will be arriving in Huntsville mid-afternoon on Monday, August 1 and will be staying in the Parish Hall.  Arrangements have been made for them to have shower access at Hogan YMCA on Hughes road.  They are bringing their own work equipment so we may have some trailers in the parking lot.  They will also be providing their own sleeping equipment and supplies and have been given access to Parish kitchen and the washer and dryer.  They may be cooking, and I have assured them that restaurants are very close for their convenience.

We are planning a congregation pot luck meal while they are here which will be conducted on Wednesday evening, August 3 at 6 PM. 

If you would like to help volunteer with the rebuilding effort or would like to help make our guest feel welcome, please contact Kay Spence for more information.

Family Movie Night

From 2011

Messiah Lutheran Church is a very busy place.  In fact it's sometimes hard to keep up with all of the exciting ministries that are continuously taking place.  Every once in  a while though, it is important to sit back, relax, and just enjoy a little fellowship.  And there probably isn't a better way to do that than by enjoying a fun family movie and a big tub of popcorn.  Especially if that movie is being projected on a state of the art projection system with surround sound.  Special thanks to Paul Zutter for turning family movie night into a theatrical extravaganza.   Messiah Lutheran Church periodically hosts a family movie night which is free of charge event. Just bring a snack to share.

From 2011

Renew: The Green VBS 2011

This Year's Vacation Bible School was titled, "Renew: The Green VBS" and was conducted July 11-15 at Messiah Lutheran Church.



Grounded in Jesus' Parable of the Sower, ReNew: The Green VBS brings together the Bible and environmental stewardship. From tiny towns to huge cities, kids grow in faith as they play, learn, sing, and work toward renewing their congregations and communities. By serving in the community and inviting the community into church, kids demonstrate that being green can be easy, faithful, and fun. Although current threats to our environment can seem scary, ReNew is about hope, opportunity, and service. Kids and congregations lead the way as stewards of the earth.

What happens when heads, hearts, and hands are in harmony? Kids grow in faith, have fun, and change the world.  And did the kids have fun and learn a lot? You Betcha!  Just look at the smiles on their faces and you can tell just how much fun it was.  


Many thanks to all of the staff and volunteers who put so much of themselves into making this year's VBS such a success.


Here is a short video about what Renew: The Green VBS is all about.

On Eagle's Wings Mission 2011

This year Christine Berry was our missionary to the Northwest Territories as part of the On Eagle's Wings Mission. Christine along with two ladies from Mechanicsville, PA went to the villiage of Deline.


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Deline is a Dene Village of the the Satchu Tribe on the Great Bear Lake. The native language is Northern Slavey and the villiage of Deline is pretty remote. Deline has a population of 550, and it is the only village on Great Bear Lake which straddles the Arctic Circle.

It took 3 airlines, 5 flights and 2 days for Christine to reach Deline.

Christine said of her trip, "I have a mosaic memory of the kids.  The Bible school theme was Splash-Show, People Love and Shared Happiness.  From Logan who cried the first day until the very end when I let him wear the white hat (aka the skit headgear).  The rest of the week he came and had a huge smile.  5 year old Tayla told me she knew "Our Father" and asked if I wanted to hear it - it is the Lord's Prayer.  Layla and Noaka led the snack prayer with "Our Father" in Northern Slavey, all the kids bowed their heads, the kids running around the arena rushed back to their seats, bowed their heads, and the prayer volume kept rising.  It gave me goose bumps.  The kids rushing to comfort a little 5 year old who was frequently teary.  She had just come to live with her grandparents because her mother is having problems."

Christine also went on to say how much Paul's letters helped her.  "I have a better lesson of those letters.  It was a lesson this year for me to not let fear of the unknown and pain prevent me from carrying on and trusting in God."

Messiah Lutheran Church has been supporting the On Eagle's Wings Mission for many years.  Throughout the year we conduct several fund raising events to help support the mission.  This year's fund raisers have included a Spaghetti Dinner and Talent show as well as a Auction.

On Eagle's Wings serves more than 30 remote communities in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut from a base in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The people of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are Inuit, Metis and First Nations people who come from five different tribal backgrounds.  The area is served primarily by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in partnership with On Eagle's Wings

Thrivent Builds and The Moore Family

From 2011

On Sunday, July 17th, Messiah Lutheran Church was visited by Frank Childs from Thrivent and the Moore family.  The Moore family is the owner of the Habitat For Humanity Home that members of Messiah helped construct this year. We have been blessed as a congregation by the opportunity to get to know and work with this awesome family.  We are also thankful for the leadership and support provided by Thrivent.  We can't wait until next year's habitat build.

Here are some pictures from this year's build.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is a Fortune 500 financial services organization that offers financial products and services including life insurance, annuities, mutual funds, disability income insurance, bank products and more to its nearly 3 million members. Thrivent Financial sponsors national outreach programs, notably its alliance with Habitat for Humanity. Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity seeks to increase Habitat's capacity to build more homes and promote donations, volunteerism, neighborhood development as well as worldwide homebuilding trips by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' members.

Habitat for Humanity International is founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live. Through volunteer labor and donations of money and materials, Habitat and its homeowner families have built or rehabilitated more than 400,000 houses. A nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing ministry, Habitat invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build together in partnership.

Sanctuary Expansion

You have probably noticed that construction of Messiah Lutheran Church's new Sanctuary has commenced.  It is pretty hard to miss the large construction equipment and somewhat disheveled appearance of the front of the Church. As construction proceeds we will provide periodic updates to make sure that  the congregation knows what is going on.

We will be also making maximum use of the Parish Hall during the construction period. This facility will be used not only for our Worship Services, but will also be used for all of the other events that we normally use it for including Wednesday Night Cafe, Musical Events, etc. This means that will all be getting good at taking down and setting up the chairs for services. As I was reminded by some of the older members of the congregation, this is not that big of a hardship. The founding members of Messiah Lutheran had to set up chairs in the union hall every week for services. I guess that we can manage for a few months until our shiny new Sanctuary is complete. Thanks in advance for all our your support during the next six months.