St. John-Emmanuel Lutheran School
"Sharing Christ through Academic Excellence"
Week of December 17, 2018
School Calendar of Events
Dec 18- School Board meeting 7pm @ Soest
Dec 19- Baptismal Remembrance chapel 7:50am @ Flatrock
Dec 19- Flatrock Christmas service 7pm
Dec 21- Makeup Day- SCHOOL IN SESSION- Parent Drive Day
Jan 21- MLK Jr. Day - SCHOOL IN SESSION- Parent Drive Day
Jan 27- Open House @ Soest from 12-3pm
Feb 15- Makeup Day via E-Learning
Merry Christmas to all of our SJE families and friends!
This week we are praying for...
Mr. Koch
Matt/Lindsay Kolter & Grady
Joe/Abby Koroncevicius & Eli
2nd Quarter Chapel Offerings End This Week
Basketball Schedule for This Week
Monday: 4:15pm JV girls @ St John, 5:30pm JV boys @ St John
Tuesday: 5:00pm Varsity girls @ St John
Christmas Services
A couple of reminders about Wednesday night. 1) classroom doors will open at 6:45pm. Band kids don't need to be there any earlier either. Children need to stay with you please. They are not to run and/or play in the school hallways or the Fellowship Center. 2) This is a church worship service, not a Christmas program. 3) I love seeing kids dressed up. They should still be in school chapel appropriate attire that evening.
I look forward to seeing you next week as we celebrate the birth of our savior with the 4th-8th grade students.
Next SJE Make Up Day
February 18th (President's Day)is the only other makeup day we have available to make up a snow day this year. If we do need to use Feb 18th, it will be a parent drive day with school in session. After that, the rest of the days will be added to the end of the school year in May.
A Messy Christmas
"Merry Christmas!” The greeting rings out with gusto and sincerity. The honest response in many cases might be, “Thanks, but I’m having a MESSY Christmas!” That’s the kind of Christmas you have when not much turns out the way you hope and plan. Christmas can be more messy than merry.
That’s the kind of Christmas Mary and Joseph had 2000 years ago: a very messy Christmas. Mary was expecting a baby before she and Joseph were married. She was about to give birth far away from home after a long and tiring journey. They were surrounded by strangers upset to have had their lives disrupted by the government, forced to travel long distances so they could stand in long lines and fill out long forms and pay more taxes. There was a “no vacancy” sign on every hotel in town. They finally got to stay in some kind of cave or shed, and that’s where their Child was born. No jingle bells, no celebrations, no glittering packages with beautiful bows. No crib for a bed, but only a manger, for the little Lord Jesus to lay down His sweet head. Not a merry Christmas, but a very messy Christmas.
“And she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son.” In the person of Jesus, God got Himself physically, personally involved in this world. He got Himself into this mess of ours, to walk through it with us, to weep with us, to laugh with us, to comfort us, to challenge us, to call us to follow Him on the path to life that is truly life, life with Him forever.
If and when things don’t go as you hope and plan this Christmas, remember that Christmas is not about things going perfectly or even tolerably. It’s about God becoming one of us to bring us back to Him. It’s about God getting His hands dirty and bloody, loving us too much to let us go to hell, loving us so much that He placed our sins upon His Son, crediting us with the holiness of Christ.
Nobody wants a messy Christmas, but a messy Christmas can open our hearts to the real message of Christmas: “The Word of God became flesh and made His dwelling among us . . . the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” A messy Christmas can get our eyes and minds and hearts off the baubles and bows, the glitz and the glitter. The mess creates a longing to hear the message, and in the midst of the mess, we behold the Messenger who is the Messiah: Jesus.
He makes a messy Christmas a merry Christmas too.
The Lutheran SGO for SJE
Volunteering at SJE
Please note the info in bold below and see where you might be able to help/volunteer. If you have not yet volunteered this year, please consider doing so.
**Please note that your volunteer hours this year (18-19) will reduce or eliminate up to $400 of the tuition increase/student set for the 19-20 school year.***