The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Saviour

We are reaching out to help the local communities during this Christmas season. During the next several weeks Our Saviour will be a drop off point for Toys for Tots. Toys should be new. They should not be wrapped.

We are also collecting pajamas for children in shelters in the metropolitan area. The pajamas should be gift-wrapped and marked with the size and “girl” or “boy”. PJs can be from infant to teenage sizes.

This year we also want to encourage you to try an alternative giving program. It is the perfect gift for Christmas stockings. All the monies will be donated to Habitat for Humanity to purchase insulation for homes, or to Bridges to purchase socks and hats for the homeless, or to Our Saviour for our children’s ministry. A gift card will specify which organization will receive the gift based on the donor’s request. This gift offers a twofold blessing, one to the recipient of the card and one to those who serve our community.

The children in our Sunday School are making cards to send to critical or terminally ill children around the country to bring a moment of joy to these families. During the year our youngest classes color pictures to distribute every month to nursing homes, veterans homes and others who request them.

Members of the community are welcome to contribute toys, pajamas or gift cards to help bring joy to those in need. The church will receive donations Tuesdays through Thursdays, during the hours of 10AM to 12PM noon, from November 27 through December 12. Gift cards must be ordered in advance. We will have a dedication and blessing of these gifts on December 9 during the 10:30 AM worship service. Everyone is invited to join us as we offer thanks and dedicate these gifts into a service of bringing joy of the season to the members of our community. The toys and pajamas will be delivered during the week of December 16.

As we are blessed, we will be a blessing to others.

September 2nd marks the end of the summer worship service schedule and we return to the regular worship service schedule:

Sunday Worship Services
8:15 AM - Service of Holy Communion
9:00 AM - Sunday School
10:30 AM - Traditional Worship Service
11:30 AM - Fellowship / Coffee Hour

As previously mentioned in June, our 3rd-7th grade students are learning stewardship of treasures. They each received a Thrivent piggy bank at the beginning of our Sunday School year. Together with their parents they decided on an amount to place in the “donation” slot in the bank. As a group, the children voted for a project for the year. They decided that their project would be to purchase teddy bears to donate to the local first aid squad. Their enthusiasm and hard work was so successful that they were able to purchase 199 nine to ten inch teddy bears to donate to seven emergency response squads in ten towns located in three different counties in northern New Jersey. Morris County Thrivent Financial contributed matching funds to further support the work of the children. In addition, the manufacturer was very supportive by offering us a highly competitive price to enable our children to assist other children in their time of need. The bears are given to children experiencing trauma that requires ambulance and hospital care.

The bears were dedicated into a service of caring and were distributed to representatives of first aid squads from Pequannock, Bloomingdale, Butler, Kinnelon, Wanaque, West Milford, Lincoln Park, Hardyston, Pompton Lakes and Riverdale on July 29, 2007, during our worship service. The Reverend Mark Rossman, pastor of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Saviour, sets an example of stewardship in the community by serving as the captain of the Hardyston First Aid Squad. The squads opened the ambulances to the children and allowed them to see the equipment that can help save their lives.