If you haven’t gotten a fall, 2010 color changing LCM cup, stop by Sunday at 5:00 for worship and 6:00 for dinner.

The smiling faces of Rachel, Julie, Emma, Kara, Katie, Amanda, and Connor, welcomed this year’s freshman class at the annual Beach ‘n Boulevard Information Fair.

This year’s welcome gift is a color changing cup (yellow to green, not blue to purple!)  Coolers of lemonade and iced tea helped test the color changes.

If you don’t have your LCM cup yet, stop by Bethany House on Sunday—worship at 5 pm, cookout at 6 pm.

Wow!  The Women of Westwood (WoW) are small but mighty!

The Women of Westwood have made a $10,000 challenge gift to the “Home at the Heart of the Hill” capital campaign!   Donations to the capital campaign between now and December 31, 2010 are eligible to be matched by this challenge gift! So, the first $10,000 in donations will be doubled! What better place to make a donation than Westwood itself, at the Rev. Jerry Shaft memorial concert at Westwood Lutheran Church, starting at 6:00 pm July 30th!

Therefore Jesus said, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches. Luke 13:18-19

Justin Moyers

Congratulations to Justin Moyers, who is one of three recipients of the Dr. George and Emma Torrison Medical Scholarship, awarded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The Torrison Scholarship Fund provides grants for men and women who intend to pursue careers in medicine and have been accepted in a medical school. The donors had a particular concern to encourage persons whose careers would lead them toward working to alleviate currently incurable diseases. Justin graduated this spring from the University of Kansas, and he will be attending KU Med starting this fall.

In the letter announcing Justin’s award, Stanley Olson notes:  ”Vocations in healing and health are a vital expression of goodness of God shown throughout creation”.    We join with Justin in celebrating this award, and his vocation!

To order a shirt email your name, address and size to Dayna.

At the 2008 Synod Assembly in St. Louis, Lutheran Campus Ministry gave 200 trees to congregations and synod leaders.   Thanks to Melba Bangert, Vice President of the Central States Synod, who sent this picture of how much her tree has grown!    We’d love to see how your trees are growing!  Send us your pictures.

Charlie Maahs, Jeanette Bidne, and a Chosen Brew

Phil Vickers, Brent Schulte, and Mephistopheles

Messiah Bold, the Chosen HeBrew, Mephistopheles, Hades, the Beast, and the Holy Grail.  Beers with a religious theme were the door prizes at the Hospitality Suite for the Central States Synod Assembly sponsored by Central States Synod Lutheran Campus Ministry at the Airport Hilton Conference Center in Wichita.

Brent Schulte, a KU sophomore was one of the lucky winners, of a bottle  of Mephistopheles. Brent, who shared the bottle with his parents, Scott and Amy Schulte, is pictured here with Phil Vickers, pastor of Emanuel Lutheran Church in Hutchinson, KS.   Jeanette Bidne, intern at St. Mark’s Lutheran, Olathe, looks on.

On Saturday, May 22, students Amanda and Connor, alums Lauren and Bryan, and their friend Amanda drove to Lucas, Iowa to help Jim and Nancy Curtis work on building their new home.  The trick is that this home is being built with old tires, aluminum cans, and earth.  The goal is to have a home that is not only low-cost but also energy and water independent.

You can read more about earthships on wikipedia and at Earthship Biotecture.

At the top of the page you can see Bryan loading sand into a tire, while Connor packs it in with his hands (painful) and a sledgehammer (heavy).  Each of the tires has over 300 pounds of sand in it when fully packed.  It’s pretty amazing how solid the wall is.

Here you can see Lauren and Amanda mixing cob (sand, clay, and straw) to fill the chinks in between the tires.  This is a not fun process involving some very sticky mud.

And this is the other Amanda forcing cob into all the nooks and crannies.  Aluminum cans are used as filler so you don’t have to make as much cob.

By the end of the day, we had helped Jim finish the tire wall for one of the two domes for his new home.  You can visit Jim’s website for more info.  Another volunteer group put a video of their trip on youtube, and although it isn’t us in the video, it gives a good idea of the work.

WHAT A NIGHT!

Challenger’s Sports Bar and Grill in Overland Park was the location for the “April Fuel Night” on Friday, April 23. The music from three bands was explosive, exciting and excellent. We ended the evening with our Campaign total being $100,227.00. Another milestone for our “A Home at the Heart of the Hill” Campaign.

Many thanks to the following people for making it a successful event: Ross, Mark and Chris from Challenger’s, Leslie and Vern Schweder for handling the Raffle, John Kingsley for our sign. Others who contributed to the evening are: JoAnn Shane, Bob Diekmann, Jan Abbey, Roland Pera, Bryan Park, Charley Maahs. A special thanks goes to the bands, Dan Vogler and Wailin’ Wall. Richard Wilson and the Sunday Morning Casualties. Tommy Woolridge and the KC Groove Therapy. It was certainly an outstanding evening with quality music

Phyllis Shaft, Event Chairman