From the desk of Pastor Orinda,

Happy New Year! Happy? What is happy anyway? Well here is a list of synonyms for happy: cheerful, cheery, merry, joyful, jovial, jolly, jocular, gleeful, carefree, untroubled, delighted, smiling, beaming, grinning, in good spirits, in a good mood, lighthearted, pleased, contented, content, satisfied, gratified, buoyant, radiant, sunny, blithe, joy-ous, beatific; thrilled, elated, exhilarated, ecstatic, blissful, euphoric, overjoyed, exultant, rapturous, in seventh heaven, on cloud nine, walking

on air, jumping for joy, jubilant; glad, pleased, willing, ready, disposed , satisfied, convenient, fortunate, lucky, favorable, advantageous, opportune, timely, well timed . In the Holy Scriptures happy is a little different. It is not about the end result or emotional high, but the process of getting there. The Bible says that those who fear the Lord are happy. “Fear of the Lord" entails the matter of reverence and respect for God. Happy are those who trust in the Lord and even Happy are those who require wisdom. The word for happy in the New Testament is the same word for BLESSED. Blessed describes a believer in the enviable fortunate position from receiving God's provisions of favor – which literally extends and make long and large Gods’ grace (benefits). This happens with the receiving and obeying the Lord in giving birth to faith. For us Christians none of our words are idle and every word we say has the power of conse-quence. When we say “Happy New Year”, kiss each other and sing Auld Lang Syne….don’t get it twisted. Those sometimes slurred “Happy New Year’s” are not just words we say at the stroke of midnight. These words are both the proclamation and mandate of God Intention and Intervention over and in the life of the person we speak it to. In two words we call forth the ac-knowledgment and reception of Gods favor, to seek after wisdom to do the right thing at the right time for the right reason and be Blessed to BE a blessing. We speak in the present our desire for the future. So… From my heart to yours Happy New Year!

Pr. O

St. John’s Lutheran Church

380 Keny Blvd.

London, OH 43140

The Chimes Telling His story… making disciples January 2015

Combined Worship Service February 1st

10:00 AM

740-852-1522 www.stjohnslondon.org

Euchre Club January 10

7:00 PM

Thrivent Sub Sale January 31

Scott Spohler

Scott was a church council member in North Carolina, is on St. John’s IT com-mittee and has volunteered at the Card and Craft Show.

Gene Noble

Gene is an active worship assistant at St. John’s and a member of Church Coun-cil.

Keith Languell Keith is an active worship assistant at St. John’s and his former church in New Haven, IN.

Debbie Ball Debbie is an active worship assis-tant, member of the Care Group & Altar Guild and on Church Coun-cil.

Erika Smith Erika is very active in the children’s ministries, a special event planner, and on Church Council. Erika was also a Synod Assembly Representative.

Meet the New Church Council

Dave Moller Dave is a member of St. John’s Praise Band and was an Elder on Council at Grace Ev. Lutheran Church.

Pastor O Speaks

Talktainmentradio.com

Participate? Call 877-932-9766

2:00 PM Wednesdays

Combined Worship

Consecration

and Installation

of newly elected

Congregational

Leaders

Sunday, January 4

10:00 AM

SUPER BOWL SUB SALE

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

St. John’s Lutheran Church 380 Keny Blvd., London, OH 43140

Sponsored by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Proceeds will help kids go to Lutheran summer camp

Name_______________________________________________ Phone_______________________________________________

ITALIAN SUB SANDWICHES

No. Ordered Total

______ Reg. Sub w/mozzarella cheese ___________ (Ham, Bologna, Salami)

______ Reg. Sub w/pepper cheese ___________

______ Lite Sub w/mozzarella cheese ___________ (Turkey & Ham)

______ Lite Sub w/pepper cheese ___________ ______ TOTAL Subs Ordered TOTAL Amt. Due ___________

NOTE: PAY WHEN ORDERING. Return order form w/payment to church by Sunday, January 25, 2015.

Pick up: Saturday, January 31st from 10 a.m. to 12 noon

Or Sunday, February 1st after services.

CASH DONATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

For more information, call Milt Boerger (852-3578), Bob Sellars (852-2656),

or Fran Datz (852-5753).

Super Bowl Sub Sale

The Thrivent group will be making subs on Jan. 31st and Feb. 1st just in time for the Super Bowl. Order forms are available at the church entrance. Orders will be accepted until January 25th. All proceeds will help parents with the cost of sending their chil-dren to church camp this summer.

Save the Date….

We invite you and your spouse or significant other to a special Cele-bration of Love Candlelight Din-ner, Saturday, February 13th followed by a celebration of the affirmation of marriage in wor-ship on Sunday, February 14th, at both services. More details in the upcoming bulletin inserts and February Chimes.

Children’s Sunday School Children’s Sunday School begins at 10:30 each Sunday morning. Enjoy Bible stories, crafts, games, snacks and great fellowship.

Adult Sunday School Classes Please join one of St. John’s Adult Sunday School classes. Currently, we are studying Acts in the Conference Rm. at 9:00 and at 10:30 we are studying the Apostles’ with the book, 12 Ordinary Men held in the Conference Rm.

Welcome Table

The Welcome Table (soup kitchen) is always in need of paper plates, cups, bowls, plastic utensils, powdered drinks such as coffee, creamer, kool-aid, etc. and/or monetary donations. Donations can be dropped off on Thursday evenings during soup kitchen hours from 5 - 7 PM at St. Paul A.M.E. Church 11 W. Center St., London or contact Laura Johnson, Outreach Coordinator, at (740) 845-0175 to make arrangements. Monetary donations can be mailed to: The Welcome Table PO Box 162, London OH 43140. Thank you for your continued support!

Save Your Pop Tabs St. John’s is collecting pop/beer tabs to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. Sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest difference.

Daylight Bible Study

Looking for a Bible study that meets during the day? This is the group for you. The group is currently studying from 1 Corinthians. Please join our circle of friends on Tuesdays, at 10:00 in Luther’s Café. Contact Vici Geer, 852-4494 for more information.

Food-thru-Faith

Food-thru-Faith welcomes your donations of food and monetary gifts. A basket for food donations is located at the front entrance. During November Food-thru-Faith served 89 families which included 143 adults and 72 children for a total of 215 people.

H.E.L.P. HOUSE /Food-thru-Faith

The HELP House and Food-thru-Faith are in need of your help. If each family would pick up a few extra items while shopping, it would help tremendously. Place your donations in the box marked “H.E.L.P. House” or basket marked “Food thru Faith” at the church entrance. Food thru Faith is especially looking for canned fruit for January. The Help House is especially looking for boxed meals and peanut butter for January.

Health Ministry

St. John’s Health Ministry will be doing monthly blood pressure checks the first Sunday of each month where you can have your blood pressure checked in Luther’s Café at 10:00 am.

Confirmation Camp 2015

Confirmation students: Reserve June 21 thru June 26, 2015 for Confirmation Camp.

Mark your calendars now please!

Euchre Club, January 10

Do you like to play euchre? Would you like to play once a month? No frill and low key. No food or drinks neces-sary. Just pay $2.00 to play. Cash prizes only. Interested? Come join us in Luther’s Café! The fun begins Satur-day, January 10th at 7:00 PM at the church. Oh yeah—bring some dimes.

Book Club, January 20

Do you like to read? Do you like talking about the books you have read? Have a lot of books lying around? Then you’ll want to join this group. Bring one, two or a hundred books to trade. All genre of books will be discussed and traded...fiction and non-fiction. We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 in Luther’s Café. Please join us! Note: No book club in December.

Yoga Classes

Did you know that St. John’s has a yoga class every Tuesday? If you would like to join, the class meets every Tuesday at 7:00 PM. See Debbie Henneman for details.

St. John’s Adopted Child Ordonez Saloj Maria Griselda

Our annual cost to support Maria is $360.00. Please continue your support for Maria.

Maria is a ten year old girl, in the second grade. Her favorite subject is math and her favorite color is purple. She has two brothers and one sister. Maria is a very happy girl and she likes to help out and play with her classmates. She also likes to play soccer. Her birthday is July 23, 2004.

Dartball

Everyone is invited to play on St. John’s Dartball Team. We play on Thursday evenings at 8:00 at St. John’s and also travel to other Lutheran Churches. Don’t know how to play? No problem, we will teach you. Join us for the fun!!!

Altar Flowers/Eternal Flame Candle Reminder... Just a reminder that if you sign-up for altar flowers or the eternal flame candle, please drop your check in the mail or in the offering plate. The cost of the altar flowers are $25.00 for the pair and the eternal flame candle is $5.00 per week. The sign-up charts are posted on the bulletin board at the far end of Luther’s Café. You can sign up as many times as you like in memory or honor of someone special.

2015 Altar Flowers/Eternal Flame Candle

The 2015 Altar Flower/Eternal Flame Candle charts are posted. If you would like to have the altar flowers or eternal flame candle in memory of or in honor of someone special, please sign up on the altar flower chart or the eternal flame chart posted in Luther’s Café. The altar flowers are $12.50 each or $25.00 for the pair and the eternal flame candle is $5.00.

Offering Envelopes

Offering envelopes for 2015 will be available December 14th in Luther’s Café. If you would like to have envelopes but do not see your name, please let Debbie in the office know.

December….What an Amazing Month!

Women’s Christmas Dinner

Children’s Christmas Pageant

Christmas Eve 2015

Attendance 188

Christmas Greetings from Maria

Inspiration Living from Truth

Starting today, we can experience life as a naturally unfolding expression of our vision and realize the contribution we are here to make. Living a truly good and purposeful life becomes as natural as breathing as we shift into a new para-digm based on the four tools of connect, listen, trust and act.

In most people’s current paradigm, the limited and limiting human mind will shape and drive our day-to-day actions whenever we allow it to. When we buy into it, it becomes our automatic truth, organizing our energy around fears for survival.

Everything changes when we stop focusing primarily on what we need to do in order to function and survive. Instead, by realizing that our essence is energy, we gain powerful access to our ability to separate the human mind’s chatter from our higher consciousness, shifting us into a new relationship with who we are. That’s where we can now go for the an-swers that are unique to us and aligned with our true journey and purpose.

Connect. The initiating step of seeing our real self as an eternal energetic force of higher consciousness activates our alignment with the universal vibrational force of all creation. This energy frequency becomes real and available to us.

Listen. By learning to distinguish between the mind’s busyness and intuited messages of our true self, we come to more consistently align our actions with our highest being. As a result, we naturally walk a path of honoring both our highest self and others.

Trust. The inner guidance we discern often defies logic, but we begin to trust that it knows best. The beauty is that be-cause everything is in relationship with everything else, when one piece of our life changes or moves forward it shifts the entire energy and relationship with everything else, allowing for a new relationship and a new result. Such trust goes deep, activating our inner knowing of who we are; not from the basics of a thought or concept, but as our new reality. We are listening to and heeding our most authentic self.

Act. Be aware that when we honor our higher self transcending the human mind’s control, the ego will fight for its survival. It may argue for doing something else, not doing it fully or create circumstances that make it tough to act from an authentic place. Now we can release such mind suggestions and choose what supports our true journey.

We are here to experience our own magnificence as we walk our journey on Earth. In acting, we are saying, “I am not my mind; I am a wellspring of divine truth.” We are claiming our eternal identity.

The preceding article is from the magazine, “Natural Awakenings.” The article was written by Indira Dyal-Dominquez.

ST JOHN'S LUTHERAN CHURCH COUNCIL MINUTES DECEMBER 9, 2014 Present were Gene Noble, Ruth Peters, Fran Datz, Debbie Ball and Pastor Orinda Hawkins-Brinkley. Also attending were Jacqui Groves, Financial Secretary along with Council elect Keith Languell, Scott Spohler and Dave Moller. The meeting was called to order by Council President Gene Noble at 7:00 P.M. Devotions by Pastor Orinda were from the book "Christian Faith, The Basic" which is one of the books for the Confirmation students. In this book is the thought provoking defini-tion of an "Inverse Paranoid which is defined as some who believes everyone is out to make you happy. The minutes of the November 11, 2014 meeting were approved as read on a motion by Fran and second by Debbie. Correspondence: Gene shared with Council a Christmas letter from our child in Guatemala who wished the people of St. John's a Merry Christmas and thanked us for her support. Treasurer's Report: Jacqui reported that November was a good month for income, however expenses were still $1099.00 more than planned for the month. Questions were raised on the bills for lawn care and snow removal. Gene will check the invoices and check with Brad Gorman of Allscapes to determine if there was an error in billing. Jacqui will ask Elaine to clarify those entries on the P & L statement. As the financial report was not available last month both the October and November financial reports were approved pending the above on a motion by Debbie and second by Fran. Pastor's Report: As written. Pastor also expressed her desire to funnel all fundraising efforts except the Thrivent sub sale to send our youth to camp and any youth efforts for special youth occasion, into the mortgage reduction effort. Council asks that anyone chair-ing or leading a fundraiser should present their information to Council to coordinate dates and goals. Pastor's report was accepted on a motion by Debbie and second by Pastor. IT Committee: No report. Stewardship/Finance Committee: The 2015 offering envelopes are in and available. Christian Education: No report. Life/Growth/Evangelism Committee: Gene reported that Breakfast with Santa was very successful. Building/Property Committee: Fran reported that the Sanctuary chairs look great after being cleaned by the Confirmation children and parents. Worship/Music: No report. Special Reports: None. Old Business: Gene read correspondence to and from Jill Spradlin regarding changing the staff pay dates to every two weeks instead of bi-monthly. Jill said that there would be no difficulty in resetting the software. This change was approved on a motion by Ruth and second by Fran. The change will take place effective January 1st. Pastor is still looking for a venue to hold a Council/ Vision Committee retreat. Council and the Finance/Treasurer was once again reminded that the $49,000.00 in the contingency fund be treated as a line of credit and monies borrowed from this fund be replaced as soon as possible. New Business: There will be a combined Worship Service at 10:00 A.M. on January 4th and at this service the Council and Vision Committee members will be consecrated and installed. The financial reporting in the weekly bulletin was discussed as multiple complaints of confusion had been expressed. The discussion led to establishing a monthly report including the total income and expenses from the preceding month to be printed on or about the 2nd to 3rd Sunday of the following month. It was also felt that a publishing of the preceding week's income compared to the average weekly need be made public. This change was approved on a motion by Pastor and second by Debbie. Gene requested the IT committee in research and bring forth a proposal to provide 2 new laptop computers to be used by the Finan-cial Secretary and the Treasurer and that an onsite backup for the software be established. The Council discussed the need to find and train a backup person(s) to be able to assist when the Financial Secretary, Treasurer and the Church Secretary are unavailable. As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned on a motion by Ruth and second by Pastor. Meeting was adjourned by all praying The Lord's Prayer. Respectfully submitted Ruth Peters, Secretary of Council

This Month Sun. 1/4 10:00 Combined Worship Tues. 1/6 6:00 Advisors 7:00 Council Sat. 1/10 7:00 Euchre Tues. 1/20 7:00 Book Club

Attendance and Finance

Needing our prayers:

Derek Miller, Lowell Dillion, Kendra Berschet, Rachel Knaub, Mary Komives, Luke Benner, Jon Michael McCool, Cathy Pitts, Mary Burke, Terry Timmons, Anthony Willett, Patty Schmittauer, Carol Fraley, Betty Thompson, Chuck Reinier, Dale Crockett, Tremaine Jones-Afetorgbor, Eli Jo-seph Kuhn, Roger Martin, Barb Crosbie, Jason Smith and John Bisha (soldier).

Attendance Averages for the Month of January

2001- 140 2002- 122 2003- 113 2004- 93 2005- 133 2006- 156 2007- 154

2008- 147 2009- 166 2010- 141 2011- 187 2012- 153 2013- 122 2014- 198

Attendance Averages for the Month of December

2001- 127 2002- 99 2003- 87 2004- 160 2005- 229 2006- 243 2007- 227

2008- 270 2009- 253 2010- 258 2011- 205 2012- 143/152 2013- 178 2014- ?

Weekly Schedule Sunday 9:00 Traditional Worship 9:00 Adult Sunday School 10:00 Coffee Hour 10:30 Contemporary Worship 10:30 Adult & Child. Sun. Sch 3:00 DD Service Tuesday 10:00 Daylight Bible Study 7:00 Yoga Wednesday 8:00 Contemporary Band Thursdays 8:00 Dartball

Church Council Debbie Ball Dave Moller Keith Languell Erika Smith Gene Noble Scott Spohler

Leaders

Gerry Lazenby Global/Prayer Quilt Min. Lowell Dillion Disabled Min. Erika Smith Youth Ministry Maureen Case Music Director

Mike & Donna Toy: Drama Leaders Marilyn Ballenger: Care Group Leader Sharon Dillion: Altar Guild Fran Datz: Thrivent

Birthdays and Anniversaries

January 1. Mr. & Mrs. Bill Blain, Jacob Datz 2. Sonia Hazlett 3. Todd Nagel 4. Joy Bush, Mike Datz, Alexis Nagel 5. Sara Burke, Brookston Fisher 6. Helene Modlich 7. Debbie Vecchiarelli 8. Rich Payson, Reese Mann 9. Dave Lazenby, Kayle Mast 11. Mr. & Mrs. Max Brewer 12. Mr. & Mrs. Scott Ackley, Jasmine Goss 15. Jacob Fox, Amy McComas, Judy Ruble 16. Bailey Ernst, Barbara Sellars 20. Mr. & Mrs. Gary Hayman Kenton Komives 21. Mr. & Mrs. Al Datz, Hayden Howard 22. Logan Dillion 24. Debbie Ansley 26. Sabrina Burke 30. Bailee Mayne, Bryce Mayne

Finance Report September 2014

Worship Assistants for January

Ministry January 4 10:00 AM

January 11 January 18 January 25

9:00 10:30 3:00

Acolyte

Jakob Friend

Jeff Blain Sabrina Burke Shaundra Sayre

Ray Scharf Addison Haggerty Shaundra Sayre

Elisabeth Friend Kaylee Mast Shaundra Sayre

900 10:30

Com. Assistant

Milt Boerger Dorene Browning

Jerry & Debbie Ball Mike & Mary Datz

Al & Fran Datz Keith Languell Ray Scharf

Nancy Hodosko Sharon Dillion Nancy Penix Jeanne White

9:00 10:30

Lector

Aliscia Berry

Denise Congleton Dorene Browning

Peg Saupe Nisbet Brynne Mayne

Vici Geer Dana Fisher

9:00 10:30 3:00

Ushers

Dale & Terri Widen

George & Elizabeth Lassel Mike & Dawn Johnson Jeff Horn Charlie Elliott

Tim Amling Bob Sellars Marilyn Pritt Amy Burke Jeff Horn Charlie Elliott

Al Rings Jeff Blain Gene Noble Ernie Lawson Jeff Horn Charlie Elliott

9:00

Greeter

Dave Lazenby

George Lassel

Al Rings

Jeff Blain

9:00 10:30 3:00

Power Point

Will Cooley

Vici Geer Skylar Smith Rebecca Bell

Elizabeth Lassel Ada Gibson Rebecca Bell

Mark Erbaugh Savanna Burke Rebecca Bell

Offering Caregivers

Gene Noble Jane Hayman

Fran Datz Debbie Ball

Gene Noble Mark Erbaugh

Altar Guild

Mike & Mary Datz Mike & Mary Datz Mike & Mary Datz Mike & Mary Datz

Altar Flowers

Time & Dorothy Amling

Nancy Hodosko Tim & Dorothy Amling

Eternal Flame

Tim & Dorothy Amling Tim & Dorothy Amling Tim & Dorothy Amling Tim & Dorothy Amling