Christus Victor Lutheran Church

By Ed Odden

A few weeks ago one of my co-workers came to work not looking so good. Inquiring about his health, he told us that they had a small get-together with his family and his wife made two different hot dishes.

The guests ate from one and he and his wife ate from the other. That night he and his wife got very sick. Yep, they had given themselves food poisoning.

Have you ever had a food borne Illness? I have, and it was not what I would call a fun time. It can also cause death in some groups of people.

To prevent this from ever happening at CV, I will be putting together a training course on Food Safety and offering it to all at CV. My goal is to get 100 people to take the course.

The course will run approximately 30 to 40 minutes and there will be NO test.

Why are we doing this you ask? Certainly to prevent food borne illness, but also because the state of Minnesota is telling us we must have a trained food safety person for some of our food events that we have at CV.

Our leaders at CV feel that at ALL of our food events we should be adhering to good food safety practices.

So keep your eyes open for the signup sheet and please sign up.

In the meantime, here’s a good food safety tip: WASH YOUR HANDS with soap and warm water for 20 seconds before beginning food
preparation, after handling food, and after using the bathroom, changng diapers, or touching pets.

The Golden rule of food storage is “When in doubt, Throw it out!”

Gods blessings and Happy Safe Cooking.
The Food Cop (Ed Odden)

May 4 & 5 — Mark your calendars for fun, friends, food, service, learning, Jesus – oh, and getting away together! We’ll meet at 4:30 p.m. at Christus Victor on Friday to carpool to Gustavus Adolphus College, and return to CV on Saturday around 6:00 p.m. Thirty dollars each, but please call Pr. Mary Kaye if the cost is an issue, because WE WANT YOU ALL THERE.

Bring your Bible and join us for a rousing journey into God’s Word and the life of faith. You don’t need to know anything about the Bible, just have a willingness to read, ask questions, and learn.

It’s so easy to join! Just show up at 10:00am on Thursday mornings, we’ll provide the coffee!

Current Focus: the book of Acts

After a long hiatus, Coach Matt Zarras and Assistant Coach Carrie Peterson have pulled together 18 people to for a CV Softball Team, playing in the Apple Valley parks and recreation
league!

Games will begin in late April on Friday nights, and we will post the schedule on a bulletin board at church and on the CV Facebook page as well.

How can you help and support the team?
- Vote for a team name (coming soon)!
- Lend your artistic talents to create a team logo, which also will be voted on. (Submit a design to Matt Zarras or Carrie
Peterson once the team name has been decided.)
- Sponsor the team and get your name or your
business/company name on the Team and Fan tshirts! Talk to Pastor Kent if you are interested in sponsoring the team.
- Buy a CV Softball Team Fan t-shirt when they are
available!
- Go to the games and cheer on our team! We will be
scheduling picnics and post-game gatherings throughout the season, but we will need your help!

Again, let Matt, Carrie, or Pastor Kent know if you’d
like to help organize such an event.

At the February Church Council meeting we discussed and agreed to move ahead with establishing a Staffing Task Force that will review the staffing needs for our congregation.

This new task force will review demographic trends both within our congregation and in the surrounding committee. Members of the task force will work with the Church Health Team to identify areas that may need staff leadership and support, as well as the priorities and identified needs of the congregation.

Task force members will research the potential pools of candidates and the appropriate compensation levels required to attract the best candidates. They will then present their staffing options and recommendations to the Church Council for consideration before a final recommendation is brought to the congregation for feedback and support.

The following people make up the Church Health Team and have
been appointed by the Church Council to lead our congregation through a process to improve the health of our congregation.

They will help us identify our ministry strength and growth areas, and gather church members together to focus on key areas of improvement for the sake of the health of the whole congregation.
Please keep them in your prayers, and offer your
enthusiastic support as it is needed.
• Leader: Jason Sprenger
• Strategic Thinker: Jenny Case
• Researcher: Shane Colin
• Intercessor: John Perendy
• Communicator: Jennifer Radke
• Floaters: Scott Thureen, Matt Kreutzmann

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

– John 3:16

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13: 35

 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” – John 15: 12

 “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” – Ephesians 4: 16

 Dear Friends in Christ, whom God loves,

As we celebrate God’s love revealed and given to us through Jesus Christ this Holy Week and Easter, I am reminded of all of the places in the New Testament that call us to live our lives out of God’s love for us.  There are over 200 verses in the New Testament that encourage, challenge, and remind us to show godly love for one another.  Loving relationships are central part of what it means to be a Christian and to be a Christian community.  Can I get an “Amen?”

When we are firmly rooted in God’s love, surrounded by God’s love in our worship and in our community, we experience the power and joy of God’s Grace.  It is a beautiful and life-changing experience when God’s love is poured into our hearts through hearing God’s Word, receiving Christ’s Body and Blood, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving, passing the peace, and praying to the Lord.  Our hearts and minds are transformed when we share God’s love with one another, and treat each other with God’s love in our hearts.

But there is a reason that there are so many reminders in the Bible to live through God’s love for us.  The fact is we forget God’s love, and we fail to love one another with godly love.  And when we do not experience God’s love, or when we do not believe and trust in God’s love, it turns into a downward cycle that feeds on itself, which leads to hopelessness, despair, emptiness, rejection, and people leaving the church to find a substitute for God’s love elsewhere.

Recently I have been connecting with a number of people who have either left the church, or who moved and have not been able to find a church where they have experienced God’s love.  One person wrote to me: “I don’t want to be preached to about political topics; I don’t want to have to seek out the information booth to find eye contact and a smile. I want a community, I want to feel loved, I want to be challenged, I want to be involved, but the longer it takes to find those things the quicker other things fill up the time that once was reserved for church.”  As I read those words, at the same time I was looking over a list of people who have faded away from our own church, and was overcome by guilt, grief, and frustration.  We all have a long way to go in living out of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.  Lord, help us to receive your love into our hearts, minds, and souls, and may your love flow out of us in our daily lives and in all of our relationships.  May the world, starting with the people around us, know we are Christians by our love!

Happy Easter!  Christ is Risen!  God loves you!

Pastor Kent Claussen Gubrud