Youth Encounter
Holly Reddy
Holly Reddy is a life-long member of God’s Love Lutheran Church. She has accepted the call to serve on a Captive Free team as a part of Youth Encounter. As a part of the team she will travel around the U.S.A. ministering to people through music, puppet shows, aiding in service projects, prayer, etc. She will be serving on the team for one year starting in September of 2011 until August of 2012.
You can follow Holly’s year of service at her blog and her Youth Encounter website.
Global Outreach
Erin Odgers, ELCA Missionary in Egypt
Beginning in July 2010, our church is sponsoring a new ELCA missionary. Her name is Erin Odgers from Pennsylvania. She replaces our former missionary, Sister Ruth Ellen Rebelein who retired in April. Erin is teaching English as a second language to the Sudanese refugee community at St. Andrews Refugee Services in Cairo, Egypt. She got her BA in psychology/counseling from Messiah College. Then she volunteered for two years with the refugee resettlement program through Lutheran Children and Family Services. She was a member of a peace delegation to Israel/Palestine in 2007. Sponsorship of Erin means that our Church Council has pledged $1200 per year for three or more consecutive years. This gift is provided by the money collected in the Easter and Lent envelopes. The covenant we signed is a promise of prayer, communication, and financial support.
On Eagles’ Wings
Since 1985 our church has supported a mission project that benefits the native Americans who live in remote areas of the Northwest Territories in Canada. Their villages can only be reached by small airplanes. In this way, our missionaries (first from LAMP and then from “On Eagles’ Wings”) arrive to minister to these isolated people and spread the Good News.
Besides money, each year the organizers of “On Eagles’ Wings” solicit the aid of Christians in the United States to teach Bible School to the children in these villages as a way of reinforcing the message of the Gospel through music, crafts and storytelling. In 1988 our first team of 3 adults flew to Snare Lake, partly by commercial jet and partly by float plane, to teach in a small isolated village only 150 miles south of the arctic circle. For several years in a row, groups of 3-6 adults from our church taught summer Bible School in Canada.
Up until 2009, our main contact with “On Eagles’ Wings” was the founder, Reverend Lee Berry from Yellowknife, the capitol of Northwest Territories. As well as being an ordained minister, he is a pilot who uses his plane to visit the villages. In May 2008 he retired as Executive Director. The current director is Anne Zimmerman. The program has 2 airplanes flown by volunteers and a staff of five.
