A picture worth a thousand words: Pantry Drive 2012

Buddy Mentor Program begins for 7th and 8th Graders

Beginning the week of September 17, all seventh and eighth grade students will be assigned a SPEDS graduate alum as their buddy/mentor.  All of our buddy/mentors are currently  high school juniors or seniors at a variety of high schools in the Kansas City area.  The purpose of the program is to add a layer of support for these students who often have a variety of questions regarding school, high school preparation and friendships.  Buddy/mentors will only communicate via e-mail or phone.  Several of the high school students led divisional chapel on Monday, September 17 as a way of launching the program.  Eighth grade buddy/mentors are Hannah Tutera, Caroline Creidenberg, Emily McCann, Nick Saleh, Brittan Bates, Maddie Miller, Aaron Branch and Malik Tidwell.  Seventh grade buddy/mentors are Arianna Lane, Tommy Larson, Brendan McCann, Connor Prochnow, Jackie McGee, Sammy Patterson and Emma Robertson.

Chapel Leadership Team Begins

Our first 2012 Chapel Leadership Team will begin on Wednesdasy, September 19 by leading worship in their division. Ashley Bough is captain and her team members are Abria Abron,Kyle Haverty, Taylor Long, Claire McCann, A'Starr Moore and Olivia Woodbury.  They will serve through November 9.

Tooling Up for Fall

Welcome back to St. Paul's!

This fall's faith focus is on "tooling up" our faith.  We began with a review of familiar tools that we want to make use of this fall:

• The five-finger prayer list:  the thumb reminds us to pray for those closest to our hearts, the index finger reminds us to pray for our teachers, our tallest finger reminds us to pray for our leaders, the 4th (weakest) finger reminds us to pray for those who are hurting and our little finger reminds us to pray for ourselves.
• Ephesians 5:  "Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love."  What does it look like to "walk in love" at St. Paul's during a school day?
• Ears for listening to each other and listening to God.
• Mouths closed regarding stories that help us keep anger and guilt alive.
• Open palms for serving others.

We will be reviewing these tools during our first full week of chapel before launching our fall Bible stories.  Families are invited to help each other make use of these wonderful tools at home!

Haiti Update

PROJECT HAITI

Congratulations St. Paul's Students!

We collected $14,329.13!*

Thank you to every student, parent, teacher, staff member and friend who supported our efforts.

Because of your creative, generous offerings of time and talents, our sister school will be serving a hot lunch again next year.

Well done good and faithful servants. 

Have a very blessed summer.

See you in August.

Grace to all of you,

Chaplain Nolan

* We are still receiving a few loose donations.  At this point, our total will probably be closer to $14,400. 

 

Cyber Bake Sale April 23, 2012

Here are the items we have for sale.  Let's be clear:  this is the good stuff!   Every item is being donated by teachers, staff and some St. Paul's families.  Everyone is making something they LOVE.    So - take a look!

To purchase, simply be the first to e-mail me at pbauer@speds.org. By return e-mail, I will confirm that you have secured your item.  If it has already sold, I will invite you to take another look! Instead of designating prices, we are asking minimally for a fair, market price - hoping that everyone will be especially generous since all proceeds will go to benefit the recovery of Harveyville, Kansas.

Checks are due Tuesday, April 24, are to be made payable to SPEDS (with a Harveyville notation) and may be turned in to my office. Thank you!

1. One lot of lamingtons, an Austrailian delicacy. Each one is a "cake cube" that has been coated in chocolate icing followed by a second coating of coconut.
2. One lot of lamingtons
3. One loaf of sweet, soft potato bread SOLD!  Thank you.
4. One loaf of sweet, soft potato bread
5. One batch of brownies
6. One bag of Monster cookies (12-14 cookies) SOLD!  Thank you.
7. One bag of Monster cookies
8. One bag of Monster cookies
9. One bag of Monster cookies
10. One bag of Monster cookies
11. Two mini-loaves of poppy-seed bread SOLD!  Thank you.
12. Two mini-loaves of poppy-seed breadSOLD!  Thank you.
13. Brownies
14. Coconut Cream Pie SOLD!  Thank you.
15. One "half" Texas sheet cakeSOLD!  Thank you.
16. One "half" Texas sheet cake
17. Blueberry gateau SOLD!  Thank you.
18. Brownies
19. Chocolate mint brownies SOLD! Thank you.
20. Banana nut bread SOLD!  THank you.
21.  Vanilla cake with marshmellow fondant icingSOLD!  Thank you.
22.  Brownies
23.  Flourless chocolate cake SOLD!  Thank you.
24.  Festive chocolate marshmellow layer bars
25.  Grandma's chocolate cake
26.  2 dozen butterscotch, chocolate chip cookies
27.  2 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies SOLD!  Thank you.
28. Apple PieSOLD!  Thank you.
29.  Chocolate Whoopie Pies  SOLD!  Thank you.
30.  Peanut Butter Balls
31.  Chocolate Chip CookiesSOLD!  Thank you.
32.  Peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies SOLD!  Thank you.
33.  Red hot candy cinnamon rollsSOLD!  Thank you.
34.  Chocolate Scotcheroos (rice krispies with peanut butter and chocolate)
35.  Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

Lent is the church's season for inviting everyone to make changes, to do a little internal house-cleaning with God: air out one's clogged relationships, add a loving accessory to one's heart mantle and spend time offering acts of service to God's world.

Having just completed our Spirit Week pantry drive, we will be focusing on two needs this spring:

1. Harveyville, Kansas: we will be inviting donations for a cyber-bake sale to benefit this small community that lost nearly half of their town from a recent tornado. So we invite people to make commitments to bake something. Then we offer to sell the items and all you do is e-mail what you'd like. From there, you send a check and your student brings it home. So stay tuned. This is a lot of fun!

2. Haiti: We will be raising funds again for our sister school in Haiti. This fund-raiser seems to define us in some ways for it's one that every age group can participate in. The ECC has been taking daily offerings in chapel this year. A few motivated students have already held events to raise funds for Haiti. But soon, the official fund-raising will begin. Individuals and grade-levels will be invited to step up to the plate and do something for Haiti. Our goal is an ambitious one: $12,000 in order that students in the school might have lunch. We have done it before so we can do this again.

The Very Reverend Desmond Tutu's Prayer

"Goodness is stronger than evil.

Love is stronger than hate.

Light is stronger than darkness.

Life is stronger than death.

Victory is ours through Him who loves us."

We've been remembering Bishop Tutu's prayer in some of our divisional chapels this past week, a quite wondrous reminder that our loving, powerful God is bigger than any circumstance. And as we live in a world that knows darkness and light, we are heartened to remember that our God can bring good news to any circumstance. And we have the honor of assisting God in being light-bearers for our world.

How have we brought the world light in this church season that follows the Epiphany?

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  We have continued to pack Backpack snacks for Gordon Parks Elementary School.




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  We have hosted three Intercessory Prayer services on behalf of our much-loved Laurie Robinson.




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  We have collected offerings for the St. Paul's food pantry.




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  We baked cookies and made Valentines for Firehouse 19, our local firefighters that serve the midtown area.




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  Our students continue to create ways to raise funds for our sister school in Haiti.

All is done in the context of studying stories about:

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  Jacob's ladder (God's call to us to help God's world.)




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  Joseph (God's life-saving redemption on the other side of betrayal.)




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  Ruth (God's intention that we get along with all people, even our enemies.)




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  Hannah (We observe the picture of "praying patiently" and re-learn the lesson of waiting in the presence of God.)

So much good news for our everyday lives. Thanks be to God for this school, these incredible children of wonder, the loving commitment of the teachers/staff and the opportunity of offering caring hands to God's creation.