2015-09-14



Today we celebrate and commission our teachers from the Good Shepherd Children’s Center, and all teachers who are with us. God Bless you and the children whose lives you will touch.

KNOW

Ushers Needed: Good Shepherd is in need of Ushers. The Ushers we have now are Faithful members who help keep our Sunday worship comfortable and organized. They are a welcoming face that greets you as you enter our Sanctuary every Lord’s Day. Please consider helping in this capacity as we Know, Grow, and Go …. Sharing ourselves and God’s Love for all. If you are interested in knowing more about what an Usher does, please see *protected email*.

Counters Needed! We are in need of some Counters on Sunday mornings. It is an easy 45 min – 1 hour once a month or once every 5 weeks after the 10:30 service. If you want more information, please see *protected email*! Thank You!

GROW

Youth Ministry News!: The youth group will begin meeting again starting September 20th from 12:30-2:30 pm. Youth and Parents are invited for ice cream to talk about the upcoming year. The youth group would like to thank the congregation for all of their continued support. The kids have raised about $1700 for the National Youth Gathering next year. The youth group will continue to be fundraising to help meet their goal. It will cost about $10,000 to send all 8 children for free. The next fundraiser will be a car wash on September 27th from 8 am to 1 pm. If you have any questions please feel free to *protected email*.

New Sunday School Year: Confirmation Program (7th & 8th Grades) will start on September 20th. ALL parents and students need to be there on the 20th. You can sign your children up for the new Sunday School Year at gs4nj.org/sundayschool.

Good Shepherd Choir: If you are interested in joining the choir, or just want more information about choir, please contact *protected email*. Choir typically meets two times a month after the 10:30 service. There will be a “new” (and old) member orientation on Sunday, September 20th following the 10:30 service. Join us as we make a joyful noise!

Growth Groups Launch: Beginning in September we will be launching new Growth Groups. These groups are focused on helping us live out the second part of Good Shepherd’s vision to GROW as followers of Jesus. We currently have a plan to launch four separate groups and will possibly be adding a few more in the next few weeks. There will be two separate men’s groups that will meet at 8 AM on Saturday mornings and 7 PM on Wednesday nights. There will be one women’s group at 7 PM on Wednesday nights. Another group for couples will gather on Friday nights at 7 PM.

The gatherings will be 1.5 – 2 hours each week for 6-10 weeks. Each session will consist of a time of teaching and a time of discussion. It’s a great way to journey together with others in discovering what it means to be a follower of Jesus and to find encouragement for the journey. Please email the *protected email*e if you are interested.

New Member Orientation: Join us for a new member orientation on Saturday, November 21st from 8am-11:30am. During the new member orientation we will look at what we believe, what we value, and what it means to be a member of Good Shepherd. This is for everyone who desires to learn more about the church, is interested in becoming a member, or desires to review the basics of our faith. After the orientation is over, you will have the opportunity to sign a new member covenant and then be received as a New Member.

Baptism Orientation: November 21st at 11:30 AM. This orientation is for any parents who are interested in having their child baptized at Good Shepherd. The orientation will last approximately one hour. It will be led by Pastor Phil. We will look at what we as Lutherans believe and teach about baptism. We will also go through the commitments which parents make before the Lord on the day their child’s baptized. If parents are not members of Good Shepherd they should make arrangements to attend the New Member Orientation prior to the Baptism Orientation.

News from Good Shepherd Children’s Center:

School has started here at Good Shepherd Children’s Center. The halls are filled with many new faces. It is nice to see the school so active again. September 1st marked the first day of school as we started much earlier than normal this year. As the children settle down into their new routines and classrooms, we have a lot of fun stuff taking place in the upcoming months. October will bring our first round of report cards and parent teacher conferences. We will have our annual “Fall Festival Parade” on October 29th & 30th. The kids love the Fall Festival Parade, they get to come dressed up as their favorite character and then it’s off to classroom parties. November 24th & 25th we will celebrate Thanksgiving. The kids will dress as Pilgrims or Indians in costumes that they created and we sing songs around our big Tee Pee. After they are done singing, they have Fall themed snacks and juice to help mark the holiday. December is also a big month for us here at GSCC, on Saturday, December 5th we will hold our annual Christmas Show. Several shows are performed throughout the morning and all are welcome to come. It is our way to help kick start the Holiday Season, and it has been a wonderful holiday tradition for GSCC for many years.

A few changes have taken place at the school this year. We unfortunately were not able to have a Kindergarten this year, Old Bridge public schools finally after many years of discussion opened up Full Day Kindergarten and it affected our enrollment. My attitude toward that is that sometimes change is good. We are running on 4 wonderful classrooms: Full Time Pre K & Part time Pre K, Full Time Preschool & Part Time Preschool. We realize now that Pre K will be even more important than ever for parents getting them ready for full day Kindergarten for the following Fall, and we are up for the challenge.

One more thing I would like to mention is our new Media Room. We put it together for the children as part of our academic program. They will actually have scheduled times where classes can go in and use the Library, play educational games on the computer, and sit and do ABC Mouse learning games with their teacher. They will enjoy the experience of reading books and actually checking them out, being responsible for them and returning them by a certain date. Technology is wonderful, but there is nothing like going to a good old fashioned Library.

If you or anyone you may know would like more information about the school, please feel free to go to our website, find us on Facebook and like our page or call me at the office at 732-679-8887

Lorraine Campo, Director

Celebrating 11 years here at GSCC

**Item Needed: The Child Care Center is in need of a refrigerator/freezer. If you have one to donate, please let Lorraine Campo know. (732-679-8887)

GO

Participate in a mission trip to Haiti: We will be sponsoring two separate mission trips to Haiti in 2016. One trip will be a medical trip (January 2016) and the other trip will be a construction trip (March 2016). An application for the March construction trip is available online now. You can find more about these trips at our Haiti website.

It’s the Good Shepherd Back to School Drive! to benefit local kids and their families through the Old Bridge Food Pantry. We are looking for Back to School Supplies like notebooks, folders, binders, composition books, pens, pencils, pencil cases, lined paper, erasers, scissors, crayons, colored pencils, glue sticks, erasers, tissue packs, chap sticks, etc.

On Tuesday, August 25, we delivered EIGHT BOXES and three backpacks full of school supplies to the Old Bridge Food Bank, for them to distribute to needy families with school-age children. We wanted to help get some school supplies out to the kids before school starts. The drive will continue through September 20, so please, keep bringing in those school supplies and food. Thank you.

Bowling Begins Again: Good Shepherd has a Monday night bowling league and we are in need of a few more bowlers. NO experience necessary. It is a night of fun and fellowship. You don’t have to be a great bowler, just like to have fun. We meet Monday nights at Strathmore Lanes in Aberdeen at 8:30 pm. Please contact *protected email* if you are interested, or if you would like more information.

Cards for College Students. Many of Good Shepherd’s teenagers are headed back to college soon. We would like to send them cards through the school year to remind them that God is always with them. If you are a member of Good Shepherd and have a son, daughter or grandchild who is headed to college this September, please e-mail *protected email* your student’s address at school so we can let them know we are thinking of them. Thank you.

Harvest Fest 2015: Please join us on Sunday, October 25th for our Harvest Fest. There will be games and crafts for the kids, and we will end the day with our Trunk or Treat. If you would like to be a part of the trunk or treat, and plan on attending, please email *protected email* in the church office.

New Church Member Directory is in the works. It has been a few years since Good Shepherd put out a printed directory of its members and their contact information. Volunteers will be at a table in the Narthex with your contact information. Please stop by and check to be sure the information we have is accurate (names, address, phone numbers, email addresses, etc) and to ask what information you would like included in the directory. We want the new directory to have photos of everyone too. There are several ways to do this. If you haven’t already, you can post your photo to the Realm, or email it to Marie, or drop off a photo to be scanned and uploaded. If you are a member and you have your own business, please let us know if you would be interested in putting an ad in the directory. We will contact you (probably in September or October) to talk about the size and cost of an ad. Member-owned company ads will help defray the cost of printing the directory once it’s ready. If you have any questions, please see *protected email* or *protected email*. Thank you.

Support Good Shepherd with Back to School Shopping: Do you do any of your back to school shopping at Amazon? If you do, make sure to do it at smile.amazon.com. It is the same Amazon you would normally shop, except a portion of your purchase will be contributed to Good Shepherd or the charity of your choice.

Blood Drive: Our next Blood Drive will be on Sunday, January 17, 2016. More information to follow.

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