For the Week of Reformation Day

Through All Saints Observed

October 31st – November 7, 2010

"Blessings pour out over the poor in spirit:

one mourning, one meek, one righteous, one merciful, one pure of heart, one a
peacemaker."
Reprinted from Icon: Visual Images for Every Sunday, copywrite© 2000 Augsburg Fortress.

The Collect for Sunday

Almighty and everlasting God, You knit together Your faithful
people of all times and places into one holy communion, the
mystical body of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Grant us to so follow
Your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that, together
with them, we may come into the unspeakable joys you have
prepared for those who love You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son,
our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one
God, now and forever. Amen.

Matthew 5:1-11 (ESV)

The Beatitudes
1
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he
sat down, his disciples came to him.
2
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
4
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
7
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of
God.
10
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This will be the sermon text for tomorrow. I’ll see you
then! I hope you did not forget to set your clock back…..or
you will be early!!

Around the Parish

Baptisms Scheduled for This Sunday - Tomorrow

Carlos O’Brien will be received as a baptized member of Mount

Olive this Sunday, while his wife, Kristy Cooley-O’Brien will be
baptized as an adult. Together, they bring their children,
daughter, Karly Brianna O’Brien and son, Alex Michael
O’Brien. Do make this nice people feel welcomed into our
community.

This picture was taken Sunday, following the

baptism of Ethan Allen Blackley. Ethan is
the daughter of Scott and Jenny Blackley.

Other Children on their Way to Baptism

• Gabriel and Jenny Bererra are expecting in January.
• Mike and Melissa Meyer are expecting in December.

Adult Inquirers’ Class

Our next membership class will begin tomorrow, Sunday,

November 7th. We had planned to begin in October, but we had
too many conflicts of schedules to get the class going. We will
meet on Sunday evening from 6 pm – 8 pm. We will be covering
the major doctrines of the Bible, and attempting to answer your
most pressing questions. Everyone who takes this class enjoys
the time and the fellowship. They also learn much about the Word
of God they did not know. Please plan to join us. If you know of
someone who would be interested, please help us make contact
with this information.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Our congregation will

celebrate Thanksgiving
together with our friends,
and visitors after the
Second Service next
Sunday….. November 14th.
If you are a visitor to Mount
Olive, we’d like for you to
join us. Bring a favorite dish
to go with the turkey and
trimmings.

Bob and Shelly

Gleickman will be in the
narthex to help you in chosing the items you plan to bring.

Something New….. SCRIPS

Mount Olive can handle your gift card purchases for you….. This
program is actively at work in many congregations. Mike and Sara
Weisenbaugh brought this idea to us from their previous Lutheran
Congregation….

Here is how it works:

If you have a home improvement project you plan to do, and

you are going to purchase materials at Home Depot. You first
purchase a Home Depot Gift card from Mount Olive for the amount
you plan to spend, or for whatever amount you wish. Home
Depot has an agreement to rebate back to Mount Olive 4% of the
purchase amount.
When you place your order at church, you pay the face
amount, and you will receive the face amount of your purchase.
The congregation receives a 4% discount. Since we do not stock
the cards, you will need to place orders and purchase the cards,
and pick them up at church the following week. We will receive
the cards ordered via FEDEX ground.
We need to group orders, so the FEDEX shipping charges are
kept as low as possible.
There are over 1000 companies who want you to do business
with them, and offer the church a discount through SCRIPS if you
purchase the cards through Mount Olive. The amount the
discount percentages vary between 2% and 50% depending on
the dollar amount ordered and the business.
Additionally these cards are no different from normal gift
cards except that the chuch receives proceeds from your
advanced planning and purchasing the cards through Mount Olive.
You can use these to purchases to make gifts to family members,
or friends. Or you can use them as cash whenever you shop!

Here are some of the companies for which Mount Olive can supply
gift cards:
• Walmart
• Best Buy,
• Home Depot,
• Lowes,
• Target,
• Sears,
• CVS/pharmacy,
• Walgreens,
• Subway,
• Starbucks,
• iTunes,
• JC Penny,
• Chili’s Bar and Grill
• Bath and Body Works
• Babies-R-Us,
• Toys-R-Us,
• Barnes & Noble,
• Bed Bath & Beyond,
• Borders,
• Red Lobster,
• Outback Steakhouse,
• Mobil, gas station,
• Shell gas station,
• Exxon,
• HEB,
• Randalls,
• Sam’s Club, etc…

You may use your cards at any store nation wide. Use them
just as you would use your cash or debit card. Some companies
allow you to pay your department store credit cards with them!
The only “catch” - if there is one - is that you need to plan
ahead for some of your purchases, and buy your gift cards with
the expectation of receiving your gift card a few days from the
date your purchase the card.
 To help put this into perspective:
If one household spends $500.00/month at HEB for groceries at a
return of 2% the church could receive $10.00 from that family in
one month. Some, applying some math: $120.00 a year x 30
families is $3600.00 year just for groceries. If you plan holiday
shopping, commuting expenses, etc, the church could receive
proceeds as extra income!

Mike and Sara Weisenbaugh will be in the narthex to

answer questions that you might have, and receive your orders.
This is just in time for the Christmas and Thanksgiving holiday
season.

Prayer Requests:

• Billy Baldwin (Methodist Hospital), continuing chemo,

and other medical treatments)
• Edna DeForke (back home again)
• Bill Ebeling (embolism surgery)
• Helen Friske (cancer treatments)
• Rudy Mitschke (chemo)
• Lester Andrews, at the death of his brother, Jonathan
Andrews
• Ron Almeida, son-in-law of Leigh Johansen, back in the
hospital in Boston for Leukemia treatments.
• Lester Heins, critically ill, brother of Helen Lauber
• Katy Wagoner, 17 year old in Texas Childrens’, flown
by TxChildren Kangaroo flight from Salina, Ks. Pastor
Ledbetter is ministering to this family.
• Kedar Barnes (ECE Staff, husband – complications from
diabetes)
• Danny Sweet (medical issues, but recent reports show
he does not have cancer.)
• Donna Thibodeaux (visitor – St Luke Hospital, rehab -
aneurism).

In order to keep our prayer list manageable, we will reduce

the list every couple of weeks, and ask that you request to add
folks back.

Mount Olive Early Childhood Education Program

Here is a quick look at events in the planning:

November 10th Picture Day
November 17th ECE Chapel and Thanksgiving Feast Day
10:30 am
November 25th-26th ECE closed for Thanksgiving

December 5th ECE will present the Christmas Pagent to the

members of Mount Olive during our worship
service.

We had a great Fall Fun Day on October 28th. All 34 of our children
were present with their costumes. Even the teachers dressed in
special “attire” for this fun day. The children enjoyed the games,
treats, and special activities. Many of our parents came for this
event…..

Confirmation Classes

We have nine students enrolled in confirmation class:

• *Michelle Schatte,
• *Shanyn Schatte,
• Star Patterson,
• Randy Zoch,
• *Sarah Smith,
• *Amber SanAngelo,
• MacKenzie Taylor,
• *Colleen DePaola, and
• Elizabeth Wallis,
* denotes youngsters in their second year.

Each week we provide a snack. If you would like to bring a snack

for a Saturday, speak with Pastor Ledbetter before he prepares for
the class. Our youngsters can invite friends to join them for these
sessions each week.

We are using a new workbook for this year, Applying

Luther’s Catechism. There will also be video series from time to
time to assist in covering key concepts. We will not have class this
Saturday, but the following week, we will be looking at the Ninth
and Tenth Commandments, and the Close of the Commandments.

To prepare for the Saturday class, Mrs. Ledbetter will

cover the Bible material background on the previous Sunday to
prepare for the Saturday discussion. Our youngsters are
expected to be at this Sunday class, as well as
Saturday…..otherwise, they will not know the materials well
enough to handle the discussions, and pass the exams.

Birthdays: Edgar Schulz [8th] + Karen Newton [9th] + Janet

Fleming [10th] + Don Sosebee [11th] + Ted Dombrowa [12th] + Lee
Dabney [12th]

Anniversaries: none this week

Have we forgotten anyone? If we did, it was unintentional.

Please let us know.
This Week at Mount Olive
November 7th – 14th

Sunday: Baptism of Kristy O’Brien, Karly O’Brien, Alex

O’Brien, and Carlos O’Brien is received as a
baptized member. Kristy and Carlos will be taking
Inquirers’ Class
Inquirers’ Class begins this evening
6 to 8 pm
Tuesday: Special Hispanic Women in Need Ministry
Meeting 9:30 am
Wednesday: Bible Study - Hampton Assisted Living
9:30 am
ECE Thanksgiving Luncheon 9–
2 pm
Choir Rehearsal – in the Loft
7:00 pm
Thursday: Special Hispanic Women in Need Ministry
Meeting 9:30 am
Saturday: Junior Confirmation Class this week
9:30 am
Sunday: Church Thanksgiving Dinner after Second
Service

Music Lessons

Leigh Johansen is offering ½ hour music

lessons after church for those interested.
She has a couple of students. The basic fee
is $20 per lesson. She is offering keyboard –
piano, and organ, or guitar.
Call Leigh direct at her cell phone 808-777-8930.

Music for our Services

Leigh is looking for folks who would like to learn how
to sing in the choir, and for those who play musical
instruments. We would like to add additional variety
to our services. Please let her know if you can play an
instrument.

For you, our LWML keeps a supply of Christian greeting cards in

their craft room in the hallway outside the fellowship hall. You
may make purchases of these as you need. The cards are 50
cents, and there is a red can in the craft room for you to leave
your money.

Our Food Drive

The year 2010 is now underway. Our needs are on going. We

have some supplies on hand, but they will soon go to help others.

Pick a Size That’s Just Right for You

Almost everyone knows and loves our daily devotional Portals of
Prayer and its easy-to-read format. But not everyone may know
that it is offered not only in small and large sizes, but also in a new
medium size.

Though the regular edition of Portals of Prayer (4 1/8” x 5 1/2”) is

perfect to take with you wherever you go, the 9-point print may be
a bit too small for some people. And the 8 ½” x 11” large print
edition with 17-point type may be too big. So what size is just
right? The new Portals of Prayer digest-size edition.

The digest-size Portals of Prayer serves as a perfect “in between.”

Similar to Reader’s Digest, the Portals of Prayer digest-size edition
is approximately 5 1/2” x 8” with 12-point font and only costs
$12.00 for a one year, quarterly subscription.

The perfect gift for a loved one during the holiday season—order
yours today by visiting cph.org/magazines or calling 1-800-325-
3040.

The Lutheran Study Bible

We have order forms for our Lutheran Study

Bible in the narthex. The current price for
regular print is $34.95.

Congratulations to Karen Newton

Karen won the drawing in the Fellowship
Hall last Sunday for a Large Print edition of the
Lutheran Study Bible. She also won the
attractive case to complement the nice Bible by
attending Bible Class on Sundays, and
completing a few small slips of paper for the drawing.
 It’s a little over one year since The Lutheran Study Bible first
showed up at Concordia Publishing House. Since then CPH has
sold more copies of The Lutheran Study Bible in only one year,
than the previous study Bible released, sold in four years, over
100,000 copies sold.

The Lutheran Study Bible Edition is without a doubt the finest

study Bible available today in the English language.

SUNDAY NIGHT ON 100.7 FM THE WORD – KKHT!

November 7, 2010

Religion, Liberty, and the Tea Party: Activists

Tell Their Own Story of Waking Up

Coming to you right after Election Day this past

November 2, Engaging Truth welcomes Brent Morehouse, who
has collected and published hundreds of stories of Tea Party
members to create the book: Tea Party – The Awakening.
Besides collecting stories of individual members, Morehouse
analyzes twenty-five striking parallels between the Tea Party of
the 1770s and the Tea Party of 2010.

• What is the Tea Party?

• Is the Tea Party an actual grass roots movement?
• Is there a religious or moral dimension to the Tea Party?
• What part has Christianity played in the formation of our
country, and what role does it play now?
• What does the future hold for the Tea Party?

Join Diane Lamberson and her guests, Brent Morehouse and Rev.
Steven Cholak, as we talk about the two things that people are
reluctant to discuss with each other – Religion and Politics! The
first two callers will get a FREE COPY of Tea Party – The
Awakening.

Call us at 1.800.808.5548 with your comments during the

show!

Join us November 7 from 7:30-8:30 p.m. CST on KKHT

100.7FM. Or stream the program live at www.kkht.com.

For a copy of this program, please call 713.828.8347

Sunday Night Lineup:

 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The Lutheran Hour

With Pastor Ken Klaus

7:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Dying to Live
With Pastor Scott Murray

7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Engaging Truth

With Pastor Dave

Schultz
EVANGELICAL LIFE MINISTRIES, INC. is a non-profit 501(c)3 media outreach team of LCMS members from Houston. All contributions
to this ministry will be humbly accepted and appreciated. Please send to: ELM, P.O. Box 550155, Houston, Texas 77255-0155. For
more information about Engaging Truth, please call Pastor David Schultz at 713.828.8347.

News From our Synod – LCMS

Restructuring begins, 12 positions eliminated

Twelve positions at the LCMS International Center in St. Louis

will be eliminated Dec. 1, as the restructuring mandated by this
summer's Synod convention begins. The 12 positions are being
phased out as the Office of the President begins taking action, as
mandated in Resolution 8-08A. The resolution was designed to
streamline the Synod's national structure to prevent redundancy
among departments and to improve stewardship of human and
fiscal resources, especially as unrestricted funds to the church
body continue to fall and there are fewer dollars to support its
ministries.
Those whose positions are being eliminated were informed
individually Oct. 29 by representatives of the Synod's Department
of Human Resources. Other International Center staff were
notified in an Oct. 29 e-mail from Synod President Rev. Matthew C.
Harrison.

"Since the convention," Harrison wrote, "my staff and I have

been working thoughtfully and prayerfully with Synod leadership
to develop a plan for reorganization that fulfills the requirements
of Resolution 8-08A and addresses the associated financial
concerns our Synod must attend to."
 Harrison indicated that positions were eliminated in the areas
of Black Ministry (which lost one), District and Congregational
Services (three), Ministerial Growth and Support (three), LCMS
World Mission (four), and the International Center's Chaplaincy
Services (one). Despite the change in the Chaplain's Office, the
president's staff said it intends to continue chaplaincy ministry at
the headquarters building, including daily worship in the
International Center chapel.

In keeping with LCMS Human Resources policy, the names of

the affected employees are not being shared publicly. Harrison
asked for "prayers as our colleagues absorb this news. At this
time, care for our brothers and sisters in Christ is our primary
concern. Please know that we will provide transitional services
and benefits to eligible employees."

The president said his team would continue its work on

implementing Res. 8-08A, "which may mean additional
realignment and position changes," and he asked all employees to
"join me in praying for God's wisdom and guidance to bless all of
us during these challenging times. "I pray that each of us will find
security in the comfort and assurance that only He can give that,
as we move forward, God will indeed do as He promises."

During the week of Nov. 8, Harrison will host four hourlong

meetings for International Center employees to share his
"thoughts regarding the implementation of the convention-
mandated reorganization" and to give employees an opportunity
to ask questions and voice concerns.

In addition, an internal website has been set up that offers

information on the reorganization and invites employees to submit
questions, comments, and concerns.

Posted Nov. 5, 2010

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Sermons Each Week

You may listen to any missed sermons by going to our website,

www.mountolivehouston.org. You may download to your ipad, or
share a particular one via email by attaching a link.

World Wide Web…..

Church FaceBook
Please notice that we have established a couple of web pages of
interest to our members. You can connect with members of our
congregation on www.facebook.com/ourmembers

Pastor’s FaceBook
Please notice, that pastor has a personal facebook account. He
signs in with randy@ledbetter.net. Please feel free to connect
with him there. Keep in mind, the information on line is not too
private!

LinkedIn
This is another way to connect with Pastor, and at the same time
connect with other church members. Sign in with your email
address at LinkedIN.com.

If you see corrections that we need to make, please contact us

immediately.