Living Faith Weekly News (Week of November 9, 2025)

Harvest Worship Service on November 9

On Sunday, November 9th, Living Faith partnered with the Presbyterian United Church of Christ for a Harvest worship and meal sponsored by the Presbyterian Women. Thank you to Pastor Jan and Pastor Paige for presiding over worship.

During the service, Living Faith and PUCC servicemen and women were recognized. Also, PUCC members Steve Beveridge and Clayton Hodgson leave on Friday for a mission trip to the southern border and Pastor Jan led the congregation in a time of prayer for them. Safe travels, Steve and Clayton!

The praise band, Grace Notes, led the congregation in song! Thank you to those singers and instrumentalists! Thank you also to Mark Catton for reading scripture, Tim Kass and the Prichard family for ushering, and Amy Beveridge for livestreaming and running the soundboard and PowerPoints.

The Harvest Meal took place in the Fellowship Hall and the filled-up room enjoyed a turkey dinner with all the trimmings! Thank you to Val Grant for catering the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and dinner rolls! Living Faith and PUCC members contributed delicious side dishes and salads. Thank you to all who brought items to complete the meal! The PUCC conducts a pie fundraiser during the holiday seasons and diners got to enjoy a preview of what is being offered! If you wish to order a pie for Thanksgiving or Christmas, please check out the PUCC table in the narthex for order forms!

Sunday, November 16th

Sunday is Camp Sunday at Living Faith. We will be welcoming Dalton Bunnell, Program Manager at the camp. Dalton will give a temple talk and deliver the children's message. Welcome to worship at Living Faith, Dalton!

Pastor Paige will preside over our 11:00 service in the sanctuary of the PUCC at 858 7th Ave. SE. All are welcome! Gail Kass will accompany us on the piano, Tim Kass will usher and greet you at the door, Travis Balt will read scripture and Sue Stream will assist with Holy Communion.

All are welcome to arrive early to church for our 9:30 AM Bible Study in Room 105! Come to take a deeper dive into a scripture passage you will hear during worship! Following the study, enjoy a cup of coffee and fellowship in the Fellowship Hall prior to worship!

Wednesday, November 12th

Confirmation classes will be held on Wednesday night at 7:00 in the Fellowship Hall of the PUCC.

Saturday, November 15th

Lutheran Men in Mission will be meeting on Saturday, November 15th at 10:00 at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Storm Lake. Please contact Mark Juhl at 712-540-1391 if you have questions or would like more information!

Sunday, November 16th

Living Faith will be hosting the Winds of Hope Conference meeting at 2:00 on Sunday afternoon in the Fellowship Hall of the PUCC. The Western Iowa Synod is sub-divided into conferences and Living Faith is a member of the Winds of Hope Conference.

Refreshments will be served at this meeting and help is needed with providing refreshments and serving them. We will need 1 meat, cheese and cracker tray. We will also need 1 - 2 people to put out the refreshments and serve them during the afternoon. Please let Kay know by Friday if you would be able to help with this in any way! Thank you!

Sunday, November 16th

Bring Me All Your Dreams is a concert put on by Salus, a group of northwest Iowa singers. Living Faith's Mike and Kjersten Rathke and Travis Balt are members of this group! Please note that there are 2 times and locations for attending this concert on Sunday!

Saturday, November 22nd

Living Faith will be helping with Rejoice!'s Community Thanksgiving meal by turkey pulling! There is one slot left open on the sign up sheet if you are interested in helping out from 1 - 5 PM that day. The sign up sheet is located on the Living Faith table in the narthex of the PUCC.

Sunday, November 23rd

Pastor David Halaas' retirement open house will be held on November 23 from 12:00 - 2:00 at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Sioux City. There will be a short program at 12:30. Pastor Paige will arrange our worship service that day so that she and members who wish to attend can arrive by the 12:30 program time. There is a sign up sheet on the Living Faith table in the narthex if you wish to carpool or share a ride! If you cannot attend, you can send a card of best wishes to Pastor Halaas at his home address: 4015 Perry Way; Sioux City, IA 51104.

Our first Wednesday Advent meal and worship will be Wednesday, December 3rd. The meal will be served at 6:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall and the worship featuring Holden Evening Prayer will start at 7:00 PM. There is a sign up sheet on the Living Faith table in the narthex for volunteers to supply items for the walking taco supper.

Saturday, December 6th

Living Faith will be going on the Tour of Steeples on Saturday, December 6th. See the sign up sheet in the narthex to indicate if you plan to attend and if you can drive or would like to share a ride!

We are still needing individuals who would like to be in a Christmas Choir on December 21 in order to make this offering happen! Please let Kay know if you would like to sing in the choir!

Dear Living Faith,

Your Church Council has been discussing how best to serve our neighbors in need during this stressful time for families. Over the past two years, Living Faith has been sending monthly benevolence monies to two local entities who help with area food insecurity: The Table food pantry at Rejoice! Church and the Le Mars Backpack program. $100 per month is sent to The Table and $75 per month goes to the backpack program. The Council has made the decision to increase our benevolence giving to $200 per month per entity for the months of November and December and to re-evaluate this giving at our Council meeting in January.

Additionally Living Faith has been in contact with the following::

1. The Le Mars Ministerial Association has been discussing our community's needs and they are encouraging area churches to donate to The Table either with goods or monetary donations to increase the amount of cereal, creamed soups, eggs and meat that can be given out.

2. Last year, Living Faith donated cereal to the Le Mars Backpack program for their Christmas distribution because those costs have risen too high for the program's regular budget. This year, Schuster's and the Le Mars Area YMCA are doing a cereal drive for the Christmas distribution.

   
   

   Kari Kopperud reports that the Le Mars Backpack program is going to discontinue giving out a hot food item each week to students because the unit cost on those has become too high for their budget to handle. The Church Council would like to contribute to the Backpack program and make it possible for the Christmas distribution to have a hot meal item in it for the children. (With our $200 benevolence donation, we would need an additional $256 for the organizers to make that purchase.)

In considering the above information, the Church Council will be taking monetary donations for both the Le Mars Backpack program and The Table from now until Sunday, December 7th. There will be a special basket at the entrance to the sanctuary for you to place your donations. Checks can be made out to Living Faith. On December 7th, donations will be totaled and split equally between The Table and the Backpack program. Sandy Heeren will then deliver our donation to these charities.

Thank you for your generosity and your prayers on behalf of all in our community who are working to make sure everyone is fed.

Blessings to you all,

Living Faith's Church Council

Thank you to all who weighed in on a preferred time for our Christmas Eve service. In a near unanimous polling, the time for our service will be 3:00 PM on December 24!

Please pray for:

Kay Allen

Travis Balt and the MOC-FV faculty, students and families who have been dealing with great loss

Rick Stream

Pastor Trish Underberg

The Raveling family

Kristy Pecks

Kathryn Albert

Marie Clinton

Jake and Ashley Ruhrer and fmaily

The Cherry Family - Eugene Cherry is Bob Gibson's best friend and fraternity brother. His wife, Cindy, passes away overnight from cancer and additional complications. They have two grown children and 4 grandchildren.

Rod Hallberg

Marilynn

Ali

Pastor Paige

Living Faith

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