A presentation on our planned Sanctuary design and related finances was given on February 24th during the worship services. New drawings are available at the church. If you have questions or would like to learn more, please contact Phil Ludvigsen.

The next Hillsborough Township meeting where the designs will be presented is April 2nd. Preliminary loan applications are being prepared also.

The Call Committee continues to work closely with Bishop Riley's staff, specifically Rev. Scott C. Schantzenbach, to fill our pastoral opening. The pastoral call process is long and involved. To date we have met with several candidates, but none has fully fit the needs of Faith Lutheran or Faith Lutheran their needs. We are prayerful and hopeful that our search will conclude in the not too distant future, but for now, our committee remains committed to the process and to finding the best possible spiritual leader for our congregation.

Thank you to everyone who has baked or bought something at our Bake Sales. So far, we have raised around $478 for our Heifer Project, not including the final Bake Sale that was hosted by the 5th and 6th graders on March 16th. Any loose change the children would like to donate can be brought in and put in the Heifer Jar at any of the openings. We will make a final count of all money and vote on which animals to buy in May.

VBS and Sunday School registration forms will be sent out in May. Please register early so we can order supplies and recruit enough staff. Please consider helping run VBS. We had a big increase in children that attended last year, but a decrease in help.

A BIG THANK YOU to all our Sunday School teachers and aides who give their time to serve with a heart like Jesus. Again we will be looking for new teachers to fill vacancies. Please speak to Chris Ponsini or Jodi Devchand if you are interested.

And very special thanks go to…

• Marlene Boon and Pinky Nielsen for making the Bible Bars with the 4th grade class.
• Diane Bianchini, Faith Ludvigsen and Brenda Overcash for sewing the First Holy Communion Banners.
• Alicia Chen for planning and running the Easter Egg Hunt.

Many of us pour so much into our workdays. We know how competitive the world is today, and we try to squeeze as much into each day as we can. Modern technology has made it so easy for us to "work around the clock". Email can be accessed from home, laptops connect at all "cyber cafes" and if we don't want to take our laptops to dinner, we can rely on our trusty Blackberries, hooked to our hips like six-shooters, ready to fire off an email at the drop of a hat.

So where does all this lead us? Why do we get up each day and face the world and all its complications? Certainly we want to contribute while we can, but is what we're doing really the way to write our legacy? Our families need the basics to sustain a healthy lifestyle, but are we going overboard? Did we lose sight of who it is we're really supposed to be working for?

My reminder came not too long ago when I read a bumper sticker that said, "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter". What a perspective to keep as we race through our days! We fulfill our responsibilities, try to do a little extra to help the business, maybe catch something a coworker missed to prevent a mess; but in the end, isn't true that as Christians, we all have the same Boss that we should be pouring our efforts into? Isn't it Jesus that looks to us each day to do His will first? He's not concerned with our annual reviews or what the stock market has to say about our performance, nor does he grade us on our SAT scores or give our homes a white glove test. Nope, the Lord asks us to help the needy, offer an encouraging word to the despondent soul going through a tough time, provide a listening ear to the person we just have no patience with and pray for the road raged driver that just cut us off.

When we remember that our first responsibility is to the Lord, we realize that our workweek becomes a 24 x 7 job, fueled by the Holy Spirit. When we come home exhausted from the world around us and think we're done for the day, it's at that moment when we're faced with an upset child, a troubled friend or a stranger in need, and we hear Jesus say, "Be patient, I'll give you strength, don't punch out just yet, this one's for Me, it's time to go to work."

Enjoy the blessings of Spring,

Dom Perfetti for the Evangelism Committee