Squiggles Pillows

Have you met Squiggles? 

He's a caterpillar that hangs out with us in the Preschool and Kindergarten GodZone classes. Squiggles can be found on every page of the Spark Story Bible and has many adventures during our large group time.

At the end of every school year, Squiggles has a party to celebrate all of the wonderful stories we have read during the year. The party is capped off with a special gift from Squiggles. This year, the Shepherd Quilters, several wonderful volunteers, and GodZone program coordinator, Pam Tschida, teamed up to create a wonderful memory for our youngest GodZone students.

Work began in October on “Squiggles Pillows” with a morning of sewing and stuffing pillows to be given to students at the end of the school year.

What a wonderful partnership! Working together, they sewed and stuffed over 250 pillows! The kids were so excited to receive their pillow from Squiggles and couldn’t wait to show mom and dad. 

Our two quilting groups are always looking for new friends to cut, sew, and stitch! All skill levels are welcome and the finished pieces are all donated to charities such as Target House, LSS, or Union Gospel Mission. The Shepherd Quilters meet Mondays, 9-2 and the Golden Stitchers meet 1st, 3rd, and 5th Thursdays, 9-Noon.

Below are photos of the quilters, the finished products, and their satisfied customers!

The Final Shepherd’s Sale

 

Let’s Make it the Best Sale Ever! 

A Huge Impact

For 21 years, garage sales at Shepherd of the Valley have done a tremendous amount of good in our community. Each year, the Sale is an opportunity for our church to open its doors to the community to be a place of welcome, hospitality, and fellowship. Our volunteers especially look forward to coming together as one big church family. The neighbors we serve walk away with arms full of great finds at low prices. Each year we meet people able to buy furniture, clothing and other items for their homes that they otherwise can’t afford. When it’s all over, 100% of the proceeds and any unsold items go to local organizations that help children in need including District 196, Dakota Woodlands, 360 Communities, Lutheran Social Services, Kids ‘n Kinship and more. Since 2010 alone, sales have raised over $110,000!

All Good Things…

This year will be the final Shepherd’s Sale and we need your help to make the 2015 the Best Sale Ever. Each year, the Sale is increasingly harder to organize and execute well:

• The Sale demands an immense amount of volunteers to work long hours over a two week period.
• Summer is a difficult time to recruit volunteers and collect donations, but we don’t have space in the building at other times of the year.
• Many hours and strenuous tasks are required to set up, go through donations, operate the sale, and clean up. 
• Costs for many of our supplies have increased. Renting tables alone costs $4,000. 
• Each year, we borrow a large amount of supplies and materials from community partners like Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. 
• It is difficult and costly to dispose of unsold or unwanted goods, impacting our total fundraising proceeds. 
• The Sale takes up space in the entire church and puts strain on ongoing ministries. For example, it shuts down Our Daily Bread Food Shelf for over a week during summer – a period of increased need at food shelves. 

How Can We Better Serve Our Community?

Our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, calls us to reach out and become in tune with the needs of our community. As great as the Sale has been, we want to explore how else to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world. Our goal is to develop opportunities to support our community and raise funds for local organizations throughout the year that are not reliant on large amounts of labor, volunteers, space, and resources to be successful. We can better serve our neighbors by working smarter, not harder. If you want to be part of a team that plans new ways to serve the community, contact Lisa Hegerman at 952-985-7329 or lisa.hegerman@sotv.org. Once the sale is over, we will be focusing on fun ideas for the summer of 2016.

 Let’s Make 2015 The Best Sale Ever!

• For starters, we MUST have 70 volunteers each signed up at two critical shifts. Tuesday morning, June 16 (9:00 am – Noon) and Friday afternoon, June 26 (Noon – 4:30 pm).
• Once we have enough volunteers for these two shifts, we will need volunteers to commit to all other shifts from June 15 – June 26. See all shifts
• We will have a more focused list of accepted donation items this year, based on what has sold in the past. Disposing of unsold items can be costly. 
• Shop and tell your friends to come out and shop too!
• You can sign up to volunteer online using SignUpGenius or download and print our flyer and return to the church office.
• Full details and registration at www.sotv.org/sale

Urgent and Important

By Chris Smith, Senior Pastor

Years ago, management guru Steven Covey divided the tasks of life and work into two categories, urgent and important. Things can be urgent but not important (la ringing telephone that turns out to be a sales call) and important but not urgent (like saving for retirement in your 30s). Covey urged readers to pay their closest attention to what is both urgent and important. Where the urgent and the important intersect, that’s the spot that matters most. Our Capital Campaign is about what matters most.

It’s urgent AND important: 

1. Debt Elimination – SOTV still has debt from building programs from decades ago. Every dollar spent on interest (it’s a lot!) is a dollar not going to SOTV’s mission and ministry. Yes, we all benefit from our bricks and mortar, but it’s time to retire debt and move on to the important and urgent work of Christ here and around the globe. 
2. Renew and Enhance Facilities – There are portions of SOTV’s facility that need help – especially the parts constructed in the 80s. These parts of the building are simply worn out from decades of wonderful use. Heating and air conditioning, water leakage, and a host of others issues have become urgent and important. 
3. Expand Outreach Support – Giving and serving for the sake of others is what the mission of Jesus is all about. SOTV has mission partners who do amazing things with the dollars we give them. More than that, they can help engage us in meaningful relationships and connections with those they serve. It’s important and urgent to direct a growing portion of SOTV gifts to serve more and more. 

Let’s join together to do what matters most: prepare Shepherd of the Valley for generations to come. Please make time before the end of May to sit down with a campaign visitor to learn more, ask questions, and pray together. Visits are the best way to receive the full information about the campaign.

Visits are between 30-40 minutes and can be in a private space at church or in the privacy of your home. You do not have to make a pledge during your visit. Here are some other answers to frequently asked questions. 

Together, We Can Do More!