Tuesday, February 24
Fat Tuesday Party at St. Mark’s Lutheran sponsored by the youth group. We will have live music, games and good food. Please bring a topping to put on pancakes or ice cream or both.
Background on this festival: Mardi Gras, literally "Fat Tuesday," has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the "last hurrah" before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That's why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of streetsweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards home. Mardi Gras literally means "Fat Tuesday" in French. The name comes from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival. The day is also known as Shrove Tuesday (from "to shrive," or hear confessions), Pancake Tuesday and fetter Dienstag. The custom of making pancakes comes from the need to use up fat, eggs and dairy before the fasting and abstinence of Lent begins.

Please submit pictures taken by yourself or family members that remind you of or represent peace for you to be used by the Sunday School for a powerpoint in their spring program. Please e-mail pictures to hopes@sio.midco.net. If you have any questions please ask Kjerstin Smith, Michael Kruse or Pastor Lori Hope.

In May we are holding our annual "Offering of Letters".
• A short letter in your own handwriting takes only a couple minutes.
• These letters will be the Love Offering at the 2009 Synod Assembly. Why? Because letters to Congress make a difference in what happens in this world.
• Why is it called an "Offering"? As U.S. Christians, we are offering some of our influence to help save lives and reduce hunger & suffering.
• What are we asking Congress for?  This year we are not asking for funds, but rather for better use of the funds we have and to raise the priority for the kind of help that saves lives and reduces hunger & poverty. For more info, www.bread.org
• Whom to write? Choose any of our members of Congress. If you don't have a preference, you might choose Rep. Herseth Sandlin, because a bill, H.R.2139, was just introduced in the House and we can ask her to co-sponsor it.
For a summary of HR2139, the bill in Congress:
        http://www.offeringofletters.org/component/content/article/87.html
•  For letter-writing tips and examples:
        http://www.offeringofletters.org/act/write.html
• What to do with the letters? Bring them to church by May 24.
• Stamps. Letters to Rep. Herseth Sandlin do not need stamps, because they will be hand delivered to her or her staff.  For the Senators we will put stamps on them, if they are not stamped.
• This opportunity is one way we can help to fulfill our Confirmation promise "to strive for justice and peace in all the world".

Sunday, March 1st at 8:15 and 10:45 a.m. services St, Mark's Lutheran Church Choir will present "Prayers for the Nation" a worship service built around prayers for peace, unity, justice, healing, and hope.