Sundays
Looking forward to our 2024 Craft Show 
Looking for:
All money raised from crafts goes toward paying down our mortgage.
Contact: Annette Kandell quangels2015@gmail.com
For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us…” (Romans 12:4-6, NRSVUE)
2026 is poised to be a very exciting year for youth ministry at SOTP!
Last fall, I introduced you all to Marisa Wielgos, a tremendous volunteer who has done some great work already as she has become the primary leader for our Thursday night youth group gatherings. She also led a fun and meaningful lock-in on January 2nd. Marisa volunteers for us on a very part-time basis because of the demands of her regular full-time job, but the work she has put in thus far has been so good for our youth ministry.
I continue to look for a full-time Youth Ministry Coordinator to come aboard as our primary high school ministry leader, and Marisa will be ready to be a valuable support person for this future leader. And another awesome chapter in our ministry was launched in January.
When I began my call at SOTP in August of 2022, our youth ministry was at a sort of crossroads. The old Youth and Family Ministry Team (in my understanding) had not met regularly for some time. I knew I would need to put a team together, but as I looked at the team that was already serving as our Children and Family Ministry Team, I realized they were the people I would want on my youth team anyway, so I asked them to expand their focus to include Confirmation and Youth Group.
Fast forward to late 2025. Jill and the Children and Family Ministry Team is achieving great success in their role as event planners and played a critical role in our reimagining of our Kids Connect program. I realized the time had come for me revive the Youth and Family Ministry Team, and God put a leader in my path who is poised to join Marisa and me in continuing the success of our Confirmation program, making great strides with our high school youth group, and even helping to launch our young adult ministries.
Dan Wichtendahl (who many of you know through his guitar playing in our Praise Team at the 10:45 service), wanted to branch out and get more connected in the ministries of SOTP. I presented him with the idea of him serving as a chairperson as we revive the Youth and Family Ministry Team, and he accepted! Dan, Marisa, and I met on Ministry Night in January, and couldn’t be more pleased with the prospects of our new venture. Marisa will continue to plan and lead Thursday night youth group gatherings along with the occasional weekend event. Dan will come alongside and work on some fundraising opportunities, assist with Marisa’s planned events, and plan some of his own. They are going to be a great complement for each other! In addition to Dan and Marisa, I have asked Tim Torkelson and Jess Panella to join our team in their capacity as leaders of our Confirmation program.
I can’t wait to see what this group will accomplish together, and I can’t wait to see what we can do when this group serves as a complement to our future Youth Ministry Coordinator. The SOTP Youth Ministry arrow is pointing up, and we all have good reason to feel excited and encouraged by what God is up to among us.
Marisa, Dan, Jess, and Tim, I owe you so many thanks for all the work you have done and all the work you will do! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
email Pastor Ryan at pastorryan@sotpmail.com
Just a reminder that in 2025 everyone will receive offering envelopes by mail quarterly. We realize that some of you in the past have opted out of receiving envelopes so before you throw these envelopes away, we encourage you to remember a couple of things related to your giving to Shepherd of the Prairie.
When the offering counters receive an envelope which has a check enclosed and the distribution is marked on the envelope, this helps our counters tremendously to quickly account for your gift. We just need to open the envelope, make sure the figures agree on the check and envelope, and put each one in separate piles to be totaled.
When a loose check is received there are several more steps to be taken in order to process each donation.
Our counters must look up the name on the check, then fill out an envelope form which is a copy of the back of the offering envelope, with the giver’s name, envelope number, and gift amount. This is then paperclipped to the check and given to the counter that is opening envelopes that day. As you can see a loose check takes our volunteers much more time to process to be sure each gift is given proper credit to donors. So far, we have processed over 180 loose checks from households that opted out of 2024 envelopes.
Please keep the 2025 envelopes to be used on special services and various things that come up during the year like the food pantry and memorials. Of course, regular giving may be done online which is also a wonderful way to easily give to the ministry we share at SOTP.
Thanks again for your ongoing support. We are surely blessed by the generosity of every gift received!
Contact: Ralph Wehnes
As you may know, we are now publishing our Member Directory with members’ photos. 
If you need to update or add your photo, please send your photo to Donna Kelly donna@sotpmail.com, or Ed Cuttle
edschn28@comcast.net and we will update or add it to the directory.
We publish an updated directory every time we receive new members, so 4 times a year. If you would like to receive the updated
directory via email, please let Michelle Rankin know, michelle@sotpmail.com or you can pick one up at the office or at the Registration Desk.
If you have any questions, contact Donna Kelly, donna@sotpmail.com or through the church office.
If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.
For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
As soon as [Jesus and the disciples] left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Summer is kicking off with an Ice Cream Social & Wheels Show.
Join us Friday, June 2nd from 6:30pm-8:30pm for the Ice Cream Social.
Sign up to bring your wheels at www.bit.ly/SOTPwheels23 . They can have 4 or 3 or 2 wheels, maybe someone even has a unicycle!?!?
The best decorated kid’s wheels will win a prize.
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We will also have games, relays, face painting, an ice cream Pinata, and lots of fun!
Let us know you’re coming – register at www.bit.ly/SOTPsocial23
Contact: Jill Gillming jill@sotpmail.com
For more information on how to donate altar flowers, go to www.bit.ly/SOTPflower
Contact: Diane Mollis dem910@outlook.com
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