“......and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth."                                                                             Acts 1:8

This was Jesus’ command to his disciples and to us and He also assured all of us when he said “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you".  Missions efforts here at Hales Corners Lutheran are organized into four areas; Local comunities,  Milwaukee, America and the world.  All are important for us to focus on and to plan our witness to.  While they all originate here in Hales Corners, they then reach out to areas that we can have impact in.

Locally , seniors benefit from the ‘Stockbox’ supplemental food program, Our Helping Hands MAT and Men’s groups help with household tasks and rides.  Our Sonshine Ministry is a food and clothing bank serving food and clothing pantries in the inner city and suburban areas.  The Attic Workshop operates as a medical supply ministry to world missions.

In Milwaukee there are many opportunities, the biggest of which is food collected by Sonshine Ministry and distributed to food pantries in the city at Ebenezer Lutheran, Emmaus Lutheran, Hope Lutheran for the African Immigrant Ministry, the S.O.S. Center,  The Lutheran Home for seniors, Habitat for Humanity, our Angel Tree and   Mitten Trees as well as our toy collection for Journey House, the prison ministries, and just recently the schoolbag effort for LUMIN.

Disasters have held center stage in the recent past in America and efforts to help have been direct with our members forming teams to help in the Gulf or collecting appliances for the rebuilding efforts.  We as a community also provided funds to Lutheran World Relief and our synod’s district efforts.  New efforts are planned to help the under resourced native American people.

In the world , Hales Corners Lutheran supports four long term missionaries in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Kenya and Guatemala and several other organizations that help people worldwide.  The efforts in Guatemala also include short term mission teams.  Our fourth team was in Guatemala this past July.  A team is being formed to travel to Guatemala in June of 2008.  Our Kenya mission trip was postponed due to political strife in Kenya.

 In all these outreach opportunities we are striving to reduce hardships of and bring the Word of God and His love to those that are devastated by disaster and poverty.

What is your mission?  How do you reach out to those that don’t know that salvation comes through Jesus.  How do you reach out to those that are less fortunate.  How do you show God’s love through you actions?  Let the Holy Spirit guide you in your search.

Opportunities to serve will be found in each of the tabs under Serving .  Please go to each of the links and let the Spirit lead you to your area of service.

The Serving link also contains mission and ministry opportunities.