Messiah Church - ELCA

Another Monday at Second Harvest Food Bank for SAM. Another Monday of working their buns off. Again. This time the team placed 2000 ingredient labels on bags and repackaged 4800 buns.

Check out the smiles on all of the SAMies as they help prepare outgoing food for some 300 pantries in 16 south central Wisconsin counties.

Want to learn more about Senior Adult Ministry at Second Harvest Food Bank? Keep an eye out for the SAM-SHFB Open House coming this fall.

Rooted in Ghana, Sankofa means, “go back and get it.” This wisdom is symbolized by bird that, even as she flies forward into the future of life to come, she reaches back and carries the seed, or egg, of tradition. The wisdom of the ancestors remains true, no matter what form and future it flies into.

For full service: https://vimeo.com/1197126809

May 31 2026 Sermon This is "May 31 2026 Sermon" by Messiah Church on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

“I feel like a pencil in God’s hand and no matter how imperfect an instrument I might be – God always writes beautifully.” (Mother Teresa of Calcutta.)

For full service click here: https://vimeo.com/1195130159

May 24 2026 Sermon This is "May 24 2026 Sermon" by Messiah Church on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

 The six adventurous souls💜

The SAMies were at it again yesterday. Gosh, did they work their buns off!

Literally.

Like 5,160 hamburger buns worth! We actually repackaged bulk hamburger buns into packs of four buns each. The buns came in large bread flat sleeves of about 30 buns per sleeve. That is too much for one family so we repackaged into packs of four buns each—just in time for Memorial Day cookouts!

Thank you, Claire, for a wonderful treat at recess;)

And God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
Working in ways we cannot see
God will make a way for me. (Don Moen)

For full service click here: https://vimeo.com/1191960848?fl=tl&fe=ec

May 17, 2026 Sermon This is "May 17, 2026 Sermon" by Messiah Church on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Wow! SAM just had a couple of awesome days helping the Synod get ready for the Assembly this weekend in Janesville, Wis. at the Woodman Center. This is the second year that the Synod office has asked us to help staff get ready for their big conference. SAM is blessed to be of assistance to the Synod staff.

We helped prepare folders and all of the contents that go into each folder. Then folders are double checked. We got to visit with Jill, Marie, and Bishop Joy which is always a special time.

The SAM team consisted of Lou Jellings, Barb Nelson, Kathy Mitchell, Val Roman, Claire Gensch, Shawn Gensch, Bonnie Schmidt, Barb Herrod, Walt Herrod, and Keith Schlesinger.

If you have not volunteered with SAM at the Synod office, think about doing so next year. It is a joy to get to interact with the Synod staff!

On this Confirmation Weekend, remember that you have not be abandoned. Take heart, lean in are remember who you so are. For you, my friends, are God's offspring, and are called to serve the poor, care for the sick, feed the hungry, and in all times and in all places, show more love in the world. Because no matter what, we are never doing it alone.

For full Confirmation service: https://vimeo.com/1190773812

May 10 2026 Sermon This is "May 10 2026 Sermon" by Messiah Church on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

What a day yesterday for Senior Adult Ministry (SAM) at Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB). We started by labeling a pallet of vegetable cans that needed green bean labels affixed to the cans.
Some of the SAMies also labeled bags of granola with ingredient labels. There are a lot of ingredients in granola!

Guess what? We finished super early. But that is SAM and how well we work and have fun together. So we helped SHFB staff get ready for the next day. We cut netting bags for apples, put cheese labels on plastic bags, and put ingredient labels on deli tubs.

SAM is fully staffed through December 31, 2026. We will have an open house in September where folks can come and watch SAMies in action and then partake in a tour of the SHFB facilities. You will be amazed at the amount of food moving nonstop through the food bank!

Enjoy the pictures as it shows the SAMies in top form. We were able to schedule all 37 volunteers into a volunteer shift in the second half of 2026. It is very important that as many people as possible witness our outreach ministry to some very special people in need.

A special thank you to Pat Heiden for a yummy and very colorful treat at recess!!