Small Group Chatter

There’s right, and there’s wrong. You get to do one or the other. You do one and you’re living. You do the other, and you may be walking around, but you’re as dead as a beaver hat.

John Wayne

Tuesday was Earth Day! I was driving home and heard the disk jockey share how he was going to celebrate. He chose to live another day on earth. I thought wait a minute, how does that celebrate earth day? A day later, I get it (sometimes I’m a slow thinker). Our life is a gift! We are a gift to each other! And we are a gift to the earth (when we take care of it)! Sometimes we don’t feel like a gift or that anyone cares. Stellar Kart sings an awesome song “Me and Jesus”. Someone loves you even when you don’t think so, don’t you know, you got me and Jesus. By your side, through the fight, you will never be alone. Don’t you know, you got me and Jesus. God’s greatest gift is his son Jesus, who says “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 As for me, I choose life!

May’s Mission of the Month is our Youth on Fire who ambitiously are planning two mission trips this summer: one to Sisseton, South Dakota and one to Mexico. For 20 youth and 4 adults to attend both trips, total cost is $9870. Through deposits and fundraisers, the youth have worked very hard to raise $5200 to date. $2670 is still needed. Realizing the important impact mission trips have on the faith of our kids, we would like to fully support them as a church in their endeavor. Please consider supporting our youths’ mission trips this month either through the mission of the month or by participating in Rent A Kid on May 4th to get some odd jobs done around the house. Thanks for supporting the future of the church.

Zechariah’s DiscipleshipTeam will be serving and greeting during May! You are graciously being greeted by: Bruce & Brenda Berger, Ed & Bev Durst, Tim & Anita Hakin, Ken & Wendy Hoyne, Jeff & Gwen Jares, Donn & Pat Johnson, Paul & Margaret Johnson, John & Kelly Kemp, Jim & Kathy Larson, Gary & Nita Mehlbrech, Jeff Peek, and Quentin & Barb Weidner. Thank you for sharing and serving!

Zechariah was a Jewish priest, a minister of God who worked at the temple managing its upkeep, teaching the people the scriptures, and directing the worship services. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were both holy and obedient; they were well along in years and had stopped even asking for children. While burning incense one day, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah to deliver God’s message that Elizabeth would have a son, whom we would come to know as John the Baptist. Responding in disbelief, Zechariah was unable to speak until it became a reality.

The true way is Life!

In Christ, Jorjann

Senior Pictures Needed ASAP

Southern Hills will be recognizing its

graduating seniors on Sunday, May 18th!

There is still time to get pictures in for your graduating senior so that we may use them in a special slide show that day! Contact the church office for more details.

(605) 371-2065

Rummage Sale

It’s spring and that means it’s time to clean your closets! Our church will be hosting our 1st all-church Rummage Sale on Sat., May 31st from 8AM-3PM. It’s free for you to participate...all you need to do is bring your stuff. Drop off time is Friday, May 30th, from 5-7 PM. Please price your merchandise before bringing it.

All proceeds from the Rummage Sale will go to support “SHUMC’s” Outreach Missions.

The Outreach Team Thanks You!

Women of the Bible

A new Ladies’ Bible Study has just begun on Monday evenings at 7:00 PM at the church. Their study is on “Women of the Bible”. All women are welcome!

April Mission of the Month

Our Mission of the Month for April is the Furniture Mission. This local agency provides nearly 10,000 pieces of furniture to over 1600 households each year.

Do you have gently used furniture that you would like to donate? The Furniture Mission will be parking a truck in the church parking lot on the weekend of April 26 & 27th. You can bring your furniture anytime after 1:30 on Saturday, or just drop it off on Sunday when you come for church.

If you have larger donations and you’d like to arrange for the Furniture Mission to pick it up from your house, you may contact them directly at 977-6800.

They will accept mattresses, box springs, bedding & frames, couches, chairs, tables, pack-n-plays, lamps, etc. However, they are unable to accept appliances.

Teacher Appreciaton Barbecue

Please join us on Sunday, May 4th, following second service for a church barbecue in honor of those who served as teachers this year for our children, youth, and adult Sunday School classes.

The Fellowship Team will be hosting. They will provide hamburgers and hotdogs, drinks, table service, and a sundae bar for dessert. We are asking members and friends (except those who served as teachers) to please bring a dish to pass—salad, hot dish or chips, whatever goes great with hotdogs and hamburgers.

Please remember to say Thank You to all our teachers!

Phil Joel and Casting Pearls Concert at Southern Hills

The walls of the Southern Hills Outreach Center will soon be rocking again. I have a little more information about the next concert that will take place at Southern Hills. The concert date is Wednesday, May 21. The two artists that will be performing that night are listed below.

Phil Joel is a recording artist and former band member of Newsboys.


Appearing with Phil Joel will be the Nebraska-based Casting Pearls. In early February Casting Pearls was at Southern Hills Church to lead worship for one of our services. We're excited about having them back again.


The only definite details I have for this concert are the performers above and the date of Wednesday, May 21. As I get more information I will post it here for you.

Belated Thanks for Pillar Concert

Hey, eveyone. It’s been a long time. I’ve been meaning to play catch up for a while now. My family and I have been very busy preparing for a vacation which starts this coming Thursday. Well, I’m going to do my best to get a few things up here that should have been up long ago. The first is a list of people that need to be thanked for all of their hard work on the extraordinary concert we hosted with Pillar, Building 429, Wavorly, and Brooke Barrettsmith this past February.

Here is our list of people that many of us involved felt should be recognized for their efforts and contributions.

• Connie Maxwell for preparing meals for the bands, crew, and all-day volunteers.
• Everyone who donated food and drinks to the event.
• Paul Schultz for providing towels for the bands and crew.
• Steve Eggebraaten and Saturn of Sioux Falls for allowing us to use two 2008 Saturn Outlooks to transport the bands and crew around town.
• Midcontinent Communication for providing television advertising for the event.
• Crossroads Book and Music for selling tickets.
• Last Stop CD Shop for selling tickets.
• KNWC: Life 96.5 for spreading news of the concert to their listeners.
• Everyone who helped distribute posters and sell tickets.
• All of the area churches that promoted this event to their congregation and friends.
• Ross Stromseth for the construction of the stage ramp, and for being present for most of the preparation of our Multi-Purpose Room for the stage and concert set up. Ross also helped throughout the day of the concert and was around to insure the Multi-Purpose Room was returned to normal after the concert.
• All of the volunteers before, during, and after the event. All of you were crucial to the success of this concert.
• Trevor and Laurie Jackson for presenting this opportunity, helping to coordinate the preparation for and execution of this event, and for communicating with the Tour Manager and other concert personnel to insure everything was getting done properly.
• A huge thank you goes out to the congregation of Southern Hills and to our Leadership Team for being willing to take the risk to host this event. Not many congregations would be willing to do what you’ve done.
• Our neighbors and the community for being tolerant of all the additional traffic and high volume.
• Heather, the staff, and the kids of the Southern Hills After-School and Preschool Programs for their willingness to adjust to our need to use their space.

For any that we may have missed, I am truly sorry. To make an event like this concert successful the time and energy does not come from one person, or one group of people. It comes from everyone. Thank you all.

Please stay tuned to upcoming posts for information on the next great concert, coming May 21, hosted by Southern Hills.