From the Convention Mountaintop, Back to the Plains

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7).

The 2025 Growing in God’s Grace Convention is wrapping up! What an incredible, mountaintop experience!

A Bible study — His Love, Our Love — is one of many valuable resources on the LWML website and begins: “Think of a time when there was love all around you. If you have been to an LWML national or district convention, you would have experienced love all around. … The women excitedly told how their love for God was going to be shared through the funding of missions with Mite Boxes.”

The study continues, “We do live in the ‘valley’ of everyday life. But we also have the ‘mountain-top experience’ in our daily lives as we pray, worship, study His Word, partake of the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship with others. Thanks be to God for His love.”

Lutheran Women in Mission, let’s get to work — sharing His love with others as we live here in the plains!

Signing off, your sister in Christ,

Brenda Piester
Recording Secretary (2021–2025)

P.S. Thank you for the privilege of serving you on the Board of Directors for these four years. It has been a labor of love, and I have been blessed through your own work and joyful service!

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, … because of your partnership in the gospel (Philippians 4:3, 5a).

Brenda Piester

Recording Secretary
Lutheran Women in Mission

View past messages

Lutheran Women in Mission — Where are you this week?

“Growing in God’s Grace” in Omaha? At convention? If not in person, then in spirit! We gather for business meetings, corporate worship, Bible study, fellowship, service to others, mission speakers, and collecting offerings to support selected ministries. We locate old friends. Establish new friends. We hug, we laugh, we talk, we smile – because we are all here for one purpose – to further the good news Gospel message and to serve the Lord with gladness! We further the Gospel message through the mission grants selected and ministries that we support. We serve the Lord with gladness! with our smiles and encouragement to those who are in turn serving us during this convention.

As we “Grow in God’s Grace” this week, let us also show God’s grace to everyone with whom we come in contact.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen (2 Peter 3:18).

Karen Morrison

Vice President of Gospel Outreach
Lutheran Women in Mission

View past messages

Grow in God’s Grace

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen (2 Peter 3:18).

Are you ready?
Have you completed packing and made your travel reservations to join nearly 4000 Lutheran Women in Mission in Omaha, Nebraska, for the LWML Convention?

Are you ready?
Are you excited to worship, sing, fellowship, hear mission stories and learn from God’s Word?

Are you ready?
Is your heart prepared to “Grow in God’s Grace” as our theme suggests?

The Pre-Convention Devotion, available on the LWML website, is available to help you get ready for our time in Omaha. Here is an excerpt from that devotion:

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ — these words from St. Peter aren’t a directive to believers, either those early Christians or us of the 21st Century church. That would be as fruitless as a farmer standing in his newly planted corn field and commanding his seeds to “grow already, why don’t ya!” When our Lord, through Peter in this verse, tells believers to “grow”, He is saying that the grace and knowledge of Jesus are how spiritual growth comes about. God brings the necessary ingredients to the ‘soil’ of our hearts and minds, so the faith He planted will grow.”

See you in Omaha.
Shine On!

Susan Brunkow

Vice President of Christian Life
Lutheran Women in Mission

View past messages

Counting

Most of us enjoy counting the days until a special event — a special birthday, wedding, vacation, retirement, or the birth of a grandchild. You may be counting the days until you travel to Omaha, Nebraska, for the 41st Biennial Convention. I am counting those days too and looking forward to spending time with my sisters in Christ being inspired to dig deeper in God’s Word, being nurtured to share the love of Christ with enthusiasm, and being encouraged to support missions and our mission goal.

Blessings are something we can count, too! I use a jar to accumulate the blessings I jot down on paper. I enjoy going through the jar periodically to remember some of the blessings God bestows. Check out the retreat/workshop resource, Count Your Blessings. There are some wonderful Bible verses and questions for thought in this resource.

As of June 8, 2025, it’s 14 days until I travel to Omaha. It’s a blessing to be able to attend and to serve the Lord!

Kathy Pavelock

Vice President of Communication
Lutheran Women in Mission

View past messages

Raindrops Keep Falling

He covers the heavens with clouds, he prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills (Psalm 147:8).

Spring rain from heaven brings blooming flowers, singing birds, and green grass. God created raindrops to evaporate, transform inside a cloud and condense, fall as precipitation, and eventually, it starts the cycle all over again by either being steered towards runoff or into the ground through infiltration and then percolates into the groundwater. Whew!

Your transformation happened through the Holy Spirit. The sprinkle on your head or your immersion during Baptism created faith in you. Remembering your Baptism daily helps ground you in your daily walk. My prayer for you — when it rains, you remember your Baptism knowing you are forgiven and restored. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection offers salvation and eternal life!

Next time you grab your umbrella, think of your Baptism!

Read the Mustard Seed Devotion on the topic of Baptism, Water of Life: Same but Different.

Cheryl Mattil

Strategic Plan Facilitator
Lutheran Women in Mission

View past messages

Remember Your Baptism

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26).

In our backyard is a bird bath we fill daily with fresh water. Last week several robins took a bath simultaneously. They squawked and flapped their wings in an effort to get clean and make room for each other in the water. What a fun sight to see.

An even more beautiful sight to see is Baptism. Through the water and the Word, a child/adult is washed clean and becomes a child of God. God always has enough room for one more person to join His family. You are valuable to God; daily remember your Baptism – He has washed you clean to love and serve Him.

Arlene Naasz

Vice President of Organizational Resources
Lutheran Women in Mission

View past messages

Prayers for LWML Mission Grant Proposals

“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7b).

This week, voting members for the 2025 LWML Convention in Omaha, Nebraska, will be voting electronically, in advance, choosing the 2025–2027 Mission Grants that will be funded in the coming biennium. Have you read about these 47 mission grant proposals? Please pray for these missions and those who will be blessed by them. Each grant, whether serving people across the world or close to home, is spreading the Gospel, sharing Christ’s love. All praise to our loving Father!

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mark16:15).

Please keep in prayer the voting delegation. May God grant them wisdom.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).

To assist in our prayers, download the printable PDF of the list of mission grant proposals. Find it under Convention Documents on Convention Central. It is truly a blessing to read about and pray for God’s work to be done through these missions.

Leslie Colligan

Meeting Manager
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League

View past messages