Jean Skiver, 85, just never got around to being baptized. She attended a Baptist church with her first husband, and became close to the pastor’s wife. Her second husband was an active member of a Lutheran church, and she attended worship services with him but never formally joined.

Jean moved to The Terraces in Grand Rapids, which offers catered independent living for active seniors, 13 years ago. She says it’s a very caring community.

“When I moved here, I met a man who is still a friend and who was active in the chapel. I would also attend his Lutheran church in the community,” said Jean, who spent her working years as a housekeeper in a hospital and a college.

At MapleCreek, Jean enjoys the wide variety of social activities that offer fellowship with other residents. She started going to a volunteer-led Bible study Because Jean has some health problems that it hard for others to understand her, she doesn’t like to speak in group settings. She relies on her friend, Barb Bell, who also lives at MapleCreek, to be her voice, helping her to participate in activities she formerly avoided. She also began talking to MapleCreek's chaplain, Rebecca Ebb-Speese, known as Pastor Becky, about spiritual matters. Jean says she enjoys exploring issues of faith.

Early in the new year, Jean told Pastor Becky she wanted to be baptized. “I want to accept God and to feel more connected to church,” she said.  “I had my children baptized and now it’s time for me.”

Pastor Becky officiated at the ceremony and Barb Bell served as Jean's sponsor.

“My quality of life has changed since I moved to MapleCreek and started attending spiritual activities,” Jean said. “I know these are good for me. I feel better about my life.”

After witnessing Jean’s baptism, another resident came to Pastor Becky and said she’d never been baptized either, and she wanted to do it too. Her ceremony was held the following day, with all the residents in attendance serving as sponsors.

Remember Alex Chivescu, the teen in foster care who starred in our video, It Started With a Letter (You can view this video on our homepage at www.lssm.org)? In order to remain in his high school until he graduated, Alex needed to find a foster home in the district, which he did by writing letters to strangers. In the video Alex jokes that he’s “a viable candidate for the next homeless-to-Harvard’ movie.” He’s now a scholarship student at Harvard – and a TV movie has been made about his experience! Called “Finding a Family,” the movie will air on the Hallmark Movie Channel on Jan. 12.

Heres a little bit about the movie "Finding A Family" from HallmarkMovieChannel.com:

"Finding a Family" is based on the true story of Alex Chivescu, a ward of the state of Michigan, who knowing he cannot be emancipated from the foster care system, searches for a new mom and dad within the school district that he believes can fulfill his lifelong dream of attending an Ivy League university. 

You can learn more about the movie by visiting HallmarkMovieChannel.com. Below you can watch a trailer for the film.

The plea came the week before Halloween. A client of our In-Home Services program in Saginaw was in desperate need of clothing. She is autistic, still in high school, and recently had a medication change that caused a fast and dramatic weight gain. She went from a size 9 to size 22. The girl has lived with her aunt since birth, and the care provided by Lutheran Social Services enables her to live at home, rather than in a group home or institution. But the aunt has a very limited income. She could not afford to buy the girl  a new wardrobe. Coping with her disabilities was hard enough -- now the girl also had to cope with a change in body image and clothes that didn't fit. Pastor Phil Hemke, our director of Church Relations, emailed his clergy colleagues at Bay Area ELCA churches last week to see if their congregants could help. Many of the pastors took the story to the altar that Sunday, including Pastor Kathleen Basner at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Saginaw. The very next day, Tammy Hynes, manager of In-Home Services for the mid-Michigan region, got a call from church member Pat Wolff, who was moved by the appeal. Just that morning, before church, Pat had decided to clean out her closet. Tammy went to Pat's house and picked up a large bag filled with nice clothing, which she dropped off at the girl's house that afternoon. "God is so good!" said Tammy. And so are our Lutheran Social Services supporters.

Harriett Erickson, 88, lives at Luther Community Manor in Alpena, a HUD-subsidized senior apartment community. She has worked with a group of quilters at nearby Immanuel Lutheran Church since 2006. Each of the 10 to 15 members of the quilters group has a job: some cut material, some tie, some finish the edges. Harriett sews the pieces together. She recently completed her 221^st quilt top. The group donates their quilts to local people in need, such as families that have had a house fire. They also send their quilts all over the world through Lutheran World Relief. The group’s quilts have gone to Hurricane Katrina victims and to soldiers in Afghanistan. Some of the people who receive the quilts have nothing, says Harriett. Soldiers especially appreciate these handmade “comforts from home.”

SWELL – Sharing With Everyone Lutheran Love – is a swell group of volunteers from Lutheran churches in the Kalamazoo area who come together to support the children in Lutheran Social Services’ foster care program. Over the summer, they put together 70 backpacks for the children in Lutheran Social Services’ care in southwest Michigan, stuffing them with everything a child needs to begin the school year right. The backpacks (which seemed almost bigger than the children who received them) contained toiletries such as soap, toothbrush and toothpaste as well as school supplies like notebooks, glue, scissors, crayons, pens, pencils, markers and more. Foster parents receive a daily stipend to provide for all the children’s needs, but at the beginning of the school year, when children need so much all at once, paying for everything can be a struggle. “Our children’s faces lit up when they saw their backpacks,” reported Mary Muliett, director of Services for Children & Families in Southwest Michigan. The Kalamazoo-area foster care program has been growing quickly. As a result of the Children’s Rights settlement, many foster care cases are being transferred from the Department of Human Services to private providers like Lutheran Social Services.

Lilia Zavala, service coordinator at Sequoia Place in Ann Arbor, held a celebration for residents who participate in the twice-weekly exercise programs. She served healthy snacks and drinks to the “Sequoia Stars” and gave each individual a certificate of achievement. Terry Knechtel, who teaches the Thursday class, also received a wheeled tote bag and a beautiful flower arrangement. The three residents with the best attendance records,, Mary Rich, Betty Comerzan and Hattie Russell, also received tote bags. “They have worked hard all year, and enjoyed a chance to relax and enjoy!” said Katherine Redies, Sequoia’s administrative assistant. Sequoia Place, with 55 one-bedroom apartments, offers affordable housing for seniors with limited incomes.

At the age of 40, Tracy Newman decided it was finally time to make a positive change in her life. After 30 years of one failure after another, she is working with Heartline to get back on the right track.

Tracey’s mother was 16 and her father 18 when she was born. They married but divorced a year later. By the age of 8, Tracey was experimenting with marijuana, courtesy of a friend’s older siblings. By 13, she was taking LSD and drinking, and by 16 she was stealing to support her habits.

She was put on probation for drug use at 16 – and promptly violated it by fighting at school. After a stint in the Wayne County youth home, she tried to go straight but soon was back on drugs, including crack cocaine, and dropped out of school. By 18, she says, “I was a full-blown addict, working the streets for money, living in crack houses or on the street. My mother didn’t trust me in her house because I would steal from her. She let me sleep in her car and she brought food out to me.”

She tried rehab and was clean for a few months, then relapsed, then got clean again. She gave birth to a daughter, now a college sophomore, and a son, now in high school, and tried to stay straight for them. When the children’s father discovered she was using again, he gained custody of the kids.

After the children left, Tracey went back to the drug culture. She rarely saw her children, wanting to shield them from what she had become. In her mid-20s, she sold drugs to an undercover cop and went to prison. When she was allowed out on work-release, she ran away and went back behind bars.

Maturing in prison 

In all, she spent 11 years in various jails. In a way, it helped her. "Each time I was in, I was able to learn a little bit more about myself and understand more about my behavior,” she said. “The Michigan Department of Corrections actually helped me grow into the woman I am now. They stopped me from killing myself with an overdose.”

Tracey first came to Heartline in early 2009. She found a clerical job and reunited with her family. But it was “too much too fast,” she said. She started abusing anti-depressants and was sent back to jail for a technical rules violation.

Paroled again last spring, she tried to return to Heartline but Director Mary Ellen White was reluctant to take her back. Tracey persisted and in May, Mary Ellen relented.

“I do believe in second chances but hesitated  because of Tracey’s prior relapse,” said Mary Ellen. “I believe Tracey has now gotten her priorities straight; before, she kept running from one thing to another. She seems much more serious this time about listening to people and taking advice that will benefit her.” 

“Heartline works for me because they treat you with respect,” Tracey said. “They don’t try to force things on you. They give you the tools you need and take the time to listen and help you find solutions. There’s a lot of love here.”

Tracey works in a restaurant in Roseville and is studying for a certificate in addiction studies at Wayne County Community College. She stays away from her old neighborhood. She tries not to think too much about where she’s been. She stays focused on the present, setting realistic, short-term goals that she can accomplish. 

“I made a promise to God that if I got back to Heartline, I would make it work,” she said. “I’m not taking any medications. I’m working and going to school. I want to feel I was put on earth for a reason – and that it was not to die from drugs but to help others.”

Heartline

A Residence for Women Leaving the Correction System and Homeless Women

Heartline is a safe haven that provides shelter, food, a supportive, caring environment and discipline to women seeking a second chance. Heartline serves women who are on probation for a criminal offense; serving a sentence through the criminal justice system; leaving a drug rehabilitation program; escaping a home broken by addiction; battered or in an abusive relationship. All residents receive counseling and support to help them become productive citizens.

Support Heartline with a $5 gift and get a 25% off coupon at Macy's. Find the details here or make your $5 gift now (be sure to check the Heeartline Gift - Macy's Coupon box for your donation).

Martha "Marty" Murphy, 90, is tickled that her daughter brought a painting from home to put up in her room at The Lodge at MapleCreek. At first glance, it reminds you of the classic painting "American Gothic," painted by Grant Wood in 1930 and imitated countless times in the past 80 years. The Wood painting hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. The one in Marty's room depicts Marty and her husband, Red, standing in place of the original subjects in front of the Carpenter Gothic style house. Instead of the three-pronged hay fork, Red is shown holding a mop. The story behind the painting explains all.

"Red and I were custodians for the Thornapple-Kellogg school district in Middleville for 18 years," Marty said. "He was in charge of the custodial staff at the middle school, and I was a custodial worker at the new high school - and I was a safety guard for the children to help them cross the street. When we both retired at age 62, the art teacher painted this portrait of us. It was a gift from everyone at the school."

Look over on the shelf in Marty's room, and you'll see a photo of LeRoy Harold "Red" Murphy and his bride on their 50th Anniversary in 1991. "I was a few weeks older than my husband," Marty said. "So for 23 days, between our birthdays, I was a year older." Red passed away in about 1997. These days Marty is pleased that she is still doing pretty well. She has wonderful memories of Red. "I had the best husband in the world," she gushed. "He never did anything without me."

Elizabeth Druckrey and Ethel Evert were given some pants to shorten. From this simple act a quilt emerged with a wonderful story. Read the story here.

From The Saginaw News, Published: Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 3:30 PM

SAGINAW —  The Action Thrift Store is getting a facelift with a little help from some Birch Run teachers.

Jean Schluckebier is director of the Action Thrift Store, 2114 N. Michigan in Saginaw, a resale shop that gets many of its items from local Lutheran churches, and said a new look was needed outside.

Click to read full story and see all the photos!