Groups, Functions and Projects

Rally Sunday 2007 was Sunny and full of mingling, coffee and chat. Here is the list of all the Ministries, Groups and Functions which you can Inquire about, Join, Volunteer and find your communal "niche" amongst our congregation members.

Click here to print the Rally Sunday list.

Adult Bible class meets Sunday mornings at 9:03AM ~ 10:03AM in the Daycare Conference Room. Study of the book of ACTS of the Apostles will begin in January.

TACO  needs your help. This is an on-going volunteer function which requires no special skills. It involves serving food at the First Lutheran Church soup kitchen in downtown San Diego. Our supportive efforts assist the Bethlehem Women of the ELCA  missions challenges. For an opportunity to serve and maybe a car-pool ride,   Call Lori Cook at 760 918-2401. 

Fair Trade Coffee, Tea & Chocolate
. Please click here to read about Equal Exchange and Fair Trade and why we support these products

Bethlehem Community Library is a free lending library for children. It is located right on the campus and is open Tuesday 2:30 ~ 5:00PM and on Friday 1:00 ~ 4:00PM, all year and during school holidays and summer. Volunteers  are needed for one afternoon a month. Please call Nancy Harig 760.931.5823 or Nancy Mullane 760.505.6922.

Lending Library
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Lending Library
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Christmas 2008 Pajama Sewing Project  

Scraps and Prayers.
Comfort Wounded Warriors.  The Bethlehem Women of the ELCA need your help cutting, sewing and tying quilts for patients at Balboa Navy Hospital.  Please join us each Wednesday morning in the Family Center.  Even just one hour of your time would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you to Kim Oswald for delivering quilts made by Scraps and Prayers to the Wounded Warrior Center at Camp Pendleton

The Quilters’ Fall Jamboree was an enormous success!  Thrivent Financial for Lutherans hosted the delicious luncheon in the luxurious Carmel Mountain Ranch Country Club.  Over 100 women (and several men) from 15 local ELCA churches were in attendance.  Bethlehemhad the largest group in attendance (13 people).  Trudy Disselhorst gave a presentation to the group regarding the work of the Bethlehem Women of the ELCA.  Quilt Historian Pat Nickols delighted and educated us with her collection of antique quilts and some of her own handmade quilts.  Thank you to Trudy and Bryon Disselhorst for preparing Bethlehem’s beautiful display table of quilts, school bags and pajamas!


Volunteer Opportunities:

Join us in an adventure in ministry! Quality of life, which begins with quality relationships with God and others, is our ministry goal.
Worship is central to our congregational life. Quality caring for children and families of our community takes place daily in our Early Childhood Center. Sharing with those in need extends our worship as we feed the hungry, house the homeless, engage seniors and others in need. Our parish nurse ministry provides a focus on health and well being for our congregation and community. Quality youth ministry is the calling of our full time youth director. There is a place for you at Bethlehem as you seek quality of life.
Join us for worship and service as we announce boldly God’s love in Christ.
The Staff and Members of Bethlehem

Each year, Bethlehem hosts the Interfaith Homeless Shelter , usually in January. These families benefit greatly as they transition to more self-sustaining circumstances. This is a Volunteer Opportunity once a year.
A Big Thank You! in 2007 to Jean Keller and Mike Ontiveros for their outstanding job of organizing and maintaining the Interfaith Shelter at Bethlehem from January 14-28. A big thank you also to everyone who helped in any way, but none of us would have known what to do without Jean and Mike's guidance and direction. It takes far more planning, set-up, day to day attention and tear down than any of us realize and they're the ones who kept it going. Job well done volunteers! 

 Ushers, Readers and Coffee Service 
  We need volunteers during the Church service. Please inquire here  jgfoland@blcenc.org 

Stephen Ministry  
Be a caregiver to someone who is experiencing a difficult change in their life.

Literacy Program
  Teaching others to read.
  Contact Audrey Murphy 760-630-7763 for details.

Mothers & Others
This group is comprised of women who are involved in the raising of students high school age. We meet on the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm, usually in the youth building. This year we will be working our way through "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg. In addition, we cover the really interesting stuff like curfews, dating, etc. If you can come every month, that is great, but if you only make it once a year, we would love to see you! Please contact Mary Tigue-Velardi, "MTV" through the youth ministry or watch the church calendar for our monthly meetings and come on in!

Ongoing Collection for Cancelled Postage Stamps. A small village in Germany called Bethel, is made up of people that are handicapped in many different ways along with their caretakers. One job these residents do is to separate cancelled postage stamps from around the world. They then package these "collections" into plastic bags which are shipped to stamp stores around the world who then sell them. We send our collected cancelled stamps to the collection point in Washington D.C. where they are forwarded on to Bethel, Germany. Thank you for your faithful saving of these cancelled stamps and depositing them into the cylinder marked "Stamps" which are then mailed on by Mary Hartzell.