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Letter from the Chair

Winter 2004

Meeting Needs

To meet the continuing needs of the members of the ECEnet, new and repeat members of the Leadership team work to bring together the different needs of early childhood professionals. Our Network is unique in that we are serving many different areas of ministry occurring within Lutheran schools and congregations. To help meet these different needs, we have members who come with various experiences in ministry, so that we are able to identify resources and experiences that will help you to grow in your ministry.

Throughout the upcoming year we pray that you will be lifted up in your ministry. Those on the ECEnet Leadership Team who will be working to provide these opportunities through LEA are Lisa Schmidt, Cheryl Iverson, and myself.

Lisa Schmidt, the newest member of our leadership team, is a preschool director at Redeemer Lutheran Preschool in Lincoln, Nebraska. Cheryl Iverson is the Early Childhood Consultant for the Pacific Southwest District. I teach first grade at Saint Paul’s Lutheran in Kingsville, Maryland. We would like to thank Eunice McCarty and Kim Marxhausen for sharing their gifts with the ECEnet Leadership team during the past years.

There are also many professional opportunities we hope that you will take advantage of during the coming year. The first is the Shaping the Future magazine and accompanying Web enhancements. This wonderful magazine provides an outlet for meeting the needs of many different areas of ministry. The other two opportunities are the LEA Early Childhood Leadership Institute being held as a preconference event to the Texas District Early Childhood Conference in San Antonio and the LEA Convocation being held in Indianapolis.

We would also like to recognize excellent early childhood educators. Please consider recommending a fellow staff member for the Early Childhood Teacher of the Year and serving on a network Leadership Team. Each are ways that you took can help to meet the needs of early childhood professionals through the United States.

We wish you God’s blessings throughout the coming year and pray for your ministry as you seek to meet the needs of the students and families whom you minister to during the coming school year.

God’s Blessing!

Andrew C. Tomashewsky

Jeremiah 29:11

ECEnet Viewpoint

Winter 2004

Faith Journey and Professionalism

We have been called by the Spirit to serve God’s most precious ones as their faith begins. Just as we are ministering to students and their families, we have been given the Holy Spirit who enlightens us to new ways to share our faith. You have been given a precious gift, the ability to help children to learn and grow in many different areas. The most important of these is in their faith that will lead them to eternal life.

For this reason, we have to be a Spirit-filled people who share the love of God with the families that we work with each day. In our own lives, God has used other people and events to mold and shape us into a life of service. Share your faith in written ways to families to whom you minister. This can be done as part of a Web page, newsletter, or in your day-to-day conversations.

Wherever you are serving, God is using you to serve Him so children grow in everlasting faith. Never forget that you too have been chosen and are God’s child, as well as those to whom you minister. Continue in your studying of the Word so that your faith may increase, through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is only through this growth that you can lead others to the Savior who came to suffer, die, and rise again so that we could serve Him and receive our reward in heaven.

See the ECEnet Web page