DCE

	Bethlehem Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod 1423 Eighth Avenue North, Jacksonville Beach, Florida 32250, 904-249-5418

Hello!

My name is Danielle Heffern and I am the new Director of Christian Education at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Jacksonville Beach!

My main responsibilities at Bethlehem include youth ministry, children's ministry, Sunday School, and helping out with music and adult education.

Here's a little more about me. I am 23 years old and originally from Naperville, IL. My parents, Pat and Joyce, have been married for 24 years and still live in Naperville with my youngest brother, Matthew, who is a freshman in high school. My other brother, Ryan, is 21 and is in the Army at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs.

I grew up at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lisle, IL and attended Bethany Lutheran School through 8th grade. I then attended Naperville Central High School and continued on at Concordia University in St. Paul, MN where I received my degree is Parish Education and Administration, as well as my certification as a Director of Christian Education.

I was blessed by God to be offered a call to serve here at Bethlehem which I readily accepted at the end of May. I am so excited to be here working in this community. I have been welcomed with loving arms and am looking forward to what Christ has in store for his children here in Jax Beach!

So when you see me being silly, come on over and be silly with me! We can be silly together.

“Accomplishing HIS Mission”

Over the past few months, I’ve had the joy of doing some serious ministry with many gifted and blessed members of the body of Christ. In July, Bethlehem was given the opportunity to host Bob Lenz, an internationally renowned motivational speaker to youth. He speaks to hundreds of thousands of teenagers every year and has been doing so for 25 years. I had the joy and privilege of hearing him speak as a high school youth and college student and so the possibility of bringing him to Jacksonville was so exciting to me—I couldn’t wait to get started on the project!

One of the most invigorating parts of this project was being able to pool together the gifts and talents of the body of Christ to accomplish this ministry! So I wanted to write about how grateful and thankful I am for your ministry, because you enable our church to accomplish its mission of reaching youth for Christ and spreading His Gospel message to all nations.

When you use the gifts God has given us, sometimes he calls us to seemingly trivial tasks—such as writing letters requesting funds, making phone calls to solicit help and publicize the event. But you know what? If I didn’t have my toes I would fall over. If my pancreas wasn’t working right, I’d get sick! If the body of Christ didn’t have its silliest and sometimes smallest parts, over 1500 youth would never have heard Bob speak and over 20 people wouldn’t have received Christ into their lives for the first time on November 8^th!!!

Paul expresses his joy for the church of Philippi when he said, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for…all of you share in God's grace with me” (Philippians 1:3-7 NIV). I share in Paul’s joy when I see the body of Christ working together to accomplish His mission! Bringing Bob Lenz to Jacksonville was definitely a partnership and all the good works that went into the project will surely be completed when Christ comes!

Blessings to all of you this Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas season! As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior, let us continue to build up the body of Christ “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13 NIV).