"Lending a Helping Hand" is the topic that launches our summer issue of Highlights. Inside, you'll find the many varied and unique ways that members of the Lutheran Homes family deliver on that very Biblical instruction. Stories include:

• How residents of our campuses serve others less fortunate
• A special effort at AuSable Valley to assist seniors fleeing a wildfire
• Livonia's 1,000th resident, who was there for short-term rehabilitation work
• A heartfelt thank-you from a Maybee man for his stay in Monroe
• Coverage of special events at The Manors in Saginaw and at the Frankenmuth home
• Personnel awards and changes
• Details on our generous donors

Please click here to view the entire magazine online.

The theme of this special combination issue is "Every Picture Tells a Story," and uses pictures of real residents, clients and caregivers Lutheran Homes of Michigan is honored to serve. Those photos are tied to our mission and values. The April 2010 issue includes:

• Stories and photos about the people we serve
• Our Volunteers of the Year
• Stories on our employees and board members, past and present
• Other events around Lutheran Homes of Michigan's wide mission field
• Details on our generous donors

Please click here to view the entire magazine online.

This issue of Lutheran Homes of Michigan Highlights Newsletter focuses on “The New Normal” we face in this challenging world of ours, and how Christ brought an entirely new outlook to our human condition. This issue of "Highlights" includes:

• A personal message from LHM President and CEO David Gehm
• Our 2010 Verse of the Year
• How a discarded autoharp renewed a lifelong love of music
• A celebration of LHM leadership, past and present
• How respite care helped one mother and daughter

Plus there is much, much more. Click here to view the entire magazine online.

FRANKENMUTH - The 11th Annual Hospice of Hope Benefit Dinner was a big success Wednesday, Jan. 13, with more than 300 people attending at the Bavarian Inn Lodge.

Tess Marshall

The guest speaker was life coach Tess Marshall, author of "Flying By The Seat Of My Soul." Tess is a former Michigan resident, mother of four, and wife of 38 years.

Tess's message was one of hope. Using her own life experiences as an example, she stressed the Biblical admonition to "Fear not."

Every year, the Hospice of Hope dinner, which features classic Bavarian Inn fare, kicks off a four-week effort in the Frankenmuth area with "Hearts for Hospice."

Purple hearts are for sale for $1 at various businesses to help support the work of Hospice of Hope.

Hospice of Hope, part of the Lutheran Home Care Agency and a service of Lutheran Homes of Michigan, helps people and their families facing end-of-life decisions in the Saginaw valley.

As a faith-based non-profit, Lutheran Homes absorbs many of the costs associated with providing hospice medical and spiritual care through the hospice program.

Money raised at the dinner and via Hearts for Hospice offsets the cost of that help to families in the Saginaw Valley.

The money also helps support the home care agency's Camp Hope, a special bereavement camp for children who have lost loved ones as the result of a death.

For more information on Hospice of Hope and Camp Hope: www.AgingEnriched.org/hospice-of-hope

Dear friends of Lutheran Homes of Michigan,

Each January we share a “Verse of the Year." The selection is focused on a theme for the year, a direction we seek to reinforce, or a faith-thought that will inspire and lead us.  This year, I’d suggest the verse does all three.

The Verse of the Year for 2010 is found in 2 Corinthians 4:7:
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

There is a lot to think about when we reflect on this verse. Here are a few points that you might consider:

• Our residents and clients often display the frailty that comes with advanced age or chronic or terminal illness. Yet they remain treasures to us, their loved ones, and most importantly to God.  Jars of clay, particularly in Bible times, were very easily damaged or broken (frail), which is why they’re used in this verse as an example.

• We ourselves, being far from perfect, are like clay jars in our own sense; prone to struggle and even fail, yet we see our work and our co-workers as highly valued (a treasure) particularly in the context of our shared ministry.

•  Our shortcomings can leave no doubt that the success of our programs, the effectiveness of our services, and the obvious blessings of God are not our doing, but God’s.  We serve together under His “all-surpassing power”.

As you consider this verse, think about the way God uses you and those around you as vessels for His love to be carried to others.  As human “jars of clay” that is what we are, and we are blessed to have that opportunity every day in our work together at Lutheran Homes.

May God bless you and your work, even as you are blessing to those you serve each day.

Together in service,

David M. Gehm
President and CEO
Lutheran Homes of Michigan

Tickets are now available for the Lutheran Home Care Agency's Hospice of Hope 11th Annual Hospice Benefit Dinner.

The dinner will be 5:30 p.m. January 13 at the Bavarian Inn Lodge.

Tickets are $30, and can be reserved by calling the LHCA at 989.652.4663, or e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Tess Marshall

Proceeds from the benefit dinner are used to fund bereavement services and Camp Hope, a special bereavement camp for children who have lost a loved one through death.

Please make reservations prior to January 8, 2010.

Lutheran Home Care Agency is a ministry of Lutheran Homes of Michigan.

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