As we approach the end of 2019 and look forward to a new decade, we who are involved in the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society and the Lutheran Heritage Center & Musuem recognize that our gracious God has blessed us in so many ways.  Allow me to give you a little taste of our year in review:

• Over 6000 visitors at our museum this year
• Numerous accessions:  200+ Nativity sets, a church bell from an old Lutheran church in Bremen, Illinois, antique plows, countless small manuscripts, etc.
• A Christmas display of 50+ themed trees
• Celebrated a 180th birthday party for the Log Cabin College
• Hosted several workshops (Scherenschnitte, Putz houses, etc.)
• A blog that had over 130,000 views, reaching people all over the country and all over the world
• A Facebook page with over 1500 “likes” and a webpage with 300 followers
• Hosted a summer party for the community
• Sufficient donations to make it possible for us to leave our “nest egg” untouched
• Donations of musical entertainment for special events
• Altenburg Public School assisting with moving Christmas decorations from our basement
• Lots of bus tours, family reunions, school groups, etc.
• A host of wonderful volunteers using their skills to serve us
• Superb leadership from Carla Jordan, Gerard Fiehler, and board members
• A generous donation making a new roof for the Log Cabin College possible

I could go on.  One must conclude that God has been incredibly good to us.  That God also blesses us through you.  He has moved so many of you to contribute your time, talents, and treasures to our organization.  We are so grateful.

We not only look back at our past to see wonderful blessings, we are also able to look to our future with plenty of hope.  Although we are not quite ready to share with you the details,  we are looking forward to some really exciting developments in our near future.  Exciting things are in the works.  Stay tuned.

I have previously promised to not do this often, but today is one of those rare occurrences when I would like to discuss with you the possibility of you helping us in our mission.  Yes, I am going to ask you for your financial support.  The end of the calendar year is a good time for people to consider making charitable contributions.  I have been told so many times over the years that an organization will not get any money unless they ask for it.  So I boldly ask you today to make a contribution to our exciting future.  We were blessed so greatly this past year by your donations, and we ask for your continued financial help.  We have a museum that charges absolutely no admission….EVER….so we rely even more heavily on your contributions.

There are several ways that you can participate in our mission:

• Check out the “Support PCLHS” tab on our website’s menu tab.
• Participate in our Gesellschaft program.  It is a program in which patrons make regular contributions to our cause.
• Make a donation using a credit card by clicking onto our Online Store and scrolling down to where it talks about donation options.
• Thrivent members can consider directing some of their Thrivent Choice money to our museum.
• Write a check (payable to PCLHS) and send it to the address shown on our website’s homepage.
• Consider including our museum in your estate planning.

We in Altenburg consider ourselves to be so blessed by just being here, blessed by being able to be involved in preserving our past, and blessed by having such a faithful following out there beyond our neighborhood.  Recently, I was driving through Altenburg in the early hours and glanced over toward our church and museum.  I could not help but turn around and come back to take a few photos of the beautiful view.  I close with one of those photos.  We are blessed.