The visitors here with us this week at CTSFW are calling themselves, quite appropriately, “Friends of the Fort.” Made up of LCMS pastors and congregations from around the country (Florida, Texas and Nebraska are among their home states), this group serves the church by supporting her seminaries. If you’ve been watching our chapel services this past week, then you’ve heard two of their number, guest preaching yesterday and today.
So far they have provided coffee, fruit and pastries for coffee hour following chapel yesterday (as pictured here), hosted a meal for the faculty last night, and are hosting a barbecue this evening for the Seminary community. They have also spent the last two days stopping by every office on campus to pass out gifts that show their appreciation for everyone who works here, from the maintenance staff to the office workers to the CTSFW Facebook page manager sitting at her desk on the third floor of Dorm B, writing the posts for the day.
The best part of these gifts are the words that come with them: a thank you card illustrated and written by children in their congregations and schools, the encouraging, “You are building the Kingdom of God,” and “Your work gives us Sundays,” and a note that says, simply: “1 Cor. 15:58.”*
Thank you, Friends of the Fort!
*Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58