St. John s Evangelical Lutheran Church 910 Allentown Road Sellersville PA 18960

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1 St. John s Evangelical Lutheran Church 910 Allentown Road Sellersville PA St. John s Evangelical Lutheran Church Allentown Road, Sellersville PA Office Hours: Monday - Thursday 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM Office Phone: stjohnsridgevalley910@gmail.com Web: Worship Schedule: 8:30 AM Traditional 10:15 AM Praise Service Adult Forum and Kid s Sunday School Forum weekly at 9:40 AM St. John s Council Members Don Graham - Council President Phyllis Kogel - Council Vice President Michele Walter - Financial Secretary Barb Klinger - Treasurer Cornell Hopkins - Council Secretary Nancy Esposito Vicki Guenst Lynn Crouthamel Sharon Saylor Shirley Nase Chris Wall The Reverend Amy Hotter, Pastor (267) Ministers: The People of St. John s Office Manager: Heidi Link (215) Mark Gottesfeld, Organist and Music Director Christine Nyce, Jesse Dorn - Sextons

2 Greetings to my Brothers and Sisters in the Name of Jesus, We are so blessed and loved by our Savior. Each and every day God watches over us and provides every little thing. We praise you God. You are our King. You are our Shepherd. You are our love. Glory to God in the highest. We have moved into summer. We have many families who will take vacations. We have many opportunities to enjoy the sunshine. God is so good to us. Our St. John s family is doing well. We are moving forward with taking out our old oil tank so that we can create a new ADA ramp and steps. You will find a picture of the architect drawings in the coffee fellowship area. It is very exciting. One thing that I need to share with you is that we are struggling with our Sunday worship attendance with an average of 70+ worshipers. For many reasons, we understand that there are less and less in church. As we see the stats of all the Upper Bucks ELCA churches, they are worshipping from 22 people to 150 as an average. For those of you who are very faithful, I thank you. For those of you who have not u worship recently, I ask you to come and join us. God will bless you. It is a hard time for people to reach out and get involved with others. It feels like we are paddling upstream as fast as we can to keep up with life. Many people choose not to baptize their children or to hold weddings in the church. At one time people wanted to join the church, but in 2018 people seem to not care. Therefore we must reach out to our Sellersville community. On July 18 th, we will have a Messy Church which means the families will have dinner together, then learn about Adam and Eve by doing crafts, reading the story, games, music, and being a part of the skit. Our children will have so much fun. On August 19 th we will hold a Open house / Community Day. We will be inviting all of our neighbors. We also will invite representatives from businesses: Grand View Hospital, Pennridge Regional Police, Tylersport Firehouse, Penn Foundation, Pennridge School District, organizations of Owls, Rotary Club, etc. Most of all we will have a grand opening for our new Food Pantry Drop Off. All the food will be sent to FISH. We are not starting up a pantry ourselves we are looking to support and compliment FISH program. When our neighbors realize that more people in Sellersville are hungry, I believe that people will drop off more cans outside of our church. We just beginning to create this space for the food. Matthew 25: For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? 40 And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, [a] you did it to me. May God Bless you each day, Pastor Amy

3 MAY, 2018 SOCIAL MINISTRY REPORT In May The Soup People made and delivered soup to The Quakertown Food Pantry. They will make soup again in June and then take a break over the summer. Also in May David Schirk delivered 153# of food to Pennridge FISH. Please keep in mind that over the summer when there is no school FISH gives extra food to families whose children were receiving free school lunches. If you can spare any extra food for these families, please put it on the shelves in the Coffee Fellowship Area. The Crafters are finishing up quilts, baby layette kits and packing up these things to be sent to Lutheran World Relief the beginning of June along with the school supply kits they made last fall. Also they will be delivering smaller quilts and blankets to Project Linus in June. The end of June I will be stepping down as Chairperson of Social Ministry. Please prayerfully consider stepping up to this position. Maybe you have some new ideas and directions you would like to see St. Johns take on. Change is not always bad, it can be refreshing and lead to new adventures. Respectfully, Marianne Yeakel Adult Bible Forum Report to Council June 2018 On June 10 th the class focused on all the scriptural readings for the day. In the first reading from Genesis, we discussed the ramifications for Eve and Adam when disobeying God in the garden of Eden. We talked about the consequences of their actions- women having painful childbirth, and men having to till the land and work hard for necessities. We heard how Satan was in the serpent that tricked Eve into biting into the apple that God had forbade they eat, and talked about how Satan is still at work in the world today, trying to tempt and trick us. In the second lesson from Psalm 130, we learned how the psalmist cried out to the Lord, and asked the Lord to hear his plea. We acknowledge that when we cry out to the Lord for forgiveness, the Lord grants it to us. In Paul s letter (2Corinthians chapter 4), we talked about though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. We talked about the trials of growing old, and also about how we renew ourselves and stay cheerful. Paul tells us one day, even though our earthly bodies be gone, we have a heavenly, eternal place with God (2Cor 5:1). Finally, in Mark chapter 3, we talked about Jesus teaching of family whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother(mark 3:35). We discussed how we are brothers and sisters in Christ to each other, and how we all learn and grow from each other, by sharing our perspectives on life. On June 17, we learned from the prophet Ezekiel (17:22-24) that all things are possible with God. God can elevate lowly things (and people), and make high things low. God has the power to accomplish anything he wants. God can do great things for us, if we reach out to Him. In the Gospel of Mark, we read the parable of the mustard seed, and how the tiny seeds, when sown, can become among the greatest of shrubs. Perhaps a little faith planted in our hearts can grow into a large faith that sustains us through life! Maybe you yourself have experienced something like this. The class talked about parables, and why Jesus might have taught that way. Perhaps it was a way to generate listeners interest, using concepts that were tangible to explain something extraordinary, like the kingdom of God. Our adult forum will be meeting ad hoc this summer, meaning that if people are interested in a discussion, we will hold a class. Perhaps you or someone you know is interested in leading a discussion on a certain Sunday. No appointment necessary- come to the forum and share your thoughts and faith! Sincerely, Don Graham

4 JULY BIRTHDAYS - HAVE A WONDERFUL YEAR! These are not printed in our web posting of the newsletter. If you want to read the birthday list, please pick up a newsletter at church. Thanks

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6 When we pray together, we storm the gates of heaven. Please pray with one another for healing and the well being of our members: Marvin Belles, Bella Davis, Charlie Guenst, Arlene Kulp, Linda Trauger, Harriet Woehr, and our friends, Beverlee Bishop, Wendy Berg, Stan Casto, Kristian Clutch, Eddie Galgon, Glenn Herd, Mary King, Marvin Nase, Elizabeth Schmitt, Steve Traynor, Norah Waltenbaugh and Walt West. Our Grieving families: the Barnaby/Wall, the Leister family, the Nase family, and the Richards family. The Homebound: Francis Allem, Edna Barndt, Pauline Berndt, Lucille Caruso, Richard Croissette, Ed Geiger, Willis Heacock, Bob Kulp, Mark Trauger, Elaine Turner. The Military: Pvt. Cody Hotter, Steven Walter, Jacob Baxter, Luke Dixon and Bryanne Kelly. In Memorium Memorials were received in loving memory of Claude Barndt from Joe & Kathleen Mitchell Doris & Greg Reph Richard & Phyllis Snyder Memorials were received in loving memory of Marvin Leister from Blanche & Thomas Matczak

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