September, PulaskiFest: Reaching Out through Stories (and free popcorn & lemonade!)

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1 HIGHLIGHTS A Newsletter of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church 2 Fifth Street NW at N. Washington Avenue Pulaski, VA / trinitypulaski@gmail.com September, 2015 PulaskiFest: Reaching Out through Stories (and free popcorn & lemonade!) Saturday, Sept. 26 9:00 5:00 Jackson Park - Pulaski Our Witness and Thrivent Action Teams invite everyone to take part in our booth at PulaskiFest! There s a place for you! Sign-up information is on the main bulletin board or contact a Witness Team member for more information. Worship at 11:00 am Resumes September 6 Sunday School Kick-Off September 13 We will meet on the parking lot at 9:45 to make our family trees in celebration of the story of Creation in Genesis 2! This kick-off event is good for children, youth, and adults!

2 Our September Servers Area of Service September 6 September 13 September 20 September 27 Flowers Broadstreets Habrechts Austs B. Bowers Greeter J. Habrecht Millers E. Hagar B. Wingo Ushers Habrechts N. Wert M. Barnett M. Barnett A. Brockmeyer J. Brockmeyer D. Huff Acolyte H. Fink H. Fink H. Fink H. Fink Crucifer H. Fink H. Fink H. Fink H. Fink Reader P. Terrie P. Terrie N. Wert N. Wert Bread Setup Presenter Assistant B. Wingo B. Wingo B. Wingo B. Wingo B. Wingo B. Wingo S. Bain N. Wert Teller B. Wingo B. Wingo B. Wingo B. Wingo FROM THE MAILBOX: Dear Pastor Terrie and Congregation: We want as a family to thank you for the many acts of kindness shown during the loss of William Billy Conner. The service and music were beautiful, and the meal provided was wonderful. Billy loved each of you and was proud to be a member of the Trinity Lutheran family. The Conner Family

3 We SERVE COMFORT CARE KITS This Thrivent Action Team project is great for including members who have gifts for: Knitting prayer shawls, decorating plain notebooks, etc. See bulletin board for more information. We will have a notebook decorating party after worship on September 20 for youth and anyone who wishes to participate! SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR AUGUST WEEDERS! Pastor Terrie sent out an S.O.S. for weeding the flower beds in August. HUGE thanks are in order to John Campbell, Jim and Sherry Casteele, and Barbara Wingo. We filled a large trash can and hauled a pick-up truck bed full of weeds to the town collection site. We also thank Erin Hagar for weeding her adopted bed in front of the sanctuary. The beds look 1000% better! Anytime you have a few minutes to beautify the ground around church, feel free to give a week a loving yank! We SHARE The Stewardship Committee wishes to thank everyone for your gracious, generous, committed financial stewardship. Your gifts given back to God to do God s work through this congregation are what enable us to make our vision for mission REAL! Your gifts enable our worship, supply learning materials, empower our outreach and witnessing, and allow us to share compassion with neighbors in need. Our October Stewardship Focus will be Love in Action - more to come on this, but please save October 25 as our Love in Action Sunday! Financial Report through July Regular Giving $ 75, Budgeted Expenditures $ 77, Deficit $ 2, Designated Income $ 3,365.00

4 THRIVENT ACTION TEAMS Our Thrivent members are working on Thrivent Action Team projects. Some projects on in process, some have been requested and approved, and some are still in the planning stage. You don't have to be a Thrivent member to participate as a team member -- just pick a project that interests you and get involved! The following projects have been completed: Food and supplies for Pulaski Community Food Pantry and Daily Bread. The following projects are in process: PulaskiFest booth and Pulaski Hospital Comfort Care Kits And the following projects are in the planning stage: Child Development Center Pulaski YMCA Big Brothers/Big Sisters Boy Scouts Pulaski County Humane Society Daily Bread Thanksgiving Dinner Boxes Radford Elf Shelf Teacher's School Supplies New Life Church of the Nazarene Pulaski Grows Youth Training Center Taking it to the Street Roanoke Rescue Mission The Baby Store New River Valley Agency on Aging Christmas Store Pulaski Weekday Religious Education Pulaski Free Clinic We are open for suggestions that might interest the members of the congregation -- just let a Thrivent member aware and we will try to make it happen. Or use the yellow suggestion sheet on the bulletin board.

5 We WORSHIP 11:00 am Worship resumes on September 6. Sunday School resumes September 13 9:45 Community Wide Prayer Service September 11 th - 7pm - 8pm Rooker Hall Auditorium, New River Community College This is a wonderful opportunity for local churches to come together to pray for spiritual wellness in our community & nation. WOMEN S & MEN S MINISTRY September Circles Circle of Ruth: Saturday, September 12, 10am Noon Barbara Wingo s home; Program by Denise Huff on her work with CASA. Von Bora: September 13, 4:00 pm Church Parlor NEW RIVER CONFERENCE FALL GATHERING - October 11, St. Michael Plan now to attend a great gathering of women of the ELCA in our New River Conference! We will register at 2:30 at St. Michael, Blacksburg, and we are celebrating Bold Women Called by Christ with a dessert we are to bring a bold dessert (use your imagination!). Ellen Hinlickey will present a talk on Seven Remarkable Lutheran Women. Please bring canned fruits which will be donated to the Interfaith Food Pantry. You may also bring your filled, unwrapped shoeboxes for the Head Start children of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The boxes may be lined inside with tissue or holiday paper, so no gifts show from the outside. Please secure the tops with 2 big rubber bands. TRINITY WOMEN OF THE ELCA Joint Circle Meeting October 11, 7:00pm Please plan to attend this annual meeting! LUTHERAN MEN IN MISSION We will meet Tuesday, September 15 for supper and a program. Please bring a dish to share and invite a member to join us!

6 We LEARN Sunday School Kick-Off September 6-9:45 - PARKING LOT! We will be making family trees as our kick-off activity! We hope all members of any age will join us! WHAT S HAPPENING ON SUNDAY MORNINGS: Beginning Sunday, September 20, these classes will meet K-3: Sandy Conner will be leading this lower elementary class located in the Foy Aust Fellowship Hall every week we will explore the Bible verses we are hearing in worship. MIDDLE SCHOOL: Jim and Sherry Casteele will team up to lead the class for grades 5-8. This class will enjoy interactive bible stories drawing from the narrative lectionary weekly readings and will meet in the upstairs classroom of the education building. YOUNG ADULT/ADULT CLASS: Meets in the parlor and consists mainly of exploring scripture from the narrative lectionary and its meaning for daily living. Good for adults wishing to grow as disciples. NARRATIVE LECTIONARY IN WORSHIP and SMALL GROUPS September 6 Paul in Rome Acts 28: September 13 Garden of Eden Genesis 2: 4b-25 September 20 Isaac Born to Sarah Genesis 18: 1-15; 21: 1-7 September 27 Jacob Wrestles God Genesis 32: YOUTH GROUP NEWS SEPTEMBER 20 We will meet in the Foy Aust Fellowship Hall after worship for lunch and a craft/service project! We will decorate notebooks to go into the Thrivent Action Team COMFORT CARE KITS for Pulaski Hospital.

7 NEWS AROUND THE PARISH IN OUR PRAYERS for healing and safekeeping: Donna Broadstreet, Jessie Brockmeyer, Lisa Chrisman, Todd Conner, Kenneth Martin, Jackie Pratt, Jim Stevens; Friends and Relatives: Bob Ballard, John Burkett, Blanche Combs, George Hall, Vicky Howard, Carl Sealander, Ruth Simpkins, Beth Springfield, Jerry Taylor, Nora Turpin; victims of sexual and domestic violence and those affected by violence throughout the world; all serving in the military/peace Corps, including Michael Clayton*, Mark Fitzwater, Tyler Simpkins, Bronson Underwood, and Allison Clark. Let us pray for peace, wholeness, and God s transformative love. *Michael will enter training at Great Lakes (Navy) in October. CONGRATULATIONS to: Hannah Wade and Alivia Alger who were named to the Virginia Tech Dean s List Spring 2015 semester. Wonderful accomplishment! BEST WISHES TO RETURNING STUDENTS in our primary and secondary education as well as our college and advanced degree students! If you have a new address while away at college, please let us know! ( to trinitypulaski@gmail.com) SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS BAPTISMAL ANNIVERSARIES 2 Lisa Chrisman 4 Susan Bain, Libby Sumner 11 Emma Gallimore, Maggie Dalton 8 Patti Sanders 22 Zach Roope 11 Kathy Faller 28 Lavelva Stevens 15 Pastor Terrie Sternberg 23 Jim Stevens WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES 24 Sonny Wert 2 Lloyd & Donna Broadstreet 26 Alex Sealander 3 Randy & Nancy Wade 27 Grayson Brockmeyer, 4 Mark & Sherry Barnett Maggie Dalton 6 Stephen & Karen Wohlford 28 Michael Clayton, Sr. 7 Michael & Kelli Clayton A Note from Pastor Terrie: Thank you for your continued partnership in the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Serving in this congregation, in this community, in the Virginia Synod, among great ecumenical colleagues, and I could go on is a seminarian graduate s dream come true. For your trust and openness I am most grateful! Let s keep doing God s kingdom work to His praise and glory!

8 Pastor s Page If someone were to ask you to describe your home church, how might you answer? Would any of these images come to your mind? I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be Trinity Lutheran Church what it means for me to be the pastor here, and what it means for us to exist together as a congregation, members of the body of Christ, members of God s household of faith. Probably, for as many people as would be asked, we d discover a different idea, image, description. This is one of the gifts and perhaps challenges of being church! It is a joy and a privilege for me to be a part of this faithful congregation. I am also usually feeling nudges from who I pray is the Holy Spirit which cause me to keep asking the question, how are we to be church in this place and in this time? You can tell I ve been thinking about these questions thanks to our summer-long immersion in the book of Acts! It is hard to read Acts without being prompted to ask, Do we, should we resemble the apostles who lived near the time of Jesus earthly life? I went to a meeting in a UMC church basement in Staunton recently where they were apparently reading Autopsy of a Deceased Church which they are not, but I was curious to read it, so I downloaded a copy on my e-reader. Thankfully, we are not a deceased church by any means, but it is a good read for learning about church vitality and purpose! This author has also written I am a Church Member (Thom S. Rainer), and I found this book, too, to be a valuable read! Do you think you d like to study these questions together? I think we could benefit as a small strong congregation to explore this together small groups anyone? Peace and grace through our Lord Jesus,

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10 PulaskiFest September 26 YOU will make our booth complete! Here s how you can help: Under the Hospitality Tent: Hand out free popcorn/lemonade Greet visitors to our booth Hand out free children s Bible story books Under the Storytelling Tent: Share a Bible Story with children in various styles of storytelling as suits your gifts! Storyteller volunteers: we will meet after worship on September 13 to make plans for our day of storytelling. Please indicate your plan to participate using the sign-up forms on the main bulletin board or call the office.