VOLUME 36 ISSUE 3. September echoes. newsletter FEATURES: Viking Cruise Refugee Report CLAY 2016 Lutherfest.

Transcription

1 Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church VOLUME 36 ISSUE 3 September 2016 echoes newsletter FEATURES: Viking Cruise Refugee Report CLAY 2016 Lutherfest Faith Lutheran s Magazine For News and Events

2 VISIT LUTHERAN BRANTFORD.COM OR FB: FAITH-EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN-CHURCH / CONTENT 2 Financial Information 2 Calendar of Events 3 From the Pastor s Desk 3 Reformation Challenge 4 Report from the Bay Ministry Area 4 Faith Parish Choir 4 Thank You 5 Wittenberg on a Viking River Cruise 6 Reflections 7 Just another refugee story 8 Scouts 9 CLAY Bay Area Pic Nic 10 Fix the Front Steps 10 Last Wednesday Fellowship 11 Lutherfest 12 Media Use Consent Forms Member of ELCIC Echoes is published quarterly by Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church at 57 Brant Avenue, Brantford, Ontario N3T 3G9. Phone: / Fax: faithchurch@faithlutheranbrantford.com Pastor: The Rev. Stephen Scheidt Pastor Emeritus: Rev. Calvin Diegel Parish Musician: E. Shawn Lemp Office Manager: Judy Clarke Council Chair: Gigi Todd Echoes Editor: Sandra Arndt 2016 Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or whole without permission is prohibited. Please submit your materials by October 15, 2016 for the Christmas edition. Send your submissions to sandy@arndtinthehouse.com. REMINDER: In order to offset the cost of publishing & postage for hard copy issues of Echoes, please consider receiving your copy via . Perhaps a friend or family member is willing to print a copy for you. Call the church office to provide an address PARISH COUNCIL AND COMMITTEES: Please consider volunteering for Church Council and/or working with one of our Committees. FINANCIAL INFORMATION echoes newsletter We want to feature the news and events of the Family of Faith at Faith Lutheran Brantford. Contact us if you would like to be in future editions, have an article you d like to submit or an event you want to promote. Submitted manuscripts accepted but may not be returned. Authors of selected materials only will be contacted. No portion of the magazine, including advertisements, pictures or editorial content may be reproduced without permission. FINANCIAL INFORMATION Year-to-date (January 1 - August 31) receipts: $77, Year-to-date (January 1 - August 31) expenses: $109, Year-to-date (January 1 - August 31) deficit: $32, Wednesday September 7 Sunday September 11 Saturday September 17 Wednesday September 21 Monday September 26 Tuesday September 27 Wednesday September 28 Calendar Parish Council at 7 pm Rally Sunday at 10:30 am Service Men s Breakfast at 8:30 am 39 ers at 12:15 noon Mutual Ministry Committee at 10 am Worship Committee at 7 pm Last Wednesday Fellowship at 1:30 pm Wednesday October 5 Parish Council at 7 pm Saturday October 15 Men s Breakfast at 8:30 am Wednesday October ers at 12:15 noon Wednesday October 26 Last Wednesday Fellowship at 1:30 pm Sunday October 30 Lutherfest and Reformation Celebration Wednesday November 2 Wednesday November 16 Saturday November 19 Wednesday November 30 Parish Council at 7 pm 39 ers at 12:15 noon Men s Breakfast at 8:30 am Last Wednesday Fellowship at 1:30 pm

3 FROM THE PASTOR S DESK Let the celebrations begin! Starting with our hosting of the Bay Area Lutherfest Dinner and Eucharist on Reformation Sunday, October 30, our celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation begins. We look forward to once again hosting this event and welcoming Lutherans from around the Bay Area as our guests. As usual, our youth will play a major role in this event, from the preparation and serving of the food to assisting at the Worship celebration. They are gracious hosts indeed and we can be very proud of them! On that Sunday, we will have only one morning Eucharist at 9:00 A.M., as most people will choose to worship at the 7 P.M. celebration with our guests from the Bay Area. We ask that you please let the Church office know that you are attending the Dinner, so that we can plan accordingly. See the posters in the Church for more information, and check your Sunday bulletins for more information. You may also wish to purchase a little Luther from our youth ($10.00). All proceeds from the sale of the little Luthers will go towards the ELCIC Reformation project that provides scholarships for Palestinian youth to attend school. (The Lutheran schools of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy land play a very important role in providing education for Palestinian children both Christian and Muslim youth, together.) It is a project that is very worthy of our support. As we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the reformation, we remember to keep that which is most important before us. Lutherans are a people who live by God s grace alone... by God s tender-hearted, compassionate love for us in Christ our Lord. We share Christ s Risen life forever as a gift of our gracious God, who loves us and holds us in the arms of a great and wonderful mercy and love. Everything we do as Christians flows from thanksgiving for this gift and our entire life is a response to the amazing grace of God for us. That is something to celebrate, indeed! The grace of God defines us as Lutherans and it molds us and shapes our lives as Christians. As the 500th anniversary year unfolds, we will have a number of opportunities to celebrate together as Lutherans, including a celebration with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ. While we both have a way to go in healing some of the wounds and scars of the reformation, we also have much to rejoice in together. Let the healing continue as we work at restoring the unity of the Church among us. As you are able, join in the celebrations and the festivities, and rejoice in the grace of God that alone can make us one body in Christ. With love and joy in Christ, Pastor Stephen REFORMATION CHALLENGE UPDATE As part of the commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, the ELCIC has established a Reformation Challenge challenging all of the churches in the ELCIC to sponsor a total of 500 refugees; raise enough money for 500 scholarships to the schools run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (at $1400 per scholarship); plant 500,000 trees - locally &/or internationally; and donate $500,000 to the Lutheran World Federation Endowment Fund. Our Parish Council has agreed that we at Faith Brantford will participate in all aspects of this challenge. At latest report, our progress is as follows: Refugees sponsored 5 Money for ELCJHL Scholarships - $310 Money for trees in Ethiopia $430 (which equates to 430 trees) Donations for LWF Endowment Fund - $110 As of July 13, the total progress reported to ELCIC from all churches is as follows: Refugees sponsored 258 Scholarships for ELCJHL schools 30 ($42,000) Trees planted 35,274 Donations for LWF Endowment Fund - $120,384 Note that our achievements have not yet been reported to ELCIC National Office. We have many projects and needs here at Faith Brantford, that require monetary donations, in addition to just keeping up with the money required to meet our budget. However, over and above all that, it is my sincere hope that we will be able to acquire enough money for at least one school scholarship ($1400) and more would be wonderful; $500 for 500 trees in Ethiopia; and $1000 for the LWF Endowment Fund and again, more than that would be wonderful. It is still the intent of the Youth Group to also plant trees locally most likely next spring and it is quite likely that donations will be required to purchase the trees. More information on this project will come at a later date. We have until July 2017, at the time of the next ELCIC National Convention, to reach those goals. Let s see what we can accomplish by then. 3 VISIT LUT HERAN BRANT FORD.COM OR FB: F A ITH-E V ANGELI CAL-L U T HERAN-C HURCH /

4 BAY MINISTRY AREA VISIT LUTHERAN BRANTFORD.COM OR FB: FAITH-EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN-CHURCH / 4 Report from The Bay Ministry Area The Bay Area team is planning a series of events, running from Reformation Day 2016 to Reformation Day 2017 to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation in Faith Parish Choir I am a member of the ad hoc Task Force working on the planning of these events. Here is an overview of what is planned so far. Oct Lutherfest Dinner and Joint Reformation Service at Faith Brantford. Jan An evening service with Lutherans and Roman Catholics at Christ the King Roman Catholic Cathedral in commemoration of the Reformation. This is the opening evening of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. A special service has been prepared for this event and will be led by Choir will resume practicing on Thursday, September 15th at 7 pm. One of our first tasks will be to begin learning and practicing for the massed choir for the 2016 Joint Reformation Service, to be held here at Faith on Sunday evening October 30th, following another delicious Lutherfest dinner. I invite anyone who isn t able to commit to being a regular choir member but might like to join with us for this one special service, to please let me know asap. We can make arrangements to work on this piece first each choir night so you would not have to stay for the entire practice time. The music chosen for this year is a great piece and the more voices we can muster up, the better it will sound. We also need a couple of trumpet players, a French horn player and other brass parts. The piece also includes arrangement for timpani. Not sure how we could manage that but if anyone has an idea I would be happy to consider it. We look forward to preparing pieces for regular Sunday services as well. The music we chose is generally not very difficult and we would love to have more singers. If you love to sing and you d like to join us, please let me know. Lutherans and Catholics together. Apr A cultural-type afternoon event with Bishop Michael Pryse. Location and other details for this event have not yet been determined. Sometime around Pentecost 2017, which is June 4th (but exact date not yet determined) an evening Ecumenical Service with as many of our fellow faith denominations as possible. This is still in early planning stages. Details will be provided as they become available. Super Crawl 2017 this is a multi-faceted event in Hamilton which takes place on the 2nd or 3rd weekend of September. It draws upwards of 200,000 visitors and would be an opportunity to share information about the Reformation and the times in which that occurred. There Thanks to everyone who sent cards, called and prayed for my recovery, thanks to all, Dieter are a limited number of spaces so we must wait to see if our application gets accepted. Oct Lutherfest Dinner and Joint Reformation Service at Faith Brantford. I hope that many people from Faith will take part in some, or all of these special events commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. The Joint Bay Area Picnic was a great success. See article and photos by Bill Neeb elsewhere in this edition of Echoes. The date for next year s picnic has been set for June 17th 2017, to be held once again at Germania Park. We hope that more people will choose to attend next time. The Bay Area Ministry is one of the early success stories in this new structure set up to replace the former Conference structure. This is due, in part to the great leadership of our Dean, Thomas Mertz of St John s and Faith Hamilton, but also to the fact that it is being built on the previous good working relationship between the four Hamilton Lutheran churches Faith, Grace, St John s and Transfiguration. Added to that group now are Holy Cross Burlington, Redeemer Fisherville, Christ Latvian/Estonian and Faith Brantford. We have a great working group and leadership team and you should see many good things happening as a result.

5 WITTENBERG ON A VIKING RIVER CRUISE Bill & Isabel Neeb Visited Wittenberg on a Viking River Cruise in April, The Luther House in Wittenberg was the main place where Martin Luther lived and worked for almost 35 years - first as a monk in 1508, and then as a husband and father of six children after his marriage to Katharine Von Bora in In 1883, the Luther House became a museum. Baptismal Font (left) Luther s statue is in Wittenberg, 1822, in the Market Square. The two pictures on the right show Old Town Church (Stadtkirche) which has double towers. Luther was married there and his six children were baptized in this church. (below) The Castle Church is the University church. Luther s tomb is in this church. In 1517, Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church. The current door is made of Bronze, and engraved with all ninety- five theses. Castle Church was closed to us because it is having renovations in preparation for the 500th Yr. Ann. Around the band at the top of the tower to the right says, A Mighty Fortress is our God. 5 VISIT LUT HERAN BRANT FORD.COM OR FB: F A ITH-E V ANGELI CAL-L U T HERAN-C HURCH /

6 VISIT LUT HERAN BRANT FORD.COM OR FB: F A ITH-E V ANGELI CAL-L U T HERAN-C HURCH / 6 REFLECTIONS Welcome to Canada! Those words still echo in my mind as I reflect on the last few months since our Sudanese family, refugees in Lebanon, arrived. Since those heartfelt words by Uwe Storjohann (echoing the welcoming group s feelings) on March 10, 2016 in the Toronto airport, much has happened. The Ibrahim family, Omar, Manal, Mohamad, Fatima and Rahaf, introduced to the congregation on the Sunday following their arrival, have been adjusting to life in Canada. They have had the opportunity to meet many of you on Sundays when they have attended the church service, as well as coffee hours that followed. It has been a new experience for many of us, as well as for the Ibrahim s. While we rejoice over the many wonderful moments shared over this period of time, due to the language barriers, we have become very innovative in our approach to the challenges both sides faced. Our first few months were filled with meetings of the Refugee Committee; appointments at Settlement Services, school visits (both elementary school and English-as-a-Second- Language classes); Service Canada, Canadian Immigration in Kitchener; many dentist, optometrist, doctor and hospital visits; landlord visits re security system and keys, as well as trips to sort out TV requirements, followed by another trip to Service Canada and Service Ontario, Brantford, as well as a final visit to Service Ontario in Hamilton. Of course, the family was very involved in most of those trips, to which Omar always brought his briefcase full of the necessary papers. For the summer months, city funding was sought and arrangements made for the two older children, Mohamad and Fatima, to attend the City s day camps at Earl Haig and Mohawk Park for two weeks at each, as well as one week at the YMCA Sports Camp. It has been most rewarding to have parishioners come forward to drive and pick up the children from the camps not within walking distance. Omar and Manal initiated driving lessons on their own and have achieved their G-1 licence. An opportunity was presented to Omar by Volker Storjohann to obtain his Forklift Licence through a training program at the Mill. Omar Having some fun at Lorne Park, the Ibrahim family; at top, Mohamad and mother Manal, front (l-r) father Omar, baby Rahaf and Fatima himself has sourced out some work hours at a local convenience store and we have secured a small cleaning job for Manal for a few hours a week at the apartment building. We are most thankful that we have a family of parishioners who have supported this resettlement endeavour, not only with monetary gifts, but with offers of assistance, whether it be driving to appointments, teaching, banking, budgeting, translation, visiting, remembering them in prayer, or providing opportunities for them to acclimatize to our Canadian way of life, while helping them retain their own heritage. The gift of the Holy Spirit, who inspired the sponsorship of the Ibrahim family, we pray will provide us with the guidance needed to continue to serve Omar, Manal, Mohamad, Fatima and Rahaf as they continue to grow in their new life in Canada. Thanks be to God! The Refugee Sponsorship Committee

7 JUST ANOTHER REFUGEE STORY On Refugee Sunday, we heard a few stories from people s refuge from war torn countries. I thought that I could have told my own story, but I was not prepared. So if you are interested, here is how my parents and I were leaving Germany to flee to Denmark, my father s birth land. We had been living in Berlin from 1940 to 1944, except my mother and I were invited by my grandmother to come and live with her in a town called Rathenow. It was a small city located 30 km west of Berlin, so mother and I moved there approximately 1942 when I was 10 years old. My father was an opera singer and went on tournees with a group of other artists to entertain soldiers at the very front. That was a very dangerous way of earning good money, and I remember how worried we were many times and could hardly wait until he returned. My mother was often ill and was treated by some of the best doctors and surgeons available in Berlin. There was no health insurance and bills had to be paid! The air raids on Berlin were increasingly horrifying, so my father was glad that mother and I could stay with grandmother while he was away for longer times. I loved this city of Rathenow by the Havel River and soon made friends with the children in the apartment house where my grandmother lived. It was located on the outskirts of the city near beautiful pine forests. There were hardly any air raids, but nightly alarms were forcing us to pack up and seek shelter in the basement. The men were often standing out front of the house to watch the bombing of Berlin. It was like a firework - gigantic and colourful - and horrible! My father was born in Denmark and his mother still lived there. In March 1945, he and my mother made the decision to try and flee to Denmark. The country was occuppied by German military. Dad could do seemingly impossible things, among others did he bribe people to move our furniture, books and other treasures to Aalborg where his mother lived. Then he and mom packed whatever they could carry along in suitcases. My grandmother did not want to come with us as she was waiting for my step-grandfatheer who was in the war. So there were emotional farewells from grandmother and friends. I was heart broken to part with my best friend Christel, who was in on this, although I was suppossed to keep our plan secret. Our beautiful apartment in Berlin-Wilmersdorf was partly bombed. But my room with smaller furniture, my parent s bedroom, large chairs from living room, china, kitchen utensils, and my dad s large stamp collection, etc., were already on the way north. We somehow made it to one of the main railway stations in Berlin. But to get into the right train was another story. There were masses of people pushing themselves throught the crowds. There was so much noise and confusion. I will never forget. Finally, we found the train. How my father got seats for us - but he did! Then we looked out of the window of the slow moving train. All we saw were ruins and debris. My mother and I cried seeing our Berllin like that. Our compartment was packed with nervous people, and more and more were lookin for seats and room for their luggage. We were all afraid of air raids on the train, and before we reached the border there were bombeers flying over us, but notheing happened. In Flensburg, near the border, we had to get out of the train with all our luggage to go through customs. My mother had a fight with a German officer who would not let her keep a book she got from a friend as a farewll gift. She was so angry that she threw it to his feet. That could have gotten us into serious trouble, but we were lucky. Meanwhile, over 200 books had already arrived in Aalborg! Now in Flensburg, we came to know that we could not get any further as the train before us had been sabotaged and had to be removed to make room for the next train. So we stayed in a hotel over night. (We had a mouse in our room and someone came to get it.) Exhausted as we were, we slept anyway! In Padborg, shortly after the border, we had to change trains again. We had time to eat our first Danish meal. I had breadsoup with whipping cream and got sick as I was not used to rich food. We reached Aalborg only to hear that my grand mother (farmor) had died two weeks before. We could stay in her little apartment on Samkel-Marksgade for three weeks. So my parents remembered the village of Öster Hurup right by the sea where we had been on holiday one year before. We came to know people there, so my father called the butcher Ais Nórgaard and he said to come out there, he would help us to find a place. And he did. it was a summer house that was occuppied by a German Commander with his soldieers. My dad talked him into giving the house free so we could move there. Ais bought it from the actual owneer and we paid rent to Ais. We were very happy and grateful. We had a beautiful view onto the sea and the surrounding farm houses with their gardens. After we moved in, the war came to an end and people celebrated, but we were having mixed feelings thinking all our dear ones who were now facing terrible problems. We stayed in Hurup for almost four years and had wonderful friends. I still go there to visit friends in my own age group remembering the old ones who so kindly welcomed us and helped without any hesitation, greatly thanks to my dear mother who took everyone with her charm and warm heart. She died in 1951, 39 years old. At that time, we were re-united with my grandmotheer from Germany. Helga Sen, July VISIT LUT HERAN BRANT FORD.COM OR FB: F A ITH-E V ANGELI CAL-L U T HERAN-C HURCH /

8 VISIT LUTHERAN BRANTFORD.COM OR FB: FAITH-EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN-CHURCH / 8 SCOUTS Scouting at Faith will be starting off very busy. All Sections will be implementing the Canadian Path program and ensuring all standards are met and the youth are providing their wants and interests into the program. A kick off Pot Luck Bar- B-Q at Mohawk Park on Wed. September 6 pm. All 5 Sections are open for new registrations including Adult Volunteers. It s only 1-1/2 hrs per week commitment really! OR if you wish to become more involved, a position on Group Committee, or Fundraising would be a benefit to the group. Cubs in the picture are preparing their Pink Panther Sub-Camp T- Shirts they will be wearing on September 24th at Camp Bel in Dorchester. Scouts finished off a 9 day Great Lakes Jambo at Camp Bel in July. Shown in pictures is the group Building an hourglass tower at camp. of 20th Faith Scouts and 1st Paris Scouts who twinned with us. Giving them a first time Jambo experience. They got to partake in Dutch Oven cooking; S.T.E.M. programming working with remote cars, robots and drones; Canoeing. Thanks to all who helped with our fundraising/ bottle drive donations to make this camp a memorable one for everyone! With that being said our annual Popcorn Campaign starts off with order deadlines the end of October. Start your Christmas season shopping with us. Contact Jane Redin to place your order. Watch for flyers in the Sunday bulletins. September 17th is a scheduled event at the Luther Marsh Wildlife Management Area for hands on activities of butterfly banding; bird feeder building, archery; fly tying; falconry along with a demonstration from the MNRF Canine Unit. Apple Day Campaign will come about in October again and we truly appreciate any support you give our group. Yours in Scouting Jane Redin Group Commissioner Troop Scouter

9 YOUTH - CLAY 2016 CLAY CLAY Participants will hold a presentation with a coffee hour following the 10:30am Service on September 25th. Keep that in your calendars. We want to share our experience with the Congregation. 9 9 VISIT LUT HERAN BRANT FORD.COM OR FB: F A ITH-E V ANGELI CAL-L U T HERAN-C HURCH /

10 VISIT LUTHERAN BRANTFORD.COM OR FB: FAITH-EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN-CHURCH / 10 BITS AND PIECES Bay Area Church Picnic on Saturday, June 4, 2016 at Germania Park, 4240 Trinity Church Road, Binbrook, ON Faith Church was well represented at the Bay Area Picnic. We met at the church at 11 a.m. and carpooled to the park. Upon our Fix the front steps! Steps underway (no pun intended) to refurbish the Church Street entrance steps!... watch for details and opportunities to assist with funding through the Restoration & Renewal Fund. One member has jump started the fundraising with a dedicated offering. Any donations can be marked for this purpose on your weekly giving envelopes. Thank you Property Committee arrival we were warmly greeted by our dean, Thomas Mertz, and his church members from St. Johns Lutheran Church in Hamilton. Between people from the Bay Area were gathered at picnic tables under shady trees in the park. Our church had the second largest group, other than St. Johns. A lively singsong, with hymns from With One Voice was led by Tom and three women, one of them our Dorothy Emmerson. We were accompanied on the keyboard by talented Heide Lang. We read Psalm 104 responsively. Each attendee was given a photo by Kjell Bloch Sandved, a Norwegian nature photographer, with the letters of the alphabet found FELLOWSHIP As we are nearing the end of summer, we are already looking forward to starting up again for our fall season. Our program remains the same - the last Wednesday of each month 1:30 to 4:00. We will meet September through November but not in December. We are always looking for new people to join us for a fun afternoon of euchre. Florence Smith Coordinator on butterfly wings. This demonstrates God s beautiful creation. This can be seen at posters. Our lunch was sausage on a bun with delicious sauerkraut and German potato salad. We then had a table of desserts from which to choose. These were provided at a minimal cost. Petra Hilgendag was in charge of the children s games. All ages were present and everybody had a wonderful time. We encourage each of you to plan to attend next year. Last Wednesday Fellowship

11 BAY AREA SPECIAL EVENT 11 VISIT LUT HERAN BRANT FORD.COM OR FB: F A ITH-E V ANGELI CAL-L U T HERAN-C HURCH /

12 VISIT LUTHERAN BRANTFORD.COM OR FB: FAITH-EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN-CHURCH / CONSENT FORMS Media Use Consent Forms Because we ve evolved into the digital age, so must we grow our policy for the use of media such as photographs, videos, voice recordings and any future media. As a result of privacy legislation and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPED), Council has developed a consent form known as Media Use Consent Form. The form essentially gives Faith Lutheran permission to use any photos, videos, sound recordings, or any other form of media present and future in any of our publications such as Echoes, Church Facebook site, Church website, posters and other promotional materials to promote Faith Lutheran Church activities. You can either choose to complete the form to let us know outright that we can use any media that your likeness appears in, in any of our publications. You can also complete the form to let us know that you do not want to give us permission to use your likeness in any of our publications, or you can complete the form to give us partial use of your likeness. OR, you can choose not to complete the form. Please note, we may use your likeness in our publications if you haven t told us NOT to publish your photos. The forms are available from the Church Office. If you have any further questions about the form, please your concerns to council@faithlutheranbrantford.com. echoes newsletter Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church 57 Brant Avenue Brantford, ON N3T 3G9