THE CALLER. Our Mission: Empowering others with the Good News of Jesus Christ:

Transcription

1 MAY 2018 THE CALLER Our Mission: Empowering others with the Good News of Jesus Christ: Making Connections, Enriching Faith, Nourishing Lives, and Demonstrating love in God s Name (The following is from Pastor Steve s Annual Report reflecting on 2017) WORSHIP TIMES Sunday 10am at St. Paul s Saturday 5pm Crossroads Lutheran. If you can t make it Sunday, join us at Crossroads for Saturday services. ST.PAULS LUTHERAN CHURCH CELEBRATES THE FIRST COMMUNION WITH HAZEL BISHOP, LOUIS FASOLINO, BRODY MACDONELL, COLE MATA, ELIAS RODRIGUEZ, LEAH SKINNER AND BRYNN WYLES. I m terrible at these Annual reports. Truthfully, I m terrible at reports in general. I can barely remember what I had for dinner last night, let alone stuff that happened a year ago at St. Paul s. One of the problems is that I have dinner every night!! Each evening at home, on the go, off site, I stop for a few minutes and add the nutrition and sustenance that I need to get me through and refresh me. There are sooooo many dinners that they blend in! And there have been sooooo many great parts about the year at St. Paul s that they almost blend in too. This is not your normal church with a short highlight reel. This is a vibrant, growing mission making more and more connections into the community and world that it s a tad hard to track sometimes. We have a few stats of some sacred things that happened: four Confirmations, nine baptisms, 11 weddings and 22 funerals (members and non-members). I did home communions in nursing homes, bedrooms, dining room tables, next to fire trucks, the front lawn of church, in bars, and at camp. I listened to stories of grief, suffering, trauma, joy, birth, celebration, anniversaries, and everything in between. Due to our shift in cultural communication, I probably had more text conversations than phone calls, more Skype pre-marital talks than ever, and even a couple baptismal sponsors brought in on Facetime. But we have no accurate count of many things that matter just as much or more: the invitations you made that brought people to worship; the meals you sold that few the hungry in the neighborhood; the fellowship and stories you shared and listened to; the lap blankets you created and gave away; the fundraisers you supported that drove mission opportunities and trips; the culture you create on Sunday morning around laughter and coffee that makes more and more people comfortable; the visitors you greeted; and the people you lifted up in prayer. But in every one of those amazing actions, like another dinner meal, you nourished, you fed, you blessed, you recharged. We might not be able to track them all, but the blessing of God was pouring out through you the church in the world around us. Thank you for another year of mission: for the creative partnerships that are building with Crossroads, the new missions like the Tiger s Den, the growing reach of Daily Bread, and whatever else God has planned for us as The Lutheran Church of 14226! Still in One Peace, ps St. Paul s is a congregation of the Niagara Frontier Conference of the Upstate New York Synod Of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

2 May 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat am BS 10 am Comforters 3-7pm TD 5pm SSC 5pm Yoga 8pm AA 6pm Alanon 7pm NAMI BM 7:30pm CR 6 10am HC/ Congregational Meeting Lutheran Charities Sunday and Celebration of DBFT 7 6pm DB 6:15pm GS 8 10am BS 5pm Yoga 7pm ECO/ 7pm CC 7pm GSL 7:15pm GS 9 8pm AA 10 12pm Retired Folks 6pm Alanon 7pm NFC 7:30 pm CR 11 5:30pm NFC 12 9am MC 9a-1pm TD 3pm GS 5pm SSC Mother s Day 6pm DB 10am BS 7pm NAMI 3-7pm TD 5pm SSC 10am HC 7pm GSL 5pm Yoga 8p AA 6pm Alanon 7:15pm GS 7:30pm CR am HC 6pm DB 10am BS 8pm AA 6pm Alanon 9am MC 6:15pm GS 5pm Yoga 7:30pm CR 9a-1p TD 7:15pm GS 5pm SSC am HC 6pm DB 10am BS 8pm AA 3-7pm TD 7pm RSD 5pm Yoga 6pm Alanon 7:30pm CR AA Alcoholics Anonymous NFC NAMI Family Classes BS Bible Study CC Church Council YG Youth Group GS Girl Scout Meeting (GSL Girl Scout Leadership) MC Men s Club DB Danceability HC Holy Communion WTG Way to Go Tours SSC Saturday Service at Crossroads TD Tigers Den CR Choir Rehearsal DBFT Daily Bread Food Truck Yoga Yogavation

3 SEEKING CONNECTIONS We are redoing the flooring in the Fellowship Hall with help from Memorial Funds. The renovations will be occurring from April 30th May 20th. God on Tap is done for the spring season. Save the 3rd Tuesday of the month in the Fall as we tackle more issues of faith and life! Boy Scout Troop 261 (Sponsor: Amherst Middle/HS PTSI) Sunday, May 6th Take-out Chiavetta s BBQ Chicken Dinner Come to on-the-spot charcoal flame St. Benedict s Parking Lot (Main Eggert Rd) Drive By/Pick up from 3-6pm 1/2 Chicken potato salad cole slaw roll/ butter Tickets $10.00 Pre-sale or : Leave name, phone number, address, and number of Dinners. A Scout will contact you and deliver your tickets! Always, everywhere God is present, and always He seeks to discover Himself to each one A. W. Tozer

4 Greeter Schedule Please be in place at the Back Narthex entrance doors by 9:45 (well before the service begins.) The next rotation is listed below. If you are unable to keep an assigned greeting date, please phone someone on the list to change places with you, then notify Katie of the change Thanks, Karen Brown Date Name Phone number May 6 Marilyn Emerson May 13 Bertha Efstation May 20 Barbara Walter barb@thewaltersweb.net May 27 Kaetlyn and Robert Simpson (917) BSimpson24@gmail.com Usher Schedule 5/6/2018 Scott Vahue Eleanor Vahue Ellen Herdman Jeff Mols /13/2018 Lonnie Walter Dave Metz Jim Tanevich Ron Miller /20/2018 Bob Brown Ben Brown Karen Brown Lizzy Brown Welcome our New Missionaries to St. Paul s! Brian and Wendy Wyles (Brynn and Cade) Jeff and Karen Brzycki Sally Gollman Gerri Horton

5 ENRICHING FAITH MAY YOUTH NEWS It may be cold and rainy as I write this update but in my heart it is spring! A time of transition. We start wrapping up our school year programs and gearing up for lots of summer fun! Take a look at what s ahead. SUNDAY SCHOOL: Our 6th-12th grade class will end on May 13th. We re continuing to share our highs and lows and talk through the gospel lesson with a fun teen focus. YOUTH NIGHT: ONLY 3 more! We hold youth nights on Saturday after the 5pm worship service at Crossroads Lutheran Church. 6th-12th graders are invited for these fun, impacting nights together we eat dinner together before our games and activities begin about 6pm and go until 9pm. Mark you calendars for April 28th, May 19th & June 2nd. ELCA YOUTH GATHERING: THANK YOU! Thank you so much for all your support! From buying Buffalutheran mugs and glasses to eating delicious Spaghetti Dinner and donating baskets and desserts. We appreciate you! There will be a sending for our team at church on Sunday, June 24th. The 16 youth we are sending out include Kaci & Alex Gottler, John, Jordan & Jared Dywan, Nina & Nathan Shanley, McKenzie Israel, Kate & Ilya Svec, Josh & Matt Seyse, Tori Wedgwood, Emilee Backstrom, Kaylin Craig, and Hunter Notaro! LCLC - Its time! Sign up for camp quick! Programming is available for kids who've finished grades St. Paul's can help with campership money too. Sign up today! Peace, Kristen Arends (KK) kristen.arends@gmail.com Two More Opportunities to Support your ELCA Gathering Team! Bottle & Can Drive! We are collecting cans through May 6th as our last fundraiser for the ELCA Youth Gathering. Bring your cans and bottles to church and leave them in the big container or take them directly to Integrity Bottle & Can Redemption at 2790 Sheridan Drive, Tonawanda and tell them you d like the money to go to the ELCA Youth Gathering. Eat at The Grill at the Dome! Tuesday, May 29th, 175 Brompton Road, Tonawanda, NY Go out to eat for lunch or dinner and 20% of your bill will automatically be donated back to our group

6 ENRICHING FAITH The Lutheran Chorale of the Niagara Frontier bids Farewell to Thomas J. Mudd, Jr., Director If you love to sing and want to share your beautiful voice on Sundays during service Please join us for Choir Rehearsals Thursday evenings at 7:30pm in the Choir Room led by the one and only Mr. Paul Storfer! We would love to see you there! With its concert Thanks and Praise Sunday, May 20, pm St. John s Lutheran Church 3512 Clinton Street West Seneca, NY Tickets $12.00 Adults Selections by Faure, Britten, Aguiar, Gilpin and others will be featured on the program Call for more information or visit our website: ier.com Every Sunday two bouquets adorn the altar at St. Paul s. They can be dedicated in honor of a person, sometimes an event anniversary, birthday, baptism, etc. Anyone can dedicate flowers and we can have multiple dedications for a Sunday. The bouquets are then delivered to our shut-in or hospitalized members after worship. Flower order envelopes are in the pew racks and include prices. There are also Visitor informational slips in the bulletins as well where you may also choose to include your information for Flower orders. You may fill them out and place them in the offertory baskets during service. If you know of anyone that may be celebrating a special event or is a shut-in, please let us know so that we may add them to the list of recipients. Also, please call the Church office at if you are able to help deliver after Sunday service.

7 Happy Spring I think. I am hoping by the time you read this our weather will be starting to look and feel more like spring! We welcomed in our month of April celebrating our risen Lord on Easter morning! The children had a great time finding hidden eggs indoors as it was a bit to chilly to have our hunt outside this year. When the children returned to Sunday school we talked about the butterfly analogy. How the whole life cycle can symbolize the life of Jesus. We talked about how we can spread our wings of love to others. The following week we talked about how Jesus is the good shepherd. I used a shepherd s crook to show the kids how a sheep would gently be brought back to the flock if it strays. I explained that we are the sheep and that Jesus is our shepherd who gently brings us back if we stray. We can be brought back by listening and learning from His teachings with the bible being our crook. Our last week of April we learned about how Jesus is the vine and we are His branches. By keeping Jesus in our heart and life our branches can produce good fruit. Our fruit of peace, love, and kindness! While some of our children learned about being fruitful branches, our other children were taking their first sip of wine (or grape juice) during their first communion in church with Pastor Steve. Congratulations to: Hazel Bishop, Louis Fasolino, Brody MacDonell, Cole Mata, Elias Rodriguez, Leah Skinner, Brynn Wyles Looking ahead to May 13th, our children will not have Sunday school in order to be able to worship with their mom s on Mother s Day! In peace and love ~ June ENRICHING FAITH

8 NOURISHING LIVES Prayer Shawls covering with love.. Thank you for the Prayer Shawl. I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. Thank you also for being a support to my Mom. Thank you so very much for the kind and thoughtful gift. It will definitely keep me warm on these cold days we have. I truly appreciate all your kindness and prayer. We would like to send our thanks to you for your friendship, support, care and love during this difficult time. I love the prayer shawl. It brings me great comfort. Dearest Members of The St. Paul s Family, I was awe struck by your love and support while I was so ill this year. In December 2017, I traveled to Scotland to visit friends and family to celebrate the New Year when I became severely ill and was admitted for 14 days in the hospital. Upon my return back to the United States four weeks later, I realized that I was still not healing properly and was admitted once again into the hospital for another two weeks. I am so blessed to be here at St. Paul s surrounded by your love and prayers. I can not verbalize how even the smallest of texts or s brought me so much comfort.and of course seeing Steve s face and other members of the Church that stopped by to see me while I was hospitalized. I thank The Comforters as well for my beautiful Prayer Shawl. Now I am on the mend and I am getting better and stronger every day. Thank you all once again for all that you do. Blessings, Katie Nagel-Santillo We completed the last of this winter/spring "Give One" meal deliveries on April 28. We delivered over 600 meals to Windermere Blvd. School families on nine Saturdays. Our deepest thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who delivered the Give One meals especially on some very cold and snowy Saturdays this winter and, as always, much thanks to our chefs, Tony and Emilie Piette, who put together excellent meals for the families. Spring appears to have finally sprung and we are looking forward to kicking off the Food Truck season with our first event on May 20 at St. Martin's Lutheran Church on Old Falls Blvd. We will be at St. Paul's the 2nd Sunday of each month (June 10, July 8, August 12, and September 9) so mark your calendar to enjoy the best food while supporting a most worthy cause.

9 NOURISHING LIVES Thank you to all of the volunteers who have helped in creating and donating to the new Tiger s Den Food Pantry. This Food Pantry is available to anyone in need in the zip code and by referral as well. The Tiger's Den Food Pantry will be open from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the following Thursdays: May 3, May 17, and May 31; and from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the following Saturdays: May 12 and May 26 The May collection items are: Crunchy Peanut Butter, SPAM, and pears Thank you so much for your continuing support of this ongoing need! Dear Pastor Steve and the St. Paul s Congregation: We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to you and the parishioners of St. Paul s for your continued support and kindness to the Tiger's Den Food Pantry. St. Paul s donations of non-perishable food, paper products, and personal care items have allowed us to provide necessary supplies to those in need within our community. The Tiger s Den Food Pantry was opened in May 2017 with approximately 24 families. Since that time, we have almost doubled the number of our clients. The need in our area zip code continues to grow, and the generosity of St. Paul s enables us to address these needs. Whereas other churches, schools, and organizations have continued to support the efforts of the Tiger s Den Food Pantry, St. Paul s has lived with us through our struggles to establish a viable source of food and other items within our area. St. Paul s is the primary reason why we have been able to continue with our mission for almost a year. When we opened, you provided food and financial support to help us get the pantry on its feet. You watched as we grew from just two rooms downstairs, to the larger, more efficient layout we have now. You accepted our growing pains as we continued to help more clients. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to those members of St. Paul s who so generously give of their time to collect and deliver donations, and volunteer at the Pantry. These dedicated individuals are what make the Tiger s Den Food Pantry function as well as it does, and their kind-hearted caring is very evident to all of our clients. Many of our clients have often remarked what a friendly and caring group we are, which is a direct reflection of our volunteers. We just wanted to let you know how many lives you enhanced through your generosity to the Tiger's Den Food Pantry. Thank you for being "guardian angels" for those in need. Gratefully, Carolyn Catalano and Adrienne Leary

10 NOURISHING LIVES New for 2018, some of us at St. Paul's have formed a "Safety Team" to look at how the Church can best handle any emergency situation life circumstances may throw at us while at Church. Most of the congregation will not need to know or worry about any of the inner-workings of the team, but a small group of us will be preparing a plan of action for dealing with any issues that may arise. The areas we are most concerned with are acts of God such as snow storms or flooding, accidents that may occur on Church property, medical emergencies, and also acts of violence by man. We will be coordinating with the Amherst Police as well as a few key people in Church who are former/present military or law enforcement, EMTs, nurses, etc. In the coming weeks we will be putting together a plan to deal with anything life throws our way! Safe Church It s not too early to be thinking about this! It will be here before you even know it! 2018 Summer Reservations or information for The Lutheran House at Chautauqua Institution. ebay News from Sara Gallagher, May 2018 Only a couple of sales to report: Large 13 Glass Pedestal Vase, Hand painted Lot of 24 skeins of Norwegian wool yarn, various colors May is also the time for me to prepare my Annual Report to the congregation. In 2017 we had 58 sales for a profit of $1, The months with the most sales were June (10) and November (11). Deposits to our checking account totaled $1,060. Money that had accumulated from ebay sales were used to pay for the TV that was installed in the sanctuary. Prayer Shawl labels for the Comforters were purchased with our PayPal account. As always, thank you for your support. Contact me. SaraJG@aol.com, find me at church, or call Please contact Sue or Jerry Keppel at Sunday May 20th at Canalside For more information: call or visit HospiceMemorialWalk.com Registration deadline is May 10th!

11 DEMONSTRATING GODS LOVE Thanks for giving! Thank you for your contribution to the Lutheran Foundation of WNY, your support of the Foundation s mission and your continued partnership in the philanthropic Lutheran community. Barb Biegner ~ The Lutheran Charities Foundation of Western New York Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center is truly blessed by friends like you who give to our ministry. Your donation goes toward a bathroom addition for Cabin #1! Thanks for helping to make LCLC a more comfortable place for our campers. Lee Lindeman ~ Executive Director LCLC Thank you for your gift to Lutheran Charities! Your generosity helps us support local social services such as the Seneca Street Community Development Corporation (CDC). We value your partnership with Lutheran Charities. Together we re making a positive difference in people s lives in Western New York. Thomas Madden ~ Executive Director Lutheran Charities of WNY Thank you again so much for your wonderfully generous support of our Leadership Council Campaign again this year! Daniel McMullen ~ Executive Director of Development and Marketing Niagara Lutheran Health Foundation May is Mental Health Awareness Month Get in the Game Please join us to hear a VOICE of HOPE for MENTAL HEALTH Tackling Mental Health Issues Keith O Neil: Super Bowl Winner and author of Under My Helmet NFL Champion of the football field and in the field of Mental Health Advocacy shares his journey with bipolar disorder. Wednesday, May 9th 6:30 8:30pm Christ United Methodist Church 350 Saratoga Road Amherst, NY RSVP (716) or cumc350@gmail.com (

12 US Postage St. Paul s Lutheran Church 4007 Main Street Eggertsville NY Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID Permit #3595 Buffalo New York St. Paul s Evangelical Lutheran Church Our Mission: Empowering others with the Good News of Jesus Christ: Making Connections, Enriching Faith, Nourishing Lives, and Demonstrating love in God s Name Pastor: The Rev. Steve Biegner ( cell) Communications Director: Katie Nagel-Santillo Assemblers: Dorothy Menth, Marilyn Emerson, Betty Arbogast, Dolores Shearer, Marilynn Speich, Norma Stevenson, Joyce Chace, Joan Maefs, Bertha Efstation, Sue Keppel Telephone: (716) Fax: (716) office@stpaulseggertsville.org Web: