St. John s United Church of Christ Schwarzwald

Transcription

1 St. John s United Church of Christ Schwarzwald The Small Church with the Big Heart That Does Great Things! W3401 Orchard Road, Elkhart Lake, WI 53020; Phone: Schwarzwald@tds.net; Website: Schwarzwalducc.org facebook.com/stjohnsuccschwarzwald Pastor Melinda Feller Cell Phone: revfellerucc@gmail.com Pastor s Day off - Monday Council President Diane Weiland Church Treasurer Tanya Gosse Church Secretary Vicki Wagner s Hours: Tuesday-8:00 am to 2:00 pm; Wednesday-8:00 am to 1:00 pm; Friday 8:00 am to 12:00 pm Sunday Worship Service at 9:15 am (fellowship time to follow service) Sunday School at 10:30 am (September to May) If you are interested in making St. John s your church home or need pastoral care, please contact the church or Pastor Melinda at the phone numbers listed above. Should your call be answered by the answering machine, please leave a message. August Evangelism November Mary Marthas September Hand Bells December Women s Guild October Church Council

2 I ve been thinking a lot lately about the word resiliency. One of my favorite dictionary definitions of this word is, the human ability to recover quickly from disruptive change, or misfortune without being overwhelmed or acting in dysfunctional or harmful ways. It is the ability to not just bounce back from challenging times, but to use the learnings from the challenging times to face whatever the future may hold. On June 24 th, at our Special Congregational Meeting to vote on giving our Church Council permission to talk with other churches about shared ministry, someone asked the question: Is this the hardest thing we ve ever faced? Almost immediately, many heads nodded no. It was an acknowledgement that we ve faced tough, challenging times in the past, risen above them, and moved forward with hope and joy. That s resiliency in action! Many communities of faith do not have a built-in resiliency to see them through present, let alone future, challenges. We do. Our Church Council reminded us that several decades ago, St. Paul s UCC voted to close and merge with us. The members and descendants of St. Paul s have blessed St. John s with faithfulness, dedication, and a love of the church. More recently, we faced a challenge that divided our church over pastoral leadership. We came through that with strength and faith. We have a built-in resiliency that will see us through the challenge of shared ministry. However, resiliency isn t something to be taken for granted. It needs to be nurtured and fostered in an on-going way. How do we do that? o Pray daily for God to bless the members of St. John s with a discerning spirit as we seek God s best path for the future. This simple practice assumes that the same God who is here in our present will meet us in our future. o Pray for our Church Council as they talk with area churches about shared ministry that they may discern the best possible match for us. o Pray for yourself as we move forward. All of us will need a spirit of generosity, flexibility, and grace as we adjust to a new future. At the same time, we are grieving the loss of what was. o Talk openly with the leadership of our church about your thoughts, feelings, and ideas regarding shared ministry. There is wisdom in the group that cannot be found in the individual. We need everyone s input as we move forward, especially open and honest communication. Resiliency is a gift from God. It is rooted in the joy of service to our Lord trusting that everything isn t about us but about God. It is rooted in hope knowing that the same God who walks with us today walks with us into an unknown future. It is rooted in faith believing that our best days lie ahead not behind us. Shalom, Pastor Melinda

3 Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost August 5, 2018 Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost August 12, 2018 Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost August 19, Samuel 11:26 12:13a Psalm 78:23 29 Ephesians 4:1 16 John 6: Samuel 18:5 9, 15, Psalm 34:1 8 Ephesians 4:25 5:2 John 6:35, Kings 2:10 12; 3:3 14 Psalm 34:9 14 Ephesians 5:15 20 John 6:51 58 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost August 26, Kings 8:(1,6,10 11), 22 30, Psalm 34:15 22 Ephesians 6:10 20 John 6:56 69 MISSION SUNDAY UPDATE OPERATION GRATITUDE Our February Mission Sunday focused on Operation Gratitude as we collected items for boxes to be sent to our service men and women, wrote thank-you cards, and made paracord survival bracelets. Some of our members crocheted or knitted hats and scarves for the boxes. Recently, Operation Gratitude sent the following out to all organizations that have participated in this important ministry: Dear Friends, I got one of your care packages in the mail along with other members of my company. It s getting really cold out here in the Middle East on my deployment. With my care package I got several goodies and one thing that really popped out to me was the beige scarf that was handmade. It keeps me warm at night physically and emotionally R. Rodriguez It is clear from this and others we have received that the scarves and hats you have made care are among the most cherished items in our Care Packages. Operation Gratitude has an urgent need for knitted/crocheted scarves and hats. At the end of July, we are likely to ship the last scarf that we have in our inventory. This isn t because we are receiving less scarves than normal. In fact, we have seen a tremendous increase in the amount of Handmade with Love items that we have received. The reason is because we are shipping out more scarves and hats than ever not only to our deployed Troops, but also to a rapidly increasing number of WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam Veterans who receive our Care Packages before flying to our nation's capital on Honor Flights from across the country. We need your help in knitting or crocheting scarves and hats for our nation s Heroes. We expect to send an additional 50,000 of them in our Care Packages before the end of Thank you for your support of Operation Gratitude s mission to serve all those who serve. None of this would be possible without you! Sincerely, Stacey Danlyan If you knit or crochet, please consider making some more scarves or hats for Operation Gratitude. Finished scarves should be 4-6 in width and in length. Give them to me when complete and I will take care of mailing them. Thank you for your help with this vital ministry! Shalom, Pastor Melinda

4 How about participating in a parade? You can walk or ride along. The Evangelism Committee is planning to have a float in the following local parades this summer August 5 in Cleveland August 12 in Kiel Sign up on the poster board in the back for one or both parades! Also check out the Donation Jar for purchasing candy for the parade walkers to throw. Contact Janet at with any questions! It s a lot of fun! Our August Mission Sunday will be on Friday, August 3 rd for Family Bonfire Church with Communion at Dave & Vicki Wagner s home beginning at 6:00 pm. We ask you to bring a snack to pass, lawn chairs and your own beverages. S more supplies, plates, napkins and cups will be provided. We encourage you to bring gently used and new medical supplies for Mano a Mano. To connect with our wider community, we urge you to invite friends, neighbors and coworkers to this service. It will be informal and shorter. There will not be worship in the church building on Sunday, August 5 th. For the month of August, we are requesting jars of Peanut Butter and A Special Thank You to Alice Schmit for paying for the sealing of our parking lot black top. It looks great! jars of Jelly. The items can be placed in the basket under the fire extinguisher in the back in the Narthex. Thank you for all of your donations! Pastor Melinda will be holding office hours at Log Cabin in Howards Grove on Saturday mornings from 8:30 am to 10:00 am for the following Saturdays: August 4, 11, 18 and 25 She is available at the church during the week but call to make sure she is there. Please keep in mind that Mondays are Pastor Melinda s day off. If you need to reach her and it s an emergency, feel free to contact her. We ask that any nonemergency items wait till Tuesday. Check out Scrip before & after worship. Scrip gift cards can be ordered to do your everyday shopping or they also make a great gift! If you don t know if Scrip has a certain gift card, just ask Denise or Deb will be in the back of church every Sunday with Scrip cards.

5 ST. JOHN S 4 TH ANNUAL FAMILY SERVICE FEST (FSF) SUNDAY, AUGUST 19 What is Family Service Fest you ask? It is a day for the entire congregation to go out and serve others. On this day we will have a fifteen minute worship where we will be encouraged to do our best and helping others. There are many areas with which you can volunteer such as Field of Dreams Assisted Living, Oak Creek Assisted Living and Harvest Home Assisted Living playing Bingo, washing windows, pulling weeds. Piggly Wiggly-Kiel and Piggly Wiggly-Howards Grove.helping customers with shopping carts or handing out cookies and punch or lemonade. Handing out car wash tokens at Car Wash in Howards Grove. Howards Grove Activity Center and Howards Grove Parks washing windows and cleaning up garbage. Howards Grove Schools pulling weeds, etc. Kiel River & Cemetery Clean Up and Bike Trails Clean Up. picking up garbage. Sheboygan County Food Bank sorting through food. Making a snack mix and putting together Thank You bags for area assisted living center staff. Tying fleece blankets here at church for the residents at Harvest Home Assisted Living. Project Angel Hugs making birthday cards. What a great way for our church to spread our love and faith into the community! We are The Small Church with the Big Heart That Does Great Things!

6 ST. JOHN'S 2018 INTERGENERATIONAL SERVICE TRIP Join us on our 2018 Intergenerational Service Trip to the Twin Cities as we serve, learn, and have fun! OUR SCHEDULE IS... Friday, Nov. 30th 10:30 a.m. leave church. Arrive at Urban Immersion by 5:30 pm. Saturday, Dec. 1st 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Serve at Second Harvest Food Bank 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Serve at Mano a Mano (our mission partner since 2016) 5:30 p.m. -?? Dinner, shopping & fellowship at World Global Market Sunday, Dec. 2nd Worship at area church, meals on road, return around 6:00 p.m. COST OF... $75/person includes lodging at the Urban Immersion Retreat Center, breakfast on Sat. and Sun, and lunch on Sat. There will be additional costs for meals on the road, Sat. dinner, and gas for our vehicles which may be covered by fundraisers (TBD by group). OTHER THINGS YOU MAY WISH TO KNOW... --Registration and fees are due by Aug. 31st. Checks should be made out to St. John's UCC and given to Pastor Melinda. --Minor youth must be accompanied by a parent and/or adult guardian. --The activity level at both service sites is in the moderate category with standing, light lifting, and moving around. --The following have already registered for the trip: Tim Keenan, Age & Judy Wagner, Diane & Keith Weiland, Janet & Karl Wesener, Tanya & Hannah Gosse and Pastor Melinda. If you have any questions, please speak with Pastor Melinda. Nursery Coming Soon! The Christian Education Committee is excited to announce a 3 month trial for a nursery during the church service! The trial will start on Sunday, September 9th. At this time, children ages 1 thru 4 will be able to go to the nursery. Each Sunday there will be 2 adults that will take the children downstairs after the children s sermon and they will watch them until the parents get them after church. In order to make this a success we would love the help of the congregation to assist in gathering supplies and volunteers. Some things we are in need of at this point are hand sanitizer, sanitary wipes, baby wipes and toys that are preferably plastic (easy to clean) and large enough to not be a choking hazard. We are also looking for volunteers who would be willing to take some Sundays in the nursery with our children. According to safe sanctuary rules, we are looking for 2 volunteers for each Sunday and they must be 21 or older. If you are interested in having your child go to the nursery during the trial period or if you are interested in volunteering (or both!) please contact church or Jessica Barts. (bartsjessica@gmail.com and (920) ).

7 Opening Prayer Pastor Melinda Christian Education Committee Meeting Minutes July 11, 2018 Present: Pastor Melinda, Joan Bender, Rhonda Brockmann, Haley Werdeo Next meeting: August 15, 2018 at 6:00pm (Family Service Fest) Call to order - 7:22pm in church basement (following Family Service Fest meeting) Nursery o During church childcare was discussed. Jessica Bartz and Melissa Bender volunteered to launch the 3 month trial. Starting the 1 st week of Sunday School (September 9 th ) o It was discussed that this nursery/childcare should maybe be held in the new classroom in the basement. That room will need to cleaned up a bit before this trial launches. It was discussed the piano should also be moved out of that room and into the main basement area. o Rhonda volunteered to donate a few plastic totes to organize toys/supplies. o During this trial, it should be noted not only how many kids attend, but who. o Recruitment for 2 adult volunteers (for each week) should happen soon. Jessica and Melissa will be doing this. Sign-up sheet in Narthex? Sunday School o A draft schedule for the upcoming school year was reviewed and tweaked o Approx. half of expected SS students have registered so far for the school year o This year Pastor Melinda encouraged the use of SHINE materials for SS curriculum for the older kids. o Discussion regarding how many teachers we will need. We referred to the draft of the SS schedule. o The schedule was divided into 6 sections We will need 3 teachers each week (18 total) Each set of 3 teachers will teach for a 4 or 5 week stretch (one section) Last year we had 16 teachers plus helpers No helpers needed this year o It was discussed of possibly having the Christmas program practice on Saturday December 15 th from 9:00am-11:00am. Hot dogs/chips and drinks included Adjourned at 8:27pm Mano Mission. Thanks to everyone who helped at the Mano a Mano Brat Fry that was held at Miesfelds on Friday, July 13th. Special thanks to those who donated cookies. Our profit from the cookies was $262 with a total profit of $789. Half of the proceeds will go to Mano a Mano to help defray costs of shipping medical supplies to Bolivia and the other half will go toward St. John s General Budget. Thank you also to those who came by to purchase sandwiches and goodies. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to educate people on our local Mano a Sincerely, The Mano a Mano Mission Trip Participants

8 The Mary Marthas will be enjoying Movie Night on Thursday night. Thank you to Judy Wagner for coordinating this! Our August activity will be Game Night/Wine & Cheese Night at Janet Wesener s home on Thursday, August 15 th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. MOVIE AND CONVERSATION NIGHT Friday, September 28 th at 6:00 pm Dave and Carol Hemb host our first MOVIE NIGHT! We ll gather at their home to watch the inspiring movie 42: The True Story of an American Legend. Based on the baseball player Jackie Robinson the movie is rated PG13 (a sex scene and language make this movie inappropriate for children). Please bring your own beverage and a snack to share if you wish. Popcorn will be provided. After the movie, we will have a 1/2 hour discussion. From the movie trailer, In 1946, Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), legendary manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, defies major league baseball's notorious color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) to the team. The heroic act puts both Rickey and Robinson in the firing line of the public, the press and other players. Facing open racism from all sides, Robinson demonstrates true courage and admirable restraint by not reacting in kind and lets his undeniable talent silence the critics for him. Branch Rickey made his decision to hire Robinson based upon his Methodist faith, and the movie lifts up other faithbased themes. St. John s United Church of Christ, Schwarzwald Financial Report 2018 Actual Actual June 6 Mos. Total Income 9, $67, Total Expense 15, , Difference $ (5,967.99) $(1,364.63) Special Congregational Meeting on Shared Ministry June 24 th 2018, 10:15 AM The meeting was called to order by President Diane Weiland at approximately 10:10 AM following the worship service. The meeting began with a prayer by Pastor Melinda. President Diane Weiland provided an overview of shared ministry and what the Church Council is proposing. Kathy Aulik and Ross Bender provided a PowerPoint presentation to review eight (8) of the most anticipated questions. President Diane Weiland then reminded the congregation what was being voting on. The floor was then opened up for questions that were directed towards the entire Church Council and Pastor Melinda. Significant questions from the floor were had over the following 30 minutes. All members present then voted on whether or not to give the Church Council permission to have conversations with other churches about shared ministry. The motion carried (Yes-43, No-6) to give the Church Council permission to have conversations with other churches about shared ministry. The meeting adjourned at approximately 10:50 AM. Ross Bender, Secretary

9 08/01 Dennis Stauss Mark Wehmeier 08/03 Tanya Gosse 08/04 John Konz, Jr. 08/05 Wallace Dickman Aaron Rautmann 08/10 Robert Klokow 08/12 Hannah Gosse Autumn Hansen Emma Valukas 08/14 Mary Young 08/16 Haley Werdeo 08/18 Aaron Luebke Cheyenne Woepse 08/19 Russ Mueller 08/23 Sherri Soucheck 08/28 Eric Glaser 08/29 Connie Hahn We re Recycling Aluminum Cans Again! The garage will be open before and after church for you to deposit your used beverage cans for recycling. No other cans and no glass, please. Please place in a clear garbage bag. Special thank you to David Schmitz again for taking the cans in. So far, we had 104 pounds for a dollar amount of $ If you are interested in sponsoring the US flag that flies outside in front of the church, please see David Schmitz for the cost & more information. If you have an that you would be willing to share with the church, please send it to: Schwarzwald@tds.net. Through and Mailchimp, you will receive the monthly newsletter, Pastor Melinda s articles, weather related cancellations and more! If you changed your , please send the correction to the above . If you have moved or are planning on moving, please send your change of address to the church office. Thank you! 08/01 Bradley & Nicole Schmitz 08/03 Kenneth & Alaine Bub 08/04 Michael & Shannon Wynveen 08/06 Allen & Karen Young 08/17 Randy & Joan Bender 08/26 Randy & Lynn Busse Alyssa & Matt Holler 08/31 Dave & Vicki Wagner Donation Jar Reminder.there is a donation jar in the back on church on the refreshment table to help defray the costs. If your birthday or anniversary is incorrect, please contact the Church Secretary.

10 St. John s United Church of Christ, Schwarzwald W3401 Orchard Road Elkhart Lake, WI AUGUST 2018 NEWSLETTER Time to get ready! Sunday School is right around the corner! It begins on Sunday, September 9 th following the 9:15 am Worship Service! We have classes for 4K to Grade 8! If you need additional information, please contact Joan Bender or Denise Thiel!