The Tidings. in this issue. January Monthly Newsletter of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Dear Friends in Christ,

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1 The Tidings Dear Friends in Christ, January 2018 Monthly Newsletter of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Happy New Year!! I can t believe it is I vividly remember being a child in elementary school in 1962 and thinking how far in the future was the year 2000; now we enter the 18 th year of this millennium and I don t have a clue how that happened!! in this issue Page 2 Pastor s message continued from page 1 I love New Year s Day because it is the one day of the year when the whole year is a blank slate waiting to be written. I know there COULD be great joy or equally great sorrow, but none of that has happened yet everything is still open, waiting and possible. It is my favorite day of the year! One thing I know about 2018 is that it will bring an historic event to this congregation. You see, I also remember in the decades of my growing up the hostility between Roman Catholics and Protestants. I remember being discouraged to marry one of those ; the disparaging remarks and my church s strident desire to not become too catholic because that was a really BAD thing. Now no one explained why it was bad; it was just bad. But then in the early 1960 s Catholics and Lutherans started to talk to one another and discovered we have a whole lot in common.imagine that! We also realized there are things we do differently and things we teach differently, but that our order of worship, our central message of Jesus cross and resurrection, and our commitment to service in His name, all at the core of our life in faith, really aren t that different. We discovered rather than being enemies, we could become partners in ministry. And so we began to work together, first in the area of social outreach. Over the years, we Lutherans learned more about the historic faith and practice of the first 1,500 years of Christianity prior to the Reformation and we began to embrace and appreciate the beauty of the sung psalm and the power of the cross processed through our midst. Suspicions gave way to dialogue; dialogue gave way to mutual understanding; mutual understanding gave way to common affirmations; common affirmations gave way to a Roman Catholic Declaration on Justification by grace through faith which, in this 500 th year commemorating the Lutheran Reformation has given way to the celebration of a JOINT worship service. Continue on page 2 Worship & Music Ministry News Page 3 Stewardship Message Epiphany Page 4 Thank You from Pastor Connie Thank You to Our Altar Guild Men s Winter Shelter Page 5 Bookends Elizabeth House Men s Breakfast & Bible Study Food of the Month to LARS Page 6 Fellowship & Hospitality Ministry News L.O.U.D. Youth News Page 7 Prayer Concerns Page 8 Service Times

2 Continued from page 1 For some of our community who are of mixed marriages, this is an affirmation of their shared faith. For some in our community who were raised to be suspicious of those Catholics, it is an opportunity to discover they are more like we Lutherans than different. For those who have worked side by side with Roman Catholic co-workers or in service - based ministries, it is the chance to build bridges and celebrate the one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, which is the heart and foundation of being a child of God. Church Office and Day School closed on January 1, 2018 SAVE THE DATE be a part of history for Holy Trinity. Friday night January 19 at 7:30 PM at St. Mary of the Mills, 114 St. Mary s Place in Laurel. It s right next to the Armory; across from the Park; beside Palotti High School. off Montgomery/Sandy Spring Rd. I know there is a tendency to not go to other congregations to worship, but let s try doing a NEW THING in this NEW YEAR. Let s go together as the people of Holy Trinity and join our sisters and brothers in Christ in the celebration of God s spirit moving through both of our churches, for the sake of the unity of the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God. A Blessed and Healthy New Year to each of you, Pastor Connie Worship & Music Ministry News We Have Welcomed Jesus to our World, remember to keep Him in our hearts always! Have a Blessed and Safe New Year! May the Peace of the Lord Shine on You Always and His Light Show You the Way! We hope that you had a happy and meaningful Advent and Christmas. Many people participated in the seasonal activities at HTLC. We would like to thank those who were able to assist with the decorating on December 2: Phil and Claudia Raup, Karen Brownell, Cathy Prahl, and the Renkevens family. Due to the calendar this year, all of the Advent/Christmas decorating had to be done that day. We plan to gather on January 13 to put the decorations away for another 11 months. We hope you were able to join us on Sunday, December 17, for the wonderful Christmas Concert. We are grateful to all our musical groups and especially to Lynn, Sarah, and Kevin who did all the planning and preparation for this special event. We will celebrate Epiphany on January 7 and The Baptism of Our Lord on January 14. Communion will be offered at both services on these days. Communion will be offered at the second service on January 21 and at the first, on January 28. We want to wish you a happy and rewarding 2018! Jim Thomas Worship & Music Ministry Chair 2

3 LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE Our Stewardship focus this year is around light the light of the eternal manifest in our world through Jesus; the light of the star guiding us to see and know Him; the first light of Easter symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; and the light that is given to each baptized with the mission to let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. In the midst of these darkest months of our year, we are reminded that while we may not see it, even the sunlight continues to shine 24/7 somewhere on God s creation. This is also the truth in our lives on the darkest days, in the darkest season of our lives, God s light, Jesus, is a constant, continuing to shine even if we are not feeling it in the moment. This is one part of God s generosity to us; to be the light that shines 24/7 upon us even in the ebb and flow of our daily lives. God is our light and our salvation on the days when light greets in the morning and remains with us long into the shadows of the evening as well as on those days when we wake in darkness and return home from work in darkness. God s light is with us when it is cloudy and snowy and when it breaks through the clouds as a beam from the heavens. God s light shines upon us no matter whether we are living in times of darkness or light; sorrow or hope; fear or joy. Our Stewardship is to give thanks to God who IS Light for giving us this this Light to shine upon us and in us 24/7 every day of our lives. Our Stewardship is to let this same light shine THROUGH us as a sunbeam to light the path of other s lives to guide them to the hope, healing, life and love we have already received from the one who declares, I am the light of the World! ~Your Stewardship Ministry Epiphany is celebrated annually in Christian churches on January 6. The word epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning manifestation or showing forth. Its focus is on the arrival of the Magi (three wise men) after the birth of Christ. They followed the light of a star to find the Light of the World. The Magi were not Jews but Gentiles, which shows that Christ came not only for Jews but for all people on Earth. Thus, all of us who are Gentile Christians are in the lineage of the Magi, the first Gentiles who came to Christ. Holy Trinity will celebrate Epiphany in worship on January 7, Holy Spirit, in our ever changing and confusing world, bless us with the clarity that is in Christ Jesus. Amen. 3

4 Thank You! With warm feelings of gratitude for your generosity, we thank you for all your Christmas greetings and gifts, but especially we thank you for your friendship throughout 2017 and look forward to it growing and deepening in We are a family most blessed because of our relationship with you, the people of Holy Trinity. ~Pastor Connie Miller Thank You to Our Altar Guild Our thanks and appreciation to the members of our Altar Guild. Cathy Prahl and the rest of the group do an awesome job of preparing our altar for services every week. This is a group that is behind the scenes and quietly going about the business at hand. The altar for Christmas looked simply beautiful with the tree, flowers, and manger. Thanks for all that you do each and every week! Men's Winter Shelter The week of January 21-28, Holy Trinity is hosting the men's Winter Shelter. The Winter Shelter provides overnight housing to the homeless men of the Laurel community. Churches of different denominations host the men for one week providing food, a place to sleep, a place to bathe and to launder their clothing. The men enter our Fellowship Hall each evening at approximately 6:30 PM and exit the building at 6:00 AM. We provide dinner, a cold breakfast each morning and a bag lunch for the day. In order to provide for the men's needs, we need lots and lots of help from volunteers. Assistance is needed setting up on Sunday January 21 and then again, with moving everything from our church to the next host church on Sunday, January 28 after the second service. We also need help cleaning the Fellowship Hall and the downstairs bathrooms after the men leave for the week. During the week, we need folks to provide and serve meals each night, pack brown bag lunches, launder clothes and launder linens on the move day. We are in need of people to help check the men in from 6:30 to 11:00 each night and also people to spend the night each night. Ideally, there should be 3 staying overnight, but we must have at least 2 people each night. Sign up begins on January 7. Steve Callaway and Sheyli Ribeiro will be in the Welcome Center with the sign up sheets and to answer your questions. Please volunteer to donate your time and resources so that we can make a comfortable home for the week for our brothers in Christ. 4

5 Bookends Bookends is looking forward to the new year, beginning with the following line-up: January 15 - In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. This is a psychological thriller that has been characterized as "twistymystery". It's a page-turning book about a bachelorette party gone wrong, according to Reese Witherspoon, who is making it into a movie. So besides reading the book, Bookends may be going out for movie night. NPR named this book "Best Book of the Year" for February 19 - Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterly. The movie version of this book was recently released, but Bookends selected to read it because there is much more detail about the personal lives and struggles of the women than was covered in the movie. It's the story of the group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" who used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. March 19 - Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. Contemporary and relevant, the book tells the story of one family from Appalachia who left the mountains in search of a better life. If you are interested in joining us for discussion of a particular book or all of them, we meet at Panera (off Rte 198) at 6 PM for a light dinner and interesting book discussion. Next gathering is Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 7:30 AM in the Fellowship Hall FOOD OF THE MONTH FOR LARS Pasta Bring in a box or two of pasta and place it in the green box just outside the entrance to the worship space. Betty, as her friends called her, started FISH of Laurel, Inc. to help low-income Laurel residents. She opened a food pantry in the basement of her home. With the aid of area volunteers and a telephone HelpLine, in addition to food from the food pantry, the group offered emergency financial aid and transportation. Twelve years later, the generous donation of "Elizabeth House" made it possible for FISH of Laurel to open a soup kitchen that fed a hot evening meal to area homeless folks, seven days each week. Bag lunches were offered at the end of the meal so folks would have some food for the next day. Can one person make a difference in their community? We think so! 5

6 Fellowship and Hospitality Ministry Special thanks to every-one who helped with the Christmas Concert reception either by providing food or helping to set up and clean up. Many thanks to the L.O.U.D. Youth for the Christmas cookies that were provided on Sunday, December 10. The Fellowship & Hospitality Ministry is hosting the coffee hour on Epiphany Sunday, January 7. A special cake will be provided with the baby Jesus inside. Whoever finds the baby Jesus will help Pastor Connie write a special blessing on the front door. If there is a special event that you would like to celebrate, please contact one of us so we can work out the details. The Fellowship & Hospitality Ministry wishes everyone a very Happy New Year! Finda Solee yatta61@gmail.com Gloria Barclay barclayg29@yahoo.com Beverly Conner conner@umbc.edu Fellowship & Hospitality Ministry Co-chairs L.O.U.D. Youth News (Living Our Ultimate Destiny) January 7 Pray & Play from 6-8 PM led by the Kreh s. Jan is Youth Quake. Ms. Jen and Mr. Jason are taking 5 youth to Hunt Valley. There are still two open slots if a youth 6-12 grade wants to go or one of those going wants to invite a friend. Jan is the Sr. High RoadTrip. Ms. Stephanie and Mr. Gary are taking 9 youth to Ocean City. BBQ fundraiser is back on January 14! We will again be selling BBQ sandwiches between services. The youth group is serving dinner at Winter Shelter Friday night, January 26. Come help serve dinner and talk with the men. Setup starts at 6 PM and cleanup finishes around 8:30. Souper Bowl of Caring.February 4 Ready for some football??? Let s see how much money we can raise for LARS after both services. Who will be playing? Looking ahead Shrove Tuesday is February 13 and that means the Pancake supper! Come enjoy all you can eat pancakes. A free-will offering will benefit our trip to Houston for the National Youth Gathering. Silent Auction and Chili Cook-off is Saturday March 10. Mark it on your calendar and invite friends and family. If you have an establishment you frequent, please ask them to donate something to the Silent Auction. Many places will provide gift certificates. See Stephanie Gonzales or Jen Renkevens for donation letters or let us know if you have something to donate. National Youth Gathering and the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event June 24 - July 1 in Houston. The next payment of $100 is due January 14 to Stephanie Gonzales for those attending. If anyone has Southwest frequent flyer miles to donate, let Stephanie Gonzales know. Transformers is a middle school leadership retreat provided by LYO of the Delaware/Maryland Synod. The retreat is April 13-15; payment of $100 is due January 14 ($50 for LYO). If you have a middle school youth who wants to attend, please see Stephanie Gonzales. 6

7 January 2018 Prayer Concerns 1 For all the possibilities of this new year, we pray 2 For the holy innocents of the world murdered unjustly, we pray 3 For those living with cervical cancer and their families, we pray 4 For those growing in their discipleship and their mentors, we pray 5 For Iglesia Evangelical and the ministry we share, we pray 6 For the Magi of the Gentiles, the star that guides, the gifts brought and the manifestation of Jesus salvation to the world, we pray 7 For the restoration of the land and people of Puerto Rico, we pray 8 For Girl Scout troops 1618 and 4001 as they mentor young girls into leadership 9 For those clean and sober and those struggling with addictions, we pray 10 For those living with blood disorders, especially Pastor Tom, we pray 11 For the gift of music and those who share it, we pray 12 For an experience of the Holy Spirit by our youth at Youth Quake, we pray 13 For our council in retreat, for renewal, & in thanksgiving for their leadership, we pray 14 In Thanksgiving for the gift and promises of our baptism, we pray 15 For prophets and their message of justice and mercy, especially MLK Jr., we pray 16 For martyrs and renewers of the church, in thanksgiving, we pray 17 For those with gambling addictions, we pray 18 For the unity of the Body of Christ, we pray 19 For our sister congregation, St. Mary of the Mills, and for the worship we share this evening, we pray with joy and thanksgiving 20 For a maturing faith for the young people at Road Trip, we pray 21 For the strength we discover in the community of faith gathered in worship, we pray 22 For those who are hungry this day, we pray 23 For the Day School, its administrators, teachers, students and families, we pray 24 For the men who sleep in our shelter this week, we pray 25 For the volunteers who serve the men in the shelter this week, we pray in thanksgiving 26 For those who work outside in the cold, we pray 27 In thanksgiving for Lydia, Dorcas, and Phoebe, biblical witnesses to the faith, we pray 28 For those returning to their studies, professors and administrators, we pray 29 For the generation being born, for them to grow in faith and trust in Jesus, we pray 30 For the Holy Scriptures and the teaching it brings us, we pray 31 For those who are homeless and cold in our land and around the globe, we pray

8 Holy Trinity Lutheran Church 7607 Old Sandy Spring Road - Laurel, MD FAX htlc.laurel@verizon.net Web: Holy Trinity Christian Day School htlclaurelmd@gmail.com The Rev. Connie Miller, Pastor (cell) January Worship Schedule 8:30 & 11:15 Worship 10:00 Sunday School for all ages