Pas to r s Me s s ag e The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims its maker's handiwork. One day tells its tale to another, and one night imparts knowledge to another. Although they have no words or language and their voices are not heard, their sound has gone out into all lands and their message to the ends of the world where God has pitched a tent for the sun. Psalm 19:1-4 Thank you for the chance to take a Master Gardener class as part of my pre-sabbatical activities. The Psalm above describes so well the mystery of how our world works and makes so much sense when I consider all that I have been learning in my class. So much goes on in the yard and garden that we don't know about, communication between insects, microorganisms working together with plants, flowers enticing us with colors and scents, and it all works together at a level that we might not notice if we didn't pay close attention. It is an amazing gift that my yard and garden go on with or without me, and a gift that I can participate in it and pay more attention to it so that I affect the world around me in a positive way. This Psalm and my garden both remind me to take responsibility for what I can and what to let go of and to place in God's hands. In the same way that I have taken for granted the communication and cycle of my garden, in some ways I have taken for granted the cycle and communication of our congregation. As we prepare for our time of sabbatical which is fast-approaching (but still 2 months away), we are examining what goes on in our congregation, how we communicate, how we get things done. Becoming aware of how all this will help us adapt for the future when things will be different. We are preparing for our sabbatical by creating new lines of communication so that the work will continue while I am away and maybe even persist longer than that. First of all, thank you for all the work you do behind the scenes! So many of you are paying attention to what goes on in our building and among our people and also many of you are paying attention to what is going on in our neighborhood and wider world. You bring the love and grace of God into all these places and situations. And knowing that more work will be falling to each of you while I am away, I pray that you will each grow in your awareness of God's love and carry that with you even more. I have a lot of faith in our Council Members they are intensely preparing for the time ahead. You have some good leaders who will be pay special attention to communication and concerns and help to make sure that tasks get done while I am gone and that our congregation stays a strong community. What a gift that we will have a Sabbatical Interim to serve while I am away! Please pray for us while we interview this month and make a selection. I have a lot of faith in God. God will be with you, helping you through some awkward and uncomfortable situations, and with you in your joys. God will be helping both you and me find healing and renewal. Resurrection is always the end of the story with God that God promises us new life and that is what we will ultimately find. Ready or not the cycle of life moves forward! We will be as prepared as we can and God will see us all through and teach us by the things we hadn't anticipated. You probably know this better than I do, since about half of you have been through the interim process as a congregation before. This will be considerably shorter and hopefully less intense, since you won't have the job of finding your new pastor. But I pray you will spend this sabbatical intentionally building up community and participating in the mystery of God's grace. Pastor Aimee
Upcoming Worship The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and continues for 40 days, ending on the eve of Easter. Lent is usually observed as a time for us to examine our lives and strengthen our faith as we prepare for Easter. March1, 8, 15, 22 Mixed worship with many formal elements because it is Lent March 4, 11, 18, 25 Soup Supper & Lenten Worship Wednesday evenings beginning at 6:00 pm March 29 Procession of the Palms, Congregational Reading of the Passion Story April 2 Maundy Thursday Service 7:00 pm @ Milwaukie Lutheran 3810 SE Lake Rd. April 3 Good Friday Service 7:00 pm @ Milwaukie Presbyterian, 2416 SE Lake Rd. April 4 Easter Festival Worship, Breakfast & Easter Egg Hunt! Game Nite We had so much fun last month that we re going to do it again! Monday, March 16 from 7 8:30pm Bring your favorite game and snacks to share. save the date Garden of Hope Where Hunger Ends, Hope Begins Benefit for King s Cupboard May 2 at 4:00 pm Raffle, Plants, Silent Auction Appetizers & Beverages Beer & Wine available
Wednesday Bible Study We have expanded Bible study to include far ranging topics such as writing our own version of the Apostles Creed, reincarnation, Lutheran magazine studies, and Song of Solomon. And this list is just what we hope to accomplish before Pastor Aimee goes on sabbatical! We will do a four week introduction of reincarnation beginning Wednesday, March 18. Join us anytime, all are welcome! Expanded Feeding Ministry Next meeting: March 10 at 6 pm Last month a group met and brainstormed ideas for expanding our feeding ministry to get at the root causes of hunger. Many good ideas came from that. Our next step is to determine client needs and assess the energy of people in our congregation. Our March meeting is devoted to assessing client needs. Folks are invited to come with some questions that might be included in a questionnaire. We will be assessing congregational energy during our 6 pm Soup Supper discussion on March 25. We hope you can be there! K i n g o f K i n g s ' 5 0 th A n n i v e r s a r y B a n n e r D e s i g n C o n te s t Susan Brooks has volunteered to sew a banner in honor of our congregation's 50 th Anniversary. We will be accepting your entries of possible designs for this banner between now and Easter Sunday. Once all submissions are in, the winning entry will be chosen and Susan will complete it by the anniversary, the last Sunday in November. Possible motifs for the banner include all or part of our mission statement, the number 50, and something specific to our worshipping community.
Me m b e r s o f th e Mo n th Pete & Katherine Hinds Katherine & Pete became members of King of Kings in 1976. Paul Swanson was Pastor and his daughter, Kristen, was in Pete's kindergarten class. Kristen invited Pete to come to her father's church. We were members of St John's Episcopal Church in Milwaukie and our Sunday School was almost nonexistent, said Katherine, King of Kings had a lot of children our children's ages, so we transferred our membership. Not only were there children, but the adults were very friendly and welcoming. The feeling of friendliness and helpfulness has remained through the years. Pete was on the council a number of years ago and Katherine is now on the council. When King's Cupboard was being planned, we volunteered to be the pickup people for food from the Oregon Food Bank and have done it from the beginning. King of Kings has always been involved with the needs of the time. It is what we feel a church should be. We have three children and six grandchildren. Our grandchildren range in age from 22 to 9. Being with children and grandchildren at our Camp Sherman, Oregon home is always a special time for us.
We love to travel and try to make a major trip to a different part of the world every other year. Our most recent trip was to Peru to visit Machu Picchu and Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. For the last 15 years we have been part of yearly work teams with Medical Teams International and now with Child- Aid. Both are Portland based organizations. With Medical Teams we worked in one of the garbage dumps of Mexico City pouring concrete for floors for those very poor people who lived and worked at the dump site. For the last six years we have traveled to Guatemala with the same group of friends and paint a school inside and out and support teacher training, which is the mission of Child-Aid. Spirits & Theology or Time: Monday, March 9 @ 6 pm Place: Round Table Pizza, 16550 SE McLoughlin Blvd. Our topic for March is: What does it mean to be blessed? Fellowship abounds and ideas about spiritual matters are exchanged in an informal and public setting. We certainly don t have all the answers, but we sure have plenty of opinions! Come when you can. Bring friends. All are welcome. Metropolitan Alliance for the Common Good (MACG) A Listening Season at King of Kings This Lent we want to hear from you: Your pressures and stressors, what are you hungering for, what your hopes and dreams are, what ministry you have energy for, and a few other questions. We will be discussing these questions at our Wednesday evening Soup Suppers going on this month. I hope you can make it for some of these discussions. All the organizations that belong to the Metropolitan Alliance for the Common Good (MACG) are also listening to each other in their communities. The reason we do this is because a community that delves into deep questions with each other is a stronger community we know each other more deeply and can help each other in times of need. In addition, the stories that we find in our communities will help inform the issues we tackle in MACG. Some of you may remember several years ago, we followed a similar format for our Soup Suppers, with a time for listening and sharing with each other. Out of that came several stories of domestic violence and eventually MACG developed a proposal for the Domestic Violence Survivor Housing Project. Now there are three transitional houses for survivors of Domestic Violence and their children. Who knows what we may find during this listening season and where it might lead us to improve our community and neighborhood in the future? *Our Next meeting will be March 19 7-8:30 pm @ KOK. Hope to see you there!
Cecil Viles Praye rs & Th anksgivings... Pray always for peace, solace and kindness Harry & Sharon Konsa's friend; healing and comfort, recovering at home from a minor heart attack, then fell and broke hip Family & Friends of Larry Deater Ellen Burns brother; at his death Family & Friends of Justine Patella Bonnie Warren s friend; at her death David Devi Kathy Sanford Sandi Enselman Mel Freauff Ruth Riggins Caryn Nelson Pringle June Lane Pastor Scott Dunfee Marie Gonzales Peggy Kurth JR Potter Savita Davis uncle; very ill Savita Davis friend; hospice Bonnie C s cousin; inoperable brain cancer Upcoming surgery Sharon Holford s mother; for healing & strength Friend of Bonnie Cowden; battling breast cancer Bonnie C s mother; weak, difficulty eating Pastor at St. Stephen LC; deployed to Afghanistan Brooks daughter-in-law; hospice Balance & strength Life threatening autoimmune disorder; chemo Prayers will be left on our prayer list for two weeks unless otherwise requested. Please notify Pastor Aimee if prayers are needed for a longer period. L e t ' s C e l e b r a t e! G o d ' s B l e s s i n g t o y o u a s y o u c e l e b r a t e... M a r c h B i r t h d a y s 03 Sami Noble 06 Mary Zellharie 08 Betsy Sorrell 14 Andria Cisneros 14 Sharon Konsa 17 Jeanie DuPere 18 Harry Konsa 20 Ricky Jamtgaard 22 Grace Lopez
M a r c h B a p t i s m s 02 Luke Lommen 16 Gary Noble 22 Bobby Cunningham 22 Arah Mahoney 22 Sue Trotter 25 Patty Hess 29 Aileen Hoffman 19 Bonnie Warren & Gary Sinnen 22 Mike & Susan Brooks