ST. PAUL S LUTHERAN CHURCH 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 October 2016 at St. Paul s Mon. Oct. 3 11-4 Pub with a Purpose at Buffalo Brew Pub 100% of the tips and 15% of the tab go to benefit Lutheran Charities Tuesdays Oct. 4, 11, 18 10 a.m. Bible Study Seeing Scripture through Icons Wed. Oct. 5 10 am Comforters meet in the Parish Hall Bring a brown-bag lunch beverages and dessert are provided. Everyone is welcome! Thurs. Oct. 6-8-9 pm at The Tavern at Windsor Park for God on Tap - details inside Saturdays Oct. 8 & 22 9:00 Men s Club breakfast & Bible Study Thursdays at 7:30 pm Choir rehearsals Tuesday Oct. 11 7:00 Council 7:00 Eggertsville Community Org. Thurs. Oct. 13 Noon Retired Folks Oktoberfest Lunch details inside Sunday Oct.16 9-Noon VNA Flu Shot Clinic free with most insurance bring your coverage card. Remember if you re scheduling a meeting or an event, check the planning calendar on the board by the offices to make sure space is available! Or call or e-mail the Church Office: (835-0407 or office@stpaulseggertsville.org) Worship at St. Paul s I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord Psalm 122:1 Oct. 2 9:00 Explore our Stories, Confirmation Class Oct. 9 9:00 Explore our Stories Confirmation Class Oct. 16 9:00 Explore our Stories Confirmation Class Oct. 23 9:00 Explore our Stories Confirmation Class Oct. 30 9:00 Confirmation Class The Nursery will be staffed for the 10:00 worship time. 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)
P AGE 2 O CTOBER 2016 Dear Members and Friends, I don t know how many people read these Caller articles and I m not sure how many of you that do read them have been part of St. Paul s since before 1980. My guess is that of you, like me, have called this church since you can remember and you ve heard Mary Wolf answer St. Paul s Lutheran Church. And then she helped connect you to pastors, staff, resources and prayer. I m writing to share the news that Mary will be retiring after Easter (April) 2017. That s over 37 years of ministry through the office at St. Paul s! Amazing! The Staff Support team has been working with Mary for many months as the Office Manager position has shifted and redeveloped from full-time to 20 hours a week. While that shift was taking place, Mary has shared her gifts through leading the Care Team and Seniors Ministry over the past year. Staff Support and Council have also been working for months on the transition plan to both care for Mary as she approaches retirement and replace the Office Manager position with redeveloped hours, times and roles that will more closely match the needs of St. Paul s current community and mission. Please don t mob Mary and ask her what she s going to do next. She s still working on that and seeing where God is leading and guiding her. We don t have all the details yet but we will be having a great Retirement Dinner to celebrate Mary and her years of ministry at St. Paul s. (Most likely in the end of March or beginning of April) I hope you will plan to be there to share stories with her about the way she has touched your life through her work at St. Paul s. Personally, I ve experienced Mary s gifts in a variety of ways over many years: from calling to schedule a wedding here with Pastor Olin back in the 90 s, to working with her as CONVO staff to now praying with her together for the great people of St. Paul s who were in need. She has put up with an awful lot in the past few years as this church went through difficult transitions in pastoral leadership to now having to respond to my manic, multitasking style and me changing things on her about every 15 minutes. But she has handled it all with grace, class and faith. In fact, she is one of the most deeply faithful people I have ever encountered and St. Paul s has been blessed to have her on staff. You will hear more about this in the weeks to come. We ll send a special notification out to everyone as soon as we can about the Dinner date. Anyone wanting to help plan that should reach out to Mimi Fierle. So thank you Mary! For your gifts, your faith, your time and talents and your sharing of them for all these years at St. Paul s. Still in One Peace, ps
T HE CALLER P AGE 3 The Daily Bread Food Truck has been operating since July 23, 2016. Through the first 9 weeks, we have sold 836 Get 1, Give 1 meals. The food truck began fulfilling its mission giving away 28 meals to needy families at Windermere Elementary School by participating at their Back to School Night on September 14. The mission continues this month by serving meals on Saturdays at Windermere Elementary School beginning October 1-29. The food truck also participated at St. Benedict's annual parish and school picnic on September 16, and 48 meals were sold. Our new fall hours are 9 a.m. - noon. Thank you for helping to sponsor, frequenting the food truck and spreading the good news about this mission! All are welcome to enjoy the fall fare wherever the truck is located on weekends. From: Bill & Billie Sue Goll Dear St. Paul s Family, thank you so much for the beautiful altar flowers. We appreciate your thinking of us. These flowers brightened our home for many days. Lutheran Charities Dear Friends at St. Paul s we are so thankful for your basket donation benefitting our 19th Annual Gold Classic. The event was an unprecedented success, attracting over 150 golfers and volunteers! With your donation, the basket auction raised over $2000 on behalf of the agencies and ministries supported by Lutheran Charities. Thanks again! We hope to count on your partnership in 2017 for our 20th Annual Golf Classic! Millie Mahoney I want to thank St. Paul s for the beautiful altar flowers delivered to me at Beechwood Home. Sorry I missed thanking the person who delivered them in person. Harvest House to the Comforters thank you very much for the donation of hand-made baby blankets and baby hats! I was able to give a few items away that very morning to clients! It was such a pleasure to have those new gifts to offer the mothers, On behalf of Harvest House and the Baby and Children s Ministry and all our clients, we thank the Comforters of St. Paul s Lutheran Church again for blessing this ministry with your continued support. Windermere Blvd. Elementary School Dear Pr. Steve and Congregation we would like to thank you for the kindness you have shown towards our families at WBS. Whether it is by donating school supplies, supporting the Daily Bread food truck which provided so many free meals to our hungry families at Open House, donating food to our neediest families through the BackPack Program or even by providing gifts around the holidays for our poorest families, your congregation demonstrates time and time again the love, caring and generosity for the world around you. We are so fortunate to have you all as benefactors of the Windermere Boulevard School community. Joanne Kreher, Leslie Barr (School Social Workers Julie Flanagan, Mary Lavin, Principals
Cross Training AKA Confirmation We re studying Luther s Small Catechism this year! If you d like to follow along with us and don t have a copy, please see Judi Gersic or Dave Wolf and we ll get one for you! The first unit is the Lord s Prayer. Spoiler Alert!!! Nov. food collection starts Sunday 11/6 Grocery sacks will be available then Sunday School Corner I m excited that Sunday school is back in full swing! It s my pleasure to be back in the company of the Sunday school kids! We start off at worship. We then move downstairs after the Children s Sermon and start off in a group with an object lesson for all the kids that is related to the Gospel for the day. We re working on incorporating some songs and ending with a prayer. Then we move to our age appropriate rooms for crafts and snacks. Towards the end our time, communion is brought for all to receive. Children who have not yet received first communion cross their arms across their chest and receive a blessing. In September we started off with the story of the lost sheep. We talked about how we can be physically lost and also spiritually lost not staying faithful, forgetting to pray and/or making bad choices. God our shepherd finds us when we are lost and loves us and is always there for us! We talked about how to keep the love of Jesus in our heart to stay so we don t get lost. We learned about honesty. The children built a tower of blocks. When one block was pulled out the tower fell. We compared that to telling a lie. One lie can ruin a relationship built on trust and honesty. We talked about what honesty means and how God wants to use it in our daily lives. We wrapped up September with a lesson on true wealth -not measured by what we have or what we accumulate, but by how we live our lives and if we live according to God s word giving to others and helping. In love and peace ~ June Piette Youth Stuff! Holy cow. Have you noticed our Sunday School class the past few weeks? There's a million of you!! Well maybe not a million... but as we all cram into our couch circle and start talking and sharing stories on a Sunday morning it can feel like a million. A million stories, a million laughs, a million questions. Looking around that circle I feel total awe and wonder about how God is working here at St. Paul's and within each of you. I left church last week and felt like shouting from the rooftops "We're doing it! We're doing it!" And we're gonna keep on doing it into October! Here's what's coming up... SUNDAY SCHOOL: Class for grades 6-12 meet upstairs in the youth room. We'll be continuing to unpack and deepen our conversations about the gospel lessons each week. LASERTRON LOCK-IN: OCTOBER 7 th -8 th This overnight is organized by Organic Youth which is a youth group team for all of WNY. Check with KK to see if there is any space available for you! CONNECTIONS: OCTOBER 28 th 8pm to 8am Want to see friends from other churches?!? Now is your chance! Connections will be a quarterly lock-in run by multiple youth leaders. Our first Connections will be held at St. John on Main Street in Williamsville. No registration required but come in your Halloween costume and be ready to sleep over! YOUTH NIGHT!: NOVEMBER 18th 6pm to 9pm Friends are always welcome to jump into our youth nights. We spend time playing games, eating dinner and finding the ways God is working in our lives. Stay tuned for what our theme will be Any questions? Call, text or email Kristen Arends (KK). 481-8728 or kristen.arends@gmail.com
Retired Folks St. Paul s Retired Folks is open to members and friends. Our next event is OCTOBERFEST LUNCH (from Scharf s!) ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13 AT NOON Sign-up on the bulletin board in the back narthex by Oct. 9. Cost is $20.00 person. Come and join us! Prosit! St. Pauli s Brewers is meeting up with St. John s Lutheran s God on Tap in October. Instead of brewing this month, St. Pauli s Brewers and everyone else interested, male or female, are welcome to join on October 6th from 8-9pm, at The Tavern at Windsor Park for God on Tap. This is an hour of theological and topical discussion over a malty beverage in Christian community. All are welcome. Hope to see you there. Altar Flowers: Every Sunday two bouquets adorn the altar at St. Paul s. Sometimes they are dedicated in honor of a person, sometimes an event anniversary, birthday, baptism, etc. There s a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board in the back narthex anyone can dedicate flowers and we can have multiple dedications for a Sunday. Ordinarily the bouquets are delivered to our shut-in or hospitalized members after worship (and you can see below from the Thank-you s how much they are appreciated!) Flower order envelopes are by the chart or in the pew racks and include prices. GIFTS (Growing In Faith Together, Spiritually) Through Lay and Clergy speakers, music, discussions fellowship and food...take a few hours for yourself and God! Please plan on attending and bring a friend! The only cost is your time! We all are on a faith journey. GIFTS tries to help each individual to take a step forward in their relationship with God and to learn how that relationship can affect their life, the people in their world and those they have yet to meet! GIFTS welcomes everyone and makes everyone feel valued. It is a joy to discuss faith topics with other Christians. We can learn so much from each other! GIFTS encourages participants to find new ways to use their gifts and talents in their congregation and community! We warmly invite you to take part in GIFTS 2016 at: Trinity Lutheran Church 8760 Transit Rd. East Amherst NY 14051 October 13 th and 14 th (Thurs. & Friday) 6:30 9:00 PM AND October 15 th (Saturday) 9:00 AM 2:30 PM Please contact Mary Wolf (835-0407) with any questions Registration forms are on the bulletin board in the back narthex.
O CTOBER 2016 ebaynews from Sara Gallagher October 2016 Getting ready to list things for the Christmas season. A few current sales get listed here and there. Have to get myself in gear. Two items sold so far in September: Buxton Crossover Shoulder Bag, As seen on TV 17 th Edition Harrison s Principles of Internal Medicine, Vol I & II Thank you for thinking of donating to ebay sales. You never know what might sell. Email SaraJG@aol.com, find me at church, or call 834-1833. Baby Blessings Basics at Crossroads Your generosity has filled us to overflowing with baby/ children s clothing! Thank you!!! Because of space constraints we need to stick to newborn through 3T sizes. Our largest request is for newborn to 9 month clothing so if you have any of those sizes, bring them in or place them in the bin off of our parking lot. Other sizes are welcome, but those are the sizes most in demand. We also like to include a few extras if we have them: Non-reader books (picture books) Bibs Small blankets If you know of someone who could benefit from this ministry contact one of your pastors who can write a referral. When Should You Call the Church Office? To arrange for a Baptism To schedule a wedding date and pre-marital counseling sessions Anytime you or a family member is in the hospital (including having a baby!) If there is a death in the family If you move or change your phone number (we have to pay the post office for returned mail!) When you need to talk with a Pastor... When there s a situation you think we need to know about... Do you get our E-mail Updates? Every week (and sometimes more often!) an e-mail update goes out from the Church Office to remind you of coming events, and to inform you of things in the life of the congregation that happen between Sundays. If you re not receiving these and you d like to, contact the Church Office with your e-mail address 835-0407and let Mary know you want to be added. We need your permission to add your e-mail to the list.
T HE CALLER O CTOBER 2016 Reaching Beyond St. Paul s FOOD PANTRY UPDATE Thanks for your help! The need for October is Mac & Cheese Please pick up some when you do your shopping. Thanks for your continuing support of this ongoing need! Lord, when did we see you hungry? Who Are Prayer Shawls for?? People in the congregation, friends, co-workers, family people who are sick, home-bound, grieving, going through difficult times anyone who needs to know they are wrapped in prayer! If you know someone who needs a prayer shawl, we have them! Speak with Marilyn Emerson or Jean Brundage and they ll help you choose one for the need! It doesn t need to be for a member of St. Paul s! Dash s Receipts = Cash! Please continue to save your Dash s register tapes and place them in the collection box in the back narthex. They provide a source of extra income which enables the Niagara Lutheran Health System Guild to enrich the lives of the residents and they do add up! Lutheran Disaster Response STORYTELLING Everybody loves a good story. How about stories about good things? That s what mission interpreters do tell the stories of how an individual s or congregation s mission support is used to do God s work. They are easy and fun to tell, because they are such good news. And they are abundant. They range from your own congregation to anywhere across the world. Would you like to learn where to find them? How to tell them? There will be a training workshop on October 29th where you can get the answers to those questions. It would be ideal for every congregation to have (at least) one person telling the stories. Pastors can you identify that one person who seems to always be interested in what the ELCA is doing around the world? Someone who is passionate about malaria eradication, or world hunger, or who orders Christmas gifts from the Good Gifts catalogue? Please, encourage them to come: Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center, Oct 29, 10AM-2PM. Contact Marcia Brown, grits2@roadrunner.com, or Denise Ballou, nene57622@hotmail.com. We are church together for the sake of the world. God s Work. Our Hands (and Voices!).
St. Paul s Lutheran Church 4007 Main Street Eggertsville NY 14226 Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID Permit #3595 Buffalo New York ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Coming in November Men s Club Breakfast & Bible Study Saturdays 11/5 & 11/19 9 am Bible Study Tuesdays Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22 at 10 a.m. Wed. Nov. 2 10:00 Comforters & Prayer Shawl Ministry meet in the Parish Hall Tues. Nov. 8 Election Day AND Election Day Bake Sale Please vote and bake! 7:00 Council Meeting 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 (868-1232 cell) Editor: Mary E. Wolf Assemblers: Dorothy Menth, Marilyn Emerson, Betty Arbogast, Dolores Shearer, Marilynn Speich, Norma Stevenson, Joyce Chace, Joan Maefs, Bertha Efstation, Sue Keppel Telephone: (716) 835-0407 Fax: (716) 836-3493 e-mail: office@stpaulseggertsville.org Web: www.stpaulseggertsville.org