First Trinity Evangelical Lutheran TELCO Oct. 2016 I M A SOUL MAN Ever since coming across the German word Seelsorger in Bo Giertz Hammer of God (a highly recommended clerical fiction novel) it has been my goal to become one of them, with the help of God, of course. Lutherans have a heritage of the Seelsorge, meaning that the office of pastor tends to the cure of the soul whose balm and healing is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As this issue of TELCO is for October, and October is known as Pastor Appreciation Month, I d like to express some appreciation for Pastor-father Luther and the Reformation s focus on pastoral care. Too often people think of the Reformation in terms of an abstract theological debate. While intensely theological, the Reformation was not merely about ideas; it was about correctly understanding the gospel for the good of people and the salvation of souls. In seeking to appropriate lessons from the Reformation for today, one must not miss the pastoral impulse that drove this recovery of the gospel. The Reformation itself was a pastoral care movement growing directly out of care for the salvation of the soul. The Reformation is often dismissed as an academic discussion involving debates about the finer points of theology and lofty ideas of interest to some people but disconnected from real-life issues, struggles, and heartache. It is important for us to be rescued from such notions lest this important event in our history become yet one more dusty item on the shelf, pulled out for special occasions but otherwise forgotten. Inside this issue: A new chapter A Pastor Schultz s message Evangelism 3 Dorcas; Ladies Aid 4 Fellowship Kids Sauerkraut Supper Daycare B/days & Anniv. 1 2 1-2 5 6 Word Search 7 Sodoku 8 Special points of interest: Dorcas Monday, Oct. 3 & 17 2nd Monday Manor Service 10am 3rd Monday Ladies Aid 7pm 4th Monday Council Meeting 7pm 3rd Tuesday Men s Club 6pm 2nd Wednesday Highland Service 2pm 3rd Wednesday Manor Hills Service 10:30am Saturday Worship 7:30pm Adult Bible Study Sunday 9:00am Sunday Worship 10:30am
The Reformation was a diverse movement. But at its center was a pulsing, yearning concern for the well-being of souls. Its leaders were pastors at pains to lead their flock and others from around the world to forgiveness before God and the resultant living hope, the knowledge of God s care and presence in the real hardships of this world and the certain hope of resurrection. One of the objects the Reformers most commonly attacked was the overly speculative theology of the medieval Scholastic theologians. Take, for example, the event pointed to as the launching pad of the Reformation: Luther s posting his 95 theses (the 500 th anniversary of which takes place in 2017). What provoked this? Not academic subtleties or political aspiration, but instead a moment of pastoral, Oh, no you don t! The issue was that Johann Tetzel arrived telling Luther s people they could buy God s grace and forgiveness without any concern for faith or repentance. Tetzel was toying with the fears of the people and manipulating their emotions: Are you so tight-fisted not to pay now so that dear grandma can escape the torments of purgatory? Are you so hard hearted as to not give your last penny to allow your dear, departed mother to find relief? As soon as a coin in the coffer rings a soul from purgatory springs! Luther, in light of his new understanding of justification, recognized this treachery and the damning effects it would have on unsuspecting souls duped by it. His opposition sprang from an earnest desire to shepherd souls and guide them safely to heaven. Luther elsewhere said of pastors, Men who hold the office of the ministry should have the heart of a mother toward the church; for if they have no such heart, they soon become lazy and disgusted, and suffering, in particular, will find them unwilling. Unless your heart toward the sheep is like that of a mother toward her children a mother, who walks through fire to save her children you will not be fit to be a preacher. Labor, work, unthankfulness, hatred, envy, and all kinds of sufferings will meet you in this office. If, then, the mother heart, the great love, is not there to drive the preachers, the sheep will be poorly served. It is this love for people that drove Luther s ministry. He not only wrote theological treatises, took on the powers of the world of his day, and endured death threats, but also counseled hundreds in person and in his letters and attended to countless aspects of daily ministry, including writing a guide for teaching children. Once his barber told him he struggled with prayer, so Luther went home and wrote a brief treatise on prayer for his barber! Luther opens with, Dear Master Peter: I will tell you as best I can what I do personally when I pray. May our dear Lord grant to you and to everybody to do it better than I! Luther directs him to the Psalms and other parts of Scripture to use in shaping his prayers. This was the concern of the Reformers, helping their people learn how to live and relate to God. They knew they had rediscovered the life-giving gospel and were surrounded by people in desperate need of it. May God help me to always love and feed His sheep with the love of a mother toward her precious children. And, while I don t want anyone calling me Mama it would in no way be an insult. In Christ, Pastor ( Not the Mama! ) Schultz 2
Evangelism Committee Report We have been busy this summer. This committee has inherited the responsibilities of guiding our youth group, run by Ms. Kristen Kruger and Ms. Kelly Brainard Miles. They have wonderful ideas to engage our youth in; they are a small group right now, but have great ideas and lot's of ambition. They have held fun gatherings like water fights, movie nights, State Park visits, quilt making projects, swim parties. These gals manned our Church booth at the annual WLSV Balloon Rally Sidewalk sale day, handing out Christian-oriented items such as toys, our church brochure, and DVD's of parables and DVD sermons from our church. They also did a bit of fund-raising by raffling off chances for three hand made quilts; one that they helped our youth make, and two donated by Dorcas Guild and by Brenda Kruger!!! Proceeds were split between Helping Hands and their own small, small coffers. Evangelism Committee was in charge of our church booth at the Allegany County Fair, held in July in Angelica, NY. Kelly and Kristen spent an afternoon before the fair began decorating our booth in our VBS theme, "Barnyard Roundup". We had many volunteers 'man' the booth throughout the week AND we also received a 2nd place winner's blue banner for a great booth and cheerful people working at it!! Congratulations everyone who helped make our booth a great success. We purchased small hand out items such as pencils, Christian oriented color books, crosses, barnyard animal stickers and bookmarks, candy, our church brochures, pre-registration forms for VBS! Great, great fun! Thanks to all who helped out during Fair Week! Look for activities on the Youth bulletin board in the upper hallway; Kristen and Kelly try to post their planned activities there. Evangelism committee (Diane Vossler, Ruth Meacham McGraw, Marsha Sick, Betty Wood, and Pastor) is also now in charge of the Helping Hands fund. There is also a committee within the committee, so to speak, of myself and June Helmer and Pastor Schultz who have final approval in fund distribution. We are looking for one more volunteer to serve on Helping Hands, preferably a male volunteer! See June or I if you desire to volunteer for this worthwhile part of Trinity's outreach. We also coordinate collection of items to fill Christmas shoe boxes for Samaritan's Purse to distribute to countries all over the world. Since last November, we have collected the following items: Socks - all sizes, 168 pairs; toothpaste - 18 tubes-need MORE; toothbrushes - 24- NEED MORE; plastic forks and spoons - enough for 100 shoeboxes; combs - 8-NEED MORE; hair do's for girls - 36-could use more; calculators - 10 - we actually would like a total of 36 for the older children boxes; bars of soap - enough for 100 shoeboxes; plastic straws for younger children - 36 - enough; Kleenex packets - enough for 100 shoeboxes; stuffed animals - 50 - could use more; games/books - 17 - could use more; crayons - 37 boxes which is enough for younger children's' boxes; notepads - enough for all; erasers - enough for all; pencils - enough for all; sharpeners - 19 - could use more; glue sticks - 16 - could use more; face clothes -enough for all. As you can see, we are close but could use more of these: toothpaste, toothbrushes, calculators, stuffed animals and SMALL toys, sharpeners; note that we do not need a lot more, just enough to fill in. Ink pens are really not feasible for these children as they do not have access to replacement cartridges. We could also use wrapped candy, like Smarties. Watch for an announcement for a shoebox filling party in mid-november. 3
DORCAS Sept. 12th The ladies tied a quilt that Judy had made dark brown squares and small print design. The metallic thread didn t work well and we took out the first knots and then tied it with gold thread. Judy marked and pinned the edges on the quilt. Sept. 26th The ladies tied two quilts. The first one Judy had fashioned the quilt top with blocks containing a large flower then blocks with solid brown and green squares and a lovely orange back. Very pretty. The second quilt tied was with three flannel pieces and a flannel back very colorful and soft and will be a warm quilt. Janet brought the quilt top she is making in the Bargello pattern. This is a wave-like pattern. Interesting and a lot of work! June read devotions at both meetings and Judy measured, cut and pinned the edges of all the quilts. October 3rd & 17th (9:30am) are the next meeting dates, please join us! There will only be one meeting in November (on November 17th) - no meeting the week of the Sauerkraut Supper. If you know of someone needed a quilt, please contact June. Thank you! LADIES AID Our Sept. 19, Ladies Aid meeting was called to order by our president, Diane Vossler with 13 members present, plus Pastor Schultz. Barb Delity opened with a short devotion and prayer. The secretary and treasurer both read their reports and they were accepted as read. Walter Orlowski gave a wonderful talk about his time in a concentration camp during World War 2 when we attended the Men's club Chicken Bar-BQ in August. He wouldn't accept any pay, but graciously accepted a bottle of maple syrup as a Thankyou gift. Diane thanked everyone who worked and helped out in any way for Pastor Schultz's Ordination dinner. Our Ladies Aid have purchased 36 large tablecloths that were used at the Ordination, and will also be used for the Sauerkraut Supper, along with other special occasions. Diane gave a brief explanation about where all the Children's Christmas shoe boxes are sent all around the world that are in need. The Sauerkraut Supper will have only one seating at 6:00 pm. Only 150 sit-down tickets, and 150 take out tickets for 4:30--5:30 pm. will be sold. We are asking for a separate clean-up crew to sign up to relieve the workers who have been there all day. It was suggested that we try to visit Barb Raines at Highland Nursing home on her 95th Birthday. Also a card shower for her for all that can send her one. Pastor Schultz talked about different ways we may try to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of Martin Luther's reformation, that will be coming up in 2017, possibly during the Mission Festival and also once a month during the year. The meeting was closed with the Lord's Prayer, and delicious desserts were served by Marsha Sick & Janet Vargo. Respectfully submitted, Barb Delity, Sec. 4
FELLOWSHIP KIDS Under the guidance of Diane Vossler, co-leaders Kristen A. Kruger and Kelly Brainard We have had a very busy summer. Our Quilt fundraisers are finished, while they were not quite as successful as we had hoped we did raise $125.00 to donate to our church s Helping Hands fund. In August, we took a bit of a break due to all the events and other things going on. We ended the month at Stony Brook Park where we swam in 62 degree water, the warmest of the season! The boys (Nathan and James) had a wonderful time and cannot wait to go back! September started with an end of the summer party at Vossler s pool. A huge thank you to Paul and Debbie Vossler who were so good to host and even heated the pool for us and thank you to Diane Vossler for joining us. We have many more adventures planned so keep checking our bulletin board outside the Properties Room (it s the neon colored bulletin board!) for events and news. Youth are encouraged to attend our events. Keep us in your prayers. Submitted by Kristen A. Kruger, co-leader Fellowship Kids 5
~ Daycare Tidbits ~ Farewells - A Family s Words of Appreciation Daycare has experienced an emotional enrollment shift from summer to now with the recent beginning of the school year. Fourteen children left our ranks to enter Pre-K or Kindergarten. That was a significant number of little bodies. For several this transition marked the end of their daycare experience, yet a new beginning into their next stage of life. We share with you one of the notes we received through Facebook. This really is a heartfelt testimony about one family s time with us with their three children. The last child finally reached kindergarten age. Several other family notes followed this one, all giving us, and hopefully you the Trinity congregation, a sense of the worthwhileness of our daycare. ~ A Thank You ~ Yesterday marked an emotional end to their status as full-time students at TCD, as they will all be in school full-time beginning Tuesday. I never thought I'd be a Daycare Mom, but here I am sad to see our time end. The kids have made so many friends because of daycare, resulting in many new mommy friendships for me as well. I've seen the TCD staff get hired, get married, have babies, move on to new jobs, and sometimes return, rotate through different rooms and care for each of my children in the same loving way they would care for their own. They've seen me through two pregnancies, emotionally leaving my newborn babies, patiently tolerated my endless phone calls and concerns, and helped as I struggled to become a single, working mom. You ladies have helped to shape my children into the caring, intelligent, kind-hearted little people they've become. You've spent more time with them through the their infant, toddler and young school aged years than I have. You have taught them to count, sing their ABC's, spell their names, learn their colors, and prepared them for the next chapter in their lives. I cannot take credit for any of that because I was off doing my job, while you were busy doing yours. You are all important to us, and our lives are better because you have been a part of them. What you do at TCD matters to every child and every parent you interact with. Don't ever forget that. Thank you for being the best caregivers we could have. ~ Erin Dahlgren and Family ~ October Birthdays 1 Albert Vossler 2 Tim Taylor 3 Jackie Sweet 6 Justin Cornelius, Kay McCulloch, Chris Wiedemann 8 Gwyn Shear 9 Dan Flurschutz 12 Jessica Helms 16 Tyler Bennet 17 Anne Ball 19 Rachel Fahs, Linda Gridley 20 Taylor Mae Hurd 22 Brenda Kruger 23 Debbie Gerdes, Arlene Leave, Jane Pinney 25 Kelston Vossler 26 James Dunne 28 Nancy Link 6 NOVEMBER We are going to try doing a POTLUCK COFFEE HOUR each Sunday in November to see how it goes. & Anniversaries 2 Ben & Judy Cornelius 10 Barry & Shelly Dunne Brett & Chris Gallmann 12 Mike & Kay McCulloch Jason & Lori Holevinski 28 Jim & Debbie Kling
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First Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church 470 N. Main Street Wellsville, NY 14895 585-593-3311 WE RE ON THE WEB http://trinitylutheranwellsvilleny.org/ Minister: Reverend Kurt D. Schultz Daycare Director: Carol English (585) 593-3820 Director of Music: Carole A. Aldrich SODOKU #221 (EASY) SODOKU #221 (MEDIUM) 8