Choose words today that encourage. Choose actions today that assist, empower and unify. Live today with generosity, gratitude, wonder and enthusiasm. Be slow to anger, quick to forgive, understanding and patient with yourself and others. Offer your smile, offer your kindness. Give your respect and your positive presence. This is the world you live. The day you have to work with. Make your intention to make it a good, supportive time and place. Many good people are going to do many good things today. Take the opportunity to add your own beneficial actions to the mix. What you focus on gains power and influence in our life and world. SO, FOCUS ON THE GOODNESS AND WATCH AS THAT GOODNESS SPREADS! Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing you and your guest in worship! Pastor Ralph JANUARY 2018 TRINITY CONNECTIONS We are on the threshold of a new year and I share these words from a devotional written by Ralph Marston as a guide for our lives and for Trinity Church. FOCUS ON THE GOODNESS
Transcript
Choose words today that
encourage. Choose actions today
that assist, empower and unify.
Live today with generosity,
gratitude, wonder and enthusiasm.
Be slow to anger, quick to forgive,
understanding and patient with
yourself and others.
Offer your smile, offer your
kindness. Give your respect and
your positive presence.
This is the world you live. The day
you have to work with. Make your
intention to make it a good,
supportive time and place.
Many good people are going to do
many good things today. Take the
opportunity to add your own
beneficial actions to the mix.
What you focus on gains power and
influence in our life and world.
SO, FOCUS ON THE GOODNESS
AND WATCH AS THAT GOODNESS
SPREADS!
Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing you and your guest in worship!
Pastor Ralph
JANUARY 2018
TRINITY CONNECTIONS
We are on the threshold of a new year and I share these words from a devotional written by
Ralph Marston as a guide for our lives and for Trinity Church.
FOCUS ON THE GOODNESS
Save the Dates for upcoming events:
January 14: Card Making after church
SAVE THE DATE: January 28th Chili-Cook-off
Fellowship-Deb Henry, Chair
God’s Work, Our Hands.
How many times over the past few years have we said this at the end of our Sunday service?
2018 begins a new year of hope and faith as we reach out to our community. In January, we will be holding our annual meeting. We have a number of leadership positions available on the council. If a member of the nominating committee approaches you, please prayerfully consider saying yes or better yet contact the church office or myself and say you would like to join the council. We really do want to do God’s Work in our community:
We have reached out to SCC with fund raisers to help prevent suicides in our schools during the season of Lent. We have invited others in the community to join us in the wonderful stories of both Jesus’s birth (Christmas story) and death/resurrection (Easter) with The Silent Messengers. We have our own Little Food Pantry and Little Free Library as well as support the SCC Backpack program, Grace Place and the area Food Shelves.
We have 24 youth joining with two other churches on a Mission Trip to the ELCA Youth Gathering where they will join other youth from other churches across the country worshiping and experiencing the wonder that is God in Houston. Our youth and leaders represent Trinity well on the Synod Youth Board.
Our WELCA ladies support the communities with their quilts, layettes, mid-wife kits, and funds. At Thanksgiving, we provided Thanksgiving meals to five area families and at Christmas we provided gifts to four area families.
We recognized our veterans and our emergency workers with meals. We worked with the Red Cross to hold blood drives. We distributed May Day baskets throughout the community to brighten someone’s day and provided a free fair during Hammond Heartland Days. Look around and you will see our youth serving breakfast during Hammond Heartland Days, Advent Services, Lenten Services, etc. and our ladies also serve their Fall Bazaar (All with free will offering which allows those participating to pay what they are able.) The youth make Scandinavian cookies so those of us who don’t have the time or talent can have cookies over the holidays.
Our BOLT program has reached over 35 children who also had a wonderful Christmas program. BOLT Students put together boxes for Operation Christmas Child and we have had members go over two times to help get the Operation Christmas Child boxes ready for shipment. We put Bibles in the hands of our 3rd graders as well as confirm our youth. We work on making our church a welcoming home to our members with weekly coffee fellowship and by giving every new family a key to the church so they can come in, if they need to reach out and pray to Our Father.
A glance at our calendar shows the Boy & Girl Scout troops that use our facility for their meetings and have had a couple of these Scouts earn their Eagle Scout and Gold Award for their projects of our beautiful gardens, a place to recycle our cans, a playground for our children, and a media center along with the newest contribution, the Little Free Pantry. Our basement houses SCC’s 4-K program.
It truly is God’s Work through us. Help us continue to grow in our missions here in the community of Hammond. ~Marti
Coffee Chat with the Treasurer –
Rachel McHenry
President’s Corner - Marti Peterson
Dear Trinity Gift Givers,
What a great year 2017 has
been! Your generous gifts of
prayer, monetary donations, time
and talents, have made all things
possible at Trinity! In November,
all bills were paid in full and our
offering produced a Net Income of
$3,236.
General Fund Ending Balance:
$21,914
Offering: 15,785
Expenses: (12,549)
Income: 3,236
The Evangelism team wants to THANK everyone for ALL the help over the past year with our events we have had. We are working on ideas for next year so keep watching the Newsletter and Bulletin for events that will be coming up.
We also want to wish our church family a HAPPY NEW YEAR.
God’s Blessings for 2018.
Betty and the crew
Evangelism- Betty Johnson, Chair
Year-end Holiday Season
Giving Statements will go out to all
contributors by January 31, 2018!
Sunday, January 7
9:30am
All are invited to this special service on the first Sunday
of the New Year. Each household will come forward
for a blessing while the congregation sings their
favorite Christmas hymns one more time. This is a
wonderful way to start the new year and a great
opportunity to invite a guest, friend, neighbor or co-
worker.
FOOD PANTRY UPDATE
December:
Food Shelf: 51 pounds Backpack: 41 pounds
Thank you for helping others in need!
QUILTER’S CORNER
Thank you for all the donations of fabrics and
sheets.
Are you interested in helping quilt?
We will be tying quilts for Lutheran World relief
on January 10th and 24th at 9 am in the Quilting room.
Join us tying knots and sharing fellowship on the 2nd & 4th
Wednesday’s of every month!
If Wednesday doesn’t work for you? Let Kathy Jensen know!
Education-Kelly Browning, Chair
Greetings BOLT families-
Blessing of the Households with
Christmas Carols & Holy Communion
* May Day Baskets—April 25 * End of Year Celebration-May 23
Another photo from the BOLT Christmas Program!
We are continuing to have a great time in BOLT! We have 37 kids registered for BOLT and attendance has been great since we started in September. Thanks to the families for bringing their children to BOLT and share in God’s love. Here are pictures from Bring a Friend night!
On Sunday, December 17, the BOLT kids shared the story of the birth of Jesus through song and a skit. They had a great time learning the story and telling it for all to hear. We hope everyone who attended worship enjoyed the BOLT Christmas program.
The BOLT guides are enjoying our new education program and hopefully the kids are too. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, please let me know. We love sharing God’s love with your children. We are doing great things and we all look forward to Wednesday nights.
Friendly reminder that we have a Closed Facebook group where I post what is happening with BOLT on a regular basis. You can request to join here; Trinity Lutheran BOLT .
Your Co-Worker in Christ, Kelly, BOLT Team Leader
IMPORTANT BOLT DATES
Another photo from “Bring a Friend” Night!
Want to join the Trinity Family? We are having a new member class on Saturday, January 13th at 10:00 am. Come find out about Trinity and meet some of our members. We will end our time with a potluck at 12:00pm. Contact the office if you are interested! New members will be formally welcomed on Sunday, January 21st at the 9:30am service.
Happy NEW YEAR 2018!! As we clean-up, unwind, and begin to relax, from a busy Christmas season, take time to reflect on the reason this season is so important to us as Christians. A New Year brings with it hope and a time for
renewal! We hope that your resolutions this year include a renewed passion and commitment to our work here at
Trinity. Looking forward to a GREAT year together!
January at a Glance:
SPECIAL MUSIC EVENT!! The Famous Norvold Sisters from right here in our area will be performing for us during Worship on January 14. Mark your calendars you won’t want to miss these Sisters! Thank you to members of our family here at Trinity and Thrivent for making this event possible.
Special thanks also to the following people for their contributions of time and talent to ensure that our Christmas Season was filled with beauty!
All members who donated money for the beautiful poinsettias, see listing in newsletter.
Mark and Gretchen Iverson family for once again donating the tree in our sanctuary and an extra thank you to Mark for delivering and setting up the tree so that it was ready to be decorated.
The elves who helped decorate the tree and the church for this Blessed Christmas Season: Kathy Jensen, Deb Henry, Jim and Karen Riley. It is always a fun and memorable time working together for the good of all!
ALL ARE MUCH APPRECIATED!! Thank you, THANK YOU!!
A final IMPORTANT message, most all of you know that there has been a request to change Worship time. The people have spoken and the majority of respondents have voted to change Worship time back to 9:00 a.m. THIS WILL HAPPEN AND BE OFFICIAL ON FEBRUARY 4, 2018. The reason for the time frame is the need to put all things in motion smoothly, including accompanist’s schedules. Thank you for your patience in resolving this issue!!
As always if you have a question, concern, comment, or have a talent you would like to share regarding Worship and Music, please contact me. We can’t make things happen unless we know!!
That is the Worship and Music News for this month!! Thank you for all you do! ~Sue and the Crew
Thank you so much to all those that participated in the Secret Santa Program this
year at Trinity. We were amazed at how quickly the tags came off of each tree this
year.
The returned gifts were wrapped so beautifully too. In addition to your generosity of buying and wrapping the gifts; we also had the following given to our Secret Santa program this year:
1. A huge thank you to Harold and Lenore Moll for allowing our Secret Santa Program to use one of their Thrivent Contract Numbers to secure $250 of Seed Money.
2. Trinity quilters gave four quilts. 3. Someone donated four large laundry
detergents. 4. The Trinity Ladies donated $200 to
buy miscellaneous household items.
Trinity certainly blessed four families this past Christmas Season. All four families were a part of the Holiday Angels Program at St.
Croix Central Elementary. We are blessed to be a blessing!!
Offering Counter1 Marti Peterson Deb Henry Marti Peterson
Offering Counter2
Bulletin Sponsors
To Sponsor a Bulletin, please see Betty Johnson BOLT Sponsors
Fellowship Servers
Team L-Ron & Glenda Pratt
Team A-Jill Foster Team B-Todd & Deb
Henry Team C-Lance & Cindy
Olson
Exterior Property Team
Team #9-Daryl & Sue Frank
Team #9-Daryl & Sue Frank
Team #10-Drew Johnson & Boy Scout Troop
Team #10-Drew Johnson & Boy Scout Troop
See Betty Johnson to sponsor a bulletin! Just $8.00!
January Ministry Calendar
Please consider how you might do God’s work with your hands. Sign up at the Communication Corner or call the church office. Instruction available for every role & a reminder call or email a few days before your commitment.
January Bulletin Sponsors
January 7th BULLETIN: WELCA January 14th BULLETIN: No Sponsor yet January 21st BULLETIN: No Sponsor yet January 28th BULLETIN: Kathy Gustafson in memory of Husband Gary’s Birthday.
Do you have a special day, memory or event coming up? Sign up to be a bulletin sponsor in 2018! Call (715-688-6444), email ([email protected]) or talk to Betty Johnson at church! Only $8.00!!
9:00am Quilting 12:00pm Yadda, Yadda Prayer Group @ American Heritage,
Apt. 111 6:00pm Dinner
6:30-7:15pm BOLT 6:30-7:30pm IGNITE (6th Grade)
9:30am Hope Bible
Study
10:00am New
Member Class
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
9:30am Worship
Food Shelf Sunday 10:45am Coffee
Fellowship 10:30am Card
Making
9:00am Jumpstart! 12:00pm Yadda, Yadda Prayer Group @ American Heritage,
Apt. 111 6:30-7:15pm BOLT
6:30-7:30pm IGNITE (7th Grade)
Newsletter items due!
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 9:30am Worship w/communion
New Member Sunday
10:45am Coffee Fellowship
4:00pm Hammond Royalty
10am Heritage
9:00am Quilting 12:00pm Yadda, Yadda Prayer Group @ American Heritage,
Apt. 111 6:30pm BOLT
6:30pm IGNITE (8th Grade)
28 29 30 31
9:30am Worship 10:30am Annual
Meeting 11:30am Chili
Cook-off
10am Newsletter
Folding & Treats
9:00am Jumpstart! 12:00pm Yadda, Yadda Prayer Group @ American Heritage,
Apt. 111 6:30-7:15pm BOLT
6:30-7:30pm IGNITE
January Calendar of Events
"You crown the year with bountiful harvest, even the hard pathways overflow
with abundance." ~ Psalm 65:11
Thrivent Action Team Updates
We have reserved 34 spots at the “Feed My Starving Children” Eagan location. We would LOVE for you to
come and join us pack food for people all over the world, in hopes to end hunger.
Saturday, January 6 from 11:30-1:30pm 27 spots are available
This is a great family opportunity for all ages!
Please contact Sarah Pommerening if you are interested or click or copy the link to register with
the group!!!
Click or Copy Link:
http://volunteer.fms
c.org/Register/Grou
p/JoinGroup.aspx?
gid=1298490
Thank you for your support of Boy Scout Troop 161. Through activities and events our boys are developing life skills and learning important ideals such as character growth, good citizenship and personal fitness. We are very fortunate in our community to have the support of our local municipalities, organizations, businesses and countless individuals. Providing Scouting to our local youth would be difficult without it.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! ~Scouts, Leaders, and Families of BSA
Troop 161
“Feed My Starving Children” opportunity
Dear Trinity Lutheran,
The chicken just recently donated is very much appreciated as well as needed.
Thank you for your consideration and support of our food ministry.
God Bless- The Roberts Food Pantry
We have started working on the events that Thrivent
members or associate members can apply for Thrivent
Action Dollars. Keep on the lookout for the sign-up
sheet to be up in January. If you are a Thrivent
Member OR wish to become an associate, PLEASE talk
to Betty Johnson. Any ideas that you may have for
events are also welcome. Let’s see how many events
we can do with this FREE money. If you still do not
know what the action dollars are all about and how it
works please see Betty. Will be happy to share the info
Jim & Karen Riley-In honor of God’s undying Love. Dorothy Hage-In memory of Husband, Richard Ron & Glenda Pratt-In honor of our families Kathy Gustafson-In Memory of husband, Gary Jerry & Sharon Afdahl-In honor of Christ’s birth Brian & Joan Ramberg-In honor of family and friends Mike & Dar Sittlow-In memory of Marjorie Sittlow Rasmussen Alan & Jeanne Owens-In memory of Jean Tubman Pastor Ralph & Andrea Olsen- In honor of Christ’s birth, and our grandson’s: Samuel, Andrew & Cooper Harold & Lenore Moll- In honor of Kurt & Autumn Afdahl’s Anniversary David & Becky Fowler-In memory of loved ones Heath, Kelly & Taylor Browning-In memory of our loved one, and In honor of the BOLT kids! Kerry & Marti Peterson Family-In memory of Violet Christensen and Jack & Mary Lou Peterson Chris & Judy Larson-In memory of Robert Larson and Mark Lundeen Beverly Medes-In memory of husband, Cliff Medes Dan & Sally Doornink-In honor of family Betty Johnson-In memory of Alvin Johnson Clyde & Joanne Jacobson-In honor of children Richard & Rose Kuebker-In honor of children, grandchildren, extended family and friends. Scott & Nancy Post-In memory of family members who are no longer with us Lillian Jorgenson-In memory of loved ones Steve & Jean Peterson-In memory of loved ones and In honor of family and friends. Daryl & Susan Frank-In honor of our children and grandchildren-Nick & Kari Frank, Olivia & Owen, Amanda & Cory Schone, Haylee & Lydia, DJ & Rachel Frank, Lyric and Mia, Liz & Chris Pizzi Irene Burch-Thankfulness for my 5 healthy great grandchildren Jo & Bruce Moll- In memory of Kyle Forsythe, Burnell Holman, Dennis Peterson and Luke Murphy Deb & Todd Henry- In celebration of Jesus’ birth & In honor of our children, Brady and Gabby
Thank you to all who were generous in contributing to the beauty of our sanctuary at this special time of year! Extra thanks go out to Mark and Gretchen Iverson for donating the beautiful tree in the sanctuary.
Christmas Flowers
THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CONGREGATION is Sunday, January 28th following worship. Agenda items include, but are not limited to, adoption of the 2018 Ministry Spending Plan, updates to Trinity's constitution, and election of officers and council members. All members are encouraged to attend to help us make these important decisions about the direction of Trinity’s ministries in 2018.
2017 ANNUAL REPORTS are due in the church office by Friday, January 5th. Annual reports will be published and available for members to preview on Sunday, January 14th.
Annual Meeting Information
The Free Little Pantry is open to all! The posted
hours are Monday through Friday, 9-11am and
2:30-5pm. Wednesday nights from 5-8pm and
Sunday mornings 8:30-12(noon). The pantry is
located inside Trinity by the Fireside room.
Please share with
others and let them
know it is available!
“Take what you need, give what you can.”
My name is Tadan Holzer. I live here in Hammond and this is a statement of my faith. The question, “What is faith to you?” doesn’t have a very straightforward answer. Many people’s faith is given to them, passed on from their parents. This is the case for me. My parents had me baptized and into the church before I even knew my own name. They put in my hands the Holy Scriptures, and made me go to Sunday School and take the First Communion classes. I learned about Jesus and Moses and man of the works of God. I was taught these things by both my parents and other adults. Those people who taught me about faith and what it can do for you really shaped my outlook on faith itself. Many people’s lives have been shaped and completely altered by faith. I, personally, am not sure of how much faith has impacted me as a person. I cannot look at myself from an outside perspective and dissect what faith has done to me. I would sure like to, though, because if I could I’m sure I would be able to see what an impact having faith has had on me. Faith has taught me a couple things. Some things are obvious, like if an all-powerful deity tells you to do something, it’s either going to happen or something worse is going to happen as punishment. Other things delve into how people are people. How you need to assist others in need and love everyone, even your enemies. These are the things that shape people into who they are, the ways in which they follow these teachings. Living out your individual faith everyday is very important. Living your faith, no matter how much or how little, shows both your personality and individuality. Obviously, not everyone is at the same level of piety. Therefore, it is important to both show and try to improve your faith throughout your life. It is important to show your faith because if you are struggling with your faith, someone may reach out and help you with it. On the other hand, if your faith is strong, someone who is struggling may reach out to you in hopes of repairing and improving their own faith. Showing your faith can be a great way to make new friends as well. You can also live your faith by simply doing what you believe in. Helping people out, volunteering at shelters and events, many of those extra things that define you as a person, can be traced back to your faith. What you learned as a kid in Sunday School set a foundation that was built upon throughout your life. Living out your faith on a daily basis is the best way to cement those teachings and lessons into who you are. In conclusion, faith is not something tangible, but it is something that shapes you into you, and me into me. Faith changes your opinions on things and makes you look at the world through a different light. It allows you to reflect on yourself and think, “Is this who I want to be?” Faith, in short, is the will to go and change yourself, even if you don’t see it yourself, others do.
Tadan Holzer’s Faith Statement Trinity Council Minutes Dec. 11, 2017
7:05pm Call to Order by Marti Peterson Those present: Betty Johnson, Mark Iverson, Rachel McHenry, Tim Haugen, Marti Peterson, Sue Frank, Deb Henry, Kathy Jensen, Pastor Ralph, Sarah Pommerening. Those absent: Kelly Browning and Darla Feyereisen. Welcome Guest/Open Forum- Rose Kuebker-guest Approve minutes from October 9 and November 13, 2017 meetings- Action: Sue motioned, Mark seconded. Motion approved. Treasurer Report - We had lots of discussion on Shepherd's staff and this summer will be looking into other programs that would work for all of our needs. The budget was discussed along with future needs of Trinity. Action: Mark motioned, Betty seconded. Motion approved President’s Report - Marti talked about our upcoming Christmas Eve service and having some members disappointed we weren’t doing a candlelight service. Sue said the 9:30 am service will be darkened by covering the windows and it will be just like the candlelight service we would do in the evening. There will be a meeting to discuss hiring a janitor. There are four applicants. The Secretary position was also discussed. The by-law committee is done going over the by-laws. We discussed having the Treasurer and Financial Secretary being paid positions. We have several open positions on council and need to find members to take over these positions. We will be sending our recommendations to the nominating committee and they will be meeting soon. The youth room was also discussed being in the Fireside Room. Call Committee - There are things at Trinity that need to be done before this process happens. We need Directional signs in our church directing visitors where things are. What is Trinity’s vision, mission, etc. Does our worship flow, do we learn from it and move it out to our community? These are all things we will be talking in about in the upcoming months. We will be meeting on January 4th to talk about this list of items and talk about the vision and mission of Trinity. Nominating Committee - This committee consists of Judy Larson, Darla Feyereisen, Vera Grant, and Becky Fowler. Scheduling of events for next year - Please get all events on the church calendar in the office to get on our year master calendar Annual Meeting Agenda Items 2018 Budget - The Annual Meeting will be Jan. 28. Committee reports are due to Sarah by January 5th.
9:40pm Motion to adjourn by Deb Henry, Sue Frank Second. Motion Carried. Closed with the Lord’s Prayer.
Our Next Meeting is Monday, January 8, 2018 at 7:00 pm at Trinity
TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH 1250 BROADWAY STREET PO BOX 68 HAMMOND WI 54015
