Many thanks to the children of Grace for sharing the Good News with us on Christmas Eve, they worked very hard to make this year’s play a very special part of our celebration!
Construction Reminder!
The renovation of the lower level of the historic church is well underway. Our job site manager has asked that no one travel through the Auditorium area until further notice.
Access to the elevator and handicap bathroom is still available. The men’s bathroom on the stage is out of commission. The women’s bathroom on that level will be accessible for the time being. We will keep the congregation informed as things change. Thank you for your cooperation during this time of inconvenience.
Summer Sunday Socials!
“Oh, yeah!”, we are going to continue our Sunday socials on July 7 and August 4. Come and join us after the 10:30 service for fellowship and food. If you would like to join us on July 7, please bring a sandwich or two to share. We will provide a homemade soup. On AUG. 4, we hope to have brats and baked beans. -Congregational Care Team
Deborah/Elizabeth Circle Meeting July 9th
Please note that for July only the Deborah/Elizabeth Circle will meet on the second Tuesday of the month (July 9th). We are continuing the Bible study “For Just Such a Time as This”, based on the Book of Esther. This session, “Helping Our Voices Bloom”, looks at the acts of being silent and of speaking. We will gather at 10:30 AM in the Round in the Muhlenberg Building on the Luther Acres campus in Lititz. Please join us for a time of study and conversation. At about 11:30 we conclude with lunch together. For further information please contact Joyce Saeger or Carol Main.
Grace ESL is Looking for Volunteers!
Grace ESL is a year-round English class for adult learners that provides transportation and childcare for students. We have been at Grace Church since April of 2018. Our students are refugees and recent immigrants from all over the world. We are affiliated with the Literacy Council of Lancaster-Lebanon. We receive referrals from local agencies in the Lancaster area. Our childcare team cares for our students’ babies and preschool aged children year-round. During the summer, our students may bring their children in grades K through 5. For the summer months, Grace ESL is moving to James Street Mennonite Church, 323 West James Street, Lanc. Our first class at James Street Mennonite was on Tuesday, June 4th. We are looking for additional volunteers for both our adult class and childcare. Adult volunteers will need a volunteer clearance in accordance with the Safe Church Policy at James Street Mennonite Church. Youth helpers in childcare will need to be entering 9th grade or higher. If you are interested in this rewarding volunteer opportunity, please call Barbara Andersen, Grace ESL Coordinator, at 717-669-8258 or the Grace Church Office at 717-397-2748.
Summer Adult & Youth Education Offering
“Little Stones follows four women whose lives are dedicated to empowering survivors of gender based violence and eradicating the atrocities of domestic violence, human trafficking, extreme poverty and female genital mutilation. These women are therapists, activists, missionaries, and entrepreneurs. These women are artists.”
Please join us in the Fellowship Hall at 9AM continuing throughout the summer for an in-depth discussion of the documentary and women’s empowerment. We will be using a curriculum developed by the University of Michigan School of Education and Driftseed. This class is appropriate for youth and adults. Attendants are encouraged to bring a smart phone, tablet, or laptop.
Summer Musicians!
Our choir “season” ended June 9th. For the Sundays through September 1 we invite singers and instrumentalists to provide music in worship services. There are still weeks available! Please sign up by emailing David at herrdam@hotmail.com
Lutheran World Relief
It’s not too early to start collecting items for our Lutheran World Relief Ingathering, which will take place October 5/6. Loose items and the specified-size bath towel will be collected from now until the Ingathering. See the list below. In the fall we will have towels and school bags available for you to fill. We give this list to you now to take advantage of school supplies sales in early summer. You can put your items in the Narthex or at the closet in Fellowship Hall or bring them to the office.
What’s needed in each Personal Care Kit:
● One light-weight bath-size towel (20” x 40” to 52” x 27”), dark color recommended
● Two or three bath-size bars of soap equaling 8 to 9 oz, any brand, in original wrapping; no mini or hotel size bars
● One adult-size toothbrush in its original packaging
● One sturdy comb (no picks or fine-toothed combs), remove packaging
● One metal nail clippers (attached file optional), remove packaging
What’s needed in each School Kit:
● Four 70-sheet notebooks (280-300 sheets total) of wide-or college-ruled paper approximately 8” X 10½”; no loose-leaf paper
● One 30-centimeter ruler, or a ruler with centimeters on one side and inches on the other
● One pencil sharpener
● One pair of blunt scissors (safety scissors with embedded steel blades work well)
● Five unsharpened #2 pencils with erasers; secure together with a rubber band
● Five black or blue ballpoint pens (no gel ink); secure together with a rubber band
● One box of 16 or 24 crayons
● One 2½” eraser
We also continue to work on fleece blankets. We have a workday set for Thursday, June 27, at 1pm in Fellowship Hall. New people are needed! Thank you for the monetary donations to purchase fleece for this and for our Project Linus blankets for local toddlers.
If you care to donate instead of bringing items, checks can be written to the church and marked “Grace Church Lutheran World Relief Ingathering.” We thank Duane Weiss for remembering us with $300 from the sale of grocery cards.
Barbara Slotter 342-2654 or Linda Fackler 717-449-5574
Stewardship Snippets
June 30, 2019 (Time after Pentecost—Lectionary 13, Proper 8, Year C)
Galatians 5:14 –For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”A generous heart is built on the firm foundation of God’s abundant love, but it doesn’t stop there. Once you begin to see through the lens of love, everything looks different. Let love be your language, your dance of dissidence, and the song of your generous heart.
Our Grace Family
A Special Thank You
Dear Grace Family,
I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks for your love and care during my recent illness. Your prayers, cards, flowers, and visits mean the world to me. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such a loving congregation. Please continue to keep Ed and me in your prayers.
Yours In Christ,
Barb Krimmel
VBS 2019
Thank you to our wonderful VBS volunteers!
Growing in Grace
The big machines have been working hard most days, digging and re-digging, moving dirt from place to place in our small work area. First, underground water supply and wastewater pipes were found and relocated. Second, the elevator pit was dug out in a very careful way, allowing the foundation and basement floor of the church to be “under-pinned” – injecting concrete below the foundation and floor to prevent it from collapsing into the elevator shaft in the future! Over the past week, the foundation and floor of the elevator pit has been poured and the cinder block walls have reached the level of the basement floor. Over the next week or two we expect the full foundation of the addition to be dug and the concrete formed and poured. Additional conversation with our contractor and engineer has taken place around developing a more ambitious stormwater retention design. The new plan has been approved by the city, and should enable all of the run-off from the north side of our large church roof to be captured and filter down into the ground, rather than sent into the sewage treatment system. We are awaiting pricing for this change, but do not expect it to be prohibitive.Our capital campaign receipts are closing in on the milestone of $600,000! Thanks to everyone who has supported this project as well as our regular ministry budget…and a reminder that our expenses continue in the summer months, even as our attendance drops due to vacation time. Please remember Grace Church, and all that continues to happen here throughout the summer months!
God bless and keep you –Pastor Verkouw
gracelutheranchurch.com 