Announcements
Grace Book Group
Our next zoom meeting will be at 7pm on Tuesday, September 14th at 7pm. Read a book set in a school, college, seminary, academy, university and/or about students/teachers/instructors. You choose any genre. Any questions, contact Brenda Hayasaka at bkhayasaka@gmail.com. Barbara Anderson will send an email with the link to join the Zoom meeting.
Christian Formation
Contemplating Logos
Contemplating Logos
“Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away.”
(Prologue to The Rule of St. Benedict, Trans. Rev. Boniface Verheyen OSB, 1949)
This week’s reading is John 6:66-71
Outreach
Next month our congregation is participating in Carry the Future’s Race For Refugees! I’m reaching out to you because you are involved with our ELL program and/or have helped with past refugee events.
Carry the Future is a volunteer-run non-profit organization that was founded by a group of women who wanted a better future for refugee children. In the past year, CTF has funded a play area for refugee children in Athen’s Greece, called the Athen’s Nest. We were also co-partners for a migrant youth center in Michigan. We also donate diapers and car seats etc to refugee camps. You can learn more about CTF here or I can answer your questions.
The Race For Refugees takes place from September 15-30. Given the pandemic, this will be a virtual race. I would love for you to join our team and we can run, bike, swim, or sweat through fitness classes to support the work of CTF.
If you would like to join our Grace team please let me know by September 5. The suggested registration fee is $35 for individuals and $75 for families. However, because we are registering as one large team our individual members can pay as they wish provided that they register through me. Please do not register for the race on the website. If you register on the website I cannot guarantee that you will be on the church team and you will have to pay the full registration price. Please write checks to Grace with Carry the Future or Race for Refugees in the memo line. We will make one large donation once I have all of the money.
Race swag is available here
If you want your race shirt in time for the race you must order your shirt by August 25. In the past Bonfire’s shipping has come ahead of schedule, but with the recent changes to the USPS, I would order ASAP.
If you have any questions please reach out to me at graceelcaapd@gmail.com
Peace,
Angie Rabbe
The Crisis in Haiti
The horrific 7.2-magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti on August 14th has claimed over 2000 lives to date, with many more injured, and thousands now homeless. For one of the students in Grace’s English Language Learners (ELL) class, Haiti is his homeland and where his wife and daughter and other family members live. Blessedly, his family is safe, as they are seventy or so miles from the quake’s epicenter, but he is deeply affected and saddened by this tragedy that has added yet another crisis to his already struggling home country. For us, he is a tangible link between Grace and Haiti.
The ELCA has been a presence in Haiti for over two decades. Currently Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) is collaborating with partner organizations to provide immediate relief needs of food, water, and shelter. Going forward other support will continue like counseling, water and sanitation, and sustainable agriculture. As the ELCA website notes, when the headlines change, LDR will still be there providing ongoing assistance.
You can be part of this by donating to Lutheran Disaster Response where 100% of your gift will assist earthquake victims. You can donate online by clicking here and scrolling down to Lutheran Disaster Response- Haiti Crisis. You can also give by phone at 1-800-638-3522. Or you can write a check to Grace Lutheran Church with “Lutheran Disaster Response – Haiti Crisis” in the memo line. Other needs in our country and the world are also listed online and supported by LDR. The need is great in so many areas! Please remember that with LDR, all your gift goes to where you direct it.
Carol Main, Grace ELL Teacher
Girl Scouts Shoe Drive
The Girl Scout are collecting shoes to:
- Help build micro-business in developing countries
- To keep them out of the landfill
- To recycle / upcycle
- To help them get to the National Jamboree!
The collection box is in the Narthex! Thank you for your donations! Nancy Rowe
Lutheran World Relief
Lutheran World Relief InGathering
Lutheran World Relief Ingathering – October 2-3 Boxes for donations are in the Narthex!
School Kits
- Four 70-80 sheet notebooks (280-300 sheets total) of wide or college-ruled paper approximately 8” x 10 ½ ”, 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 2 ½” eraser
Personal Care Kits
- One light-weight bath size towel (between 20” x 40” and 27” x 52”), dark color
- Two or three bath-size bars of soap equaling 8 to 9 oz, any brand, in original wrapping
- One adult-size toothbrush in its original wrapping
- One metal nail clippers (attached file optional), remove packaging
- We will add a comb to your kit, as we have some left from last year
God’s Work Our Hands Sunday
“God’s work. Our hands” – Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021
Our Seventh Annual Neighborhood Cookout
How You Can Help!
We will be inviting and welcoming our neighbors at Grace to a special BBQ version of our annual Neighborhood Cookout on Sunday, September 12th at noon. Being mindful of the current health concerns in our city and county, plans are being put in place to make this as safe an event as is possible. To that end the meal, prepared by the Bertrands’ Smokestack BBQ, will be put together in takeout containers. Other treats being added to this wonderful meal will all be prepackaged in individual servings. In addition, a small gift is being planned for each of our guests.
Invitations to our neighbors will be distributed via colorful door hangers. One way that you can help, would be by distributing door hangers to a block or two immediately around the church. If you would like to help in this way, please contact Barbara Andersen (717-898-4805) or by calling the church office. The door hangers and a listing of addresses will be available after the 10:30 service on September 5th. Volunteers can deliver them that day or during the first few days of that week. If you can’t be at church on the 5th, but want to help, please let Barbara Andersen know.
Another way to help is by making a monetary contribution to help cover the cost of the additional treats. For example, a $10 gift would supply about thirty Rice Krispie Treats. $15 would cover eighteen containers of applesauce. Contributions would also help defray the cost of the gift for each guest. A gift in any amount will be gratefully received. Please mark your gift in the memo line on your check or on an envelope as being for the “Neighborhood Cookout”. Thank you for your help in making this a wonderful day of and at Grace!
Creation Care
Season of Creation
Each year from September 1 to October 4, the Christian family unites for this worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common role as caretakers of God’s creation. We see that our wellbeing is interwoven with its wellbeing.
We rejoice in this opportunity to care for our common home and the sisters and brothers who share it. This year, the theme for the season is “A home for all? Renewing the Oikos of God”. Resources, including webinars and prayer services, a Facebook group, and photos, are available online. Please visit their website to access all the materials.
-Deacon Marsha Roscoe, Assistant to the Bishop Lower Susquehanna Synod
The Grace Church storm water mitigation effort, new gardens, our affiliation with Interfaith Partners of the Chesapeake, and our designation as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation will be celebrated during The Season of Creation. Please check out their website listed above in October for a short video highlighting the efforts of our “Green Team” here at Grace.
Bottle Caps
We are still collecting caps for the Earth Savers Club at Central York High School.
If you would like to help—drop off your clean/label free caps to the church office! Thanks!
This Week’s Green Tip
Are you unknowingly spraying your healthful produce with phthalates, BPA, lead and more? A garden products study completed by The Ecology Center looked at 90 different garden hoses and discovered disturbing levels of each of those chemicals. Some of the toxin levels exceeded safe drinking water standards by 20 times or more. Learn more here
Aug. 29, 2021 (14th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B) James 1:17
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.
Make a list of the blessings in your life. Go ahead! These are gifts to you from God, the source of all. Now review the list and pray for each, “I thank God for ….” Do this every day and see how you feel.
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