Grace News March 7, 2023

Announcements

Reminders & Corrections

• Grace Book Group meets next Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Zoom email Brenda Hayasaka at bkhayasaka@gmail.com
• Grace’s Reducing Gun Violence Group does not meet on 3/15 (watch the Grace News and PV’s weekend email for info on when the group does meet)
• The deadline for submitting Grace News articles is noon the Thursday before the Grace News is published. Example articles for next week’s  (3/14) Grace News are due this Thursday (3/9) by noon. You can email your article information to Angie at gracechurch517@gmail.com

Church Directory

If you are having trouble accessing the church directory please email Angie at
gracechurch517@gmail.com or call the church office. You can access the church directory through the link on our website or by downloading the IconCMO app to your smart phone or tablet. If you have any questions please contact Angie. If you need a paper copy of the church directory please call the office or email Angie.

Styrofoam Recycling Update

Linda Fackler and Jan Mandros graciously volunteered to be in charge of dropping off our Styrofoam recycling. Clean Styrofoam can be dropped off at the donation station in the Nolt Auditorium.

Easter Flowers

Lutheran World Relief Update

Thanks to generous people like you, Lutheran World Relief is delivering aid and support to survivors of the earthquakes in Turkey.

We are bringing our decades of experience responding to humanitarian crises together with the expertise from across our Corus International family to care for children, women and men devastated by the quakes.

As of February 25, 2023, according to the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), more than 130,000 buildings have been destroyed or damaged, and more than 500,000 people citizens have been evacuated from the affected provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa,Diyarbakır, Adana, Adıyaman, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, and Elazığ. More than 1.9 million people are sheltering in temporary or short-term housing, including tents, containers, dormitories, hotels, public guesthouses and other facilities.We have deployed members of our Humanitarian Action team to Turkey to support response operations and are coordinating with local organizations, UN agencies and other international humanitarian organizations to ensure aid is delivered effectively, without duplication, and meeting most urgent needs.
Our Humanitarian Action conducted rapid assessments in Kilis, Islahiye, Nurdagi and Antakya and found that earthquake survivors are most in need of shelter, food, hygiene supplies, toilets and bathing facilities and basic household items. The needs assessments are informing our response activities.

We will expand our response to reach more earthquake survivors as we secure additional funding. We expect to support primary health care delivery, psychosocial counseling and protection activities for earthquake survivors in short-term and temporary housing camps. We also expect to provide additional hygiene services, including supplying clean water and toilets.

You can read more and make a donation here

Christian Formation

Adult Sunday School: What in the Hell?

During Sunday School hour these next few weeks Pastor Verkouw will be leading adult learners into reflecting on hell, how the church has often taught about salvation as primarily being saved from the eternal punishments of hell, and why this idea persists so strongly in religious life, even though it makes only rare and often ambiguous appearances in Scripture. Is it possible that the moral confusion of a gospel that proclaims a God of love and mercy on one hand while maintaining that God has an eternal punishment ready and waiting for those who don’t “get it right” in this life is what has been turning a people away from belief in the Christian faith? Of course hell is still very popular in churches who are confident that it’s just for other people! Join us to sort out some of this crazy talk!

Reading the Bible

• The chronological plan is what we did this past year and follows The Bible Recap PodCast.
  You can find this podcast and many more on the YouVersion app. 
• The continuous plan has readers begin their journeys in Genesis and read straight through to Revelation. For many members of Grace this is how they read the Bible each year.
• The new plan for this year includes the Apocrypha. This plan follows Fr. Mike Schmitz’s
  The Bible in a Year Podcast/YouTube series.

You can find all of the resources on our website. You can also find paper copies of the reading plans in the narthex on the prayer table (around the corner from the fishbowl). If you have any questions please contact Kath or Angie.

Weekly Reflection

Oh God of Dust and Rainbows,

Help us to see

That without the dust the rainbow

Would not be.

Langston huges
sUBMITTED BY Cindy lamaster

Our Grace Family