Announcements
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November 2025 Schedule
Thank You
Thank you to all of our wonderful musicians and our choir who helped us have a reflective All Saints service this past Sunday.
Advent Fair 2025
Please join us for a time of crafts and fellowship on Sunday November 23 at 9 AM in the Nolt Auditorium
Crafts for all ages!
Please bring a breakfast item (bagels, baked oatmeal, etc) to share.
We are providing juice, coffee, and tea.
Sign-up in the Solarium
If you would like to volunteer or if you have any questions please contact Angie Rabbe
717-397-2748 or gracechurch517@gmail.com
Communion Assistants
We need your help—we need a few more communion assistants for the 10:30 service . We would love to have at least three more folks sign up on a regular basis. If you have any questions please contact Angie Rabbe or Keith Miller.
Flowers and Candles
A reminder: If you would like to honor/remember your loved one(s) on significant dates, such as birthdays,
anniversaries, or date of passing, please contact: Donna Weidman @ dweidman52@gmail.com or
717-201-6180
A nominal fee of $20 for flowers and/or $5 for candles helps defray the cost of the altar flowers & candles in our budget.
If you receive the paper Grace News please read below…
Thank you to everyone who has responded so far. If you have not yet responded please do so as soon as possible. Any changes with the mailing of the newsletter will happen after the annual meeting.
As we prepare next year’s budget we are looking at an astronomical cost of $4,560 to mail the paper Grace News on a weekly basis. If postage increases which is likely to happen we will easily be over $5,000 in postage alone. We know many of you rely on the paper Grace News, we are not eliminating it, but we would like to run a cost analysis between our current bulk mail rate and what the budget could look like if we only sent the Grace News first class. We would like to keep the news letter to a weekly publication, while being good stewards of what God has given us. Please help us as we make a decision on the future of the paper Grace News. If you absolutely must receive the paper Grace News please call the office at 717-39-2748 and leave a message for Angie. If you are currently receiving the paper Grace News, but would like to switch to receiving it electronically please call of the office or email Angie (gracechurch517@gmail.com). A final decision will be made before the Annual Meeting on 12/7. If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to Angie.
To reiterate, we are not eliminating the paper Grace News, just ascertaining the best way to get the paper Grace News to the folks who need it.
Outreach
Feeding Our Neighbors
Along with sleep, food and water are daily necessities of life. This is a biological fact which even
governments of very poor nations recognize, making efforts to ensure that even their poorest citizens have ways to obtain food and avoid starvation. Sometimes there are events, like Hurricane Melissa this past week, that destroy food and the processes by which food is moved to places where people can buy it. Sometimes those events are not natural disasters but political ones, such as the famines related to war in Gaza or the Sudan. This week, a political disaster is developing, not far away in a poor, war-torn land, but in our own communities. The imminent loss of federal SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits affects up to 3 million people immediately, and over 40 million people over the next month if the politics of our federal government shut-down continue. In Lancaster County, officials tell us that over 50,000 of our neighbors living in or near poverty will find it much more difficult to eat, with average amounts of food assistance lost ranging from close to $200/month for a
single senior citizen, to over $500/month for families with children.
So that we might organize ourselves to help in simple but effective ways, we are prepared to collect financial donations for the FOOD HUB, and to collect and deliver donations of food itself on behalf of the Church World Service Food Pantry that is being set up to help neighbors that are most vulnerable to this crisis.
· If you wish to help financially, please make your check out to “Grace Lutheran Church” with a memo “Food Bank” and our treasurers will forward these donations weekly to support the Food Hub’s ministry to hungry neighbors.
· Grace continues to serve weekly community meals on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. You could volunteer (call Karen Scheffey at 717-682-1728) or support the meals with a donation to “Grace Lutheran Church” memo: Wednesday Meal.
· For those who would rather donate food directly our English Language Learning team is sponsoring a food drive for Church World Service Lancaster. Items can be drooped off at the gathering area in the Nolt Auditorium or directly at CWS.
If you have any questions please reach out to Pastor Verkouw, Kathryn Verkouw, or Angie Rabbe.
Thank you!
Mission Trip
As some of you know I have been participating in Lutheran Disaster Response trips to help with hurricane relief. I have been to Puerto Rico, Florida, and now I’m heading to North Carolina on November 9th along with 41 other volunteers.
We are working in the Asheville area helping folks recover from hurricane Helene which caused major flooding and devastating damage to important infrastructure in many of the residential neighborhoods.
If you would like to support our group, you may do so by purchasing gift cards from Lowe’s and Home Depot to help offset the cost of materials. Gifts cards will also be accepted to help pay for gasoline as volunteers are driving to North Carolina and also to the various job sites during our week long stay.
Donations may be dropped off at the Church office or by the display in the Narthex.
Your support and your prayers for a safe and productive trip are greatly appreciated.
Please don’t hesitate to ask me about the trip when I return.
God’s Work Our Hands!
Your in Christ,
Vicki Mumma
Grocery Cards
Grocery cards are available at both services on Sunday mornings. You may order cards by calling Duane and Kitty Weiss. Remember all purchases of cards realizes 5% in cash back to Grace. These funds are used to support our many ministries. Grocery
CARDS will NOT be AVAILABLE on Sunday, NOVEMBER 23.
Hope For the Holidays
CARDS ARE AVAILABLE IN THE NOLT AUDITORIUM AND THE SOLARIUM
PLEASE RETURN ALL CARDS BY 12/2
DO NOT PUT CARDS IN ENVELOPES
If you have any questions please contact Angie Rabbe 717-397-2748 gracechurch517@gmail.com
Christian Formation
Adult Christian Formation —Fall 2025
November 9: Finding Your Anchor – an exercise in Resilience Led by Jane Horan, EdD
November 16: Adults: Contemplative Prayer Led by Tom Santosusso
Highschool Youth’s turn to experience “Finding Your Anchor” Led by Jane Horan, EdD
November 23: Advent Fair!!!!!! Fun and crafts for all ages
November 30: Traveling with the Deaconess Community: Sister Dr. Dottie Almoney, Directing
Deaconess of the Deaconess Community of the ELCA
December 7: Congregational Meeting!!!
December 14: Contemplative Prayer Led by Tom Santasusso
December 21: Please support the children by attending their Christmas Play “Wow!”
December 28: TBD
Fall Foliage Day
23 members of Grace enjoyed a beautiful day of hiking, biking, canoeing, and pumpkin painting at Camp Kirchenwald’s Fall Foliage Day. The day ended with devotions and a delicious meal prepared by Vicar Phil Supeck. Pictured below are our youth on the hayride compliments of Pastor Mark Russell.
gracelutheranchurch.com 