Grace News June 23, 2026

Announcements

CLICK HERE FOR THE CHURCH CALENDAR

JUNE 2026 Schedule–Worship Volunteers, Birthdays, & Anniversaries

Flowers and Candles

From Our Secretary

The Rabbes will be on vacation July 27-August 8. If you are interested in volunteering in the office on 7/28, 7/30, 8/4 or 8/6 please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks! -Angie

Chimers Needed

We are looking for a few people to add to our group of seven “chimers.” Chimers play the tower bells (the ‘chime’) after the 10:30 am Sunday service and also at 6:00 pm on Sunday evenings. If you can play a keyboard, you can play the chime. If you or a member of your family is interested, call or text Murray Foreman: 717-203-9061.

Financial Updates and Reminders From Council

• Our General Fund (annual budgeted expenses) is in good shape, but…it is summertime when we traditionally see regular giving of members falling off a bit. We are currently $6,000 ahead for the year as the half-way mark approaches, but that’s because some of us gave our whole annual gift in January! If you can, make an extra gift to help shore up our income over the summer months. Thank you
• Capital Campaign fund is doing great! Our loan balance is down to $336,000 and our campaign fund is back up to $50,000. That means that we will probably make another large principal payment soon. Meanwhile we must keep up our monthly payments. Thanks to everyone for your gifts to help retire this debt!
• The Pastor’s Discretionary Fund (PDF) has supported many requests this year for emergency assistance for housing, utilities, bus passes, lost and stolen ID replacement, medical bills, supplemental food cards, and a variety of other needs. We are careful about not being scammed, and we limit individual grants to @ $500 or less. If you would like to contribute to helping those in crisis in our own community, please make a gift to Grace Lutheran Church (memo: PDF) which will allow us to continue to help through the summer months.

Christian Formation

We have partnered with Musser’s Street Ministry for our VBS collection! Musser’s Street Ministry works directly with our homeless neighbors, providing them with food, personal care items, and transitional support. Beginning this Sunday we will be collecting the following items (Please leave items in the collection basket in the solarium):

• New hats (adults)
• New socks (adults)
• New gloves (adults)
• Full sized toothpaste
• Disposable Razors
• Cup-O-Noodles (please make sure it’s the cup that you simply add hot water to–NOT the kind that need to be microwaved.)

Photos from night 3 of VBS. Join us next week at 6 pm in the Nolt Auditorium.

Outreach

LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF INGATHERING
October 3-4, 2026

There have been some changes this year. The New Windsor center where we dropped off kits is no longer available. A new year-round location for donations has opened in Mechanicsburg. In regard to boxes we have to use boxes with lids. Preferred boxes are those that have handholds at both ends of each box that can be carried easily. A suggestion was made to inquire at the dairy section of the grocery store for egg boxes that have these handles and lid. If you know of a source, contact Brenda Hayasaka or Barbara Slotter.

Brenda Hayasaka and Donna Linton are in charge of School Kits and need your help. Take advantage of the school supply sales coming next month. These are the items they need to fill the bags they have on hand or will purchase.

• Four 70 sheet SPIRAL notebooks 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

Thank you to Janet Neumar who plans to apply for a Thrivent Visa card for $250 to buy items. We need more items from you to fill the bags.

We are also doing Personal Care Kits. We will purchase bulk items from a Thrivent card and also from your monetary donations. If you want to put your own kit together, here are the directions.

• One light-weight bath size towel (between 20” x 40” and 52” x 27”), 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 ordered in bulk. Loose items are accepted.

Fold the towel in half widthwise. Place the rest of the items in the towel, fold and roll so nothing falls out, and secure with yarn, ribbon, or string or just put your items, including the towel, in a plastic bag.

If you want to help with cash donations, please write on your check “LWR Kits.” Brenda and Barbara will share the money as needed. Boxes for your donations will be in the Narthex and at the entrance as you come in the door to church.

Barbara Slotter, 717-342-2654

Brenda Hayasaka, 410-236-1063

Donna Linton, 717-575-9388

Our Grace Family