Announcements
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September 2026 Schedule–Worship Volunteers, Birthdays, & Anniversaries
Volunteers Needed
We are in need of volunteers for the following:
- Organzing the Sunday flowers and candles. If you are interested please contact Donna Weidman.
- Communion Assistants for all of our services. If you are intertested please contact Angie Rabbe. We will train you!
- Lectors and Communion Care folks for our Saturday evening servive. Please contact Angie if you are interested. We will train you!
- Cooks for community meal. We would love some more volunteers to cook for community meal the fourth Wednesday of the month. You don’t have to committ to making the entire meal but any help is greatly appreciated. If you are interested or have more questions contact Donna Weidman or Angie Rabbe.
Christian Formation
What is Confirmation?
The three years of confirmation during the Sunday School hour are the time of preparation for our young people to take responsibility for the promises made for them by parents and sponsors in baptism. We seek to empower them to affirm these promises God made with them in Holy Baptism for themselves:
To live among God’s faithful people,
To hear the word and share the Lord’s supper,
To proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
To serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus,
To strive for justice and peace through all the earth.
Over the course of our time together we explore stories of the old and new testaments, along with what it means to be Lutheran and the history of the greater christian church. We explore different ways that you can develop your personal relationship with God, providing different tools for reading the bible, and exploring different methods of prayer. We study the small catechism with special attention to the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed, and the Ten Commandments. We talk about the work of our church here in Lancaster and all of the things that happen to make that work possible. We explore our spiritual gifts and have confirmands think about how those gifts will help them live out the promises they make in their affirmation of baptism.
Through all of this we also hope that our confirmands continue developing their relationships with one another (as part of living among God’s faithful people!). Middle and high school are times of challenge and discovery for our youth and we hope that they can find support in their community here at Grace. This is part of why our Confirmation and High School classes begin together on Sunday mornings. We connect with one another, hearing about what is important in their day to day lives outside of Sunday mornings.
As we embark on a new year of Sunday School we look forward to welcoming sixth graders to our confirmation class and continuing to prepare our young people to make public profession of their faith.
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
gracelutheranchurch.com 