We are Faith

JUNE 2015
Volume 2, Issue 6
We are Faith...
God’s purpose for our
new church is to unite
unconditionally,
sharing God’s love
through our growing
faith and mission with
everyone in the name
of Jesus Christ.
Marching members of the Faith Lutheran Church
FAITH LUTHERAN
MARCHES IN
MIDDLETOWN’S 2015
MEMORIAL DAY
PARADE!
Peter Brown and Pr. Zach anxiously await the
start of this year’s Memorial Day Parade.
Liz Helbig served as the team
leader and coordinated the
design and building of our
float as well as arranged to
have us all in the right place
and on time. Joal Lentz arranged the design and purchase of our tee shirts. We
distributed 1100 wrist bands
to spectators, and a good
time was had by all! Many
thanks to everyone who participated.
Inside this issue:
Memorial Day Parade
1
Yay for Calumet
3
Prayer Team
3
Council Updates
4
Change: The Convergence of
Endings and Beginnings
5
Sunday School News
6
Musical Notes
6
Our Church’s S trategic Direction:
Page 2
Make your life a MISSION,
not an intermission!
See someone on Council if you’d like to get
involved with — Worship & Music, Church
Operations, Mission Support, Facilities &
Maintenance or Finance. Your help would
be appreciated!
Thanks have been received from…
Laura Lenz to Pastor Zach for visiting her in the hospital.
She was most appreciative. She also appreciated receiving flowers in honor of her recent birthday.
Addressing Hunger in
M iddletown;
S haring K now ledge;
Serving & E mpowering Youth &
Seniors;
How? Coordinating assets in our
community to meet needs; and
Communicating a bout resources &
events.
Kathy Smith Marco recently wrote:
Before my outpatient surgery, my mother
brought me a bear from FLC with the special message on its tag. Those words
brought me comfort, a smile to my face,
and gratitude for the compassionate outreach that
Faith Lutheran has embraced. What a lovely ministry!
My surgery went well, and I know your thoughts & prayers helped. Thank you!
Jan Wright wrote:
Getting older isn’t so bad when you get lovely flowers
from church on your birthday. Thank you all so very
much. They were like “blue skies and sunshine” after
the long winter and cool spring. I have been enjoying
them. Blessings to all of you.
June Paulson sends a sincere thanks to all who remembered her with birthday cards and wishes & for the
flowers she received after church that day.
At the grave…
Carole Bengtson Johnson passed away on
Friday, May 22, 2015. Pr. Zach will officiate at her funeral service here at Faith
Lutheran on Friday, May 29, 2015. Our
prayers and sympathies are extended to Carole’s
sons—Rick & Ron Johnson and their families as well as
siblings Winnie May, Elaine Williams, Linnea Mazzulli
and Eileen Bengtson.
You’re Invited to an Open House…
Come see for yourself what life at Ashlar
Village offers. Our Open House gives you
ample time to tour a variety of housing options—including apartments, cottages and
villas—as well as the shopping, dining and
activity areas in The Hartog Activities Center. You’ll also hear from our residents why
they chose Ashlar Village. Meeting and socializing with current residents provides
valuable insight into the Ashlar Village lifestyle. So mark your calendar for one of our
next Open Houses:
Thursday, June 4th or Tuesday, June 23rd
11:00 am
Noon
1:00—2:30 pm
Presentation and Q & A
Lunch with residents
Tour of residential
options
For further information on attending an
Open House, please contact the Ashlar Village Marketing Department at
800.382.2244.
Page 3
This year FLC
will have five
campers and
one Leadership and Service Youth attending camp! They are:
Adryana Brooks (7/12-18)
Allison Dube (7/26—8/1)
Madison Dube (7/26—8/1)
Samantha Gagnon (7/26—8/1)
Amelia Kugeman (8/19-8/25)
Troy Lentz (7/26—8/22)
Please keep our beautiful
camp in your prayers as the
staff there busily prepares for
another great summer of happy memories. The dates listed
by each camper are the dates
these children will be at
Camp. Please consider praying for them to have a safe
and joyous time there. If you
would like, you can send off a
quick note or card to them
with happy thoughts from
home. The address is Calumet
Camp, PO Box 236, W. Ossipee, NH 03890.
It is not too late to sign up for
this summer. If you are interested in joining in on all the
fun, please visit
http://calumet.org/ to
register.
You can learn more about a
stay at the Family Camp,
Conference Center, Village
cabins or one of the many
retreats offered at their site.
I can be reached at
gojojol@comcast.net or
860.342.3351 if you have
any questions.
Boom Chic a Boom!
Joal Lentz
I would also like to add that
Calumet is not just for kids!
Prayer Team
Faith brings
strength and hope.
PRAYER TEAM
Each member of the Faith Lutheran Prayer Team will pray for 15
different members of Faith Lutheran Church on a daily basis.
The Pastor and Council members,
will in turn pray on a daily basis
for the members of the Prayer
Team. And all members of Faith
Lutheran are encouraged to pray
for your church home on a daily
basis. With all these prayers for
and from each of us, our congregation will be graced with an umbrella of prayer!
Donna Barney
Margaret D’Aquila
Sue Girard
Deanna Harrison
Janet Hayn
Liz Helbig
Heather Karpe
Rick Karpe
Art Krenz
Carolyn Krenz
Tom Kugeman
Lora Palmer
Kathy Raczka
Janet Wright
Page 4
May 2015 Council Updates
After the challenge thrown down by
Pastor Zach on the Sunday before
the meeting, we did in fact hold the
shortest council meeting since his
arrival at FLC.
We will be signing a new lease
with Middletown Adult Education
to continue their use of space in
the Education wing for the GED
program.
Liz Helbig is the head of the Memorial Day parade team, the design for
the float is well underway and Joal
Lentz has ordered the tee shirts for
the people who are marching. By
the time this is published, the parade will have taken place as seen on
page 1.
We are collecting furniture and
other household items to furnish
the apartment for a chronically
homeless person. This will happen as soon as the occupant is
paired with an apartment.
The new signs are being installed
and should be completed soon.
The council voted to award camperships to six children who will be John Twining,
attending Camp Calumet this
Council President
summer.
Let’s Celebrate
June Birthdays!
6/3
6/4
6/5
6/6
6/7
6/9
6/10
6/13
6/19
6/20
6/22
6/23
6/24
6/27
6/28
In the next several weeks Pastor,
Larry Stauffer, Deanna Harrison
and I will be meeting with two
different faith communities who
are interested in sharing space in
the building at 300 Washington St.
We are also scheduled to meet
with representative from ACES to
continue the discussion about
their use of the Education building
for the Head Start program. Stay
tuned for further developments.
Ellie Palmer
Jennifer Barney,
Bob Barney, Jr.
David Hall, Cathy MacEachern
Michael Lopez, Bill Stielau
Ralph Schaffer
Holly Schroeder
Marilyn Case
Kim Bacon, Leah McDermott
Donna Barney
Lorraine Albanese
Bill Bacon
Joshua Abbott
Ivy Anderson
Doreen Winkel
Marian Schultz
While planning your summer vacation, please remember to keep your
pledge to Faith Lutheran
up-to-date. Many thanks!
Spring Clean Up Crew
We held a Spring Clean Up Day on April 25th. Many
thanks to all who participated. L to R: Rick Karpe, Tom
Kugeman, David Blasco, Steve McDermott, Pr. Zach Harris, John Twining and Ray Anderson. Bill Stielau also
helped but left before this picture was taken. Also, we
extend our sincerest appreciation to Sue & Ray Girard
for their countless hours of lawn clean up and tending to
our Memorial Garden. Please remember to thank your
fellow members for their hard work.
Page 5
From the Pastor: Change: The Convergence of Ending and Beginning
By Pastor Zach Harris
Well, I’ve been the officially installed, first called Pastor to Faith
Lutheran Church coming up on a
year this month. In that year, some
things have vastly changed while
others have remained quite constant. The trick, of course, is to
have the things change which are
needed to change and the things
that need to be constant to stay
put. It is a matter of perspective
and opinion as to which things fall
into either of those categories and
where those outcomes have
brought us thus far!
Not to diminish this list, but the
”death” of my car after over 14 years
of adventuring together and almost
400,000 miles of travelling has hit me
as less of a loss of a thing and more
of a loss of a partner. And even less
intense is the simple convergence of
the ending of simple things like the
TV season, storylines in books, and
even the loss of a late night familiar
face. And don’t forget the snow!
After three months of bonding and
mutual strife, the snow also went
away (yeah, maybe not all losses are
sad!).
That scenario doesn't just apply to
the people of Faith as a congregation, but to each of us as individuals.
I personally have had a bunch of
changes/challenges in just these
past few months. I had severe
health issues overcome both my son
and my dog who slowly have gotten
almost back to normal. I’ve been
experiencing my mother slipping a
bit more and more with each passing week as she approaches her
88th birthday this month. And I’ve
endured the actual death of some
of my life’s beloved. My favorite
uncle from my mother’s side of the
family passed away at 94 years of
age. And then on the other end of
the scale, at 56 years of age my life
long best friend for the past 47
years struggling with cancer for the
second time, died suddenly just
when it looked like a solution was
just about secured. It is his death,
and his memorial service that will
occur next week that has had the
most profound effect on my psyche.
I’ve done about a half of a dozen funerals during these months, and the
idea of death in its most literal form
as well as its metaphorical recollection of endings has hovered like a
heavy mist over almost every aspect
of life.
But there is irony in this also. The
months of all of this have been the
season of Easter. It has been happening right when the message of
the Gospel is its strongest . Jesus
was also one of these deaths. And
yet that ending is what gives birth to
the beginning of resurrected life.
The message strongly supports us as
a people of Hope! And it does so as
quite quickly nature came back to
life: blurring the lines between
spring and summer. Leaves, flowers,
and wildlife that were seemingly
shackled by that winter’s cold and
snow, have burst forth in celebration
of all that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection so blatantly explain!
Because just as all those endings
converged for me at one time, I
am conscious that there is also a
convergence of endings and beginnings at the heart of that life,
death, resurrection story.
I’ve been preaching about Hope
as the true power of Easter. I’ve
had all kinds of illustrations that
show the power of hope to lift
ourselves up, and the danger of
hope to those who would try to
keep us down. The powers that
oppress us are fully aware that if
they can take our hope, they have
won; but if only a little hope remains their victory is in jeopardy!
So it may come as the ultimate
irony, that though I see, preach,
and try to achieve new possibilities that hope would lead us to,
the emotion that overwhelmingly
has pervaded my emotions is despair. And though I don’t have
some stunning solution to my
emotional state, I am coming to a
description of the irony that may
be the key to working this out.
Change equals pain. Our Bishop
made this crystal clear at his
presentation at our church last
month. And change can come in
the form of endings or beginnings
with both being equally traumatic. So what is it with having a
distinct feeling of despair when
God has hope all around us? I
think it is rooted in which way we
are oriented.
[Continued on Page 9]
Page 6
Sunday School News...
Thank you to all the kids and
adults who participated in
Sunday School and confirmation during the 2014-2015
year. Special thanks to Janet
Hayn, who tirelessly lead our
largest group of students,
and who is an inspiration to
teachers everywhere!
The Sunday School picnic will
take place on June 27 at
Sean & Jennifer Cope’s
house. Bring your swimsuit
and a potluck dish to share!
Thank you to the Cope family
for hosting us.
Many of you know that my
father recently underwent
heart surgery, following a
heart attack and four strokes
since January. I'm happy to
report he is recovering well in
rehab, and will soon go home.
for the next several months.
Consequently I am unable to
serve as VBS director this year.
If anyone would like to step up
for this important ministry, I
can provide curriculum, training, and logistical support.
Please let me know if you can
help.
Many thanks,
Jen Eifrig,
Sunday School Superintendent
Happy Summer!
Musical Notes...
Blue Star Marker
Dedication
On Saturday, May 23, 2015, Pr. Zach Harris participated in a dedication at the Veteran’s Memorial Green, diagonally across from Faith Lutheran Church.
He recently received a note of thanks from Ona
McLaughlin, Blue Star Marker Chairperson. It
read: “Thank you for your wonderful words at
our Blue Star Marker dedication. There were
just perfect. We wish you and your combined
parishes the best!”
Amanda Weber, our Director
of Music, will be moving on
this summer to Minneapolis,
MN, where she will work towards a Doctorate of Musical
Arts (DMA) in Conducting at
the University of Minnesota
for the next three years. She
hopes to eventually teach on
the college level and is excited for this next step!
While we are also very happy
for Amanda, the congregation
will be sad to see her go. We
are forever grateful for her
creativity and enthusiasm &
wish her all the best in her
future endeavors.
Page 7
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that Faith Lutheran Church has to offer!
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Please like, comment on, AND share our posts on facebook.
Invite your friends to like our page on facebook.
Post comments and pictures to our facebook page.
Check in on facebook ANYTIME you are here!
Giving Opportunities
Available...
Please remember to
sign up for either altar
flowers or the sanctuary candle one Sunday.
It’s a meaningful way to memorialize or honor a special person in
your life. You may find the flower
chart in the Narthex and candle
one in the office.
Living Stewardship for JUNE 2015:
Assisting Minister:
June 7: Faith Twining; June 14: Jay Huntington; June 21: Kathy Raczka;
June 28: Sue Giuffrida
Communion Assistant: June 7: Joan Lentz; June 14: David Winkel; June 21: TBD;
June 28: Lee Kozlowski
Acolytes: June 7: Allison Dube; June 14: Madison Dube; June 21: Stacey Lentz;
June 28: TBD
Ushers: June 7
June 14
June 21
June 28
Marian Martin, Souvanh Singngam, Mike Vajda
Bud Swanson, John & Stephanie Twining, Mike Vajda
Kathy Raczka, Janet Wright, David Youngs, Mike Vajda
Liz Helbig, Diana & Jay Huntington, Mike Vajda
Greeters: June 7: Janet Wright; June 14: Heather Karpe;
June 21: Lee Kozlowski; June 28: Marge Smith
Opener/Closer:
June 7: Bud Swanson/Kathy Hartline
June 14: Donna Barney/Steve McDermott
June 21: Lee Kozlowski/Tom Kugeman
June 28: Lee Kozlowski/TBD
Thank you for
volunteering.
Counter/Depositor: Kathy Hartline
Altar Guild: June 7: Karen & Bud Swanson; June 14: Marian Schultz/Shirley Salafia
June 21: Janet Wright/Heather Karpe; June 28: Beth & Bill Stielau
SUN
MON
1
7:30pm AA
TUES
2
WED
3
THURS
4
6pm Welcome
Table Weds.
9am Martha
Unit/Knitters
7:30– 9
United Pentecostals Bible
Study
7
8
9
10
9am Eucharist
7:30pm AA
9am Martha
Unit/Knitters
6pm Welcome
Table Weds.
6:30pm
Council
7:30– 9
United Pentecostals Bible
Study
16
17
9am Dominoes
6pm Welcome
Table Weds.
11
FRI
SAT
5
6
7:30pm AA
8pm NA
12
13
7:30pm AA
8pm NA
10:30am Fellowship Hour
1:15-4pm United Pentecostals
14
15
9am Eucharist
10:30am Fellowship Hour
7:30pm AA
18
7:30pm AA
7pm Ruth Unit at
7:30– 9 United
Luther Ridge
Pentecostal
1:15-4pm United Pentecostals
19
20
8pm NA
Bible Study
21
22
23
6pm Welcome
Table Weds.
9am Eucharist
10:30am Fellowship Hour
7:30pm AA
9am Martha
Unit/Knitters
1:15-4pm United Pentecostals
28
29
30
7:30pm AA
9am Martha
Unit/Knitters
9am Eucharist
10:30am Fellowship Hour
1:15-4pm United Pentecostals
24
25
26
7:30pm AA
7:30– 9
United
Pentecostal
Bible Study
27
Sunday
School Picnic
at Copes’
home
8pm NA
June 2015 at
Faith Lutheran
Church
age
From the Pastor: Change: The Convergence of Ending and Beginning
[Continued from Pg. 5]
I think when we are in the present
moment of change, despair overtakes us when we look back to the
past. With my friend Doug, it is a
vicious circle of remembering 47
years of brotherhood that has ended. The despair is that I cannot
count on any new adventures with
Doug in this world. That’s where I
am emotionally, but on a different
level of intuition, if I just turn my
gaze 180 degrees to the future from
this present moment of change,
despair can give way to hope. Hope
is looking toward the future and not
dwelling on the past. It is the part
of me that would never want my
buddy to suffer anymore to simply
make the present linger. But would
look to the future in the Kingdom of
God. That ultimate future is the
Tomorrowland of infinite hope, infinite fulfillment, and a new beginning that outshines anything my
best memory of the past can muster. I think it’s only by God’s grace
that I’m going to be able to turn my
gaze from past to future, from despair to hope, but I’m trusting God to
get me there!
And my last convergence is one that
you all may share. It is perhaps a
more blatant convergence of an
ending and beginning that throws
those two directions in stark contrast to each other. Our musician,
Amanda, will be leaving us after this
month. Though I’m sure everyone
has felt blessed by her talents and
gifts, I have been blessed also by her
leadership and insight in planning
and creating, but most importantly
by her friendship and shared care of
leading the people of God. So how
could I not be sad with her leaving
us? But by the same token, it’s that
friendship that makes me celebrate
the opportunity that she leaves us
to explore. To be a doctoral candidate is the height of education
especially for one who is an educator. How can I not be thrilled that
Amanda has such a great opportunity? How can I not feel blessed
to have been able to work with her,
worship with her, and share a bit of
life’s journey together?
Maybe I’m just getting old, with
more years behind than in front of
me. Maybe that’s why despair
seems to be overwhelmingly
shutting out hope for right now,
because there just seems to be
more in the rearview mirror than
out the front windshield. And maybe by concentrating on the years
behind, I miss out on eternity.
Faith brings strength and hope.
Faith Lutheran
Church
300 Washington Street
Middletown, CT 06457
Phone 860.347.6068
Email:
churchoffice@faithelcamiddletown.org
Pr. Zachariah Harris III
Cell phone: 860.269.4632
Email:
pastor@faithelcamiddletown.org
Amanda K. Weber, Minister of Music
Karen Carta, Office Administrator
I suspect I’m not the only one in
this quandary. I think only God can
straighten me out. My despair for
the past is real, but my hope for the
future is equally real. It’s God’s
domain, and God just asks us to
trust. So, when I look ahead, I say
Godspeed! Godspeed to you
Amanda and all the ways that God
will use you in the future! Godspeed to you Doug and don’t forget
to save me a spot at the “cool kids”
table in the Kingdom! And Godspeed to all the past, because
you’re responsible for getting us to
this present, which will lead to that
future. And that indeed is my
Hope!
Living Under His Grace,
Pastor Zach
We’re on the web:
www.faithelcamiddletown.org