Good News from the Welcome Place Is the Newsletter of St
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
St. Martin’s Lutheran Church Archbold, OH 203 S. Defiance Street Archbold, OH 43502 419-445-4656 Good News From April, 2021 The Welcome Place Volume 15, Issue 4 www.the-welcome-place.org E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Inside this issue: Worship Schedule Sunday Worship – WELCOMING 9:00 am, Live broadcast Our Mission Statement Wednesday Offering, 2 WPW Worship—7:00 pm Worship Assistants Live broadcast Keep In Our Prayers 3 Office Hours Pastor Paul: Mon, Tue, Thru, 9-12 WORKING or by appointment Steve: Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri.—am Pastor Paul 4 Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri.—pm Brenda: Tue—Fri, 8-12:30 Worship News 5 Steve Basselman Holy Week, Easter Welcome Place 6 Schedule Wednesday Church Council 7-9 5:15—Meal—drive through 7:00—WPW Worship 10- Financials 12 Health News 13 14- Women of St. Martin’s, 15 Bus Adventure to 16 Passion of the Christ Coloring & Puzzle Page 17 What’s happening at St. Martin’s . Birthdays & 18 Sunday 9:00 am Worship Service, in-person & live broadcast Anniversaries Sunday School 10:00 am, in person PreK—High School, 7th& 8th grade Zoom WITNESSING 10:30, Zoom for adults See page 6 for Holy Week & Easter Worship Schedule This Month’s Calendar 19 Live broadcasts through Facebook Live and later on YouTube. Links & bulletins for live broadcasts are on the church’s website. Welcome Place News Page 2 God’s Work . Our Hands! Building The Welcome Place Who Are We? We are The Welcome Place Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. – Romans 15:7 What Is Our Mission As A Church And As Members? WWW We are…Welcoming friends and strangers with God’s love. Working to build deeper relationships with Jesus. Witnessing to share God’s love with everyone What Is Our Vision Of Who God Wants Us To Be? ORG People who are serving…One Real God, living One real faith, making One real difference. How Do We Remind Ourselves? www.the-welcome-place.org Welcome to worship and join us in building The Welcome Place Jesus calls us to be. From the Church Office . Worship Assistants Attendance & Offering Worship 2-21: Attendance—24 Altar Guild—Michelle Collins, Jess Short $3,945.00 Mid Week Lent 2-24: 12:00—8 Sound Team—Bill Phelps, Worship 2-28: Attendance—29 $9,041.67 Darren Sonnenberg, Tracy Ziegler Mid Week Lent 3-3: 12:00—8 Usher Team Leader—Jim Wyse Worship 3-7: Attendance—57 $9,486.00 Offering Counter Mid Week Lent 3-10: 12:00—7 April 4—Butch Blankenship Worship 3-14-: Attendance—376 April 11—Jeff Benecke $4,610.00 April 18—Robin Trudel Mid Week Lent 3-17: 12:00—9 April 25—Yanira Reyes Worship 3-21: Attendance—42 $ May Newsletter Deadline Holy Communion April 22, 9:00 am See page 6 All Things in Common Just as the bread is made out of many grains ground and mixed together, and out of the bodies of many grains there comes the body of one bread, in which each grain loses its form and body and takes upon itself the common body of the bread; and just as the drops of wine, in losing their own form, become the body of one common wine and drink — so it is and should be with us. … Through the interchange of [Christ’s] blessings and our misfortunes, we become one loaf, one bread, one body, one drink, and have all things in common. —Martin Luther, Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament Welcome Place News Page 3 God’s Work . Our Hands! Keep In Your Prayers . Jerry Geiger Sharon Heckel Al Siewert Joe Wyse Tracy Ziegler Our Shut-ins: Rex Detwiler, Dorothy Huner, Ada Thrasher, Irene Liechty, Louise Wyse Family & Friends of Jack McCormick who went to his heavenly home February 21 Family & Friends of Pastor Tim Sonnenberg who went to his heavenly home February 25 Pastor Paul, Beth, Moriah, Erinn, Isaac as they continue serving God now at Zoar, Perrysburg Members of the Military and their families in active service for our country; Christopher Shirley, Steve & Sara (Delaney) Adams, Patrick Cirenza, Christopher Goertz, Brendon Johns, Kasyn Schaffner, Spencer Short Our College & Seminary Students both away from home and close to home Our Northwestern Ohio Synod Bishop Daniel Beaudoin and his staff as they carry out the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ The Bethel Parish of Dodoma, St. Martin’s Companion Congregation, may they continue to carry out God’s ministry and mission in Tanzania Our Mission Partner Congregation of Redeemer Lutheran, Toledo Our Country and the nations of the world that all may experience God’s forgiveness and guidance so that peace may be restored and nations be reconciled All First Responders, Hospital Staff, Caregivers who have been in harm’s way since the outbreak of the coronavirus, may we know the ever-present grace of God All who have lost family members and friends to the corona virus, may we know the comforting presence of our Lord Jesus Christ Ivy Nehls is turning 75 years old on April 10th! In light of COVID, we (her daughters) are thinking a card shower is the best way to celebrate her. Maybe even 75 cards?!? So, please consider sending Ivy a card or note in the mail, wishing her a Happy Birthday, in early April. Her address is: 108 Magnolia Lane, Bluffton, OH 45817 From Stefanie & Melanie See page 5 for answer Welcome Place News Page 4 God’s Work . Our Hands! From Pastor Paul . Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, grace, mercy and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Sometime in the past week as we were talking about newsletter articles being due, I realized something fairly overwhelming. Due to the way that these deadlines fall, this will be my last newsletter article. After more that 150 newsletter articles, how do I wrap this up? I want to begin with Thank you. Thank you for being the people of God who keep welcoming, working, and witnessing; who keep looking to new ways to reach out to the world in Jesus name. From letting go of ministries that had run their course like the tutoring program to hearing the call of new ministries to build roofs in Puerto Rico and provide coats to those who were cold. And thank you for continuing to support so many ministries that make an ongoing difference in people’s lives. And thank you for all the ways you have supported our family from meals and hand- me-downs to car rides in snow storms and helping us fly to Germany. I look back over these fourteen years and am humbled by the care we have received. This past year of pandemic (can it really have been a whole year already?) has certainly not been the year any of us would have wished for let alone our last year together. But to quote one of my favorite authors, J. R. R. Tolkien, “…so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” And, as St. Martin’s has for the past one hundred and fifty five years, we have haltingly, imperfectly tried to follow our Lord Jesus Christ, thankful that because of his life, death, and resurrection we find daily forgiveness and opportunities to begin again. I am confident that walking in such a wondrous hope that St. Martin’s will continue to thrive as it reaches out to make a difference in Archbold, Northwest Ohio, our nation, and our world in Jesus’ name. Thank you for inviting me into your times of joys and sorrows; into the intense and the mundane. It has been a great blessing to be your pastor, and now I commend you dear sisters and brothers in Christ to the next shepherd whose way (unbeknownst to any of us) the Holy Spirit is already preparing. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. – Jude 24-25 Peace, Pastor Paul Welcome Place News Page 5 God’s Work . Our Hands! From Our Worship Leader, Deacon Steve Basselman . We Are an Easter People There’s light at the end of the tunnel! Though we are still in the midst of Lent, we can count down the days left in Lent. Though we still have preparations to make, we can already taste the post-Easter feast ahead of us. Our ALLELUIAS sound more joyous because we’ve taken a sabbatical from them since February. The whites and the golds of Easter sparkle more brightly because the purples and scarlets have told us their story in Lent. Light carries more intensity because of the times we met in darkness. Music may sound more jubilant after the rich resonance of Lent. We will treasure more our rejoicing because we have grieved. There’s light at the end of the tunnel! That sentence carries a double meaning this year. We are about to enter our second Holy Week in pandemic times. We likely could not have imagined that this year’s celebration of Palm Sunday, the Three Days, and the Resurrection of Our Lord would still take place apart from our gathered communities or at least transformed to look, feel, and sound quite different.