The Grapevine A Monthly Newsletter For The Family And Friends

Of Faith Lutheran Church Of Sonoma Valley

—Volume 8, Summer 2015 Issue—

Mission Outreach - in a myriad of forms….. Although this picture captures the June Brown Baggers who made sandwiches to distribute at the Grange, the Mission Outreach Committee provides numerous opportunities for involvement in ministry.

Brown Baggers meets the fourth Wednesday of each month to make 40 brown bag lunches that contain sandwiches, fruit and cookies. Any fourth Wednesday you can find Bonnie Kruger harvesting and cleaning lettuce for the meat and cheese sandwiches. In June, plums from the Ah San’s tree and apricots provided by a friend of the Piotters were a special treat for those receiving a lunch.

On the First Wednesday of each month you will also find a number of members from Faith Lutheran working at the Federal Food Giveaway. For years John Casciani and the youth have provided coffee for those waiting in line for food and activities for the children. At one point there were 8 members who regularly volunteered but recently some health issues have significantly reduced that number. Bonnie Kruger, a long-time FISH volunteer, recently recruited Pat Adams and Peggy Carroll Redden to become FISH Drivers. FISH provides about 200 private car rides each month. There are many other volunteer opportunities at FISH - Dispatchers who answer the telephone at the home plus additional drivers both to transport people and to pick up donations from Lucky, Safeway and Whole Foods are needed. Each month financial support is given to the Lutheran Schools in Haiti to provide lunch for their students. Twenty-five cents will provide one lunch to a child. Anyone interested in supporting the Lutheran School at a higher level might consider that for $500 one teacher is funded for an entire year! The Lutheran mission work in Haiti focuses on addressing abject poverty by educating children. Their work has been blessed.

Alan Piotter, Bob Sturgis, Alfa Rachuy, Bonnie

Kruger, Joan Linden, Ann Marozik, Sandy Piotter

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Lutheran World Relief continues to be an effective way to support worldwide missions. This summer we are collecting backpacks filled with school items for the refugee camps in Syria. Fifteen dollars buys both the backpack and all of the items needed. Notebooks, pens, pencils, an eraser, ruler, pencil sharpener and scissors complete the kit. There is a table in Goehring Hall with a poster, the items we are collecting, and envelopes for financial contributions. In July we will be asking for volunteers to sew backpacks and in August we will assemble the backpacks and mail them off in time for school this fall. Thrivent, the Lutheran Financial Corporation, is supporting our Lutheran World Relief Backpack Project. Thrivent encourages both individuals and congregations to Live Generously and they supplied the t-shirts shown in our picture. As always, we thank Thrivent for their support.

Coffee Hour Have you thought about hosting a coffee fellowship, but were afraid to commit because

you hadn’t done it before and were unfamiliar with the church kitchen? Fear not, because we can help! All you

need to do is tell Susie Ryan or Bernice Thorstenson you’d like to pair up with someone to host a coffee hour,

and they will find a co-host for you. We have several experienced coffee hour hosts who are willing to partner

with you to give you “on-the-job training” in the church kitchen. We’ll match you up with someone, help you

determine which Sunday you’ll host coffee fellowship, and show you what to do. And one more thing: it’s

perfectly fine to host a “simple coffee hour” with a minimal snack and beverages. Before you know it, you’ll be

saying, “That was easy!”

A Christmas Market 2015 Christmas in July? No, not this year. Faith Lutheran’s fourth “Christmas

Market” craft fair is scheduled for Saturday, December 5th, so mark your calendar now. With the craft fair on

its way, I’ll soon begin organizing the event, which means rounding up the committee, finding volunteers, and

recruiting vendors. If you would like to get involved, please contact me, Susie Ryan, at suscryan@gmail.com

or 938-1873.

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…continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed…that the servant of God may be

complete, equipped for every good work... 2 Timothy 3:14-17

I was never very good at baseball. Perhaps I didn’t have the interest that other guys had. Or perhaps I didn’t play catch enough with dad. Whatever the reason I never got down the basic skills needed. I’d get in the game, my mind would wander, my muscles just were not trained to catch that ball and I’d miss it. It was a great lesson for me about life. Create good muscle memory. Pay attention to what’s going on and when the ball comes your way you will catch it without even thinking about it. Over the last few years I have come to know some great Christians at churches around the country. I have seen God throw them balls and have seen them play brilliantly. Recently a friend of mine had an acquaintance become incapacitated. The family was challenged to care for them and my friend was in a place to help provide that support. It was going to be a demanding situation for them. It was going to cost time and attention. But my friend had this ball thrown their direction. And they caught it. I heard about midnight runs to the hospital. I saw time taken from their job and family to provide support and care that others could not. I saw them fall into a rhythm of care that was a natural expression of who they were. When I asked why they did this they didn’t have an answer. “Someone needs to do it,” they would say. It was the natural thing to do. The ball was hit their direction and they caught it. Their muscles just reacted without thinking. I was inspired at how our Lord can make us the right person in the right place to act as His hands and His heart and - if we are paying attention and have the right muscles – we make a huge difference. We live in a valley with a great deal of hurting people:

Families struggling

Lonely newcomers looking for connection

Disillusioned spouses watching their marriages dissolve.

Parents watching their children become estranged. Faith has a history of responding to them. Faith has a history of acting as God’s hands and heart in the valley. Faith has a history of catching these balls and making a difference. Over the next few months we are going to continue this tradition. Look for classes and opportunities designed to help us build muscles that can respond to these “balls” thrown our direction. This month we begin a men’s Bible Study, Men of Faith.

In the next few weeks we will begin a midweek Adult Bible study.

Plans are being developed in place for other specific trainings and service opportunities. I am excited about the plans we have for the year ahead. I am excited about what is being thrown our direction. I am excited about how we are and will continue to be catching them! Peace Pastor Bill

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After 6 mission trips with Faith Lutheran, Annick Adams continues to share God's concerns and Love for others. Annick, a Global Studies major from UC Santa Barbara, traveled to Senegal in West Africa. While on the African & Development Studies fall program, Annick worked three days a week at the La Pouponnière de Dakar, an orphanage for infants. In the course of her internship, she communicated exclusively in French and Wolof and learned to navigate multicultural topics with ease. Since she began volunteering at the age of 12, Annick knew she wanted to dedicate her life to humanitarian work. She incorporated her

internship experience with her future plans, “Even if I can’t be there in person to physically care for the babies, I can still support them by spreading awareness [about their needs] and sharing my story, and I aim to continue to create a global connection to aid organizations like the orphanages in Senegal in my future career. Developing relationships with the staff and infants was the most rewarding part of the experience for me. This internship gave me the opportunity to experience the types of organizations I hope to improve and bring awareness to through a global career.”

I can honestly say that I have never felt this excited and terrified before in my entire life. In April, I accepted a call to join the Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program. I will spend a year serving in the United Kingdom, where I will participate in Humanitarian and Community Development work through the Lutheran church. (I do not know my specific placement site at this time.) Being a member of Faith Lutheran Church has been instrumental to my decision to dedicate a year of my life to international Christian service. My mission trip work in New Orleans and New York through the Youth Group taught me the value of service, while the supportive community of Faith Lutheran encouraged me to grow as a Christian.

I cannot participate in this year of service alone. I need the support of my home congregation. Prayers are especially valued. While I have not even left the States yet, I already feel both the stress and excitement of this coming year, and being in your prayers will help greatly. I also hope to keep in communication with my home congregation. Please follow my blog, mackenzie-uk-2015.tumblr.com for updates, and in addition let me know if you would like to be a pen pal! While YAGM covers 70% of the program costs, I still need to fundraise $4,000. Any amount helps! You can learn how to donate at mackenzie-uk-2015.tumblr.com/support, or you can e-mail me at mmmackling@ucdavis.edu.

I plan on attending Sunday worships in July and August before I ship out on August 19th. I would love to talk to other members of Faith more about my time abroad! For more information about Young Adults in Global Mission, go to their website: https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Global-Church/Global-Mission/Young-Adults-in-Global-Mission.

In Christ, Mackenzie M. Mackling mmmackling@ucdavis.edu mackenzie-uk-2015.tumblr.com

“A year of service through the Young Adults in Global Mission program invites young adults to become the

hands and feet of Jesus in the world, providing critical support to ministries and projects in communities of need. It also invites volunteers into a journey of self-reflection, providing space to consider their sense of identity, God’s

work in the world, and their place within it all.” -Young Adults in Global Mission

Following are updates from two young adults who were actively involved in our youth group and various church activities before leaving for college and beyond.

We are thankful to John Casciani, our Youth Director, for his guidance to these individuals as well as the many others he has led through faith.

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Stewardship Corner

Walking Together!

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as they had need…And the Lord

added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2)

That is an amazing biblical recounting! Thinking out loud, I ask! Is it possible for a 21st century American church to express the same spirit of generosity as was present in the spirit of the Acts 2 church? Of course it is—through the power of the same Holy Spirit working through the Means of Grace!!! That is what our generous giving to Faith Lutheran Church does! Our gifts are put to use for God's work on earth to bring the good news of His kingdom which has no end. Who wouldn't want to be part of that? And we all are! Thanks be to God. We all help to make that happen. We do it because Christ made it happen for us. It is encouraging to observe that our plate giving from May 2014 through the end of June 2015 has increased. Thank You members of Faith Lutheran for your generous giving. At the same time it is concerning that projected needed income for 2015’s budget is falling some short as we strive to meet our expenses as well as our growing mission ministry programs. Stewardship is working on methods and ways to increase our giving trend. Summer is always the leanest time of the year for gifts in the offering plate. I am thinking out loud again…please think about this for a moment…let’s each of us strive to increase our individual giving by 1% and to set that amount aside for each Sunday — even the Sundays we miss worship for vacations and the such. Faith’s work for the Lord continues every day of each month and year. Faith needs each of us every Sunday, too!

Together, as a family committed to Jesus Christ, we will continue to glorify the work of our forgiving God and the sacrifices for us by Jesus Christ. Keep in mind…the word Synod means… “walking together!” Let us do just that in loving the Lord and celebrating our generosity as joyful givers for all we receive from Him! In Christ’s service on behalf of Stewardship, Jim Griewe

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FAITH’S GARDEN – SUMMER 2015

Faith’s Garden is, indeed, blessed and

ready to continue its mission ministry

of feeding those in need

We recently received a note from Phyllis Leisy, a long-time member of Faith,

who relocated to Fresno to be near her two sons and other family members.

Phyllis happily writes that she has been accepted as a resident in a new

Veterans Home in which she has a private room with bath and receives very

good care.

Phyllis expressed her gratefulness for her years at Faith – misses everyone,

and extends her love.

Her mailing address is 2811 W. California Ave., #535, Fresno, CA 93706