Dear Friends and Members,

I hope this email finds you well and having a good beginning to the Fall. We’ve had a lot of activities here at church. This last Sunday, six of our young adults affirmed their Baptismal promises. We’ve enjoyed Rally Day, a wonderful brunch hosted by the Women of Peace, and a great and fun beginning to the year! This coming Sunday is the Men of Peace pancake breakfast. We hope to see you here!!

Thank you so much for all the generosities on the God’s Work our Hands projects:  we worked on the food shelf; we donated new underwear for children and adults; we worked on donations to help the underserved. You are amazing and the people who receive these donations will feel blessed by all of your efforts!

As you look ahead:  Julie is going to attach many of our announcements and events: I would like to highlight a few. First: the Peace Country Boutique is just around the corner.  Please sign up to volunteer to help with the different preps and set up and serving times! All of us together help to make the event the success it always is!

On Sunday, November 10, at 10am, we will gather during the worship time for a special musical morning featuring our Music Director, Trychia Borgstrom. It’s hard to believe, but we will be celebrating 20 great years of Tyrchia’s music ministry among us. Please mark your calendars for this special morning. Trychia will be highlighting some of our favorite music from the last 20 years, followed by a potluck, featuring some of our favorite foods from the last 20 years!!! What a fun morning!!  Everyone is invited to attend and bring friends, and don’t forget to bring a favorite dish to share at the potluck!  I, like you, want to thank Trychia for sharing her many gifts of music with us for these last two decades, and celebrate her continued ministry with us!!  Cards and special notes of thanks are welcome!

Many of you have been tracking with Bruce and I and the girls over his last year and a half. After a long summer, we have become their permanent parents!  We are so blessed, even as we continue to be blessed by your many prayers and encouragements! One of things we had planned over these many months was a special trip together, an ‘anchor memory’ trip of sorts; so, on October 8, we be driving our RV out to Disneyland, to see the sites on the way out, to enjoy time in California, and to journey back and see some more sites on the way home.  I hope you will keep us in your prayers as we enjoy this special time together. We have waited a very long time for this!!

The best news ever though is that Mike Loven is in Mayo hospital having just received a heart and lung transplant. He will undergo his kidney transplant this morning, Wednesday, October 2.  Please keep Mike, Lisa and their daughters, Emily and Vanessa, in your prayers.  The plan is that he will be in the hospital for at least a month, and then will need to spend an additional four months in the Rochester area, near the hospital. Having said that, I hope that many of you will consider donating gas cards and fast-food cards for the family. Understandably, they will be in Rochester quite a bit, and Lisa and the girls will be going back and forth a great deal over the four-month period that Mike has to be near the hospital. For those of us who have had similar journeys, we can tell you that besides the emotional ups and downs, financially, the recovery process requires a tremendous amount of energy.  Thank you in advance for all of your donations and help.  Please turn gift cards into Julie in the church office, and I will deliver our gifts to Mike and Lisa in late October.

We will be sending a mailing out sometime late next week.  I hope you will read my letter and the letter from Greg Loberg, our Church Treasurer.  We wanted to update everyone on our financial position and encourage all of our members and friends to pray about giving an extra financial gift this Fall to the Ministry and Mission of Peace Lutheran.

I hope you have a good week!!  Enjoy the weather and the Fall and falling temperatures in the weeks to come.

In Christ,

Pastor Valerie