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This Church changes lives!
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News for the week of 3/7/2021
Ash Wednesday and Lent invite us to honesty about our limits. If nothing else, the past year has reminded us that we cannot pretend away the realities of sin, death, and the forces that defy God in our world. And we treasure the traditions of Ash Wednesday and Lent because they help us cultivate that honesty and point us toward “the life that really is life,” anchored in God’s faithfulness (see 1
Timothy 6).
Our Wednesday evenings in Lent will again invite us for our sung Holden Evening Prayer service, considering together the sacrament of Holy Communion. Our celebration of the sacrament has been different through the pandemic. We miss gathering physically at the table so terribly - and yet have temporarily found new ways to trust Christ’s presence to meet us. What do we believe about this sacrament? Why do we treasure
it? We’ll consider this together on Wednesdays in Lent at 7:30 pm.
You may have noticed that our evening worship time is different this year! A large group of folks in our congregation are participating in the ecumenical Sacred Ground study and conversations around faith, race, honesty, and justice through this Lent, and we have moved worship to make space for that in our life together. This part of discipleship is tremendously important - we’re grateful for those who are leading and participating,
and are keen to see the ways the Holy Spirit will use their growth and faith to lead our congregation’s growth and faithfulness!
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CLC Social Ministry and Mission
March 2021
As you do it for the least of these, you do it for Christ.
(Matthew 25:40)
Each month the Social Ministry highlights a special giving opportunity pertaining to hunger, homelessness/housing, or
mission. March’s specific emphasis provides monetary/volunteer support for the Valpo New Creation Men’s Shelter/Resale Shop https://newcreationempowers.org + https://www.facebook.com/newcreationresaleshop and Project Neighbors www.facebook.com/ProjectNeighbors + https://projectneighbors.org
New Creation (2102 N. Calumet Ave.) was created several years ago as a center for homeless men in Valpo and Porter County. The Men's Center currently offers supportive services for homeless men during daytime hours. The Resale Shop is always in need of donated furniture and appliances, household and office supplies,
laundry essentials and toiletries, and cleaning supplies and paper goods.
New Creation Men’s Center educates the community on the problem of homelessness in Porter County and on the challenges faced by clients, with the goal to create self-sufficiency. Prior to the Pandemic, numerous CLC members assisted the Men’s Shelter in several ways e.g. hosting men overnight Saturday, preparing/serving meals (dinner and breakfast), and taking time to sit and talk with the men who are taking advantage of Shelter services. New Creation is hoping to resume
the overnight program with the help of various churches including CLC in October 2021.
Project Neighbors (454 College Ave.) is a Not-for-Profit organization in Valpo. By addressing issues of race, class and poverty, Project Neighbors's goal is to build healthy families and neighborhoods, where diversity of all kinds is welcomed and cherished. The history of Project Neighbors follows a long list of opportunities taken. A need presents itself and this small group of citizens responds.
Project Neighbors’ accomplishments
in Valparaiso include affordable housing at Caroline's Place and Neighbor's Place, childcare and preschool at Hilltop
House, community health centers in HealthLinc, and the region's only low-power, all-volunteer community radio station, WVLP, among other “risks-turned-rewards.”
Help achieve our goal of $2500 in March (over and above giving combined with CLC’s budgeted amount of $1200). Use
your weekly worship giving envelope mailed with check to CLC and indicate “New Creation/Proj. Neighbors” or contribute through PushPay on the CLC website https://clcvalpo.org via the “Give” button, and choose Monthly Social Ministry Emphasis. Thank you to members for supporting monthly social ministry emphases.
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Updating our Plan to Regather
CLC continues to monitor changes in local, regional, statewide, and national guidance. With vaccines continuing to roll out into our area, and with recent downturns in various rates and metrics we are all feeling hopeful that we may be able to relieve the strictest pandemic precautions. However, important ongoing
guidance still cautions that “normal,” restriction-free gatherings lie some time in the future.
In our continuing prayer, reflection, research and guidance-collecting, Christ Lutheran remains committed to placing our most vulnerable as foremost in our thinking: until all our beloved can gather, we are not back to “normal.” Until all of us are safe, we continue to
voluntarily take precautionary restrictions.
Our Staff and Council have recently revised our “CLC Plan to Regather” to reflect recent guidance and our current understandings and approach to the ongoing pandemic. Recent metrics and measures of COVID infections allow us to move, cautiously, into the right-most “Hybrid” column. This allows us to return limited in-person
worship opportunities; see below for information and plans for how we intend to move forward. As always, please note that this is very much a “living document” that we are constantly revisiting and revising as situations warrant, and is subject to ongoing change.
Join us! CLC Costa Rica Mission team partnership with Living Green Garden
The Costa Rica Mission Team is continuing its work and learning in 2021 with The Praxis Center and its host community, Casa
Adobe, in Costa Rica. They have encouraged us to support local and organic agriculture in Costa Rica, as well as in our own area – so we are going to support Living Green Garden, a community garden project in Gary, while also staying connected to Casa Adobe in Costa Rica. We will be meeting once a month (sometimes
over Zoom, sometimes in a Covid-safe way outdoors), from March-October, 2021. Please register by March 27 here to participate in the whole program. You may also email katpeters2@gmail.com with questions or if you would like to make a one-time contribution of time, talent, or treasure.
Senior Wellness Course
Please sign up by March 18 if you are interested in the course.
Easter Egg Hunt Items Needed
We will be having an Easter egg hunt on Easter morning at 11:15. We are in need of candy or little toys to put in eggs. (You can also just fill a couple dozen eggs and donate those!) If you would like to donate items for this, please drop them off at the church. Or if
you want to donate money toward the purchase of items, you can do that too. Please drop donations off by March 28th. Any questions can be directed to Amy Knauff amyknauff@gmail.com or 219-242-7448 (call or text).
All Thrivent Financial Members!
Do you have any Thrivent Choice Dollars that have not been directed to the charity of our choice? If you do not direct them by the end of the calendar year, they go back to Thrivent!
There are two ways of directing Choice Dollars to Christ Lutheran Church:
Computer: Go to the Thrivent Financial web site ( www.Thrivent.com) and direct the Choice Dollars on-line.
Phone: Call Thrivent Financial at 1-800-847-4836. When prompted by the electronic answering system, say “Thrivent Choice.” Follow the remaining prompts, and a representative will come on the line to assist you. You will need your Thrivent membership ID number and will need to answer some other personal questions to verify that you are the Thrivent member who is on the line.
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Christ Lutheran has an email list of people who would like to be contacted when a meal schedule has been made for folks after the death of a loved one, after surgery or during illness, or after the birth of a baby. Just since COVID hit, we have provided 9 meal schedules for people. If you would like to be added to this list, please send a note to amyknauff@gmail.com. You will only be notified when there is a current schedule. There is no obligation. Also, if you or someone you know is in need of meals, please contact Amy Knauff or one of the pastors.
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Hoosiers age 50 and older now can make an appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Just one day after dropping the vaccine eligibility age to 55 from 60, the Indiana State Department of Health announced Wednesday the anticipated availability of additional vaccine doses, including the single-shot Johnson & Johnson
vaccine, make it possible to further reduce the state's minimum eligibility age to 50 from 55.
Appointments to receive the free immunization must be made online at ourshot.in.gov, or by calling 211.
If you need any help registering or calling to sign-up for your vaccination, please call the church office.
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