Adult Formation Hour

9:20 a.m. 

10/2

Deepening our Welcome with Fred Niedner - Sanctuary

God's Exceptional Choice with Dave Keammerer - Room 120

Sunday School Parent Coffee Klatch - Room 119

10/9

Deepening our Welcome with Fred Niedner - Sanctuary

God's Exceptional Choice with Dave Keammerer - Room 120

Sunday School Parent Coffee Klatch - Room 119

CLC has Spirit (Store Apparel)! 

With our new logos, we’ve had fun putting together a spirit store for CLC and LLP clothing: http://clcvalpo.org/spiritwear.  All orders are due October 7th, and should come in about 3 weeks after the store closes. To avoid delivery fees, orders will be dropped off in our church mailboxes when they arrive. There is a little something for everyone! Take a look and see how the “spirit” moves you! 

Blessing of the Animals - Feast of St. Francis

All through September, we’re marking the Season of Creation in worship, and it will wrap up on the Feast of St Francis with a Blessing of the Animals! Bring your pets to the back turnaround on Sunday, October 2 at 12:30 for a brief     service of blessing for these creatures, who are such a blessing to us!

The AMOS team of nurses and a speech pathologist is leaving November 4, 2022 for Guatemala to provide medical care/clinics to the people in remote mountains villages surrounding Esquipulas. It is with much gratitude that we thank CLC and our congregation for your kind generosity and continued support as we prepare for this mission. 

This is a list of the medications we need, bold means high volumes needed, underlined means we run out quickly.

The following ointments: Neosporin, Hydrocortisone, Anti-itch cream, triple antibiotic, Diaper Rash, antifungals, muscle rub, Benadryl. Vitamins: Adult and Children Chewable (NO GUMMIES PLEASE, they melt) Children’s Pain and Fever medications, cough syrups, Flu relief. (We run out each time) Infant Pain and Fever medications. (We run out each time). Benadryl, Tums/Antacid meds, Anti-diarrhea meds, Daytime and Nighttime multi-symptom meds, any NSAIDS (Ibuprofen, Aleve, Naprosyn, Motrin, Advil, Baby Aspirin 81mg) Acetominophen/Tylenol, Pepcid, Omeprazole, Zantac, Baby Aspirin, Urinary health meds, Prenatal vitamins.

We are so thankful for the bags and baby hats so lovingly made by some of the talented people at CLC. Thank you again for making this mission work possible, we can only do it with the support of our community.

Mission Moment with Grace Safrin

The gift and blessing of being asked to serve the Lord

Mission Moment with Kathy Stefans

The blessing of regular, disciplined giving - and how automating our gifts helps us grow in faith

Mission Moment with Lisa Owen

The blessing of "First Fruits Giving" and how it shapes us

What are those fancy new robes?

You’ve certainly noticed a beautiful addition to our worship: the pastor who is presiding at Communion now wears a “chasuble” (chah-zu-bull), a sort of poncho, whose colors and decoration match our banners and paraments (cloth on the various furnishings).  Probably you’ve wondered: what are those, why do we wear them, and what do they symbolize?

The chasuble is a vestment (clothing for liturgy) worn in many traditions, including our Lutheran one (especially in Scandinavia and Germany) for centuries, at Holy Communion.  They symbolize the role and office of the pastor: set aside to preside in this particular way, the chasuble represents the “yoke of Christ” (along with the stole our pastors wear) as distinctive marks of their office.  Wearing our chasubles in worship is our way of decorating the presiding pastor: to bring more color and symbolism into our sanctuary, and to acknowledge how important, and special, having Communion together is for us.  This Lord’s meal is important to us, and this is one way we can show it!

Our beautiful set of chasubles is hand-designed and hand-made by our own Marla Niksch and Terry Albrecht and given to the Glory of God as a gift to the ministries of the congregation.  Our set encompasses all the major colors of our liturgical year, and they are a rich and wonderful way to enhance, beautify, and deepen our experience in worship.  Thanks be to God for the gift of these “fancy new robes”!

Deepening our Welcome

Last Spring, we worked together as a congregation to offer input on priorities for strategic planning at CLC - who are we? In what ways do we hear God calling us forward?  We identified lots of good priorities - the one that scored the very highest on importance for our future direction at CLC was "Welcome and Community." And the need that folks most consistently suggested we might address together was the need to think about what it would mean to better welcome our LGBTQ+ members, family, and neighbors. 

"Deepening Our Welcome" is a working group at Christ Lutheran that has been wondering and praying about this over the last year - studying, meeting with members of the congregation, and listening for next steps. One of the pieces we've identified is that we need to learn together! To learn about our LGBTQ+ neighbors, and to learn about the ways the Bible might orient us in this process. We're looking forward to a variety of events during Faith Formation Hour this year - the first of which is coming up in October, led by Professor Fred Niedner. When we approach the library of the Bible, what resources do we have for understanding relationships, for loving our neighbors? What do we make of the difficult passages? You can read more about each session below - we invite you to join us in the Sanctuary, on October 2, 9, and 16!

Becoming Reconciled in Christ 

Presented by Professor Fred Niedner
Christ Lutheran Church, October 2022 

Oct 2 - Same Planet, Different Worlds
   We share the same time and space but we live in many different worlds, each
created by the stories we have learned, rehearsed, and inhabit. Stories put the
world in order, tell us who we are, who God is, who’s good, who’s evil, whose
lives count, and whose don’t. All our stories have outsiders, folks on the wrong
side of all that’s right. Their lives don’t matter, at least not like ours do. In time,
even the holiest, most trustworthy stories crack. Our worlds tremble, even fall
apart. We panic, grieve, and flail. 

Oct 9 - “Give Up All You Own and Control, and Come, Follow Me”
   No kidding. No loopholes. This is the call to find our lives by losing them—by
losing everything, actually—in the kingdom of the condemned, where we’re all
dying, but together. With him. And with all those folks we’ve habitually, even
righteously, cast as wrong, perverse, and beyond the pale. Which lands us daily
in a different world, a new creation. 

Oct 16 - Cherubim, Commandments, and Choruses 
   Of all our dinged up holy things, which shall we salvage as we roam the world,
newly crucified and risen as Christ’s own flesh and blood body? What pieces and
tools—rules, distinctions, categories, structures, language—from our old world
serve our mission in the new? 

Dear Friends in Christ,

Valparaiso University is pleased to announce a benefit choral concert for Ukraine on Thursday, October 6, 2022, at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of the Resurrection. The concert will feature the renowned choral ensemble Cappella Romana, and audience donations will be accepted to benefit the nonprofit humanitarian organization, Rebuild Ukraine. 

Rebuild Ukraine and their partners in Eastern Europe provide aid to the defenders, civilians and refugees of Ukraine. Since March 2022, the organization has raised over $370,000 in donations directly supporting Ukrainians with food, medical supplies, and medical equipment for Ukraine hospitals. Donations also go towards assisting with the education and rehabilitation of Ukrainian children traumatized by the war. According to Denysenko, attendees’ donations will have an impact closer to home than many realize.

Cappella Romana is a professional vocal ensemble that sacred classical music in the Christian traditions of the East and West. The ensemble is specifically known for their Greek and Russian Orthodox choral work, as well as their recordings of Byzantine chanting and other sacred work in the inherited Christian tradition.

The concert is free and open to the public, with donations encouraged. Doors to the Chapel of the Resurrection open at 6:15 p.m. Parking will be available in lots 15 and 20. 

Parent Coffee Clatch Update

We currently have different members who have volunteered to lead several of our weekly discussions, but there is room for more leaders.  If you are interested in leading a week's discussion or would like to pose a topic for conversation, please click on this link to sign up: parent coffee clatch schedule (https://tinyurl.com/CLCcoffeeclatch)

We'd love to see you when you can make it!

Do you ever feel like you need to “get away”? After a hiatus because of the pandemic, it’s feeling like time to offer another all-church retreat. This would offer time for reflection, fellowship, study, worship, and rejuvenation. Does that sound like something you would be interested in? Maybe you can help! We’re looking for several people who would like to be part of the planning committee. If that’s you, please contact Pastor Erica at pastorerica@clcvalpo.org or Kathy Stefans at Kathy.stefans@gmail.com 

Care for Personal Care?

Dave Keammerer puts together LWR Personal Care Kits (see newsletter for contents).  In order to assemble these kits, he needs supplies.

I have been approved for a Thrivent Action Grant that will provide Dave $250 for this endeavor, but I would like him to have more! Would you like to help?  Over the next two weeks, I will match dollar for dollar your donation to this cause up to a maximum of $250.  This means we could provide up to $750 for the LWR Personal Care Kits—Thrivent Action Grant of $250, your total donations of $250, my match up to a maximum of $250. Can you help with a small donation?

You can give your donation to me, Dave, or put it in the CLC collection plate on Sunday!

Karl Reichardt (karl.reichardt@valpo.edu, 219-252-9519)

School Supplies are collected for LWR

Thanks to your extraordinary generosity, you have provided almost all of the supplies that we need for 100 Lutheran World Relief School Kits.  

We’re coming down to the wire and just need a few more items to complete the kits.  The following quantities of supplies are needed:

35 – rulers with centimeters (30) on one side and inches (12) on the other

54 – 70-sheet notebooks of wide- or college-ruled paper, approximately 8” x 10 ½” 

You may place your items in the basket in the Gathering Space.  We will box them and load them on the truck on October 29^th. 

You have been so generous with your gifts this year.  A final push will help us meet our goal to serve God’s people throughout the world. Thank you. 

Sunday School, Bible Studies and 

Adult Faith Formation News

Younger Women's Small Group

Gathering on Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm in room 209 - come for community and conversation, part book group, part Bible study!

Communion Conversations
At CLC we welcome children to receive Holy Communion at any age, when their families discern that they are ready.  And then each year we offer "Communion Conversations," a chance for families to talk and learn together about the sacrament.  We'll be gathering a group for conversation this Fall - if your child is receiving Holy Communion and hasn't yet had the chance to take part, or if your young folks are ready to start - please email Pr Erica so that we can find a good time for all! (pastorerica@clcvalpo.org)

Adult Faith Formation

During the 9:20 hour, be on the lookout for a variety of options this fall:
* Parents Coffee and Conversation - Beginning Sept 11, a 'come when you can' group that gathers for conversation, encouragement, Bible study, conversation about parenting.

* Sunday Morning Bible Study - Gather in October for the study "God's Exceptional Choice"  

* Scripture and Sexuality - upcoming in October, we'll welcome Rev. Dr. Fred Niedner as we look at the many different ways scripture approaches relationships, family, and welcome.

Adult Faith Formation - do you have ideas for topics you'd like to engage during our 9:20 hour?  Or could you lead a video series, or facilitate a conversation or Bible Study?  Email pastorerica@clcvalpo.org

Be sure to check out our apps!

October 2022

As you do it for the least of these, you do it for Christ.  (Matthew 25:40)

The focus this month is to provide volunteer time and monetary support for Lutheran World Relief  www.lwr.org and ELCA World Hunger/Disaster Response www.elca.org/hunger and www.elca.org/disaster

Lutheran World Relief is affirming God’s love for all people, working with Lutherans and partners around the world to end poverty, injustice, and human suffering.  LWR vision is to be empowered by God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ, envisioning a world in which each person, every community and all generations live in justice, dignity, and peace.  Also, here is a volunteer opportunity in October: helping with the annual northern Indiana Lutheran congregations ingathering collection day (Sat. morning Oct. 30) - loading a semi-truckload of items to be delivered to LWR for shipment overseas.  Many items come from CLC:  quilts and baby/fabric/personal/school kits.  If you would like to volunteer to help, please contact Irene Adams at iadams102@gmail.com 

ELCA World Hunger/Disaster Response two hunger/disaster response programs (plus Lutheran World Relief) work closely together on world humanitarian issues, providing relief and hunger assistance, as well as providing opportunities for hunger education and advocacy activities.  79% of funds are used around the world, 12% in the U.S., and 9% for education and advocacy.  Most recently Disaster Response funds have been provided to aid with recovery from the Kentucky flooding disaster.

Help achieve our goal of $2500 in October (over and above giving combined with CLC’s $1200 budgeted amount).  By achieving our goal CLC will help Luth. World Relief and ELCA Hunger/Disaster Relief continue mutual support and service activities that are crucial to effective ministry.  Use your weekly worship giving mailed in check to CLC and indicate “LWR/ELCA Hunger” 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.

Sandy & Dave Keammerer are always collecting the following items for Lutheran World Relief (LWR).  Please drop off at the church and put in white basket in Gathering Place and feel free to call the office if you have any questions.

LWR Baby Care Kit Project

2022 Goal-570

Current Kits Packed-670

LWR Fabric Kit Project

2022 Goal-150

Current Kits Packed-120

Items Needed-cotton or cotton blend fabric in 3 yard lengths

Personal Care Kits

Current Kits Packed - 660

 
BABY CARE KITS
All clothing items 6 months to 2T
(2) gowns or sleepers: long- or short-sleeved
(2) t-shirts: lightweight cotton
(1) jacket/sweater/sweatshirt: with hood, or include a baby cap
(2) pairs of socks
(2) receiving blankets: medium-weight cotton or flannel, or crocheted, or knitted with lightweight yarn, up to 52" square
(4) cloth diapers: flat fold preferred
(1) hand towel: dark color recommended
(2) gentle soap bars: 4oz., bath-size, in original wrapping
(2) diaper pins: or large safety pins
3-ply baby yarn and flannel fabric in increments of .75 yards.

Please indicate if items given are laundered. 

FABRIC KITS
(2) spools of thread (250-300 yards)
(2) pieces of cotton/cotton blend fabric (3 yards)
 
PERSONAL CARE KITS
New and in original packaging
(1) bath towel: lightweight, dark color preferred (between 20' x 40" and 27" x 52")
(1) toothbrush: adult size
(1) nail clipper
(2) bars of soap (4 oz.)
(1) Sturdy comb