Adult Formation Hour Options

9:20 a.m.

October 8, 2023

Jesus:  The Greatest Story Bible Study - Room 209 with Cheryl Slack

God's Law is Love - Room 120 with Dave Keammerer

Sunday School

Fusion

Budget Forums and Annual Meeting Dates

Budget Forums

           Sunday, October 22 @ 9:20 a.m. in the Sanctuary

           Sunday, October 29 @ 9:20 a.m. in the Sanctuary

Annual Meeting

           Sunday, November 12 @ 9:20 a.m. in the Sanctuary

Are there things you would like to share with the Deepening Our Welcome team?  Do you have concerns or questions about where we are going and what is next for our beloved community here at CLC?  The DOW team would like to invite you to meet individually with a member of our team so we can listen carefully to your perspective and discuss with you anything you would like to discuss with us.  If you would like to have a one-to-one visit with us, please contact Kathy Sutherland (ksutherland54@yahoo.com). Thank you!  We look forward to hearing from you.

LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF INGATHERING

Our annual Lutheran World Relief Ingathering is just around the corner.  As in years past we will be loading boxes of quilts, personal care kits, sewing kits and school kits for our siblings in need across the globe on Saturday, October 28 from 8 am until noon.  We are looking for homemade baked goods to share with folks coming from other congregations to deliver boxes and some helping hands to move the boxes into the trailer for transport.  Sign up sheets are located in the gathering space.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Becky Fry  justplainbecky@gmail.com  or 219.241.6854. 

LWR School Kits

We are still collecting supplies for the School Kits for Lutheran World Relief, which are an important lifeline for learners all around the world.  As your children have settled into the new school year, think about choosing supplies for others.  We will be collecting items through mid-October, and the children will assemble the kits during one of their Sunday School hours.  The boxes of school kits will be loaded onto a truck at the end of October and shipped to a warehouse for distribution to places where they are needed around the world. 

Each kit containing the following: 

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

ONE – 30-centimeter ruler, or a ruler with centimeters on one side and inches on the other.

ONE – pair of blunt scissors (safety scissors with embedded steel blades work well).

FIVE – black or blue ballpoint pens (no gel ink).

ONE – box of 16 or 24 crayons.

ONE – 2.5" eraser.

FIVE – unsharpened #2 pencils with erasers.

ONE – pencil sharpener.

Gathering supplies with your children is a great way to remind yourself and them that we need to continue to love our neighbors, near and far.  It helps us all remember that God’s love is everywhere! 

There is a basket in the Gathering Space for donations, or you can purchase from an Amazon wish list (search CLC School Kit on Amazon) and choose to have the items delivered directly to the church.  Thank you for your support!

QUILTS FOR LWR

Although we make these quilts to give away to those in need if you see one in the sanctuary that you would like to purchase, the quilters are requesting a donation of $50, which will be used for shipping the quilts overseas.

Of course if you are not interested in purchasing a quilt but would like to make a donation for shipping please do so.  Make the check out to Christ Lutheran and in the memo section fill in “LWR Shipping”

Thank you for helping show God’s Love.

The quilts were displayed by this wacky youth group, thank you for your time and beautiful work. 

Nursery Attendant Needed

Christ Lutheran is looking for a responsible adult (over 18) to serve as the paid primary nursery staff person on Sunday mornings, approximately 7:50am-11:50am.  Children from     0-3 are welcomed in the nursery, and volunteers assist each week.  Please contact Pastor Erica Gibson-Even (pastorerica@clcvalpo.org 219.462.6660) for more information.

Senior Group October Meeting

The Senior Group's October meeting will be off site on Thursday, October 26, 2023.  We will meet for lunch at 11:00 a.m. the Valpo Soup Company, 57 Franklin Street (in the old South Bend Chocolate store) and will order off the menu as you wish.  They specialize in soups, salads, sandwiches using the produce of the season.  Feel free to check its website for further details. 

At 12:15 thereafter, we will walk across the street to the Porter County Museum (20 Indiana Avenue) for a docent lead tour.  They currently have a unique exhibit on old, local post cards, as well as many other displays that Quinn, our docent, will share.  Benches and chairs will be provided for those of us that need occasional seating throughout the tour.  Entrance into the museum is free. 

A sign up sheet will be in the Gathering Space at our Senior Group bulletin board      after Thursday of this week. 

Parking lots are one block north of the Porter County Museum, at the NE corner of Michigan and Indiana Streets.  I believe that First Source Bank (which sits directly east of the museum) has one strip of parking abutting Franklin Street.  If anyone would like to carpool from the church parking lot, please call Beth Bigham, 

219-477-3937, so that we can make arrangements.    

Mark your November calendars for our November 16, 2023, meeting at church where will have a speaker from Phil's Friends share the good work that organization does for cancer patients." 

CLC Social Ministry and Mission

October 2023

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 at CLC (Sat. morning Oct. 28) - 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 Becky Fry at justplainbecky@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. 

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 Subsplash 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.

CLC YOUTH

October Updates from the Youth Realm!

CLC Congregation,

The year is now officially in full swing and as I write this letter, all I can think of is the gratitude I have for each and every one of you. This year is an especially busy one in our Youth Ministries here at CLC and the unwavering support that has been shown to our youth programs has made everything done so far this year the success that it has been.

At the beginning of September, we had our annual Popcorn Fest fundraiser. Thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers who made it possible! Our annual fundraisers could not happen without the contributions of time, energy, and resources from the CLC community. This year, we raised  $2,400 that will go towards sending our youth to the ELCA Youth Gathering. Thank you for your support and prayers with this year’s Popcorn Fest!

As we enter the month of October, we begin our Silent Auction season. If you have any baskets, homemade or newly purchased items, or services that you would like to submit to this year’s Silent Auction, please reach out to me! Submissions should be sent in by October 20th. 

Once again, many thanks for all the ways you each have blessed our youth ministries here at CLC. My gratitude to each and every one of you is without end! 

Blessings on your October,

Kaitlyn Jedrzejowski

Director of Youth Ministries

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

October 2023 Schedule

October 20th- Deadline to Register for ELCA Youth Gathering

High School (9th-12th)

October 8th | Circle | 6-8pm

October 15th- No Circle! (Fall Break)

October 21st | Silent Auction Setup | 12pm

October 22nd | Circle | 6-8pm

October 29th | Halloween Celebration | 6-8pm

Confirmation

Confirmation | October 11th | 6-7:30pm

Confirmation | October 18th | 6-7:30pm

Confirmation | October 25th | 6-7:30pm

Fusion (5th-8th)

Fusion | October 8th | 9:20-10:20am

October 15th- No Fusion! (Fall Break)

Fusion | October 22nd | 9:20-10:20am

Fusion | October 29th | 9:20-10:20am

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Silent Auction

The Silent Auction is coming on Sunday, October 22 and ends on Sunday, November 19.  If  you would like to donate a new handmade or store-bought item, make up a theme basket, donate services (such as holiday baking, tax prep, tutoring, etc.), or volunteer to set up or close the auction, please contact Director of Youth Ministries, Kaitlyn Jedrzejowski or the church office. Please have your donations in by Friday, October 20.  Thank you for your support!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Circle Dinners

Each week at Circle, our high school group, the youth share a dinner together as a way of building community and spending time with each other! Over the past years, this has been a major part of the Circle experience our youth have. If you are willing to provide a dinner for our Circle members, please consider signing up using the QR code below. Dinners can be brought anytime between 5-6pm of that Sunday and we encourage you to stay and join our youth for dinner! Thank you so much!

ALL SAINTS DAY

We will be celebrating All Saints Day on Sunday, November 5.  We will honor those who have entered into eternal life and have their names listed in the bulletin.  If you have any loved one, family or friend, that you would like listed on the insert, please fill out a form located in the Gathering Area.

Join the

Northwest Indiana African American Alliance

and Guest Speaker

Christina Staats

for

VIOLENCE AGAINST IMMIGRANTS 

AT THE

UNITED STATES/MEXICAN BORDER

First Presbyterian Church

3401 N. Valparaiso Street

Saturday, October 28, 2023

10-12 p.m. 

Refreshments Served

The AMOS group sends to Christ Lutheran Church their sincerest appreciation for our generous donations, all of the yarn will be used on the trip to Esquipulas.

The AMOS basket is available for the following list of the medications needed, bold means high volumes needed, underlined means we run out quickly, they are leaving for Guatemala on November 3.

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.

They are having a silent auction fundraiser at the LambStone Cellars Winery (1555 W Lincolnway, Valparaiso) on October 8 from 1-5 p.m. $25/ticket and can be purchased on-line or at the door.

“Our congregation makes a difference, thank you so much for allowing us to be God’s hands during our medical mission work in Guatemala, without you this would not be possible.”  Gail Mannington

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.

Baby Care Kit Project

2023 Goal-500

Items collected - 835

Baby Care Kits October Needs are JACKETS, SWEAT SHIRTS, SWEATERS, AND HATS sizes 6 months to 2T.

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 Kit Project

2023 Goal-150

Items collected - 168

Fabric Care Kits September Needs are three (3) yards of cotton fabric. 

 
FABRIC KITS
(2) spools of thread (250-300 yards)
(2) pieces of cotton/cotton blend fabric (3 yards)

Check out stores for clearance, mark downs, reduced, and summer sales for cotton fabric and baby clothing. Resale and retail shops will soon be changing their stores from summer to the fall and winter seasons. 
 

Personal Care Kits

Item collected  - 675

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

Personal Care Kits September Need—Financial support to purchase needed items.

ALUMINUM CAN PROJECT

$32.00 more raised with a year total of $130

10 towels/10 yards of flannel/36 yards of cotton fabric purchased

October:  KEEP ALUMINUM CANS COMING! CANS CAN DO MUCH GOOD! No amount of CANSs is too small.  CAN placement white basket/Red Truck.

LWR QUILTERS 

2023 Goal:  500

Quilts Made:  342

Weekly Prayers

Thanksgiving

• David Larson Martinez on his ordination this weekend

Hospice:

• Julia & family
• Frances

Long-term/ongoing:

• Ramona
• Jeff
• Matthew
• Kelly
• Charlie
• Letty
• Katrina
• Jimee
• Wanda
• Pastor Phyllis
• Bob
• Tim
• Wayne
• Fawn
• John
• Mark
• Mike

9/29

• Bill
• Tony
• Grace
• Molly
• Phyllis
• Laura
• Hilda