August Altar Gifts

Holy Communion       Given to the Glory of God  

Altar Candles                Sara & Jeremy Long ~ In Memory of Dean Long (Jeremy's Dad)

Eternal Lamp                Given to the Glory of God

Funeral Meal Ministry service opportunities! 

Christ Lutheran Church members, in so many ways, embody diakonia - this reaching out with care and compassion in a hurting world.  One very special service of diakonia is the funeral meals that are prepared and served to grieving family and friends after funerals. Of the many understandings of the Greek word diakonia, a common image is that of a table server. Expanding the image of table serving includes all the ways that we prepare space, serve, and provide opportunities for others to experience the love and healing of Jesus. So while this service of funeral meals is quite literally “setting the table”, it is so much more.  Christ Lutheran Church is blessed to have a generous group of members who volunteer to provide food, set-up, serve, and clean-up for funeral meals, allowing family and friends to spend time together over a meal and experience this love. We are currently looking for volunteers to help with this coordination, mainly being available for about 3 hours the day of the funeral. We envision that this coordination position could be shared and rotated among several people if needed. If you are interested in helping with this coordination or other volunteer needs for funerals, please email Karen Hernes karenhernes@gmail.com or 

Karen Seykowski kjseykow@frontier.com. 

Your Love is Needed in Sunday School!

Your love – your kindness – your faith – your time. These are the best gifts you can give! Our young folks come to Sunday School each week ready to meet Jesus, to learn about God’s love and faithfulness, and that happens as they get to know YOU! We are looking for caring adults to join our team-teaching groups. 

Leaders for each group are part of a rotating team that allows for lots of flexibility in scheduling. Our Youth Helpers are amazing! The curriculum is anchored in the Good News and makes preparation easy.
The gift of relationships with faithful caring adults is so crucial to our kids – and the gift of relationships with faithful, curious, joyful kids is so lifegiving for us adults!

So please pray about joining us – contact Pr. Erica (pastorerica@clcvalpo.org) or the church office with interest or questions.

Social Ministry Monthly Emphasis

August 2024

Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves.  Protect the rights of all who are helpless.

(Proverbs 31:8)

Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service) globalrefuge.org has a vision that all migrants and refugees are protected, embraced, and empowered in a world of just and welcoming communities.  Global Refuge’ mission is witness to God’s love for all people, standing with and advocating for migrants and refugees, transforming communities through ministries of service and justice.  For over 80 years, Global Refuge has been a champion for migrants and refugees from around the globe. A legacy of courageous and compassionate service has made a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who have sought safety and hope in America’s communities. Global Refuge history reflects American Lutherans’ and others deep immigrant roots and passionate commitment to welcoming newcomers, especially those who are most in need. In partnership with community-based legal and social service providers nationwide, Global Refuge has helped over 500,000 migrants and refugees rebuild their lives in America.

Lutheran Braille Workers (LBW) lbwinc.org has existed since 1943 to show the love of God to people with visual disabilities and to bring them into a growing relationship with God.  LBW does this by engaging some 5,000 volunteers in over 115 production centers, lbwloveworks.org throughout the United States.  Volunteers joyfully produce approximately 250,000 volumes a year of Braille and specialized Large Print Bibles and Christian literature.  CLC is one of these Work Centers and is involved in making Braille books of the Bible for the blind, for more information please contact Paige Reichardt. Monthly emphases gifts go towards national LBW activities and to help with supplies for CLC’s Work Center.

Help achieve our goal of $2500 in August (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 “Global Ref./LBW” or contribute through Subsplash on the CLC website clcvalpo.org via the “Give” button and choose Monthly Social Ministry Emphasis.  Thank you to members for supporting monthly social ministry emphases.

Lutheran World Relief

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 will soon begin the new school year, think about choosing supplies for others.  We will be collecting items through early-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 in mid-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 Amazon and choose to have the items delivered directly to the church.  Thank you for your support!

The link to the Amazon wish list can be found by searching Amazon lists for "CLC School Kit," or by clicking the link below. 

Amazon CLC School Kit wish list