LENT 2025

It seems like life these days is brimming with upheaval and change, and in times like these we are reminded of how keen our need is to be anchored in God! So our invitation this Lent is to be Purveyors of Awe - to lean into those experiences in our lives of faith that tie us into the deep well of God's goodness. Come on Wednesday evenings as we consider Beauty, Wonder, Meaning, Curiosity, Delight, Connection, and Self-Giving, and consider using the accompanying Guided Study for your personal reflection! Lent devotional booklets will be available in the Gathering Area this Sunday - if they are all taken, please let the office know and we can print more!

BLOOD DRIVE RESULTS

Christ Lutheran Church

Donors Registered = 35

Pints Collected = 28

Your support will go a long way toward replenishing blood supplies and ultimately saving lives! 

 One single blood donation can help save more than one life.

Refugee Support Group Meeting

The Valparaiso Refugee Family Support Group will meet on Sunday, March 2 at 12pm in the Church Hall. Join us for an update and work coordination session as we support our refugee family. Contact Lucas Ecklund-Baker at lucas.ebaker@gmail.com or (219) 508-1497 for questions. See you then!

Scholarship Needs

There are several families this year that are in need of tuition scholarships for Little Lamb for the remainder of the 2024-2025 school year. There are different ways you can support a child, either by paying the monthly scholarship portion they have been awarded (4 months remain this school year) or by offering a donation to our scholarship fund. The needs for this year are:

2 - $50.00 Scholarship per month for 4 months.

Please let Jen Gottlieb, Director of LLP, know if you want to donate in this way by calling 462-6660, Ext 14 or emailing llp@clcvalpo.org.  Thank you for your consideration!

Attention All Thrivent Financial Members! 

Do you have any Thrivent Choice Dollars that have not been directed to the charity of our choice? 

Minimum and maximum Choice Dollars Designations 

Eligible clients will be designated a minimum of 25 Choice Dollars and a maximum of 5,000 Choice Dollars per eligibility period (Jan. 1 to Dec. 31). 

Choice Dollars designated during the calendar year can be directed until 

March 31, 2025. 

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. 

HELP NEEDED FOR ALTAR SERVICE AT CLC 

We are in great need of one or two people to help after the 10:30 service with altar work.  This service would be easy clean-up of the altar area and communion ware.  We would be happy to work with you until you are comfortable with these simple tasks.  We can accomplish this work in as little as 15 minutes with 3 people working together.  

Please consider this important work as your service to CLC.  This can be a mother- daughter team, mother-son team, father/combo team, 2 friends, a couple, or any combination of volunteers.  You can also offer your help as one person.  We like to have 3 people working together each week to make the work go quickly.  We work from a sign-up/ and sign/out board in the sacristy. 

If this is something you could do or would be willing to try, please contact: 

Marilyn McGawn at memcgawn@comcast.net or 

Marla Niksch at niksch1758@comcast.net.  

We would GREATLY APPRECIATE any time you can give. 

Thank you for your consideration. 

Marla and Marilyn 

Worship and Arts Committee 

CLC Social Ministry and Mission

March 2025

Social Ministry Emphasis for March.  Our emphasis is providing support for the Lutheran Diaconal Association www.thelda.org.  Below is a message to CLC from LDA:

“Since 1919, the Lutheran Diaconal Association has formed people for ministries of service.  In the early years we trained women primarily as nurses serving in missions and institutions of the church.  Our ministries have changed throughout the last 105 years.  Today we serve in congregations, in institutions and wherever God’s people are.

A deaconess or deacon is someone one who serves. Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and instructed them to do the same for others. Sometimes deaconesses and deacons do actual foot-washing like Jesus did; but more widely, they serve Christ by walking with those the world easily forgets; the marginalized, the poor, the powerless, the sick.

People who reach out to others in this way—with care and compassion in a hurting world—are practicing diaconal service, as all the baptized are called to do.  Some of them desire to do this as a professional in ministry and enter a more formal training and formation process to become deaconesses and deacons.  Since the earliest days of the church men and women have been set apart to do intentional servant ministry.

Deaconess/deacon ministry has come to mean many things: it means serving others on bended knee, and from positions of leadership. It means entering the hurt parts of society and carrying the light and love of Christ in service to others. It means telling the story of God’s love and helping others to hear God in their own story. It means welcoming the stranger in our midst. 

Stories of ministry abound (pick up a copy of a LDA newsletters at CLC throughout the year).  We are nurses, lawyers, engineers, musicians, social workers, chaplains, parish “deacs”, teachers, campus chaplains, missionaries, professors and so much more. 

We are so grateful for our partnership with Christ Lutheran Church.  Your congregation has made a huge difference in our ministry.  Your prayer support and financial support are invaluable and help the LDA thrive and reach out to God’s people..  Thank you!  For more info www.theLDA.org We would love to talk with you! - see Deaconesses Jane Aicher, Diana Iltzsche, Karen Hernes, or Kristin Lewis.”

Deaconess Lisa Swayne will be providing the CLC Worship sermon on March 9, LDA Sunday, and will also lead a Faith Formation session on Homelessness and Gabriel’s Horn Shelter.

Help achieve our goal of $2500 in March (over and above giving combined with CLC’s $1200 budgeted amount).  By achieving our goal CLC will help Luth. Diaconal Assoc. continue mutual support and service activities that are crucial to effective ministry.  Use your weekly worship giving mailed in check to CLC and indicate “LDA” 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 social ministry emphases.

Daybreak Shelter

After 18 years of area churches hosting new creation men, 14 or those years at Christ Lutheran, the Daybreak Men's shelter and warming shelter for unhoused men and women has opened on Feb 1st.

Our help is still needed as the warming shelter for folks living in cars, tents, parks or generally on the street, cannot run without volunteers covering the three shifts. 

Those shifts are 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm, 11:00-3:00 am and 3:00 am to 7:00 am. There is a short training video or Don MacMillian, Diana Iltzsche or Lisa Owen can help you with details. 

Meals are also still needed for the men who were formerly in the new creation program. The men eat at 5:30 at the new shelter in its very nice dining hall. There is parking right in front of the glass doors going into the hall so you can bring easily park and bring your prepared meal right inside. There are dishes, silverware,  water, and salt and pepper for the meals. 

The first link below is to sign up to volunteer for a shift. The second if for a meal. You can sign up to prepare the meal or sign up to serve it too. If you want to just drop off the meal, just sign up to "prepare meal" . If you can stay the 30-40 minutes to serve it and help clean up, sign up to "serve meal" as well. 

Shawn Blank is the volunteer coordinator and you can also direct questions to him. He can be reached at 219-246-7173. 

The Daybreak shelter is located at:

505 Don Hovey Drive. 

Thank you, Christ Lutheran Church for caring for our vulnerable neighbors.

http://volunteersignup.org/DKPBF

http://volunteersignup.org/RKHY7

Diana Iltzsche (219-628-0950)

Don MacMillian ( 219-921-4305)

Lisa Owen ( 219-477-9240)

“Faith at Work” Participants needed!

In the spring 2025 months we are looking for CLC members, guests, & friends who would be willing to reflect and share about vocation, call, and their faith at work. We will likely have several people with similar work situations participate in the same week as a group panel to share their thoughts. Guiding questions will be provided before the sessions, such as : What called/calls to you in your work? Does your work give you a particular window on God at work in the world, or on the needs of the world? Is there a way that you understand your work as service to God and neighbor? Are there places in your field/your work that are a struggle to fit with your faith, or where you feel a tension/disconnect? How have your thoughts about your work changed as you’ve moved deeper into your field and grown in faith? 

Please talk to Pastor Erica or Karen Hernes karenhernes@gmail.com if you are interested in participating.