Two months out
ling’s 10-year-old German shepherd therapy dog in tow. It was important to provide a variety of activities so all
could participate according to their ability and interest, East- erling said. For example, elderly members baked cookies and made quilts while children decorated library containers and the more able-bodied worked on the Habitat house. Organizing the event was “fairly easy” since the congre-
gation already had built working relationships with area agencies and ministries, she said. Before scattering all over town for two hours, the small
Abbie, a therapy dog, along with Annie (left) and Saide Latimer, participate in “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday last year with Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Lebanon, Ore.
Church rolls up its sleeves to work
M
embers of Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Lebanon, Ore., are already looking forward to Sept. 7, the day when ELCA members nationwide will gather to serve
their neighborhoods and communities. “It was a marvelous day,” said Linda Easterling, pastor of
Our Saviour, regarding last year’s “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday. “We had a lot of high energy and a great turnout. People talked about it for weeks. We have even talked about doing an event like this every six months.” Last year’s inaugural event celebrated the ELCA’s 25
years as a church “that rolls up its sleeves and gets to work,” according to an ELCA news release. And that is what members of some 9,600 ELCA congrega-
tions did, participating in the dedicated day of service with such projects as cleaning up parks, writing letters to military personnel and veterans, baking and distributing cookies to police and firefighters, and practicing random acts of kind- ness in the community. Fifty-eight Our Saviour members of all ages worked on
a wide range of projects, including painting a Habitat for Humanity house; building and decorating two Little Free Libraries (containers that house free books for the com- munity); organizing a clothes closet for the school district’s homeless; creating baby quilts; baking cookies for a soup kitchen; assembling toiletry kits and lunch for the homeless; and visiting a nursing home—even bringing Abbie, Easter-
42
www.thelutheran.org Good one!
A barrel of blessings When Tim Konieczny,
church council presi- dent of St. John Lutheran Church, Oak Harbor, Ohio, visited his daughter, Claire, at Centre Col- lege, Danville, Ky., the family toured Maker’s Mark distillery. Back home, he showed the congregation an empty bourbon barrel from the distillery and reminded them that in the Old Testament the cor- rect measurement for blessings is by the barrel. Although it had the Maker’s mark and had been
previously filled with “spirits,” he challenged the congregation to fill the barrel back up with loose change. In a year it was filled with $1,000 (much of it in pennies) for charities. Doug Ceraldi (left), Con- nie Michaelis and Beth Jensen stand by the barrel. For more information, contact Konieczny at
tkonieczny@ckp-law.com.
Send congregational stories—both those for a specifi c month/holiday or your best timeless idea—to
julie.sevig@
thelutheran.org.
congregation first gathered for worship. The service included a blessing of the hands, which was “a very meaning- ful” experience, Easterling said. After their time of service, volunteers returned to the church for lunch and fellowship. “The day allowed us to turn outward—to go out into our
community and do mission … to serve our neighbors and participate in God’s kingdom,” she said.
By Cindy Novak, a freelance writer in Lisle, Ill.
Download a “God’s work. Our Hands.” Sunday toolkit at www.elca. org/dayofservice. To order T-shirts go to
www.oldlutheran.com.
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