Trinity Office and Fax Number: 456-1703
Pastors Cell Phone: 323-1679
Pastors Office: 452-4888
The mission of Trinity Lutheran Church is to share
the
Good News of Jesus Christ by inviting others into Gods family,
encouraging spiritual growth through Gods Word and Sacraments, and
caring for one another in the love of Christ.
Celebrating
with Thanks, Ablaze with Hope
128
Years of Ministry at Trinity Lutheran Church 1881 - 2009
Sunday Schedule for April
10:15 AM Adult
Bible Class (Subject: The Law and Gospel)
11:15 AM Traditional
Worship Service
Communion
1st and 3rd Sundays
6:00 PM Todays Praise Worship Service
Communion
1st Sunday
Lenten and Holy Week Worship Services
April 1
~ 6:30 PM ~ Lenten Custom of Palms
April 5
~ 11:15 AM and 6:00 PM ~ Guest
speaker: Rev. David Stechholz
April 9
~ 5:30 PM ~ Maundy Thursday with
Communion (Erie)
7:30 PM ~ Maundy Thursday with Communion (Albion)
April 10 ~
12:00 PM ~ Good Friday Worship Service (Erie)
7:00 PM ~ Good Friday Service of Tenebrae (Albion)
FROM THE PASTOR
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, one of the first
times I had the privilege of speaking to you from your pulpit was just a few
days after Christmas at the funeral of your beloved Pastor Mark Sallach. One of the thoughts I shared with you then
was that in the midst of your grief, it might not feel very much like
Christmas. In fact, I proposed that in
our heart of hearts, it might feel more like Good Friday and the profound grief
that Mary and the disciples felt as they watched their beloved Jesus die a
seemingly premature death on the cross.
As we near the end of the season of Lent, Good
Friday is fast approaching. We have
worked our way through the typical Lenten themes of sin, sadness, guilt, and
repentance as we look forward to the great sacrifice that Jesus willingly
suffered for our sins. In our Sunday
services we have reviewed the stages of grief according to psychologist Dr.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in the light of the appointed readings from Gods
Word. It is my prayer that you have
found these helpful as we all try to deal with our grief, each in our own
way. The one thing that Dr. Ross said
persists throughout the stages of grief is HOPE. This is especially true for us as Christians.
As we emerge from another long winter, the days are
now longer than the nights and theyre getting longer. The spring flowers are starting to bloom,
and we are reminded that the Good News about Jesus didnt end with His
sacrifice on Good Friday. We know that
Easter is coming, too! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Christ is Risen! He is
Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
You and I do have hope, because we know the rest
of the story. We know that Jesus
Christ is risen, the first born from the dead. We know that He promised to go and prepare a place [for us] in
His Fathers house in heaven. We know
that God always keeps His promises.
The incredible story of
the Gospel, which we share each time we gather for worship, always ends on that
life-giving, hope-filled notealways!
Not on loss, but on gain; not on pain, but on glory. Happy Resurrection Day! See you in church! Bring a friend!
Pastor
Fred
The Trinity Lutheran Thrivent group met for our official planning meeting on Sunday, March 8, 2009. The three coordinators (Trudy Sallach, Jerry Neidinger, and Karlynn Bernhard) presented a plan for the year, which was adopted by the group.
Present were eleven members representing eight different families:
1. Trudy Sallach
2. Jerry & Edie Neidinger
3. Eugene & Karlynn Bernhard
4. Vince & Neva Cunningham
5. Joann Kaufer
6. Nancy Rusnak
7. Ed Fickenscher
8. Pastor Fred Poeppel
The
activities planned for 2009 include:
On Good Friday, Thrivent will provide a light luncheon after the noonday service.
On Palm Sunday, April 5, Thrivent will host a coffee hour following the service when our District President is with us to preach that Sunday.
NOTE: Since we are now having a congregational luncheon on Palm Sunday, the Thrivent-sponsored coffee hour will be scheduled at a later date. Watch upcoming newsletters and bulletins for details.
Trinity Lutheran Thrivent will host a Sunday Brunch on April 26 following the morning service to help provide support for our adopted missionary family the Esalas in Africa.
Trinity Lutheran Thrivent will provide some refreshments for the evening worship service and also provide some gifts for the anniversary dinner in October.
Louise, our secretary, will do the e-mail reports for Thrivent, which were done previously by Pastor Mark Sallach.
The
Trinity Lutheran Thrivent Group plans to use the $1,020 allocated to our church
as follows:
$500 - Esalas in Africa (plus what is raised during the brunch on April 26)
$120 - Brunch Expenses
$100 - Good Friday Luncheon
$100 - Sunday Coffee Hours
$100 - Evening Service Food
$100 - Church Anniversary Gifts
You will hear more about each of these events as the time approaches. If you have any questions about our agenda, please dont hesitate to contact one of the Thrivent Coordinators, Karlynn Bernhard, Jerry Neidinger or Trudy Sallach.
e
f
The SUNDAY morning Adult study
group, meeting at church in the first main floor classroom before worship is
now working through a study series entitled, the Law and Gospel.
All are welcome to begin their day of worship in this study, meeting at 10:15 am. Led by Millis Parshall.
On April 5, our Adult Bible Study will be on Luke
15 led by Rev. David Stechholz.
Please
remember our elderly and others who do not get out much with notes, cards,
visits in person or telephone calls, as well as remembering them in your
prayers.
At Independence Court: Ted Steinbarth
At Manchester Presbyterian: George Hill
At Presbyterian Lodge (on Elmwood): Hilda Papesch
Rouse-Warren County Home: Gerda Mushrush
At
Sarah Reed: Amy Mares
At
Sunrise on the Bay: Mary Lynch
At
Village at Luther Square: Bill Guerdon
The next meeting of Trinity
Seniors will be Wednesday, April 8, at 12:00 pm at
church.
This is a catered meal and
reservations are to be made for the dinner price is $7.00. Deadline for purchasing tickets is
Sunday, April 5.
Committee #2 Jerry
& Edie Neidinger and Lois Gressley will be in charge of the dining
room.
Joann Kaufer, Nancy Rusnak and Trudy Sallach will have a special Easter devotion at this meeting of Trinity Seniors.
Each year the congregation has
been blessed with some outside funds to distribute to individuals in pursuit of
educational goals.
Applications for such funds from
the Trinity Lutheran Scholarship Fund are now available in the
narthex.
Please return them to the Church Office by May 1. Up to $1,000 per individual is
possible. If you have any questions,
please contact Dick Wenger at 476-1549.
The Lutheran
Womens Missionary League asks you to pray for missions every Monday at
noon. No matter where you are,
please take a moment to pray for missions work around the world, for missionary
families, for financial support of outreach through our church body and any
other work of the LWML. Remember to
pray especially for our missionaries, the Esalas. Thank you.
The Spring
Board Meeting of the LWML will take place at 10:00 am on Saturday, April
4 at St. Pauls Lutheran Church in North East.
The LWML
Spring Rally will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, April 18
at Concordia Lutheran Church in Jamestown, NY.
See the signup sheet on the bulletin board for more info!
The Trinity Shawl Ministry Group is coming along nicely and dedicated 28 shawls during the March 29 morning worship
service. Praise the Lord!
They
also have a list of
names from across the country for families of fallen soldiers. If you would like to help
package and send any of the shawls, please contact Trudy Sallach.
Here is
a quote from a recent recipient of one of these shawls:
Thank you for blessing my life in
such a wonderful way. I want you to
know how special you are. I recently
received a beautiful shawl in the mail.
My heart was so touched by the time and thoughtfulness that went into
making it.
The next meeting of the
Trinity Shawl Ministry Group will be on Saturday, May 16 at 11:00 am.
Mark your calendar and
plan to join us on Saturday, July 11, for this years Annual Picnic
sponsored by the Erie County Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
This event is open
to all Lutherans and their families and friends. You do not need to be a Thrivent member to attend.
Watch upcoming
newsletters and bulletins for details as they become available!
·
Ladies unite!
The Ladies Aid Society will meet on Thursday, April 2
at 7:00 pm. Wed like to see you there!
Well be setting tables for the Palm Sunday dinner and playing the dice
game of BUNCO after the business meeting.
Bring along a wrapped prize to add to the fun!
Our hostess for the evening as well as our devotions
leader is Karlynn Bernhard.
·
Palm Sunday dinner is open to all who hold a ticket. Bishop Rev. David Stechholz would like to
meet and greet us in a less formal setting.
The caterer will be contacted with a number early March 30, so no ticket
by March 29, no go.
·
Just a reminder dues of $10 are now due and payable
to Doris Swan.
·
Sincere thanks to Louise for generating the annual booklet
listing membership and events agreed upon for the year!
·
Our next bake sale is set for Primary Election
Day on May 19. Workers
and bakers will be needed!! Please
remember that we cannot sell anything that needs refrigeration, including
pumpkin and other cream pies!
·
Ladies Aid is still collecting small to
medium sized boxes that bracelets, earrings etc. sometimes come in. We are unable to use cardboard
boxes, but rather the boxes that are usually hinged, and are fabric
(velveteen) covered. A collection
box with a display of the types of boxes we need is on a table in the
narthex. Thank you for your assistance.
Dorcas
meets every Tuesday morning from 9:00 am to 11:00 am to trim stamps
for missions. Please save all
your stamps for us. Remember
one
pound of stamps equals one Bible to a third-world country in the language
of that country.
Good news! In just three months, those cancelled stamps that everyone saves for us weighed in at 103 pounds!! That translates into one Bible per pound for missions or 103 Bibles just for tearing out your stamps (leaving lots of paper around it) and putting them into the container provided in the back stairway. Keep them coming!!
Many
thanks to Dorcas for providing the palms for our Palm Sunday worship
service and decorations in the Social Hall for our dinner following the worship
service.
Please keep in mind that the church office only has the information that you have provided. Please update us as to any mistakes or omissions. Thank you.
|
5 |
Phil Herman |
18 |
Cindy Anderson |
|
6 |
Jerry Neidinger |
21 |
James Quinn |
|
8 |
Olivia Jay |
23 |
Dorothy Smith, Michelle Williams |
|
11 |
Michael Dzuricky (son) |
24 |
Ruth Steiner |
|
15 |
Steven Vogt |
25 |
Richard Smith |
|
16 |
Mary Kreusch |
26 |
C. Vince Cunningham |
|
17 |
John Johnson |
|
|
|
4/12/1969 |
Frank
and Patricia Surrena |
|
4/18/1992 |
Jim and
Rachel Bock |
|
4/24/1976 |
Dave and
Donna Shagla |
|
4/25/1970 |
Tim and
Joyce Baird |
April 5 The Leretsis family in memory of
John Borys.
April 12 George Hill
in memory of his wife, Martha Hill.
April 19 Carolyn
Warren in memory of her husband, Winston.
Lets be Ablaze for Sharing the Gospel of
Jesus Christ! Thats the
theme for many of our church bodys efforts this decade. Many people need to know the love and care
of our Lord Jesus Christ! We all
respond to the Gospel in a variety of ways.
Our responses can be in any of the identified ways, as on our banner at
church - LEARN, PRAY, GIVE, TELL, SEND, GO, and CELEBRATE.
Consider being involved in some manner with sharing
the Gospel with another person. We are
keeping a tally to join in with our national and international partners. You can add your witness events to the
total by filling out the orange cards available and submitting them to the box
in the church signed or unsigned.
ABLAZE
UPDATE:
International
Goal - 100,000,000 Latest
tally - 9,692,115 (as
of 3/27/2009)
Trinitys Goal - 4,400
Latest tally - 177 (as of 12/1/2008)
For information about the
movement, go to our church bodys website www.lcms.org
Here is a recent story
from the website:
Heart Pillow Witnessing in Arkansas
Kathleen Thompson, of Our Redeemer Lutheran
Church in Fort Smith, Ark., shares how a message from her LWML group's service
project impacted a woman recovering from heart surgery. 2/20/2009
At the LWML Convention in South
Dakota, there was a servant event where we stuffed pillows for heart surgery
patients. Upon returning from the
convention, members of the LWML group at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort
Smith, Ark., have taken on that ministry as our own. Our pillows are heart-shaped.
We attach a message with the church's information on it, but more
importantly, we also have the text from Matthew 25:40, "Truly I tell you,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine,
you did for me."
We sent our first batch of pillows
to the home health services at Sparks Hospital in Fort Smith. You don't always have the privilege of
knowing if your service touches a heart, but God blessed us mightily when we
received an update about two weeks later.
We found a message on our church's phone from a woman whose elderly mother
received a pillow after heart surgery, read the Scripture message, the Holy
Spirit did His work, and her mother asked to be baptized. You could tell from the woman's voice that
she was so excited. Her mother
receiving the pillow was probably just one part of the story of God bringing
her to faith, but it was a joy to be a part of it. To God be the glory!
Thrivent Erie County PA
Chapter is sponsoring a Habitat for Humanity "accelerated
build" this summer from June 1 through June 21.
Ground breaking
for this project will be on April 9 at 10:00 am. The home is being built for a family from
Sudan
a father, mother and three daughters (ages 2 to 13.)
The family will be
assisting in the building project with on build site being from 8:00 am
until 4:30 pm. All skill levels
needed. No experience necessary. You don't have to volunteer for the whole
project.
Whatever help you
can provide is both welcome and appreciated! If you are interested in helping, please see
Pastor Poeppel or contact Pastor Edwards at
814-474-4570.
The Erie County PA
Chapter is nearly halfway to their financial goal for this Thrivent
Builds project. If you would like
to donate toward the project, checks can be made payable to the Erie
County PA Chapter of Thrivent Financial with Thrivent Builds written in the
memo field of your check.
Our Trinity
Lutheran Thrivent Group is planning to help with this Erie County
PA Chapter project by providing lunch on the three Mondays during the
build time, i.e., on June 1, 8 and 15.
The workers will be
providing their own sandwiches so our Thrivent group will be providing
drinks, desserts/cookies, fruit and chips for them. If you would like to help provide any
of the luncheon items or donate toward them, please contact one of our
Thrivent coordinators (Karlynn Bernhard, Jerry Neidinger or Trudy Sallach) by
Sunday, May 24.
Our Thrivent group
would like to make a nice lunch for the workers so the
more helpers we have the merrier!!
CHURCH COUNCIL AND VOTERS
Rev. David Stechholz, our District President, will be
here on April 5 leading our Adult Bible Study at 10:15 am as well as preaching
during both the 11:15 am Traditional Worship Service and the 6:00 pm Todays
Praise Service. Following the morning
worship service, we will have a congregational dinner in the Social Hall.
On April 19 at 12:30 pm we will have our semi-annual
Voters Meeting. Please mark your
calendar and plan to attend!
If you have any questions, please feel free to
address them to any of the Church Council members.
|
April
2009 Trinity
Lutheran Church - Calendar of Events |
||||||
|
SUNDAY |
MONDAY |
TUESDAY |
WEDNESDAY |
THURSDAY |
FRIDAY |
SATURDAY |
|
|
|
|
1 6:30 pm Midweek Lenten Service 7:30 pm Choir Practice |
2 7:00 pm Ladies Aid Meeting |
3 |
4 10:00 am LWML Spring Board Meeting at St. Pauls Lutheran
Church in North East |
|
5 10:15 am Adult Bible Study 11:15 am Traditional Service with Communion 12:30 pm Congregational Dinner 3:30 pm Confirmation Class 6:00 pm Todays Praise with Communion |
6 <----- LAST DAY TO purchase tickets for Seniors Luncheon on Wednesday |
7 9:00 am Dorcas |
8 12:00 pm Trinity Seniors Luncheon 7:30 pm Choir Practice |
9 5:30 pm Maundy Thursday Worship Service with Communion (Erie) 7:30 pm Maundy Thursday Worship Service with Communion (Albion) |
10 12:00 pm Good Friday Worship Service (Erie) 1:00 pm Thrivent-sponsored Luncheon 7:00 pm Good Friday Service of Tenebrae (Albion) |
11 |
|
12 10:15 am Adult Bible Study 11:15 am Traditional Service 1:00 pm Confirmation Class 6:00 pm Todays Praise |
13 7:00 pm Church Board and Council Meetings |
14 9:00 am Dorcas |
15 7:30 pm Choir Practice |
16 |
17 |
18 10:00 am LWML Spring Rally at Concordia Lutheran Church in
Jamestown, NY |
|
19 10:15 am Adult Bible Study 11:15 am Traditional Service with Communion 12:30 pm Semi-annual Voters Meeting 1:00 pm Confirmation Class 6:00 pm Todays Praise |
20 |
21 9:00 am Dorcas |
22 7:30 pm Choir Practice |
23 Deadline for May Newsletter Articles!! |
24 |
25 |
|
26 10:15 am Adult Bible Study 11:15 am Traditional Service 12:30 pm Thrivent-sponsored Brunch 1:00 pm Confirmation Class 6:00 pm Todays Praise |
27 |
28 9:00 am Dorcas |
29 |
30 |
|
|