Monthly Archives: March 2005

He is Risen — Thank You

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Easter AltarI wish to thank all that made Holy Week a solemn and joyous event. Your service and dedication to our Lord Jesus made it possible to share the Gospel of Christ to all whom visited Holy Trinity last week. Thank you Altar Guild members for preparing the Sanctuary for Holy Communion and Easter. Thank you Choir and Bell Choir members, and Virginia, for the wonderful music and message you brought to us. Thank you, Ushers, Acolytes and Deacons and all who diligently serve the Lord. Thank you, Pastor Frank and Pastor Janet. You are a blessing to our church.

Howard Young
Council Secretary
Worship and Music Liaison

Lutherans Learn Prayer, Money Best For Tsunami Aid

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According to mission personnel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) serving in Indonesia, prayer and contributing money remain the best methods to support recovery operations following a Dec. 26 tsunami that claimed more than 200,000 lives in several coastal countries of the Indian Ocean.

Rosella Kameo said survivors of the tsunami in Indonesia are “going to need a lot of help to pick up the pieces and rebuild their shattered lives.” (Continued …)

Our Holy Trinity Mission Prayer Partners

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Missionary Families During Lent “Gathered by God’s Grace” is our Lenten theme this year at Holy Trinity as we emphasize our oneness with God’s children throughout the world. The lands we will focus on during our Wednesday nights of soup suppers and worship will be Tanzania, Japan, Kenya, Slovakia, Norway, and Germany.

As we mark Christ’s journey to the cross, we also give thanks for the Holy Spirit’s sustaining of the Church, here and around the globe, and pray that those in mission in far away lands will be blessed. Yet, as any “missionary” past or present will tell you, his/her desire is not only for the rest of us to pray for missionary families, but also for the work of the indigenous church and its national leaders and workers.

We encourage you to attend each Wednesday night supper and/or worship. Read your bulletins carefully; take them home to be able to pray more intimately for these missionary families.

We also need to remember that this same Spirit abides with us here, at Holy Trinity, enabling us to be at mission in our own families and communities. Let us pray that we will respond to the call and that our efforts, too, will be blessed.
God bless our Lenten journey together.

– IlaJean Kragthorpe

Our Middle Name is “Evangelical”

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Evangelism share your faithGrowing up as a child, I was embarrassed of my middle name “Ole.” My parents proudly named me “Howard” after their good friend Howard Hodnet, and “Ole,” after my dear Grandpa Ole Remmen. Whenever someone used my middle name, I knew I was in trouble if it came from my Mother or was being poked fun at by some child.

Despite my embarrassment, I survived the childhood teasing of my middle name. Now after 40 plus years of growing up, I recognize my parent’s wisdom in their choice of my name: good friendship and love and honor for my Grandfather.

Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church also has a middle name: “Evangelical.” I often wonder why we use shorten forms our Church’s name such as “Holy Trinity” or “Holy Trinity Lutheran” and leave out “Evangelical.” Perhaps the shorter versions are more convenient to use? I know that it is difficult to squeeze “Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church” onto our offering checks we write each week.

Holy Trinity’s “parents” also chose a wise name for our Church: for the love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, three-in-one; and, Evangelical – to share the good news that there is salvation through Christ.

In 2 Timothy 4:2, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” In this season of Lent, Easter and soon to follow Pentecost, are we prepared to live up to our middle name and share the good news?

Like Paul, I encourage you to share with your family, friends and neighbors the good news of Christ. Invite them to Holy Trinity “Evangelical” Lutheran Church to hear the Word of God that through Christ there is salvation.

Howard “Ole” Young

Helping Through Loose Change

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Holy Trinity Lutheran Church special ministries jar is back in the Narthex, and it appears you are all back in action! As of February 9th, these special offerings have totaled $119. That is really getting off to a great start for 2005.

This year, we will be giving these funds to Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, Ventura County. In our April column, we will inform you of some of the services you are providing with this extra measure of love. Meanwhile, thanks to all of you who participate. And special thanks to those little angels (or big?) who deposited already wrapped quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. What a help that was! God bless all of you. IlaJean Kragthorpe, Stewardship Ministries

“Love on a Leash” = Love Unleashed!

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I used to think that stewardship was just about money. Recently, however, in an after worship conversation, I realized that the term means more than this. It means giving of yourself with love to a worthy cause.

I have a wonderful 80-pound, 11-year-old golden retriever named Cobber, whom I love dearly. Many of you know him. I take him everywhere I can, and I even used him in a children’s sermon one time with Pastor Janet. The kids loved him! I now have him in a program called “Love on a Leash” where I take him to retirement and nursing homes. There are four of us who take our dogs once or twice a week. It is a wonderful program and is great therapy for the residents, who hug and pet and sometimes kiss the dogs. It’s great therapy for us, too, to see how much love our dogs can bring into an elderly life. Many of the people tell us about the dogs they once had when they were younger and how much they miss them. I’ve met some fine people, and we share stories about our dogs.

Cobber is so good in this program. He seems to know just what to do, and I am so proud of him. He loves all the attention, of course, and can’t wait to “go for a ride to see his pals.” He plunks his head down in their laps and is in doggy heaven. Me, too; this is stewardship that is not about money. It’s all about unleashing our love, Christ’s love, in the world. Stewardship is how we choose to use any of our gifts to show God our gratitude. Maybe even Cobber knows that! — Fred Bowman

Gathered by God’s Grace — Lent to Easter

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The theme in our mid-week evening worship services Gathered by God’s Grace invites us to take the hands of people we have never met and share the journey of faith with them. On Sunday mornings this month we take time to reflect on the marks of our discipleship as followers of Jesus.

The two foci provide a good spiritual balance — giving prayerful attention to our personal and corporate spiritual health. The morning themes draw us into reflections of faith through the lens of our local community and personal faith. The evening meditations, on the other hand, help us to see the context of our lives and faith through the wide-angle lens of life in the Body of Christ. To focus on one without the other would be to distort the wideness of God’s mercy, and grace.

I hope you will find a way in the busy days ahead to experience these moments of worship. Lent is a time for taking faith “to the next level” — asking honest questions, taking a deeper look at our lives, and walking with God into the answers and changes that come. If we can do a bit of that together, we may be able to help one another to live our questions and face our challenges in ever more faithful and supportive ways. And with that comes new life … as we draw near to Holy Week and Easter it all comes together — we are gathered by God’s grace, with people of every land, who share the same marks of discipleship and praise the same liberating God of Life.

Lent invites us to awaken our souls in faith-full conversation with God, so that when Easter morning comes we are near enough to the heart of the story to feel the breeze on our faces as the stone is rolled away; to witness naturally to the reality of God’s power in the world and to praise God with a breathless enthusiasm, as the friends of Jesus did on that first Easter morning. As the ELCA vision statement proclaims, together we are Claimed, Gathered and Sent!

Walking with you, in God’s grace,

Pastor Janet