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REDEEMER NEWS
May 2017
– On Sunday May 7th, five people were confirmed: Mark Crouch, Gabriel Frese, Amelia Garnett, Aaron Highley, and Joshua Pollock.
– On May 20, the church will be participating in the Great American Clean-up, and we will be picking up trash and debris from the alley and along the streets by the church. In addition we will be painting the fence around the “snorkel” and spreading mulch inside of the fences to keep down the weeds. Then, on May 27, we will be working again on doing some landscaping around the fence. We have received Thrivent Action Team grants to offset the expenses associated with both of these projects.
– Update on Redeemer Classical School from Nathaniel Pullmann: After consulting with two architectural firms and jumping through a bunch of bureaucratic hoops, we found out that Redeemer’s school building was cleared for use as a day school. At last month’s voters’ meeting, we requested that the school be allowed to renovate and use the third floor of the building as well as the empty grass courtyard. The voters approved this use, and we are moving ahead with several repairs and upgrades. If you are willing to volunteer to help us with some of the work, please talk to Nathaniel.
– The new video equipment is in and Redeemer’s services are now being recorded. They are available on YouTube. You can enter the following in your browser to go straight to Redeemer’s page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd4ESqUC_V-HdFwz3WTs3_w or go to www.youtube.com and search for Redeemer Fort Wayne.
– Work has started on the first set of stained glass windows to be repaired. Unfortunately, after the glass was removed, the damage was seen to be more extensive than we thought. The church council is looking at several options for completing the repair. This does make it likely that the price tag for all of the repairs is going to behigher than we originally thought.
– The rummage sale made $1315. Of that $140 is going to be used by the Ladies’ Aid to purchase a banner to advertise future sales. The remainder is being split between the Ladies’ Aid and the stained glass window repair fund, with each recieving $587.63. Thank you to everyone who donated and helped!
-The ninth annual Redeemer Family Retreat will be August 1-3. As always, we anticipate lots of good fun, quality teaching, and excellent worship. And, as always, we need lots of help! You can be expecting to hear from a committee member in the next month, or you can contact us first if you are willing to give us a hand. We welcome help for an hour, a day. or the whole time. Call Jane in the church office or email secretary.redeemer@gmail.com.
– All Saints Day 2017 will mark the 125th Anniversary of Redeemer Lutheran Church. Special events are being planned for that Sunday, and for the entire anniversary year.
-Work is under way again on the parking lot.
– Join us to play darts the third Saturday night of each month at 6:00 p.m. in the undercroft. Adults and teens are welcome. Talk to Pastor Petersen for more information, or look for “Redeemer Darts” on Facebook.
– As of early May, the fundraiser for Oscar Matter has raised over $10,500 before the $5,000 match. Oscar’s surgery is in early June.
– Thrivent offers $250 Action Team grants. Each Thrivent member is eligible for two per year. We are trying to use as many of these as possible for seed money for a variety of projects. We can either walk you through doing the application yourself, sit down with you in the office to do the application, or use your information to log in to the site without you even needing to be around.
– Pastor Petersen’s Bible Class on Sunday mornings meets in the undercroft. They will be moving through John’s Gospel until September. Everyone is welcome. Pastor Frese leads a Sunday morning adult Bible Class in the meeting room in the administration building. This study’s focus is the “Sunday School” Bible Stories you learned as a child, covering the major events and characters that are leading to God’s fulfilled promise of a Savior. This discussion-format environment allows us to explore the basic biblical doctrine in these accounts, along with basic Lutheran doctrine drawn from them. Questions and comments from participants are welcomed. Involvement by participants is fluid between Pastor Frese’s and Pastor Petersen’s classes. Feel free to jump back and forth as you want.
-Redeemer’s pastors are continuing to serve the mission in Homer, Michigan. Average attendance hovers around 15, with a low of 8 and high of 25. Offering at Homer averages $350, well above weekly operating expenses of $200. Currently the congregation in Homer is trying to get the word out, and also talking to other churches in the area about the possibility of sharing a pastor. Please remember them in your prayers.
-As of the end of April, we are $7,400 above our budgeted amount in giving. This is certainly something to be thankful for! For the year we are $12,000 over budget in spending. This is a difference of about $4,600. However, as was explained at the voters’ meeting, there are several contribution funds that are not reflected in our income budget currently that will be beginning next year. When those are taken into account we are only about $1,500 in the red for the year.
Receiving and demonstrating Christ’s love in word and deed.
1 John 4:19 Colossians 3:17