Weekly Announcements from Pastor Valerie Brown-Greenly, Senior Pastor

Weekly Announcements from Pastor Valerie Brown-Greenly, Senior Pastor

Dear Friends,
What a fun week!  We had a wonderful Easter celebration together!  It was good to see so many of you as we celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord!
A few reminders for the upcoming days:
We have office hours tomorrow (Thursday, April 21) between 8:30am-Noon.  Office hours next week are limited to Tuesday and Thursday morning from 8:30am-Noon.  We have staff out of the office on Wednesday, April 27.
Please remember there is NO in person worship this coming Sunday, April 24.  Worship was pre-recorded and will be uploaded to the website and to the Facebook Worship page on Sunday morning.  In-person worship continues on Sunday, May 1, at 10:00am.  The next pre-record will be over the 4th of July weekend.  These pre-records are to give our whole staff a weekend off every 8 or 9 weeks.
Because of vacation and travel plans, there will be no weekly email on Wednesday, April 27, or Wednesday, May 4.  Weekly emails will continue on May 11.  I put them on pause so I could be away for four days the week of April 27, and other staff will be on vacation the following week.  I hope this doesn’t cause any confusion, and thanks for understanding.  Because of a heavy schedule after Easter, the staff had to delay their Easter holiday and travel plans until next week.
We have the opportunity to welcome Casa de Oracion (House of Prayer) to use our building on Sunday afternoons for their worship.  Partnering with a Hispanic congregation is an exciting opportunity for Peace Lutheran.  Our Church Council and Leadership have cleared the way for welcoming Casa, although, we will not be able to do so without a solid hosting team.  At this writing, I have 5 individuals who have expressed an interest.  I need at least 14 individuals, (teams of 2) to make this happen.  The plan is that each team would be responsible for hosting one time every six or seven weeks.  It is important we have a welcoming presence during their time in our facility.  Right now, the worships are scheduled for 2:30pm-5:30pm.  Please contact me immediately if you are able to be a host or would like to visit about the possibility.
Thank you so much for all of your help with the Holiday Easter Baskets.  We were able to serve 54 families.  Your donations helped provide holiday food for Peace Lutheran families, community families and local families through the school system.  Having finished this important task, our Food Shelf needs re-stocking.  Please consider donations in the next few weeks.  As you know, the use of our Food Shelf has been trending upward, as needs in our community are increasing.
We have returned to our pre-covid Holy Communion practices.  Our worship service is at 10:00am.  We welcome those of you who are interested in serving.  I need four individuals for each Sunday morning.  In the next two weeks, I will design a schedule for those of you who are interested.  Please contact me of your interest and your availability.
The Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly is Saturday, April 30, from 9am -2pm, at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.  Pastor Tim, Vicar Jessie, our elected delegates and myself will be in attendance.
Wednesday morning Bible Study resumes on Wednesday, May 11, at 10:00am on Zoom.
COVID 19 update:  At this time, mask requirements have been removed from the building.  While we are not requiring masks, we are encouraging them.  The second variant will cause cases to trend up over the next two to three weeks.  Please be aware of the situation in our community as you make your decisions on masking.  Masking will remain as ‘encouraged’ unless this variant causes major upward shifts.  I and our Leadership will gauge numbers of cases and community risk in all decisions that are made regarding masking or other adjustments if these become necessary.  Thank you for your ongoing support of Peace Lutheran as we continue our journey through the pandemic.
As always, I welcome contacts and conversations.  I hope you have a wonderful week!
Take care…Be safe…
Pastor Valerie
Cell:  612-280-6493     Email:  [email protected]
Church:  763-757-4459     Email:  vbrown-greenly@peacecoonrapids.org