Apostolic Mission Congregation of the LCMS Pastor Kristian Bjornstad 2506 N. Main Ave. 343-9828 www.yourpeace.org

THE NEW PEACE ORGAN!

After assessments from two organ companies, which both came to the conclusion that our long time pipe organ is just not worth any kind of restoration or repair, and after much study and deliberation, the congregation voted after worship on the 24th of August, 2011, to purchase a new Quantum Q-210C Allen Digital Organ! We do not know exactly when it is going to be installed, but hopefully sometime in September. If anyone has any ideas about some festivities to celebrate its installation, please let a council member know! Some ideas are already being worked on, but more are always welcome!

SOME THINGS TO REJOICE IN:1. The SOUND will be VERY amazing. The organ that we have been blessed with has been faithful to our essential needs... however it was never a "fine" pipe organ to begin with. And the 100+ years of its existence has not been kind to it. To

renovate it to a "like new" condition would cost at least $120,000, and the sound would still not even approach what the new digital organs are able to produce today.2. Very little or no maintenance costs. Currently there are constant maintenance costs for the organ which sometimes range up into the thousands of dollars each year. The new digital organs simply do not have maintenance costs for MANY years. Eventually some parts do need to be serviced, but the costs for these are WELL below what we pay now. The lifespan of a digital organ is at least 50 years at the minimum.3. There will be some significant space opening up in the balcony when the pipes are removed. There might be many things we could use that for!4. Attracting Musicians. The new organ with its much greater abilities would attract musicians and we pray this might greatly enhance our entire music ministry here at Peace.

WHAT WE WILL NEED TO WORK ON:This organ is costing the church $60,000! $30,000 of it is coming from a variety of unused funds. The remaining $30,000 needs to be raised to replace the what we take from the building fund! PLEASE CONSIDER A SUBSTANTIAL DONATION! We know not very many of us have money growing on the tree in the back yard, but if you have been blessed by the Lord, please support this great addition of the BEST we have to offer the Lord in our music making!

NOTE: Chuck Mercer is gathering data to present a history of our organ. If anyone has anything to add to it, please speak to him!ALSO: If our present organ ends up in “Organ Heaven”, Pastor Bjornstad hopes to save a set of the best sounding of its pipes to build a small chest organ for the church as a keepsake!

Peace Talk - August 2011

MISCELANEOUS NOTES:PRAISING GOD!

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LAURA JONES BLESSED WITH A JOB! After graduating this spring from Marywood to be a school guidance counselor, Laura applied for jobs in the area but was unsuccessful in getting what she desired. However last month she did receive a job offer in Virginia and she and her husband Chris will be leaving at the beginning of August to make a new home there! We pray MANY blessings on them. We have loved having them as part of our faith family here at Peace! God bless you both!

+ The LWML National Convention was attended by Audrey Russell this past June. Her picture ended up on one of the convention web page banners! Leave it to Audrey to look FABULOUS!

- Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world.” - John 8:12

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+ The Bjornstad Family had a beautiful week at Camp Pioneer. Pastor served as camp

pastor and enjoyed sailing his boat a few times during the great weather! They keep praying that families from Peace will join them - maybe next year?

+ Erika Bjornstad is doing very well as a camp counselor at Camp Pioneer this summer. She will be coming home briefly this August before attending college at Concordia College, St. Paul in a church work course of study!

+ Joe Schulze has joined the National Guard and will be leaving for his nine months of training and duty this August 15th! We pray for him and his faithful service to our country!

+ Pretty Zulu, the beautiful Christian woman in South Africa who we have been supporting by paying for her tuition for an office assistant course at Penn Foester, has COMPLETED her class AND RECEIVED her diploma! Praise the Lord! She writes in an email: “I am very much excited, I have received my Diploma. Thank you so much for the support.”

+ Jim Calpin is well along on making preparations for building our much larger shed and “van port” in back of the church! Thank you Jim!

+ Kevin Woolverton is recovering from successful knee replacement surgery!

+ Mark Herie received healing from God when his kidneys began functioning again and he is now completely off dialysis!

+ Mark Koenig is feeling good after a checkup with the doctors. They say his new (getting older!) kidney is doing well after almost 1 year since the transplant!

+ BABIES BORN AND BAPTISMS COMING UP!

+ Adam Evans and Tonya Clemens were gifted with a baby boy name Mason James! Mason will be baptized August 7th - along with his mother! Tonya is very excited to be part

of our congregation and we pray for the whole family! Adam and Tonya are also planning their marriage for next June! Congratulations!

+ Frank and Adella Decker were also gifted with a baby boy. Derek Francis (below) was so eager to meet us all he was born 5 weeks early - but everything is well with mother and baby!

+ Tim Hackenberg, as a Freshman in High School, is fast becoming a track star! He is just coming back from some far away land where he competed as a sprinter! We will hear more from him. But even MORE importantly, he successfully defended the Banana Cram trophy for Peace Lutheran Church at the St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church invitational lockin! Congratulations!

+ It was good to have Elsie Schweitzer back after her long visit with family! And her sister Lorraine has delicious rhubarb if anyone needs some in a pinch!

+ The Woolverton family has been amazing friends with Erik (Soto) Veopraseuth, who was critically wounded in a car accident. Joe and his girlfriend Laura organized a car wash for his medical expenses and it was in the papers and TV and was an incredible success. They all were just amazed at what they were blessed to do! Erik’s mother Ann has been coming to church and needs our support!

WORSHIP LIFE AT PEACE LUTHERAN

FOCUS ON GOD’S MERCY!SUMMER WORSHIP: 9:30 AM

1Pet. 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy,

but now you have received mercy.

(Memorial Services were held July 10 at 3pm here at Peace Lutheran)

We Remember with so much thanksgiving:Elizabeth V.C. McKeen

Elizabeth "Betty" McKeen, 85, died Thursday, June 16, at Allied Skilled Nursing Services after a short illness. Her beloved husband, Harold R.

"Mac" McKeen, died in 2003.

Born in Dickson City on March 20, 1926, to the late Albert and Viola Thomas Collins, Scranton was Betty's home until she moved to

Washington, D.C., as a young adult. There, she met Mac and married him on Christmas Eve 1948. Their 54 years of married life included living in

Silver Spring, Md.; Ithaca, N.Y.; Groton, Conn.; and Scranton. Her organizational and technical skills made her career as an executive

secretary a successful and satisfying one. She was most proud of the years she spent with Electric Boat (General Dynamics) in Groton, Conn.,

working with the Trident submarine program, among others.

Betty was a pint-sized dynamo who loved life and lived it fully to her last days. She and Mac enjoyed square dancing, golf, travel, performing in skits at the Scranton Senior Center and, most of all, serving their churches. One

of Betty's cherished memories was of their trip to Wales — her father's place of birth. Betty and Mac were long-term members of Faith Lutheran

Church in Groton, Conn. and of Peace Lutheran Church in Scranton. Much of their lives centered around "living" their faith.

After suffering a stroke in 2003, Betty moved to Clarks Summit Senior Living (then Springside). Affectionately known as the "Town Crier" there, she buzzed around on her "scooter" chair keeping everyone on schedule,

gathering residents for activities (most notably, bingo) and endearing herself to the staff and other residents.

She was especially close to her sister-in-law, Helen Mc-Keen Skillen, who moved to Scranton after Betty's stroke to help care for her and assist her

with life's pesky details like bill paying, laundry and countless other things.

Surviving are two sisters-in-law, Helen Collins, Hatboro; and Helen McKeen Skillen, Scranton; a brother-in-law, Robert McKeen, Fresno,

Calif.; a nephew, Albert T. Collins Jr., Maryland, N.Y., and wife, Sandra; an aunt, Doris Collins, Syracuse, N.Y.; three cousins, Doris Davis, Shirley Davis and Sharon Hartman of Scranton; as well as numerous nieces and nephews; great-nieces and great-nephews; great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews; her church family and the many dear friends whose lives

she touched. She was also preceded in death by her stepmother, Edith Collins; and her brother, Albert T. Collins, in 1980.

IT IS EASY TO LAUGHAT OURSELVES

Which Service?A young girl observed some plaques on the wall of the church building and asked her mother: "Mum who are those people? Whose names are on the wall?" to which mum replied: "They are the people who died in the service." Immediately came the retort: "did they die In the morning or the evening service?" THIS IS TO GET US ALL REVED UP FOR THE FALL WHEN WE WILL BE STARTING TWO SERVICES ON SUNDAY MORNINGS! The schedule is:

8:15: Spoken Liturgy (HC every Sun.)9:15 Sunday School/Bible Study10:30 Worship with HC every 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month.

Alaska VBS: Mission Accomplished!

Hannah Bjornstad and Susan Crosbie were members of a team of five who traveled in June to Alaska to share VBS with the town of Funny River!

Hannah writes: “The VBS Alaska trip was a great experience for me because of the kids and what we got to share with them. Some of the kids knew all the Bible stories and others didn't know any of them. But they all shared knowledge and good times when I know that wouldn't have happened if we hadn't take VBS to them. This mission trip gave them a chance to hear God's word and be with friends they only saw a few times a year.”

Lutheran Academy and Immanuel Preschool News +MAJOR RENEWAL OF THE THE ACADEMY’S VISION IS COMING TOGETHER WITH

GOD’S BLESSING! WE ARE STARTING OUR FIFTH ACADEMIC YEAR THIS FALL!!!!+ Mrs. Lori Mandile (pictured at right) has accepted a teaching position with the

Academy and we are VERY excited to have her with us on our teaching team!+ The total renovation and upgrade of our school’s facilities is presently taking place!

Our school will look nothing like it did for the past four years! We thank Immanuel Lutheran Church for allowing us this huge project! And we thank Daniel Schultz (member of Immanuel now in heaven) for making this possible by remembering us in his will!+We will have the addition of a Kindergarten this next year. We are advertising students from K-6th grade!+This year we begin higher admission test standards and renewed investment in the visual and performing arts emphasis.+We are also VERY excited about the expansion of the Immanuel Lutheran Preschool to include before and after school child care! We believe this will have a very positive impact on the Academy!

+ There are several ways you can participate in the ministry of The Lutheran Academy:+ Please spread the word about what we (and the Immanuel Preschool) can offer your neighbors and folks

you know! We are definitely the MOST AFFORDABLE private school anywhere near Scranton (Not to mention THE BEST)! AND, FOR THE TIME BEING, WE DO HAVE OPENINGS WE WANT TO FILL!

+ We are in desperate need of a treasurer for the school again as Eileen Duffy is very sadly moving out of town. Do you have some time on your hands and perhaps have bit of magic to work with numbers and make dollars appear out of thin air?

+ A new website has been launched (check it out at www.thelutheranacademyscranton.org) - this time even with a DONATION button! Please feel free to make your donation either through the Sunday morning offering, or through the web page! Please consider helping us by sponsoring a student who needs a scholarship through our “Adopt a Student”! Also we are having three special large bookshelves custom built and they cost $600 each! We would be thrilled to receive a donation to pay for one of them!

+ IF YOU ARE A THRIVENT MEMBER, PLEASE ASSIGN YOUR CHOICE DOLLARS to Peace Lutheran and it will be automatically directed to The Lutheran Academy!!!! “Free dollars!”

+ We are asking for volunteers this year to work the afternoons! If you have a day you can volunteer each week between 12 noon and 3pm, please speak with Pastor Bjornstad.

++++++++++++++++++++++++IMMANUEL LUTHERAN PRESCHOOL IS GOING FULL DAY!

Starting Sept. 6th:7am - 9am: Before School Care

9am - 2pm: Preschool2pm - 6pm: Afterschool Care

Help Wanted – Preschool Positions AvailablePart time aides are needed for the Lutheran Early Childhood Center at Immanuel. Both

mornings and afternoons are available. Contact Roger Borchin at 848-1965 for further information.