The Messenger

Monthly news for Emmanuel Lutheran Church - Menominee, Michigan

JULY 2018

Vacation Bible School

Tuesday-Thursday

July 24, 25, & 26

9:00 a.m. to Noon

This month’s Messenger is

In honor of their

50th Wedding Anniversary on July 13,

by Darrell & Linda Eland

Thank you, Darrell & Linda for sponsoring the Messenger

Emmanuel members who own or operate their own business or

members who would like to recognize a significant event in their

lives are invited to sponsor the Messenger. Full sponsorship of the

Messenger is $100. This covers a portion of the cost of mailing the

Messenger each month.

FROM THE PASTOR

Brothers and Sisters in Christ; When I was about 11 or 12 my aunt and uncle hosted a Fourth of July party. The party took place in the area of a giant new gazebo which my uncle had constructed himself and this event happened to be the unveiling of this gazebo. In addition to my immediate family, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, there were also great aunts and uncles and other extended family in attendance who I knew by name, but, for the most part, not very well on a personal level. This was also the year that I got my hands on my own firecrackers and a lighter. As the last bits of sun were disappearing behind the horizon and my uncle was about to set off his own fireworks display, I thought that I’d take on the role of being the opening act by lighting a firecracker and throwing it up onto the gazebo into the midst of all these unsuspecting elderly folks, most of whom I didn’t know that well. I lit the single firecracker, held it between my thumb and pointer finger, stood up to toss it………and then second guessed my decision to create this chaos. It occurred to me that by throwing this firecracker among these partygoers might cause somebody to get hurt, and I really didn’t want that to happen. The problem, though, was that I was still holding the firecracker and as my brain furiously worked to determine where to discard of it, I ran out of time and it exploded in my grasp. I was fortunate that I wasn’t hurt badly. If I recall, my fingers tingled pretty good for a day or so, which I thought was appropriate punishment for what could have been a really stupid trick on my part. But it was that moment of hesitancy that was the key. By taking the time to debate about what was right or what was wrong, I placed myself into a position which could have spelled significant disaster for me. There are moments in our faith journeys which can parallel the perils of hesitancy as well. When the Israelites departed from Egypt they were told that they had to leave immediately. (Exodus 12:31-33) When Elisha was called, he was out in the field plowing. He told Elijah that he needed to say goodbye to his parents, but Elijah told him that the time to go was now. (1 Kings 19:19-21) Even Jesus said that “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) We may think that we have all the time in the world to do what we need to do, but any one of us with any worldly experience whatsoever will tell you that is not a good practice to follow. That practice includes

attending worship, engaging in the Word of God and Bible study, a healthy and consistent prayer life, and living out your baptismal promises in serving God and serving one another. Yes, work, sports, travel and hobbies may occupy much of our time, but carving out 15-20 intentional minutes each day to grow in our faith is certainly not an unreasonable expectation. Because what you’ll find in doing so is that not only will your faith blossom immediately, you will also find that when those moments come when you have to make difficult decisions, that you’ll be comfortable in your relationship with God and will be able to respond in a way that will not harm you, others, or that relationship with God. So, I say to you, my friends, the firecracker that is faith is in your grasp…..what are you going to do with it? I hope that you had a most blessed and safe Fourth of July…..and that you didn’t do anything that I’d considered doing!

Pastor Mark

Worship on Wednesdays

Our next WOW! will take place on Wednesday, July 18th, in the

Fellowship Hall 6:00-6:30 pm. This interactive family-style worship will

feature family friendly songs and liturgy, complete with Holy

Communion. As an added fellowship experience, we will share in a

potluck supper prior to worship at 5:30. Emmanuel will provide the

main dish and drinks, and we ask that if you would like to join us, that

you bring a simple dish to pass. After we conclude supper, we will

praise God! If you are unable to be in worship on Sunday or simply

desire a mid-week alternative, please consider joining us to worship God

in this engaging and fun way.

On July 15, The Reverend Richard J. Hafer will speak at both services about a ministry providing direct relief to the poor through Latin America and the Caribbean. Pator Hafer will share personal witness about Food For The Poor’s mission to care for the destitute as a means of living out the Gospel mandate to love one another.

Flood Recovery Update for

Keweenaw Area

Flood recovery goes on! Again, thank you to all who have helped in

ANY way. This week we are beginning to move from the initial

response phase to recovery phase.

Here is what you can do for days and weeks to come:

WHAT WE NEED

Pickup trucks and trailers to move debris piles into dump sites.

Volunteers to make and deliver lunches and various supplies to work

sites.

Volunteers to help finish the mucking out stage.

Visquine, duct tape, smaller (12 oz) Gatorade or Powerade, fans, dehumifiers.

Financial donations can be made through Keweenaw Community

Foundation (906-482-9673), Portage Health Foundation (906-523-

5920). , Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan /

Lutheran Disaster Response (https://www.lsswis.org/Keweenaw) or any

other organization that you may be aware of.

WHAT WE DON’T NEED

Bottled water, clothing, furniture, food, most tools.

IF YOU CAN HELP

Please call the volunteer help line at 906-233-66221 to check in. There

are many safety, financial and logistic reasons for this,

so please do not self-deploy. It will help to have his all documented and

organized through the Volunteer Resource Center.

Vacation Bible School Tuesday-Thursday

July 24, 25, & 26

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon

Children entering Kindergarten through 5th grade this fall are invited to

discover that Jesus' love is cool through our "Polar Blast" VBS! 6th

graders are encouraged to sign up to be crew helpers. Our

kids will engage in amazing experiences that will

guide them through God's Word in unforgettable,

multisensory, thought-provoking ways that make

Scripture come alive and help faith flow into real

life. They will enjoy music, skits, Bible

adventures, crafts, games, and snacks. On

our final day, Thursday July 26th, families

are invited to enjoy a special presentation

and lunch at our "Glacier Café".

Each year our children participate in our "Kids Helping Kids" program.

This year, we will be collecting coins that will help children hurt by

natural disasters around the world.

VBS Registration forms are available in the narthex or church office so

you can get your child enrolled for some fun, laughter, and excitement at

this year's Polar Blast!

Deadline to register is Monday, July 9th

.

Classes may have ended for the school year, but summer brings

opportunity to catch up on worship sheets and service activities. If you

are in need of church service activities for your confirmation

requirements, see Patti Treptow about helping with Vacation Bible

School, walking with our Waterfront Festival parade float, and the Rally

Day Picnic.

Upcoming Important Dates:

Confirmation Retreat - September 15th -16

th

The Rite of Confirmation - Reformation Sunday, October 28th

Left to right are Alexis Coleman, Pastor Mark, and Ty Dura. Missing from the

photo is Mackenzie Anders and Takoda Schreiner.

Emmanuel’s high school

graduates were honored at our

“Graduation Recognition”

during the 10:00 a.m. worship

service on June 3rd. A cake

and punch reception followed in the narthex. Congratulations to:

Mackenzie Anders Alexis Coleman

Ty Dura Takoda Schreiner

Do you have a college graduate that we can recognize in

the August Messenger? Please contact the church office with their

name, degree, and the school that they attended.

As you read this, we have returned from Houston, fulfilled and empowered, and ready to share with you what we have experienced! This coming Sunday, July 8th, our Youth Gathering participants will participate in both the 8:00 and 10:00 worship services and will host the coffee hour between services during which we will be available to talk with you and show you pictures and memories from our trip. This is our opportunity to say “thank you” and to give back to our congregation which has so joyfully supported us financially and in prayer. We hope to see you here on Sunday!

Back row: Patti Treptow, Kyle Anderson, Emma Anderson, Jaida Lesperance, Delaney

Johnson, Olivia Engman, Pastor Mark Laatsch, Amy Laatsch. Front row: Ashlee Erickson, Natalie Delgoffe, Anna Magrane, Emma Laatsch, Matt Nowack, and Rhyon Anderson.

Houston, Texas

NRG Stadium - Mass Gathering: Music, Speakers, Worship!

NGLS - Synod Day: Music, Games, Bible Study, Blessing, & Communion.

Side trip to NASA!

Service Activity - Harvey flood Clean-up in the city of Independence Heights.

Emmanuel's

GLOW members

hosted a Bingo

party for the

residents of the

Luther Home on

Sunday, April

15th. Thank you to our youth who shared

their time and provided an afternoon of

fun fellowship.

Emmanuel will

again have a float in

Menominee's

Waterfront Festival

Parade! The parade

date is Sunday,

August 5th. We

would like to involve our members of all ages to participate. We will

need people to help plan, design, gather supplies and materials, build,

drive, ride on and walk alongside the float during the parade. We cannot

do this without your help! Please contact Patti Treptow at the church

office for ways that you can get involved in this fun activity!

Zack Starzynski helps a

resident select a prize.

Kylie Chevalier and Trent Albert call

out Bingo numbers.

Stewardship of Our Leisure Time I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the

sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with

them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the

sun. Ecclesiastes 8:15

Busy-ness keeps us from living with joy and peace in today’s 24/7 world,

but Scripture reminds us that this is hardly new. Ecclesiastes was written

some 2,500 years ago!

Ecclesiastes does not give license for mindless pleasure-seeking, but

rather affirms that our hard work should be balanced with time for

relaxation and enjoyment with friends and family.

Saints and mystics have long touted the need for rest and renewal. In the

monastic tradition it’s referred to as otium sanctum– Holy Leisure. Not

just wasting our free time, but using it for renewal. As steward/disciples,

we aim to use our leisure time wisely. Here are some ideas:

Keep the Sabbath: God actually commands us to stop working one day

per week, as Exodus 20:8-11 makes clear. It’s one of the Top Ten!

Though we are prohibited from working on the Sabbath, there is no

prohibition against leisure. (Why else would God give us a day off?)

Plan your vacation: Even if you’re taking simple STAYcation, plan your

time for maximum rest and enjoyment. Visit local museums or historic

places. Take day trips to local parks, mountains or waterways. Invite

friends or family over. Select books to read, movies to stream and games

to play.

Manage your schedule: Are you a slave to your appointment book,

driven by other people’s priorities? Put yourself first – scheduling in

time for leisure. Even if it’s just 30 minutes here and there, make – and

take – time for yourself!

Find an activity you like: What do you do just for you? Exercise? Read?

Scrapbook? Play an instrument? Walk? Fish? Discover – or REdiscover

– what brings you joy, then make time to do it.

Socialize: Friends and family make life enjoyable. Spend time with them.

Ideas: a hike, a picnic, a meal on your deck, drinks under the stars, a

game of cards or a board game.

Invest, don’t waste, time: Many activities pass the time but don’t give

back much in renewal or refreshment. Choose activities wisely.

God expects us to work, but not work ourselves to death. Sabbath and

leisure time provide means for us to find balance in our life, as well as

friendship, love, renewal and purpose.

–Rob Blezard

Copyright © 2018, Rev. Robert Blezard. Reprinted by permission. Pastor

Blezard serves as an assistant to the bishop of the Lower Susquehanna

Synod and works as content editor for www.stewardshipoflife.org.

~ From the Bishop “Jesus himself came near and went with

them,17

And he said to them, “What are you

discussing with each other while you walk

along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18

Then one of them, answered him, “Are you the

only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know

the things that have taken place there in these

days?” 19

He asked them, “What things?” They

replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth,

who was a prophet mighty in deed and word

before God and all the people,20

and how our chief priests and leaders

handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21

But we

had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

~Luke 24: 16-21

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Jesus walks alongside Cleopas and his unnamed companion on the

road to Emmaus and listens to them. And as they talk and try to make

sense of recent events, they share their disappointed hopes, that this man

Jesus was the one on whom they had placed some substantial

expectation, no less than the redemption of Israel as they hoped Jesus

would free the country from oppressive Roman rule, and more than that,

hopes for the unmistakable presence and action of God in the world.

“We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel,” they say. We had

hoped.

I dare say, we know that feeling of heartbreaking disappointment.

You can hear that feeling in the words, we had hoped the tumor would be

benign. We had hoped the treatment would work. We had hoped the

job would pan out. We had hoped… Or perhaps more to the point of

who we are as the church…We had hoped that the decline would abate.

We had hoped the Sunday school would grow, we had hoped to see a

turn around by now, that my church would stay open long enough to see

me buried there, that we’d be able to pay the bills. We had hoped that

things would get better.

To Cleopas and his companion, Jesus exclaims, “Oh how foolish you

are, and how slow of heart to believe!” Jesus has heard their

disappointed hopes, and yet, in this exclamation we hear of the dis-

connect, the lack of alignment between their hopes and what Jesus knows

that God is up to. Cleopas and his companion may have hoped for the

defeat of Rome and the restoration of Israel, but Jesus lets them know

that God’s hopes are oh so much bigger than that. That there is so much

more going on than just their small and limited perspective of what

salvation means and how this first Easter afternoon moment is about so

much more than their present pain and grief, no matter how acute and

heartbreaking it is.

I do believe we are in a similar moment, although for us, the moment

is spanning years, decades even. Like Cleopas and his friend, in our

moment, we cannot see the bigger picture of what God is up to. You

know, and I know, that the church is different than it was 500 years ago,

and it’s different from what it was 50 years ago. Even 30 years ago. In

the everyday work of ministry, things are continuing. Communities are

being served. Christ is proclaimed in word and deed. Faith is being

formed. But of course, if we look at the trends of the last 30-50 years,

we see a marked and steady decline. There are more empty pews, less

young people, whole demographics that are missing. Our average age is,

well, older. More and more of our congregations will close. Beautiful

and beloved buildings will be sold or repurposed. It’s already

happening.

We had hoped.

But consider, for what had we hoped? That things would stay the

same? And what would that have looked like? When I was growing up

in the church, I don’t remember ever hearing the exhortation to invite my

neighbor to church. Probably because my pastor, and everyone else,

simply assumed that my neighbor and everyone else’s neighbor, was

already going to church. They were already saved. The only people who

needed saving were the godless heathen that lived across some ocean.

And so the church faithfully and generously attended to that by placing

an offering for mission in the offering plate. The Mission Field was over

there, way over there. And our job here was to do church well, and for

the most part that meant attending to the education of members,

baptisms, weddings, funerals, and the care and comfort of those who

claimed the church as their church.

Now, thirty to fifty years later, the mission field has changed. And it

is no longer so easily attended to as putting an offering in the offering

plate. Suddenly, we have to work at it. It takes effort, conversation. It

takes building relationships until there’s a level of trust in which you

have the courage to extend an invitation to worship or you finally find

the words to describe why Jesus matters to you. Such things have not

been the focus of our tradition.

We have not been taught how to do this. How to consider the mission

that sits across your dinner table or next to you at the café. We have not

been trained in how to talk about Jesus with the co-worker in the cubicle

next to you, or the classmate whose locker is next to yours. This is not

your fault. And it’s not your pastor’s fault. And it’s not your Bishop’s

fault. The world has shifted, and no one told us to put it on the calendar.

But this is our walk to Emmaus moment. This is the moment where we

realize that there is more going on than our present grief and pain, no

matter how acute or heartbreaking.

Our hopes that our current congregations would maintain the status

quo is perhaps not the hope that is in God’s mind. It might well be that

God has something bigger, something that is so much more than the

longevity of any single beloved congregation. God is up to something.

The Holy Spirit is on the move. And we would be blessed to see this

present moment, our time in history, as opportunity.

This is where we get to learn something new. This is where our

hearts will burn with the unmistakable presence of God in Christ Jesus

who breaks open the kingdom of God and asks us to consider more than

just our present pain and anxiety. It’s not just about keeping the doors

open. It’s not just about paying the bills. It’s not about keeping things

the way they are, or getting back to the way they were, as if we ever

could. It’s about Jesus. It is, and always has been, always and forever,

about Jesus. How then, are we to be faithful to this moment, our

moment, that is only a part of the decades it will take for the fulcrum of

history to turn? How are we to be faithful as our Easter afternoon

journey with Jesus continues?

It is not an easy thing, to see past the grief and pain of the present

moment and trust that God has a bigger plan in mind. Anxiety runs high.

We feel the threat of loss. And the present circumstances demand that

we be church in a way where we have yet to learn the skill set that is

necessary. And it is difficult to align our hopes with God’s plans when

we have no idea what that plan is. We may not see it in our lifetime.

Yet, as we move around this corner of time, we are being shaken out of

our stupor of disappointed hopes to see and understand that the road is

before us, our time in history is now, our Emmaus moment is now, and

the journey, while it has taken a turn, continues.

But you do not walk this road alone. Jesus is with you. Jesus walks

alongside you. And you know him. Your hearts burn with a desire to

serve him, and they burn with deeper knowledge than this world can

provide. You are the church. You are the body of Christ in the world,

nourished at his table, fortified in the scriptures, blessed with the

presence of Christ in each other. And you are sent, to come alongside

those who are in grief and pain, and listen to their disappointed hopes,

hear what they have to say, and let them know that you heard them. And

then, be the presence of Christ to them. Let them see in you, the one

who died and rose. The one in whom our hope rises. Let them hear your

story, and hear from you, why it is that Jesus matters. Amen

MEN’s Group

Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. at the Serving Spoon for coffee.

WoMEN’s MINIsTrIEs

The Sarah Circle will not meet for the summer

Seeking Enlightenment Group will be meeting on Thursday,

July 19, at 6:30pm., contact Robin Gustafson at 906-290-1003 for

location details.

OUR EMMANUEL FAMILY

CALLED HOME BY GOD…

Ellen Raygo entered her eternal home on June 1. Ellen’s funeral

was held June 6, at Anderson Kell Funeral home. Our sympathy to

her children, Mike, Tim (Judy) and Eileen and their families.

Nathalie LaPlante entered her eternal home on June16. Nathalie’s

funeral was held June 21, at Emmanuel. Our sympathy to her

husband, Joseph.

SUNDAY MORNINGS AT EMMANUEL Worship at

8:00 & 10:00am Nursery care provided at 10:00am

CONTACT US:

Phone: (906) 863-3431 Fax: (906) 863-4193

Email: mail@e-mmanuel.com Council President, Debbie Villas

Email: elcpresident@e-mmanuel.com or

Visit us on the Web at www.e-mmanuel.com Follow us on Facebook at

Emmanuel Lutheran Church Menominee Michigan ELCA

STAFF: Pastor

The Rev. Mark Laatsch - Cell Phone: 906-424-0003

Director of Youth & Family Ministry Mrs. Patti Treptow

Church Secretary Mrs. Judy Raygo

Custodian- inside Mrs. Carol Parrish Custodian – outside Mr. Lee Parrish

We are a congregation of the Northern Great Lakes Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America