Moderator's Message
Carol Berger
"The church is never a place, but always a people; never a fold but always a flock; never a sacred building but always a believing assembly."
The Plow and the Cross
I don't know about you, but I am missing seeing all of you! Even though I am always spiritually lifted by walking into our sanctuary and listening to the Word of GOD, it is also the energy coming from your friendly faces that continues to lift up my heart. YOU are the church, and not our clapboard building. As serious and horrible as any epidemic is (especially to those who have lost loved ones in it), this unfortunate pandemic has forced us to be apart, and sadness can overwhelm. However, in spite of our present circumstances, let us remember that GOD offers us peace, serenity, and many blessings. His Word can displace anxiety and fear with hope and healing. We are blessed with our devoted and creative staff and strong and energetic lay leadership. Our new Council is engaged and ready to go, even though we are forced to adopt new ways and initiatives because of COVID-19. And because we have a congregation that is engaged, thoughtful, and caring, we will continue to find new ways to stay connected. We have found a new way to worship together and fellowship together. We can do this. It's about people, not buildings.
We will be celebrating our 150 Anniversary next year! This will be a very exciting time in the life of LHC. In 1871, as Wayne and the surrounding townships were settling, an excitement filled their homes, "A church is getting organized at Wayne Station!" Our first congregants celebrated in spite of their hardships, people needed companionship and their faith in GOD remained strong. This was our beginning. We, at LHC, are continuing our tradition, renovating our structure, but more importantly, we are committed to each other as we carry forth together the word of GOD as the Lord did for us. Thank you for allowing me to be your Moderator, and I am looking forward to serving the LHC.
Peace in the name of our Lord,
Carol Berger
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WE ACCEPT, EMBRACE AND AFFIRM THE DIGNITY AND WORTH OF EVERY PERSON, AS WE ARE ALL CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE.
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What's Happening at Church...
Get involved and join a group, an event, or a LHC initiative.
Explore / Belong / Learn
Worship Service
- Sundays, 9:30 am - Tune-in to our
YouTube
Channel
Virtual Fellowship
- Sundays, 10:30 am -
via Zoom
Bible Study
- Wednesdays, 10 am -
via Zoom
Queen of Hearts Raffle
-
POSTPONED
Rummage Sale - Aug. 7, 8 am to 4 pm, Aug. 8, 9 am to 2 pm
& Preview Sale - Aug. 6, 3 to 7 pm
Men of LHC Monthly Breakfast
- Saturday, Aug. 8, 8:30 am
via Zoom
Sisters in Spirit (SiS) General Meeting
- Sunday, Aug. 16, 11 am
via Zoom
A Book & A Prayer Book Club
- Thursday, Aug. 20, 7 pm
via Zoom
Friday Night at the Movies
-
POSTPONED
BTW Deadline
- Wednesday, Aug. 19
Church Council Meeting
- Monday, Aug. 10, 7 pm
via Zoom
CHURCH OFFICE HOURS
- Monday through Thursday, 9 am to 3 pm, 630.584.4013
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'HAPPY' HELP NEEDED!
Please sign-up to work the sale next week on Thursday, Friday, and/or Saturday.
Sale Dates
THU, AUG 6 // PREVIEW SALE
3 to 7 pm // $5 admission
FRI, AUG 7 // 8 am to 4 pm
SAT, AUG 8 // 9 am to 2 pm
EXTRA SALE
FRI, AUG 14 // 8 am to 4 pm
[ EXTRA SALE dates are pending based on amount of inventory ]
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It's all happening...
Pop-Up Rummage Sale
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GOOD NEWS---
We have a lot to sell...!
NOT SO GOOD NEWS---
This means we have a lot to unpack, sort and price.
More stuff means more $$$ so we're happy...but need more helping hands to be happier.
Please consider stopping by to unpack boxes, sort and place items where they belong, and apply all those little price stickers. We'll be there
TODAY, TOMORROW, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 9 am to 5 pm
, before the Sale starts on Thursday afternoon.
ALSO...a
big shout-out to both our former and new Facilities Ministry chairs
for whipping the overgrown courtyard garden into shape. Their impressive efforts gave our weary team a big boost...!
Thank you,
Kathleen Sullivan Kaska and Mary Roach
Pop-Up Co-Chairs
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Worship & Spiritual Growth
Together/Online
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We appreciate your continued support of our weekly online worship services via the LHC
YouTube channel
. Each service is a labor of love. Presently we have services through August planned. We would love to have your participation. Would you consider being a pulpit associate? Lead a children's message? We're trying to keep members of our congregation involved and connected. Please consider participating. It makes each service that much more special to see a familiar face! It is simple and takes no time at all.
We are still following the guidelines provided by the UCC with regard to resuming in person services. We know it's not an ideal situation. but your safety is our #1 priority.
If you have any ideas about a service, or have a favorite hymn you'd like us to include please contact me and we'll see what we can do.
Samantha Prang
Worship & Spiritual Growth, Chair
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YouTube Instructions
Access our online services via the link in the weekly email announcement, or follow these steps to access the video directly on our LHC YouTube Channel:
1. Access your internet browser
2. Type in 'YouTube.com' in the search bar at the top of your screen and press the 'Return' key or 'Enter' key. This will take you to the general YouTube homepage.
3. Type 'Little Home Church by the Wayside' in the 'Search' bar at the top and hit 'Return' or 'Enter.' This will take you to our LHC YouTube channel.
4. Click on the worship service you'd like to watch.
Please call the Church Office if you're having any trouble. 630-584-4013
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Technology S.O.S.
As we continue to do our worship services via YouTube, meetings and even Fellowship via Zoom video conferencing, we are relying more and more on technology. Some of our members and friends might be intimidated by it. If you have a tablet or computer we can get you where you need to be! Should you need
ANY
help at all with technology please reach out to the Church office. We can arrange for someone to come and help you!
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Music Notes
Virtual Worship
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“There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater. But sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life. That is the sort of bravery I must have now.”
Veronica Roth
I hope you’ve been watching the Virtual Worship Videos this past several weeks and have enjoyed meeting our new church council. Even in the time of a pandemic we are finding we can work and grow as a church!
I urge everyone to think about reaching out to the council members and volunteering to support them in their ministries and projects.
Keep the faith, keep in touch.
Peace,
Larry Dieffenbach,
Director of Music, Organist
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Christian Education
Virtual Sunday School
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I am Jane Shelton and your new chairperson of the Christian Education Ministry. I have served on the Council in one capacity or another for many years and am happy to be back on Christian Ed!
As we all know, we won't be meeting in person any time soon so I have been poking around on the UCC website researching various online adult CE opportunities. As our denomination is particularly attuned to issues of social justice it is my hope that we might be able to participate in discussions on how to work towards fully becoming an anti-racist church. I hope you will join me in this pursuit.
The Children's Sunday School curriculum, Seasons of the Spirit, will start up again in September, and, as with our adult worship, it will be virtual.
I am looking for a couple of people to join me on the Christian Education Ministry. It's a great way to be involved with the church and you DO NOT have to attend the Council meetings or write articles like this one!
Finally, if you are not already subscribing to the UCC
Daily Devotional
I encourage you to do so. It's a great way to start or end your day!
Respectfully,
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'Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.'
Galatians 6:
2
Though the COVID-19 pandemic continues, so does Little Home Church’s Outreach efforts. Much looks different at this time, but we are still committed to service! If you have not seen this past Sunday’s service, I encourage you to listen to my interview with Larry during the July 19 worship service, regarding everything Outreach. As far as Outreach’s contributions this month, your donations of toiletries were shared with the Community Crisis Center in Elgin. They were truly grateful for the supplies and thank you all! Additionally, we have spoken to Bridges Community Center regarding taking donations of interview appropriate clothing that is not sold during the rummage sale. They have a boutique in which their clients can shop for gently used items that will allow them to feel confident and secure while interviewing for jobs. Thank you!
With Council membership changing over to the 2020-21 calendar year, I would like to take a moment to introduce LHC’s Outreach Committee. I will continue to serve in my second year as Outreach chair, and I am joined by committee members Karen Kaluzsa and Anne Bouchard. As a team, we are committed to representing Little Home Church and the UCC mission to support
all
members of our community. If this type of service work interests you, we’d LOVE for you to join us! Please contact me for more information.
Peace and light,
Karissa James
Outreach Ministry Chair
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Meets 3rd Thursday, 7 pm
NEXT Meeting is August 20
This month we are reading
Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover.
Westover was born sometime in September 1986—no birth certificate was issued—on a remote mountain in Idaho, the seventh child of Mormon survivalist parents who subscribed to a paranoid patchwork of beliefs well outside the mandates of their religion. The government was always about to invade; the End of Days was always at hand. Westover’s mother worked as a midwife and an herbal healer. Her father, who claimed prophetic powers, owned a scrap yard, where his children labored without the benefit of protective equipment. (Westover recounts accidents so hideous, and so frequent, that it is a wonder she lived to tell her tale at all.) Mainstream medicine was mistrusted, as were schools, which meant that Westover’s determination to leave home and get a formal education—the choice that drives her book and changed her life—amounted to a rebellion against her parents’ world.
As of May 2020,
Educated: A Memoir
had been on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list for 114 weeks. It won a 2019 Alex Award, was shortlisted for the 2019 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and was selected as one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2018.
Our group will meet for a book discussion via Zoom on Thursday, August 20 at 7 p.m., and we’d love to have you join us! The Zoom meeting details are as follows:
Meeting ID: 891 0088 0154
password: bookclub
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As your newly elected Facilities Ministry Chair, I couldn’t be more excited to help make a difference in our Little Home Church. This structure holds a dear place in my heart as it was here that my parents were married in 1957, and Jan & I followed suit in 1984. After moving into the neighborhood, I could not wait to become a part of my family’s past. I feel I have a responsibility to this church, to give back in my own way. And I’m hoping the congregation can come alongside me, in your own way. There are so many ways we can work together to get our church looking as loved as it truly is, through our joint efforts. Not everyone can sing, preach, or teach. But you CAN make a difference! For starters, I realize that not everyone is going to be able to pitch in. I get it, we all are experiencing not only the strangest, scariest of times, but God is asking us to remain positive, vigilant, and steadfast in our dedication to our loved ones’ health and safety.
PITCH IN DAYS
Every quarter of the year, I’m proposing a “Pitch In Day!” We will gather at the church at 9 am on a Saturday for an all-in workday.
The areas that we’ll tackle are:
Exterior Sprucing Up
- Weeding
- Trimming
- Painting
Interior Sprucing Up
- Organizing
- Cleaning
- Painting
- Minor Repairs
Scheduled 'Pitch In' Days
- Saturday, Aug. 22
- Saturday, Oct. 24
- Saturday, Jan. 23
- Saturday, Mar. 20
- Saturday, May 22
Don’t want to wait for 'Pitch In' Day? Want to 'Adopt a Spot?' No problem, again we get it! Whether you are uncomfortable gathering due to the current pandemic, even outside, or the selected Pitch In Days aren’t convenient, we can give you your very own spot to own.
Teamwork makes the Dream work. Let’s help our dear, quaint Little Home Church become the beauty it once was. It gives to us continually through God’s work, we need to give back in any way possible. We each have talents and resources that could help our church become revitalized. I hope you can find it in your hearts to assist in some way.
In God’s Love,
Kit DeWitt, Facilities Ministry Chair
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Virtual Sunday Fellowship
via ZOOM
Gather 'virtually' with us on Sundays beginning at 10:30 am. We will gather online for a few minutes of saying hello and checking in. The space will be open for an hour. Feel free to pop in anytime during that time.
Meeting ID: 827 7414 6480
password: parishhall
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Wednesday Bible Study
Virtually...
We have resumed the weekly Wednesday morning Bible Study via Zoom. Pastor Ron has graciously agreed to lead it. They currently are studying the I & II Letters of Peter.
NO
preparation is necessary. It begins at 10 am.
Meeting ID: 814 1245 7155
password: biblestudy
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Joyful Progress!
Phase 1 - Calling all Bidders
VERY JOYFUL NEWS: On Thursday, July 23, architect Lisa Sharp released the 'Invitation to Bid' for Phase 1 of our 'Joyful, Joyful, We Restore Thee' project!
(See photo at right showing long line of contractors at the recent site visit)
. We thus begin the active part of our project, with bids due on August 13 and the contract awarded on August 19. We plan to document progress as much as possible, especially with ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos.
Phase 1 mostly covers maintenance work on the sanctuary and Parish Hall, along with the reconfiguration of the two bathrooms in the hallway next to the kitchen. Both bathrooms will be made ADA compliant. Additional work includes exterior and interior painting, window restoration, window and door replacement, stone repair and tuck-pointing, site drainage and paving improvements, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural remediation and interior improvements among other work.
The Joyful Team plans to celebrate the actual start of construction with a groundbreaking (of sorts) once the contract is awarded. We will also host an informational congregational Zoom meeting in September. Dates for both are yet to be determined. We are all excited to finally get started after many years of planning, discussion, study, fundraising, and PRAYER. Thank you, thank you to everyone who has participated in the process. There will be more to report once the contract is awarded later this month.
Anne Bouchard, Chair
Joyful, Joyful, We Restore Thee Capital Campaign
Committee: Anne Bouchard, Greg Hege, Bob Kaska, Kathleen Sullivan Kaska, Susannah Lesswing, Andrea Redmond, and Susi Winquist
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Joyful Search Continues...
The Pastoral Search Committee has continued to meet via Zoom and we now have five Pastor Profiles to review. We are still in an early stage and will not rush our process; we are willing to re-consider the plan for a new Pastor to be in place by October. As we review candidates, we will maintain a focus on the defined purpose of the Designated Pastor...'growing and retaining our membership.'
Your Search Team is reviewing the impact of the Covid-19 virus and the construction about to begin in the Sanctuary. This 'Covid and Construction' circumstance would be an additional challenge for a new Pastor. We are discussing a broad range of options for leadership in this transition. We will have a more detailed plan for the Council Meeting later this month.
I am pleased to report the Search Committee is enjoying our work and fellowship, as we serve Little Home Church. We welcome your input.
Blessings,
Bob Kaska
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Flowers, Fellowship,
Ushers & Pulpit Associate
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With temporary suspension of our worship services we are tabling our need for ushers, flowers, fellowship, and pulpit associates. But in the meantime...
here's a little flora from the LHC courtyard garden
...!
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Happy August Birthdays!
Aug. 5
- Charles Sbarbaro
Aug. 8
- Scott Burkoth
Aug. 9
- Dianna Cave Griffin
Aug. 10
- Chuck McDonough, Catherine Walsh
Aug. 12
- Jonathan Berger
Aug. 13
- Ellie Sterner
Aug. 16
- Marilyn Poole
Aug. 17
- Duke Ferguson
Aug. 25
- Corinne Thornton
Aug. 28
- Thelma Kaluzsa
Aug. 29
- Jim Winquist
Aug. 30
- Greg Abell
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To those recently ill or hospitalized...
Kathi Abell, Jeff Schramuk, Meg Withall
Our Sympathies...
To the family and friends of The Reverend Dr. Donald Heinrich. Don passed away July 18 at the age of 97. He was pastor of Little Home Church from 1958 - 1966. After some time away he and Polly returned to Wayne and became active members in the life of the church. He was bestowed the honor of Paster Emeritus in 2003. He will be greatly missed. A virtual memorial service is being planned and details will be shared once available. Memorials in Don's memory may be sent to Little Home Church.
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THANK YOU TO OUR CHURCH STAFF, COUNCIL, AND ALL VOLUNTEERS
Pastor Emeritus
- Rev. Dr. Don Heinrich
Pastor Emeritus
- Rev. Ronald Purser
Director of Music/Organist
- Larry Dieffenbach
Office Manager
- Lori Prang
Custodian
- Geraldine Fields
BTW Editors
Lori Prang and Kathleen Sullivan Kaska
Graphic Design
Kathleen Sullivan Kaska
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NEW
CHURCH COUNCIL
Moderator
- Carol Berger
Moderator-elect
- Bob Kaska
Christian Education
- Jane Shelton
Congregational Life
- Mary Emily Anhalt
Evangelism
- Mary Roach
Facilities
- Kit Dewitt
Outreach
- Karissa James
Stewardship
- Peter Connolly
Worship & Spiritual Growth
- Samantha Prang
Members at Large
- Chuck McDonough and Jennifer Harmon
Financial Treasurer
- Susi Winquist
Financial Secretary
- Ann McLaughlin
Clerk
- Kristen Thornton
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Thank you for continuing to remember Little Home Church by the Wayside.
Your support is greatly needed and appreciated.
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