See what is happening at Grace Lutheran!
December 17, 2020
This is a quick weekly reminder of what is happening at Grace in worship
and in ways to connect and serve.
Pastor Update
A Note From Pastor Joanna Mitchell
Last weekend, I decided to break up the “movie night” trend we had going on at our house by doing something new. I decided we were going to build a gingerbread house. Now, people have been posting their lovely family competitions of gingerbread houses for a while now. We have usually done an "out of the box" gingerbread house and struggled with this. I told this to a friend a couple of years ago who told me, "everyone fails at the box gingerbread houses; I should make it from scratch." So that’s what I decided to do.

This is how it went: On Friday night, NO ONE in my family wanted to help me make the dough. So I made it myself. On Saturday, Lily and I rolled out the dough and measured it and then burned the pieces. On Sunday, I remade the gingerbread before church activities in the morning and we baked it to perfection. On Sunday, night we assembled. Here are the results.
As you can see making a gingerbread from scratch clearly is not in my gifts skills bucket. Here’s the thing, right now it feels like life is like this house. Even with my best effort and all sorts of guidance some time things just fall over. I will admit that I have felt frustration and a little bit of sadness about something as silly as a gingerbread house because I had different expectations of the experience. But in the end, when I woke up on Monday morning, I burst out laughing. Look at that picture, it is ridiculous! The house has given me some joy, probably more joy than I would have had if it all had gone well. We ate the gingerbread right away and it is delicious. 

As I write this, we continue to have some gingerbread dough in our fridge. My daughter made some on Monday morning. She has hope that we can do better. Here’s the deal, the house might fall over again. But we are going to keep trying. What I do know is this, it ultimately doesn’t matter if I am good at gingerbread house decorating, I mean, who cares?! But what I do know is that this experience was all the more fun because I got to share it with others, not just my family but friends on social media who gave me good ideas like this to make it work.
The promise of Christmas is not all about joy and beauty. It is about God showing up in the failures of our lives. It is God being with us when things don’t go as we planned and recognizing that God has a bigger plan for us and our world.  I am thankful for all of you. I am looking forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus with you next week either in our parking lot or in our homes and all of us remembering this story of God’s plan to bring love into the world no matter what. 

Blessing,
Pastor Joanna Mitchell
Worship
Virtual Service Availability

Throughout everything we will continue to provide worship online. We will be streaming worship through Grace's YouTube account. We encourage you to join us and listen to God's word through virtual services. Worship will be posted by 5 pm on Saturday evening, allowing you to worship at the time you prefer.
Advent Wednesdays Worship
Now through Dec. 23rd

Advent Mid-week Worship, Wednesdays at 1pm and 7pm: Join us on Zoom for an Advent Worship experience. We will be lighting the Advent Wreath, praying together and reflecting on the significance of waiting during this season. Here is the zoom link for both Worship opportunities: 
Grace Lutheran’s Christmas Eve Parking Lot Worship
3:00 pm - Parking Lot Worship
4:00 pm - Parking Lot Worship
7:00 pm – Parking Lot Worship

At each Worship service, we will be singing Christmas carols and hearing the Christmas Story. After Worship, there will be an opportunity for family blessings. Please enter the parking lot at the stoplight on Rose Street and follow the ushers instructions on where to park. You will be able to tune your radio to 91.7 FM and hear the wonderful music and the Christmas story. If you plan on getting out of your car please wear a mask and practice social distancing.
We Need You!

We are in need of volunteers to usher and serve communion at all of the Christmas Eve Parking Lot Worships. If you have not ushered before, No Worries! We will be having a training session on Sunday, December 20th at 4:00 pm via Zoom. If you are interested please call Kris Miller (763)421-6520 or email krism@graceandover.org at the church office.
Christmas Eve Sanctuary Time

On Christmas Eve, we will have our Sanctuary open for people to sign-up for 15 minutes in the Sanctuary at Grace starting at 10 am and ending at 8:35pm. You can come in for a time or reflection and prayer. We will have Christmas music playing.  
 
In your time slot, you determine who will join you in the sanctuary. We ask that you respect the following guidelines: 
  1. Individuals need to wear masks unless they are children under 5.
  2. Groups need to clean up after themselves by spaying down the pews they were in or areas they touched.
  3. Anyone who is experiencing any symptoms should not come.
  4. Anyone who has been exposed to COVID-19 or is awaiting test results should not come.
 
Although there are many changes this Christmas, we wait as people of faith and hope, knowing God’s promise of love. We pray you experience grace this season and the presence of God.
 
Sign up for your designated time on our sign-up genius or by calling the church office. 
Grace Lutheran’s Virtual
Christmas Day Worship
10:00 am on Zoom

Christmas Day Worship will be at 10:00am on December 25th on Zoom. We invite you to join us for worship as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We will be recording the Zoom worship and posting on YouTube following our worship service.  
Stewardship
Thank you Grace Lutheran for your ongoing
generosity and support! 

Thank you, Grace Lutheran Church for helping us reach our financial goal of increasing giving by $85,000! We are beyond grateful for your generous spirit and faithfulness. We have had 95 families turn in Statements of Intent. Our raffle is taking place this week for those who turned in cards in November. We will be calling winners in the next week. It is not too late to turn in your cards and help us reach the goal of 125 families. Any additional financial gift will be put toward sustaining our ministries at Grace and also help fund the digital sign.
Ministries News
Connection Sunday:
Christmas Caroling
Sunday, Dec. 20th at 10:30 am

CHRISTMAS CAROLING! Join us Sunday, Dec. 20th at 10:30* am in the church parking lot–we will meet to hand out caroling sheets, then drive (in separate cars!) to carol to some of our members and friends who have not been able to come to worship in person. Contact Jonathan Orwig jonathano@graceandover.org if you’re coming so we can prepare. If we end up with a really large group, we’ll split into two groups…. masks should be worn, and we will spread out widely to sing so we can be safe. This event will depend on current COVID-19 levels for the safety of all.
Help spread the news about
Family Table!

Our Family Table Drive-through Meal is being offered again on Sunday, Dec. 20th from 12:30-1:30 PM. We’ve got the pulled pork sandwiches and cookies covered, but we’re still in need of coleslaw, applesauce, and chips. If you’re willing to contribute any of these items, please sign up below. Contact Lynda Wilde or Debbie Jorgens with questions. Thanks for helping to feed our community!  
Blue Christmas
December 21st at 7 pm

The holidays are often the loneliest time of the year for those who have experienced recent loss, illness or loneliness in their lives. These losses can be the death of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, death of a dear pet, loss of health, abuse, loss of identity or any of the other losses people deal with. The Blue Christmas service allows us to grieve the losses, to admit that maybe we are just not able to be happy and upbeat this holiday while everyone around us is celebrating. It allows us to acknowledge our losses and our pain, and to take comfort in God’s love and care for us, especially in sending Jesus, who experiences loss and grief as we do.

You will have an opportunity to light a candle in your homes as a way of remembering someone who has left your life or someone or something you have left behind. As we bring our grief and our pain to God, may we experience God’s love, God’s hope, and God’s peace.

This service is a shared worship service with the Anoka Ministerium. Here is the link for the livestream worship at 7pm on December 21st: 
Waking Up White
A Congregation Study

Join us Mondays 6:30-8:00 PM in January to study Debby Irving’s book, Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race. Note this is a congregational study; however, not limited as such, this invitation is open for any who would like to join in our conversation. 

There are a couple of books available in the church office to borrow or you can purchase a copy of your own online.
Grace's Opportunities for Giving
FAMILY PROMISE NEWS

As you may have read in the December issue of Grace Notes, our congregation is adopting one family for Christmas - a mother and her two teen-age children - through Family Promise! Their wish list is quite small as they were asked to provide one “need” and one “want” for each person. Please contact Alden Riley or Debbie Jorgens for specifics if you’re interested in helping this family. Thank you!
Until All Are Fed; Grace's Food Shelf

Until All Are Fed; Grace's Food Shelf are in need of the following items. These items can be dropped off during Church Office hours. Thank you so much for your generosity and support!

Current list of needs:
Canned Baked Beans
Canned Pasta Sauce
Noisy Offerings

Noisy Offerings for the remainder of December will be directed to HOPE 4 Youth – a wonderful nonprofit in Anoka whose mission is to provide pathways to end youth homelessness. Please note that your contribution will go twice as far because of a generous offer from Grace members who will match all Noisy Offerings that come in for Hope 4 Youth between now and the end of the year. We are so grateful for this offer and for your continued generosity, as well! 

Ways to Give Electronically
GraceLink
Consider electronic giving on GraceLink. It’s a convenient way to give consistently throughout the year. If you have any questions, contact Frances or Marie in the Church Office or Click on the GraceLink logo below.

If you are wondering where your giving is for the year, please log in to GraceLink. Find Giving on the tool bar. Then select My Giving History.  
Text to Donate
We’re updating our website to also include text and QR code as ways to give electronically.

For these, the system will request the user a ONE TIME SETUP to include their name, credit card # etc. – this will be required only the first time. After that, when the user texts to give or uses the QR code to give it will just ask the amount to confirm. The users will be able to select funds to allocate their giving to as well – operational, capital, noisy.

The number to give is 73256 – text key word: GRACEANDOVER
Grace's Resources
Calling for Grace Notes Articles!!!
By 5:00 pm on December 23rd

With the holidays quickly approaching our time line has been shortened, if you have an article you would like to place in the January edition of Grace Notes, please have your articles in to Marie Kolar by 5:00 pm on December 23rd. Please have your articles in word formatting and emailed to mariek@graceandover.org. January Grace Notes will be mailing out at the end of December.
Prayers of the Church

You bring consolation to those who weep. Embrace those who feel far-off, excluded, or defeated. Accompany those living with chronic and invisible illness. Sustain the weak and weary. Refresh those who labor under the weight of pain or sickness. Today we pray especially for Sophia Schmoll, Mark Goethke, Bethel Reisdorph, Amado, Ken Fountain, Deb Stang, Ginny Hutchison, Abby Larson, Mike Burckhard, Baby Edwin Alexander, BJ Scott, Jon Brooks, Charlotte Montei, Rachel O’ Brion, Elsie Weisenberger, Linda Christiansen, John Malecha, Joe Bailey, Julie Swedberg, Judi Wold, and Colleen Wernimont. We pray for all those suffering from COVID-19 throughout the world, and we pray that the end of COVID-19 would be near. Lord, hear our prayer.
 
God of promise, grant comfort, peace, and the hope of Christ’s resurrection to all who grieve. We pray especially today for the Gautschi family upon the death of their Aunt Cara. Lord, hear our prayer.
Administrator's Corner

We miss seeing you! We pray you’re keeping safe and healthy and that we can see all of you in person again soon. In the meantime, don’t forget to sign up for the different services and ministries that are meeting via Zoom! We have successfully started our database conversion from ACS to Realm. In the coming days you might start receiving additional information on Realm and how the system will look. Think GraceLink for the 21st Century! Your login and giving information was transferred automatically but if you encounter any issues, please feel free to call me for assistance. We will also be sharing information as we transition to a new and improved mobile app – stay tuned! Here are a couple of more videos of introduction to the system. Please bear with us as we also learn the ins and outs of the new platform. We are excited to be able to bring a better way to communicate with one another, building groups and ministries, sharing and enhancing the services we provide to one another!
Virtual Connections

During this time of high COVID-19 cases, we encourage you to connect with Grace and others! If you are looking for ministries and groups to connect with please visit our web site at www.graceandover.org and click on Church Online to see opportunities to connect.