October 1, 2019
Welcome to "Connect!"  Our plan is to bring friends of the Grace community the information they need for participation in the significant events and opportunities of life together in Christ. Intended frequency of publication is semi-monthly or perhaps every two weeks if it seems needed. Much of the material we will provide is also written into Sunday morning bulletin or "Graceline" but there will also be the latest updates. Headlines and tags and links will abound so you, the reader, can quickly scan for items that you want to read. You can also unsubscribe at any time. This is for you. Let us know how it helps or how to improve.
PRAISE THE LORD!
In case you haven't already heard - The Lord has heard our prayers! Pastor Aaron Smith has accepted our Call for Senior Pastor. We look forward to him being with us as soon as the transition allows. Look for updates in our weekly church bulletin and announcements at church on Sundays.
Farewell to Pastor Pete
After 20 months of service to the Lord at Grace Lutheran, October 20th will be Pastor Pete Alexander's last Sunday at Grace. We will have an opportunity to thank Pastor Pete for his service with receptions after each service on Sunday October 20th. These receptions will be dessert potluck and we invite you to sign up HERE to bring a dessert to share. Cards for Pastor Pete are also welcomed on this day.
Online Church Photo Directory
Thank you to those who stopped by the photo booth on Sunday! We are on our way to our first Grace online directory!
Grace members may also email their family photo or selfie to vlippman@gracelcms.net and complete THIS FORM.
This service is free to our Grace members and all information is secure via www.instantchurchdirectoryonline. We will keep you updated as our directory builds.
Grace Annual Harvest Festival October 25th 5:00-830 PM
Save the date and make plans to join us for games, good food and EXCITING raffle baskets from our school. Admission is FREE and Raffle Tickets will be available soon!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Church and school families we need your help in making this year’s Harvest Festival a huge success! Here’s how you can help: 
Volunteers to help run games. Sign up at: https://tinyurl.com/GraceHFGames2019
Cars for Trunk-or-Treat. Sign up at: https://tinyurl.com/GraceTrunkRTreat2019
We need bags of candy and bottles of water. 
You can drop off your donation to the school or church office. Thanks for your help! Questions? Please contact the PTF President, Erin Hartman at: ehartman2008@gmail.com.
Project Godway- Help us share the Good News about Jesus! In order to continue to reach our community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to offer this unique program free of charge to middle school girls and their families, the Project Godway High School Leadership Team will be working hard to raise funds for our spring season and our discipleship program. Starting with...
A Parking Lot FUNdrasier (Garage and Bake Sale)!!!! SATURDAY, November 23rd!  You can help by: Donating items for us to sell. Have a truck? You can help with the pickup and delivery of items. Also, we could use some extra hands to help us that day and, of course, everyone is invited to come out and shop! The sale will be held at Grace in the church parking lot. Items can be dropped at the church office with Yoke or call/text Amy if you need to arrange for pickup  619-957-5505. Thanks to the generous donations from everyone, the Garage sale has been one of our biggest fundraisers the past three years! We pray that the Lord will bless our endeavors once again. Thank you for helping!
Policy Based Governance
As in you may know, Grace has been moving toward a Policy-Based Governance for about 9 months. This is governance by a single board who listens to the congregation, sets the vision (along with the Senior Pastor) and the strategic direction. The strategic direction is carried out by staff who handles the operations or means of achieving those objectives. These are some chief ideas in policy-based governance also called “Aligned Governance and Operations.” A document that describes this more fully is available at the Connection Center or can be sent to you by request from the church office. The expected timetable for the complete process is included in the info sheet in the Connection Center. You may also click HERE for information on PBG.
Operation Christmas Child Season is Here!
For the 8th year in a row Grace will be participating in the Operation Christmas Child ministry. We have the opportunity to serve Jesus by packing shoeboxes to be distributed worldwide to children in need.
Each box will contain special Christmas gifts and most importantly the gift of hearing the gospel message of Jesus! Our campaign will begin October 6th and all boxes will be due back no later than Sunday, November 25th.
Grace will again this year be a public OCC shoebox collection center for the box collection week of November 18th -25th. We need to form a volunteer team for that week!
The cost of shipping a shoebox is $9.
Please read the “how to pack a shoebox” brochure found in your O.C.C. shoebox and available at the table in the church. There is important information as to what to pack and what not pack in your shoebox.
For more information and to volunteer contact Pastor Scott at psgary59@gmail.com or call Yoke in the church office at 760-745-0831.
YOUTH NEWS....
Sunday October 6th we will be having a BBQ/ meet and greet. It will be for both jr. High (face to face) and High School (The Stand) Parents. The purpose of this event is to begin to build a closer community with the parents, kids and staff of our youth ministries! Many of the school parents all know each other, but there are some that don't know everyone as well as they might like to and we are also starting to get more families with kids that do not attend grace. The Bible makes if very clear that as Christians we need fellowship and community so we are hoping this event will help strengthen ours!! 

The BBQ will start at 12:30 and end at 3:00. We will provide hot dogs, hamburgers, and drinks. If you guys would like to provide additional foods like side dishes and desserts that would be great! (definitely not a requirement though!) We were thinking maybe families with last name starting with A-M could bring desserts and N-Z could bring side dishes. Feel free to bring whatever you want though!! We're not picky!! We will have a short time in the word, possibly some worship and then some optional games and hang out time! This could be a really cool way to get to know some of the families at grace so I hope you will all come! There is no charge for this event. Hopefully that's all the info, but I often leave stuff out so if somethings missing let me know!
Max Bowman
Have an Announcement to Share? Here’s What To Do....
We are happy to share your special announcement/message with the congregation. 
You can help us by following these guidelines: All information to be printed in the Graceline bulletin or announced by the Pastors displayed on the screens (Photo/video included) or if you would like to speak before a worship service, please submit your information by Wednesday 8:00 AM to Vanessa at vlippman@gracelcms.net. She will submit your request and communicate with all parties involved.
Prayers of the People
Our "Prayers for the People" prayer list can now be found in our prayer alcove in the welcome center as well as clicking HERE.

Small Group or Bible Study information can be found HERE.
Don't forget to click on the links below for more info on Grace and the Pacific Southwest District
Click HERE for K-8 News
Click HERE for Preschool News
Church Attendance
9/29/19/2019

One Service Sunday

Total 433
Church Attendance
This week in 2018

Total 263
Church Giving for August (2nd month of fiscal year)

Actual for August 2019    $36,651
Budgeted August 2019    $58,078
Year to Date Actual Giving
(July 2019 to June 2020) $77,455
Budget Amount
(July 2019 to June 2020)  $116,288
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643 W. 13th Ave. Escondido, CA 92025  760-745-0831 
 www.gracelutheranescondido.org