OCTOBER | 2023

We hope you’ll join us for our October sermon series. Each Sunday and Wednesday we will hear unique messages that helps us answer the question, “What is a Vinje?”

Sunday, October 1 Who are we?

Wednesday, October 4 What is a Vinje? Community

Sunday, October 8 How do we find clarity?

Wednesday, October 11 What is a Vinje? Ordinary

Sunday, October 15 Who are we for?

Wednesday, October 18 No worship: MEA Break

Sunday, October 22 Do we really mean all?

Wednesday, October 25 What is a Vinje? Outgoing

Sunday, October 29 What is faith?

Wednesday, November 1 What is a Vinje? Fun!

NEW TO VINJE? JOIN THE PASTORS FOR PIE!

WED, OCTOBER 25 | 7 PM | ROOM 102

Hey, are you new to Vinje? Do you want to learn more about the church? Would you like a chance to get to know your pastors better? Or maybe you just like pie? On October 25, Pastors Justin and Dane invite you to join them in room 102 from 7-8 pm to chat, ask questions, learn about ways to get involved, etc. Please join us! Quesions? Email Pastor Justin!

UNIQUE WAY TO HELP OUR COMMUNITY

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program educates volunteers about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills. Professional responders can then rely on these volunteers during disaster situations, which allows them to focus on more complex tasks.

The Willmar Area CERT was started in 2018 and currently has over 50 trained members. A training is scheduled for Saturday, October 21 and 28 from 8:00 to 3:30 in Willmar.

For details on how you can be a part of the Willmar Area CERT program, click here. You’ll find an application on that page. If interested, please complete and email it or drop it off at the Law Enforcement Center.

Vinje has three members trained on the CERT team – contact Craig Schelberg, Lisa Komplien or Rick Loseth if you would like some ‘first hand’ information about CERT.

Dear Congregation,

I hope this letter finds you all in good health and high spirits. I am writing to express my deepest gratitude for your unwavering support and heartfelt prayers during my recent illness. It is truly humbling to know that I am surrounded by such a caring and compassionate community.

During my time of sickness, your prayers served as a source of strength and comfort for both me and my family. Your kind words and gestures of support provided a sense of hope and encouragement that words cannot adequately express. I am so grateful for your unwavering faith and steadfast love.

Your prayers were not only a reminder of the power of collective intercession, but they also served as a powerful testimony to the love and unity that exists within our congregation. Your genuine concern and selflessness were evident in the way you rallied around me, offering both spiritual and practical support.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to those who visited, sent cards, provided meals, and more. Your acts of kindness and thoughtfulness made a tremendous difference in my recovery journey. Your presence and care lifted my spirits and reminded me of the true meaning of community.

As I continue to regain my strength and health, I am filled with a profound sense of appreciation for each and every one of you. Your prayers have undoubtedly played a pivotal role in my healing process, and for that, I will be forever grateful.

May God bless each and every one of you abundantly for your unwavering faith and support. I am truly blessed to be a part of this congregation, and I am grateful to have you all as my brothers and sisters in Christ.

With sincere gratitude,

Lorna Bahl 

PLASTIC BAG UPDATE!

The Creation Care Committee is grateful for the wonderful participation in the new plastic bag recycling initiative. We do, however, have a request...please be careful about what you include with your drop-offs as we’ve had to discard many pounds of “unacceptable” items this past month. Please DO NOT include pre-washed salad bags, meat wrap, six pack rings, PPE, floral wrap, frozen food bags, candy wrappers, chip bags or anything wet or dirty. Handouts detailing what can and cannot be recycled are available on the welcome desk. Thank you again for all the “good” plastic you’ve brought in! We are making an important, positive impact on the environment!  

EXPLORING VINJE'S HISTORY

This time pastor Andrés had a conversation with Brent Pederson about Sheri’s and his tenure as Youth Directors at Vinje back in the 80’s.

Brent Pederson was hired to become Vinje’s Youth Director in 1980. Brent had already been interested in the position three years earlier, but when he contacted the church, the position had already been filled. Three years later, Dianne Peterson, who is Brent’s second cousin and worked at the church office, let him know that the position was vacant again. On this occasion, Brent applied on time and got the position.



Before coming to Vinje, Brent was working in admissions at Luther College, in Decorah, Iowa, where he had graduated years before, but his passion was to work with youth, as he had done as counselor for several summers at Luther Crest Bible Camp in Alexandria, MN. The position at Vinje would not only let him do what he was passionate about. It would also help him discern if God was calling him to go to seminary and give him the opportunity to be closer to Starbuck, MN, where he had grown up and his parents still lived.

A little more than two years into his tenure as Youth Director, Brent reconnected with Sheri, whom he had first met at Luther Crest years before. Soon after they were engaged and later married, and they asked Vinje if they then could share the position as Youth Directors, and Vinje agreed as long as they were fine with also sharing the same salary that Brent had been receiving. And they were. This way Brent was able to free time to go to Ridgewater and study photography. Two and half years after having been youth directors together, they resigned and moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where Sheri pursued her master’s degree in social work. And after the two years that took, they returned to Willmar and joined Vinje as members.

Brent’s main responsibility first alone and later with Sheri was to work with youth from 6^th to 12^th grade. And he remembers several cool things he did with them.

Back then it was usual that schools would start late once a week. Normally it was on Wednesdays. But in Willmar it was on Tuesdays, and many kids chose to come to Vinje during those early Tuesday mornings from 7.30 to 8.30. Kids in confirmation would go to class, but there was nothing specific for kids from 10^th to 12^th grade who had already been confirmed. So, Brent started what he called “Eye Opener” meetings to discuss current topics from the perspective of faith. The church provided juice and rolls, and the kids themselves came up with the topics they wanted to discuss. These meetings became so popular that kids from other churches also attended.

The kids from 10^th to 12^th who didn’t stop coming to church after confirmation also wanted their own Sunday School class, and the challenge was to find a room in the building where they could meet, because all the available rooms were for the classes with the younger kids. They discovered that the boiler room in the basement could accommodate their meetings, and they had fun in that room for almost a year, until Willmar’s fire marshal and Vinje member Merle Berkeland determined that it was unsafe to meet in that room. Fortunately, a Vinje member who lived across the street from the church, Curly Halldin, offered to host the classes in his house, and this is where they continued.

Sheri and Brent also engaged the youth in different service projects. A popular one was the potato garden, that they cultivated in different stops until Jorgen Bredeson gave them a spot on his farm. Brent remembers one year when the harvest was so good that they loaded hundreds of pounds of potatoes on a semi-truck rented by the American Lutheran Church that brought the produce to the Twin Cities. The kids made a trip to Minneapolis to see how the organization “Loaves and Fishes” ran a soup kitchen in a church in the downtown area that made extensive use of the potatoes they had cultivated.

Brent remembers bringing the kids on many different trips including one to do canoeing in the Boundary Waters from which the attached picture is as well as a ski trip to Colorado.

A big Sunday in the year was Easter. The youth were in charge of the sunrise service at 6 pm and then of a breakfast that they served with the help of their parents before the two other services of the day. One year, having noticed that several kids had musical talents, Sheri and Brent asked music teacher Terry Brau to make an arrangement of the 2001 Space Odyssey soundtrack for the Vinje kids that was performed during the Easter Sunrise Service under the direction of the retired band director at Willmar Public Schools and Vinje member Victor Olsen. Another year, the kids decided that hundreds of the helium-filled balloons would be released into the air during the Easter sunrise service, but nobody had anticipated that some of the balloons piled up in the ceiling would start popping during the following services of that Sunday. Several Sundays passed before all the balloons went away.

Brent discerned that seminary and ministry as a pastor was not for him, but his passion for working with youth never left him, and we are grateful for all the ways in which Brent has touched and keeps touching the lives of children and youth in our community. 

High School youth trip to the Boundary Waters!

Here are some highlights from the September meeting. 

• Met at Discovery Hill and received a tour and update on Vinje’s childcare center ministries.
• Received updates on columbarium and sanctuary lighting projects
• Approved additional pastoral coverage with Pastors Seyward Ask and Ingrid Skilbred to serve during Pastor Erika’s absence.
• Approved the annual distribution of endowment funds to the: Vinje building fund, SWMN Synod, Family Promise, Green Lake Lutheran Ministries, and college scholarships.
• Discussed model for upcoming meetings with staff, council, and congregation on vision and strategic planning.