Grace Notes Email Newsletter

July 21, 2021

This Weeks Message: “Rooted and Grounded in Love” This week I am preaching on the beautiful words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3. In these verses the Apostle writes of what it means to be strengthened in faith and to have Christ dwelling in our hearts. He does this using the language of being “rooted and grounded” in Christ’s love. These are uplifting images of what it means to be the church.   Pastor Paul

This Week’s Gospel Video Bible Study from John 6

For the next five weeks our gospel texts will come from the story of Jesus feeding the crowds in John 6. This week’s brief video Bible study introduces this story focusing on how Jesus’ set up this miracle and the crowd’s reaction to the astounding feeding of 5,000 people.   You can view the video here:  Weekly Sermon Video

What a Great Worship Service Last Sunday! How wonderful it was to have so many people at worship last Sunday. We had more people in the worship center than we have had at a service since early March 2020. It was also so good to see so many families and children at the service. Let’s keep this up as we move toward fall when we plan to resume our regular schedule of two worship services with the Christian education hour.

More Communion Assistants are Needed This Sunday we would like to add two more communion assistants to help with the distribution of Holy Communion. You can sign up online or contact the church office if you would like to help. Signup Genius

Worship Volunteers Needed! There are many jobs which we need to fill in order to help with our inside Sunday services this summer. Pastor Paul and your Grace staff cannot do it all. Here is what we are looking for: --Greeter: Arrive 15 minutes early, welcome folks, hand out bulletins and assist with communion (Perfect for usher teams or communion assistants) --Worship Assistant: Read the day’s Bible story and prayers (Perfect for readers) --Dismissal Blessing: Read the short blessing at the end of the worship (Perfect for readers or families) --Clean Up: Help clean up after worship (Great for anyone) -- Set Up and Clean Up Holy Communion – This is important! -- Ushers – Remember those? We need ushers again! You can sign up online here: http://www.gracegrafton.com/responsibility-signup.html   You can also sign up on the white board in the gathering area outside of the worship center.

Thursday Evening Bible Study Resumes Pastor Paul will hold the Thursday evening study following worship tomorrow. We will meet in the conference room off the gathering area from 7:30-8:15 p.m. The study will focus on the texts for worship this week.

Worship Will Be Outside on August 8 We are going to move back outside for our 9:00 a.m. worship service for Sunday, August 8. The reason for this is the baptism of little Everett Lobner. His family has members with some health and safety concerns and they have asked that we have the service outside instead of in the worship center. With all that Everett’s father, Dustin, has done to help with the sound and video for our services since COVID hit, we are happy to honor this request.

A Wonderful Time in the Boundary Waters The high school Boundary Waters group returned home late last Thursday evening. They were blessed with absolutely perfect weather on their trip. Their rainsuits remained packed away the whole time. Both groups had excellent guides and had a good time as they traveled through the beautiful Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Grace Welcomes New Members on August 1 We will welcome new members into our congregation at the service on Sunday, August 1. If you, or someone you know, is interested in becoming part of our Grace family, please let Pastor Paul know.

More Goodies at Pastor Paul’s Book Give Away Pastor Paul has added many more books to the table in the gathering area. As he continues to thin out his office library these books are free for the taking. Please give them a new home.

Celebrate Pastor Paul’s Retirement You’re invited to join us in celebrating Pastor Paul’s 40 years of ministry on Sunday, August 15 at Grace. We’ll be holding a special VBS/Retirement service for Pastor Paul outdoors at 10:00am. This is a very special service for Pastor Paul, as he loves to see the engagement and enthusiasm of all the kids and youth during worship. The service will combine music from Vacation Bible School along with some special tributes to Pastor Paul. We have rented a tent, so the service will be shaded. Immediately following worship, we’ll be hosting a catered meal from Out & Out Eatery & Catering. Please RSVP by August 2 if you would like a meal. Each meal is $10. RSVP Paul's Retirement Lunch Celebration Link In addition to the service, if you would like to contribute to a congregation-wide gift for Pastor Paul, you can donate online at www.GraceGrafton.com and select “Make a Donation" and "Pastor Paul's Gift." You can also submit photos for a video tribute by emailing them to Erica@GraceGrafton.com or dropping them off at church. Please make your monetary contributions and photo submissions by August 2.

Our Grace Yard Needs You! Thanks to a small group of mighty volunteers, our Grace yard and flower beds are looking great…but we need your help to keep it looking that way. Sign up to help with weeding for a week throughout the summer. You don’t need to weed the entire property, every little bit helps. Sign up to take a week here: http://www.gracegrafton.com/responsibility-signup.html

VBS Kick Off Soon! Our Knights of the North Castle Vacation Bible School kicks off on August 9! We opened up a few more spots because we had a tremendous turnout of youth volunteers. If your family hasn’t registered or you know a family that would still like to attend, we have space for one to two families. Please email Katie@GraceGrafton.com if you are interested.

VBS Needs Plastic Bags Looking for a way to get rid of all your Pick N Save and Piggly Wiggly plastic shopping bags? Drop them off at church. We need lots and lots of plastic shopping bags for a VBS craft project we are doing. We appreciate your help!!

VBS Donations Needed by July 26th Thank you to everyone for supporting our Vacation Bible School program! Please drop off your donations by July 26. We appreciate your support!

Looking for Sunday School Teachers We’re back for in-person Sunday School this fall! But in order to make that happen, we need volunteers! We’re looking for people to lead classes for our youngest kids along with leading activity stations for our older elementary schoolers. You can volunteer every Sunday or be part of a rotation. Please email Katie at Katie@GraceGrafton.com if you are interested. Thank you in advance for supporting our youth ministry at Grace!

Quilters Need: Cotton Sheets Notice the change in the title? We are so thankful for your past contributions of flannel. You outdid yourself.  We are still in need of cotton and cotton blend in twin flat, double fitted and flat, queen flat and fitted, king flat and fitted. Please no microfiber or polyester. We are working our fingers to the bone for Lutheran World Relief as their supply dwindled because of the pandemic this past year. Because of your help, we may be able to add to our list of needy institutions we contribute our blankets to, such as the Lakota tribe in South Dakota and Family Advocates. Continue checking on Goodwill, St. Vincent DePaul, rummage sales, etc. for those sizes. Monetary contributions are always welcome. We so appreciate your help as does our savings account! PS: Thank you for your tremendous response to our request. Don’t stop! We continue to use all that you have supplied.

Team Captain Needed!   Walk to End Alzheimer's Grace Team For the past several years, I have been recruiting Grace Members and others, to participate in Ozaukee County’s Walk.  No date has been set yet, but it will be help this fall an at this time, IN PERSON!   Due to my recent health issues, I will not be organizing Grace's walk this year.  We may have been low in numbers of walkers, but we certainly did help out the organization with our donations. So it a very worthwhile cause. Please consider being the Team Captain for Grace.   If you have questions, you can email at trudibiefeld@gmail.com or you can go directly to alz.org/walk.

Grafton Habitat Build Update Habitat Ozaukee has picked two deserving families for our current build. We are hoping to have the first unit ready for occupancy by late fall if all goes well. Due to the COVID outbreak we are way behind where we should be. No matter what your skill level is, we can use your help with the siding Installation, assisting our skilled workers where needed or even cleaning up after them. If you would like to put your skills to work contact Bob, our site coordinator. If physical work isn’t your cup of tea maybe you’d be interested in providing a lunch or more for the workers. There are many opportunities here for our church family to help out with this build. Please contact the appropriate person below if you can help in anyway at all. To help with the build contact Bob Meyer at Meierdr@sbcglobal.net. If you’d like to provide lunch contact Peter Federspiel at petlynfed@gmail.com. For the latest pictures of this build please check out my poster board the narthex.  Jim Biefeld

Mt. Meru Coffee is again Available for Purchase in the Gathering Space Several varieties of coffee are now available for immediate purchase. Please complete the order form, include cash or check made payable to the Mt. Meru Coffee Project and deposit in the slotted lock box provided. If you do not find the type of coffee you need, please complete an order form as the coffee will be restocked monthly. Regular, decaf, or flavored coffee sells for $10.00/12 oz. bag. Drip and perk grinds as well as whole bean and single-serve cups are available.   NEW Spring Blend: Tanzanian Premium Coffee from the small farms of Mt Meru cupped (taste tested) regularly and has been rated higher than most coffees. It is primarily peaberry to give you richer flavor with less acidity. Mt Meru Spring Blend Vienna roasted to accentuate its well-balanced flavor sells for $16.00/12 oz bag, drip or whole bean.   Your efforts have been helping to improve the standard of living for the coffee farmers of the Meru Diocese in Tanzania for 22 years. Stay up to date on the Facebook page and learn more about its history on the web site: www.mtmerucoffee.org. For more information, contact Coffee Ambassadors Jeanne and Bob Dries at (262)375-0997.

Please Pray For Pray for our members in nursing care, home bound & assisted living: Sally Musbach, Sue Bremer, & Liz Lueck   Pray for: 1st Lieutenant David Eichen, Staff Sgt. Nathan Talbert (grandson of Elaine Kortenhof), Captain Erich McGuffey (cousin of Kate Peterman), Master Sgt. Matthew Wilkerson (son-in-law of Cindy Silverbrandt), Seaman Matthew Kulczyski (grandson of Grace Smaxwill) & Chief Jennifer Kurneta (daughter of Richard & Charleen Breest) who are serving our country in the U.S. Military.   Julie Bednarczyk - Health & healing Trudi Biefeld - Health & healing Tim Fuchs – Health & healing Joan Grade – Health & healing Janet Trapp – Health & healing Lisa Bernd - Health & healing Jerry Player - Health & healing Gloria Cmeyla (friend of Janet Sladky) - Cancer Patricia Emerick (mother of Darlyne Holle) - Health & healing Izzy (from Nicaragua) – Health & healing Diane Hermann (sister of Linda Scott) - Health & healing Sandy Sachse (mother of Dave) - Comfort & peace Sue Shepich (sister of Jim Kehoe) - Health & healing Joanne Stys (mother of Sarah Brogni) - Health & healing Sharon Larson - (friend of Joan Tuttle) - Health & healing

Make a Donation

Grace Lutheran Church | [gracegrafton.com]

‌ ‌