AUGUST | 2022

FINDING GOD IN THE GIFT OF CAMP I am writing this propped up on a bunk at Green Lake Bible Camp. I am listening to the not so dulcet sounds of my tired campers winding down for the day. The first few nights are always the hardest for kids: getting acclimated to so many new faces, new foods, not to mention a bed that doesn’t feel like home. In my years working as a camp counselor (and there are many) this one thing I know for sure, the first night at camp is always the hardest. Turns out this is still true when the campers also happen to be your kids. My husband Michael and I were given the great opportunity to serve as the resource pastors for Family Camp this week. Camp was something which formed me deeply as a kid and as a young adult, but it wasn’t something Michael ever experienced. It’s been fun watching him uncover some of the most beautiful and the most difficult parts of living in close Christian community. There is nothing quite like Bible Camp to teach us how to live alongside other people who God also loves, who God unites us to as family, especially when we start the week as strangers. There’s nothing quite like Bible Camp to teach us how to exercise and practice grace with each other through solving problems, big and small, together. Never mind we also need grace for one another when we play together as well. There’s nothing quite like Bible Camp to embrace the spirit of play which can show up in the best of Christian communities. We can be silly, irreverent, and still filled with awe over the majesty of God. Watching my children learn this too has been a joy. What I wish for them, and for all our Vinje and St. John’s kids coming back from a transformative week of day camp, is for them to see connections between the God they meet at camp, and the God they meet in their Christian communities in the pews. It takes many gifts: guts, grace, patience, forgiveness and play, all of it glues us together, one another, to belong to each other in the Christian community we call “Church”. Because the benefits of a week spent at camp can be incredibly long lasting. It can change your very life. This summer, I was driving a van-full of tired but joyous middle school kids back from our mission trip to Sioux Falls. We were on a break at a rest stop when I received a message from a friend I had met when we were ten years old at Camp Emmaus. She was dropping her oldest child off for a week at the very same camp where we first met. Some 30 years later, she and I are still friends. And as I looked in the rear-view mirror at these beloved middle schoolers, I was reminded that it was the transforming gift of her friendship—she and the Christian community we found at camp—which taught me how to be my beautiful, messy, silly and beloved self. And I would not be so dedicated to walking with others through the struggle of adolescence without having formed that friendship with her. I certainly would not be driving a van-full of them anywhere, anyway. And I thanked my God for the gift. Dear friends, I am so glad for your commitment to supporting the ministry of camp and your investment in all our youth. Thank you for the gift of this week to serve alongside my family in this experience of living in Christian community. Thank you for the campers you have sent to Shores of St. Andrews, to Green Lake, and to the Willmar Area VBS. Thank you for your generous, supporting financial gifts. Thank you for the gift of your time investing in keeping up and caring for these sacred spaces. Thank you for your prayers for young people to be transformed by the love of Jesus. It happens everyday at camp, and the benefits of just one week can and do last for generations.  And tonight, as my children finally sleep, I am just so thankful for this gift I could never earn. This gift of camp which can only really be described as pure grace. In Christ, Pastor Erika

SUMMER WEDDINGS Our Pastors have had the honor of presiding at five weddings this summer! It has been fun to be a part of these special days for these couples and their families. Charlie Trochlil and Sydney Klein were married on May 20. Daniel Stadem and Megan Andresen were married on May 28. Deion Sachs and Jada Jacobson were married on June 11. Andy Tupa and Breanna Ahlers were married on June 24. Nicholas Carlson and Lisa Bredeson were married on June 25.

We are excited to announce that in response to the childcare crisis in Kandiyohi County we will be opening a new childcare center on the MinnWest Technology Campus. Vinje has signed a letter of intent to begin operating a new center called Discovery Hill. MinnWest reached out to us months ago to request our presence on their campus because they recognized us as a leader in premier childcare and they desired a faith-based presence for their employees and other members of the community to entrust their children to. The center will operate with the same faith-based curriculum that we use at Loving Arms and Praise & Play. As families in our society change the relationship they have with the Church and attend less we believe this is a primary way in which we can share the message of God’s love and teach children about Jesus. We are grateful for the support of Vinje’s members and the wonderful childcare staff that have built up such a strong reputation in the past and continue to make this important ministry possible. Final details are still being negotiated by Vinje Council leaders and our staff but we are excited to working with more children and families in our community.

By Director of Music, Karen Wojahn Attention all singers! Come on Sunday, August 14 for Summer Singers at 8:45 AM. We’ll meet in the choir room to practice one song for worship that day.  All ages and voices welcome!

STUFF THE BUS We are once again partnering with United Way to ‘Stuff the Bus’ with school supplies for area kids in need! Donations will be received through August 14th. Items needed are: backpacks, calculators, scissors, pencils, pencil boxes, markers, rulers, glue sticks, tissues, and crayons. Monetary donations are also welcomed.

Recommended Reading: Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World By Katharine Hayhoe This is an engaging, inspiring look at climate change and how we can make a difference. In Saving Us, Hayhoe argues that when it comes to changing hearts and minds, facts are only one part of the equation. We need to find shared values in order to connect our unique identities to collective action. This is not another doomsday narrative about a planet on fire. It is a multilayered look at science, faith, and human psychology.

LOVING ARMS UPDATE We’re hiring! Loving Arms is hiring! PT and FT classroom positions available as well as FT office staff (find job description at vinjechurch.com for details). If you know someone that might be interested in working for some of the cutest kids in town, have them email Chris!

EXPLORING VINJE'S HISTORY Betty Underthun baked our distinctive communion bread for 20 years. Pastor Andrés has asked her to share some of her memories and secrets. In 1980, I became the president of the altar guild. At that time, it was the duty of the president to bake the communion bread. I learned how to make the bread from Peggy Wilson and Marge Bolt. We had then an average of 600 to 800 people who partook of communion every Sunday. And Easter Sunday it was double or more for the three services. Marge Bolt continued making the bread with me for several years, and we used the ovens at church. When Marge retired from this duty, I started to bake at home with the assistance of my husband. My husband DuWayne would roll the bread and I would bake. Occasionally, Sunday school teachers would schedule a Sunday for their class to bake with my husband and me. The kids rolled, cut, and baked as we talked about the meaning of communion and of the use of unleavened bread and then they would sample their work. Over the years, many people requested the recipe so that they could use it in their home churches, but I do not know of any other church that is using our recipe today. I do not know either how long we have been using this distinctive bread for communion at Vinje. However, I do hope that we will continue using it for many years to come. Today the responsibility of baking our communion bread is in the capable hands of Judith Erpenbach, Kris Swanson, and Marsha Butterfield.

COUNCIL MEETING HIGHLIGHTS At their July 25th meeting, the Vinje Council… Reviewed June financials. Approved a job description for an Assistant Director for Licensing and Compliance. This person will help lead our childcare centers and be responsible for meeting the standards required by the state. Received updates on our childcare center ministry expanding to a location on MinnWest Technology Campus. Discussed a plan to reorganize the committee structure. Approved a plan to hold joint Sunday worship services with Saint John’s on December 25th and January 1st. Received updates on the columbarium, solar panels, and sanctuary lighting projects.

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VINJE ON THE GO! RADIO Listen on Sundays at 9:30 am on KWLM, 1340 AM. INTERNET Watch anytime! (go to YouTube and search Vinje Willmar).  TV Watch local access channel, 180 Sundays at 2:30 pm and 8:30 pm and Tuesdays at 8 am and 5 pm.