A Congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Illinois
Monthly news & updates
January 2022
Worship & Christian Education
Sunday Worship
9:15-10:30 am: Online worship via Zoom link emailed every week.

Weekly Worship Bulletins
We continue to mail out hard copies of the weekly worship bulletins to members who do not have email & we will send out the bulletin with the live stream link via Constant Contact every week as well.
Ministry
If you would like to contact us, please email Pastor Meagan at pastormeagan@gmail.com, or email the church office at acaciaparkchurch@gmail.com.
January Services Suspended
Due to the weather and rising Covid cases both local and national, we have decided to suspend in person services for the month of January. We hope to see you all again in person on February 6th.
From the Pastor's Desk . . .
Siblings in Christ,

Psalm 13
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

I have been thinking about this psalm a bit these past few weeks. I’m sure you realize this January newsletter is getting out a little late. This newsletter will be a combined January and February newsletter because, well, it’s been a year or 2. 
I pray each of you had a blessed holiday season and you were able to find joy during the Christmas season. We are now entering the season after the epiphany in the church calendar, a season were we are between receiving the light of Christ on Christmas morning and journeying with him to the cross during the season of Lent.
During this time, we look for the light in the world, we put our trust in God’s unfailing love, we rejoice in God’s promise of salvation. Because, that is what we do. It is our advantage as people of faith. Imagine if the psalm ended at verse 4, and we never got to the part where we realize we have an active God who loves us, redeems us, and wants the best for us.
We are in another hard point of the pandemic. I pray it is a short wave. However, we have been at an infection rate of 20%+ since Christmas. In order to keep the spread down, the church council voted to go back to virtual worship for all of January. The plan right now is to return to the building for worship on Feb. 6 and have our annual meeting on the same day, after worship. But, like I said, this is the plan right now. Communication will be shared via email and Facebook if plans change.
Please be on the lookout for email updates on worship as we ride out this wave of omicron.

Blessings,
Rev. Meagan Sherman-Sporrong
You may also mail your donation and/or your pledge form to:
Acacia Park Lutheran Church
4307 N Oriole Avenue
Norridge, IL 60706
Acacia Park Announcements
Booster Shots
The CDC approved booster shot vaccines for all people ages 12 and older. Please get your booster shot to protect you from Omicron. They are available as a walk-in at all Walgreens and CVS, or call your doctor and schedule an appointment to get the booster.
Annual Meeting
On March 6, 2022 immediately following worship we will have the Annual Congregational Meetings. Three items are on the agenda:
  • Vote on the 2022 budget
  • Vote on new council members for the 2022-2023 council
  • Vote on Pastor Meagan’s contract for 2022-2024
The plan is to have the meeting in person. Updates will be given if the plan needs to change.
A Thank You to the ELCA
During the month of January the council is making a special focus on saying thank you to the ELCA for all the ways they have been supporting us during the pandemic. We were able to obtain close to $30,000 in PPP loans which were forgiven, and the synod gave us an additional $5,000 grant when remote worship continued on longer than we all anticipated. Worship outlines and materials were developed for congregations to use for worship. The ELCA is supporting those communities that are experiencing natural disasters on top of the pandemic through their disaster response ministries. Missionaries were sent back out around the world to care for the least of these in countries without the kind of access to vaccines and medical care that we have access to here in the US. Bellow are some links for you to use to make a special donation to a special ministry of the ELCA.
Council Positions
Hi everyone, 
Our council membership is coming up for renewal and we are in need of a council secretary as well as council members in general. The secretary would take notes on our meetings, just touching on the highlights of the meeting as well as any council voting items.  We are additionally looking for new council members that are interested in helping us think of different ways to do social outreach, ways to get our word out to new people and to help guide our church on an ever embracing course. If you are interested in joining our council you need to be an active member. We would LOVE to include you, please contact Karen Lanners at karen.lanners@yahoo.com (preferred) or (773) 439-9893 (cell). I hope to hear from you! 

Karen Lanners, Council President
Prayer Requests
Please keep the following people in your prayers . . .
Len & Karen Batson
Bonnie Cousins
Katie Dupree
Linda Engler
Marion Engler
Frank Gondela
Ruth Igoe
David & Ann Jones
Nancy & Bob Komada
Helen Lanners
Bruce Leckie
Elsie Michelsen
Everly Ramirez
Erv Siemers
Sondra Wince
Oleg Kishka
. . . and essential workers, health care workers, police officers, correctional officers, and the more than 800,000 Americans lost to Covid-19.
Please call the office to add someone to the prayer list or to request a visit from Pastor Meagan.
Acacia Park Lutheran Church | acaciaparkchurch.com
4307 N Oriole Avenue, Norridge, IL 60706
Church office hours: Weekly Thursdays from 11:00 AM - 3:30 PM (or other dates as indicated in the weekly bulletin)