Emmanuel Lutheran Church was taken over each evening June 18-22 by more than 50 kids and their guides on the ride of their lives for Rolling River Rampage Vacation Bible School. For more photos of the event, click HERE.

School resumes on Aug. 6 -- Can you believe that? Didn't the kids just arrive home for the summer the other day?

Emmanuel's Outreach ministry has chosen Sunday, July 29 to be our Blessing of the Backpacks and School Supplies Sunday.

During the month of July, we will be accepting backpacks and school supplies for the Family Resource Center for the Humboldt Unified School District. The resource center serves all elementary, junior high and high schools in our district. The center already has started a list of families that need assistance with school supplies.

Last year, we gave the resource center 64 backpacks and 10 boxes/bags of school supplies. Help us make this a generous year for the kids. Types of school supply needs include pencils, erasers, crayons, markers, rulers, lined paper, scissors, glue, new backpacks and more. For an example, you can click this link to see what our adopted school, Liberty Traditional School, is requesting its students bring for supplies.

If this is a project that touches your heart, please purchase school items of your choice and place them around the baptismal font in July.

Then at the single service at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, July 29, students are invited to bring their backpack or book bag, and teachers and other school staff are invited to bring their work bag or something symbolic so they can be blessed for the year ahead!!

The name of the organization is Prescott Area Shelter Services, but most people know it by its largest project: PAWS, the Prescott Area Women’s Shelter.

Prescott Area Shelter Services provides temporary, emergency shelter to women and women with children in a 19-bed dormitory setting. The shelter includes a community room, kitchen, two bathrooms and a conference room equipped with computers.

Shelter guests may stay up to 90 days with the opportunity to extend their stay if certain criteria are met. While at PASS, guests receive case management services and referral to valuable community resources. PASS is a Housing First program with over 90% of our guests transitioning into permanent housing!

We are a people who take hope seriously and believe in the innate worth of every human being. It is our job to take people where they are and help get them where they want to go. The shelter provides basic resources to homeless/transitional women and children of Yavapai County. Our facility is an outreach program, connecting guests to current outside resources.

Other programs include the homeless transition program and the wheels to work programs, which help guests get into permanent housing and employment.

Find out more about Prescott Area Shelter Services by clicking HERE . During July, you can make a contribution to PASS through the monthly outreach, and if the project is close to your heart, you may learn more and volunteer for PASS.

From June 14-16, 107 pastors, two deacons, and 196 lay members of the synod's 89 congregations met at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Oro Valley, Ariz. Here are some highlights:

Guest Column by Gail Kenny

Someone recently asked me, "Gail, why don’t you write a guest column?"

Despite my love of writing, writing about myself has never been easy. For 15 years, I wrote about other people: important people, interesting people, broken people, ordinary people. And after my newspaper career ended in 2001, I worked in nonprofits, helping other people. Currently, I work for West Yavapai Guidance Clinic, helping people in recovery re-enter a place where many had lost hope – employment.

But over the past few years, the Holy Spirit has been tapping me on the shoulder more often, saying “Isn’t it about time you got on with it? You aren’t getting any younger.” And when I ran out of reasons why I couldn’t, I filled out the application, spoke to our Church Council and gained its blessing to move toward the candidacy process, to discern whether I am being called as a Minister of Word and Sacrament, an ordained ELCA pastor.

Call in the ELCA isn’t a personal decision. Call isn’t some inner certainty that God has a specific "calling" in mind for us, because every child of God has various gifts and a special purpose. That’s vocation. If that were the case, I would have pursued ministry from my high school days on. But discerning a call is not only this inner pull toward proclaiming the Gospel and creating disciples, but also an external recognition by others in the Church that one’s gifts are suited for and one has been equipped for that next stage – candidacy.

Oh, it’s not happening tomorrow. I’ve completed the application, the background check, psychological testing, resume, references. I continue to research seminaries, but am already admitted to Wartburg Seminary’s distance learning program starting next summer. Now I am awaiting an interview with the Synod’s Candidacy Committee that could begin a year of discernment. Nothing in this process is a guarantee. There are a lot of decision stages where the larger Church could say "No. It's not happening." The only part I controlled was saying “Yes.” Or perhaps as Mary phrased it, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

And here’s where this leads: I want to share my gratitude for this congregation, the place where I felt that external call, the place in which you affirmed my ministry in the past 8+ years. Whether that was leading worship on Saturday nights, writing worship, newsletter editing (after six months of converting our Publisher newsletter to Constant Contact emails, this is my last one), social media updating, Church Council, reader, liturgist, handbell ringer, photographer/video producer, God’s Work/Our Hands projects/publicity, prayer workshop, diakonia lay leadership classes, or any of a dozen other roles, you’ve always supported me. I am blessed beyond belief to be part of this faith community.

“So – where are you these days??” Two years ago, I started leading worship at Windhaven Psychiatric Hospital on Sunday mornings. Each Sunday morning at 9:30, worship happens for those patients and several staff who choose to participate. We started with five worship leaders, and over two years, the number dwindled until it is just me leading worship. But because I’ve seen the patients’ response to hearing about God’s grace and love, and restoring hope, I feel it’s where I’m meant to be right now. Each week, I prepare litany, prayers, songs and a message for a small community, typically all new folks each week. If I can’t be there, I prepare worship materials they can use. My next task is to build this ministry team. If it’s something that calls to you, email or phone me.

So, that’s the update. Thank you for the support from those of you who have heard about this already. Continue to pray for the Spirit’s work in and through me, and for the Gospel to be shared and served at Emmanuel.

A starter list of possibilities for your prayers

July 1, Julie and Roointon Pavri, 45 years

July 2, Truman and Mary Jensen, 58 years

July 4, Bobbie and Donald Serena-Wayman, 25 years

July 7, Parker and Carol Northrup III, 29 years

July 12, Jim and Carole Rebholz, 54 years

July 25, Gene Fougner and Stuart Mattson, 36 years

July 25, Terri and Terry Reid, 31 years

July 26, Gary and Jean Kiser, 49 years

July 29, Phyllis and Dale Pohlman, 40 years

July 29, Randy and Linda Virden, 29 years

Emmanuel Lutheran Church

7763 E.Long Look

Prescott Valley, AZ 86314

PH (928) 772-4135 • FX (928) 759-3541

email:  [email protected]