September 2022 Newsletter |
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Please join us for worship. Services will be both in person and live streamed. Contact Pastor Berg or Kristin Smith for the streaming information.
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RALLY DAY CHURCH PICNIC on Sunday, September 11th (Starts at 12:15 PM)
Please join us for a church picnic in the church parking lot featuring: Grilled Hot Dogs, Condiments, Chips, Salads, Desserts and Lemonade! Seating will be available outside and/or inside (weather dependent). Enjoy some picnic food and visit with your First Lutheran Church Family.
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Wash Your Hands!
from Pastor Berg's Monthly Blog
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"You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition." (Mark 7:8)
Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, is being challenged by the Pharisees about the behavior of his disciples. Jesus' disciples were caught eating with dirty hands. They had not washed them. Gross! Now, what Jesus is teaching is not that we shouldn't wash our hands, but that washing our hands is not anything special that sets us apart from those other heathens.
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Men’s Breakfast and Bible Study! (Also available on Zoom)
Saturday, September 17, 9 – 10:15 am.
Join other congregation and community members for breakfast and conversation! There will be “food for the body, food for the soul and food for thought!” Please join us for discussion and enrichment. Questions to Roger Steinke.
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Sanctuary Choir Wants You!
Sanctuary Choir rehearsals begin September 8 at 7 pm.
The sanctuary leads the music at 8:30 am worship services. Please join us!
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Spain Birding with Ann & Dan Bormann
Friday, September 16th at 7 pm.
Fellowship Hall, First Lutheran Church,
Ann and Dan Bormann will present experiences and photos of their recent Spain trip,
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Fun for the whole family! Wear your tropical attire and come enjoy music to help you escape to the tropics! Suggested donation is $10. |
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Environmental Awareness Month
September is Environmental Awareness Month, which means that environmental organizations throughout the country join together to raise awareness about issues such as global warming, pollution and conservation. Awareness is key to translating knowledge into action.
What’s the most important environmental issue of our time? Climate change. What can we do about it? As part of our Vision 2025 goals, our Sustainability Task Force worked with Earth Ministry to qualify our church as a Greening Congregation in November, 2021. In our church’s social statement on the care of God’s creation, we pledged to preserve this status through our ongoing work.
The Christian Century magazine recently published a must-read article entitled “What does it mean to be a green church during a climate crisis?” You can find the article at: https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/what-does-it-mean-be-green-church-during-climate-crisis or read the paper copy of the magazine in our library. At the end of the article is a related sidebar article called “40 ways a church can go green.” Which one(s) do you think we can implement to move our congregation, collectively and individually, forward in our responsibility and service to protect and care for God’s creation?
Many thanks to Joe Siebert for the articles from The Christian Century.
National Wildlife Day
National Wildlife Day is on September 4th. It’s an opportunity to appreciate the beauty and wonder of God’s creations and remember that climate change and other environmental conditions have a huge impact on their lives. It’s up to us to safeguard their world and ours.
Submitted by Christy Freriks and Ho Brown, FLC Church Council
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August Council Meeting Notes |
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As summer is coming to an end, we look forward to the start of fall, Rally Day, and little more normalcy.
I’d like to thank Christy Freriks and Ho Brown for all their hard work to help our congregation become more green! Please make sure you check out their article each month in the FLC newsletter. Bring your water bottle to fill up at our new water bottle filling stations and come with your reusable travel coffee mug for fellowship time, to help reduce the paper cups in the trash. (Plus, if you bring your own coffee mug, you’ll get more coffee. :))
We are still need one more person to serve on the endowment committee. Please contact me if you are interested.
The 2021 audit committee is finally in place for this year. The committee members selected by the church council, and their respective terms in office are: David Osborne – 1 year; Ryan Stute – 2 years and Derrick StaRosa – 3 years. Thank you to these three for serving the church in this way!
God’s blessings on this beautiful Pacific Northwest Day!
Holly Batstone
Council President
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Women's Bible Study & Fellowship opportunities available:
Deborah Circle: September 13,10:30 am.
Gather Magazine Bible Study
Hannah Circle: September 17 , 9:00 pm.
Contact: Linda Siebert 206-369-7047
Rebecca Circle: September 21 , 10:00 am.
Contact: Barbara Thieme 425-898-8982
FLC circles welcome all women of the congregation! Please contact the persons listed above for meeting locations.
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REACH Ministries
Opportunities for all ages!
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Christian Education for All Ages Starts September 11! |
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Sunday School (3 Year Olds - 6th Grade) Meet in the sanctuary; move to room 216/217.
Confirmation Class (7th & 8th Grade) Meet in room 110 with Lloyd Condra.
High School Class (Grades 9 - 12) Help with Sunday school or meet in the youth room.
Adult Education: Meet in the fellowship hall with Pastor Berg.
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Sunday, September 18th,12:15 – 2:15 PM
Youth Pizza Lunch at Sparta’s Pizza Restaurant
Youth in Grades 7 – 12 are invited for lunch at Sparta’s in Bothell! We will meet at the
Church at 12:15 PM and head out to Sparta’s for lunch. The Youth Committee is treating! Lunch conversation will include “what you did last summer?” We will also talk about some of the upcoming events and trips for this School Year. We plan to be back to the Church at around 2:15 PM. Please sign up on the Youth Board. Come and join us!
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Movie Review
Driveways
Sunday, September 18, 3 pm
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“A lonesome boy accompanies his mother on a trip to clean out his late aunt's house and ends up forming an unexpected friendship with the retiree who lives next door. "Driveways" is directed by Andrew Ahn. This is a beautiful film full of heart and breathtakingly pure performances by Brian Dennehy, Lucas Jaye, and Hong Chau.
A simple story of love and friendship that serves as an antidote to the cynicism and cruelty of current times.”
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MOVIE REVIEW: Please watch the movie prior to our ZOOM Meeting Review. As of this writing, Driveways is available to watch on Amazon Video, Apple iTunes, DIRECTV, Google Play Movies, Hoopla, Peacock, Tubi TV and Vudu. Our discussion will begin with a review of the main points of the movie. We will also explore several of the spiritual themes of this movie. Questions? Please contact Roger Steinke. |
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The First Lutheran Book Club celebrated its 3rd anniverary at their August 23rd meeting. Book Club continues to meet on Zoom for thoughtful discussions of our monthly book selections. Please join us! |
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Book Club!
Discussion Book: Educated
by Tara Westover
September 27, 7:00 pm on Zoom
Discussion Leader:
Educated is the story of author, Tara Westover’s journey. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom, and after that first taste, she pursued learning for the next decade. She received a BA from Brigham Young University in 2008 and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014.
We have a tentative list of excellent books to choose from for the rest of the year and into spring!. Contact Clint Bastin/ Roger Steinke.
Our library book collection continues to grow. We recently added an interesting selection of children’s books to our library. With the additional books from our active book club, our shelves are full of interesting titles!
September 25 - Book Share! It’s time to clear the shelves of duplicate and slightly outdated books. Look for tables with the library’s give away books outside the library for you to review and take home or share with friends and family.
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The above link will be updated with August's financial information after the Finance Committee is able to review the financial statements at their monthly meeting. |
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Attention all FLC Committees and Staff!
Budget requests for 2023 are due to the
Finance Committee by September 30, 2022.
Thank you!
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Thank you to all who have continued their faithful giving.
Listed below are ways for you to share with First Lutheran even when you can't attend in person:
* Mail in your checks. We are still doing weekly deposits.
* Set up electronic giving by using the Give Online button at flc.bothell.org, or calling Vanco services at 800-675-7430. Note: there is a one time fee to FLC for the set up of bank to bank transactions. There are approximately 3% transaction fees on all credit card donations, making credit card and debit card giving more effective if combined into a monthly transaction, rather than smaller amounts, weekly.
* Set up one time or auto payments through your bank’s pay service
Thank you for your faithfulness.
The Finance Committee
Bob Berg, Chair
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Monthly Outreach
CHANGE FOR CHANGE All money received in the Change for Change jar will be used to support HOPELINK food bank.
HOPELINK helps homeless and low-income families, children, seniors and people with disabilities gain stability, while providing others with the tools and skills they need to exit poverty for good. Hopelink is not accepting food or other goods at this time. Click here for donation information.
January Monthly Outreach: Compass Housing Alliance
February Monthly Outreach: Hopelink
March Monthly Outreach: Lutheran Community Services
April Monthly Outreach: Poor Peoples Campaign
May Monthly Outreach: Earth Ministry
June Monthly Outreach: ELCA World Hunger
July Monthly Outreach: Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services
August Monthly Outreach: Lutheran World Relief
September Monthly Outreach:TBA
October Monthly Outreach:
November Monthly Outreach:
December Monthly Outreach:
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Scrip is a Great Way to Increase Your Giving
with Purchases You'd Make Anyway!
Proceeds from FLC's Scrip program recently paid for the shipment of quilts and school/health kits to Lutheran World Relief. Your purchases really do make a difference!
Purchase your Scrip gift cards on Sunday morning before and after worship or this is an excellent time to set up Shop with Scrip and Presto Pay for instant Scrip purchases and redemption on your smart phone. This is a super easy way to continue to support FLC's Scrip program. (See below for more information.)
If you are unable to attend worship or purchase Scrip online, you may mail a check to FLC Scrip, attention Gordy Phelps, with a note of what scrip cards you wish to purchase, and he will mail the cards back to you.
We have several other opportunities for earning money while you shop, for FLC's many social ministry programs:
2. Sign up for Amazon Smile and name First Lutheran Church as your charity. Every time you shop with Amazon Smile FLC receive .05% of your purchase price. You can still use Amazon Prime. Get your kids to sign up, too! In the 3rd quarter of 2021, your Amazon Smile purchases earned $84 for Social Ministries!
3. Link your Fred Meyer rewards card to their Community Rewards program for First Lutheran Church. All of your purchases will result in a quarterly donation to FLC.
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A Publication of the NW Washington Synod
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