Summer 2019
Pastor's Greeting

Shalom, peace and blessings to you my friend!

We have left Easter behind us and are now awaiting Pentecost. The Christian church has its beginnings when the Holy Spirit was first poured and the disciples got the courage to proclaim the good news on our risen Lord Jesus.

The presence of God’s Spirit is a prerequisite for all that we do as a church. We cannot be a living and growing congregation without the continues presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

The beginning of April marked two years of my being the pastor of this congregation. Time has flown and there has been ample work. I want to thank you all for your trust, love and prayers. I hope that you can carry my also in the future as my work contract has been extended by a Council decision. I myself could not leave you now knowing that the next few years will be full of new challenges and opportunities. We will see spiritual growth both at the individual and the congregational level. What is expected of us is that we adhere to God’s word, are faithful in the smallest and whatever we do, we do with a sincere heart.

Let us dare to be genuine, let us dare to love and trust! The Lord will look after us and give us peace!

“He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.” (Eph. 2:17) 

May your summer be blessed and please remember us with your prayers. 

Pastor Mia
President's Corner
Summer Breeze

Our busy winter and spring seasons are behind us and we are heading to summer. Lot of new and old activities filled the days of our congregation. Maybe the most remarkable new project was reading through the whole Holy Bible, Thank you for your participation. Now, many members and winter visitors have traveled north, to their home nesting sites. Our congregation is preparing for the summer mode.

Congregation’s annual meeting was held on March 10 th , 2019. Most important decision was to grant the Future Planning Committee the authority to negotiate with our current renter, Spanish speaking congregation a deal to sell our church premises and rent back. Then, the Council was authorized to approve or reject the deal. The Committee has started the work by defining our own requirements in more detail and now starting the discussions with the buyer.

The Annual meeting elected the new council members; I wish all welcome. Also, I want to thank you all previous council members and especially resigned members Esko Hulkkonen, Matti Mecklin and June Rantanen for their invaluable work.

Our personnel changes continue, because Sarai Paavola is returning back to Finland in early May. We still have work to do to reorganize our office services. We hope to get a volunteer from Finland to take care of Sarai’s tasks. In addition, Mika Poutiainen takes some of Sarai’s tasks and will help pastor Mia.

Pastor’s visa renewal is in process and we hope to get it finalized soon so that she can travel to Finland to enjoy her well-deserved and relaxing summer vacation.

You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence. (Acts 2: 28)

Pertti Pietarinen, Council President

Happy Birthday! :)
May
June
July
Special thanks to:
Pertti & Annukka
Glenn & Susanna
Aili
In Memoriam
Riitta Huttunen



Matti Launonen




Until we see again.

Farewell
I can’t believe that this day came so quickly. The day when I must say goodbye. Saying goodbye has always been my weakness. For those of you who don’t know yet; we are moving back to Finland. As I’m writing this, I have two nights left before I leave. I will travel with my mom and our dog Penny. My husband Rodney will follow in couple weeks, since he needs to sell our cars and fill the container with all our belongings.

I feel overwhelmed, especially after last Sunday. You all made my farewell party so special! Thank you for all the love and support! This year working at St. Andrew’s has been incredible in so many ways. It was an answered prayer for me. When I moved to Florida 3 years ago, I was kind of lost. My physical therapist degree wasn’t accepted here in US, and many things I tried to pursue somehow just didn’t work out. But then… I met our wonderful Pastor Mia!

Working with Pastor Mia and Michael has been a privilege. We really became a family. We have learned from each other so much and shared life. How great it is to serve the Lord together and see what God does in your team! We truly have empowered, loved and build each other up! Pastor Mia and Michael are so dear to me, that I really hope you will love them as much as I do! They need your support, help and love!

One last thought I would like to leave you with is the one I shared on Sunday. Love unconditionally and do not fear! When we are worried or afraid, we lock our hearts. We focus all our attention to protect ourselves or even to discourage others. Fear doesn’t have room for hope and trust. Fear makes us forget who God truly is. Bible says “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear...” and also “God is love”. You have God by your side. When you understand that you are with Him, you don’t need anything else. You don’t need to be afraid what happens in your life or what people think about you. Your trust, your identity is in Him! No matter what scars you have, let God heal those. Love courageously, even though people wouldn’t love you back. This world only looks for profit, even in
relationships. The world says we need to be worth something first, so we can buy someone’s love, respect, acceptance and entitlement. It really is the other way; love needs to come first. When we understand how much we are loved, we understand our worth. Once we find the endless source of love, we will see not only ourselves through His eyes but others too. His love never fails.

I'll keep you in my heart and prayers!

Love,
Sarai Paavola
Our New Church Council.
From the left: Raija Reittamo, Peter Mäkilä, Suvi Manner-Smith (Secretary), Pastor Mia, Naomi Fox, Pertti Pietarinen (President), Sauli Stolt (Vice President), Lauri Kanervikkoaho
Music News
This past year has been a very special one for me here at St. Andrew’s. Working with our Office Manager Sarai has been a great joy, blessing and privilege. She has become a loved friend and a part of my family. She will be dearly missed!!

2019 has been a busy year so far, filled with many great musical events praising our Lord Jesus. I would like to thank everyone for giving their musical talents at our Sunday services, concerts, prayer and gospel evenings. Our church is a living church because of the time and dedication given by our volunteers. Our Sunday services will move into the fellowship hall for the summer, starting in May. We
will be having some special combined services, along with a little contemporary music, once a month at 10 AM. Please join us for these services. As most of our congregation, along with our church choirs take their summer vacations, these combined services will bring our small English and Finnish congregations
together. Please follow our website and calendars for all musical events.

Michael Poutiainen
Picture from our English Easter Service
Easter Greetings
This spring our church congregation had the privilege of experiencing some very blessed Easter events.

On Maundy Thursday there was a quiet evening worship service where Pastor Mia spoke about the last moments of Jesus’ life on earth before his death. After the last supper, with his disciples, Jesus humbly washed their feet and encouraged them all to do the same to each other. Jesus also gave them a new command: “Love one another as I have loved you”.

On Good Friday, the church altar and cross were covered in black linens, showing that Jesus died for all our sins. Pastor Mia began the service by reciting
the creation story from Genesis with quiet organ music in the backround by Mika Poutiainen. Through Jesus’ mother Mary, we felt his suffering and felt his last breath, from the words of Pastor Mia’s touching sermon. At the end everyone was encouraged to freely approach the altar and thankfully kneel before God.

Easter morning in Lake Worth was bright, warm and sunny. The church was filled with people ready to hear the joyful message of Easter. The altar was filled with the wonderful smell of lilies given by our congregation for the glory of God and in memory of loved ones. The black altar clothes were changed to white showing the good news of Jesus’ rising from the grave. After the encouraging words of the sermon, there was once again the opportunity to enjoy communion, during which time everyone got to enjoy some violin music by Pirjo Pedersen, accompanied by Mika Poutiainen. A celebratory feeling was also brought by Eino Grön, and his wonderful singing. Easter also brought the return of everyone singing
Hallelujah to our God once again. Easter morning at our church brought a sense of encouragement through Jesus’ rising from the dead.

A delicious luncheon was enjoyed by all after the Easter worship service.
At St. Andrews church, you are important and your voice is heard the same as everyone else.

Anja Laurila
Preschool News- May, June, July 2019
We hope everyone had a blessed Easter. Our students sang in both services on Palm Sunday and hopefully you enjoyed hearing them!

The end of our school year is quickly approaching. “Graduation” is just around the corner (Friday, May 24th, 3:30 pm) and we are already busy rehearsing our songs and dances. Everyone is welcome to join us on that day- we put on a pretty good show. (And there will be refreshments!). This year 10 of our 24 students will be leaving us for kindergarten (or moving away) in August and we have already registered new students to take their place.

In April, after all of the Easter excitement, we celebrated Earth Day, learned about conservation and recycling and made art projects from recycled materials. We will continue the theme into May.
Mother’s Day is also in May, so in between our recycling projects, working in our garden and rehearsing for our big Graduation performance, we are making some very special surprises for our mothers.

The school will be closed on Monday the 27th for Memorial Day. Then on June 3rd, we begin our summer “camp”.
June starts with some fun in the Ocean! We will paint fish, create jellyfish, study and classify shells and learn about different types of creatures that live in the sea.

Father’s Day is June 16th and the children will make cards and gifts for their Dads. We finish the month with some Pirate Fun- sailing the high seas with our pirate hats searching for a buried treasure!

The school will be closed July 1st- 5th for Independence Day and a short summer break.

Announcements
ST. ANDREW'S SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE for higher education. 
Application forms available at the office or through e-mail until May 30th.
Reminder! Please notify the office if you wish to have your 2019 giving filed for tax purposes .
Sunday Services
9:30 a.m. Jumalanpalvelus
11:30 a.m. English Service

Vietämme ehtoollisjumlanpalvelusta kuun 1. ja 3. sunnuntaina.
Communion services every 1st and 3rd week of the month.