Weekly eNews - Emmanuel Lutheran Church

eNews

Week of January 10, 2021

Baptism of our Lord

ATTENTION PLEASE

We have many members who have not picked up their giving envelopes for 2021. To help with the situation we will have envelopes (and Fall 2019 directories not picked up) in the Narthex this weekend - ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SIGNED UP FOR WORSHIP. Please ask someone at the table.

If you did not sign up for worship or are not attending in person - please come to the office during the week and we will get your envelopes for you - you don't even have to come into the office if you'd rather not.

If you are using electronic giving and do not want your envelopes, please email the office at info@emmanuel-elca.org and we will throw them away.

Thank you for your prompt action.

In this week's eNews...

January 14 @10am: Thursdays Together with Pastor Hall
Beginning January 21st @1pm: Revelation Bible Study
January 24th @11:45am: New Member Orientation
January 31st @ 11:45am: Annual Congregational Meeting
Christ in our Home has arrived and will be available in the Narthex this weekend or at the church office.
Signup is now open for Altar Flowers and Eternal Candle dedication for Jan-Mar of 2021 through the links below or contact the church office.
Pick up your giving envelopes and Pandemic cookbooks in the office. There are extra cookbooks available for purchase.

Click Here to Register For Next Weekend's Worship - January 16/17

Thursdays Together with Pastor Hall

January 14th at 10am

Join our community of faith for conversation around the gospel for the week. This is a thirty-minute Zoom dialogue with Pastor Hall based on the gospel. There is a short litany followed by the reading and open discussion on the text for the following Sunday's worship. It is a time to see faces and an opportunity to connect-up with members of Emmanuel.

Topic: Thursday's Together

Time: Thursday, January 14th @10:00am

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/92351281523?pwd=Q0FMOGFxSUNnUFhpZzBQdHF6RW03Zz09

Meeting ID: 923 5128 1523

Passcode: 999623

In Our Prayers...

Bill Roesler and Jordon Simon (grandson of De & Carol Simon).

Family and friends of Karen MacDonald who passed away January 1, 2021. Services are pending.

A big Thank you and expression of gratitude to Pastor Hall and the congregation for all your prayers for Ethan McKee. He is only 4 months old and underwent a successful 5 hour surgery on Dec. 31, 2020. All of our prayers were answered. He is now healing at home with his parents in North Carolina.

God bless you all.

Timothy & Theresa McKee

January Outreach Emphasis

Lutheran Services Florida (LSF) is a leading, life-changing

Building communities, strengthening lives.

Family Promise of Sarasota is a nonprofit, non-denominational organization affiliated with National Family Promise, which was founded in 1986. We provide shelter, meals, and support to homeless children and their families. We initiate coordinated local efforts that bring communities together to help homeless families regain their housing, their independence, and their dignity. We envision a nation in which every family has a home, a livelihood, and a chance to build a better future.

Remember or Honor a Loved One

There are several dates open!! Sign-up to dedicate Altar Flowers and the Eternal Candle for the First Quarter of 2021 (Jan-Mar) is now available online by clicking the links below. Once you have reserved your date, please submit your dedication with payment no later than 2 weeks prior to your reserved date. If you have any questions or are unable to sign-up online, contact the office.

Jan-Mar Eternal Candle

Jan-Mar Altar Flowers

Telephone Triage Communication: The Importance of keeping in touch with our congregation. The Church Council has approved for Emmanuel to roll out its new telephone triage communication plan to touch base with you. 41 Team Leaders have been selected and each have approximately 12-13 members from the congregation on their list. The concept as a caring church community is to briefly talk with you to see how you are doing and just to let you know we care about you. These telephone contacts may be quarterly or more depending on concerns you may have, or because of the pandemic, and/or for information the Pastor or Council wants to relay to you. Don’t expect a call right away, your Team Leader may be busy and has planned his schedule very differently from another Team Leader. However, if you have not been contacted within six months, please let Barbara Spenks know so she can check it out. Remember this is just a brief hello just to let you know we care about you.

OUTREACH C0MMITTEE

The Outreach Committee wants to thank the wonderful congregation at Emmanuel Lutheran. The Outreach Committee met all their ministry goals because of your generous giving. Your giving’s were $25,640 dollars that went out to our monthly charities. Thank You. Thank You.

You also provided items for 90 Blessing Bags, over 150 toys to SPARCC and 24 personal gifts to individuals at LSS. Bless you for your feeding the under-privileged. We provided approximately 20 very full bins of food to the South Venice Food Pantry from the “God’s Work, Our Hands Project and the Thanksgiving collections. Although we cannot feed everyone in the community, please know that what we did made a great impact for those in need. The House That Faith Built now has a family living there.

In 2021 we will continue with our same ministries that were approved by the council in 2020. We look forward with anticipation that we will resume some of our normal activities in 2021 to meet the needs of our community.

Please remember Pastor Livenson with the special envelopes as it is not one of our monthly charities and we need to support his rent.

Happy 2021 from Christian Ed!

The Christian Education committee can be reached at the email address: emmchristianed@gmail.com if you have any feedback or suggestions for us.

See the article below regarding a Revelations study offered by Judi Johnson.

Donna Batchelor will offer a study of the Torah, the first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible. Stay tuned for dates and time.

Birdie Clark will offer a learning session on Centering Prayer. Training will be on YouTube and members may join the established group in January.

Kathy Anderson will offer a study on racism, based on the book, “Between the World and me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, discussing the Constitution and why African American citizens are treated differently when the laws for all are the same.

Christian Ed would like to invite Emmanuel members to join our committee. We welcome any new ideas you may have to share. We meet monthly on the second Wednesday of each month at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom. If you would like to pop in for a look, please email us at emmchristianed@gmail.com and we will send you a link to the meeting.

Barb's Medical Minute

Certain foods can bolster your immune system to help you more effectively fend off germs. The more colorful your produce, the better because the compounds that create those bright green, red, yellow and orange shades are antioxidants. So, enjoy your sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, red bell peppers, and citrus fruits to help fend off a cold, flu, or even the coronavirus. So much better than a vitamin pill!!

Covid 19 vaccine updates: Sarasota County is using a texting system to notify individuals about the vaccine distribution. Text alerts are sent out once the Department of Health in Sarasota County has received more vaccines and additional appointments are available. Appointments are required and currently only frontline healthcare workers and individuals 65 and over are eligible.

If you have not done so already, you are encouraged to sign up for these text alerts by texting SRQCOVID19 to 888777 on our cellphone. You will receive a return text asking for your zip code. You will then receive notifications when vaccine appointments are available. Again, these appointments fill quickly. As of this writing, no appointments were available.

January Events

Study of Revelation

A Bible study on the book of Revelation will be starting on Thursday, January 21 from 1-2 pm and will be done on Zoom. It is based on the book “ You Can Understand the Book of Revelation” by Pastor Skip Heitzig. If you have any questions about how to use Zoom or any other questions, or if you want to sign up for the class and receive lesson materials, call or text Judi Johnson at 616-299-0759. You can also email her at judiajohn@aol.com.

A new member class is currently forming. If any of you have turned in membership forms since March, 2020, you will receive more information via email. If you wish to join Emmanuel's church family, there are membership forms available in the Narthex or by contacting the office. More information to follow.

January 31, 2021

Mark your calendars for the annual congregational meeting on Sunday, January 31st at 11:45am. Plans are for both in person, via reservation, and zoom attendance will be available. This is open to all members, although only full and seasonal will be voting members. Keep your eyes open for the annual report which will be emailed to you 2 weeks prior to the meeting.

Any Additional Food Pantry donations....

Any food donations to the South County Food Pantry should be taken directly to the South County Food Pantry located at 121 Warfield Avenue, Venice. The church is not collecting on a regular basis at this time. Their website states that their hours vary so call before you go! 941.408.2911.

Now Available at the Office

Mon-Thurs, 8:30am-12noon

Pandemic cookbooks are waiting for you. Please have your check made out to Emmanuel Lutheran Church or have exact cash. As a reminder, they are $8 each. We have extra for sale. Thanks!

Many of you have your 2021 Giving Envelopes to pick-up. If you've registered for a service this weekend, they will be available in the Narthex prior to that service. Otherwise, please ring the bell for help when stopping to get them at the office.

Christ in our Home devotionals will be available in the Narthex or may be picked up at the office during business hours.

Readings for This Week

January 10th

Baptism of our Lord

Genesis 1:1-5

Psalm 29

Acts 19:1-7

Mark 1:4-11

January 17th

2nd Sunday of Epiphany

1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20]

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

John 1:43-51

Remember these guidelines when coming to worship:

6 feet social distancing requirements - do not crowd pews.
Remember to wear a mask with nose and mouth covered and use the hand sanitizer available in the narthex or pews.
Please do not stop in the narthex or inside the sanctuary.
Wait for the ushers to dismiss your row. They start at the back of the sanctuary. For everyone’s safety and proper distancing, follow the ushers instructions.

Reminder: Please wear your Name Badges when attending worship so we know who you are while wearing your face masks!!! Also, please silence your cell phone out of consideration for all worshippers.

For your information...

As a gentle reminder to everyone, if you have been exposed to COVID in any way or are not feeling well, please follow self-management steps to ensure you are not exposing other members of our congregation. Your cooperation is very much appreciated by everyone. In addition, should you contract COVID, please notify the church office for contact tracing.

Due to increasing COVID numbers in the area, the Executive Committee has extended the cancellation of all non-worship activities through January 5th. The Executive Committee will re-evaluate at that time.

Want to know more about some of the items in eNews? When viewing the eNews online or on your mobile device and you see the pointing finger when running your mouse over a graphic or text, you will be able to link to more information such as a flyer, website, etc. Try it with the top picture of the church!!

Devotional/worship: Sunday Worship is posted after 8:30am to the website and the 10am service is live-streamed on FaceBook. Thursdays Together with Pastor Hall is accessible through the Zoom link above. All previous worship services are also available through our website by clicking on the Vimeo logo in the upper left corner of the posted video on the website.