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15600 North Tamiami Trail Naples, Florida 34110-6245

(239) 597-1043

Rev. Thomas J. Slater, Pastor

A Newsletter of the People of

CHRISTUS VICTOR LUTHERAN CHURCH

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Thanks Be To God, who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 15:57)

Don't just live...live victoriously!

Pastor Tom’s Page Well, we have made it to June and yet, at this point, we still can’t get together as a congregation to worship in person. We are following the CDC guidelines and speaking with our Synod Office and the ELCA Offices along with our Insurance

Carrier, as to a safe time to start the process of opening the church back up. As I’m sure you are, we are watching the number of COVID-19 cases, especially now that they have begun to relax some of the restrictions. So far the numbers are not going down to where they need to be for us to feel confident about a decision to re-open. Our Council is diligent as they try and make decisions during this time. In the meantime, please continue to utilize our online presence via YouTube and Zoom by accessing them through our church’s e-mail messages. A special “Thank You” to our fantastic staff for keeping the Gospel message coming to us week after week. Our thoughts and prayers remain with everyone during this stressful time. God bless you all, Pastor Tom P.S. Keep watching and reading our e-mails for ore up-to-date notices about when we can open the doors once more.

Sick or Hospitalized? Please tell us if you or someone you know in the congregation will be hospitalized or in need of a visit as we are not routinely notified by local hospitals when members are admitted. The office number is 597-1043. Prayer for one another is understanding love.

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Cancellations The decision has been made to cancel all Worship Services and activities at the church until further notice. Please watch your emails for information regarding CVLC Worship Services on Christus Victor’s YouTube channel. All mid-week Senior Ministry activities, Youth Group, Sunday School, choirs, and outside activities are cancelled until further notice. Watch for emails regarding the Intern’s Bible Study on Zoom. Please watch your emails for further information regarding the other activities. If you are planning to come to the church office please call and make an appointment first. Please watch your emails for any further developments. May God’s peace surround us all during this time of uncertainty and tension. Pastor Tom

Online Giving We have had a number of questions about opportunities to continue contributing to CVLC when we don’t attend services. One option is to mail your checks to the church (we now have a secure mailbox) 15600 Tamiami Trail N., Naples, FL 34110. Another option is to use our E-Giving program as follows:

Go to the CVLC website (www.christusvictorfl.org). Click on “Give” (upper right) Under “Two Ways to Enroll” click on “online” Then indicate the amount you wish to contribute Choose the frequency using the drop-down Create your Online Profile so that you can easily return to your online account Click on “Continue” at bottom left and follow the prompts.

You have the option of having the contributions come directly from your checking account (our preference), or you can make contributions via credit card (this option deducts at least 2.5% from your contribution before it gets to us.

If you have any questions or need assistance with setting up the account, please contact the CVLC Treasurer (Doc) at 509-595-7399.

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Intern’s Article

Dear CVLC,

It is hard to believe that in a little over 30 days, my time at CVLC will

come to a close. I have enjoyed getting to know you all and be a small part

of your faith journey. The love and support that you have given me has

helped me grow into the future pastor that I will become.

Even though our time together has not been what we thought it would be, I have been

astounded by the ways in which we continue to be the church. Through adverse conditions,

we continue to worship and learn together in new ways. We have come together for Bible

Studies and delved deeper into the Word of God that has so much meaning for our lives.

You have stepped up and cared for each other by helping to make masks or provide food for

needy people. This pandemic has not stopped the work of God that we, as the church, carry

out! I have been inspired by your creativity and resilience during this time. Thank you to all

who help this church continue it’s mission of sharing God’s love and grace through worship,

outreach, and fellowship!

I wanted to take this opportunity to share some news with all of you. As of May 12th, I

have been APPROVED for ordination by the faculty of my seminary! Though this is a huge

relief, I still have several more steps to becoming a pastor. I will go before my candidacy

committee in August for final approval and then I will be assigned in late September/early

October. Emily and I are still planning on getting married on April 10th, 2021! After almost 7

years together, it is about time!

I thank you all for the love and support that you have given me and I will continue to pray

for you as you prepare to transition to the next intern. May God bless you and keep you,

May God make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, May the LORD look upon

you with favor and grant you Peace. Amen.

Grace and Peace,

Intern Joshua Lewis Copeland

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A Message from your Church Council President

I felt at this time it was necessary for me to write to our congregation in these very trying

times. I’m sure it has been difficult for most, as it has been for Judy and me to not be able

to worship during the Easter season and beyond. But with that being said, we have been

blessed with the wonderful work that Pastor, Sherry, Intern Josh, Deacon Gerry, Shawn Ruhl

and numerous others have done. When you realize that they had only a week to put

together some type of virtual worship, it was absolutely amazing. Also, consider that it was

one of the most important religious celebrations of the year with multiple services to be

held. The office staff pitched in to assist with the services giving us the comfort of seeing

some familiar faces during the service.

The life of the Church doesn’t stop just because we are unable to be present and our

staff continues to perform their responsibilities during these difficult times. Pastor and

Sherry continue to share Wednesday devotionals which have been both enlightening and

entertaining. I’m thinking they are having as much fun doing them as we are enjoying

them. Kudo’s also to Intern Josh for his continuing the Thursday Bible Study and the Adult

Sunday School on Sunday mornings.

In closing, we are truly blessed to have the leadership of Pastor Tom, Sherry, Intern Josh

and Deacon Gerry in our Church. I don’t think they ever expected to have to accomplish

what they have at this point in their careers. May God Bless them all as well as our staff and

members of our congregation. Looking forward to the day when we can all praise the Lord

in our House of Worship. Thank you on behalf of the Church Council.

John Butcher President

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I pray for all of you to remain healthy and safe. I read a relevant article in the

Wednesday Banner Newspaper titled “Health care workers who attend church do

better”. The article states “No matter the religion regular church attendance is beneficial.”

On Wednesday, we all look forward to recording our church service, so that all, including

Carol and I, can watch on Sunday. Our church community, watching and listening, to the

service lifts all our hearts, minds and spirits while giving us hope for a brighter tomorrow.

M.E.L.S, ((M)en (E)ating (L)earning and (S)upporting), our men’s ministry group at

Christus Victor, is cancelled until further notice.

I pray for guidance and look forward to continuing to serve the members of Christus

Victor Lutheran Church.

Blessings,

Gerry Benjamin Synod Parish Deacon

We are sad to report the deaths of Christus Victor members, Janet Tatar, who passed away on April 15th and Bob Hubbard who passed away on May 5th . We give thanks to God for their lives and rejoice that they have joined the Church Triumphant!

From the Desk of the Synod Parish Deacon

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Music Notes by Joyce Reitz, Director of Music

Another month has gone by and we have settled into the new normal of our church service. As of this writing we do not know when we will resume services in the church, however, that news may come out before this newsletter is published. Keep an eye on our weekly emails for all the news. We have had a great time with staff putting our services together and they have all been so dedicated to making the service seem as if you are sitting there in church with us. Thank you to Shawn Ruhl and Susan O’Brien for their help in recording the services. I want to thank too, Pr. Tom, Sherry, Josh, Kim, and Greg for helping me present the anthems for our virtual services. It means so much to me to have their support. Normally the choir goes on hiatus from May until October and I pray that this Covid-19 will soon pass us by and that we can again be meeting in our sanctuary together. We have been together in spirit though. Once things get back to normal, we may try to have some impromptu music. That will be as long as we have enough of the choir and others to sing. More information on that next month. So, please take care, stay safe, stay well! Until next time, Keep a song in your hearts! Joyce

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CVLC Zoom Security Update A few people have been reaching out to us with concerns about the security of the Zoom Platform. I (Intern Josh) wanted to take a second to address some of these concerns in relation to CVLC’s use of the platform. The security issue with Zoom was that people were getting on Zoom meetings that had no business being on those particular meetings. There is no issue with people taking personal information from Zoom accounts. Zoom has addressed this issue by adding several security tools, such as “Locking the Meeting” and “password protected” meetings. At CVLC, we are using every security measure that is available to us to make sure our meetings and events are safe and secure. Should you have any more questions or concerns about the Zoom platform or if you need any help accessing the platform so you can join meetings, please contact me at intern@cvlcfl.org. I hope this message brings some comfort about the security of this platform. May God bless each and every one of us during this time!

GOD is Good

I was thinking about favorite movies and there is a reason why. Two of my all-time fa-vorites are Cinema Paradiso (yes, you have to read subtitles) -- I like the original version, and Shadowlands, the story of C. S. Lewis. I have a few other faves, that are less thought provoking. So if you feel like emailing me some of yours, my email address is janice@keystosuccess1.com. A movie is cherished because we can watch again and again and hear different things each time. We can savor the words and emotions and photography. It never gets old. All of this is to say, that although we wanted and preferred to be together inside our dear church, a virtual experience has been created. In the other seven parts of this article, I will talk much more about this. But I can tell you what joy the services have brought to my mom. She plays them over and over. She thanks me for presenting this possibility Of course it isn't really me; not at all. It's our wonderful church staff-- and God-- who is working with us in new ways. Now what's created can not be taken away! And I agree with my mom-- so many times in years past, I wanted to hear certain blessed words another time, and have them wash over me to soothe and inspire. Now we have our own church "movies"-- an amazing blessing because God is good!!! Janice Lorimer, Church Council Member

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Stewardship Steward your new community Like a caterpillar emerging from a cocoon to new life as a butterfly, we can steward our congregations and communities to awaken from Covid-19 to a more excellent reality that brims with faith, hope and love. Covid-19’s hardship, deprivation and grief have inspired an outpouring of kindness, generosity, selflessness, neighborliness and courageous service. Suffering has given us a glimpse of what our communities can and should be, following Christ’s two principal commands: love God and love one another. Our stewardship opportunity and challenge is clear: Can we cultivate this renewed spirit of loving neighborliness as a “new normal”? As our community’s central, defining ethos? The last several months have taught us much: · Life is precious. Everyone counts. No exceptions. · We suffer together. Shared pain creates strong bonds. · Serving brings fulfillment. Many sacrifice joyfully. · We need each other. We can’t go it alone. · We miss each other. We require human interaction. · Personal contact is sublime. Nothing beats face-to-face. · We are grateful. Thank God for what we have. We are wiser. We know what’s important. Covid-19 is receding, though slowly. Much pain lies ahead. Before it’s through, the virus will claim more of our friends and loved ones. Many families will suffer economically. But the virus is also teaching us anew how to be loving neighbors. As Covid-19 abates, we can deepen these lessons and steward our communities to live more closely aligned with God’s purposes, to discover life abundant with joy, connection, fulfillment and generosi-ty. With God’s help, our congregations and communities can emerge from our Covid-19 cocoon to a more excellent reality, centered in faith, hope and love. Copyright © 2020, Rev. Robert Blezard

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I hope that you are all safe and healthy… and not going TOO stir-crazy! I found some things that I thought were interesting while you are social distancing and wanted to pass them along to you. I hope they are useful to you and that you enjoy them! These are not just for children—many are things that will appeal to adults (we have to flex our brain muscles, too)! Scholastic is offering free-on-line classes for Pre-K to Grades 6+ at www.tinyurl.com/Scholastic-Children. Here are 20 great home-schooling websites: www.tinyurl.com/20-Homeschooling. Today’s Parent has many resources, including rules for old-fashioned out-door games. These 12 museums have free virtual tours. Fatherly has a page on indoor games that will give your kids exercise. Use Google Maps to choose a country, town or land-scape and use the little yellow figure to explore it, street by street. Lhasa, Rio, Timbuktu, Venice, etc. KiwiCo has great resources. Free children’s books from Audible. Livestream the animals from San Diego Zoo. Take a Code Break. You can explore these five US national parks in a special virtual tour. More Museums and Culture. Skillshare has 1,000 free classes. Open Culture has loads of free on-line courses. The Great Courses has many of their classes on sale. Learn a language for free from DuoLingo. Try these 52 Questions that have been proven to create closeness with loved ones and close friends. Make it a weekly ritual over dinner, or before you switch on the TV. The Social Distancing Festival offers a world of on-line performances. Explore the world of classical music, listening in a comfortable chair as if you were at a concert. And of course, you can always plant a garden, start an exercise program, learn to play an instrument, read a new book, add a message in Victory Park (chalk is in the pavilion), and on and on. My prayer is that you all stay safe, healthy, and sane during this time. And maybe we’ll all come out of this with some new knowledge or skills! =) Susan O’Brien Director of Education and Youth

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CONGRATULATIONS to our Graduates!

Karina, Mia, and Sierra

We are so proud of you for all of your hard work and perseverance. We send you into the world with many, many blessings and prayers! Know that your church family loves you and is always here for you!

Thank you, Teachers!

I would like to send a special “thank you” out to our Sunday School teachers. I appreciate you all for the time and love you give each week as you make the Bible and God’s love come alive for our children! Adam Feist, Rebecca Stearns, Intern Josh Copeland, Hahnah Schwaller, Karin O’Leary, Janice Mitchell, and Teaker Harris, Jr.

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Soak in the beautiful scenery and solitude of Luther Springs, relaxing your mind, body, and spirit. Activities include: faith-filled conversation, devotions, music, and spa-type activities such as facials, manicures, and pedicures.

The cost of this meaningful experience is $92.50 for CVLC members and $185 for non-members, based on double occupancy.

Registration and payment can be turned into Susan O’Brien by June 30.

For a registration form or more information, please contact: Susan O’Brien susanobrien@cvlcfl.org

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Senior Ministry Happenings

Live BETTER to Live Longer! It’s okay to enjoy your life while

you have a problem! Being miserable won’t make it

go away any faster. …Joyce Meyer

Wow, it’s June already. May went by as it never has before…in a constant state of uncer-tainty. Hopefully, you were able, in your own way, to discover the meaning of “just being” – we had little choice. As always, though, there are choices as to how we spend our time, and how we look at time. Joyce Meyer’s quote above caused me to pause and consider exactly what it was saying…I have NO control over certain things, but what I do have control over - namely my response, - I can experience with joy. The problems that enter our life can be overwhelming, but if we solely focus on the problem, we forget how big our God is, and it makes life loose its luster. Hopefully, we are on the swing side of the virus pandemic, but I think it’s worthwhile to take a moment to pause and reflect on what we learned through the process. If we don’t, we miss an even greater opportunity to review how we spend our time and if all the activities we do are actually just “filling” time, or are really how God would prefer we spend our lives. It might be a great time to readjust and revamp our priorities. Enjoy a Joyful June! …Sherry

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Don’t forget, if there is anything the church can help you with at this time…we’ll be happy to try! Write us, call us, but keep in touch and let us know that you are well. Sending virtual hugs and best wishes to stay safe and healthy during these times.

Be cautious as you go out and start to mingle!

MAH JONGG… MISSING OUR CVLC GAME? [Me too!!] There are two web sites that can provide you with a decent game, and if nothing else, a way to keep practicing and start using the new 2020 cards: www.myjongg.com: -Allows you to play 8 free games per day. www.realmahjongg.com: -Is a 14-day free trial website [no credit card re-quired for the trial period] and then just $5.99 / month. This site is probably my favorite, but I was too cheap to pay for it after the initial trial period.

YOU, however, may find it as addicting as I did and be willing to pay for the opportunity. But it’s fun while it lasts!

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SADLY, all the Senior Ministry Activities and events are still cancelled for the month of June…

However…

THANK YOU: Gisela Grindle for all your hard work on the Christmas Project for our Community Seniors. I thought it would take months to get all these finished, but you

completed the project in just days…we greatly appreciate all your efforts!!

NECK PILLOWS NEED TO BE STUFFED. There are multiple senior facilities around us who want these neck pillows

for their residents. In fact, I can’t keep them “in stock” fast enough. Several of our church sewers have been making these for us and now they need to be stuffed. Easy job that can be done at home!

PUZZLES. PLUS…don’t forget we have PUZZLES. They’re here for the taking!

Interested?? Call Sherry at church [#239-597-1043] & leave a message: she’ll call you back or call her cell phone at 239-450-0859 LET’S TALK!

Have you done something to allow God to accomplish “HIS will through you” at this time??? Send me a picture! We need to see the many ways that people are helping during these times… it is not all bad news. Look around you – is there someone who could use some help? …another person to talk with? Someone to pick something up for them at the store?

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WE’RE STILL HERE TO HELP! We are still routinely helping with items of need determined by the Café of Life & other organizations in the community. Some of you have been continually dropping off food & personal items at our front door and we are making sure that all these items get forwarded where they can best be used. We’re being careful in the process!

To Kim and Greg Olson for their donation of bags of personal care items…these are so greatly needed at this time and many will be blessed by your sharing!

George and Jane Turczyn are still on the trail helping seniors through the Café of Life program. Thanks so much you two for your dedication to this project!

Have you heard of other needs within the community that need addressed? Can we help? We’d love to hear from you!

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Visit Christus Victors YouTube channel to listen to last week’s sermon and to view our worship services.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGS9TN9p5QWOIMlE0mGCCdw

Thank you Stephen Stidinger for the wonderful and informative postings on the Christus Victor Facebook page!!! Now all the congregation has to do is. . .

AND

Daily Grace is an on-the-go companion for your journey, offering a faith reflection every day. Encounter God’s extravagant, boundless and often surprising grace by signing up for a daily email message. You can also download the newly updated app for your IOS and Android devices.

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Dear Christus Victor Friends,

The kindness of friends like you have been a great comfort to my family and I after the passing of my father.

We would like to offer our most sincere thanks for ALL the cards and lovely messages that you sent in memory of my father.

Sincerely, Dawn and family

1 Teaker Harris, Jr. 1 Marge Starke 3 Bud Beverung 4 Rita Lee 5 Rand Highley Jim Muckerheide Will Stearns 6 John Preston 7 Walt Koziol 11 Louise Shelton Sheila Buenzle 16 Kathryn Ivanovich Karen Muckerheide 17 Derek Hanselman

17 Bruce Palmer 18 Lilly Robinson 24 David Chinn Margery Winsett Doug Sweet 26 Susan O’Brien 30 Dawn King Linda Ruhl Dave Sparks

June

A very Happy Birthday to each and every one of you! May the year ahead be filled with wonderful memories to cherish, and opportunities to serve God wherever He places them.

If your birthday is incorrect or missing, please contact the church office (597-1043) so we can change or update our records. Thank you.

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for July is

June 18th

John Butcher fdccollect@aol.com President Janice Lorimer Janice@keystosuccess1.com Vice President Richard Dougherty rhdougherty@outlook.com Treasurer Carol Benjamin cabenja46@gmail.com Secretary

Teaker Harris, Jr. Spiritual Ministries Liaison Pastor Tom Slater pastorslater@cvlcfl.org Administrative Committees Liaison Jim Helle hellejim@gmail.com Property Liaison Paul Bartholomew poja2@aol.com

CHURCH COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES

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SHARING CHRIST THAT ALL MIGHT LIVE VICTORIOUSLY!!

Sunday Worship Services – January through April 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. May through December 8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. Church Office Hours – Monday thru Thursday 8:00 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. Friday 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Phone (239)597-1043 Fax (239) 597-6028 Web page: www.christusvictorfl.org E-mail: ChristusVictor@cvlcfl.org

THE REV. THOMAS J. SLATER, PASTOR cell - 239-450-0699

Intern Josh Copeland cell 704-245-2875

Dawn King Joyce Reitz Susan O’Brien Office Administrator Director of Music Director of Education & Youth Sherry Slater Gerry Benjamin Director of Senior Ministries Synod Parish Deacon