Tune in June 24th “What Luther Says”, (CPH 1959) (Selection based on today’s Epistle reading)

Talking Together the weekly newsletter of

Concordia Lutheran Church 17906 Garden Lane Hagerstown, MD 21740

301-797-5955 Concordia Home Page address: http://www.concordia-hagerstown.org

E-mail address: concordiased@verizon.net June 24, 2012 Our Stewardship of God's Gifts Attendance for June 17, 2012 ………………………………………………………..………………………………..……..………………........................ 97 Giving for June 10, 2012 …............................................................................................................................................................................................ $4,396.25 Year-to-Date for 2012, Regular Offering Received …………………………..… ………………………………………………….…….…....… $123,325.58 Budget Needs Through Week 23 of 2012 ……………………...………………………….…….………………..….…..….…..........…...…..….... $115,783.44 Our 2012 Total Annual Budget (Operational Expenses Only)………………..………….……....….……..…..….…..……..…....….…......…… $250,864.00

Serving in Worship

Late Service

Early Service

Early Service

Late Service

Date

7/1

6/24

Acolyte

No Acolyte

Chad Shumaker

Danny Flanick

Kyra Baker

Nursery 1st No Nursery 2nd 1st

No Nursery

Lector

Joel Fridgen

Adam Flanick

Sylvia Shives

Rick Anthony

Greeters

Diest

Walker

Shives

Garrison

Melody Solomon

Becky Brown

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Thank you so much for your visits, calls, cards, and most of all prayers during my recent illness. Praise be to God that I am well again!

Janice Gann

Worship Service ……………………….………………….. 8:15 a.m. Worship Service ……………………….………………… 10:45 a.m.

M- Member - New

Prayer Requests:- - Vera Tichnell - (Fred Tichnell’s mother’s condition has been downgraded to terminal. Prognosis: “a couple weeks”. Please keep Fred and his family in your prayers.) Tichnells and Prayer Ministry Team - MKaren Alexander - (I have what is called SVT with my heart. My doctors want me to take it easy these next few months. Please pray that the baby and I continue to be strong and healthy and that she(Carly) does not come early.) Alexanders and Prayer Ministry Team - Velma Mooney - (Brenda Ellis' mother

- John Toms - (pastor at St. Pauls Reformed in Clear Spring MD, had his surgery for the pacemaker difibulator on the 19th and is home and doing well) Flicek family and Prayer Ministry Team - Bill Hall - (in hospital for observation following heart attack on 5/16, heart is stable but being kept for concerns with kidneys - Brenda Diest’s Dad) Diest family and Prayer Ministry Team - M Lee Titus - (is expected to return from Saudi Arabia about July 1. Please keep him in your prayers. His email address is: titusfam5@yahoo.com) Titus

She has congestive heart failure. Prayer is requested that she stay in assisted living and be comfortable in her remaining days.) Brenda and Prayer Ministry Team - MDon Schleef - (We give thanks that Don came through well). Schleef family, Pastor and Prayer Ministry Team - Tiffany and John Kurzawa - (Baby Quentin Andrew has been doing well and they closed up his chest yesterday as they feel he will not need anymore immediate surgery. He is almost 5 pounds now. Thanks be to God!) Flicek family and Prayer Ministry Team

family, Pastor and Prayer Ministry Team

- MCarl Jesse - (We continue to pray for recovery from a severe stroke and successful rehabilitation. We pray for Nancy, Gayle and the Jesse family) Prayer Ministry Team

Continued on page 2

“Nurturing the Faith” The following readings are provided for your preparation for next Sunday’s worship. Scripture readings for, July 1, Fifth S. a. Pentecost, Lamentations 3:22-33; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43. Christian Education Sunday School - 9:30 a.m. Adult Bible Study - 9:30 a.m.

ON PAGE 2 Announcements Birthday/Anniversaries LWML Church Mouse Report Luther says

"Taking God's Hand"

TODAY Congregational Meeting ………………… 12 Noon (after late service)

Savior, that you have been given the hope of forgiveness and eternal life which the Holy Spirit brings. My friends, if all you can see is darkness stretching out before you, believe that the Savior's nail-pierced hand is also stretching out to you. Jesus -- who has defeated death -- can conquer any and all problems that plague you, bring peace to any harm in your heart, bring hope to the deepest of hurts. In short, life with Christ is filled with end-less hope, and without Him there can only be a hopeless end. Too good to be true? Not at all. My friends, if you ever visit the catacombs in Rome, those underground tunnels where many early Christians are buried, look at the sermons preached by the symbols on their graves.

Jesus said) "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." John 14:16-17 It was many years ago that King George VI of England gave a New Year's Eve address to the people of the British Commonwealth. He said, "I said to the man at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I might walk safely into the unknown.' And he said to me, 'Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. It shall be to you safer than the light and better than the known.'" I pray the king believed those words because before that year was over, cancer had taken his life. I pray that You also have had your hand put into that of the crucified and risen

Assisting Ministers

Fridgen/Shives

Fridgen/Gann

Fridgen/Hector

Fridgen/Tichnell

Tune in June 24th “What Luther Says”, (CPH 1959) (Selection based on today’s Epistle reading)

Birthdays and Anniversaries This Week

Open Arms CDC Open Arms We just learned this week that a well known local church preschool is closing. We have be-gun hearing from families interested in enrolling their children in Open Arms. It is possible we will enroll enough students to open a second classroom. This could mean hiring another teacher or to splitting two and three day students into a MWF/TT schedule. The next scheduled CCDC open house will be Sunday July 1, at 2:00 p.m. and another on Saturday July 28, at 9:00 a.m. Summer Sunday School Sunday School is moving right along. The format includes more combined activities with mixed ages of children. Many of the activities will center on doing things for others such as caring for flower beds, dusting furniture, baking cookies, etc. Adults in the congregation are invited to come and assist as we keep everyone in the groove for Sunday school. We will soon add bell playing in addition to the new Boomwhackers! Meanwhile some of the regular teachers have been spending time sorting and organizing past Sunday school materials by grade levels in preparation for sending them to mis-sionaries. Baby Care Kits for Lutheran World Relief Our ladies group plans to complete 12 kits and we have a good start with some gently used items gleaned from the yard sale. If you would like to contribute items for the baby care kits, see the poster on the activities bulletin board and take a tag or two and purchase the item or items on the tag. Place all ingathering items (except gift cards) in the “Hearts” basket in the narthex. Please put seminar-ian’s gift cards in Sylvia Shives’ mailbox.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Baptismal Birthdays 26 - Cynthia Golem 28 - Jacqueline Witmer

Anniversaries 27 - Lori and Jason Penrod

Birthdays 26 - Dustin Schwobe 27 - Emil Gretarsson 28 - Cheryl Moles 28 - Jackie Vines 30 - Cheryl Fertitta

“Listening to the “Lutheran Hour” You are invited to tune in next Sunday to one of the radio stations listed below:

WBAL (Baltimore) 1090 AM 10:30 a.m. WZXH (Hagerstown) 91.7 FM 4:00 p.m.

WNAV (Annapolis) 1430 AM 7:00 a.m WTRM (Winchester) 91.3 FM 7:01 p.m.

"Desiring Greatness or God's Strength?" Jesus brings real power to weakness, real joy to sadness, real hope in the middle of despair. When we feel weak and defeated, God's grace is sufficient for us in all things. (2 Corinthians 12:1-11) Lutheran Hour Speaker: Rev. Gregory Seltz

“One Mediator . . . Christ Jesus” They have made Christ a stern, cruel Judge. This is why no one wanted to go to Him without a mediator, and it came to this that they chose Saint Peter, St. Paul, and other saints as patrons and so turned their confidence from Christ, placed it on the saints, and said: St. Peter is my patron, St. Paul is my apostle; I think I shall be saved. In this way Christ was removed as mediator. What they say is true. We should not go to God without a Mediator. But the Mediator is Christ, as St. Paul says. We must so honor our Christ, from whom we have received our name, as to believe that we may go to God through Christ as well as St. Peter and St. Paul may go. But thereby confidence in the saints falls by the way of its own accord. The fact that we turned our hearts to them, placed our confidence in them, and clung to them cer-tainly became a gross idolatry without any fault of theirs.

You will, if you look closely enough, see three common signs: a dove, a fish, and an anchor.

� The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit, who gives us faith and hope.

� The fish, in Greek, "ichthus," is an acronym for the words: Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. Jesus is the basis for all hope and heaven.

� And the anchor? The anchor says that in seemingly hopeless times -- when all is adrift -- Jesus is our God-given hope, who anchors our souls. Sermons from the grave, hundreds of years old, sermons which say to those who have Holy Spirit-given faith in the Savior, there is no hopeless situation.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, the unknown future stretches out before me. At times the pathway seems dark and foreboding. Keep me from walking into that darkness alone. By the Holy Spirit's action may I enter every day in the presence of my Savior. In His Name. Amen.

Pastor Ken Klaus Speaker emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®

TAKING GOD’S HAND (Continued from page 1)

Flower Beds Thank you to all who signed up to take care of the flower beds around the church. All spots have been filled. In addi-tion, the Summer Sunday School is helping by planting flowers in spots here and there around the campus. One trouble spot remains the raised bed by the brick sign out front—a ground hog has taken up residence and insists on covering some of the flowers as he main-tains his “front door”. We learned that there are two or three other critters are residing in the flower beds close to the church. HELP!

Convention Ingathering Over the next couple of months we will be collecting items for the Gifts From the Heart ingathering at the LWML convention in September. We will col-lect selected personal care items for the Dela-ware Veteran’s Home (see posted list). We also

are collecting gift cards for seminarians—national brands only and amount of the card if it is not printed on the card. See separate announcement about the baby care kits for Lutheran World Relief.

Concordia Lutheran School Thank you for all your prayers and efforts to add a kindergarten at Concordia. Based on the turnout for the informational meeting on June 10, the CCDC board will be focus-ing our efforts on expanding the preschool and exploring options of expanding school in the future.

Update on the Kreymborg’s travels—the giant buffalo picture (last week) was taken in Jamestown, ND. They have a great selection of pictures on Facebook taken in Theodore Roosevelt Park, Medore ND.

WORKERS NEEDED This Saturday, June 30, we will be installing the paver stones for the Memorial Garden. We would appreciate any and all help we can get to work that day. We will begin around 8:30 AM. If you have any questions please contact Les Braun (301-797-0034). Thanks