st. mark’s lutheran church paid the messenger
TRANSCRIPT
All God’s Children are invited to Sunday Worship
9:30 a.m. Worship with Communion Every Sunday
10:45a.m. Coffee Fellowship
11:00 a.m. Bible Study & Choir Practice
11:30 a.m. Mandarin Chinese Worship
3:00 p.m. Asamblea Apostolica
www.smpdx.org
“Servants of Christ the Servant”
Pastor: Pr. Elizabeth Larsen Heavenly Peace Ministry Pastors: Pr. Andrew Yong & Pr. Terry Yang Organ/Piano: Arlan Evensen Administrative Assistant: Joyce Nance Custodian: Robert Thomas Webmaster: Scot Brende
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church 5415 SE Powell Blvd. Portland OR 97206
NON-PROFIT ORG
US POSTAGE
PAID
PORTLAND, OR
PERMIT No. 1115
CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED.
The Messenger A Publication of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 5415 SE Powell Blvd., Portland OR 97206
September 2014
My prayer list is getting me
down. Our babysitter’s mother
has had a bad stroke. A mother I
know has lost custody of her
three small children — they’re in
foster care and she’s struggling
to get her life together. Someone
I frequently do business with
gave up drinking a year ago and
now, without the alcohol be-
tween herself and her demons, is
going in for a residential psychi-
atric stay. Someone else, after a
difficult pregnancy, found her-
self visiting her newborn in the
NICU instead of going home
with him.
And then there’s praying my
way through the congregation.
Brothers and sisters in the faith
adapting, with what grace they
can muster, to the indignities of
aging. Mental health issues.
Changes and transitions, from
moving to assisted living to start-
ing kindergarten. Reaching the
limit of what medicine can do.
Losing a job, looking for work,
beginning different work.
And truthfully, there’s very
little I can do to make things bet-
ter, except to assure people “I am
praying for you”. By which I
mean, that I bring the worry and
the sorrow to God, and say
“God, this person needs help
with this. Please, God, provide
them what they need, and the
grace and courage to keep go-
ing.” Not that God doesn’t al-
ready know all that, but prayer is
a time to recognize that for God
this person is important, to
spend time in a relationship in
which heartbreak and sorrow are
not dismissed but lifted up.
Except sometimes it’s just
depressing. Too much heart-
break, too much anxiety, too
much bad news. My cell phone
rings, and I’m not sure I want to
answer. (Just as I was writing
this, my cell phone rang. Our
administrative assistant, Joyce
Nance, had to take her son
Christopher, visiting from San
Diego, into the Emergency
Room. What we had thought
was food poisoning turned out to
be appendicitis, and suddenly
Joyce had more urgent things to
do than get the church newslet-
ter out. Which is why you’re
receiving this newsletter now)
Believe me, I get why peo-
ple turn off the news, don’t want
to know what’s going on with
their neighbors, prefer not to get
involved. Because then we’d
have to care, and we’d have to
admit that life can get very
tough, and happy endings don’t
come along very often. And
what do you do with that?
What you do with that, I
find, is get real. I discover again
and again that it’s a real comfort
to people in distress to talk with
someone who doesn’t shy away
from the hard stuff. (or at least
tries not to). When we are really
being the church, we lift up so
many people going through can-
cer, or out of work, or . . . we
grieve, we mourn with people
that we almost get to the point
where maybe we can talk about .
. death. Loss. All the different
ways that life doesn’t work out
the way you planned. We al-
most get to the point where we
don’t run away when our friends
and neighbors go through hard-
ship, but instead move closer.
(I’m trying to be careful here,
because I’m painfully aware of
how the church has failed, again
and again, to get real and move
closer. All too often, our Chris-
tianity doesn’t overcome just
how darn human we all are).
Finally, though, it comes
down to following Jesus. Our
Lord and Savior, all over the
gospels, walks toward, rather
than away from, the very people
who are hurting and grieving and
dying. If we are following Je-
sus, we are going to spend at
least some of our time with the
hurting and the grieving and the
dying. And we may discover, in
the very places and situations we
most want to run away from, that
Jesus is right there.
Pastor Elizabeth
Pastor:
Rev. Elizabeth Larsen
Office: 503-777-1443
Monday-Thursday: 9:00-2:00 pm
Off Fridays
Cell Phone: 503-267-8053
Organ/Piano: Arlan Evensen
Administrative Assistant/
Newsletter Editor:
Joyce Nance
Office: 503-777-1443
Monday-Thursday: 8:30-1:30 pm
Off Fridays
Council President: Brian Steves
Custodian: Robert Thomas
Webmaster: Scot Brende
Servant Fund Chair:
Sally Durham
Ministers to Chinese
Community:
Pastors Andrew Yong & Terry Yang
503-860-3388 (Pr. Andrew)
Asamblea Apostolica: Pastor Andres
Cruz 503-333-5038
Who’s Who at St. Mark’s
AS SERVANTS OF CHRIST THE SERVANT, WE ARE CALLED BY GOD TO:
Spread the Word of God through worship, prayer, discipleship and education
Spread God’s love by example through service, advocacy and community
Be spirit-led stewards of our time, talents and money
2
To the members of St. Mark’s — Thank you
for the cards and expressions of sympathy we
received.
We are very grateful to the many people
who helped with John’s memorial.
Thank you.
—The Kennedy Family
Blessings received and thank yous
The Quilters Make Their Move The quilters have found a new space for their monthly quilting ses-
sion and will now be meeting in the Unit 2 classroom on the main
floor of the west side of the building. The advantage of having their
own space means they will not need to set-up the quilting frame be-
fore each work session and thus can get right to the quilting.
The next quilting session will be Thursday September 25th in Unit
2 beginning at 10am (you’re encouraged to bring a sack lunch).
Your prayers and wonderful words of care and
concern were very much appreciated by my son and
me following his unexpected surgery for appendicitis
while visiting from San Diego.
After a second trip to the ER he seems to be feel-
ing much better and on his way to recovery.
Thank you so very much.
—Joyce Nance and son, Christopher
About this time, 90 years ago, St.
Mark’s was getting started: it was
organized on July 13, 1924 and in-
corporated on November 10,
1924. (At that time, we worshipped
in a building at 4225 SE 63rd Ave-
nue).
So it seems fitting to plan a birthday
party. Mark your calendars now for All
Saints Sunday, November 2nd, at 2pm in
the social hall. Begin thinking of what St.
Mark’s memorabilia you might want to bring
in, and friends and former members you
might need to invite!
Time for a party!
7
Save the Date
Lutheran Community Services
Northwest
Annual Fundraising Lunch
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Downtown Portland Marriott Hotel
Social Hour: 12:30pm Lunch &
Program: 1:30pm
Introducing
LCSNW President/CEO David Duea
RSVP: http://www.lcsnw.org/rsvp/
Fabric Kits to sew the backpacks
will be available in the Coffee
Room beginning Sunday, Sep-
tember 7th. They must be re-
turned by October 12th. If you
have any questions check with
Sally Durham.
Items Needed
for each Backpack:
Four 70-sheet notebooks
(280-300 sheets total)
One 30-centimeter ruler,
or with both inches & centime-
ters
One pencil sharpener
One pair of blunt scis-
sors
Five unsharpened #2
Pencils w/erasers
Five black or blue ball-
point pens, no gel ink
One box of 16 or 24
crayons
One 2 1/2” eraser
Why school supplies? To
the children who receive
School Kits, these supplies
mean the difference between
getting an education or not. Public school is usually free, but
in the places where LWR works,
even a few required supplies,
like pens and paper, may be
more than many families can
afford.
And when parents can only
afford to send one of their chil-
dren to school, girls rarely get
priority…yet the education level
of mothers has the biggest im-
pact on development.
Please keep in mind that
these kits are going all over the
world, to very diverse locations.
So school supplies with religious
messages or military themes are
not appropriate.
Time to start collecting school supplies for Lutheran World Relief backpacks
Camp Lutherwood Oregon
cordially invites you to the inaugural
Oktoberfest Celebration & Fundraiser
Saturday, October 4, 2014 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. At Camp Lutherwood Oregon 22960 Highway 36
Cheshire, OR 97419
An Oktoberfest themed meal Beer and wine tasting
Auction and event experiences
The favor of your response is requested by September 15, 2014 by calling 541-998-6444 or by purchasing tickets. Tickets can be purchased by mailing a check to the above ad-
dress or online. (www.http://lutherwoodoregon.org/)
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3
Leadership at St. Mark’s In June I was able to attend a
leadership conference in Spokane,
thanks to financial help from PEM
and the St. Mark’s Servant Fund.
This was sponsored by the Indus-
trial Areas Foundation (IAF).
Okay, so what does this all mean?
IAF was started in 1960 in
Chicago and is a charitable or-
ganization. One of the things it
does is help build leadership
though an understanding of power
and relationships with mediating
institutions such as churches and
unions
Power is the ability to act.
The Iron Rule of this group is
“Don’t do anything for someone
that they can do for themselves -
but it’s okay to do “with” them.”
Don’t impose your agenda on
people you’re trying to help. Us-
ing power focuses on organizing
our values as individuals and
groups. We did some work on that
with our Congregational Conver-
sations. What are we called to do?
How can we do it, using the
power that we have as a group and
as individuals? What role will
each of us play?
Relationships are made by
weaving together our goals, val-
ues, interests and visions. Rela-
tional power is using mutual
self-interests for the greater
good. Together we are stronger.
How do we find out about oth-
ers so we can work together
with them? Some questions for
you to answer are: How well do
you know the person sitting
next to you in church, at work,
at home? What are their self-
interests that motivate them?
What are your self-interests that
motivate you in both your pri-
vate and public lives (they are
intertwined and overlap.)? Are
your conversations with others
chit chat or discussions of real
life issues?
Leadership involves look-
ing at the world in four ways:
how it should not be, how it is,
how it should be and how can it
still be better. Sometimes it
takes tension, such as with a
crisis event, to get us thinking
about these four ideas. It’s easy
to say that something is like it
should not be. It’s pretty easy to
say how things are. It gets
harder, and is a more difficult
conversation, to look at how
things should be; and it’s very
hard to look towards how things
can still be better. On a personal
note, I believe that all of us have
a leadership role at St. Mark’s. It
may look different for each of us
– but we can each find ways to
further God’s work through St.
Mark’s.
In October, we’ll be looking
back at the past year of work at
St. Mark’s based on our Congre-
gational Conversations. Please
participate fully again to cele-
brate our successes and look to-
ward ways to move forward.
Our personal power and power
as a group can make the world a
better place as we live out being
Servants of Christ the Servant.
Mary Karter
Checking in and moving forward So, those congregational con-
versations we had last fall. What
ever came of all that? Funny you
should ask.
The congregation of St. Mark’s,
wrestling with the question “What
is God calling us to do and to be as
Servants of Christ the Servant?”
came up with some really great an-
swers. (They’re right there to your
left). Asked “how do we live this
out?” St. Mark’s came up with
more great answers. (There’s no
space to list them all!)
People got excited about things,
people stepped up to do things, it
was great.
Now it’s time to ask “How
are we doing? What balls got
dropped? Where do we need to
make a mid-course correction?
What didn’t work — and what
can we learn from that? AND
where are you going to commit
your time, talents and energy?”
SO mark your calendars and
plan to be at the congregational
brunch on Sunday, October
12th in the social hall. Sally
and Dolores will provide a won-
derful meal, you bring your
prayerful considerations about
our ministry.
Then, the results and con-
clusions and next steps will be
presented to the congregation,
appropriately enough, on Ref-
ormation Sunday, Oct. 26th.
And on All Saints Sunday,
Nov. 2nd, we’ll celebrate 90
years of ministry and more to
come.
4
Celebrate Life Together
Birthdays September, 2014
Brenda Richards, 2nd
Dorothy Seiffert, 5th
Madeline Grimm, 5th
Hannah Schink, 10th
Tom E. Rutger, 13th
Carol Thompson, 20th
Grace Steves, 22nd
Dorothy Long, 22nd
Dolores Millett, 22nd
Alison Fajardo, 22nd
Bob Olsrud, 28th
Vicki Rutger, 30th
Anniversaries
Dedi & Rich Juhala 1st
Joanne & Tom Brady, 12th
Jeri & Gary Dayton, 16th
Laura & William Donnelley, 19th
Ruth & Gerald Griffith, 15th
Amy Larson & Brian Steves, 28th
Prayers & Concerns
Unable to worship with us: Fay Day,
Lenora Johnson, Ceil Libke, Fern Luke,
Don McLaughlin, Pauline McNeff, Aud-
rey Rutger, Billie Smith, Lucille Stariha,
Dorothy Swanson, Clareann Teeters, Carol
Thompson, Marguerite Thomson, Ruth
Wentzein, Dorothy Trimble, & Doris Zilk.
Continued Needs: Fern Luke, Robert Thir-
inger, Lucille Stariha, Carol Deo, Rev Jim
& Dorothy Seiffert, Esther Stotik, Laura
Keith-Byland, John Etzel, Dorothy Trim-
ble, Mark Gardner, Lorna Schwartz, Crys-
tal and her children
The Church & Beyond: The Oregon
Synod and our partner churches; the Port-
land Eastside Ministry Coalition; Pastor
Yong’s & Terry’s Ministry to the Chinese
Community; Pastor Cruz and the Asamblea
Apostolica; our service men and women,
our Muslim brothers and sisters; the volun-
teers and clients of the food pantry, clothes
closet and community basket; everyone
affected by and responding to the conflict
in Syria; the people of the Ukraine; the
missing girls in Nigeria.
FOOD PANTRY: Fridays from 3 to 6 PM
BETHLEHEM CHILDREN’S CLOTHING CLOSET
Coordinated by Brenda Richards and Deb Schulz
4th Saturday from NOON to 2 PM
A MINIMUM OF 5 VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED EACH WEEK
*A MAXIMUM OF SIX VOLUNTEERS FOR EFFICIENCY
Date *Volunteers
September
27th
Lynda Kennedy
Five Additional Volunteers Needed
October
25th
Lynda Kennedy
*Five volunteers needed
November
22nd
Lynda Kennedy
*Five volunteers needed
SEPT.
5TH
Madeline
Grimm
Al Bowen, Dolores Morelli
Jenny Winter, Brenna
SEPT.
12TH
Ed Thiringer Madeline Grimm, Sally
Durham, Dolores Morelli, The
Osgoods (3)
SEPT.
19TH
Mary
Karter
Madeline Grimm, Brenda
Richards, Pastor & Max,
D.B.
SEPT.
26TH
Mary
Karter
Jennifer Lubin & Milo,
Roxanne, Gene Petrasso, Lorie
Petrasso
Date Lead Volun-
teer
Volunteers
Updates:
Lorna and Al Schwartz: Moving to Powell Valley Assisted Liv-
ing, 4001 SE 182nd, Gresham, OR 97030-5025
Worship Ministries at St. Mark’s Please speak with one of the coordinators (whose names are below each of the ministries listed) if you would like to
get involved with one of these important ministries.
SEPTEMBER
2014
7
Pentecost 13
14
Holy Cross Day
Color of the day is red
21
Pentecost 15
28
Pentecost 16
Communion at the
rail
Greeters
Ed Thiringer
Buck & Carole Johnson Marg Lyseng Jean Johnson Dorothy Long
Prayers of the People
Joyce Nance
Teresa Osgood Mary Karter Sally Durham Dolores Morelli
Readers
Lori Petrasso
Mary Karter Jean Johnson Jeri Dayton Marcia Olney
Nursery Attendant
Jeri Dayton
Vicki Rutger Dolores Morelli Carole Johnson
Lorie Petrasso
Jeri Dayton
Ushers
Brian Etzel
David Sawyer
Don Olney
Travis Osgood
Madeline Grimm
Marg Lyseng
Brenda Richards
Terry Larson
Gene Petrasso
Ruth Griffith
Buck Johnson
Vicki Rutger
Brian Etzel
Brian Fajardo
Lynda Kennedy
Lafe Hallum
Wholly Love
Sally Durham &
Dolores Morelli
Madeline Grimm Sally Durham Teresa Osgood Jon Cheskin
Communion
Assistants
Lori Petrasso
Virginia Langley
Brenda Richards
Marg Lyseng
Brian Fajardo
Don Olney
Marcia Olney
Brenda Richards
Virginia Langley
Lynda Kennedy
Gene Petrasso
Don Olney
Marcia Olney
Communion Prep
Vicki Rutger
Lynda Kennedy Jeri & Gary Dayton Vicki & Tom Rutger Lorie & Gene Petrasso
Bread Baker
Brenda Richards
Brenda Richards Jeri Dayton Vicki Rutger Lorie Petrasso
Sound System Bob Olsrud Bob Olsrud Brian Fajardo Bob Olsrud
Announcements
Terry Larson
Refreshments
Lynda Kennedy
TBA Lynda Kennedy TBA TBA
Counters
Mary Karter
Brian Etzel
Mary Karter
Ed Thiringer
Sally Durham
Bob Olsrud
Edgar Ronning
Al Bowen
Dolores Morelli
Jean Johnson
Brian Etzel
Madeline Grimm
Gary Lippert
Marg Lyseng
Wanted: Wheelbarrows, Shovels & Willing Workers! Thursday
Sept.11.Time to spruce up our landscaping before fall. Bark dust will be
delivered that day. We need willing bodies to help spread it around the
church. Work party starts at 5 p.m. Hot dogs, beverages & ice cream
will be served. Come when you can, stay as long as you are able. (We
appreciate donations to help pay for the bark dust — please mark your
giving)