Peace Talk570-343-9828 www.yourpeace.orgPeace Lutheran Church

It was with much thankfulness and praise to God, yet with great sadness, that we said goodbye to Jill Trapane on her last Sunday of service to our congregation on Dec. 30th.  The choir sang and we all enjoyed her fabulous organ playing one last time before we took her out to lunch after worship.  We all pray for her new work in the church she ministered before in for many years - only a mile from her home in Berwick.  Thank you, Jill, for all your wonderful service.  We will miss you! Efforts are underway to find another choir director/organist, but until then we will be happy to have our own Hannah Bjornstad play the organ at our worship services!

Thank You Jill!

An Apostol ic Mission Congregation of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

January 2013

YOUTH NIGHT - WITH A NEW YOUTH CHOIR! STARTING FRIDAY, JANUARY 18TH!  The kids have been clamoring for Youth Night and so we are going to be starting it up again every Friday night starting January 18th! Thanks to Tina Goble for heading this up with her mother Cheryl helping out!  We would LOVE to have other adult help - especially when Pastor Bjornstad can't be around! NEW TO THE MIX is a YOUTH CHOIR - Directed by Hannah Bjornstad!  The Youth Choir will gather at 6:30pm on Fridays and then the games and fun will start at 7pm and end at 8 sharp!  We will sing for worship probably every other Sunday.  Talk with Hannah Bjornstad or Pastor if you need transportation!

We thank the Sunday School kids for sharing a FABULOUS Pageant this past Dec. 16th! This is the picture of the happy cast! Thanks to Hannah Bjornstad and Monica Bjornstad who helped direct! Thanks also to the number of parents who helped along the way too!

THE LUTHERAN ACADEMY AND IMMANUEL PRESCHOOL NEWS!!!

Share the news of the Academy and Preschool!We will have an important OPEN HOUSE at the Academy on

Thursday, January 24th between 5:30 and 7pm!!!!Please invite your friends and neighbors to check out what we can offer their family!

PARENTS THANK THE CONGREGATION:On Sunday, December 23rd, Rev. Brian and Theresa Nichols, parents of two of our Academy students shared a "thank you" to the congregation for the blessings their family has received through the Academy. The family also writes for this newsletter these words:

"He (the Lord) fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them." Psalm 145:19

We love The Lutheran Academy!  Our children love going to school now and are inspired to learn and grow both academically and spiritually.  Thank you for your sincere faith born out in your good deeds towards our children.  We are forever grateful to God for your sacrifice and labor of love.  God has truly provided for us through you and has met some pronounced needs in our children's lives.  Thank you for making it so affordable with your gifts of support to the school.  We wouldn't have been able to send our 2 children without your financial backing.  In my prayers, I tell my Lord all about you and your love for the children.  You have touched our lives for Christ's sake, and we will never be the same.

In Christian love, Rev. Brian and Theresa, Matthew and Tess Nichols

FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THE ACADEMY:Academy Donations:  Over the month of December over $3000 was donated to the Lutheran Academy.  We need at least $10,000 every year to bring the Academy books into some kind of reasonable balance.  Please remember the Academy as the Lord blesses you!

A VERY HAPPY STORY of how God is blessing the Academy: Several years ago we took in a very special family with four children for a whole year - who came to the Academy mostly on scholarships as they were struggling mightily. The family moved back to New Hampshire after the year was over and God strengthened them again. But they did not forget the blessing that the Academy was to them. Now for over two years, every month they send a $40 check to support the Academy. This is a tremendous encouragement for us! A very true blessing from the Lord! Proof that what we do makes a difference in the lives of beautiful children of God!

The Academy at the Cultural Center in Scranton for the performance of "The Nutcracker!" by the Civic Ballet!

MISSIONS NEWS!

SUPPORT OUR YOUTH! DISCOUNT CARD SALES: Praise the Lord we have FOUR of our youth registered for the national LCMS Youth Gathering next summer! Alison McHale will be our chaperone and we will be traveling with youth from Immanuel and St. Peter's Lutheran churches. Over the next weeks they will be selling $10 coupon cards that are good for a whole year for various restaurants and local businesses! Thanks for your support

SHARING THE GOODNESS AT IMMANUEL LUTHERAN:

Pasta Dinner (Ziti with Pepperoni)Date: Friday, January 18, 2013

Time: 4:00-7:00 pm Price: $8 (pastor has tickets!) This dinner will be for Jason Pencek and his family. Please come and help us encourage and

support Jason, who is still recovering from severe injuries sustained in from a lightning strike in August at the Pocono Raceway (his friend was the one who was killed.) Jason is an Elder at Immanuel. We are

hoping for a large turnout to cheer and inspire Jason, Erin and the girls, as well as to offer a bit of financial support. Thrivent will contribute matching funds for this event.

 

Quilt and Chinese Auction to Support Costa Rica Mission TripDate: Saturday, January 12, 2013Time: 1:00 pm Admission: $5

Come and enjoy the fun of an old-fashioned auction, as we offer quilts and other items for bidding. A Chinese auction is also on the agenda. Refreshments wil l be served.

Three members of Immanuel (Barbara Latniak, Sigi Nerz and Kathy Norris) will participate in this mission trip, sponsored by MOST Ministries. This team will teach the women quilting and craft skills that they can use to earn income for their families. Each day will begin with sharing a devotion with the women from the church.

SUSAN CROSBIE, OUR PARISH NURSE, WILL BE TRAVELING TO EQUADOR JANUARY 11TH for a week of medical missions helping to attend to eye surgeries! May the Lord BLESS HER and the whole medical team! We are looking forward to lots of pictures and sharing when she gets back!

DISASTER RELIEF MISSIONS CONTINUED IN DECEMBER and we are planning new missions again yet for January! Please keep your eyes peeled for news on when our trips will take place so you can join them!

Lutheran Women's Mission League MITE COLLECTION will be on January 27th! There are LWML "Mite Boxes" at the back of the church if you would pick one up and start collecting your "Mites"!

THE LWML NATIONAL CONVENTION will be in Pittsburgh this coming June 27-30! Pastor and Monica Bjornstad will be attending and we hope to FILL THE VAN with attendees from Immanuel and Peace! Registration opens in February and more information will be coming on this very inspirational and uplifting event! It doesn't come this way very often, so we should take advantage of it!

ANYONE FOR GOING TO ALASKA THIS COMING SUMMER? There is interest in forming another VBS mission team! If you are interested, please speak with Pastor Bjornstad!

Here Pastor Bjornstad is standing with mission team member Drew Klees with Regina after we took out the flooring in her house. We are looking to get back soon and put the NEW floor down!

WORSHIP AND SPIRITUAL LIFEat Peace Lutheran ChurchWE CONTINUE OUR "THE STORY" ADVENTURES! In January we will be reading Chapters 15-19 of our special edition of Scriptures!! Please join us for Bible Studies at 9:30 on Sunday! We need to pray that we don't loose our enthusiasm for God's Word! Keep READING and PRAYING!

Our Sunday Schedule is as follows: + 8:15 Worship with Holy Communion + 9:15 Education Hour for Adults and Children + 10:30 Worship Celebration (with Holy Communion 1st and 3rd Sundays/month)

January 6th (Epiphany Sunday) Chapters 14&15January 13th (Baptism of the Lord) Chap. 16January 20th Chapter 17 January 27th (LIFE Sunday!) Chapter 18

CHAPTER 15 of "The Story" features the famous "firey chariot" from heaven which took Elijah to heaven! Our master bulletin illustrator Ky Betts shares his rendition here!

Mom's Bible study/Fellowship!  We have a number of new families in the "mix" here at Peace Lutheran and Amy Betts is wondering if any moms want to join together for fellowship and a encouraging Bible Study a couple times a month?  You can talk to her at church or call her at 315-767-3585!

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path!

Pastor Bjornstad is praying someone from Peace would come along with him to Washington DC - to help fill the van along with members of other area congregational! This will be a fabulous and uplifting experience! January 14th is registration deadline! Check the website for complete information!

Nursing Home/Rehab Facility 'Confinement' from a younger, formerly healthy person's viewpoint =

First, MANY thanks to those of you who prayed for me, wrote or phoned me, and visited me while I spent 2 months either in the hospital or rehab facility, from October through December.

By the way, getting old is not for the faint-hearted! What an experience, going from my own little apt. with 3 cats to a "facility"! The good news? "Three squares a day" (choice of 2 entrees), breakfast in bed, "room service" at your beck & call, daily housekeeping, and much more. The bad news? Communal showers, constant alarms (LOUD) in room & out, night owls (people with various dementias who sing, yell, talk repetively in the halls while 'normal' folks are trying to sleep), and yes, the occasional abusive aide or Hitler-like nurse.

Going from independence overnight to LACK of ANY independence is a real shock...Praise God I at least had most of my mental faculties working for me. My struggle to maintain any sense of that independence or autonomy began with thehospitalization, when I actually refused a procedure (much to the dismay of many, who feared the doctor's wrath). It continued when I seemed to get "railroaded" out of the hospital to said rehab/nursing home, while getting "bomber" IV meds for aninfection which might have been acquired in hospital...and ended up the second night THERE, being intimidated by & refused help by an aide, who, I felt, had me at her mercy. I had visions of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". (I did report her 2 days later. She's still there, with an improved attitude.)

The good news? Obviously, I survived, thanks to your prayers & God's mercy. In fact, I think I got an unusual opportunity to minister as well as be ministered to, during mystay at the "puppy farm" as I called it (from a comic strip in the paper). I believe the large majority of folks there were worse off than I, in that it wasn't

likely they'd go back home from there. I saw first hand what it's like to be a "throw away" from one's family by observing how visitors were with their relatives. I saw what it was like to have no one to visit; to be unable to communicate one's needs; to be treated as "less than".

More good news? I did see, more often than not, folks treated lovingly - aides AND nurses taking turns alike, feeding those who couldn't feed themselves, in the dining room, while smiling & talking with them as if they were their OWN loved ones..."Conversations" with smiles & laughter & respect, even when there might not be an answer....Encouragement at the smallest effort in physical therapy.

This made me want to give back, after I left for home. I would very much like to encourage YOU to think about volunteering in some way at a nursing/rehab facility open to that.

I so enjoyed making a Christmas ornament with a woman who could barely see due to macular degeneration. We worked together, she not the least embarrassed at my help, and I was blessed. There are lots of other seemingly innocuous activities which residents are encouraged (sometimes pushed) to participate in - and seem to enjoy, no matter the level. Also, there are lots of readers. It's possible to donate your used books/magazines for the pleasure of residents in this kind of facility - or donate a newspaper subscription.

There are people & organizations from the community who give time to brighten the long days of folks in rehab/nursing homes = but my guess would be, not near enough.Church groups sang carols; one man showed really fun old movies on Monday nights (knew each audience member by name); another brought his "one man band" to sing to/with the long-timers. He could get some folks to sing along with him from their wheelchairs.

One fellow sitting next to me during this man's Christmas sing-along, a perennial "trouble maker", turned into a veritable angel while we sang! I was amazed. Even people who continually made

noise were mesmerized by the music - going back totheir old ways at the end of the programs, but having had some pleasurable time for a while!

I could bend your ears for hours with observations/experiences....Ask me anytime! Maybe you have a loved one in such a situation, wondering what it's really like - I say you don't really know until it's YOU in that situation....Having NO personal freedom or privacy or autonomy = kind of like prison, I think.

Maybe there's an opportunity for ministry for you at a nursing home/rehab facility: try it, you might like it. I know the residents will!

Blessings, Marilyn B Wright

PS The gift of altar flowers to brighten my hospital room from Elsie Schweitzer was SO timely & appreciated! Some of those flowers even made it to my 1/2 room at the "puppy farm"! Poinsettias from another parishioner are STILL being enjoyed! Trust me - those things DO make a difference! (Including slippers & a shift from another dear one!) THANK YOU ALL!

MISC. NOTES:Hannah and Marja are singing Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" at the Martin Luther King, Jr.'s observances at the Scranton High School January 20th at 6pm.

If your iphone breaks know that you can go see Joey Schulze at the Steamtown iPhone fix it shop!!  He is the new manager there!

NEW WORSHIPPERS: Among quite a few others, please welcome Joyce and Jeff Spies and their children Ryan, Jacob, and Zachary! They were invited to church by Laura Hartsgrove when they moved into the neighborhood! They are originally from Syracuse area and Jeff works at Wegmans!

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