St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church

We will soon begin a three week book study on “The New Parish”, by Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens and Dwight J. Friesen.

This book is about what it means to be a church that is focused on God’s mission with our neighbors, and therefore with each other.  We hope to begin to re-imagine how to let the love we have within these walls spill outside, into this neighborhood and beyond.

The study will be led by Intern Pastor, Dave Adams, and will be held on Tuesdays, July 19th, July 26th and August 2nd.  Sessions will be held both at noon and at 7:30 pm.  You can attend whichever session works for you on that day.

The books are available in the church office for $10 or you can purchase a Kindle version at amazon.com for $10.

Please sign up in the church office by July 14th.  If you have any questions, call us at 701-772-4807.

St. Mark’s members will be packing 1000 bags of food tonight for the St. Joseph Summer Backpack Program.  We will begin at 6:30 pm.   We will also pack bags June 21, July 5 and July 19.

St. Joseph’s provides free lunch for youth 0-18 for eight weeks in the summer at 9 locations in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks.  The bags we prepare tonight will be distributed on Fridays to supplement weekend meals.  Last year we packed and St. Joseph’s distributed approx. 3600 bags (enough for 72o0 meals).

The Backpack Program helps those in need, exactly what we are called to do as followers of Christ.

Our spring congregational meeting will be held following worship on Sunday, April 17th.

Four council members will be elected for three year terms.

We will also discuss options for replacing our current heating system.  Funding will  be discussed.

Our worship schedule this week is:

Maundy Thursday  (March 24th)    6:45 p.m.

Good Friday  (March 25th)     Noon

Easter Sunday  (March 27th)  9:30 a.m.

Sunday, November 1st, is All Saints Sunday.   During worship, we will honor those members of our St. Mark’s family who have died in this last year.  In doing so, we demonstrate our belief that all the baptized are saints of God.  We grieve for our beloved dead, knowing that God honors our tears.  May God bless the memory of:  Joyce Hollevoet, Stephen Kolar, Scott Gilbraith, Cathy Borden and Fred Wukits.

On this special day, we also celebrate the gift of our baptismal relationship with God.  The following have been baptized at St. Mark’s in the last year:  Roman, Angus, Aliyah, Jeremiah and Isaac.  

On September 1st, St. Mark’s welcomes David Adams as our new Interim Pastor.

Dave is currently a student at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, working on his Master of Divinity degree.  He is in their DL (Distributed Learning) program and will be doing some of his course work online and the rest on campus.

Dave will be with us on a part-time basis.  He will continue to serve at Calvary Lutheran part-time in their youth ministry and contemporary worship coordinator.

September 6th, will be Dave’s first worship service.    Office hours for him will begin September 1st.  We are excited to work with Dave and encourage you to stop in and get to know him.

Vacation Bible School at St. Mark’s will be held August 9-12.  A family supper will be served at 5:30 and the sessions each evening run 6-8:30 pm.  Classes are available for ages 4 years old through 5th grade.

The theme this year is “Everest – Conquering Challenges with God’s Mighty Power”.   The kids will embark on an icy expedition to learn how to overcome obstacles with God’s awesome power.  Through rock-solid Bible truths, the kids will be anchored and guided through life’s challenges.

Registrations will be taken at the first session.

St. Mark’s is taking part in St. Joseph’s Social Care’s Summer Lunch Program for youth this summer. Every weekday from June 8th through July 31st, meals are provided to children in our community without charge.

To ensure that these children have meals during the weekend, food is distributed on Fridays. That is where St. Mark’s is able to help.

We are helping out by packing those meals that will be distributed. This week, we had 31 volunteers at the church who packed 640 bags! Next week we will finish up that first 1000 bags.

Our next day of packing will be June 16th at 6:30 p.m. at the church. It is a great program and we all enjoy being a part of it.

Check out our facebook page to see pictures of our first packing event June 2nd.

May 10th is Mother’s Day! Don’t forget to let the special ladies in your life how important they are to you.

It is also the last day of Sunday School here at St. Mark’s until the fall. Thank you to our Education Committee for all their hard work throughout this school term.

Our Sunday School students have been taking guitar lessons this spring from Joel Alarcon. During worship on May 10th, they will be sharing some of what they have learned.

See you for worship at 9:30!

The theme of the annual WELCA Mother, Daughter, Sister and Friend Brunch is “New Beginnings”. The brunch will be held Saturday, May 16th, 10-Noon. (PLEASE NOTE THIS DATE CORRECTION – THE DATE IN THE MESSENGER IS INCORRECT.)

The speaker will be Jennifer Norton, Volunteer Coordinator for Global Friends Coalition. The brunch is free of charge, but there will be a free-will offering taken that will be passed along to the Coalition. The organization relies on grant money for purchase of materials such as picture dictionaries, and other materials to help with English. They also have a volunteer who teaches citizenship classes once a week and they provide New Americans with the needed tools to pass the citizenship test.

This will be a great morning of fellowship and food. Please RSVP to the church at 772-4807 or email us at stmarkselca@msn.com.

Again, the correct date of the brunch is May 16th.