St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church

Merry Christmas from all of us at St. Mark’s.

Our Christmas Eve worship will be held at 5:30 p.m.

The church office will be closed December 24-26.

We hope all of you have safe travels and a very Merry Christmas.

Tara Mulder from LIRS (Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service) has written an article on St. Mark’s.  The article, which talks about the work St. Mark’s does with New American Services, is featured in their November newsletter.    Our annual Thanksgiving dinner for refugees who have arrived in Grand Forks this past year was highlighted.

Please go to http://lirs.org/rebuildinghope111402/ to read this great article.

St. Mark’s annual Advent Festival will be held during worship this Sunday, December 16th, at 9:30 am.  Our Spark Sunday School students will present a program called “Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa’s”.  There will be singing, a string trio, readings, etc.

The Sanctuary Choir will also share some musical selections.

Following worship, there will be a congregational potluck lunch in the fellowship hall.  The youth who attending the Youth Gathering in New Orleans last summer will share some of their experiences from their trip.

Please plan to join us.

Our Annual Youth Bake Sale/Auction will be held following worship this Sunday, December 9th.  Donations of baked goods will be appreciated.

Dennis Biliske will be donating his time again this year to serve as our auctioneer.  He does a great job and helps make this a fun event.  Thanks, Dennis!

This is an excellent opportunity to fill your freezer with Christmas goodies for the holidays.  Proceeds will be used to fund our various youth ministries.

See you there!

“The Christmas Star” is the theme for this year’s WELCA brunch, which will be held this Saturday, December 8th, at 10:00 am.  PLEASE NOTE THIS CLARIFICATION ON THE TIME.

Family and friends are welcome to attend this brunch where we will share food, music and fellowship.

RSVP (if possible) to the church office at 772-4807.

The Salvation Army has designated Sunday, December 9th, as “Gifts for Baby Jesus Sunday” (formerly known as “White Gift Sunday”).

This is a wonderful time for our congregation members to help the children of low income families who live in Grand Forks County and the city of East Grand Forks.   On December 9th, please consider bringing a gift for a boy or girl wrapped in simple white tissue paper.  There will be a special time during worship to bring these gifts up front and place them under the Christmas trees.

The gifts will be distributed by the Salvation Army through their annual Christmas Food and Toy Baskets.   What a heart filled day this will be for the children in our community.

Our Thanksgiving Worship will be held this Wednesday, November 21st, at 6:00 pm.  The offering received for this service has been designated for Christus Rex, Lutheran Social Services, Red Willow Bible Camp, Valley Memorial Homes and Missionary Support.  This is the third offering taken this year that will be sent to these special ministries.

We hope you all have a Thanksgiving day filled with family, friends and laughter.

Thank you to all of you who donated items for the Undies Sunday Project.  A total of 18,838 items were collected, 146 of those being donated by people of St. Mark’s.  That is an increase of 43 items from last year. 

The items have already been distributed to area agencies.

Thanks for making a difference!

Our Spark Sunday School students are participating in Northland Rescue Mission’s Kids+  Bridging the Gap program.   Children’s backpacks will be filled with food for weekends and holidays and given to students in need.  Without these backpacks of food, these GF students may go hungry while not in school.

Our Sunday School students have made gift tags for purchase and they are hanging on the bulletin board by the office.  In exchange for the gift tags, they are asking for donations of food to be distributed for this program.  Please donate non-perishable food from this list: 

Individual serving boxes of dry cereal or instant oatmeal,     Canned meals such as Spaghetti O’s, Ravioli, Soups, etc,   Macaroni and Cheese/Easy Mac,   Crackers, chips, pretzels (Goldfish, Cheez-Its, plain Ritz, etc.),   Juice boxes/cocoa packets,   Fruit or vegetable cups,   Fruit snacks/Pudding/Jello cups.

DUE TO THE RISE IN PEANUT ALLERGY CASES, MOST SCHOOLS NOW HAVE PEANUT FREE CAMPUSES. Please take care when shopping to make sure nothing contains peanuts or other tree nuts.    

Gift tags will be sold through December 16th.    Cash donations will also be accepted.

Let’s see how many backpacks we can fill!

Sunday, October 28th, is Food Cupboard Sunday.  There is a shopping cart in the narthex for donations of non-perishable food items and personal care items.  Your donations will be taken to the Salvation Army for distribution.    Food Cupboard Sunday is the last Sunday of each month.  Thanks for your donations!