Aurora Trinity Lutheran Parish Monthly Newsletter

April, 2012
www.auroratrinitylutheran.org

Palm Sunday
April 1, 2012 Aurora: 9:00 a.m. Worship Service (Sunday School students sing in church) 10:00 a.m. Sunday School Trinity: 10:30 a.m. Worship Service

Food Shelf Sunday at Aurora

The next food shelf Sunday at Aurora will be on st Sunday, April 1 . Please give to this worthy cause and help people in need.

Aurora Ushers
Is there month that would work for you to usher? Please contact Brian Jensen at 507-475-1746 to volunteer.

Maundy Thursday
April 5, 2012 Trinity Maundy Thursday Service: 7:00 p.m.

Good Friday
April 6, 2012 Aurora Good Friday Service: 7:00 p.m.

Attention All Luther League Members

Practice for the Easter Sunrise Service will be on th Saturday, April 7 at 9:00 a.m. All members need to attend the practice and attend the Sunrise Service at th 7:00 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 8 . Luther League is th th for all Aurora and Trinity 6 through 12 grade students. If you have any questions, please can contact Nathele Beadell at 319-4146.

Easter Sunday
April 8, 2012 Aurora: 7:00 a.m. Sunrise Service 8:00 a.m. Breakfast 9:00 a.m. Easter Service Trinity: 10:15 a.m. Easter Service

Easter Flowers
With Easter right around the corner, it is time to start thinking about Easter memorial flowers. If you wish to display flowers in memory of someone at the Easter th Service, please let Kayla know by Thursday, April 5 by e-mailing information to owatpaape@aol.com or by calling 451-3941 or 507-390-2039.

Lenten Offering Folders

Dont forget to fill the Lenten folders & turn them in by th Easter Sunday, April 8

Uh oh.the mosquitoes are coming!

You wont find them outside here in Minnesota this time of year. But in Africa, they come out at night. And they arent just pesky annoyances. They can be deadly. Did you know that every 45 seconds, a child in Africa dies because of a mosquito bite? The leading cause of death in Africa is malaria, a disease past along by the mosquitoes there. But this can be prevented! Just $10 can buy a mosquito net that protects children and adults from the mosquitoes. During this Lenten season, the money collected from the Lenten Offering folders will go toward the ELCAs Malaria campaign, which purchases mosquito nets for families in Africa. Each completed folder purchases a net! There are 40 days in Lent can we reach 40 (or more!) nets?

Newsletter Information Deadline

Please have all information for the April newsletter and th calendar to Kayla by Thursday, April 19 . Please email your information to owatpaape@aol.com or you can call either 451-3941 or 507-390-2039.

Aurora Church Council

The April Aurora church council meeting will be on th Wednesday, April 18 at 6:30 p.m. at Aurora.

Christ in Our Home Booklets

The Christ in Our Home Booklets are available for the months of April, May, and June. Please pick yours up in the respective churches.

Aurora WELCA News

The next WELCA meeting will be on Saturday, April th 15 at 9:00 a.m. A continental breakfast will be served by JoAnn Nelson, Jerianne Hendricks, & Jessica Walerius. Following the business meeting, spring cleaning will be done in the kitchen. Remember our WELCA is for all women of our church, please plan to attend.

Aurora Sunday School Mark your calendars. The Aurora Sunday School
students will sing during the worship service on Sunday, April 1, 2012 for Palm Sunday.

Lily Sparrow House

The Lily Sparrow House of Owatonna is a hospitality house where homeless women and children may stay until they can get on their feet again. The family may spend 30 days in the house, though if circumstances warrant it, they may stay can go longer. This year during the Lenten Season at Aurora, everyone may donate supplies to this organization. Donations may be deposited in the narthex. Here are the items that would be helpful to the Lily Sparrow House: Cleaning supplies Shampoo/Conditioner Laundry Soap Dish Soap Diapers size 2-6 Soap or Body Wash Any other Consumable Items for house

Aurora Nursery
Do you have a little one and find yourself paying more attention to them instead of the church service? When you get home do you ever think, What did the minister say today? Bonnie Johnson is willing to staff a nursery for babies through 4 years old every second Sunday of the month. This way you can enjoy the service and your little one is happy too. Bonnie will be available in the preschool/kindergarten room in the basement of the church.

Thank You
I would like to say Thank You to everyone for the cards and well wishes and prayers while recovering from my knee surgeries. Thank you Pastor Jon for keeping in contact with me. I still have some healing to do, but I am looking forward to walking easier and less pain. God Bless all of you. Gail Larson

Pastor Jon Contact Information

If you need to reach Pastor Jon during the week, please call him at 507-676-5696 or you can send him an e-mail at: auroratrinitypastor@gmail.com. Pastor Jons day off is Friday.

Aurora Lenten Soup Supper Thank You

Thank you to Jodi Keck for planning of the Aurora Soup Suppers and for everyone who helped prepare, serve, bring bars, clean up, etc.

May Time Change

Just a reminder that worship times will be changing in th May, starting on Sunday, May 6 . Trinity will have worship starting at 9:00 a.m. Aurora will have Sunday School at 9:15 a.m. followed by Auroras worship service starting at 10:30 a.m.

Welcome Corner
If you or anyone you know are interested in becoming a member of the Aurora or Trinity Lutheran Church congregation, please contact email or call Pastor Jon at auroratrinitypastor@gmail.com/(507) 676-5696 for new member information.

2012 Synod Assembly

The next Synod Assembly meeting for the Southeastern Minnesota Synod of the ELCA will be held May 4-5, 2012 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, MN. This years Assembly is titled Gods Work. Our Hands Gods Family. Delegates from our congregations will be needed. Anyone that has an interest in faith and families, including parents, Sunday School teachers, confirmation mentors, daycare workers, grandparents, and anyone else who else who wants to enrich families in their faith lives can attend three workshop sessions on Saturday, May 5. Session times are: 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., & 11:30 a.m.. There are a total of 24 to choose from. Parents: Need daycare for your children ages 5-12? Not a problem, Good Earth Village will be hosting a free on-site Day Camp from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Please contact Pastor Jon if you are interested. th Registration deadline is April 26 .

Please be sure to review the following enclosures:

Pastor Jon Letter Aurora March Church Council Meeting Minutes Trinity Quarterly Meeting Minutes SE MN Synod Newsletter

Young Adult Group

Our March Young Adults game night was a lot of fun! We were excited to get together and now were looking forward to our April event. The event, date, and place will be announced shortly. Be sure to watch for details in the bulletins or on the website at http://auroratrinitylutheran.org. Young Adult Group offers a way to stay connected to what really matters faith, family, friends, fellowship through the unique perspectives of young men and women just like you. Feel free to invite friends!

Aurora Lutheran Church Council Meeting March 2012 The regular monthly meeting of the Aurora Church Council met on March 13, 2012, at 6:30 PM. Those present were Pastor Jon Davis, Jeanne Pichner, Cheryl Thompson, Mark Prestegard, Jodi Keck, Roger Carroll, Brett Paape, Michelle Williams, Curtis Jensen, Ryan Schrom. Jeanne Pichner lead devotions. The Secretarys report was approved as read. The Treasures report was approved as read and subject to audit: General Fund: $4,200.25; Building Fund: $2,767.60; Memorial Fund: $13,072.20; Parsonage Fund: $1,462.75; Cemetery Fund: $8,593.44. Pastor Jons notes: Thursday, March 22 there will be a Luther League youth group meeting at 7PM at the church. Communion: Pastor Jon will have a meeting sometime in June to discuss if we would like to have communion more than once a month. Trinity voted at their last council meeting to have communion twice a month. Pastor Jon will be taking off 2 weeks once their baby has been born. Our Saviors in Owatonna will be our back-up when he is gone. There will be a baby shower for Baby Davis on June 24 at Aurora after church service. More details to follow. Synod Assembly is May 4&5 in Rochester. We need volunteers to go. The theme is Children and Youth. See Pastor Jon or Jeanne if interested in going.

1. Speaker system: More wiring has been done. It is our hope that it will be done by Easter. 2. Windows at church: Jeanne will contact Tim Johnson to see about the stain glass windows trim that needs to be fixed. 3. Curtis will make a box were you can put notices of things that you see are in need of being repaired at church. 4. Constitution: Jeanne went to the workshop on how to update our church constitution. She is willing to head up a committee to do this. Let her know if you are interested in helping. 5. Dont forget to pick up your Lenten folder at church, the monies will go to buying mosquito nets for people in Africa. The next council meeting will be April 18, 2012 at 6:30. Respectfully Submitted, Cheryl Thompson, Secretary

TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH QUARTERLY MEETING SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 2012 Meeting was brought to order by Pres. Rich Paulson. Sec. report presented by Shari Manges. Approved as read. Copies handed out. Treas. report presented by Lorna Craig Paulson. Approved as read. Copies handed out. BUDGET MEETING Lorna handed out an itemized monthly budget for the 2012 church year. This included joint expenses, Trinitys insurance, heat, electric, church supplies, building maintenance, BP Gun club (for annual joint picnic), yard light, flower pots, and gifts. This came to approx. $22,200.00. Pastors pension/medical, and the property insurance were the biggest increases. After adding the organist, increasing church supplies, and adding lawn mowing and snow plowing (these are currently donated, but need to be accounted for in the event that they arent donated for whatever reason) it brings our expenses for the year up to approx. $25,000.00. Regular offering collections for 2011 were just over $13,000.00 for the year. Motion was made by Jan to approve this itemized report with the increases described above. It was seconded by Shari. All approved. BENEVOLENCE: With the budget in mind, it was discussed if we should still set up a donation to the synod. Pastor Jon brought information on what Trinity has given in the past, and also what other churches are giving. A very in depth discussion took place on what we could afford, on what the Synod does with the donation, and the importance of giving to our own community. Pastor Jon talked about the Synod, and will keep us better informed of the projects that take place. Motion was made by Jan to set up a donation to the Synod. It was seconded by Lorna. All Approved. As to how much, a motion was made by Lorna to give 2% of the Sunday offering collection on a weekly basis. It was seconded by Craig. All approved. This will be sent to the Synod on a quarterly basis. OLD BUSINESS: Trees. This continues to be tabled. Craig is looking into prices.

NEW BUSINESS: Communion As in the past, it was discussed if we could have communion more than just once a month. Pastor Jon has been looking into this. Aurora has not made a decision on this yet. Upon further discussion, st rd it was decided to have communion on the 1 and 3 Sundays of every month, starting in April. A motion was made by Shari, and seconded by Carolyn. All Approved. The Cement Slab leading up to the front door of the church is getting in bad shape. This will be looked into as measurements, and prices need to be obtained. Food Shelf. A box will be put by the coat rack for weekly donations as able, instead of only selecting certain days for people to donate. Mission Statement. Pastor Jon talked about this, and has invited everyone to a meeting at Aurora on Saturday, th March 17 . There will be a guest speaker there to help with this process for both Trinity and Aurora. Bulletins. Trinity is in need of more per Sunday so that we dont run short. Pastor Jon will take care of this. Soup Supper. Trinity is hosting the joint soup supper on Wednesday, March 21 . Rich and Jan will get together and make an Italian veg. soup. Shari will take care of sandwich spread and bread. Everyone is to bring a pan of bars. With no further items to discuss a motion was made by Paul to adjourn the meeting. It was seconded by Dick. A potluck lunch was enjoyed by all. Respectfully submitted, Shari Manges, Trinity Secretary
st

Jonathan Davis April Newsletter On Saturday, March 17th, about twenty people from both Aurora and Trinity gathered together in the basement of Aurora for about six hours. The purpose? To discern who God is calling us to be and what God is calling us to do in this place and time. What is Gods mission for us? we asked. With the help of Pastor Vern Christopherson, we looked at what the church-at-large used to be like in the past and how it is different today. Back in the day, the church was the center of the community and ones life. There really wasnt a question of whether someone went to church or not. But we live in a different time now. A time when many find it more meaningful to sleep in or go to the coffee shop to read the paper than head to church on Sunday morning. At times, I have found myself wanting the same thing. The question is how we live out Gods calling to go and make disciples and to love our neighbor in the midst of this change in culture. Another part of our task on Saturday was to address whether we viewed ourselves as two separate congregations who share a pastor or if we are one parish with two locations. The group unanimously professed that we are one parish with two locations. How this manifests itself in the future is unclear, but what this does mean is that we move forward together. As one parish, we decided that it would only be appropriate then to have just one mission statement, reflecting the work toward which God is calling us. To discover and create this mission statement, we began by discussing the needs of our community and the passions and gifts of our parish. Much was said and done that cannot be fully captured in this short article, but let me say thisit was fruitful. While hard and, at times, tiresome work, the conversation was thoughtful and spirit-filled. It generated energy and excitement around where we are going in the future. In the end, together, we came up with a draft of a mission statement for our parish:

Feeding the Body, Mind, and Spirit with the Love of Jesus There is so much that can be done with this mission as a community of faith! This is not a finished product, however. We need your voice! We want to invite everyone into the conversation about whether there are tweaks to be added to this mission statement and then how we begin to live into this mission toward which God is calling us. At some time in the near future, we will come together as a parish to discuss this mission statement and what it means for us as a community, so that it can be something that we all support and stand behind. Please stay tuned for more information about that conversation.. This is an exciting time for Aurora and Trinity and it is a joy to be with you on this journey. Peace and love, Pastor Jon