From the Pastor's Computer...

Dear Friends,

  It has been a busy month of March!  The high point was the celebration of our Lord's Resurrection on the 23^rd.  I was very impressed with the participation of our members and friends in the Lenten services, the Holy Week activities, and the Easter Celebration.  It was truly a team effort, an the results were marvelous.

As members of the Reformation team, it would be easy to look back on past accomplishments with a sense of pride.  An that would be appropriate.  You have much to reflect on, many beautiful people to remember, and powerful experiences to share.  And I hope that a lot of you are willing to share some reminiscences of your experiences at our church for the 60^th Anniversary Edition of the Reformation Rose.  In order to make that publication possible, I need to ask you to start getting your writing skills engaged now.

Here's the plan:  I'd like to gather together stories from each decade of our church history.  You might want to share a brief account of how you became a member of Reformation, what made you join.  You might have an experience to share about how the church helped you through a though time or helped you celebrate a joyous event.  You could share a memory about one encounter with one of our members who touched your life in a special way.  You can write more than one article to share a memory from more than one decade.  Each article should be from one paragraph to one page long.  If you are shy about writing, I would be glad to listen to an anecdote or story that you would be willing to share and put down in written format.  If we could get about five articles from each decade, we would have a precious book of recollections that present and future members would cherish for years to come.  We might also intersperse a few recollections of a saying that someone was known to repeat or a recipe that someone was famous for serving at pot lucks.  But like any other endeavor for our congregation, to be successful, it has to be a team effort, with no one left out.

Look to the past with pride and to the future with hope.  You'll notice several announcements about many of the exciting events coming up in the next few weeks.  One big project that is in the planning stages is a one week day camp for children in our neighborhood.  Called "Camp Hope," we would use high school staff members from other Lutheran Churches to provide a day camp for up to 40 children in the K through 5^th Grades.  Tentative dates are July 28^th through 1 August.  We'll need several of our members to help out as well, with meals, snacks, and just making sure we have a few adults on campus in case of emergencies.  It will be a wonderful opportunity for us to share the Gospel with the youngsters in 89104!

You have no doubt seen a lot of renovation and repainting going on in our facility.  We have a new Spanish Language ministry that is sharing our buildings, and are making much needed repairs that we and they can both enjoy.  They will be using our facility, primarily Edwin's Hall, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday evenings.  With English, Korean, and now Spanish language services here, we are truly proclaiming the Gospel in an International Ministry!

                                    God Bless You,

                                    Pastor Loren