Worship:

Saturday 6 PM

Sunday 9 & 11 AM

Wednesday 9 AM

This Week At Ascension

Called to create opportunities for all people to become devoted followers of Christ

June 5, 2022

Pentecost Sunday

About the art

Grace and peace to you, my sisters and brothers in Christ,

Happy Pentecost!

We will remember this weekend that day recorded in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit, as prophesied by the prophet Joel, was poured out and fell upon the disciples.

When they received it, they began to proclaim the good news in the languages of those who were visiting Jerusalem that day. It was a spectacular miracle, and it will be good to remember.

But let us also remember that we have the Holy Spirit too. That just as it was poured out upon those original disciples, so too is it poured upon us for the same purpose: to proclaim the truth of the good news.

I look forward to seeing you in church this weekend!

Blessings,

This Sunday is Pentecost!

June 5 is Pentecost Sunday, when we wear RED in commemoration of the Holy Spirit coming to the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

This will be an especially memorable Pentecost Sunday. At the 9 AM service, we will celebrate Pastor Paul Gravrock and Carillons Director Christi Labrenz, who are each retiring after years of blessing and enriching our church life with their respective talents.

We will also be seeing Faith Quilts given to high school seniors. Be sure not to miss it.

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Thank You, Pastor Paul

When Reverend Dr. Paul Gravrock talks about worship, he lights up with a passion that is absolutely contagious.

“I’ve always felt that the genius of the liturgy is that it has both constancy and the ability to surprise,” he notes lovingly. “Experiencing it again and again, it settles into your bones, becomes part of who you are. That doesn’t mean there are no changes; it’s not a static thing. But the ritual allows people to step into it, to feel comfortable… MORE

Thank You, Christi

For Christi Labrenz, Ascension’s handbell choir has provided a ring of continuity and camaraderie for more than half her life.

Tuesday night Carillons rehearsals have been a fixed point of activity through raising her son and daughter, working as a senior accountant for Dole Foods and for W.S. Shamban & Co., serving as Ascension Senior Accountant and myriad other challenges and triumphs. MORE

Kay Dawson Brenda Heinrich Kathleen Rudrud Rachael Bowen Fran Mork Sally Wise (1)

Adult Ed June 5:

Sing a New Song

From where do the words of a song come? What is the inspiration? What is the intention behind the words?

I have written texts for twenty-seven hymns, many of which we have sung here at Ascension. Some were written in preparation for significant events, and some were written in response to events. Some just seemed to happen.

In every case, it was and is my hope that God is glorified through the words of these hymns. I invite you to join me for the Adult Sunday School class on June 5, where I will share with you the stories behind my hymn texts. We will likely sing a bit too.

Pastor Paul

GOOD SPORT: Principal Rich Gregory made good on his school auction item last week. Our intrepid principal vowed to spend an hour in the bell tower for each $1,000 raised – and $3,000 were raised! He spent at least part of his time up there doing this. As you can see, AL School students loved it. Principal Gregory stayed an extra hour – four hours in all — just for fun. Catch, kids! (Thanks to Paul Hoffmeier for the great drone video.)

Dear Partner in Ministry,

We’re having a celebration and we’d like you to come.

It’s not your usual celebration or party, although there will be refreshments and great speakers.

It’s where we’ll be conducting important business for One Ascension. It’s our annual June Congregational Meeting, where we will be electing new officers and approving the budget.

It’s planned for 10:10 a.m. on Sunday, June 26th, in Founders Hall – in between our two Sunday worship services.

Refreshments will be served. We figure that people often don’t come to congregational meetings because they sound boring, often run long, and are held at inconvenient times. We had a great turnout and wonderful feedback at our Sept. 26th meeting, in which we focused the agenda on key items, kept the meeting to under an hour, and, yes, served refreshments.

To save time on one of the key agenda items – next year’s budget – we’ll give you a look at it beforehand. Once Church Council provides preliminary approval, we’ll make the budget available for your review about a week before our meeting. We’ll also provide a summary and some frequently asked questions to help everyone understand the key points. That should help make approving the budget easier and more time-efficient at the meeting.

Please mark your calendar and plan to join us. I’ll even buy you a pastry and a cup of Christian’s great coffee.

With thanks,

Senior Pastor

Join Us For:

Baby Book Group!

Parents and little ones 3 years and younger are invited to join us in the school courtyard next to the lawn Sunday, June 5 at 10:30 to read an age-appropriate, faith-based book together.

Bring a blanket to sit on (or we’ll have extras). Light snacks provided. This is an opportunity to connect with other families!

You’ll get a FREE copy of the book to take home too!

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Attendance

Click here for the latest figures.

Conejo Valley Days Fundraising Opportunity for Youth

Conejo Valley Days is coming soon in June and we are being provided with a wonderful opportunity to raise funds for our youth group by helping with trash pick-up.

There are 4 people required per shift and you will be required to travel in pairs.

During your shift you will also be provided free food and drinks as well as ride passes for when you aren’t working your shift.

Shifts are available from Thursday, June 16 through Sunday, June 26th.

If interested, please go to this Sign-Up Genius Link to sign up.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thank you for help!

Dianne Beck

Honoring Dads

Nancy Lee is preparing an after-Saturday-service Apple Pie treat honoring dads and grandpas and all those who show fatherly love. If you want pie, shoot us an email at .

June 18, Father’s Day Eve, after 6 PM service.

AND: Nancy would like to include photos of Ascension dads in a video for this special occasion. If you would like yours included, please email as soon as possible to

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A FAIR TO REMEMBER:

Congratulations to our Country Spirit leader, Nancy Lee. Her group won honors for best in parade and best in arena at the Memorial Day Weekend Mule Days festivities in Bishop, California. She sang at the cowboy worship service there, and the group, which had a Civil War cortege theme, sang hymns all along the parade route. Her hat was an authentic horse hair mourning hat from the Civil War.

News Briefs

Voting Is Here

June 4, 5, 6 and 7, Ascension is supporting our community by hosting a voting site in the Bethlehem Room, so don’t be surprised to see voters making their way in and out.

Check Out Our Alcto Calendar

Did you know, our ALCTO.org calendar is chock full of news you can use? Just go to the church website and click on Calendar at the top of the front page or the Calendar link in the fat footer (or just click here). Not only are events listed, but you may also find handy items such as order forms and flyers to click on and download.

Those entering 6th-8th grade next year:

Join Pastor Julie for a week of faith-filled fun at Camp El Camino Pines!

You can invite your friends, too!

It’s July 17-22. Information, including cost, available HERE.

Even though it’s called Confirmation Camp, students don’t need to be a part of Confirmation–that just means it’s the week they let pastors come to camp, too.

Pastor Julie worked there for 4 summers and can tell you all about what it’s like and how awesome and transformative a week at camp is, if you have questions!

Email if you’re interested, so she can gauge interest.

Coming up in Adult Ed June 12:

Let your voice be heard!

Advocacy 101 and Offering of Letters for Bread for the World

Join us as we learn more about what it means to be an advocate for our neighbors experiencing hunger and poverty, and for God’s creation.

As Lutherans, we believe God is calling us into the world to serve together. We believe that we are freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor.

God uses our hands, through our direct service work and our voices, through our advocacy efforts, to restore and reconcile our world. Through our advocacy work, we impact systemic, long-lasting change.

We will learn more about the Lutheran Office of Public Policy, Lutheran Lobby Day, and Bread for the World. Examples of letters as part of Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters will be given.

Led by Eloise Cohen

“We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 John 3:16).

In Need Of Prayer

Click Here For The Ascension Prayer List

Can you help?

VBS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

If you or anyone you know (7th Grade and up) is able to lend a helping hand it would be greatly appreciated!

There are many roles and a lot of them require no prep.

Please reach out to Amy, our VBS Coordinator ), if you are able to help, or sign-up using the link below!

For more information call 805-495-0406

CLICK HERE.

Ascension Vacation Bible School July 11 – July 15

9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Fun with Friends – Amazing Experiments – Creative Games-Fun Snacks – Surprising Faith Adventures

(Children Ages 4 – entering 6th Grade)

CLICK HERE FOR LINK!

Scandinavian Festival This Week!

Scandinavian Festival lovers, pay attention: the 45th Scandinavian Festival will be held June 4 and 5 at Cal Lutheran this year, with extended hours from 10 AM to 6 PM each day.

So, save the dates!

* The festival is looking for volunteers, with many different opportunities.

* A fun lineup of talent will be on hand.

* There’s a chance to win an 8-Day European river cruise for two.

To find out more, CLICK HERE

Last Call — Graduates & Families of Graduates!

We are planning a congratulations tribute to all of Ascension’s sons and daughters who are completing milestones in education this year — and WE DON’T WANT TO LEAVE ANYONE OUT! Families, we need your graduating student’s NAME, SCHOOL and, if applicable, COLLEGE DEGREE—NO LATER THAN FRIDAY JUNE 3.

Please email , or drop off your information at the church office.

Our Prayer

We pray that you may once again meet the Risen Christ through the Word and Sacrament ministry, and through the fellowship of this family of faith.

If you do not have a church home, we would like to invite you to worship with our Ascension family again.

All people who are baptized and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are welcome to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

May God bless you in your worship!

Pastors Tim Delkeskamp, Steve Herder, & Julie McCain

Don’t miss another TWAA

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Pericopes

This Week:

Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b (30)
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17 [25-27]

Next Week:

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8 (2)
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

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Pentecost

by Jen Norton

Painfully shy as a child, Jen Norton was unable to communicate with anyone outside her family except through drawing. Visual language was her first language and she never lost her passion for its ability to communicate for her. There was never a day she 'decided' to become an artist. For Jen, there was just no other way to be. Jen Norton is a graduate of Santa Clara University where she earned a Bachelors degree in Fine Art, with a Minor in Business.

Click HERE to learn more.

And here to see more of her work.

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Thank You, Pastor Paul (continued)

“The blessing and strength anchor us and at the same time give us wings.”

The soaring poetic words come through when Pastor Paul shares his beliefs about worship and worship planning as part of a morning’s conversation regarding his looming retirement. He had expected to measure his time in leadership at our church in months. It has stretched to seven years.

Pentecost Sunday, June 5, will be his last as Director of Worship.

“It’s kind of funny because I retired 11 years ago. I was 66 and I had served for 40 years and I thought that’s a good time to retire,” notes Pastor Paul, whose long tenure as pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and School in Novato, California, was noteworthy enough to bring forth a commendation from the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

He and his wife, retired teacher Jean Gravrock, “loved it in Novato, but we thought, ‘Oh, it’s not fair for whoever comes next to be hanging around.’ And we had our daughters down here so we came down and have loved it ever since,” he says, referring to Sara Wallace and Kari Keit.

Four years of retirement came to an end when Pastor Paul took on the role of interim senior pastor at Ascension for 20 months, after Pastor Larry Wagner’s retirement in 2015 and before Pastor Tim Delkeskamp’s installation.

“I had a couple of other occasions where I was asked if I would consider an interim position and turned them down. I just kind of enjoyed being retired, being free to travel and do things,” recalls Pastor Paul, whose father, Walter, was Ascension’s first pastor back in 1948. “Then when Pastor Larry retired and they asked me, I thought, ‘Well, this is the one place I’d like to do it.' It’s kind of a full circle piece in that my dad was the founding pastor of the congregation.”

With his snow-white hair, matinee-idol blue eyes and resonant voice, Pastor Paul projects a stately image. So his humor can sneak up on you. He notes that he was actually born before his predecessor. “It’s like I said to Larry, it was kind of ‘Out with the old, in with the older.’”

Pastor Paul continued on at Pastor Tim’s request, taking over worship planning as Howard Sonstegard scaled back his job, and then retired in 2018.

Pastor Paul considered re-retiring after a couple of years. “Then the pandemic came, and I thought, ‘Oh, man. This is no time to bail. We’re going to have to invent a new way of worship.’”

And that is what he and the pastors, and worship leaders and Lan Merrill and the tech team did. Overnight.

“The 15th of March in 2020 was the first Sunday we were not here in person. Leading up to that we’d had a Lenten service, and then we were talking about, in our planning meeting, ‘What shouldn’t we be doing to avoid this outbreak?’ ‘Well, we shouldn’t be passing a plate.’ ‘We shouldn’t have communion.’ No passing of the peace. No touch kind of things. Masks. Hand sanitizer.

“We kind of decided on Tuesday morning we’d have worship Sunday. But then Thursday it was like, ‘Whoops! It’s not safe to be here at all.’”

They went from thinking Covid would be “our Lenten journey this year” to realizing that the pandemic showed no sign of stopping. Pastor Paul and the worship team planned and prepared 15 hymns to be recorded at once. He recalls thinking, “’This will get us through the next month and a half.’ Then we did it again. Then we had round after round, as it became clear we had to go longer. The group would get together at 5:30 and at 6 PM record the hymns.” Then organist Margaret Ricci “would stay and record preludes and postludes, and that would go on until midnight.”

More adaptations had to be made as the Covid lockdown finally eased and congregants began to return, ever so slowly, to worship in person in the sanctuary. Hybrid in-person and online worship services became the order of the day.

It was all so much more complicated than the seamless production made it appear. “It was a learning process,” says Pastor Paul now. “I’m very proud of the job we did.”

Oh yes, and while Pastor Paul was busy helping Ascension find its way through the pandemic, he also wrote a book.

The idea began at his church in Novato, when he would explain some of the age-old stories to church members. The story explaining time became so popular that people began suggesting to him that he put his explanations into writing. So he thought of penning a collection of brief stories, each followed by study questions.

He had the working title for his book, “Wonder Anew,” the introduction and table of contents. It was Jean who suggested resuming the project when everyone was in lockdown.

It’s currently at a publishing house and Pastor Paul is awaiting word. “Hopefully that will happen,” he says.

He’d also like to get his hymns out to a wider audience. He’ll be talking about those hymns at this week’s adult ed. class at 10:10 AM in Founders Hall.

Next up: family time with his son Erik, a pastor in Washington state, and his family, and another trip, to Atlanta, in September for a family wedding. Perhaps the European trip he and Jean had to cancel due to Covid can be rescheduled. And Pastor Paul looks forward to more writing of hymns and poetic pieces.

He will continue to be a member here and enrich our services with that wonderful cantor’s voice of his, and enjoy seeing the next generations of Gravrocks in their respective roles.

His daughters are pillars of Ascension, each in her own right. Kari has served as Cherub Choir director alongside Jean, among many other contributions. And Sara, for those who aren’t aware, is Ascension’s Life Groups Coordinator, School Communications Coordinator and active leader in our school parent group, PALs. With their families, they represent the third and fourth generations of Gravrock leadership at Ascension.

Among the many noteworthy elements Pastor Paul has brought to Ascension worship is our rich Taize services, with their timeless chants and silences. He loves nighttime services, particularly Christmas Eve and Good Friday night. “In darkness there is also awe. Something about it makes you catch your breath,” he says. And the passion comes forth again.

“I obviously hope,” says Pastor Paul, “that whoever takes this over has the love for worship that I do.”

Thanks for blessing us with all that talent and love, Pastor Paul.

my first day paul gravrock

Gravrock family Easter Picture

Pastor Paul baptizes graddaughter

pastor-paul-teaches for foundation

Gravrock son Erik pic

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Thank You, Christi (continued)

“I was realizing, talking to my husband: ‘What are we on, 33 years of marriage? I have been doing handbells two years longer than that. I’ve been coming to church and playing handbells for 35 years now.’ Is that crazy?” she asks.

Not at all. Not to those of us who appreciate those ethereal chimes that grace our worship services — which is to say, not to the Ascension community as a whole.

Christi joined the Carillons bell choir in 1987, when Shirley Egertson was director. When Shirley stepped down, then-Senior Pastor Larry Wagner approached Christi and said, “’Can you please just do it maybe one year until we hire somebody to take it over?’ That was in 1990 and yup, here we are,” she says with a laugh.

“He has since retired. That’s not fair,” Christi adds. “You can’t ask me for one year and then retire ahead of me.”

But now, it is Christi who is retiring. That is, she is retiring as Carillons director, though she does intend to play with the beloved group. Christi’s friend and fellow musician, and former Ascension school teacher Matt Cahill will lead, at least for awhile, after Christi directs the postlude a final time Sunday, June 5.

Her years as Carillons director include such special moments as playing at the entrance of the Reagan Library at Christmas time, performing in concert with the Los Robles Master Chorale, and attending bell choir conferences as far away as the Sacramento area and Stanford. Classes, mass bell ringing and mingling with other ting-a-lingers made such confabs fun. Even so, they’re not Christi’s favorite Carillons memory.

“The biggest highlight, for me — what kept me doing it all these years — is that it was almost like a Life Group for us. There’ve been times when I didn’t feel like leaving the house on Tuesday nights. But once I get there, my mood lifts. It fills your soul and makes you feel good.”

She started out with zero experience as a director. She played the flute and she’d had a music scholarship to Cal Lutheran. (By the end of her first semester, though, she’d switched majors. “I knew I wasn’t going to teach music or be a performance artist, and I loved accounting,” she explains.)

With Pastor Larry’s approval, she signed up for a bell choir directors’ workshop at Concordia College in Irvine. “That literally taught me how to direct, beat patterns and all that.” Impressive!

“I make it work, but nobody sees my bad form,” she insists, smiling.

Carillons has provided an outlet for Christi’s creative side. Although she tends to be low-key about it, that’s a side rich with considerable gifts. Ascension has also benefited from her artwork, for example. Think of our Easter mural, décor for numerous events, even the office welcome cart.

Performing and artistry, math and science run in Christi and Mark’s family. Her son Mitch works in computers and is also a musician who occasionally has filled in as a bell ringer in our choir. Daughter Casey Joy has a brilliant history including international competitions as a champion ice skater on the Synchronized Skating and Figure Skating Team at Michigan’s Adrian College.

So why is Christi passing the baton after all these years?

“I realized it’s time for some new blood. I’m on to other things,” she says. “The biggest thing is that my husband is planning to retire at the end of the year and it’s hard to travel when we have to be here every Tuesday.”

She and Mark already have a trip planned to Ecuador, to visit relatives there.

She hopes that the bell choir not only continues and thrives, but increases its membership in the future — as bell choirs have grown more and more popular.

She explains, “English handbells were originally made for people who had to ring bells in actual bell towers, so they could practice. They were brought here [to the U.S.] sometime in the 1960s, and people started using them not only to practice, but to play music.

“It’s actually gotten huge. When I started, as far as picking music, you had very few options. Now there are thousands of compositions,” she shares enthusiastically. “If you looked up a hymn title, you might find 25 pieces of music, where in the past you had two to choose from. It’s changed quite a lot, even the techniques — you saw the stirring technique at Easter — those things are new.”

It’s good to know that, even as Christi is stepping down from her directorship, we’ll be hearing more from her. The handbells continue to have a peal.

Thanks, Christi.

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Attendance

All three weekend services

May 28-29

In Person: 271

Online: 129

May 14 - 15

In Person: 254

Online: 133

May 7 - 8

In Person: 316

Online: 165

April 30 - May 1

In Person: 244

Online: 158

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IN NEED OF PRAYER

A name is added to this list only with the permission of the person or the person's family

Link to printable prayer page

PRAYERS OF COMFORT FOR:

Lisa Figueroa and family, on the death of her brother, Steve

The family of Dorothy Willemsen

The family of Bill Lock

PRAYERS OF HEALING FOR:

Kim Bach

Andrea Delkeskamp

Jeanne Hengst, for full and complete healing as she recovers from breast cancer surgery

CONTINUING PRAYERS FOR:

Lara Abounayan

Kyle Ayers

Karen Barrows

Maria Bartush

The Bauer Family

Addie Behm

Gloria Benfatto

Carl Bohning

Debi Bing

Skip Brenner

John Burgert

Mary Cartrett

Dominic Cavaliere

Beverly Clark

Nancy Coffman

Linnea Cortlang

David Corra

Linda Crabill

Carole Curran

Lilly Curran

Carl Dietrich

Diana Doerfler

Jim Downs

John Ernst

Becky and Al France

Terry Gillette

Malia Hassenbein

Brenda Heinrich

Bob Herder

Shaeley Huber

Penny Hunter

Marilyn Johnson

Micky Johnson

Bob Kielhorn

Scott Klipp

Barbara Krum

Valerie Krum

Jim Lawson

Dr. Allen Leland

Judy Marshall

Sue May

Colleen McCarthy

Sandi Meyer

Shirley Meyer

Verlon Meyer

Kevin Morrow

Bill Munn

Angela Naginey

Tawne Newcome

Paul and Betty Olson

Carol O’Gorman

Orlando Orozco

Brandt Stephen Oschner

Dale Ota

Dane Pederson

Laurie Peyton

Gary Phillips

Jeanie Phillips

Lois Phillips

Mike Ricci

Marilyn Ripley

Dave Rosinbum

Pastor David Palma-Ruwe

Debbie Saunier

Dorothy Scholz

Barb Schornstein

Arnold Schwarz

Margaret Skinner

Jerry Smith

Dan Thiel

Jan Timmons

Taty Valladares

Todd Wallace

PRAYERS FOR SAFEKEEPING:

Connor Braaten, USMC

Scott Clark, U.S. Navy

LCpL. Alexander Daley

Cody Davidson, US Army

Tim David, US Army

Jack Ingles, USMC

ET1 Patrick Maccarone, USN

Jake Marshall, USMC

Scott Mochatel, USCG

LCJG Caroline Truesdell, USCG

PRAYERS FOR OUR GLOBAL PARTNERS IN MINISTRY:

For our missionaries, Rev. Kristen Engstrom in Zambia, and
Rev. Wal Luot Reat serving in a South Sudan refugee
camp near the border with Ethiopia.

Center for Climate Justice and Faith at PLTS

Sister Emilia, Pastor David, in Pachacamac, Peru

Filadelfia Lutheran Church, Peru

Pastor John Rutsindintwarane, Rwanda

Our Companion Synods in El Salvador and Hong Kong

ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Response

Corus/ Lutheran World Relief/IMA Lutheran World Relief/IMA

Eric LeCompte and the Jubilee USA Network

Bread for the World

Fair Trade

Guardian Angels

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

Lutherans Restoring Creation

(To learn more, ask our Global Ministries Team.)

PRAYER OF PEACE:

For Ukraine, and help for all those who are suffering, grieving, or displaced, because of the evils of war.

PRAYER FOCUS:

For our Ascension worship leaders, in gratitude for their talents and service, especially for Pastor Paul Gravrock and Christi Labrenz as they step down

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June 2022

Dear Ascension Lutheran Church Members & Friends,

How is God calling you to LOVE your neighbor? How will you show your love for your global neighbor?

Sometimes loving your neighbor is as simple as asking someone what they need. At Lutheran World Relief (LWR), volunteers strive to ask this simple question and welcome those who need assistance. LWR continues to live out its mission:

“Affirming God’s love for all people- we work with Lutherans and partners around the world to end poverty, injustice and human suffering.”

We invite you to be part of providing comfort and hope to people in refugee camps, living in extreme poverty, and other areas where humanitarian needs are rampant. From wars to persecution, from global pandemics to natural disasters, our world is full of challenges and suffering.

ONE Ascension has been a partner with LWR since 2005 by making and assembling school kits, personal care kits and baby kits. This year PERSONAL CARE KITS, more than anything else, are urgently needed to show our global neighbors that even in their most trying times, they are not alone. These kits provide not only basic hygiene products such as towels, soap, combs, toothbrushes and nail clippers, but also hope and dignity.

The kits we have assembled over the years have been shipped around the world, most recently to Rwanda, Lebanon, Honduras and Georgia. Last year Ascension sent over 1,000 kits to LWR to be distributed to those in need. It was the gift of YOUR love and support that made this act of love for our neighbors possible.

This year the Global Ministries Team is once again coordinating the kits project for the ONE Ascension community. Our students at Ascension Lutheran School, children in our Sunday School, Confirmation classes, Senior Luther League and Young Adult Group, Life Groups and others are ready to assemble kits again this fall and put their faith and love into action.

ALL WE NEED is your gift to purchase the necessary items for the personal care kits and ship assembled kits to LWR for distribution somewhere in our world where they are most needed. A gift of $11 will buy the materials and pay for the shipping for one personal care kit. A gift of $100 will provide funds for 9 personal care kits. A gift of $1,000 will send 90 kits!

Will you join us in this important ministry to fill LWR’s shelves with personal care kits for refugees and others? You can give on line and designate your offering to LWR KITS PROJECT by clicking HERE, or go to the ALCTO.org website at any time. Click on GIVE and then OTHER and write LWR KITS PROJECT in the box provided. You can also write a check to Ascension Lutheran Church with LWR KITS PROJECT in your memo line. Your check can be placed in the offering box in the back of the sanctuary, mailed to the church office or dropped off at the church office.

We thank you in advance for your gifts of all shapes and sizes, whether it’s a monetary gift or the gift of your time. We are appreciative of this ONE Ascension effort in bringing hope and showing our love to our global neighbors in their time of need.

Louise Evenson

On behalf of your Global Ministries Team

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A recap of the Youth Gathering

High School Youth Group Enjoys Farm Fun, Service, Sunsets, Mountain Tops, and mostly, Lots of Laughter and God’s Hand in it All.

by Dianne Beck

“Sometimes the best way to see God is by looking backwards.”

This was something a speaker at the recent Youth Gathering at Luther Glen said on our last day of camp, and as I look back on our week, I definitely see the hand of God in everything we did.

At Bible Study this past Sunday, as we shared Highs and Lows, each youth who went on the trip, along with myself, listed our trip as a high for the week, recounting the fun times, and admitted that one low was simply the adjustment of coming back home, even though we were all glad to be home and get some rest! I know that in my mind I’ve continued to hear our jokes, sometimes even saying them out loud when no one near me would get it, and have songs like “One Name Under Heaven,” “Reckless Love,” and “Knee, Knee, Clap, Clap” on repeat in my head as well. The week is one that will stay embedded positively in our memories and continue to bring us joy as we think back on it.

Each day was packed with activity and opportunities to connect with each other as well as people from all over California and places as far as North Dakota, Minnesota, Washington, and Hawaii. In this one week, we were able to enjoy farm animals and a new puppy, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, great praise music and speakers, games and conversation, Disneyland, The Palm Springs Tramway, a service day at Helping Hands in San Bernadino, and the local fun of Oak Glen with apple turnovers and axe throwing.
Looking back, I think I saw God most in the way we all connected and got to know one another more and more each day. It’s not easy to hide behind your real self when spending a week together, which I believe is the beauty of going away together. We all see that it’s okay to be who we are and when we are, that’s when God and his love best shine through.

I am truly thankful for every person who went on the trip, every person we met, both near and far, and all the lasting connections and memories made.

If you or a high schooler you know would like to be part of another trip, stay tuned for our plans for an upcoming weekend retreat to Pismo Beach September 23-25th. If interested, contact Dianne Beck at .

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