This spring I was standing in the front entryway at church when I looked down and noticed a little green sprout peeking out from a joint between window and floor…reaching a long, single stem into the rotunda…inside the building!

It’s since been removed…as I suppose is appropriate…but it made me smile. That tenacious little living thing had found its way through the cracks and up back into the sunlight again at the entrance to our building.

The topic for this month is Mindfulness. According to Tim Stead, an Anglican priest in Oxford, mindfulness has been called; silent prayer, contemplative prayer, the desert tradition, or mystical theology in the Christian tradition. It has been around since the time of Jesus to the present. In about the 1970’s, the study of mindfulness and its effects on health became the focus of much research. Tim Stead (2018), defines it as, “Being more fully aware of your own experience in the present moment in a non-judgmental way.” There are some who feel that mindfulness or meditation is their time to listen to God and to discern God’s will for them.

The primary purpose of Stewardship is to serve the will of God. The main goal of our Peace Lutheran Church Stewardship Planning Committee is to help all of our congregation’s members and participants to live their lives with purpose and meaning, so that God’s creating, redeeming, and sanctifying activity will flourish in our community and world. We seek to equip, nurture, and challenge all people who are connected with Peace Lutheran Church to lead a Stewardship lifestyle which encompasses all areas of living and is not limited to providing financial support for our congregation, and God’s people elsewhere.

• Tornado preparedness- Not one state in the continental U.S. has escaped the wrath of tornadoes. While the main tornado season is from Late April to July, tornadoes can strike at any time of the year.
  

The four or five-year-old boy stood staring with his big brown eyes under the fringe of dark hair at the shelves of fruit, sandwiches, cookies and chips. This was not his first trip to the Mobile Loaves and Fishes truck that afternoon. He and his brothers had gotten their bags of food at our first stop in the sprawling apartment complex. They’d followed the truck to the next stop, and while the older boys looked at the clothing on the other side of the truck, the littlest stood staring at the food. “Are you still hungry?“ I asked him. He solemnly nodded yes. I gave him an orange and a bag of cookies. A few minutes later, he was back staring again. This time he got a sandwich and some chips. He smiled, said thank you, and ran away.

This monthly installment of “Stewardship Notes” emphasizes that we are Stewards of Money and Wealth. By definition, a steward is someone who manages another person’s property, finances, or other affairs. Now, you may be thinking that you are barely able to manage your own money and wealth, and much less able to take responsibility for someone else’s finances. Nevertheless, God has called you to take care of the financial resources that He has entrusted to you. So, what are those financial resources that God owns, and for which you are accountable to Him?

From May 4 to 6, over 400 members of the congregations across the Southwestern Texas Synod gathered in San Marcos to consider the business before our synod this year…including voting members from Peace Lutheran Church: Matt Bloom, Emily Castillo, Katie Van Gulick and Pastor Carolyn (with a siting of Amanda Castillo and Carter Wiseman at the campus ministry display table). Though the voting membership of the synod was overwhelming over the age of 50, we did our best to represent some of the younger members of the church!

According to the Arthritis Foundation, arthritis is very common but is not well understood. Actually, “arthritis” is not a single disease; it is an informal way of referring to joint pain or joint disease. There are more than 100 different types of arthritis. People of all ages, sexes and races can and do have arthritis, and it is the leading cause of disability in America. More than 50 million adults and 300,000 children have some type of arthritis. It is most common among women and occurs more frequently as people get older.

I started delivering meals during my lunch hour while working for IBM in 2000. It was super simple. When someone is trying to dip their toe into volunteering, Meals on Wheels delivery is a perfect start. The commitment can be as little as once a month delivery for an hour. We all have an hour!

Saturday, May 12 at 6:00 p.m., at Peace Lutheran Church

The 2018 Leander-Cedar Park CROP Hunger Walk is now behind us and Peace Lutheran Church has raised about $9,110 to help end hunger. 25% of the proceeds from the Leander/Cedar Park CROP Walk will go to Hill Country Community Ministries, we wouldn’t have been able to collect this much without the help of friends and family.

Drinking too much alcohol increases people’s risk of injuries, violence, drowning, liver disease, and some types of cancer. This April, during Alcohol Awareness Month, Peace Parish Nurse encourages you to educate yourself and your loved ones about the dangers of drinking too much.