I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Anniversaries,

Birthdays, Sick Bay

and Coming Events

2

Parking Lot Resto-

ration

3

Phyllis’s corner

4

Recipe 5

Calendar 6

V I C T O R Y T R I N I T Y

L U T H E R A N C H U R C H SOUNDS OF VICTORYSOUNDS OF VICTORY

A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 V O L U M E I I , I S S U E 8

Special points of

interest:

Rev. Ron’s Message

Parking Lot Restoration

Phyllis’s Corner

www.victorytrinitylutheranchurch.org

Sunday Worship Service

9:00 AM

Sunday School

On Break

Rev. Ron’s Message

Jail Ministry Update:

The Mason County Women's Jail Ministry program has a new name and a new focus. It is now known as the “Ministry of Presence”. This is a more descriptive statement of bring-ing the presence of God and the gospel mes-sage of love, hope, peace, mercy and forgive-ness to them. Our presence is to be with them in their moment, listen and share. As with all new restrictions during this time of COVID-19, all personal contact with the inmates was cancelled at the start of the shut-down in March. During this time Worship services have been on hold. Approximately a month ago we were given permission to be able to at least bring in materials and books for the women. So, 1-2 times a week we do that. The jail staff have been exceedingly helpful and have expressed their appreciation for our will-ingness to be present and continue this minis-try within the guidelines. We do not know when the restrictions will be lifted but it does not appear likely anytime soon. Your contin-ued prayers for this ministry, prayers for the women and the men in our local jail, and prayers for the jail staff. Pastor's Pathways: Living in Hope One of my pastor friends, David Nellis re-cently wrote an article saying he was thinking about that famous phrase. Not, ‘look before you leap’, or ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’, but the phrase, ‘you never know what’s just around the corner’. That has certainly come true with the new Coronavirus. We heard about it in December as a new virus but it seemed a long way off, and then slowly but surely it seemed to creep closer and closer, spreading to Italy and other parts of Europe then eventually finding its way to New York City, the U.S. and finally Michigan. Eventually our lives changed alot!

Six months ago you could have asked "What might keep us staying in our homes, hold off hugging, or living with so many new restric-tions?" You might have said another 9/11, or a catastrophic natural disaster. Few would have said a microscopic virus was that powerful. As Pastor David said, the truth is we don't know what was just around the corner, then we run into it. Smack! Then life is changed, and for some life was gone, and for others life just goes on. Yet there seems little hope of our ‘normal’ way of life returning. We face an even more uncertain future with changes and circumstances dictating our be-havior, with masks, with increased personal space and with distance learning changing the way we live, play and worship. We can face it alone, or even with only our families and close friends or we can face that future together with the power of God's grace and guidance. Whether our households are one or an ex-tended family of fifteen, God loves each and everyone of us. God who has guided other faithful followers through the years and through other pandemic times. God who al-lows us to find blessings in the hardest of times. God bestows love and grace on all of us. Continued page 4 …..

P A G E 2

Sick Bay

Coming Events

Birthdays and Anniversaries

August Birthdays

3 Jennifer Miller

3 Martin Johnson

6 Barbra Nielsen

7 David Kronlein

13 Pat Niemi

13 Angie Johnson

13 Charlotte Mauer

16 Joe Krajkiewcz

19 Beth Clemensen

27 Caleb Smith

August Anniversaries

13 Sarah & Mat Cole

17 Ken & Angie Johnson

21 Sylvia & Dennis McNeal

POLY EGELER - MEMORIAL SERVICE

The Memorial Service for Polly Egeler sched-uled for August 8th has been postponed until further notice. We will let you know when it is re-scheduled.

REV. RON IRIS - 50TH ANNIVERSARY

On August 16th, during worship service, we will congratulate Rev. Ron on the 50th Anni-versary of his Ordination. He was Ordained on June 7, 1970 in a Methodist Church. We will not be able to have a Social Hour due to the COVID-19 Pandemic but we hope you will be able to join us on the 16th to congratu-late him.

MAD RIDE

August 15th is the MAD Ride but the bikers will not be stopping at the Church. The par-ticipants can choose their own route to travel this year.

S O U N D S O F V I C T O R Y

Pastor Bill

Nancy Nielsen

Jacky Jeter

Bob Peters

Dick Weinert

Pat Appledorn

Beth Clemensen

Marsha Stohr

Ed and Sue Jabrocki

Roger Staley

Carl Kronlein

Jean Von Sprechen

Jenny (Thompsen) King

Diane Rose (Carla’s sister) Get well soon!

Happy Birthday

Carol Johnson

Shirley Tanis

Alice Maas

Bishop Craig Satterlee

Sunday Praise and Prayer Service

The Prayer and Praise service on Facebook

will continue through the summer along

with the regular worship service in our

building for those unable or not comfortable

attending a live service. The half hour prayer

and praise service starts at 9:00 AM Sunday

morning. Plan to join. You can find the ser-

vice on Victory’s Facebook page.

URL: (www.facebook.com/

victorytrinitylutheranchurch)

P A G E 3 V O L U M E I I , I S S U E 8

Parking Lot Restoration

As we navigate the topsy turvey year of the Covid Virus, I thought I might share some thoughts on stewardship and property needs for Victory Trinity as we look for-ward.

At the July Council meeting the church council ap-proved distribution of $1,500 of the Mission Fund, mostly from Thrivent revenue, to go to the Salvation Army food pantry and Help Ministries.

In conjunction with the canceled events this year was the church’s participation in the annual Victory Drive community garage sale. Participation in the garage sale in the past couple of years has provided both a fund raising mechanism for the church to realize some trash to treasure income from the sale of items taking up space in closets, basements and garages of the congre-gation that could be used to help augment overhead needs associated with maintaining the property. In addition, the garage sale afforded a fund raising oppor-tunity for the church to raise funds for Christian out-reach activities through food concession sales and to provide a community service component providing some respite benefits with chairs in the shade for weary shoppers to rest in and provision of restroom facilities.

Roofs and parking lots are the bane of property owner-ship. These high capital expenses are intermittent and in the classic property management model should be accounted for by setting up sinking funds, by making annual contributions to targeted savings accounts for reserves and replacements so that when the time comes to do the work, the project can be undertaken without the need for a call for capital contributions. This sinking fund concept is the classic put away for the rainy day logic is popular with accountants and money managers in theory, but in the real world, execution of such prac-tices is not all that common.

The church parking lot has been visibly deteriorating for a number of years and is at a stage where breaking up of the pavement is likely in the near future. The his-tory of the parking lot suggests that the supporting sub-base beneath the lot is not adequate for protection of the integrity of the lot given the shrink/ swell activity of the soils on the property. As a consequence the council views resurfacing of the lot as kind of a band aid solu-tion to the problem and considers the more expensive crush and rebuild and repaving of the lot the more cost effective long term strategy. Quotes for both ap-proaches to restoring the lot have been obtained from two contractors. The less costly resurfacing method of putting asphalt on top of the unstable base runs about $23,000 based on current 2020 costs. The cost of the crush and rebuild of the lot runs an additional $10,000 +/- and would provide better longevity for both the current parking lot work and subsequent resurfacings in the future.

At present, the church does not have readily available funds that can be used for a capital expenditure of this magnitude. As a consequence, any proposed action on the lot is being put off until 2021. While a fundraising activity could help to augment the available funding for repair of the parking lot and the prospect for host-ing a fund raiser in the current covid virus environ-ment is not a realistic prospect any time in the fore-seeable near future. Currently our annual In Gather-ing event is on hold for scheduling due.

Given this state of affairs, I am making this need known to the congregation and extended church fam-ily at this time, so that those moved to send contribu-tions for the express purpose of restoring the parking lot are aware of the situation. With almost a year of advance notice to create a fund for this purpose, I wanted to provide as much lead time as possible.

With God’s Blessings,

Kevin Kalmbach, Property Chairman Stewardship Chairman.

P A G E 4

S O U N D S O F V I C T O R Y

Rev. Ron’s Message … Continued from page 1: God allows us to take our current mask wearing, social distancing hard times and find the blessing therein: Take these hard times to think...It is the source of power. Take these uncertain times to play...It is the secret of perpetual youth. Take these hard times to read...It is the fountain of wisdom. Take these uncertain times to pray...It is the greatest power on earth. Take these hard times to love and be loved...It is a God given privilege. Take these uncertain times to be friendly (by phone, letter, or video)...It is the road to happiness. Take these hard times to laugh...It is the music of the soul. Take these uncertain times to give...It is too short a day to be selfish. Take these hard times to work (at home)...It is the price of success. Take all times to do charity...It is the key to life that lasts. -author unknown Rev. Ron "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" Romans 15:13

Phyllis’s Corner Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Community Table and Hospitality In The Name of Christ have been put on hold. Here are some recent comments from each of the following organiza-tions.

Community Table:

After email responses and phone calls, we have decided to continue to hold off on resuming Tuesday Community Table meals. Those of you that I spoke with and corresponded with have shared our concerns about how to physically dis-tance the guests, number of volunteers needed, the fact that many of our churches are not meet-ing in person yet, advanced age of our volunteers, and concerns on masks and cleaning.

Thank you all for thoughtfully considering the future of these meals. I will reach out again in a couple of months if things are getting a bit more back to the “new normal”.

Lisa Dains Community Table Coordinator Hospitality: The Hospitality Board has been in a quandary about what to do this year regarding opening the shelter. After much prayer and many conversations and meetings, we have decided it is not feasible to open up this November for what would have been Season 12.

As a Board we have been able to problem solve many issues but how do we minimize exposure risk to our volunteers and how do we quarantine our guests if someone were to be infected with COVID? We can send home our volunteers to quarantine, but we certainly cannot do this with our guests be-cause the shelter is their “home”.

We still have a responsibility to our guests and we want to help. The first step we are taking is to

P A G E 5 V O L U M E I I , I S S U E 8

Phyllis’s Corner … continued make contact with our guests that are currently liv-ing in tents to let them know we are not opening. Three plus months gives them time to consider other options and move toward an alternate living ar-rangement. As a Board we have not yet had an op-portunity to formulate ways to help them but per-haps it may look a bit like it did this last March when we closed. We sat down with each guest to help them brainstorm where they might go and praise God all 16 found a safe place to live. We were able to provide support with laundry services, food boxes, transportation, gift cards, supplemental meals, mail delivery and general support. Having these suppor-tive services for the guest allowed them to stay in their new living arrangement with a little less stress and it allowed us to stay in contact with them as well.

Also, as many of you know, we have been working towards a program for our homeless men that have a desire to change. Those that would like to be self-sufficient men of God. We know mentorship, re-

sponsibilities of working and volunteering are huge pieces to the program but there is plenty more to consider and we can now begin to focus on God’s desire for this program.

Please be in prayer as to how you might continue to bless us with your gifts and abilities as well as be in prayer for us as we forge forward into new territory.

With Love and Gratitude,

Tammy & Tim Martin and the Hospitality INC Board

A Recipe For Christian Living

Blend 1 cup love

With ½ cup kindness

Alternately add in small portions 1 cup appreciation

With 3 cups pleasant companionship

Into which has been sifted 2 tsp. deserving praise

Flavor with 1 tsp carefully chosen advice

Lightly fold in 1 cup cheerfulness

Adding pinch of sorrow

Pour tenderly into clean hearts and bake until well-natured.

Turn out on the surface of society.

Humbly invoke God’s blessing and it will serve all mankind.

Victory Trinity Lutheran Church

3208 W. Victory Dr.

Ludington, MI, 49431

Phone: (231) 843-8711 E-mail: info@victorytrinitylutheranchurch.org pastor@victorytrinitylutheranchurch.org Website: www.victorytrinitylutheranchurch.org Face book: www.facebook.com/VictoryTrinityLutheranChurch

W e work to build a loving, caring and

welcoming community of faith that

truly is open to all people. We gather fre-

quently for social and fellowship times outside

of worship because we enjoy the companion-

ship of our fellow church members but are for-

ever looking to include others in our fellow-

ship.

If you are receiving this newsletter by mail and

would prefer an email delivery, send an email

to Roger at rpthmp@gmail.com and tell him to

send it by email. You will get it quicker and

reduce our postage costs.

Editor:

Roger Thompson

(231) 757-4332 or rpthmp@gmail.com

God’s Work

Our Hands