1

There is a hymn (#729) in our hymnal whose lyrics remind us of this: “The Church of Christ in every age, beset by change but Spirit led, must claim and test its heritage, and keep on rising from the dead”.

The Reformation never ends. The Holy Spirit continually seeks to re-new us, transform us, and adapt us to be able to spread the Gospel amidst ever-changing circumstanc-es. The Reformation is not a once-and-done historical trivia fact. Ra-ther, it is evidenced in the living

history of our lives and those around us.

This Fall, as we celebrate and focus on this wonderful anniversary in the life of Christianity, we will open ourselves to an ongoing Reformation, as we ourselves participate through our own lives in “500 Years of Living History”!

From the Pastors

500 Years of Living History

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther un-knowingly launched the Reformation when he put his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. That was 500 years ago. A little more than 200 years after that, Lutherans (so named for follow-ing the teachings of Martin Lu-ther) came to the United States and founded our congregation, Muddy Creek Lutheran Church, in 1732. And so, to this day, 500 years of living history have been evidenced in the faith and wit-ness of Lutherans, Protestant Christians, and participants of our church and other churches.

One thing about both the Holy Spirit and the efforts of the Reformation, is that both of them are ongoing in our lives and in this world.

MUDDY CREEK LUTHERAN w w w . m c l c h u r c h . o r g 3 3 6 - 2 7 7 0

S pe c i a l po i n t s o f

i n t e r e s t :

Church Picnic

Women’s Retreat

Lutheran World Relief

Ingathering

Worship Helper

Schedule

I ns i de t h i s i s s ue :

Upcoming Events 2

Upcoming Events 3

News and Notes 4

Birthdays 5

Worship Helpers 6

Miscellaneous 7

Calendar 8

A ug us t 2 0 1 7

Highlights of 2017 ELCA

Lower Susquehanna Synod Assembly

In recognition of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the theme for this year’s Synod Assembly was “ReFORM + ReNEW + ReVISION”.

Established a Lutheran Disaster Response Fund to be able to more quickly dis-perse funds in situations where disaster relief is required.

Established a committee to set up a system whereby people can participate in Synod committee meetings and other meetings remotely through the use of tech-nology and the internet, rather than always having to be present physically for meetings.

“Fill the Truck to Feed the Children”, this year's assembly hunger initiative, was a huge success. Congregations collected more than 7,000 pounds of food (11 pal-lets!) along with monetary donations for the Central PA Food Bank to use in feeding hungry children and their families this summer.

Four new pastors were ordained at the assembly and one new deaconess was con-secrated.

2

Upcoming Events Make a Splash at the

Adamstown Pool

Sunday August 6

All children, youth, and families are in-vited to come swim and eat at the Ad-amstown Pool on Sunday August 6, from noon—2 p.m. We have re-served the small pavilion where we can share lunch together.

Bring sandwiches for your-selves, as well as a dessert or snack to share. There is also a snack stand to purchase food. Cost is $4 dol-lars. Kids 4 and under are free. Friends are invited too!

Questions, please contact Jill Youndt at jill_youndt@pequeavalley.org

Sunday Morning

Volunteers

Please consider being a part of the many won-derful and dedicated people who assist on Sun-day morning at Muddy Creek. Currently, we particularly need help in the following areas:

Nursery weekly volunteers

Coffee ministry volunteers (sign up on clipboard on snack table)

Ushers and acolytes

Altar Guild volunteers (1 week, 2 weeks, or 1 month)

Please contact the office or the pastors if you are interested or would like to find out more.

Lutheran World Relief

Ingathering

Donations Needed

Every Fall, our synod makes an appeal called an “Ingathering” to collect quilts, school kits, baby care kits, and soap to be sent all over the world to those in need through Lutheran World Relief. For the last several years, Muddy Creek has been assembling school kits that were utilized by refu-gees in need. Last year, our school kits were sent to refugee children in the countries of Jordan and El Salvador.

This year we plan again on assembling school kits on Sunday, September 17th. You can help by donating the following new items (please pay attention to the specifics of each item, as it is a requirement that each LWR kit be identical; no religious or patriotic symbols please):

70 sheet spiral notebooks, wide or college-ruled, aprox. 8 x10 1/2

Small pencil sharpeners

Small blunt scissors (or safety scissors)

Unsharpened #2 pencils with erasers

Black or blue ballpoint pens—new

Crayons, 16 or 24 per box

2 1/2” erasers

You can also help by donating new bars of soap in original wrappers (4—5 oz. size).

Please place donations in the box under the mail-boxes by Sunday, August 27. Questions: contact Pastor Peter

God’s Work Our Hands

September 17

Children, youth and families are invited to use your hands for God’s work by assembling the Lutheran World Relief School Kits on Sunday September 17. We will gather for

pizza, learn a little about the impact the school kits have for children around the world, and assemble the items for shipping.

3

Upcoming Events

Church Picnic

Sunday Aug. 20

Everyone is invited to the annual church picnic at Muddy Creek Grove. The fun will begin imme-diately after 10:30 out-door worship.

There will be games for children and adults, including guessing games, a piñata, quoits, “Now You Have it, Now You Don’t”, Muddy Creek Trivia, and more.

Hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, bottled water, and paper goods will be pro-vided. Please bring a covered dish to share, and an inexpensive item for the “Now You Have It’ game if you wish to play.

Hope to see you there! Friends invited too!

Questions: Michelle Dimitris 717-951-4617 or Audrey Noll 717-336-3592

Sunday School

for

Children, Youth, and Adults

Resumes September 10, 9 a.m.

Muddy Creek is blessed with some amazing teachers who are dedicated to helping us learn and grow in our faith. Mark your calendars now for another new year of learning, fellowship, and fun!

We will begin the year with a special opening for all ages at 9 a.m. and then we will head to the classrooms and meet your teachers. New friends are always welcome and encouraged.

Some things that are in the works for the Fall are a trip to the corn maze, Ingathering and Piz-za, and a special offering project.

All women are invited to spend a beautiful weekend at the Son and Sand Retreat Center in Ocean City, Maryland. This annual re-treat is a great time for discus-sions, walks on the sand and boardwalk, and good friendship.

Please contact the church office or Nancy Beck, 717-475-3234, nbeck@ptd.net, if you would like to be part of this special weekend. Participants will carpool from the church.

Women’s Ocean Retreat

September 6-10

Confirmation Program

The Confirmation Program, for all youth 6th-8th grade, begins again in September. Please speak to Pastor Peter if you or anyone in your family is in-terested in participating in the program. We meet twice a month on Wednesday evenings, and also have many fun events and service projects.

4

News and Notes

We wish to thank everyone from the Muddy Creek Lutheran Church for the prayers and concerns for baby Angela Martin. Also a hearty thank you to the prayer shawl commit-tee for the shawls you shared with us. We appreciated it. Baby Angela is doing well on occasional blood transfusions and might need a spleen removal and perhaps a bone marrow transplant in the future. We leave her in God’s hands.

-Thanks again, Jay Paul and Lorraine Martin; Walter and Eva Nolt

Thank you so much for your thoughts, pray-

ers and delicious goodie box during finals week! It was able to make me smile during such a stressful time.

-Natalie Sukanick

Thank you to all those who volunteered at VBS this year. We were blessed with amazing site leaders, crew leaders, helpers, and students!

Thank you to Muddy Creek for the beauti-

ful prayer shawl and the lovely flowers you gave me as I am recovering from my stroke. I deeply appreciate it. - Sue Fry

Our sympathy to the families of:

Shelva Witmer who passed away on May 22.

Pauline Brendle who passed away on July 3. Service was on July 12.

Harry Roseboro who passed away on July 5. Service was on July 12.

Christian Education Committee

Sunday School will resume September 10.

We had a wonderful VBS this year at Muddy Creek with about 50 students, youth and adults participating or helping. Our offering went to help families get clean water in Peru.

Plans are underway for the 2017-18 school year. Most of our wonderful teachers will be returning.

There is a pool party planned for families and youth in August.

One youth attended summer camp this year at Camp Kirchenwald.

Property Committee

The Property Committee oversaw several repairs at the church: the light bulbs over the chancel and choir loft were replaced with LED bulbs, the exterior door to the Christian Education building was repaired, the exterior doors to the sanctuary were re-varnished, a propane tank from the chapel was relocated to the outside of the Fel-lowship Hall kitchen, and a oil tank from the chapel was traded in to obtain a diesel fuel tank for the storage shed to be used for the riding lawn mower.

Church Council

The Chapel Auction will proceed on July 17th with the auctioneers of Kline-Kreider-Good. Open houses will take place on the three Saturdays previous. Thank you to Gail Bare for her hard work in coordinating this effort.

We received a letter of thanks from the ELCA World Hunger Appeal for our donations. We also received a certif-icate from the Lower Susquehanna Synod thanking Muddy Creek for the mission support dollars we sent which exceeded our plan. (Note: these monies were the result of donations earmarked for these purposes by members of the church.)

Council and Committee Highlights

5

August Birthdays

A Special Happy Birthday to our “Over 80” Members

Brenda & Friends Tours

For more info contact Brenda Berger at 336-6886 or bergerb@dejazzd.com. More info also on the hallway table out-side the church office.

1

2

4

6

7

8

9

Lynne Hassler

Donald Walmer

Dean Witmer

Kimberlee Blatt

Robin Engle

Zachery Aungst

Shane Geissel

Catherine Kochel

Mackenzie Eckert

Jill Youndt

Mary Zerbe

Jordan Greene

Brenda Berger

Jean Hummel

Eric Fritz

Virginia Frankfort

John Shreiner

Dorothy Hiester

Anita Lutz

Wanda Hertzog-Grant

Jennifer Rideout

Jane Rutt

Kathleen Ebling

Harry Fetter

Sharon Frankhouser

Erik Nussbaum

William Lausch

Deborah Ramsey

Mary Jane Carvell

17

18

19

20

21

23

25

26

Lauren Brubaker

Kyle Ueberroth

Cole Aungst

Damien Branch

Kathleen Hainley

Renee Bougher

Natalie Eshleman

James Kuhlman

Dylan Bordner

Beatrice Ebersole

Ted Bare

Leah Moneyhan

Ashley Wenger

Marylin Zimmerman

Erin Wise

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Devan Eckert

Lucas Bearinger

Aileen Kulp

Hannah Roth

Bruce Spangler

Sidney Hurst

Zoey Nussbaum

27

28

29

30

31

08/06/1923 Catherine Kochel

Age 94 176 Willow Street,

PO Box 425

Adamstown, PA 19501

08/07/1931 Mary Zerbe

Age 86 671 Gehman School Rd

Denver, PA 17517

08/17/1928 Virginia Frankfort

Age 89 PO Box 696, 243 Willow St

Adamstown, PA 19501

08/29/1932 Aileen Kulp

Age 85 90 Cocalico Creek Rd

Stevens, PA 17578

08/14/1925 Beatrice Ebersole

Age 92 188 Ebersole Rd.

Ephrata, PA 17522

08/13/1926 James Kuhlman

Age 91 85 Scenic Drive

Denver, PA 17517

6

Worship Helpers

Coffee Ministry

August

6 Pat Brendle, Brenda Berger, Leroy Ber ger

13 Natalie Howe

20 None - Church Picnic

27 Millie Shober, Kathleen Ebling

Money Counters

August

6 Linda Gerhart, Hollie Kemper, JimWeber

13 Matthew and Lesia Aungst, Kim Eshleman

20 June and Neal Lied, Pat Brendle

27 Dean Lutz, David and June Sloat

September

3 Nancy and Sid Hurst, Jane Wenger

10 Lori and Mike Martin, Josephine Martin

17 Linda and Tim Fritz; David Sensenig

24 Ted and Gail Bare

Acolytes

August

6 Paige Walzl

13 Lucas Killian

20 Service in the Grove

27 Cole Dimitris

September

3 Brandon Walzl

10 Ryan Brubaker

17 Sophia Dimitris

24 Sada Aungst

Bulletin Folders

(Thursday unless noted)

August

10 Charles and Janet Frantz

17 Josephine Martin, Pat Artz

24 Bud and Becky Thunberg

31 Marian and Shorty Weinhold, Joyce Keith

September

7 Marie and Walter Buohl

14 Linda Berger, Nancy Beck

21 Mickey Jones, Judy Dengler

28 Brenda and John Shreiner

Lay Readers

August

6 Connie Becker

13 Nancy Beck

20 Jeff Brubaker

27 John Shreiner

September

3 Will Meckley

10 Haley Leed

17 Anne Brubaker

24 Zinia Zwally

Communion Assistants

August 6 Jamie Aungst

September 3 Courtney Zwally

7

Ushers

August

August 6 - Mike Leid, Connie Harding, Brad and Doris

Rauch, Sara Frazer

13, 20, 27 - Dave Sloat, June Sloat, Dean Lutz, Scott Di-

mitris, Holly Kemper, Courtney Zwally, Jim Weber

September

September 3– Julie Emrhein, Jane Wenger, Terri Meck-

ley, Holly Kemper, Linda Gerhart, Craig Brossman

10,17,24 - Michael and Lynn Breidenstein, Pat Brendle,

Darlene Weidman, Nick Duong and Thai Phan

Altar Guild

August Audrey Noll & Pat Brendle

Greeters

August 6 Millie Shober

Worship Helpers

Attendance Report

Giving Report Received Actual Expenses

Through June 2017 $96,965.31 $98,010.53

NEWSLETTER ARTICLE SUBMISSION DEADLINE: August 13, 2017.

Nursery (9:00 unless noted)

August

6 8:00 a.m. Don and Nora Busser

9:00 a.m. Michelle and Scott Dimitris

13 Michelle Walzl, Brenda Shreiner

20 Jill Youndt, Brandon Walzl

27 Jeff and Anne Brubaker

September

3 8:00 a.m. Don and Nora Busser

9:00 a.m. Mike and Wendy Sheaffer

10 10:15 a.m. Judy Dengler, Madison Ebersole

17 10:15 a.m. Michelle and Scott Dimitris

24 10:15 a.m. Michelle Walzl, Brenda Shreiner

Upcoming Events

September 6-10– Women’s Beach Retreat

September 10 - Fall Schedule Resumes

September 18—God’s Work Our Hands Day Ingathering School Kits

Worship

June 4 114

June 11 103

June 18 103

June 25 113

July 2 96

July 9 90

Admin. Asst.: Tues. & Thurs. 9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Pastors: Tuesday 9:00 a.m.—11:00 am

Thursday 9:00 a.m.– 11:00 a.m.

Additional hours by appointment and at various times throughout the week

August Office Hours

8

Mudd

y C

reek

Lu

ther

an C

hu

rch, 1

1 S

ou

th M

udd

y C

reek

Road

, D

enver

, P

A 1

7517

, w

ww

.mcl

chu

rch

.org

, 7

17

-336-2

77

0 f

or

urg

ent

pas

tora

l n

eed

s ca

ll p

asto

rs a

t 7

17-5

98-5

09

5

Off

ice

emai

l: o

ffic

e@m

clch

urc

h.o

rg

Pas

tors

em

ails

: n

ancy

@m

clch

urc

h.o

rg

p

eter

@m

clch

urc

h.o

rg

P

asto

rs:

Nan

cy S

chw

abe-

Fry

Pet

er S

chw

abe-

Fry

Ad

min

istr

ativ

e A

ssis

tant:

L

inda

Mohn

Dir

ecto

r of

Mu

sic:

Gre

g G

ehm

an

Sex

ton

s: M

ark S

aylo

r, B

ren

da

and

Lin

da

Ber

ger

Pre

sid

ent:

Fre

d H

ain

ley

Vic

e-P

resi

den

t: G

ail

Bar

e

Coun

cil

Sec

reta

ry:

Mic

hel

le D

imit

ris

Tre

asu

rer:

Sco

tt S

tric

kla

nd

Nam

es o

f ad

dit

ional

con

gre

gat

ion

al l

ead

ers

and c

hai

rpeo

ple

are

fou

nd

on

the

bu

llet

in b

oar

d o

uts

ide

the

chu

rch

off

ice.

AU

GU

ST

1

2

3

4

5

6

8 a.

m. S

poke

n W

orsh

ip

9 a.

m. W

orsh

ip

Noo

n –

Poo

l Par

ty a

t

Ada

mst

own

7

8

6:30

p.m

. Pra

yer

Sha

wls

at Y

vonn

e’s

9

7 p.

m. C

hurc

h C

ounc

il

10

11

12

13

New

slet

ter

Dea

dlin

e

8 a.

m. S

poke

n W

orsh

ip

9 a.

m. W

orsh

ip

14

15

6 p.

m. S

ocia

l Min

istr

y

Com

mitt

ee

16

17

18

19

20

8 a.

m. S

poke

n W

orsh

ip

10:3

0 a.

m. W

orsh

ip in

the

Gro

ve

11:1

5 a.

m. C

hurc

h

Pic

nic

21

22

6:30

p.m

. Pra

yer

Sha

wls

at Y

vonn

e’s

23

24

25

26

27

8 a.

m. S

poke

n W

orsh

ip

9 a.

m. W

orsh

ip

10 a

.m. T

each

er a

nd

Chr

istia

n E

duca

tion

mtg

.

28

29

7 p.

m. F

inan

ce T

eam

7 p.

m. P

rope

rty

8 p.

m. W

orsh

ip a

nd

Mus

ic C

omm

ittee

30

N

ote

s:

Sis

ters

of

Sob

riety

mee

t eve

ry

Thu

rsda

y ev

enin

g at

the

chur

ch.