Dear church family,

I continue to hold you all in my heart and prayers. These are different times we are living in: challenging & difficult to say the least. I and my husband, Greg, are mostly working from home. I am available by phone, text, and email. Please contact me, especially if you are finding it difficult to cope (which is very understandable given our present circumstances) or if you need a safe person to debrief with. I do go in to the church building a number of times during the week to check the mail and phone messages.

As I gather my thoughts to share there are three things that I want to share with you:

Church without walls

We are learning how to be a church community outside of our church building. THANK YOU for being a caring community. I continue to hear how you are keeping in touch with one another. We do have to keep our physical distance from one another, but we also need to know that we are not isolated. You are not alone. I do have some suggestions to help us know that we are still a church community outside the church walls.

Last week I asked you to contact the 2 people ahead and behind you in your church directory. This week I am asking you to move 2 up and 2 down from your name and contact those people. Don’t feel you are limited to only those people. And if you have an old directory – great – use it.
Many people worshipped together at 10:30 last Sunday. Let’s worship together again this week as well. Don’t feel you are limited to that time only.
Greg and I took a selfie of ourselves at worship last week (I think it is on the website). Take a selfie of your household at worship this week and post it on facebook or send it to me and I will forward it on to our website (I will assume if you forward it on to me that you have given me permission to post it). This will give us a partial picture of our church at worship.
Many people have asked me about how to get their offering to the church. Presently, you can mail your offering in or you can put it in the mail slot at the church’s front door. There is someone at the church regularly to deal with mail. PAR is available as well. Church council is also working on other options.
I have a list of people who are able to deliver groceries or medicine to your door. If you are needing this service, please contact me.

Sunday Worship

We have been invited to worship with Redeemer Lutheran this Sunday.

Link for worship at Redeemer: http://www.redeemersaskatoon.ca/uploads/sermons/2020-03-29-Redeemer%20Lutheran-Web%20Service.mp3

The Saskatoon pastors are going to share worship services. One service we will join another Saskatoon church at worship and the following service will be with our home congregation. Next Sunday we will worship “at home” with our Augustana church family.

Prayers for healing

This morning I woke to the news that 55 Canadians and over 28,000 around the world have died from the covid 19 virus. As Jesus wept for his beloved friend Lazarus, we also weep for them. And we pray for their friends and family as they grieve. This Sunday was originally going to be a healing service at Augustana and I feel it is important that we not cancel our prayers for healing. This service will continue to be available on our website.

Link to Prayers for Healing (Augustana) - https://youtu.be/M12pEw2-H40

May the peace of Christ bless you!

Pastor Marilyn