Newsletter — March 1, 2022

Join us Sunday mornings for worship at 10:00 am, with the option of in-person or on-line worship. All are welcome. Session requires masks be worn for all indoor church activities (worship, M in M, Sunday School, etc) regardless of vaccination status. Thank you for your cooperation, and for your care for our community, as we continue to deal with this pandemic. For the immediate future we will not have congregational singing indoors.

You may also join us online:

Find worship live on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/spiritoflifeav
Join us live on Zoom by clicking https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83600960782
You can stream the service later either on Facebook or on YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC-G31isag0NKhIT0cat91qA

News from Christian Education Committee:
Children’s Sunday School classes meet 9:30 – 10:15 a.m. There will be a PreK – 2nd grade class and a 3rd-5th grade class. We will bring the children back to the sanctuary for the Children’s sermon at 10:15 and then the children can sit with their parents during the rest of the service.

The Adult Sunday school class based on videos produced and hosted by Emmanuel Acho will meet two more times, and the schedule is listed below, with the featured topics for each week. As we have been doing, we will begin at 11:00 am following worship and watch the video together. Joanne Boyd will then facilitate a discussion of the issues raised in the video. The classes are open to all; the links for each week’s video are included below, if you would like to view them ahead of times.
March 6: Conversation with Carl Lentz, former pastor with Hillsong Church East Coast, on race and religion https://uncomfortableconvos.com/episode/episode-7 (Please note: Carl Lentz was fired from his position in the months after this conversation was recorded, for sexual misconduct; he is a flawed messenger, but the issues raised in this conversation are well worth discussing in our class)
March 13: Emmanuel answers emails from viewers; this is a shorter video, so we will plan to have a longer discussion, wrapping up our take-aways from this class, and the various topics we have covered. https://uncomfortableconvos.com/episode/episode-4
You have the option of joining by Zoom, by clicking the link at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84136883066; or, if you are fully vaccinated and masked, you are welcome to gather in the conference room. Discussions following the videos are recorded. Contact Denise Lewis for the link to any of the recordings

M&M meets Wednesdays: This Wednesday (March 2nd) M&M will be joining the teens and adults for the 7pm Ash Wednesday worship.

With M&M starting up and having a meal after M&M at 6 we need some people to provide desserts for the meal. The desserts need to be boughten and individually wrapped such as ice cream sandwiches. Please have them to the church by 5 p.m. The dates we need them are: March 30, April 6, April 20 and April 27. If you can help, please let Loretta know. Thank you for your support.

GriefShare Program restarting this Thursday, March 3 6:30 pm at Spirit of Life Church. This program features biblical, Christ-centered teaching that focuses on grief topics associated with the death of a loved one. The DVD seminar features nationally respected grief experts and real-life stories of people, followed by a small group discussion about what was viewed. Past participants have related how helpful the information and follow-up discussions were to them. Many grieving people find they are only beginning the work of healing when friends or family have returned to their daily life routines. Too often people, including Christians, tend to bury their grief instead of allowing it to do the God-given work for which it is intended. Don’t allow fear of what others may think to keep you from what could help you. Confidentiality is very much a part of this program. Please contact Bob Shepard or Jacqui Hicks for more information or to sign up.

We are selling Easter flowers and gift cards! To access the site and place an order for your fundraiser group:

Go to www.gertensfundraising.com
Enter the Store ID code provided into the text field and click ‘Enter ID to Continue’.
Store ID code for Spirit of Life Presbyterian Church: 149

Lilies are available for purchase if you would like them for home. However, if you are ordering flowers for the sanctuary, please do not select Lily as we have staff who are allergic. The site is open until 10 PM on Thursday, March 10. We cannot accept any late orders past the deadline. Items will be available for pick-up on Sunday 4/10/22. Contact Becky Brandt with questions.

From Community Service: Many thanks for your donations to the Souper Bowl food drive. We delivered 90 cans of soup and a check for $190!
Congratulations to our prize winners! Larry and Pat Buchholz were our “champs” and picked the winning team. Denise Lewis and Barb Ostlund were the “biggest losers” only because they picked the wrong team!

Next up: Minnesota FoodShare March Campaign!
We will again be participating in the MN FoodShare March Campaign, collecting non-perishable food items and monetary donations each Sunday in March. All donations will go to the Rosemount Family Resource Center. Watch for details in this Sunday’s worship, and next week’s email.

March In-PERSON Clearwater Forest camp event: March 27-29
CATCH A VISION: Marrying your mission with anti-racist action
Keynote Anna Kendig Flores
Anna will be the speaker for this event at Clearwater Presbyterian camp running from March 27-29th. She’ll be leading reflection, discussion, and creative engagement around how we can empower church mission (or our workplace/life mission) and anti-racist action by finding the places where the two already and naturally connect. And while none of that means that anti-racism work is suddenly “simple” or “easy” — it can be strengthened and deepened by making these connections in a way that has integrity.

This could be a powerful event for individuals, or a small group of folks already engaged in anti-racism work from the same congregation to attend together for future conversation and planning.

For more information see
https://spiritoflife-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/spirit_spiritoflifeav_org/EdIcBcIEdwREg3zqXB-wx1kBqFhXMtstyhDjYMy5Ph7ctA?e=sp2WXa
https://spiritoflife-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/spirit_spiritoflifeav_org/EQ5sve8toU9Mm9eAyct_n-4BON-YW15w50UQA4HX1ZcZ7w?e=dXbiu9

From Community Service: During the winter months, the donations to the Little Free Food Pantry (located at the entrance of the driveway) need to be modified to tolerate the extreme cold temperatures we can see here. Please review the attached list of items for what to consider donating; ideal items are dried and in bags, like dried beans, rice, oatmeal, cereal, etc. And, remember the motto of the Little Free Food Pantry movement: Take what you need, leave what you can.

Spirit of Life is working to be sustainable through recycling. By introducing more recycling collocated at the location of most trash cans, we can significantly reduce the amount of waste being sent to the landfill while showcasing that reducing waste can be easy. Help us to celebrate sustainability while enjoying the event. Clean plastics, tin/metal and paper should go into the recycling bins and everything else should go into the trash. Thank you! Please see Pastor Rob, any Elder or member of the staff with questions.

Volunteers Needed:
…We need one person each Sunday to serve as a Greeter and one person each Sunday to serve as an Usher for Sunday worship. We need two volunteers for each week. Please let Becky Brandt know what dates you are available to help and she will build a calendar. Thank you!

Meet with Pastor Rob for Coffee and Conversation Mondays, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. Come as you are. This is a gathering online but it is open for you to pop in and out any time during the two hour time frame so feel free to drop in and say hello. *Note, same time and same login, recurring meeting each week. Join Zoom Meeting at https://zoom.us/j/286584190
One tap mobile +13126266799,,286584190# +19292056099,,286584190#

If you have a prayer request you wish to share with our Spirit Care Prayer Team, please email the office at [email protected] AND Pastor Rob at [email protected]. Word it as you wish it to be submitted, and we will post it for our prayer team.

2022 Per Capita is $36.50