Our search is over!

Sunday, June 27, the congregation voted to call Rev. Zachary P. Sturm to be Pastor of Trinity; he he has accepted and will begin his ministry with us on September 1. Thanks to the Holy Spirit working through our Call Committee, our long search has come to a joyful conclusion.

Pastor Zac was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas in 2002 with a degree in Liberal Arts. He entered seminary in 2002 at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). In the summer of 2004 he married Jana Klaehn, originally from Fredericksburg, Texas. After their wedding they packed up the moving van and moved to Jackson, Michigan for Zac’s seminary internship. It was the first time she had ever lived outside the state of Texas. That was a long winter . . .

After the internship the Sturms returned to Chicago and Zac graduated from LSTC in 2006. Although he left Chicago a Cubs fan (sad but true), his allegiance quickly changed to the Cardinals when he moved to the St. Louis area. He has been serving as a parish pastor in Sullivan, Missouri since 2006 and Jana has been teaching middle school social studies. Jana and Zac welcomed their first son, Jackson, into the world in April of 2008.

The Sturms love watching and playing sports of all kinds. They still have a lot to learn about hockey, but their progress is fair considering where they are from. Pastor Zac also loves reading, coaching youth football, cooking, playing racquetball, telling jokes, tickling his son, and listening to Willie Nelson.

National Youth Gathering! July 21 - 26, Youth from Trinity will join 150 St. Louis area youth and adults and 36,000 ELCA youth from around the country in New Orleans, LA, (NOLA) for a week of learning, service, worship, and fun! Please keep the safety of the whole group in your prayers as they go out on this new journey!

It is time for the PMC team to head to the summer cluster meeting where they will all be enlightened about the objectives for the next three months. The team will spend quite a lot of time during the 19th and 20th learning, discussing and acquiring new goals to bring back to Trinity, so please keep their travels and spiritual growth in your prayers.

The committee has worked diligently to complete the tasks given to us at the last meeting, consisting of data gathering, history of the church, individual interviews, the timeline event and dwelling in the word. It’s been a very productive couple of months and thanks to all for their dedication and hard work.

As we celebrate the new opportunities that Alecia will enjoy in continuing her education, we face losing a vital and energetic member of our committee. We already find ourselves understaffed and a trifle concerned about what that means for the work to be done as we move forward. If you have an interest in learning more about the PMC committee and feel you might just have something to offer, or have questions, please step forward and speak to one of the PMC members. 

Pastor Gary

Final Hymn for Father's Day: "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" (A.K.A. the Navy Hymn):

You can still listen to the wonderful Spirituals from May 31 here.

During August we will have special soloists, ensembles, and instrumentalists. If there is anyone in the congregation who would like to be a part of the August music, please let me know. I will be happy to work with anyone.

Music is the exaltation of poetry.
Both of them may excel apart,
but surely they are most excellent
when they are joined, because
nothing is then wanting to either
of their proportions;
for thus they appear like wit and
beauty in the same person.

Henry Purcell

We had a busy and fun-filled week at our “Sports Spectacular”. Camp was overflowing. We actually added an age group this year and all age groups were full. Monday’s rain put a glitch in the outdoor activities but we turned our fellowship hall into a sports arena and moved our outside play tables into the lounge area. The children had so much fun Wednesday with all the water play. We told them on Monday if it was raining Wednesday we would just go out and sing and dance in the rain for water day but Wednesday turned out beautiful. Friday ended the week with children making sponge t-shirts with sports related items. They did a wonderful job and got to take home something cute to wear. The bounce pit is always a winner and it was hard to get the children to come out and go back inside.

With a week off to regroup, our next camp, “Camping Capers-Bugs, Beetles and Butterflies” will start on June 29th. There are still a few openings in a couple of age groups but hopefully they will be filled as many parents commented on the fact that camp was so awesome that they are going to sign up for extra weeks. We also realize with the July 4th holiday that many may not choose this week because they are going out of town. We will be making bug boxes, wind chimes, and many other bug and camping related crafts. We will have several tents set up with various activities in each tent. If it ends up extremely hot we even have a couple of battery operated fans to help cool us off in the tents. Plenty of drinking water is always available.

Church Council voted to allow PDO to collect Campbell Soup Labels (actually the UPC code) and Box Tops for Education (these are worth 10 cents each). The Campbell Soup Label container is outside the PDO office. We may locate it somewhere else once school starts or change containers as it is rather large. If you would like to help us raise money and points for PDO supplies and equipment please bring in your labels and box tops. More information will be provided about these two programs in the near future.

The Church Council also granted approval for PDO to hold another rummage sale with matching Thrivent funds. Mark your calendars now for Saturday, September 26th from 8:00 a.m. to noon. Start saving up anything you would care to donate. If you have any questions you can call Lynda or Debbie at 314-822-0096. The more donations we have the more we have to sell and with matching funds we have a great opportunity to raise money for the PDO program. A sign-up sheet for Thrivent members will be posted on the PDO office door in August so that we know that we have enough Thrivent members working to get the matching funds. You can work Friday, helping with set up, Saturday, during the sale, or Saturday afternoon with clean-up.

Last year this was a great outreach because we actually got one or two new PDO families form the rummage sale. Maybe we can top that this year.

Well it’s time to get back to work. Hope everyone is having a nice summer. Stay cool and have fun!