Holy Trinity continues to support the Y-Center and is next scheduled to host dinner on Saturday, February 4th.  We are permitted to have 5 – 8 adult volunteers in the kitchen.  If you are interested in serving or would like more information, please contact Chris Pryor at pryorc82@gmail.com.

At the Holy Trinity Birthday Bash on Sunday, January 29th, we will be assembling birthday cake kits to share with friends at the Heart to Heart Food Pantry.  We are currently are in need of additional boxes of cake mix, cans of Sprite, and tubs of frosting.  Any of these donated items can be left under the sign up table or near the birthday party display.  These kits will help make someone’s birthday very special!

Thank you to everyone that donated at blood at Holy Trinity’s blood drive for the American Red Cross this week.  Save the date for the next one on Thursday, March 30, 2023.  In 2022, Holy Trinity Blood Drives collected 112 units, potentially helping 336 patients.  THANK YOU so much for the difference you have made. To make an appointment or find out more, go to www.redcrossblood.org/give or 1-800-RED CROSS.

Thank you to the many people who have supported the “First Gift for Jesus” ministry by taking home blankets to finish or by making a monetary donation to purchase blanket kits.  Please return your completed blankets to Holy Trinity by Sunday, January 8th.  We’ll offer a blessing and pray that God’s great love and care will be felt by the foster children who receive the blankets.

Holy Trinity’s “First Gift for Jesus” ministry is an opportunity to include Jesus among those for whom you are purchasing gifts this Christmas season.  As Mary cared for baby Jesus, she wrapped him in swaddling cloths.  Similarly, we will be sharing God’s love with foster children by purchasing and making blankets.  My Very Own Blanket is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to give foster children a new blanket so they have something to help them feel warm, safe, and secure when they are so often moved from home to home with very little to call their own.

Thanks to the many folks who have supported the “First Gift for Jesus” ministry by taking home blanket kits to finish or by making a monetary donation to purchase the kits. We pray God’s great love and care be felt by the foster children who receive these blankets.  Please return your completed blankets to Holy Trinity no later than Sunday, January 8th.  If you have any questions, please reach out to Noelle Fox.

Since breakfast will not be served at First English on Christmas morning, Holy Trinity’s middle school and high school students, along with some adults, packed Christmas bags last Sunday to be handed out   later this week.  Bags included bottles of water, fruit, cans of soup, warm socks, candy and hand-written cards.  Thanks to all who helped pack and/or contribute to the effort!  

Holy Trinity will continue its annual tradition of decorating a Hat & Mitten Tree.  Everyone is invited to hang hand-made or newly-purchased hats, mittens, gloves, scarves and socks on the tree.  Contributions will be donated to clients at Lutheran Social Services food pantries.

From Elizabeth Sammons With Love from our Racial Justice Taskforce

Defiant, Beautiful Country, and One Hundred Women Who Changed the World are books for adults and for youth that I’ve read myself or seen as books of note.  This literature intends to expand our awareness, theology and/or acceptance of diverse viewpoints. The Racial Justice Taskforce hopes you’ll discover how these writings from various generations embrace what it means to be human and to walk in spirit. …

Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South by Wade Hudson

Award-winning author and publisher Wade Hudson recounts his experiences as a Black man and activist who came of age in the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Available in audio. For senior high and older readers. 2021.

Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang

The author reflects on her experiences immigrating to New York City and growing up as an undocumented and impoverished child. She recounts her parents’ stresses, her struggles in school, and the joys that she found alongside the fears. Available in audio. 2021.

One Hundred Women Who Changed the World by New York Times bestselling Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

This collection of stories and pictures features 100 immigrant women throughout history who have shaped, and will continue to shape, our world.

For women of the ELCA, the Thankoffering tradition is one of our foundations. Today and for more than 100 years, Lutheran women have given thanks to God and dollars to mission through Thankoffering.  Holy Trinity WELCA is celebrating Thankoffering Sunday on November 20.  All monetary contributions you may choose to make will be sent to the churchwide WELCA organization to provide crucial support for ministries that include Gathermagazine and Bible study; leadership development; support for new units; spiritual gifts programming; ministry resources about women’s health; human trafficking; faith practices; racial justice training; advocacy for women and children; outreach through social media; and partnerships with other Christian women’s organizations.  The impact of these ministries is multiplied over and over, expanding the reach of your Thankoffering and our shared response to God’s love.  Last year Holy Trinity sent over $1,400 to support Women of the ELCA churchwide ministries.  We hope to continue that tradition this year.  All loose offering collected on November 20 as well as any special offering you choose to give, will be included in our gift this year. Thank you for your continued support of women’s ministries at Holy Trinity and around the world.

from Elizabeth Sammons with Love from our Racial Justice Taskforce

Take Back the Block, Three-Fifths, and The Black Joke are books for adults and youth that I’ve read myself or seen as books of note.  This literature intends to increase awareness, theology and/or acceptance of diverse viewpoints.  We hope on the Racial Justice Taskforce that you’ll discover how these writings from various generations embrace what it means to walk in spirit.

Take Back the Block by Chrystal Giles
Sixth-grader Wes Henderson sets out to save the neighborhood where he’s lived his whole life from being sold to a real estate developer. Available in audio. For grades 3-6. 2021.

Three-Fifths by John Vercher
Pittsburgh, 1995. The son of a black father he’s never known and a white mother he sometimes wishes he didn’t, 22-year-old Bobby Saraceno is passing for white. Bobby has hidden his truth from everyone, even his best friend and fellow comic-book geek, Aaron, who has just returned home from prison a hardened racist. But after witnessing a crime, Bobby’s secrets come out when his father enters his life.  2019.

The Black Joke: One Ship’s Battle Against the Slave Trade by A.E. Rooks
The most feared ship in Britain’s West Africa Squadron, His Majesty’s brig Black Joke was one of a handful of ships patrolling the western coast of Africa in an effort to end hundreds of years of global slave trading after the fall of Napoleon. The ship’s diverse crew and dedicated commanders would capture more ships and liberate more enslaved people than any other in the Squadron.