EVENTS

We hope you can join us this Sunday for worship as we are blessing Katie on her 3 month sabbatical journey!! Which starts Monday!

This candle will be on display throughout Katie's sabbatical time. When you see it, I hope you will say a prayer for her, her time away, her family, and our church. Katie is taking three months away from Good Shepherd to focus on rest, renewal, and a Spiritual Direction training program she started last fall. We look forward to her return to worship on Sunday, May 31!

This year for the Wednesday Lenten services, the confirmation students will once again be taking charge of the service, while Parker and our gracious vocalists lead the congregation through Holden Evening Prayer. The speakers this year will be from the Call Committee to give us “Visions of What’s Next”. 

Lent worships and Lenten meals! We hope you will plan to join us each Wednesday of Lent as we celebrate the coming of Easter. The meal will start our evening out at 5:30 with some warm food and then lead us to a service at 6:15, presented by the confirmation youth of the church. This gives us a chance to gather together multi generations of worshipers to spend the evening in fellowship and faith.

Please consider joining us as a guest or jumping in and volunteering to help on February 25 (Sunday school families), March 4 (women’s circle), March 11 (Vision Council) , March 18 (men’s Bible Study), March 25 (choir). There will be sign up sheets for each night in the gathering space and online. Can you help serve? Get together with a sponsor group and bring pizza, potato bar, taco bar, sub sandwiches, appetizers or other convenient meals that feed 50-75 people or bring a crockpot of something warm like soup or hotdish or a donation of buttered bread? Gluten-free and vegetarian options are appreciated. We also need to help clean up after the meal. 

Please sign up HERE

Sunday School Families,

For those of you who like to look ahead: 

- Sunday, Feb. 15 and 22: Sunday School "To Go" Bags! No official Sunday School (school break week for Duluth) but you can use this time to work on your Holy Art Fair Canvases! 

- Sunday, March 1, 8, and 15: Regular Sunday School 

- March 22: Easter Gardens and our Prayer Milestone for Kindergarten and 2nd Graders

- March 29: Palm Sunday and our "End of the Year" Sunday School Easter Egg Hunt! 

- April 5: Easter Sunday

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Confirmation Families!

Here is the plan for Confirmation:

- March 4: Confirmation students help lead worship

- March 11: help lead worship

- March 18: help lead worship

- March 25: help lead worship

- April 1: spring break! No Wednesday night worship service, instead, join in our Holy Week services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday 

- April 8: End of the Year Parent Meeting starting at 6:00 pm, here at church

-April 15: End of the Year Activity: Volunteering at Second Harvest! Please meet *at* Second Harvest, for a volunteer shift from 5:30 - 7:30 pm. 

Leadership Camp happening at Camp Vermilion June 7-10. This is open to 8th-11th graders but you must apply online! More information here: https://nemnsynod.org/youth/youthlead/  Good Shepherd is happy to cover the cost of this leadership camp. 

Flex Family Camp at Camp Hiawatha !ALL FAMILIES! - July 6-10 at Camp Hiawatha  www.vlmcamps.org

Last year, four families from Good Shepherd went to Flex Family Camp. What we loved about it: you pick how long you want to stay! You can come to camp for just a couple of nights, or all week! You must sign up through VLM (Voyageurs Lutheran Ministry) but sliding scholarships are available from Good Shepherd (pay what you feel comfortable with, and we can help cover the rest…) Please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information. Or, you can check out their website: https://www.vlmcamps.org/summer-camps/flex-family-camp 

SUMMER CAMP!  We also love VLM (Camp Hiawatha and Camp Vermilion) for all their summer camp opportunities. Whether that’s family camp, a full week at camp, shorter camp options for younger kids, canoeing, or hockey camp! They have great options, so if you are interested, please check them out. 

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Thank you  all who brought food for CHUM at the cross in the entry of the main doors!! it is a spot to leave food anytime you have a chance! In addition to any food donations, we would like to gather gently used warm jackets, boots, hats, gloves, socks, etc that can be used at Chum and Damiano, the past few weeks of cold has impacted their supply of these items. 
 AND empty egg cartons that are needed to repack donated eggs as they often come in very large flats and need to be repacked. 
 Any of the items above could be placed in the cross at entry. THANK YOU!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!!

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We are putting together a church-wide Art Show!  

Holy Art by Everyone

What is Holy Art?

Holy Art can be anything! 

Pray or think about God while you paint, draw, collage... get creative!

Pick up a canvas here at church, and return it by/before Sunday, March 15. 

There are boxes for both pick up and drop off in the Gathering Space. 

These are our Sunday School "To Go" bags this year,

but we'd love to have all ages to participate! 

Help the Sunday School kids "Create Church Together" by joining in this intergenerational, church-wide expression of Holy Art 

From CHUM: Community Education event by Stepping on Up

Recognizing & Responding to Neglect, Violence, and Trafficking

March 5th, 9:00 am -11:00 am - Trinity Lutheran Church

Doors open at 8:30 with a free breakfast!

Parishioners often approach me with expressions of compassion and concerns with how to engage when they encounter people who are homeless or experiencing mental illness or substance use disorder. Trinity Lutheran Church in partnership with Stepping On Up is offering an education series to guide us. This session includes a panel of speakers are from PAVSA, First Witness Child Advocacy Center, and Safe Haven Shelter and Resource Center. Register here: https://www.tfaforms.com/5205635

 For other future community education events, check out https://steppingonupduluth.org/community-education

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Laundry Love News

It was a sad day watching people drag clothes through the snow to find out that the laundromat is closed permanently. Our dedicated volunteers showed up despite this, to tailgate our hot beverages, snacks, and many donated clothing items to poorly clothed people who depend on us. Mike, our “cookie man”, also arrived with treats. Standing outside for 3 hours on a snowy, cold morning seemed fitting.

There was not one complaint or ill word about the loss of service. Only, “thank you’s and gratitude” for coming today with something warm to offer and the promise of a new location. We will continue to provide support people of need in our city with this program and will let you know it’s new location once plans are finalized. 

 Damiano Center serving is Sunday, March 5th. For many years, the LCGS congregation has supported the Community Kitchen at the Damiano Center through the Hunger Team mission focus. Our serving efforts are broken up into two sessions, a meal preparation session at 1:30pm and a serving session starting at 4:30pm. Sign up HERE