10:00AM  In person and livestream

It was a question that, given the circumstances, was quite appropriate and understandable for the disciples to ask Jesus. With everything that they had witnessed during Jesus’ time with them, especially with the events of their past fifty days, their minds and hearts must have been dizzy from the roller coaster of questions and emotions inside them. So here, as Jesus is preparing to leave them, they ask this question. In a way, they were asking Jesus, “Lord, when will all this craziness stop? When will God finally set things right?”  I think those are questions we can all relate to, and probably have asked out loud or in silent prayer many times in our lives. But instead of a definitive answer or a precise timeline, Jesus instead gives them (and us) several gifts meant to encourage, strengthen, and guide them.   

This Sunday we are celebrating the high school graduation of Emma Fain, Haley Luce, and Lukas Tippens during worship. Afterwards, there will be a reception to greet them, congratulate them, and wish them well. We invite you to join us as we celebrate this wonderful milestone in their lives!         

Many of you probably got yellow plastic bags in your mailbox last week for a USPS food drive for SOS Food Bank. If you were not able to get a bag of food together and set by your mailbox Saturday for collection, you can still fill those bags (or any bag!) and bring them to church next Sunday or drop by the SOS Food Bank at 248 West Merriweather.

Over 21,000 pounds of non-perishable food items was collected Saturday and bags are still being delivered!  A very generous donation from the New Braunfels Downtown Rotary Club as well as a grant from the United Way and proceeds from the Danville Middle School Powder Puff game netted the Food Bank $27,700 dollars. Thank you for all your contributions. and a special thanks to all the volunteers that managed the collection efforts at the food bank. 

In 2022, SOS received over 156,000 pounds of food from individuals, organizations and local companies. An additional 192,000 pounds was purchased locally and from the SA Food Bank. We served over 2,800 families and with a total of over 7,000 individuals and distributed 103,000 plus pounds of food.   As of April 2023, SOS has received over 39,000 pounds of food donations and purchased 55,000 pounds. We have served 291 families with a total of 731 individuals and issued over 27,000 pounds of food.

Peace Lutheran has a great team of volunteers that serve the second Monday of every month. We welcome any and all volunteers. We are in need of additional front office support to help with client processing. So, if you like interacting with people and like working with computers, give us a call or send us an email.

Martin Franz 830-481-7819
Carol Franz 830-708-9446
mcarolfranz@yahoo.com  

A healthy stewardship of giving unto God supports the wider mission of God’s work in the world. The church is grateful for each person who gives of their gifts God abundantly shares. 

Thank you so much for the response we have been receiving. We continue to walk together in faith living with wide open hearts. 

Click HERE to read the letter online.  

Come join us for a fun day making simple wreaths on Thursday, May 18 beginning at 10:00am

Wreaths are made to celebrate the seasons or occasions.  They are made to adorn walls or doors and to hang over mantels.  All sorts of materials—natural evergreens, straw, pinecones, coffee filters, Christmas ornaments, even fresh cranberries are used in making a wreath.  They are most often associated with Christmas, but they make beautiful decorations year-round.  

Materials to bring:
· Round metal wire wreath frame (a 10-to-14-inch 3 wire ring form)
· Possibly floral tape
· Hot glue gun if you have one (3 or 4 will be available)
· Scissors
· Pruning shears
· Needle-nose pliers
· Poly Burlap Mesh (2 to 3 6-inch rolls of coordinating colors)
· Craft pipe cleaners (coordinating colors)
· Wide ribbon (2 to 3 30-yard rolls of coordinating colors) 
· Small flowers or decorations  

Any questions, contact Jim Johnson at jimjudyjohnson@satx.rr.com.   

Family Promise’s mission is to help families with children facing homelessness achieve and sustain independence. Families move to a new congregation each week in which they are hosted as guests. Congregations provide shelter, meals, and community for the families in the evenings.  Peace is a host congregation for Family Promise of Greater New Braunfels four times a year.   

Peace's Family Promise Host week is May 28 - June 3

We need the following volunteer areas filled to welcome our guests:

• Serve as overnight hosts (2 individuals each night)  
• Help with the afternoon/evening set up, clean up, and engagement with families (2 individuals each day)  
• Support meal preparation, cooking, and serving (1 to 2 individuals each day)

To volunteer, sign up on SignUp Genius:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E49A9A82CABFEC52-family3     

All children who have completed Kindergarten—5th grade are invited to join us at Peace Lutheran Church for a fun week of VBS adventures, led by camp staff from Camp Lutherhill.  Friends are welcome, too!  VBS Day Camp will meet from 8:30am to 3:30pm each day @ Peace Lutheran.  The cost is $50 per camper for the week. 

Our theme for this year’s Day Camp is “Amen!  Let It Be So!”

"Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (The Message)

God invites us to pray, Jesus teaches us to pray and the Spirit intercedes when we have no words to pray. Prayer is God’s holy invitation to give thanks and seek help each and every day.  So let us pray!

Online registration on SignUp Genius is open now.  Click HERE or the button below.   After you sign-up, you will receive an email from the church with Day Camp details, a Registration/Consent form and instructions for payment.  For more information about our Day Camp or if you would like to volunteer to help, please contact Deacon Andrew (deaconandrew@peacenb.org).         

Snapology is an interactive camp meant to teach kids STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) skills through play.

The program offers a wide variety of FUN programs for children ages 5-14.  From fun LEGO-themed programs to robotics to engineering to animation. Peace is partnering with Snapology for the summer hosting its programming efforts as an outreach to the community.

This summer our Peace facilities will have kids utilizing the Fellowship Hall and Nursery areas from Monday—Friday.  For a full schedule you may visit our calendar page: www.peacenb.org/pages/calendar    

For a detailed list of scheduling and to register you may visit:  https://pages.e2ma.net/pages/1924293/34150 or click the button below.      

SEEKERS AND SPONGES:   meets on Sunday mornings @  8:30AM in-person and ZOOM   

This Sunday, May 21, Seekers and Sponges will start study around a five part video series by Marcus Borg titled "Embracing An Adult Faith: What it Means to Be Christian".    

The intent is to help those seeking a richer understanding of issues in contemporary Christian practice and theology.  Who was Jesus?  Who is God/ What is salvation?  How do we practice our faith?  How do we live in community?  

In our class, everyone in our group becomes a teacher for one another, sharing experiences and perspectives that facilitates a respectful, enlightening approach to adult learning.      

Please join us in the multimedia classroom at the end of the hallway.  You will find the discussion engaging, insightful, and challenging, and it will expand how you look at your faith! 

Click HERE to join by Zoom. 

PEACE PRAYER MINISTRY:

Did you make any resolutions for the New Year? Many of us have a desire to have a more intimate prayer life, so might I suggest carving out more time for prayer and reflection? Peace Lutheran Church has an active Prayer Ministry. We have an Email Prayer Chain, we have a Zoom “Sweet Hour of Prayer” Group that meets every Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. and we have a Prayer loom that is included in our Sunday morning prayers. I would like to welcome new members to join our email Prayer Chain and our Monday morning Prayer Group. We have experienced some amazing, answered prayers this year and we have given comfort to many of our members in their times of distress. Please consider being a part of our Prayer Ministry in this new year. You can email me at beckyvoges@yahoo.com for more information.

Our weekly Prayer Group Zooms every Monday at 9:00 am  via Zoom only.   Click HERE to join by Zoom.  We have a devotion, share prayer requests and pray over each request. The group is led by Becky Voges.  If you would like to be a part of the group, please email Becky (beckyvoges@yahoo.com).  All prayer requests will be kept confidential. 

Prayer Chain Requests - email Becky (beckyvoges@yahoo.com).

PASTOR'S VIRTUAL CONVERSATION:  
Every Monday from 3 pm - 3:30 pm; Come join Pastor Jake on Zoom to ask questions, check-in, and lift up prayers. Join HERE - Meeting ID: 991 3660 5065; Password: 015347

TECH SUPPORT:
Need some technical support? Trying to stay connected in a virtual world can be frustrating when things don't work or the technological learning curve seems steep. If you need some help, contact: Patti Kassel @ kasselpatti@gmail.com 

Our Little Pantry has been blessing lives for almost a year now. We may never meet the people who stop by to visit the pantry, but some have left prayer requests, and some even left thank you notes. God has called us to love our neighbors and Peace Lutheran Church is answering that call.

We have had faithful Pantry Angels taking care of the Little Pantry each month. We will be looking for Pantry Angels for September -December. If you would like to take a month, let Becky Voges know at beckyvoges@yahoo.com or 830-587-4003. Our Pantry Angels get a key for our Pantry stock room so they can fill the Pantry when it needs items. Our Pantry has been sustained by many generous donations—thank you so very much!

Items Needed:  Bibles or devotionals (new of used), plastic utensils, single crackers, anything with a pull tab like-- Beanie wienie, vienna sausage, tuna, fruits, canned meats, soups, puddings, raisins, slim jims, juice boxes, etc. 

We now have full use of our new media booth which utilizes a sound technician, a livestream operator, and a powerpoint operator. 

To sign up to be one of the media booth technicians/operator, please click the button below to be redirected to our SignUpGenius.  You can also sign up by clicking the link at the bottom of Peace's homepage @  www.peacenb.org

If you would like to learn how to be a media booth technician/operator or you have any questions, please contact the Peace office at 830-620-0618.

Peace has a new hearing assist system to support those with hearing clhallenges. 

The new system moves away from a proprietary FM radio based system to a more flexible service  leveraging current day standard wifi and bluetooth technologies built into many modern day hearing aids, cochlear implants, and as well supports a broad base of wired and wireless headphones and earbuds.  This moves us from a 'one size for all' solution to a solution that can accommodate a broad variety of use cases across our members and guest.

If your hearing assist solution supports Bluetooth connectivity and you have a smart phone, the best way is going to be for you to install an app called Wavecast, available from Williams AV. It is available for free on your iOS or Android device. At church you will connect to the church's wifi network.  The Wavecast app will pick up the church service audio being transmitted over the church's wifi and then relay it to your hearing assist device of choice via Bluetooth (hearing aids, ear buds) or wired connection (ear buds, headphones,etc.)!

Sound complicated?  It may, but it really works like many standard services you likely already use today!  Someone will be available to assist you to get started.

Don't have a smartphone?  No worries! We will also have four handheld receivers (basically they are wifi only Android phones) with headphones or earbuds similar to the solution we use today, but can also be used to connect to your personal bluetooth enabled hearing assist devices or any wired devices, just like your personal cell phone can connect to!  You can bring your own listening device and connect to these receivers if you like!

We look forward to offering those with hearing challenges in our congregation some new, improved way to engage more fully in the worship experience!

If you want to know more, feel free to talk To Jeremy Davenport or Don Hodde at church. They would be happy to assist. 

We are part of one church body organized in three expressions — congregations, synods, and the churchwide organization. Each expression has its particular functions but all three together share a common mission of doing God’s work in the world and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Together, they ensure a solid foundation of leadership, active involvement in communities, opportunities for dialogue and diverse perspectives, creative partnerships, and support for members and ministries of the ELCA.