Hello Church Family, This month we will be sharing the Word of God at Vacation Bible School with the children in our church and our community the week of August 8 through 12.  Please pray along with me: 
Oh, Almighty Creator, we pray for our Congregation, our volunteers and the children attending this year’s Vacation Bible School and their families and friends to grow in a stronger, deeper, and closer relationship with you.  With your spiritual guidance, help us serve you, glorify you, and walk in Your righteous path that you so graciously and lovingly provide us.  We love you Lord and thank you for Your “Monumental” presence and love.  In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen!                
 
God’s Rainbow of Love
(written by Gail Achilles, 1-21-21)
How Glorious is the World You made;
The order and the care You gave.
The sky, the sun, the moon, the stars,
The Mountains, valleys, near and far.
The oceans and rivers filled with living creatures.
Animals of every kind;
Plants, trees, flowers,
Beauty all around. 
You gave us all the things we need to
Live a life that could succeed.
Not with riches, gold, and silver,
But with Love that flows
Like an endless river.
Your forever love is the greatest
Gift You gave us
To have for ourselves and one another.
The beautiful rainbow across the sky is the reminder
Of Your promise for all to live in Your love
And spread it near and far, below and above. 
God’s Rainbow of Love is all we need to
Live in peace and harmony!
Praise you Lord for the Greatest Gift of all:  Your Love!
 
Your Sister in Christ, Gail
       Gail Achilles, Call Committee Chair and Council Secretary
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​ Council Notes
As there was no Council meeting in July, Council Notes will return in September.

Christian Radio keeps the faith going    
     560 AM  WFIL -- Christian teaching all day long
     88.9 FM  WORD -- Contemporary Christian Rock Music
     91.7 FM -- A mixture of Bible teaching, traditional music
     107.5 FM -- Praise/Gospel Music & Bible teaching
     106.9 FM -- KLOVE -- Contemporary Christian Rock
 
Check out bibleproject.com They provide videos, podcasts, Bible study, online classes and more, all for free.  They are “helping people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus.”  Check out their website!

Please keep the stamps coming!
It’s a continuing need!  Thank you for all your contributions.  It really helps!  

Hatfield Flowers and Gifts ((215) 822-1530) provides Faith with two lovely flower arrangements to adorn our sanctuary.
          You can sign up to sponsor flowers, bulletins or a food basket.  The flowers are $35, the bulletins are $10 and the food basket is $25.
          You can dedicate any one of these things to someone special, to celebrate a birthday or in memory of a loved one. You may take the flowers home or they will be given to an ill or homebound member.  The $10 for the bulletins is to help cover the cost of making the bulletins and the $25 for the food basket is money donated to “Manna on Main Street” to help feed those in the North Penn area.
          To sign up for a particular Sunday either sign up on the chart on the Foyer bulletin board or call Janet in the church office (215) 368-0240.
 
 
 Faith’s Transportation Initiative
If you need a ride to church on Sunday or you are interested in providing a ride to church to someone, please contact Dale Foster.

Faith will be offering in-person “Monumental” Vacation Bible School Monday through Friday, August 8-12, 2022 from 9am to 12noon.  Call the Church Office at 215-368-0240 if you’d like more information.
 
The in-person Sunday School program during the 10:30 a.m. service as well as the Wednesday Bible School program on Wednesdays at 4:30pm via zoom is on hiatus for the months of June, July and August!  Look for the September Mustard Seed to see when things will be starting up again. 

Monday Night Bible Study will be taking a break for the summer and will reconvene in the fall.

 
 
Do you shop at Giant?
If you do, you can buy Giant gift cards from the church.  A $50 card costs you $50.  How does the church make money?  Well, when Faith purchases $1,000 worth of cards from Giant, they only charge us $950 (a 5% discount.)  So, when we sell those cards to you, the church makes $50.  It adds up… 
Lord, when did we see you...? 
 
Here’s the 2022 Social Ministry Calendar.  Please be encouraged to participate in those projects which touch your heart!  Please contact Sharon Hood or Debbie Hollenbach if you’d like to join this ministry!
 
   August     VBS Project
   September After School Snacks for Manna
   October     Code Blue - Socks, Mittens, Gloves, Scarfs
   November  Thanksgiving Food Items for Manna
   December  Angel Tree Grocery Cards
                     Martin Luther School under Gemma Services
 
VBS Project: Operation Kid to Kid: Helping Close to Home
 
There are about 326 Native American reservations in North America. Approximately a million people call these stunning landscapes home. Countless factors have turned many reservations—which often cover vast, remote parts of the continent— into islands of need. For Native Americans living in hardship, even purchasing school supplies for their children can be a struggle.
As part of Monumental VBS and for the month of August, our church will take part in Operation Kid-to-Kid™, a mission project that gives us the opportunity to share God’s love in a practical way.  We are asking for monetary donations that will be used to purchase items like notebooks, pencils, backpacks, and paper for kids on Native American reservations. With this project, $1 will help supply a child with the school tools needed for a whole school year!
Operation Kid-to-Kid is possible through a partnership between Group Publishing VBS programs and World Vision (a Christian international relief organization). All donations will be sent directly to World Vision, who will purchase and then distribute the school supplies to select reservations.
 
Update on our Social Ministry Project for June
Thank you very much for your generous contributions of Men’s Hygiene products for Keystone Opportunity Center in honor of Father’s Day! When I dropped them off at the donation center, they were excited because they said that they could use everything! In total we collected 25 bars of soap, 7 deodorants, 11 items related to shaving needs, 2 shampoos, 2 body washes, 20 tubes of toothpaste, 6 toothbrushes, 3 packs of combs, lots of dental floss and 8 miscellaneous products. Thank you to the people of Faith Lutheran Church and a generous neighbor at Little Farms Estates.              Debbie Hollenbach

We are in need of Lectors (reading the lessons and psalm) and Worship Assistants (reading the prayers and few other passages) for our Zoom and in-person worship.  If you would like to volunteer or would like more information, please call Anna Friedrich.
 
 
Announcement! Announcement!
THE CHOIR IS BACK!
I am so pleased to announce that starting in September, we will be reconvening the choir!!! Unfortunately, in our two-year lapse, we have lost a lot of members. We are looking for fresh faces and happy voices to lift their praise to the Lord on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings. Practices will begin Tuesday, September 13th at 7PM in the choir room. If you have any questions, please drop me an email at [email protected] or a call at 267-421-9351 and I will be more than happy to convince you why you should join the choir.  
 
Love in Christ,  Laura, Laura Cooper, Music Director
 
 
Coffee Hour after Worship on Sundays at Faith
 
  8/5 Congregation Coffee Hour 
8/12 VBS Leftovers 
8/19 Finance Team/Stewardship – Debbie Hollenbach & Jack Walls 
8/26 Congregation Coffee Hour
 
    Thank you to all those that pitch in to set up and clean up the kitchen on Sundays!

Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”  Luke 12:22-7031

As temperatures rise through these long days of summer other things are rising if we pause to notice them, the bright orange day lilies that spring up everywhere and the beautiful yellow, black eyed Susans that fill the roadsides and median strips. Too often we drive by too fast to notice.  We planted some black eyed Susans by our garage and they’ve spread to cover the whole flower bed. All we had to do was put a few in the ground and now they blossom in all their glory just in time for my birthday on July 31.

Preparing to celebrate my 70th birthday with our extended family, I sadly realize how much of those 70 years I’ve spent looking back on the past with regret for things I’ve done or failed to do and looking forward to the future with anxiety about what might happen next. The truth is that I can do nothing about the past and have very little influence on the future.  When I retired from full-time ministry seven years ago, the hardest question the financial advisor asked me was, “how long to you plan to live?” We all hope to live as long as we can. But the more important question is how do we fully live all the days God gives us?  
We can’t deny that we live in anxious times, dealing with political divisions, rising prices, violent crime, the threat of world war, climate change and a still deadly pandemic.  But Jesus reminds his first disciples and us today that all of our worry about the future cannot add a single hour to our lives. Our worry and anxiety only keep us from fully living our lives with grateful joy for all the gifts God gives us every new day.  The greatest gift of all is knowing how much God loves us.

Jesus reminds us, as God clothes the flowers and grass of the field and feeds the birds of the air, of how much more value are you than the birds!  God values you more than all the flowers of the field and birds of the air that so delight us. Jesus assures us that God forgives our past sin to free us from regret and promises us an eternal future that frees us from worry, for us to enjoy the gift of this present moment, here and now. 

So, in the long, hot days of August, I encourage you to begin each morning by opening the gifts God has given you; your eyes, your ears, your hands and hearts to appreciate and to share all that God gives you today. 
​
Hoping to see you every Sunday.   Summer Blessings!  Pastor Bruce +