Asbury UMC and Our Redeemer ELCA are in the process of coming together to form a union congregation in Hood River OR. This video represents images of our life together over the past 8 months. Come and join us! www.hraumc.org and www.lutheranchurchhoodriver.org
Share on FacebookIn the fall of 2011/winter of 2012, Asbury United Methodist and Our Redeemer Lutheran engaged in a program to support and uplift our schools. We raised funds to be able to give grants to our local teachers allowing them to engage their classrooms in different ways. The video below is the result of three interviews with three different teachers and the way we were able to support them.
Thank you to everyone who supported this outreach effort and the children of our area!
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What do you get when you take expired salad fixings from Rosauers, leaves raked by landscaping companies around town, a Pastor’s and Church’s shredded junk mail, coffee grounds from Mt. Hood Meadows, a bunch of worms and the faithful efforts (along with the big right foot of Scott Fitch) of a bunch of Jesus following service workers on a Saturday morning … a healthy and robust garden producing lots and lots (3700 lbs) of vegy’s for the valued community members using the FISH Food Bank!
This past Saturday (3/3/12) Our Redeemer and Asbury members joined together to engage the first of their annual Service and Cinnamon Roll projects by working to organize, compost, sharpen tools, and various other things for the community garden they organize together. This garden (almost ½ acre in size) produces potatoes the size of softballs, onions as sweet as can be and squash as large as a beach ball! (No kidding, we’ve had them as large as 40 lbs!)
This rich opportunity to serve our neighbors and walk with our community is being organized by the Faith In Action group of Our Redeemer and Asbury. Together these two communities seek to share God’s love through rich and meaningful service while also learning something about what it means to follow the One we call our Savior, Jesus the Christ.
Thank you to all who volunteered! Thank you to all who organized! Thank you to everyone who contributed to make this past Saturday such a rich success. If you’d like to join us for our next opportunity to serve either contact Gigi Siekkinen or Debby Chenoweth or join us from 9am to noon at Opportunity Connections (2940 Thomsen Road, Hood River OR 97031) on March 17th. (Opportunity Connections is a “community where people with disabilities participate in satisfying lifestyles based on the same aspirations as all citizens. We will be performing a variety of tasks that morning helping them to do their work just that much better!)
Share on FacebookGrace and Peace to you in the name of our living and loving Savior, Jesus the Christ!
As we approach the 10 year anniversary of September 11, 2001, what is your story?
On the 11th of this next month our world will pause and remember one of the more tragic moments in our nation’s history. It was not the loss of life or the visual images or the world changing aftermath that singularly made it so tragic but rather it was the cumulative effect of all of those things and more that made it so. Continue reading
Share on FacebookBeginning in January of 2010, Our Redeemer Lutheran and Asbury United Methodist Churches began exploring what it would mean to enter into a formal arrangement to share pastoral services between our congregations.
After almost a year of conversations, meetings, and visioning, a vote solidified the future for the two Hood River churches. On December 19, the congregations of Asbury and Our Redeemer voted for a Joint Ministry Covenant. The initial agreement is for a three year term, during which time reviews and revisions will be conducted as appropriate.
The two churches remain separate in identity but will share one full-time clergy person Continue reading
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A 40 pound squash, onions the size of softballs and sunflowers taller than the average person crowd the space in the garden behind Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hood River. Tended by volunteers from Asbury United Methodist and Our Redeemer Lutheran churches, weekly harvests are delivered to FISH food bank.
What started as an idea to celebrate Our Redeemer’s 50th Anniversary soon turned into a project involving not only other denominations, but a lot of dirt and labor as well. “The idea was to give back,” garden coordinator Dottie Gilbertson said. “We wanted to celebrate with the entire community. We have this big plot of land and said ‘let’s do something with it!’” Continue reading
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by Edwin Rourk, ELCA Region 1 Online Community Director
What if you could easily and effectively communicate with other congregations, youth leaders, camps, campus ministry sites, schools, and other ELCA church leaders in the Pacific Northwest? What if conversations, shared resources, and developing “best practices” became part of a growing library of local wisdom associated with the very people you want to talk with more? And what if time, distance, and cost were not an issue? Project Believe! of the Oregon Synod has launched its first “rubber hits the road” project in conjunction with the other ELCA synods of Region 1. What this means is that the donations you’ve made for Project Believe! are serving as seed money for the development of an ELCA Region 1 online community called Soul Cafe.
What is Soul Cafe?
Soul Cafe is a sacred space on the web. It will enable geographically separated Lutheran congregations, church-affiliated organizations and individuals to meet, interact, and get to Continue reading
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I’ve also received information about a fundraiser for Our Redeemer member and friend Patti Ludwig (click here for a link to Patti Ludwig’s page and fundraiser details).
As you may recall, Patti was in an awful accident last summer when she was struck by a motor vehicle.
The fundraiser is a golf event on September 24th but we are going to try and organize a “flood” of sorts for the silent auction portion of the event. Sharon Pantely has agreed to help coordinate that and will be getting in touch with Bruce to talk about what might work but be thinking about baskets and other silent auction items that we/you might be able to donate for the cause.
Share on FacebookThis Sunday, August 21, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church welcomes three new members!
Bill and Cathie Coffman will be joining our congregation. Bill happens to be our own Ret. Pastor Myrin Bentz’s former intern which is ironic since I am Bill’s former intern. Cathie meanwhile is a soon to be retired hotel executive in Portland and a great friend as well.
And the third member is a new addition to the Bentz family, Ingrid Flanders. She and George Bentz were recently married and Ingrid, a longtime member of Riverside Community Church, is going to retain her membership there but become an associate member of Our Redeemer. Welcome Bill, Cathie and Ingrid!
Be sure to stay for coffee to visit with our new members and the rest of our church family!
This is a day that the Lord has made and despite the troubles of our world and our own lives, we can rejoice and be glad in it because the promises of the resurrection are a gift of God to us and the world.
Share on FacebookThe Columbia Gorge Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has surveyed the need in the Columbia Gorge area for food assistance by members of our population. The need for May was 1814 families for a total of 4336 individuals. We have set aside $500 to $2000 for each of the four counties: Wasco, Hood River, Skamania, and Klickitat.
We would like to challenge the Lutheran Churches in these four counties to match those funds by taking up a freewill offering to help with this important need in our communities. Continue reading
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