St. Philip Lutheran Church
Pastor David and Maribeth Shermer
St. Philip is a community of faith ACTIVE in ministry. I hear that comment all the time from colleagues, other churches in our community, neighbors, and friends. I love that people around us have noticed and I truly hope that the activity among us points directly to the God who loves us unconditionally.
Let’s not stop! Let’s stay ACTIVE! Let’s keep exploring where God is calling us to LOVE, FEED, SERVE!
Pastor David
As a pastor’s kid people are often surprised to learn that the most influential person in my faith development was my mother. I remember her teaching me the Lord’s Prayer, together memorizing the 23rd Psalm, and playing a game called Beatitude Bingo that lifted up Jesus’s sermon on the mount. My mother was one of many women who have been powerful influences in my life!
Sunday, March 8 is International Women’s Day and it is a fantastic time to acknowledge the incredibly powerful giftedness of women.
At St. Philip we will particularly lift up the giftedness of women in our prayers. As a part of that petition I would encourage you to speak the name of an influential women in your own life. The connection can be personal, public, or a hero of the past. Be thinking about someone influential for you.
On February 25, St. Philip will celebrate 60 years of ministry in the Roanoke Valley. (see page 1) Throughout the church’s history, congregation members have seen a need in our area and around the world and have sought a way to fill that need through mission and ministry. From creating a preschool – one of St. Philip’s first ministries – to 20 plus years of blood drives to community holiday meals to support of sister parish in Mponela, Malawi to Elijah’s Backpack, a feeding program that reaches children in five local schools.
In celebration of 60 years of ministry in the Roanoke Valley, the coordinators of Elijah’s Backpack have issued a challenge to the congregation – raise 600 jars of peanut butter in the month of February. That’s 100 jars of peanut butter per decade of service to St. Philip’s neighbors. Each week Elijah’s Backpack serves 64 children in need at Burlington Elementary, Mountain View Elementary, Glen Cove Elementary, Northside Middle, and Minnick School Main Campus. Six hundred jars of peanut butter will help feed these children through the end of the school year.
Beginning February 11 and running through Anniversary Sunday on February 25, you are invited to donate jars of peanut butter to Elijah’s Backpack. There will be a display set up in the Fellowship Hall for you to place your donations. The size peanut butter the ministry uses is 16-ounce jars, any brand. If you have any questions about Elijah’s Backpack or the 600 Jars drive, please speak to Judy Brammer or Nancy Shadix. Elijah’s Backpack also welcomes volunteers to help pack bags.
Let’s have a big tower of 16-ounce jars of peanut butter in the Fellowship Hall as the congregation moves into its 7th decade of ministry. St. Philip is truly a congregation that Lives Like †hat!
