God Is Working All Around Us! Please join in the celebration! Amazing things are happening at Trinity! Many children and their families have been studying the Bible and the life of Jesus to prepare for First Holy Communion. Ten (10) of our students will receive Holy Communion at Trinity this Sunday, August 5. Also this Sunday three (3) people will be baptized into new life and twenty-nine (29) people are becoming new members! The majority of these will happen during the 10:45 am worship service when the Vacation Bible School student and leaders will also be singing! Come meet your new family in Christ and come to a reception in the Adult Ministry Center at 11:45. When another human comes to new life in Christ, we are ALL made new! Come be inspired! Trinity Lutheran, your good ministry has ripple effects! You are changing lives around the world. Last Sunday you prayed for Julianna Solis and I, sending us to do mission work in El Salvador. We flew to El Salvador Monday morning to join a mission team of 26 people, which includes youth and adults from California, Washington state, and New York. Everyone is arriving safely with hundreds of pounds of donated medical supplies, four (4) computers, vitamins, vacation Bible school supplies and offerings. The airlines and customs even allowed us to bring a wheelchair, several walkers, and crutches for medical mission here. We are doing Vacation Bible School for 125 children in El Salvador at the same time Trinity is putting on an awesome Vacation Bible School in Hawthorne. I don't know of other churches holding two (2) Vacation Bible Schools in one week in two languages, thousands of miles apart! We are here with Medardo Gomez, Bishop of the Lutheran Church of El Salvador. Bishop Gomez visited Trinity in March 2011, participating in our procession up Inglewood Avenue and in the outreach Pastor's installation. He will be ordaining three pastors in El Salvador this weekend. One of these pastors is Matias Bonilla, who receives support from part of Trinity's mission offerings. Ann Phillips and Fred Noah helped send some of these offerings last Christmas. The first church I ever served was in El Salvador from 1997-1998. Matias Bonilla felt the call to join in the mission and he has been working and studying for 14 years as a lay pastor. During these 14 years, five (5) new mission churches have been established and 4 of these churches have built church sanctuaries. This weekend, my husband Kristian and I will help Pastor Matias lead worship at the first church we helped build together during our honeymoon in 2000. This church seats about 150 people, but we will also be celebrating First Communions and new members here and we expect at least 250 people. Our daughter Hope who prepared for First Communion at Trinity will join the children receiving First Communion in El Salvador. She carefully packed the white dress she wore at Trinity for Kurt and Elisabeth Carpenter's wedding! Every year when we celebrate the First Communions and new members at this church in El Salvador, there is always at least 100 people more than fit in the sanctuary. Everyone stands in a huge circle around the outsides of the church to hear and sing. My favorite part of these worship services is Holy Communion because we always serve everyone in the church and THEN WE KEEP GOING TO SERVE EVERYONE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH through the open windows! Even though we look forward to so many First Communions and New Members at Trinity this Sunday, I think we will have enough space for everyone since our seating capacity is 620 people! I would love to see Trinity attract more people than fit in the sanctuary! I would love to see our heroic ushers Roy Lovro and David Carnahan in action finding spaces for all the people streaming in! Please bring all your family and friends to Trinity this weekend. When another human comes to new life in Christ, we are ALL made new! Come be inspired! With my prayers and love in Jesus Christ, Pastor Anna-Kari Johnson
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