You're Invited! Sundays at 9:30am

 Saturday, August 2, 9:30 a.m.–12 noon

Valley Park, 2077 Cambridge Drive

The Valley Park Board has been hosting Back to School Rallies with the YMCA for over 10 years, and thankfully, they have a well-oiled machine for running the event at their site. At their May 19 meeting, they indicated that they could really use volunteers to staff food booths and may need food or financial donations given the expected increase in the number of backpacks to be distributed as they absorb Garden Springs Elementary, James Lane Allen Elementary, and Beaumont Middle Schools.

As we define GLC’s role in the event, we will announce vol-unteer opportunities. In the meantime, please mark your calendars for August 2!

 With school ending, we anticipate an increase in the use of the Blessing Box this summer as families struggle to feed their children who normally receive free breakfast and lunch at school. For the month of June, please consider adding foods for lunch and breakfast to your Blessing Box donations. Suggestion foods include cereal, pancakes, syrup, shelf-stable milk, shelf-stable lunch kits for kids, canned pasta (e.g., beef-a-roni), canned fruit, and juice boxes. In addition, donations of sunscreen will help to keep kids from getting sun-burned and would be greatly appreciated

Across the country, Lutheran Disaster Response supports communities recovering from devastating tornadoes. They include:

• Western Kentucky
• Selma and Prattville, Ala.
• Amory and Wren, Miss.
• Rocky Mount and Battleboro, N.C.
• Pulaski County, Ark.
• Central Tennessee

Our response:

In  the aftermath of tornadoes, Lutheran Disaster Response works with ELCA  synods, social ministry organizations and community-based groups to  support local responses. Together we accompany impacted communities  through disaster case management, construction management, providing  relief supplies and addressing other unmet needs.

What you can do:

Pray: 

Please  pray for the people impacted by these destructive tornadoes. May God's  healing presence give them peace and hope in their time of need.

Give:
Gifts to "U.S. tornadoes" will be used entirely (100%) 

to assist those affected by tornadoes.

Connect:
To learn more about the situation and the ELCA’s response:

• Sign up to receive Lutheran Disaster Response alerts.
• Check the Lutheran Disaster Response blog.
• "Like" Lutheran Disaster Response on Facebook, follow @ELCALDR on Twitter and follow @ELCA_LDR on Instagram.

Sumud is the ELCA Churches response to occupation and injustice in  Palestine and Israel. In Jesus Christ all of life— every act of service, in every daily calling, in every corner of life— flows freely from a living, daring confidence in God’s grace.

Freed  by the transformative life of Christ, the ELCA is committed to  accompaniment, advocacy and awareness-raising with our partners in the  Holy Land and in the United States. For the past two decades that work  was organized through the ELCA Peace Not Walls campaign. In October 2023  the ELCA announced that, following an in-depth review by ELCA staff and  leadership from the Palestinian Lutheran church, Peace Not Walls would  be renamed and reconfigured as a new initiative, Sumud: For Justice in Palestine and Israel.

Sumud is an Arabic word meaning “steadfastness.” The term is widely used by  Palestinian theologians and others to signify Palestinian resistance to  the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people. That resistance  takes the form of nonviolent advocacy for political change as well as  “resistance through existence,” embodied in education, social work, the  arts and one’s relationships with the land and community.