Any "Saving Grace" fans out there?

Friends:

TNT network is back with another season of Saving Grace, a show I commented on and recommended through the e-newsletter last year. It is the story of a police detective in Oklahoma City and her interactions with an angel named Earl. Generally, there is lots of “faith” stuff to talk about in each segment. It is on every Monday night at 10 pm and is slated for a full 18 episode run. Lately I have been getting into more and more conversations about the show and wondered if anyone on this list would be interested in gathering, starting Tuesday, August 19th, at First Cup Coffee House at Five and Inkster from 7-8pm to discuss the previous night’s episode?

Let me know if you are interested.

Join our e-church community on facebook!

If you are on facebook, you are invited to join our e-church community. If not, this is a great time to create an account. It is pretty user friendly, just follow these steps:

Log on to facebook.
Enter a search for St. John's Lutheran Church Redford, Michigan.
Click on join group.

There is a discussion board and we will keep it updated with events and other items of interest. I look forward to connecting with you there and having you be a part of our on-line church community.

Green Update

Friends:

I want to take this opportunity to catch all of you up on the “greening” of our church. As many of you know, we have spent the last eighteen months or so looking at ways we can be more environmentally friendly and at the same time identify ways to be more fiscally responsible in making our building more energy efficient. Things we have done to date:

• We joined Michigan Interfaith Power and Light-the highlight- an energy audit conducted by an organization called RETAP. They have submitted their report and your green team is beginning to decipher what recommendations fit our life at SJ. Thanks to Jon and Jim for their work on this project!
• Cloth Bag drive to benefit our green committee-we are asking the members of SJ to consider reducing the number of plastic bags used each week by carrying one or more of the great SJ cloth bags. Sales of the bags have been terrific (we only have four left out of our first order) and all the profits from the sale of the bags will go toward living into the recommendations put forth through our energy audit.
• Paper drive to benefit Fisher Elementary-thanks to everyone who has been bringing in their paper for recycling or dropping off their bulletin after worship in our paper cans. I know that at times there is an overflow but that tells me two things-that we are committed to recycling in this way and that our local school, Fisher Elementary, will be getting more school supplies because of us! We try to take the paper every other week. Thanks for Michael our confirmation student for helping me transport the paper every other week!
• Bottle/can drive to benefit the unified budget-this ministry has been a great success with over three hundred dollars collected over the last seven or eight months. Our financial goal with this project was to generate $500 to give to the unified budget of our church and we are well on our way! Thanks to Fred Ingham for being my bottle/can buddy each month!
  
  This is just the beginning. I am proud of our church. We are one of the churches spear-heading ecological ministry in our community.
  

"Michigation" anyone?

The other day on talk radio I listened to a discussion about how Michiganders should consider taking a "Michigation", or a vacation in Michigan, this summer as a way to spark the economy of our downtrodden state. As I was listening to what seemed to make sense(staying close) I wondered if Michigan was not already one of "those" states where people vacation within the state because there is so much beauty, shore line and camping opportunities locally. I know our communities up north are struggling but I wonder if people are just staying put because they cannot afford to go anywhere. We have plans for a trip up to the Bruce Peninsula in Canada in August and a five day camping trip for the "Bridge Walk" in September, but are considering changing the former and heading to the western side of the state. My question is, if we as residents of Michigan, or whatever state you reside, are going to vacation this year, do we owe it to our state to stay within its boundaries and invest our vacation dollars, though fewer, where we live? We will talk about this at Solomon's Porch this Thursday night at First Cup.