July 2020

the Informer

2020 Virtual

VBS JULY 13-17,

This year St. John will be doing online VBS for the safety of all our children and volunteers. We will be

shipwrecked and talking about things like being lonely and worried. The opening skit, bible stories, demonstrations of crafts, science and games, and links to the songs will be available on our YouTube channel and Facebook page each morning at 9am during VBS week. We will also be doing a zoom session each night during VBS week at 7pm. If you would like to participate in the zoom sessions, please register your child for VBS and we will email you the information for the zoom session. Visit the church website at www.stjohnucc-collinsville.org to register! This year, children and their families can “tune in” to watch VBS skits, learn new songs, watch cool science experiments, play games, and join our special VBS Zoom Group to learn that:

When you are lonely … Jesus rescues! When you worry … Jesus rescues!

When you struggle … Jesus rescues! When you do wrong … Jesus rescues!, and When you’re powerless … Jesus rescues

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New Procedure for Church Building Access

Some activities are resuming in the church buildings. New procedures according to state public health guidelines have been put in place for protection of staff and visitors. Where feasible, the staff will continue to work from home. If members have business in the church office, please call before coming to assure that someone is in the office. Anyone entering the building is asked to wear a mask. Masks are available, if someone does not have one. Anyone entering the church facilities should enter through the Faith Hall door. There is a sign-in sheet there for anyone who enters to sign. Each person will also complete an individual sheet verifying that they are feeling well. There is an infrared thermometer to use to record body temperature on that sheet. Also, please indicate on the sheet the areas of the church that have been visited. Upon departure from the building, the completed sheet is to be left in the office or with the staff person coordinating the activity for which you have come to church. We appreciate everyone’s cooperation to help make our church buildings as safe as possible for our staff, members, and visitors.

Communion Pick-Up Continues Sunday, July 5th 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

West Entrance Portico

After viewing worship, which will include the communion liturgy, you can drive through the West Portico driveway to receive your prepackaged communion elements from Pastor Katie Jo. Communion will be offered between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. Cars will enter the church parking lot from Goethe Street and proceed through the parking lot to the portico driveway, exiting onto Clay St. *Please note: Drive-thru direction will be opposite of normal direction.

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Church Services Here are the ways to participate in worship from the comfort and safety of your home.

• Recordings of worship are available to view on our YouTube channel, beginning at 5 a.m. each Sunday morning.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDLLWhGXkkfbmGscZ-hal1g

• Facebook Premier is a new way for us to watch worship together. Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. you can tune into our Premier and chat online with anyone else viewing! After the Premier, worship will then be available for viewing at your convenience.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Stjohnucccollinsville/

• If you don’t have access to the video services and haven’t yet participated in the audio service, we invite you to join with some of your friends on the audio service. There is a little time before and after the service to talk to other members who join the call. To learn how to join the audio service, don’t hesitate to call the church office or Joy Honegger at 692-0605. It is as simple as calling a phone number and then following some instructions given on the phone.

Simply call 1-312-626-6799, enter this Meeting ID 341-413-013, when prompted Password 3442526

As always, if you have any questions, please call the church office at 618-344-2526.

Sunday Attendance

May 2020 Digital Views

Facebook

Digital Views

YouTube

Zoom Audio Only

Call-In’s May 3rd 257 157 12 May 10th 325 211 11

May 17th 313 142 8

May 24th 307 105 11 May 31st 334 131 11

Average 307 149 10

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Church Financials

Gifts to the Church General Fund

• In memory of Albert Fischer, from Mike & Dede Fischer. • In memory of Aaron Swinford, from Clyde & Vicki Donovan. • In memory of Ryan Wolf, from Diana Poole, and Clyde & Vicki Donovan. • In memory of Laverne Weinacht, from Clyde & Vicki Donovan. • In memory of Rev. Dr. John Trnka, from Otto & Mary Ellen Daech.

Music Fund • In honor of Shirley Grimm’s 90th Birthday, from Sally Pickering.

HHH Fund • In memory of Laverne Weinacht, from Don & Cindy

Omohundro.

Pledges made for Forward in Faith capital campaign:

$647,722.31

Donations through May 2020 $409,007.43

Expenditures through May 2020 $251,274.76

Balance in Forward in Faith capital campaign fund

$157,732.67

May 2020 Month Year-To-Date

General Fund Income $25,199.95 $222,507.92

General Fund Expenses $32,658.13 $215,999.89

Difference (General Fund) -$7,458.18 $6,508.03

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Thank you to all who sent me cards and birthday wishes for my 90th Birthday in May! Not able to party as planned, but going to the mailbox daily finding birthday cards made my birthday EXTRA special!! God Bless you all! Dema Weinacht

Church Council Highlights June 2020

• Approved transfer of $100,182.69 from the Capital Campaign Fund

to the Heating and Air Replacement Fund to repay the cost of the 2014 replacement of the heating and air conditioning system for the sanctuary.

• Approved temporary 25% increase in Pastor Katie Jo’s salary during the period until a new settled senior pastor is in place. Increase reflects compensation according to Illinois South Conference guidelines that a sole pastor with Pastor Katie Jo’s years of experience would receive.

*Please Note: Final Council and Special Congregational Meeting minutes are available from the church office upon request.

Staying Connected If you have any suggestions or concerns that you would like to share with the church council during this time, you may send them to churchcouncil@stjohnucc-collinsville.com or call Joy Honegger, Council President at 618-692-0605.

All activities in Faith Hall have been cancelled until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faith Walking

July Prayer Theme: God Bless America.

Use the Fourth of July Scavenger Hunt included in this Informer for something fun to do as you walk outside!

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White Flower Baseball Cap

Flag The # 4

BBQ Grill Ladybug

Watermelon Red Bicycle

Cooler Fireflies

Lawn Chair U.S.A.

Pinwheel Hot Dog

Stars Picnic Table

Stripes American Symbol

Fireworks/Sparkler Blue Car

Picnic Basket Ants

Red, White or Blue Balloon Flag on a T-Shirt

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Summer Camp An adapted HHH Summer Camp begins on July 1! We will be handing out lunches to any child between 4 and 18 years old who comes to the church to pick it up.

In addition to a sack lunch, we will be passing out activity kits to help keep the kids engaged this summer. Volunteers have developed lessons and assembled the activity kits to send home with the kids. We will be using creative ways to reach out to the kids, for example, Shere Dapron has done cooking demonstrations and Harry Dapron videoed her to post on our Facebook page. On cooking class days, the kids will receive the ingredients for the recipe in their activity kit. Joy Honegger has planned the Games, Laura Schoenecker prepared the STEM activities Rhonda Evans has created the arts and crafts lessons, Barb Hunter has prepared reading and math activities, Libby Hunsinger has prepped the Pre-K & K lessons, and Megan Delong and Stephanie Ralston will be doing weekly Zoom meetings with our Junior and Senior High students. There will be guest story readers each day of camp posted on our HHH Facebook page.

We are again partnering with the Collinsville Food Pantry to provide Tote Me Home bags of food for the weekends which started in June for the children in our program.

If you are able, please help us by donating. Checks should be made out to St. John Church – HHH. You may mail your check to the church at St. John UCC, Attention Dana, 307 West Clay St., Collinsville, IL 62234 or you can give by going to www.stjohnucc-collinsville.org and go to the On-Line Giving tab then scroll down to HHH.

Please keep this program and the families affected with food insecurities in prayer. Thank you all so much supporting this ministry that is touching so many people!

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Spirit of Sharing (S.O.S.) Soup Kitchen Celebrates 8th Anniversary without Serving a Meal

The Soup Kitchen Coalition was sad that we could not provide hospitality to our patrons as we celebrated our 8th anniversary due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything is on hold until we get direction from the governor and the leadership of our host churches (St. John, First United Presbyterian and First United Methodist.) Please keep our patrons in your prayers!

Youth Ministries hopes your family is enjoying “attending” worship by watching the service in the comfort and safety of your homes. One Sunday have your family worship in their PJ’s and on another Sunday, have everyone wear their Sunday best. Take turns making a special Sunday breakfast before worship or a Sunday brunch after the service is over.

Starting in July, we will be sending the Sunday School lessons in your email box for Pre-K through 6th grade. Take the 15 to 20 minutes of time either before or after worship to reinforce the lesson from the lectionary. This is a great opportunity to teach your child to pray with you! If you would like to receive the lessons, please let Amy in the church office know your email address.

Find the July 4th Scavenger Hunt in this Informer and do it as a family this month! Have fun!

Sunday School resumes on September 13, 2020! We hope to be able to come together in person for a Rally Sunday kick-off event for the new school year! Details will be announced in the September Informer.

Sunday School Teachers Needed for 2020-2021 School Year!

If you are able to teach or assist with Sunday School this fall, please contact Dana at 972-3955.

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Flamingo

Game

The Senior High Youth Group is doing a fundraiser this summer called the Flamingo

Game. You get to play with the youth from the comfort of your home. The youth have plastic, pink flamingos that they will be flamingo-ing yards with. The youth will randomly put flamingos in church members’ yards throughout the summer. If you get flamingo’d, just call or text Pastor Katie Jo and she will have a youth member remove the flamingo for a small $15 removal fee. You can purchase flamingo insurance for $10. But, like car insurance, it doesn’t prevent an accident or in our case getting flamingo’d, but you don’t have to pay the removal fee. To make the game more interesting, you can also pay a fee of $10 to have another member flamingo’d. You can pay your fees or purchase insurance on the give plus app (make sure to give to the Sr. High/flamingo game) or you can mail a check to the church. Please contact Pastor Katie Jo when purchasing insurance. If you do not wish to play, please call of email Pastor Katie Jo and we will remove you from the list. Thank you for supporting the senior high youth group. Hope you have a good time playing the flamingos game.

Pastor Katie Jo’s information: Phone: (830-305-3684) Email: pastorkatiejo@stjohnucc-collinsville.com.

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Organ Refurbishment Underway

Out with the Old, and In with the New!

Photos on the left are the new console and stop rail.

Photos on the right the old worn keys of the console and the old stops.

These photos show the old wiring behind the old console. The photo on the left is what the new wiring will look like.

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The leather on these regulators was replaced. The newly leathered box is on the left. This new leather has a 50-year life span.

These are the old relays and combination machine. The right side photos are the old and box. You can see on the left how sleek the new ones are and how much less space they take.

Check out our YouTube video to see John explain some of the process! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJEOSN4iSE

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Summer is moving right along and we are so sad that our Summer Tree classes are not happening this year. We are already looking forward to next years Summer Tree classes.

As of this time, we are planning on Preschool starting in the Fall. There may be modifications made to follow all the Covid requirements but hopefully we will be able to have classes. We are continuing with registration.

We have 1 opening in the Monday/Wednesday 2-year-old class and our afternoon 3- and 4-year-old classes also have openings. If you know of anyone who may be interested in these classes, please have them call Mrs. Rose at 618-520-8660. Registration forms will be sent through the mail.

Happy 4th of July to all and please stay safe and healthy!!!

Karen Rose

Learning Tree Director

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222 Goethe Ave. Collinsville, IL 62234 618-344-5008 www.stjohnscc.org

We continue to wait for a decision from the IL Dept. on Aging on when we can open our Adult Day Centers. It appears unlikely they will let us open in July or August. We are working on plans to adjust our procedures to keep both participants and staff safe when we do reopen.

We are registering people for our Savvy Caregiver and Stress Busting classes for families caring for someone with dementia. These classes are small groups, so we expect to use the Adult Day area where we can keep everyone spaced appropriately.

Our Brain Wave classes will also resume soon, using the Adult Day space. This program for individuals who are early in their journey with memory loss have proved to be very valuable for those who attended earlier sessions.

We resumed loaning medical equipment on June 8, but we are limiting the hours to Monday and Thursday mornings. This helps us assure that staff are in the office and that we can assure equipment returned or donated can be disinfected. If you or someone you know needs medical equipment, please encourage them to call before coming to confirm we have what they need. There is more detail on the enclosed flyer.

Our support groups continue to meet using Zoom. If you know someone who might be interested, encourage them to call the office or send a message through the website with their name, phone number, and email address. The facilitator for the group will get in touch with them. We are evaluating the option of resuming in-person sessions with limited attendance and social distancing.

Please remember to contact Community Care for any support we can provide. I encourage everyone to visit our website (www.stjohnscc.org). The new page – Corona Virus Updates, Resources, and Activities – includes information and activities everyone will enjoy, in addition to resources specific to those living with dementia and caregiving challenges.

In spite of current challenges and the suspension of our Adult Day Program, which generates 80% of our annual revenue, Community Care is in a stable financial condition. We are grateful for the Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loan, continuing payments from the IL Dept. on Aging’s Capacity Preservation Grants, and grants to support operating expenses from the Marillac Mission Fund and The Lutheran Foundation. We have also received generous donations totaling nearly $10,000 from individuals who responded to our request in a recent newsletter. While there are still many unknowns for our future, as there are for all of us, we are grateful to be secure for the immediate future.

Many thanks to the Healing Community Board for their leadership and extra meetings as we navigate through these troubled waters.

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COLLINSVILLE FAITH IN ACTION®

233 North Seminary Street, Collinsville, IL 62234 Volunteer Caregivers & Elder Connection: 618-344-8080

Answers on Aging: 618-344-7788 Website: www.fiacollinsville.org Fax: 618-344-3227

“Serve one another in love.” Galatians 5:13

CFIA to begin offering more transportation and welcomes new Answers on Aging Specialist... It has been a challenging few months for our organization as we have had to put many of our services on hold. It was a difficult decision for us, but we understand that it was in everyone’s best interest to protect those that we serve and the volunteers that help us to provide services. Well, we have some exciting news! With Illinois moving into phase 3, CFIA is now able to begin offering more transportation services. We are somewhat limited, but we are now taking non-emergency transportation trip requests again. If a registered care receiver is in need of transportation, they may leave a message on the 618- 344-8080 phone line, and someone will return their call as soon as possible. Please bear with us as we continue to take every precaution to keep everyone safe as we move

forward. There are new procedures in place that follow CDC recommendations. At this time, we are not able to resume Elder Connection activities, but we have every intention to resume these gatherings when it is safe to do so. Answers on Aging will continue providing services at this time over the phone.

CFIA would also like to announce that we have a new Answers on Aging Specialist. Lisa Brennan has joined our staff as our new Answers on Aging Specialist. We are delighted to have her onboard! Lisa will be taking over for Laura, who retired at the end of May. Lisa will begin offering in-office appointments when it is safe to do so, but will be available by phone at 618-344-7788 for Benefits Access and other related questions. Welcome aboard Lisa! If you would like information in regard to our programs and services, assistance with completing the census, or have other questions, please contact our office at (618) 344-8080. Collinsville Faith in Action is here to help!

Funding for Collinsville Faith in Acton is received from the United States Administration for Community Living, the Illinois department on Aging and AgeSmart community Resources. Collinsville faith in Action does not discriminate in admission to programs or activities or treatment of employment in programs or activities in compliance with appropriate State and Federal Statutes. if you feel you have been discriminated against, you have the right to file a complaint with AgeSmart Community Resources by calling 618-222-2561.

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the Informer

Address Service Requested Time-sensitive information: Please expedite delivery

*Times of worship are for the call-in option. Worship can be viewed earlier on Facebook and YouTube. **In the event we are able to return to the sanctuary for worship together, a communication will be sent out.

Office Hours: The office will remain closed until the Shelter In Place order has been lifted for all of Illinois. We will be checking phone messages, emails, and mail on a regular basis.

Sunday Preaching Schedule July 5th 9:30 a.m. Digital Worship Rev. Katie Jo Bielke 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Drive-Thru Communion July 12th 9:30 a.m. Digital Worship Rev. Katie Jo Bielke July 19th 9:30 a.m. Digital Worship Rev. Kevin Strope July 26th 9:30 a.m. Digital Worship Partner in Ministry

St. John United Church of Christ 307 West Clay Street Collinsville, IL 62234 www.stjohnucc-collinsville.org