Terryville Congregational Church

February 2016 Newsletter

Terryville Congregational Church

February 2016 NEWSLETTER

233 Main Street

Terryville, CT 06786

U.S.A.

ADDRESS CORRECTION RQUESTED

Inside This Issue:

PASTOR’S MESSAGE

Lenten Luncheon Schedule

Trustees Listing

Bingo Schedule

Updated Coffee Hour List

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TERRYVILLE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH February 2016 NEWSLETTER

Dear Members & Friends of Terryville Congregational Church:

The Season of Lent begins February 10 on Ash Wednesday. I hope you all can join us on

that day at 7pm for our Ash Wednesday Service. The Season of Lent is an important time

of year meant to prepare ourselves for the joy of Easter by observing days of a penitence,

reflection, acts of service, prayer, and by removing any distractions or obstacles that

hinder our relationship with God. It’s the second part of that last sentence that leads

many people to “give up” something for Lent (also the tradition of fasting reminds us of

“giving up” something so that we can better focus on relationship with God and

neighbor). In recent years many people do not emphasize “giving up” something as

much as they do “taking on” something, perhaps an additional act of service, more prayer

or Bible Study, worship, and/or community involvement. The Season of Lent is a time to

draw closer to God as we prepare for Easter, therefore it is really important both to “give

up” distractions as well as “take on” areas that improve our spiritual lives. What will you

choose to “give up” and/or “take on” this Season? As we do this, we think of Jesus, who

fasted for 40 days in the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. Jesus endured much and

continued to love and serve. During Lent we are reminded that we belong to God (are

created by God and will return to God, hence the saying “You are dust, and to dust you

shall return” that we share on Ash Wednesday). We are also reminded of our call to

serve God.

In addition to our Ash Wednesday Service and Sunday Services, I hope you will join us

for our Ecumenical Lenten Lunches. This month, our first luncheon is on Feb 16 at 12pm

at St. Paul Lutheran Church, and on Feb. 23 at 12pm at our church. (Please see the

enclosed list for the full Lenten Lunch schedule). The theme this year is that each church

will share about their own Communion practices.

I also hope everyone will join us for our Annual Service of Remembrance on Wed., Feb.

24 at 7pm. This is an important time to remember our loved ones who have passed –

whether they have passed recently or many years ago, this service is a meaningful way to

remember them, to support one another, and to lift up our prayers to God.

In addition to these things, please see the enclosed calendar for all of our month’s events

including TCC Theatre’s Broadway Night, Eli Terry Retirement Community Dinner,

BINGO, Annual Meeting, and more. I look forward to seeing you all as we draw close to

God and to one another this Lent. After all, many like to call Lent “Spring training for

Christians.”

Blessings always, Rev Zack

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Our Prayers Go To:

Members: Waldron Family (Brian, Jodi, baby Hadley and family), Jessica Dorau,

Andrea Armbruster, Laura Rappleyea, Annalee Wenslow, Doris Bondeson, Karen Reilly,

Edna Kirkby, Rae Barry, Rose Balowski and children, Barbara Plumb, Lewis Lamy &

Family, Christopher Colasanto, Damien Piercy, Janet Waldron, Irene Taylor, Lois

Barnes, Marjorie (Sue) Piercy, Nicolina Telke, Lois & Ray Douyard

Family & Friends: Olive Crepor (Andrea Armbruster’s mother), Cindy Gavin (friend of

Millie Perry) Mildred Martin (Mary Mitchell’s sister-in-law), Cindy Gavin (friend of

Millie Perry), Marsha Barnes Griffin (daughter & sister of Lois & Sally Barnes),

Jacqueline McQueeny (friend of Jake Armbruster), Carole Kozikowski (daughter of

Mary-Alice and Curt Wilbanks, and sister of Janet Waldron), Shelly Benson (friend of

Michele Benson}, Wayne & Art Feskanin (friend of Lois B.), Carolyn Soter, Mim Schact,

Chad Etting, George Badey (Barbara Benson’s father), Dorothy Nelson (mother of Diane

Pratt and Ingrid Nelson-Beicke), Ceil Dzielinski (friend of Lois Barnes), Stella & Dave

Mason, Renee Lucie, health issues (friend of Rae Link), Jennifer (Barbara Plumb’s

daughter), Emie Cabreza, requested by Sam Klaneski, Gayle Bondeson (daughter-in-

law of Russ and Doris Bondeson),Marsha Oelschlegel Ormondroyd (friend of Alison

Reed & Roberta Layton), Robert Angus (Tammy Piercy’s uncle), John Brandy Fredericks

& family, David Wells (friend of Carol Hopkins), the Rozie family, requested by Melissa

Stein her daughter, Bill Hawes, Eileen Tedesco, Cheryl Brazee’s family, Iris Soto’s

Family, Lori Blais & family (sister of Lisa Reek), Randall Wagoner (requested by his

mom, Mary Mitchell and his brother, Russ Wagoner), Suzanne Licki’s friend, Agnieska,

Jean Michelson, (neighbor of Rae Link,) Danielle Martone, granddaughter of M/M Ernie

LeClair), Buddy Hawes, Henry Kornacki, Heuschkel family (Pam Eggleston’s family),

Thomas Campbell (Pam Eggleston’s uncle)

Nursing Facility: Grace Spring, Callie Goodfield, Marilyn Kosak, Ralph Davis, Amy

Young, Irene Taylor

Please help us to support our Food Pantry by remembering to bring non-perishables each week. You can place your food donations into our “food pantry wagon” when it is pulled down the aisle during morning announcements.

Military: Rev. Zack has given our check in the amount of $410.00 to Lisa Aiudi,

THS LEO club advisor. This being the amount donated by you, the church family,

in support of THS Support a Soldier program in 2015. Already the LEO students

are out and about spreading the word, seeking donations, doing whatever needs to

be done in preparation for the March 1st shipment to a military facility. Last year

(2015) we “raised the bar” from $120 (in2014) to $400.00!!!!! Thanks to all of you

who “made it happen”, the spirit of giving is alive and well at TCC. What do you

think? – shall we set our goal for 2016 at $500.00?! As of this writing, we are $23.00

toward a new goal!

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ELECTED AT ANNUAL MEETING 3/1/2015 COMMITTEES, LAY LEADERS, CHURCH STAFF, AND MEETING TIMES

Below is the list of names of folks who are elected Lay leaders in our congregation and who are “go to” people if you have an idea, suggestion, question, concern, etc. We will post the new meeting times as soon as they are established. Church Council continues to meet on the 3

rd Wednesday of each month at 7 pm in the Chapel. All are welcome. Please contact Jerry

Wunsch, Moderator, if you would like to be placed on the agenda.

CHURCH COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Moderator - Jerry Wunsch (Council Member)

Vice-Moderator/ - Charlotte Audet (Council Member)

Personnel Committee Chair

Clerk/ - Charlotte Crockett

Communication Chair

Treasurer – Candace Telke

Asst. Treasurers – Don Cushman

Collectors – Sue Dillane

Members at Large - John Layton (Council Member)

Jim Hannon (Council Member)

Spiritual Task Group Leader – Diane Pratt (Council Member)

Diaconate - Jean Goodwin

Bill Hall

Linda Lamy

Music Committee - Sandy Kamens

Sylvia LaFreniere

Sandi Ehmer

Christian Education Committee - Ryan DellaVecchia

Christa Furtado

Joanne Keenan

Business Task Group Leader - Alison Reed – (Council Member)

Communications Committee

Finance Committee - Bob Grosof

Roseann Hannon

Trustee Chairperson

Trustees Committee- Jake Armbruster

John Wallingford

Dave Morrell

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Service Task Group Leader – Danielle DellaVecchia (Council Member)

Outreach Committee - Cindi Harnish

Carol Barbieri

Laurie Ross

Fellowship Committee - Ellen Cifone

Jean Mariano

Rose Balowski

By-Law Manager - Curt Wilbanks

Safe Conduct Advocate – Brenda Purney

Personnel Committee - Mike Dumas

Donna Wunsch

Roberta Layton

Church Historian - Ray Douyard

Floral Sub-Committee - Ellen Cifone, Roberta Layton, Sue Kozikowski

Ad Hoc Committees: RESTRUCTURING TEAM Audit Committee Mike Dumas Jake Armbruster, Ken Beicke,

Sylvia LaFreniere Charlotte Crockett,

Pam Eggleston,

Historical Committee- Ray Douyard- Chair Sandy Kamens, Sue Piercy,

Richard Foote Iris Soto, Annalee Wenslow

Annalee Wenslow Curt Wilbanks,

Charlotte Crockett Jennifer Zalaski, Ray Zalaski

Chicken BBQ – Jake Armbruster/Trustees

Roast Beef Dinner – Jerry Wunsch

June Fair – Diane Pratt, Joann Keenan, Jake Armbruster

Terryville Fair Booth – Ray & Jeanne Zalaski

Church Bazaar – Diane Pratt

Bingo – Sue Piercy

Theater Plays – Alison Reed, Jonathan Zalaski

Revised 12/4/15

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2016 LENTEN LUNCHEON SCHEDULE

Terryville / Plymouth Churches

2/16 – St. Paul Lutheran

2/23 – Terryville Congregational

3/1 – Holy Trinity Lutheran

3/8 – The Lyceum

3/15 - Ss. Cyril & Methodius

Soup/sandwiches, desserts and beverage luncheons. All luncheons begin at 12 Noon. Cost $5.00 (or whatever individuals can afford). Each host prepares a brief program to be presented during the second half of the luncheon. THEME for 2016: Sharing our communion traditions Everyone invited to bring non-perishable food contributions for the Plymouth Community Food Pantry.

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2016 BINGO DATES FEBRUARY 2/27/16

MARCH 3/19/16

APRIL 4/23/16

MAY 5/28/16

JUNE 6/25/16

JULY 7/30/16

AUGUST 8/20/16 (Terryville Fair is 8/26-28)

SEPTEMBER 9/24/16

OCTOBER 10/29/16

NOVEMBER 11/26/16

DECEMBER 12/17/16 (3RD Sat. because the

next weekend is Christmas Eve)

We are in need of additional help at BINGO. Setting up, in the kitchen (just snacks), etc. If you would like to help out in anyway please call Sue Piercy 860-845-2720 or Jerry Wunsch at 860-209-2891

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OUTREACH REPORT Submitted by Danielle DellaVecchia

Happy Winter Everyone,

I wanted to let you all know what’s going on in the world of the Outreach Committee, and the youth group

Outreach Committee

October- we did a Community Cook Out for Gozenski Park. We served Hot dogs, Hamburgers, with all the

fixings.

November -we did a community Dinner at Eli Terry, we served ham, roasted potatoes, sweet potato

casserole, and green beans.

December -we did a Coat Drive that benefited the Susan B. Anthony Project. We dropped off about 70

coats, and they were warmly welcomed.

January – We were back at Gozinski Park, and we did the same ham meal that we did at Eli Terry in

November. We also had a few special donations: one from Cory Lovejoy and Rich Sauzedde, they

raffled off baskets that they donated from their Ministry. The second donation was in honor of Eleanor

Phillimore, Who had been a resident of Gozinski Park, she had enjoyed our meals and sweets, so her

family donated funds for us to purchase a few special desserts.

February we will be back at Eli Terry where we will be serving lasagna. This will also be what we will be

serving at Gozenski Park in March. Just a reminder, that these meals are open to church members as well

as those who reside at these addresses. If you are planning on attending one of the meals we ask that you

contact the church office the week prior to the meal if you do not reside at the address.

In April we will be having a Paint Night on 4/2, we will be opening the doors at 5:30 PM and a light dinner

of finger foods will be served and Painting will start at 6:15. Cost for this event will be $30, half of which

will be going to the church general fund. There will be more info on this event to come.

Youth Group

We have been meeting Monthly the last Sunday of the month, with the exception of December, for Pizza

and good company.

In October, the 24 Hour famine took place. We had about 35 local high school students participate. In the

evening we got to know each other, played a variety of games, and made new friends. In the morning we

made signs and went out to Main Street and asked drivers for monetary donations. We raised well over

$1,000. When we were finished asking for donations the students had a well- deserved lunch of pizza.

Items were purchased and all of this went to our Terryville/Plymouth food pantry. This was in addition to

the nonperishable items that the students brought with them when the event started.

In March the Youth Group will be going on a retreat to Silver Lake, this is in addition to the confirmation

retreat that takes place every year. We will be planning activities for the students, and assuring that there is

plenty of free time to enjoy Silver Lake as well as spending quality time together. If anyone has not signed

up for this and is interested, please contact myself or Rev. Zach.

I hope everyone stays warm, and enjoys all the wonders that the winter season has to offer.

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UPDATE (Currently supporting 14 open loans - total of 52

supported)

New Loans

With the recent payoffs and receipt of payments for our other outstanding loans, we decided to

lend $25 to Ana Marie from El Salvador.

Ana Marie - El Salvador

Ana went to school as far as the ninth grade. She is married and has three children, two of

whom live with her and attend school while her husband works as an employee. Ana works

selling cosmetics. She decided one day to start her own business when she saw that her husband's

income was not enough to support their household. She took the initiative to start her business

selling cosmetics. She goes out 3 times a week from door to door in her community and

neighboring communities to sell her products. She is requesting a loan to buy lipstick, blush, nail

polish, lotions, etc. to continue with her cosmetics sales business. Ana's dream it to see her

children succeed at being excellent professionals and to feel proud of them. She would also like to

have her own business premises one day.

Update on our loan to Arnaud

Arnaud - Les Anglais - Haiti

Our loan to Arnaud was to provide his family with access to a solar-powered microgrid being

installed in Les Anglais. Being connected will allow him to save money. Arnaud is currently

behind on his repayments.

EarthSpark International responded to let us know that our Kiva loan to Arnaud has been

exempted from default. This loan is eligible for default because it is more than 180 days behind

on repayment, but the Field Partner, EarthSpark International, requested an exemption due to 2

factors that have caused this situation:

One is the delay in the initial loan date. EarthSpark encountered some unexpected delays in

launching the grid expansion at the beginning of the year. They had customs and shipping issues

which made clients start to receive electricity later than initially expected.

The second reason is electricity consumption is lower than initially expected. Repayments for

this loan work differently than most of our more traditional loans on Kiva. 30% of clients'

electricity bills goes toward paying back the loan. The more a client consumes, the more they pay

back and vice-versa. When our Field Partner Earthspark uploaded the repayment plan to Kiva,

they made a forecast of electricity consumption per household. Despite the successful adoption of

this new source of energy and the high satisfaction of clients, consumption is not as high as

initially expected.

Together, these two factors are the cause of the delinquency. We still expect this loan to catch

up with expected repayments as clients begin using solar energy regularly to power things such as

refrigerators and thus household consumption increases.

We apologize for the inaccurate estimate of clients' electricity consumption and thank you for

your understanding and continuous support. This is one of the most innovative projects our

lenders have been involved in, and we appreciate the risk you have taken in funding this exciting

loan product.

If you are interested in more information on Kiva or would like to help in deciding our next

loan recipient, please contact us! Crista and Justin Furtado

Kiva – Loans that change lives by empowering people around the world with loans of $25.

Information is available at www.kiva.org. View our lender page at

http://www.kiva.org/lender/terryvillecongregati3466.

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TRUSTEES LISTING – 2016

JANUARY Jake Armbruster 860-589-1964 (home)

860-681-1837 (cell)

FEBRUARY Jake Armbruster 860-589-1964 (home)

860-681-1837 (cell)

MARCH Dickie Zalaski 860-583-5367

APRIL John Wallingford 860-589-4341 (home)

860-977-9056 (cell)

MAY Dave Morrell 860-583-8302 (home)

JUNE Alison Reed 860-583-5977

JULY Dickie Zalaski 860-583-5367

AUGUST Jake Armbruster 860-589-1964 (home)

860-681-1837 (cell)

SEPTEMBER Alison Reed 860-583-5977

OCTOBER Dave Morrel 860-583-8302

NOVEMBER Phil Armbruster 860-583-7864 (home)

860-673-0488 (cell)

DECEMBER John Wallingford 860-589-4341 (home)

860-977-9056 (cell)

EACH TRUSTEE IS REQUIRED TO FIND THEIR OWN

SUBSTITUTE IF YOU CANNOT OPEN UP ON SUNDAY.

ALSO NOTIFY SUE IN THE OFFICE TO MAKE A NOTE IN

THE BULLETIN.

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COFFEE HOUR LIST FOR 2016

Submitted by Diane Pratt & Rev. Zack

It is felt that coffee hour is a good time to meet new members and talk with some of our old

friends. In the past, committees were assigned to a month for a coffee hour, with our new set

up there are now only three members in each group. We have tried to appeal for people to sign

up for a week, and I want to thank all those that have taken turns. We are trying to encourage

all members to take part in our social time together.

Suggested instructions for setting up are in the kitchen. When it is your turn, you will need to

get milk or half and half, things to make punch, and if you wish, a little goody to munch on. You

can be reimbursed with money in the collection basket.

If you have any questions please call Diane Pratt at her cell phone – 860-329-6401 or

email: dino1955@snet.net

Thank you for your time and consideration,

ASSIGNMENTS FOR 2016

February 7 Roberta Layton 860-585-5955

Jane Link 860-589-8304

February 14 Dickie Zalaski 860-583-5367

Louise Sweatt 860-584-0794

February 21 Don & Juney Cushman 860-314-1804

February 28 Jake Armbruster 860-589-1964

Alison Reed 860-583-5977

March 6 Janet & Wayne Waldron 860-589-8921

13 Paula Anderson 860-582-1524

Pam Eggleston 860-605-0170

20 FINANCE COMMITTEE

27 EASTER (NO COFFEE HOUR)

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Solargraphy Images of TCC The first set of images from the solargraphy test of the TCC have been completed with one set producing an interesting silhouette of our church against the movement of the sun from June 21st. until December 11th. A second image from the east side of the church was unsuccessful due to an error in my camera design. I am taking the successful images camera from the front of the church and repeating the exposure from the east side of the church. The exposure was started on December 14th and will end around June 21st. of 2016. This image should start to show our church in a more traditional way due to the sun hitting this side of the church all day, as the front of the church faces north so this image shows it as a silhouette. The images are taken with a simple pin hole camera, in our case a simple soup can with a small sewing needle hole acting as the lens. In place of photographic film photographic printing paper is used to build up the image slowly over time. The image is taken in black and white but the photographic paper was never designed to take images this way and when the image is scanned into the computer and converted over to a positive interesting color patterns can appear due to humidity changes acting on the paper. We are going to take orders for those of you who may be interested in having a print for your home. Any profit that may come from this project will go directly to the church as a fund raiser. Right now we are thinking of a price of $5.00 for a 4 by 6 image and $8.00 for an 8 1/2 by 11 image. Rev Zack will have more information on this as we go forward. This was a very interesting and fun project and I am hoping for another great image come next June. Respectively Submitted James Hannon

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Deadline for the March issue is February 24.

Special announcements, articles or events provided by

the deadline will be published in the March issue.

Please email to: Terryvillechurch@hotmail.com

SPECIAL DONATIONS FOR PER COST OF WINDOWS: We would like to suggest to anyone who would like to, to donate whatever amount they feel they can to go toward payment of a new window. The cost per window is $400, but a partial donation would be fine. We would like to put name plates under each window that has a donation

We now have online giving on our church website. It is a secure system through paypal. Go to www.terryvillecongregationalchurch.org and click on “donate”. You can make a one-time donation or a recurring donation/pledge. Thank you.

CHURCH ANNUAL MEETING WILL BE HELD Feb. 21

with a snow date of Feb. 28 after Sunday Worship.