there. We plan to use that for mini-VBS sessions with our tutoring families and Sunday school when children come on Sundays. We can hardly wait for the following:

New Heat and a/c coming New projector – super

bright and sharp com-ing

Congregational assessment coming

Connect-to-Disciple work-shop coming

Friendship Sunday coming after entryway remod-el and ROM publicity campaign

Reconciliation Outreach Ministry ready to serve and go public

Funding to get us on solid footing coming

In truth, we never dreamed that we would be blessed with means to replace our 32-year-old heat and a/c equipment or to replace the borrowed desig-nated funds so they can serve the church, but it is happening by the grace of God. We dreamed of office volunteers to take office administrative work off Pastor’s plate so he can work more in pastoral care … and people are training and doing. We dreamed of disc golf people coming into the church … and we had a baptism and a child attended here three times while her mom played golf. We dreamed of Bible study groups

ple ... and the numbers are going up (including more disc golfers). We dreamed of having more person resources to do outreach and grow Trinity Mis-sion … and the Brown’s re-tired; Annette is fully engaged; and we have ideas to re-brand it. The Lord is shining his light on us so that it reflects to the people not yet in his kingdom of saints. The fields are ripe for harvest and we’re getting the equipment and workers lined up to do it. And for today … Advent midweek meals and worship participation has been wonderful – getting close to our average Sunday attendance with 17 people on the 19th! It has been a time to get our hearts ready in repentance for the Savior and to build rela-tionships within our church family. His coming brings to mind all that he comes to do – with the crowning act of dying and rising again to buy for-giveness for all the ways we fail God in sin. So as I write this on December 20th, we faithful are prepared for Christmas to bring us the greatest joy possi-ble! Have a very blessed Christ-mas and a joyous New Year! Amen. Yours in Christ,

Pastor Glenn

“A New Dawn: Trinity Life”

January 2019

Trinity Trumpet

Dear Friends in Christ, We rejoice with the shep-herds that experienced the visitation of angel hosts an-nouncing and singing and then visiting the Savior. It was the dawn of a new world emerging as light in the dark-ness. Just imagine how re-markable the first light of dawn was to these rugged outdoorsmen on Christmas morning! The first to hear the birth news of Jesus the Savior were simple agricul-tural workers that lived un-der the stars – out in the fields with the flocks. God used them to see the Christ child in person and spread the news to everyone around. Aren’t eye-witnesses the best? If he chooses to use such common folk for that honored task, little won-der that you and I are the ones he wants as messengers today! We are his “bringers of light” into a dark world. We hold the keys to unlock this new dawn kingdom of God – to bring new life to the non-churched from now to eternity for them. Now to the new year for us. Happy New Year! There is a new dawn shining life into us at Trinity Life in remarkable ways. We look forward to using the east side space for ministry now that we’ll soon have heat and a/c working

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Sa-maria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8 (ESV) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19 (ESV)

Evangelism: Four persons completed the Everyone His Witness Workshop Oct. 29 and 30. A Re:Vitality Congregational Assess-ment survey starts January 13th and a Connect to Disciple workshop is for Jan. 25-26 to teach us outreach program

design. Karen &Squeakie Brown Education: No activity to report Carol Niedfeldt Fellowship: The Christmas Dinner

party on Dec. 7th was enjoyed by 16

people Christy Baugh—

Social Ministries: No report

L:WML: Next meeting will be Saturday, 1-19-19 @ 9:00 am also the December activity was collect-ing cleaning supplies for Hope House Wom-en and children’s homeless shelter. Loretta Meyer Stewardship: No report Youth: No activity to report Loretta Meyer Reconciliation Ministry Outreach No report Disc Golf Some of our disc golf friends stopped in during a Sunday morning worship service

MINISTRY NEWS

Next Men’s Man Card Breakfast January 12, 2019 Ever notice how we spend lots of time defending the Bible nowadays?" Join us 2nd Saturday mornings as we

explore “The Bible on Trial” with godly, biblical insight! FREE pancake and sausage breakfast served with coffee and juice. If you don’t have your Man Card yet attend to get one. Prayer, food, fellowship and

an invigorating Bible study by Pastor Glenn will earn you an official Man Card (wallet size). We meet the second Saturday at 8:30 am at His Place. It’s at the entrance to the church and disc golf course property.

for donuts. We invite all disc golfers to come in whenever they play on Sunday morning and to sit in for worship as long as they want. Please assist them like you would any newcomers and expect that they’ll only stay a few minutes and then leave.

Trustees The Voter’s approved getting a building improvement loan to cover some major work that must happen – furnaces, roof and more. The kitchen vent hood remains our only roof leak. Projector’s permanent mount installed and serving us well.

BIBLE STUDY GROUPS (See calendar page for dates) Clayton Bible Study — 1st Tuesday of the month 6:30 Man Card Men’s Bible Study Breakfast, 2nd Saturday @ 8:30 at His Place Pigg Cell Group — 1st Thursdays @ 7:00 pm @ church classroom Sunday Morning Bible Class: Sundays at 9:15 am Clayton Adult Bible Class: 2nd and 4th Sundays @ 4:45pm

Lutheran Bible Translators – Ghana! Ersland Update

Michael Ersland, works with the Komba Old Testament translation project. The Bible Class and Sunday school are devoting their special offer-ings to him and the LWML also does fundraising to support him in this ministry. (See pages 4-5 for stories)

Re-Vision Statement for Trinity Lutheran Church We are planting a church called Trinity Life in Krebs with a goal to improve our community by helping people be great neighbors. Good relationships happen as we reach out to the (non-churched) people of our community through Bible teaching and coaching to learn a reconciling lifestyle in Jesus. Trinity Life helps people resolve their conflicts, guided by our trained reconcilers through a Christian mediation or reconciling process without charge. We envision a community where couples, families and organizations deal with differences God’s way to find peaceful agreement. Peace, hope and fulfilment found in the Trinity -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit give real meaning in life. It’s a very different Christian atti-

January

8th Vicki Lyles 18th Darlys Hutten 19th Aaron Phipps 22nd Connie Loman 27th Gerald Valenta

February 2nd Annie Miller 5th Carol Niedfeldt 18th Rick Curtis 19th Betty Rivers 19th John Clark 20th Karen Yagher 21st Hannah Reese 28h Joshua Billos

Please contact the office when a name can be removed or changed to another category

BIRTHDAYS

January 1st Joyce Hendrickson 10th Conner Fields 10th Cameron Fields 26th Seth Gleichman 31st Christina Wacker February 5th 15th Darlys Hutten 18th Aaron Phipps 18th Audrey Phipps 27th Brenda Phipps

ALTAR FLOWERS January: Hannah & Teresa Reese in memory of Stan Reese February: Harold Dunlap for Valentines Day

ANNIVERSARIES January None February: 14th—Veronica & Primus Moore 26th—Randall & Roberta Lopez

LORD: We Implore You to Hear Our Prayers

For Healing of Chronic Ills: Maggie Brennan, (Clayton Lutheran) COPD & emphysema, Sheila Curtis health issues, Darlys Hutten, health issues, Zane Jacobson, Kevin Pollard, & Echo Merryman, knee inju-ry, Pastor Meyer, health issues, Lisa Milton, COPD, Bill & Billie Moore, health issues (Connie Loman & Teresa Dove’s father), Laura Moore (Primus & Veronica Moore’s daughter-in-law), Ellen Paar, colon can-cer, (Pastor’s Aunt), Steve Phipps, Betty Rivers, Alzheimer’s, Ester Valenta, health issues (Linda Valenta’s mother-in-law) Thanksgiving: For patient members attending the Voter’s meeting and working through the challenging de-cisions, for good test results for Pastor Glenn, for good surgery test results of no cancer found for Donnie Milton, Special Needs: Pastor Dibell, treatment for lymphoma & sarcoma cancers, Curtis Jacobson, cancer & COPD, James Ezell, Heart attack and 2 stents (Annette Ezell’s father-in-law), Donnie Milton, recovering from colon cancer surgery, Lisa Milton, emphysema and neck injury, Lujeanne Walton, heart problems (friend of Primus Moore) For Strength: Harlie Breiland, (grandchild of Yagher’s), Audrey Brown & family, Peggy Gleichman family, Curtis Jacobson family, Jason Alexander Luvenburgh & family, (infant grandson of Harold Dunlap), Donnie & Lisa Milton (Clayton friends), Primus Moore family, John Peasha Jr., family Serving in or with the Military: Cole Jackson (Connie Loman & Teresa Dove’s cousin), Andy & Robert Starry (Mary Starry’s son & grandson serving stateside), Teddy Stevens (Audrey Brown’s brother) For Transformation: That we are feeling empowered by the Holy Spirit to keep inviting the lost to church so that God might save them and equip his kingdom workers at Trinity as evangelists Prayer Focus for the Month of January for the sanctity of Life. .

Trinity Prayer Warriors

Michael Esland update for December 2018

Dear Church Supporters, The markets are becoming more congested as we get closer to Christmas. The commercialization of the season is not just limited to the U.S., but it is a global phenomenon. It was neat seeing everyone dressed to a “T” last Christmas with boys sporting their new sunglasses and little girls having their hair done as if they were grown ups and wearing pretty dresses. I look forward to seeing everyone looking their best in just a little over a week. Things are winding down in the office as we will meet a few times next week and then break for the holidays. We finished team checking the book of Deuteronomy yesterday, the 13th. It took us many months, for various reasons. We are thankful to have that behind us. We will print it this next week and then send it to a handful of reviewers to make edits. The next book on the line-up for team checking is Judges (Joshua has already been completed and even consult-ant checked). Progress on the lectionary is coming slowly, as I have been traveling a little more often between Gbintiri and Ta-male (and because making simple edits to the document in the software perform slowly due to the large nature of the file). Part of the slow movement also resides in the fact that working on publishing a continuous lection-ary is not for the faint of heart. For example, how do you even format the thing? Yes, we have the Old Testa-ment, Psalm, Epistle, and then New Testament readings, but what gets made bold or italic, what type of heading does “Advent” get, and how do we even translate that word into Komba? To add to that, the Revised Common Lectionary is very similar to the Lutheran Service Book’s three year lectionary, but there are some variations in the readings. How do we take that into account for other liturgical non-Lutheran churches in the area (apart from the Catholic church, because that lectionary will take even more changes and need to be completed sepa-rately)? Progress is being made, even if it is at a slow rate. I am excited to be working on this project now. I mentioned in my November update that there has been work on a wall here at the mission grounds. I am over-joyed that the main masonry work on the wall finished this past Monday! This has been a giant task to oversee and I am thankful to be moving on from that work. It has also been a busy month here with making sure every-thing is ready for control burns around the mission grounds. Soon everything will get so dry that it will easily catch on fire, and so we have to do a series of burning around the buildings in the evenings to protect them. Mission ground maintenance projects are on the line up for the rest of the year on days that I will not be in the office. So what else do the near future and January hold in store? The Komba Lutheran youth convention will be next weekend. I am looking forward to attending this couple day event and being surrounded by other young people. Then, the Komba Lutheran churches will gather together the first week of January for Christmas convention. This shall be several days packed with worship and fellowship. Lectionary work will continue in January, as well as team checking Judges. I also have a lineup of projects that need to be done on the mission grounds that are fairly good sized (but nothing compared to building a wall). There will also be travel within Ghana and plenty of work pertaining to language and culture learning. Prayers are appreciated for all these events, activities, and trav-els. Thank you for following along this past year! It has been a full year, and we thank the Lord for His mercies to-wards us in everything. As we are in the season of Advent, I have been going through a simple Advent devotional. The first 6 days of the month focused on hope, followed by peace, this week has joy, and the last 6 days leading up to Christmas will cover love. May your Advent season be filled with hope, peace, joy and love as we look to the coming of Christ. We pray, come Lord Jesus, come! Confident in Christ,

Congregational Self-Assessment Coming Jan. 13th Our congregation is undertaking a Self-Assessment survey to find out more about us. We ask every member and friend of the congregation to complete the 100 question online questionnaire. We’ll have systems available for those without computer access and will even have printed copies for those that aren’t able to do an online version. The more people that participate, the better the quality of the statistical report that comes back to us. It tells our strengths and weaknesses to help us focus our energy and efforts where they’ll have the most impact — serving the greatest need.

New Bible Study: The Challenge of Islam We are starting a new Bible study class today; “The Challenge of Islam” For a religion practiced by so many worldwide, Islam is understood by surprisingly few in Western society. Be one of those in the know when you join us on Sunday mornings at 9:15 am.

Reconciliation Ministry Outreach If you have a conflicted relationship and wonder how to approach the other party, call Pastor, 918-916-4469. That’s what this ministry is for – helping people through relationship problems. He is trained to coach you and it’s fully confidential. Please try it on a small matter so you can recommend it to your friends suffering in conflict.

Michael Ersland— Lutheran Bible Translator Missionary November and December have been filled with travel and work at the mission grounds. The main masonry work on the wall was completed in December with the final pil-lars poured (left). Control burns took place around the mis-sion grounds to protect the buildings from fires in the dry season (middle). With the travel, come plenty of road expe-riences, like this almost completely washed out section of

the road (right)!

•The book of Deuter-onomy has been team checked and is now being sent to review-ers. The team is now working on team proof-reading Judges. •The Komba Lutheran youth convention will be before Christmas and the Komba Lutheran church Christmas convention will be the first week of January. Please pray that both conventions will go well and be both spiritually filling and also good times for fellowship. •May God be with you this Advent Season, provide you with a joyous Christmas, and a blessed start to the new year!

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