The Tucket

New Renovation Photos!

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Come check out the brand new first floor renovation photos... its looking great behind the curtain!

Rummage Sale starts Friday!

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500

2010 Rummage Sale To Benefit the Grace & PeaceWomen’s Emergency Winter ShelterTo accommodate our building renovation, we have

delayed starting to collect donations. By now we

usually have a room full of donations. Last year we

collected 10% of our budget from the rummage sale.

We are in need of your donations. We will start

collecting donations in EXCELLENT condition on Sat.,

August 14, from 1 to 3 P.M. and during office hours

for the next two weeks. The sale is the following

two weekends. Bring the donations to the side door,

622 Clara. If you have questions or want to make an

appointment to donate at another time, phone Deb

at 314-241-4202, or, the church office at 314-367-

8959. Submitted by Deb Eisenbraun

Report from Haiti from Jeff

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500

While it was hot in Haiti, on the day I returned to St. Louis, how much worse the weather was here! We were spared the 100-degree temperatures and brutal humidity, but the sun shines very intensely in Haiti. It’s best not to leave your head uncovered, a lesson I learned the hard way. Our teams’ time was spent between the city of Leogane and a mountain village called Petit Harpon. Leogane, on the coast, is two hours west of Port au Prince (by car) and Petit Harpon is another roughly two hours south into the mountains between Leogane and Jacmel. Travel by car in Haiti is slow even on the paved road (the National Highway). Nearly all other roads and streets are unpaved. Travel by car on the mountain roads is hard to describe. May God help you, particularly if you don’t have 4-wheel drive. While I was there we constructed temporary shelters made from 18-gauge steel studs and wrapped with plastic fiber tarps. These shelters are built to provide primarily a dry, safe place to sleep. In most cases, the shelters were set on dirt and staked into the ground with rebar. There are a number of ways in which these dwellings could be made more permanent, but within the families there is no money for that. I was there with one other American, Clayton, a college student from Chattanooga. We were blessed and challenged with the chance to work each day very closely with Haitians. Clayton’s Creole (Kreyul) was pretty good I thought. Mine, on the other hand, really stinks. We did have a Haitian translator, Mario, who really made the trip possible. What a gift he was, so skilled in language and knowledgeable about the area. For example, where do you find a new clutch kit for a Toyota truck while stuck in the mountains? Mario knew (or he knew someone who knew).

Life there is very difficult. It is also very complicated, at least for relief groups trying to accomplish tasks. The situation for Haitians continues to be very dire. Many of the buildings collapsed by the earthquake remain uncleared. People anticipate that they may not be dismantled for the foreseeable future. Food and clean water are in short supply. Subsistence farming, from what I saw, is how families feed themselves. Haiti has a dangerously weak economy. Jobs are desperately needed. In some cases there are potential jobs, only no money to pay workers. The demolition and clearing of buildings, would be an example. There are so many pressing needs among the people there and the government is, at its best, dysfunctional. It was hard for me to be very hopeful for the country. Our hope is not in functioning governments, competent and trustworthy politicians, or robusteconomies. These are good things, there is no mistake about it. Our hope here in the US is the same as for in Haiti, the hope we have in Christ crucified and raised. May the Gospel go forth in Haiti. Thank you all for your support. Jeff Lutjens

Rummage Sale Donations

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500

2010 Rummage Sale To Benefit the Grace & Peace

Women’s Emergency Winter Shelter

To accommodate our building renovation, we have

delayed starting to collect donations. By now we

usually have a room full of donations. Last year we

collected 10% of our budget from the rummage sale.

We are in need of your donations. We will start

collecting donations in EXCELLENT condition on Sat.,

August 14, from 1 to 3 P.M. and during office hours

for the next two weeks. The sale is the following

two weekends. Bring the donations to the side door,

622 Clara. If you have questions or want to make an

appointment to donate at another time, phone Deb

at 314-241-4202, or, the church office at 314-367-

8959. Submitted by Deb Eisenbraun

RENOVATION Photos Update

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Curious to see how things are going behind the plastic curtain on the first floor?

You can keep up to date with the renovation progress by checking out our photo album. We'll be posting new updates regularly, so stay tuned!

Tacos and Ice Cream on July 21!

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Please make plans to come to the fellowship meal and large group prayer meeting on Wednesday, July 21. We are asking each prayer group to bring enough fixings to serve tacos to their own prayer group with some to share. In your prayer group, maybe you'll have different households bring some combination of the following: cooked meat, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, soft and/or crispy shells, and salsa. For dessert, each prayer group can bring ice cream. Binnington and Bley prayer groups will serve and clean up. ...submitted by Deb Eisenbraun

Renovation Update

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Here is news from the Renovation Committee. First floor construction is well underway! Old walls are demolished, trim pieces removed and stored for reinstallation, layers of old flooring are stripped, and the blue room is no more. New wall studs are in place, the new rooms defined, and electrical layout work has begun. The space is already transformed; when all opened up, it’s much larger than any of us knew! We have much to be excited about as work progresses. The project schedule is for work to be finished by mid-September, in ample time for the Winter Shelter to open without any constructionrelated conflict. So far so good, as God has provided us competent and reliable design professionals and contractors to work with. We have much to pray for now as well. Pray that the Gospel would be palpable in our interactions with the people working at the church. That we might not lose sight of the greater kingdom that is at hand as we wrestle through construction details. And pray for the issue of money. In order to bring the capital campaign to a close, to finish all elements in the scope of work for this phase, we anticipate needing at least $265,000. We have slightly more than 70%, or $190,000, of that sum in hand. Of that 265K, our contract obligation with the builder is for roughly $233,000, while the remainder goes toward another round of waterproofing work (primarily on the north end of the building), covering architectural and construction management fees, and a number of other smaller, but significant costs. Recent decisions made by the Renovation Committee stand to increase the contract amount with the builder by perhaps 5%. For example, spending an additional $8,000 in order to have fully operable windows in each of our unusually large window openings. These are not easy decisions to make. Please pray with us as we work to be good stewards of what our Father has given us. Pray for faithful hearts throughout the congregation, that we would lean on God to meet our needs. That He will give us generous hearts, rooted in knowledge of his care for us. Pray that the $85,000 needed to close this campaign will come in during the next three months. We are indeed going to our Father with a bold request, and we know of his bounty. -Jeff Lutjens, for the Renovation Committee.

A Season of Rest

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500

The time for Kurt’s sabbatical is drawing near. As most of you know from the annual report, our Senior Pastor will be taking a 3 month sabbatical this fall, from September 1 through November 21, returning in time to preach on the first Sunday in Advent.

The last sabbatical Kurt took was in 2003, and so there may be many of our fellowship who are unfamiliar with pastoral Sabbaticals at Grace & Peace. As you might guess from looking at the word, sabbatical is directly connected to God’s creation of the Sabbath. Every seven years- we give the Senior pastor extended time away from active ministry to pursue personal and professional growth, spend time with family, recharge his batteries and devote time to other ministry projects.

The sabbatical is a gift to the pastor from the congregation while benefiting the congregation as a whole. The Biblical model is found in many places in the Old Testament. “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused.” Exodus 23:10-11, and from Leviticus 26:34, “Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.” Though our pastor is far from being a fallow field, we do see a clear connection here to the idea of a sabbatical. God gave us a seventh day of rest during the week for the same reason he gave the fields a rest on their seventh year, to lift our eyes unto Himself. On Sunday, we worship and forget about the chores of our week. Our gaze moves from the earthbound to the heavenly. With this obscure agricultural command, God was giving the Israelites the same message by reminding them that their provision comes from the Lord alone. As the fields rest, their dependence would be on God himself to provide. As much as we value the work of our Senior Pastor, Kurt, we know that the work of this church is God’s alone- not the pastor’s. The season of rest is for Kurt, but also for the church. One of the benefits to the fellowship is that various spiritual gifts are exercised among us when brothers and sisters step into the gap in surprisingly wonderful ways. This certainly happened here in 2003! The Session enthusiastically believes that the gift of a sabbatical is not just Biblical, but one of the ways we can love our Senior Pastor and support his ministry.

As is the case when there is change afoot, anxiety about the uncertain can arise. The Session wants to address any lingering concerns about Kurt’s absence before he leaves. The dollars and cents cost to the fellowship is the $1,200 in our Financial Projection to cover the cost of guest preachers. Though he will remain on salary, Kurt will be covering travel and other related costs out of his own pocket. The weekly ministry duties and daily pastoral care that our Senior Pastor provides will be handed off to other staff and session members. We are confident that there will be no significant change in responding to needs in the congregation with speed and love. Kurt will be writing an upcoming report in July about his time away and also addressing some of the practical concerns for pastoral coverage in his absence.

-John Hendrix, for the Session

Renovation Photos HERE!

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Check out the progress on the first floor renovation with regular updates and photos from the Building Team... found here!

A Reason for Our Hope: A Christian Apologetics Class

Mon, 24 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500

The Christian faith has always been under

attack. Satan, the father of lies, has always sought

to lead people away from the truth of God.

Therefore there has always been a need in the

church for “apologetics”. When engaged in

apologetics the Church seeks to give a reasonable

defense for her beliefs/practices. In a culture where

relativism is being taught in the universities, and

movements such as the “new atheism” openly

challenge the validity of the Christian faith, believers

as always must be “prepared to make a defense to

anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that

is in you…with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3:15,

ESV).

Please come and join us, Lord willing, this spring

term of the School of Discipleship as we seek to

address a number of relevant issues in the area of

Christian apologetics. This class is specifically

designed to address apologetic issues surrounding

the Bible (mainly the New Testament) and the

person/work of Jesus. Some of the topics we hope

to discuss this semester are: “What criteria did the

church use to determine which books would make it

into our New Testament”, “Can we be sure that the

New Testament has been adequately preserved for

us today”, Does the Bible contain in some places

merely the words of men and not the word of God”

“Can we be sure that Jesus really was an historical

person”, “Did Jesus really teach that He was God” “Is

there good evidence for the Christian belief that

Jesus rose from the dead”. If you ever wanted to

know the answers to any of these questions, or if

you would like to be able to better answer these

questions for non-Christians, please plan on

attending this class.

-Aaron Turner