This coming Sunday – we have a special guest with us – Pastor Sharolyn Swenson – Assistant to the Bishop – will be joining us.
Another upfront announcement – due to the timing – Worship in the Wild is having a hike on March 22nd at 2:00 pm. Meeting at the Tara Lila Sundstein Trail, 128 Sundstein Road, Eagle River. Enjoy nature, conversation and spiritual reflection. Questions? Contact Pastor Catie Ford at 715-600-3980 or pastorcatieford@gmail.com.
PRAYERS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Family and friends of Marilyn Gramsch
Jon Cook; Millie Mutka; Barb Zima and her friends Alan Foster, Dave Butschli, Mick, Steven and Marilyn Hummel; Gregory Bowens; Laurie Nelson; Amber Ross’s daughter Linda; Randy & Diane Niemczyk’s daughter Julia VanAvery, niece Sarah Joda, and their dear friend Denise Hazel; Dick Volland; Valeria Hesselberg; Chris Markussen; Anne Verona’s sister/brother-in-law Pat & Woody Woodworth and friends Dennis Peterson and Natalie Madine; Ann Currie; Strong’s uncle Rick Amond and friend Erin Molle; Dawn Gonitzke’s brother Scott Premo; the Ebert’s friends William Charaf, Patricia Kulzick and John Oliver and Gary’s son Matthew; Joyce Leander’s cousin Laurie Nelson; Ashley Clark’s friends Michael Loomis, Keith & Becky Hernandez; the Waggoner’s sister-in-law Cheryl Busse; Karen Engels and her niece Lisa and friends Bob and Dawn; Ann Carlson’s people Enid, Curt, William, Alice and Troy; and peace for all nations and comfort for those in distress. Prayers for those who have reached out anonymously. Safe travels to the Van Lishouts!
PRAYER LIST PROCEDURE – Submit your prayer requests to the office in writing, by phone, by email or in person. If requesting prayers for someone other than yourself or an immediate family member, please obtain permission – unless the circumstances are public in nature.
WORSHIP ON FACEBOOK – Live on Facebook on Sundays at 9:00 & posted later for viewing.
GUESTS – if you are visiting us today, please sign our book at the entrance to the sanctuary.
WARM WELCOME – Assistant to the Bishop – Pastor Sharolyn Swenson
QUILTERS UNTIE! – I mean unite to tie. Tie one on with the quilting group as they assemble quilts. Meet every first and third Wed of the month 9:30 to 11:30 am.
THRIVENT CHOICE DOLLARS – Attention Thrivent Members, you can support the ministries of Prince of Peace through the Thrivent Choice Dollars. The deadline is March 31st. Thank you to everyone who has already selected Prince of Peace. Your generosity is appreciated.
SNOW DAY – NO DAY – well, that was a bust. Thank you to everyone who rearranged their schedules for a snow day that wasn’t.
GOD’s WORK-OUR HANDS – once again we are tackling the Mountain of Love during Lent. The weekly schedule is as follows:
March 23 – hot and cold cereal
March 30 – boxed foods (mac & cheese, crackers, dry soup mixes, jello, pudding)
April 6 – paper products (Kleenex, paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates even)
LENT AND HOLY WEEK
March 12 – April 9 – Wednesdays
Choir Practice 4:30 – 5:30 pm – begin Mar 19, SKIP Mar 26, then every week
Soup Supper 5:30 – 6:00 pm
Holden Evening Prayer 6:00 – 6:30 pm
April 17 – Maundy Thursday
Haggadah Meal 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Worship 6:30 pm
April 18 – Good Friday 6:30 pm
April 19 – Holy Saturday – Easter Vigil 6:30 pm
April 20 – Easter Worship 9:00 am
HAPPY TEN YEAR ANNIVESARY TO THE WEEKEND BACKPACK PROGRAM! – This program started with one student and a volunteer in March of 2015. And now look at it – serving 110 children every weekend! A huge shoutout to Bev Epping for kicking things off here at Prince of Peace and Sandy Bishop for continuing the ministry.
BULLETIN BOARD GURU – the bulletin boards in the Narthex are designed, updated and decorated quietly on a regular basis by our very own Emilie Braunel. A big thank you to Emilie for all of your efforts. It is noticed and appreciated.
FAMILY FUNFEST 2025 – Saturday, March 29 – 9 am to 3 pm at the Plum Lake Event & Equestrian Center, Sayner, WI. Games, prizes, contests, bounce houses, zipline. Something for everyone – ages 3 years to 99! Food & beverages – The Rail Bar – beer and Wine. Silent auction. 8177 Plum Lake Station Road. 414-312-1620.
LOST & FOUND – a pair of glasses was found in the parking lot. Foster Grant/charcoal grey frames.
EMPTY CONTAINERS – if you dropped off something to Barb – more than likely your container has been returned and is now in the kitchen.
FUN FACT: Sunday schools in Europe began with the Catholic Church’s Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, founded in the 16th century by the archbishop Charles Borromeo to teach young Italian children the faith. Protestant Sunday schools were first set up in the 18th century in England to provide education to working children.
The first organized and documented Sunday school in the United States was founded in Ephrata, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, by an immigrant from Germany, Ludwig Höcker, the son of a well-respected and influential Reformed Church Pastor and teacher in Westerwald. Ludwig immigrated in the 1730s and joined the Sabbatarian Ephrata Cloister in 1739, where he soon created the Sunday school for the impoverished children of the area, and published, on the Ephrata Press, a full textbook.
Rev. Ira Lee Cottrell writes:”It is especially interesting to us to know that a Seventh Day Baptist Sabbath school was organized about 1740, forty years before Robert Raikes Sunday-school. This Sabbath school was organized at Ephrata, Pa., by Ludwig Hocker among the Seventh Day Baptist Germans, and continued until 1777, when their room with others was given up for hospital purposes after the battle of Brandywine…”.
In New England a Sunday school system was first begun by Samuel Slater in his textile mills in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in the 1790s.
In the mid-1860s philanthropist Lewis Miller was the inventor of the “Akron Plan” for Sunday schools. It was a building layout with a central assembly hall surrounded by small classrooms, conceived with Methodist minister John Heyl Vincent and architect Jacob Snyder. It was soon widely copied.
John Heyl Vincent collaborated with Baptist layman B. F. Jacobs, who devised a system to encourage Sunday school work, and a committee was established to provide the International Uniform Lesson Curriculum, also known as the “Uniform Lesson Plan”. By the 1800s 80% of all new members were introduced to the church through Sunday school.
In 1874, interested in improving the training of Sunday school teachers for the Uniform Lesson Plan, Miller and Vincent worked together again to found what is now the Chautauqua Institution on the shores of Chautauqua Lake, New York.
Increasingly the public elementary schools were handling literacy. In response the Sunday schools switched to an emphasis on Bible stories, hymn singing, and memorizing Biblical passages. The main goal was encouraging the conversion experience that was so important to evangelicals.
NOTES FROM ANN – I cannot begin to express my disappointment in the total fail of a snow day on Wednesday. I know I may be in the minority – but I was looking forward to wind whipping snow around – watching the storm from my cozy chair – with a good book on my lap (along with Magnus) and a fire crackling in the wood stove. Instead I found myself pacing – grumpy about the lack of a single snowflake – I was pouting about an uncontrollable issue that no one is responsible for creating. How silly is that? With the “start” time constantly changing – and from being in the dead center of the storm – to not even being on the fringes – I was not being flexible with the changes. Definitely not rolling with the punches or going with the flow. I could have gotten a lot done yesterday – instead I wasted almost the whole day being frustrated about things not going as planned. Not a good thing when frustration immobilizes you. What do you do to break yourself out of that? Or – what do you do so you don’t experience it?
I started thinking about Sunday School this morning. Not sure why. My childhood church was Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Rockford, IL. An absolute wonder of a church. I remember Pastor Ingram (who would sing the Lord’s Prayer in a baritone and the sound reached deep) and Pastor Roberts who led me through confirmation. There was a sloping hallway from the church offices up to an area where people mingled prior to Sunday service. Most Sundays there was a table there with donuts and for a nickel or a dime – we were able to pick out a donut before worship. (My tendency at the time was to only eat the top of the donut) We would head down the hallway to the classrooms for Sunday School. It was a big deal to me to “graduate” from one classroom to the next. Tho I never made it to where the teens got to hang out. They had a carpeted ‘pit’ area in the basement that was off-limits to all of us littles.
During Sunday School – I felt a bit separated from my classmates. They were there every Sunday – I don’t recall if I made it there every Sunday. Those kids seemed to have a separate understanding of God and more in-depth knowledge of the Bible, even though I was an avid reader. The discussions about God didn’t make me feel closer to God. It made me feel like they were talking about Someone totally different than the God I knew.
As a child, God was a level up from Santa Claus. He was present with me at all times. I didn’t doubt it for a second. I felt comfort even when sad or scared – that I could reach back and hold His hand. The might and awesome, some times terrifying God, taught in class did not match up with my childhood version of God.
The story taught in Sunday School that intrigued me the most – was about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. I wish I could tell you the story stuck with me because of their unwavering faith and courage, but I think it was mostly because of their names. Their stories – and others – are part of the foundation that has been with me. I have always moved forward, believing I need to try and if I fail, I fail – but I tried. And if I failed, I didn’t stop doing.
Thank you to all of my Sunday School teachers. It may not have been visible at the time, but your teachings did make a difference.
AND THANK YOU TO Sue Waggoner – she sent me a note after last week’s announcements letting me they (Sue & Ken) lived in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas for 15 years, playing golf 4-5 times per week! They attended the World’s Shortest St. Pat’s Parade several times—all 98 feet of it! How cool is that?