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The Messenger

Ascension Lutheran Church, 5730 28th St., Ocala, FL 34480 Ph: 624-0066

OCTOBER 2018

In this issue

1 Pastor's Corner

2 Pastor Chuck Erzkus

3 Council President -

4 Ascension Care Committee/Facebook

5 Credit Card Info. 6 Christian Ed/Articles

Deadlines 7 Yard Sale/Daily

Grace

8 God's Work/Our Hands

9 Faith in Action

10 Faith in Action

From the Pastor

Dear Friends,

I t is now official. Ascension Lutheran Church in Ocala has a new pastor, a permanent pastor for the first time in several years.

Over the years, you have welcomed a few temporary shepherds. As the most recent shepherd, I want to say thank you. You made me feel welcome from the first moment. Hugs and encouraging words have made me want to do my best for you and Jesus every day.

I am sure you will be just as welcoming and encouraging with Pastor Chuck and Cindy. Be patient with him as he gets used to how things are done at Ascension, and when he wants to make a few changes. (All pastors make a few changes!)

I will miss you. At the same time, I am looking forward to spending some time with the folks at Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Marion Oaks, where I am a member. God bless you all.

Peace and All Good! Pastor Lynn

11 Fall Kickoff 12 Celebrations/

Scriptures 13 Assistants

14 Calendar

Thank you for your concern for the community: your generosity toward those in need, and your passion for the school children are commendable.

Thank you for the abundance of your occasional meals. I asked for a few brownies and there appeared a table-full of goodies.

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THE MESSENGER ACENSION LUTHERAN CHURCH

LOOKING FORWARD

For those of you reading this whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Charles (Chuck) Erzkus and I'm honored that I will be your new pastor.

(Due to my last name being difficult to pronounce, during the past 40 years of my being a pastor, most have chosen to call me Pastor Chuck.)

I will begin ministry with you on Sunday, October 7 and it is my hope and prayer that together we will become a team, serving God and the world as we tell to all, as the old hymn says, "the old, old story of Jesus and his love" (Hymn: "I Love to Tell the Story"). The story is old, but God is ever new. In the love of Jesus, we are made new. And we boldly proclaim to the world that a new day has dawned for all, because God has shared with us God's only Son. Love, forgiveness, grace, are for real and God is at work bringing new life to a broken world!

I look forward to being your pastor. Our beginning is going to be a little different in that I'll be with you for a couple of weeks and then gone a couple weeks as Cindy and I look forward to welcoming our second grandchild into the world. Our son Ben and daughter-in-law Courtney (both ELCA pastors in PA) are getting ready for the birth of their first baby, Alice. As I was considered by your Search committee and later the Church Council, they knew we could not miss this wonderful event in our lives, and Cindy and I felt so good about their joy and anticipation and that being gone for a couple weeks would not be any problem.

In the next few months we will be moving forward into wonderful seasons and days of the Church year. Reformation is the end of October followed by All Saints Sunday on November 4. Our National Day of Thanksgiving arrives on November 22, with the last Sunday in the Church year, Christ the King Sunday celebrated on November 25. The wonderful season of Advent begins on the first Sunday in December and in a season of hope, we journey together towards Christmas.

I'm excited and look forward to our worship, our ministry, our reaching out to the community and world together. So, we begin together, by God's good grace, on October 7. My hope and prayer is that we will be a blessing to others as we serve Jesus together.

In Christ Jesus, Pastor Chuck

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THE MESSENGER ACENSION LUTHERAN CHURCH

It has been a very busy time here at Ascension, but with God guiding us we will make it through.

I wish to thank our Call Committee of Lynn Andrews, Greg Phillips, Ralph Whitney, Kathy Keif, Marcia Muncaster, Eddie McCallum, and Lee Funk for all of their work well done on calling of Pastor Chuck.

I also wish to thank Pastor Lynn Fanfara for her services and wish her God's blessings. We have had several interim Pastors in the past years; they were Pastor Lee Ecola, Pastor Howard Nielsen, Pastor Ellen Cross, and Pastor Lynn Fonfara. We are very grateful to all of them and we want to sincerely thank them for their services in guiding us through all of these stages.

A big thank you to all who have donated food to our breakfasts and luncheons. We have one more dinner, which will be a potluck on Sunday October 7 to welcome Pastor Chuck and Cindy, so get out your favorite recipes and bring a dish or two. The sign up sheet is on the bulletin board.

to physically work, please donate some food, such as sloppy joes, hot dogs, soup, potato or macaroni salad, buns, brownies, etc. Please advise me of your donations.

The ladies Bible study has begun again and we are using lessons from the ELCA, WELCA and/or the "Gather" magazine. We studied the Paradox of Prayer. This text was from the book of 1st Samuel chapter 12. Ladies, come join us; we usually meet at noon on the 4th Wednesday of the month.

Now that we have a permanent pastor we need to have his name added to our sign out front. Who would like to do this for us???

On December 15, Judi Styger's choral group will be presenting a Christmas concert, so please mark your calendars. Remember that half of the proceeds from the concert will be donated to our church. Look for more details to come.

Remember, the spirit leads us and it is for us, God's people to follow.

In Christ, Jane Kurtz, President

Our Bunco game nights have been lots of fun and I wish more of you would come out and join us. Admission is $5.00 and prizes are awarded.

The yard sale is fast approaching; we will need everyone's help if you are able. We will have some sit-down jobs to do also. We like to feed our workers, so if you're unable

THE MESSENGER ASCENSION LUTHERAN CHURCH

ASCENSION CARE COMMITTEE

PAGE 4

Seasonal flu vaccines protect against the three influenza viruses that research indicates will be the most common during the upcoming season. About 2 weeks after vaccination, antibodies that provide protection against the influenza viruses in the vaccine develop in the body.

Vaccine Side Effects (What to Expect) The flu shot: The viruses in the flu shot are killed (inactivated), so you can not get the flu from the flu shot. Some minor side effects that could occur are:

Soreness, redness, or swelling where the shot was given Fever (low grade) Aches

The CDC ( Center for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends that people get their seasonal flu vaccine as soon as vaccines become available in their community. Flu season can begin as early as October and last as late as May.

This timely article was re-printed from a previous October newsletter issue, due to Kathy Keif's recent illness.

WHO Should Get Vaccinated Everyone 6 months and older should get a flu vaccine. It is especially important that the following groups get vaccinated: Pregnant woman Young Children, especially children

younger than 2 years old People 50 years of age and older People with chronic medical conditions People who live in nursing homes or long-

term care facilities

People who live with or care for those at high risks for complications from flu including ? health care workers, household contacts of per-sons at high risk for complications from the flu and household contacts and out of home care givers of children less than 6 months of age.

Check out our new Facebook page which was recently set up for us. We can be found at "Ascension Lutheran Church ELCA".

Stop by and "like" us, and also enjoy the pictures that have been added to our page. We think you'll like what you see.

THE MESSENGER ASCENSION LUTHERAN CHURCH

HERE'S AN ALTERNATIVE TO LETTING A COMPANY KEEP YOUR CREDIT, DEBIT CARD

INFORMATION ON FILE:

PAGE 5

By Teresa Dixon Murray, The Plain Dealer "Money Matters"

QUESTION: I read your column about Sears requesting a credit card up front before coming out for an appliance repair. I occasionally get asked to give a credit or debit card for some company like my dentist to keep on file. I don't like this at all, but what can we do except choose another place to do business with? R.C., Rocky River

ANSWER: I've turned to a new solution in recent years. It works for me, at least. I'm not a fan of debit cards, as you know, but I was issued a prepaid debit card that my unemployment benefits are loaded onto. I withdraw all of the money on the card (with no fee through an ATM) except for $2. I purposely leave $2 on the card. The card is not connected to any bank account or credit card I have. That's critical. No purchase will be approved that exceeds $2.

Prepaid debit cards are wonderful for cases like dentists who want a card on file, or companies that offer a free trial offer and promise not to charge your card if you cancel before the deadline.

In my case, I use it in instances such as when I recently cut the cord and dropped our cable service, and went with Hulu Live with a Roku streaming device (because we don't have a smart TV). Obviously we have to pay Hulu. We made those arrangements directly through Hulu. But to activate the Roku device we bought through Amazon, Roku required a credit or debit card number, which I guess it uses if you ever buy pay-per-view or add another channel that costs money and want to bill it through Roku.

We have no intention of doing any of that. So I pulled out my handy-dandy prepaid debit card with $2 on it and gave that information to Roku. Score. Of course, Roku pinged the card for $1 to make sure it was valid, and that's fine. (The $1 fell off.) If Roku did ever try to charge me, the most it could get would be $2.For those who don't already have a prepaid debit card, I know of a couple I can recommend. Most prepaid debit cards carry monthly fees or require direct deposit or minimum balances.

Neither of these options carry monthly fees or fees to load or use under most circumstances. American Express Bluebird. . You can get an account online or buy a prepaid card at most local Walmart stores. It's free if you sign up for the card online; stores like Walmart can charge a one-time fee of up to $5.00. There are no further fees after that.

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