April 2024 - IN THIS ISSUE:

• Message from the President
• Churchwide WELCA Leadership Training
• Spring Gatherings – 2024 Dates
• Alamo Gathering
• Your Board in Action
• Board Member Spotlight
• April Faith Practices
• SWT WELCA Convention 2024
• Updated Finger Labyrinth Information
• Treasurer Tidbits
• Second Saturday Learning Events
• Bold Women of Faith 2024
• Cross Trails Ministry Quilt Auction
• Be a Featured Unit!



As parishioners of Christ the King, we were encouraged to participate by wearing silly clothes, socks and hats to worship in order to join in God’s joke on the devil! The Lord has risen! He has risen indeed. Alleluia!

Our ability to engage in a good belly laugh is one of God’s greatest gifts. Laughter is a universal language that brings joy and lightens our hearts. It is said, to be the best of medicine. Children have mastered the art of laughing. Some research shows that children laugh about 400 times a day. What they laugh about at each age and stage is predictable for any classroom teacher! The fact remains they laugh and laugh. Our daily laugh count drastically reduces into adulthood. We find ourselves caught up in the seriousness of life, laughing less frequently. As we grow older, the demands and responsibilities of adulthood tend to overshadow the carefree laughter of our youth. Stress, work pressures and societal expectations gradually dampen our inclination to laugh.

Laughter is more than a just a fleeting moment of amusement. It holds incredible health benefits. Studies have shown that laughter boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure and releases endorphins, which act as natural painkillers. Laughter stimulates the brain and encourages creative thinking. Additionally, laughter fosters connections, strengthens relationships and reduces anxiety. By embracing laughter, we open the door to improved emotional and physical well-being.

Fortunately, it is never too late to rediscover and rekindle the laughter that lies within us. Let us not forget to laugh each day and reap the myriad benefits it has to offer. It adds joy, spontaneity and zest to our daily existence, making the mundane moments more enjoyable. Charlie Chaplin said, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.”

Blessings to you,

Your silly sister in Christ

Lisa Lopez

2024 Leadership Event:

Servant leader: present, equipped, here

May 4 @ 1:00 pm - 5:30 pm

You are invited to Servant Leader: Present, Equipped, Here—this year’s leadership event. It’s open to all, whether involved in Women of the ELCA or not. Including worship, Bible study, speakers and breakout sessions, this year’s leadership event will reintroduce the servant leader concept and its connection to relationships and community while acknowledging the many challenges facing organizations like ours in our current context. Participants will explore the leader-full community that is Women of the ELCA.

Please register on the WELCA website:

https://www.womenoftheelca.org/event/leadership-event 

April 13           Cap. North & South    Hutto Lutheran, Hutto

April 20           Gulf Coast              St. Mark’s Lutheran, Corpus Christi

April 27           Cibolo Creek          Christ the King Lutheran, Universal City

Alamo Conference Gathering

Theme: "Caring For Creation" Genesis 9:12

YOUR BOARD IN ACTION

Recent Board Actions:

• President Lisa Lopez participated in the Conference of Presidents Zoom event sponsored by Churchwide WELCA

• President Lisa Lopez is participating on the planning committee for a “Rocking Region 4” Leadership event in August, and the planning committee for the WELCA Leadership event on May 4^th

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•  Board members attended the Bluebonnet and Alamo Spring Gatherings

• Met with Convention Planning Committee

• Met with Rostered Womxn’s Retreat Planning Committee

• Met with Project Radical Hospitality Committee 

We live in Marion and have been married for 37 years. We worship at St John Lutheran in Marion where I have been a member all my life and am very involved in the work of our church. I graduated from Texas Lutheran College in 1979 and returned to TLU in 1999 to work as Assistant Director in the financial aid office. I retired in 2015 and am thoroughly enjoying retirement.

It has continued to be a busy year, but as we all know, God calls us, shakes us up and equips us as we go about doing His work. I have been involved in WELCA for approximately 10 years. I attended a spring gathering in SA with my mom and my involvement mushroomed after that. I was elected conference coordinator and then elected to serve on the board. After 1 year I was elected Vice President and I am serving my last year as a board member.

At our fall 2019 board retreat we added to that purpose statement: Mobilizing women to act boldly on their faith in Jesus Christ. In SWT SWO we do this by developing and nurturing relationships with women so that together we create a safe and inclusive community.

These statements are powerful to us as women. We are empowered by Christ as we commit ourselves to doing His work.

Most of you know me as the LWR site coordinator. Being church to the community is what the LWR Ingathering is all about. I’ve been the coordinator for the last 5 years and love doing that job.

St John Lutheran Church in Marion hosted our fall gathering in November 2023. It was a fast paced day full of God’s love and fellowship. Our totals for 2023 are as follows:

Quilts-7704         School kits-4460         Personal Care-4417

Baby Care-987           Fabric-153

Total boxes loaded that day-2345

Our ingathering for 2024 will be at St John in Marion on

Wednesday November 6 from 9-2.

Other interests I have is that I am a member of the Epiphany Ministries of Texas. This is an ecumenical group of folks who share the love of Jesus to to the youth of Cyndi Taylor Krier juvenile correctional treatment center. We enter the center for a 3 day weekend full of sharing Christ’s love to these young folks. We provide music, worship, a birthday party and talks to inspire and support these young adults. We are planning a retreat in the all of this year.

I love to work in my garden. I doubled the size of my garden and have canned salsa, pickles and beets. Made some tomato jam and the onions were plentiful last summer. The heat and lack of rain made having a garden a challenge for sure.



Looking forward to seeing my WELCA sisters this year and especially at the convention in October.

God’s Love Changes Everything        Peace & Joy      Debbie Mattke

Labyrinth Project

for May Synod Assembly:

In the last Grapevine, Deacon Darcy asked us to create "finger

labyrinths" for the Synod Assembly.  To follow up on the progress of this, please email Michelle Schlinke at Sammich@gvec.net., If your women are participating! She asked us to mail these to the synod office. Please, please, email me as to the number you have made, so that we know we have enough! 

See the information below. Deadline to mail is April 20th.

Thank you so much sisters! Michelle

Project Radical Hospitality

Experiences Courts and Ports

March 3 - 6, 2024



By Lois Eichman (Oneida Cantu, Jan Demro, Lisa Diana, Maria de Jesus Dixon, Lois Eichman, Dorothy Kraemer, Karen Larson,

and Dinah Halopka-Ryson)

The desire to gain an “on-the-ground” understanding of current immigration processes and services in the Rio Grande Valley led Project Radical Hospitality team members and guests, to engage in an “immigration immersion” experience in early March 2024. Fabiola (Fabi) Olvera Benitez of Texas Impact organized and facilitated our experiences. In the course of two days we visited the Border Patrol station (Harlingen) for a presentation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Customs and Border Protection; the U.S. Department of Justice Harlingen Immigration Court; the encampment in Matamoros with Pastor Abraham of One Mission Ministries; The Welcome Center with Team Brownsville; the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center (McAllen); La Posada Providencia (San Benito); and ProBar, South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (Harlingen). 

As citizens of this immigrant nation, the United States, the eight of us experienced and learned more about asylum seekers, border controls, volunteer services providing asylum seekers respite, and our legal system. The impact of immigration realities on and needs of those seeking asylum and those providing services is indeed complex and troubling. The resilience and hope we saw in asylum seekers and volunteers was both humbling and inspirational. There is much to be done. Learning about and seeing the realities face to face is just a beginning, but it is a beginning.

Moving forward, some of us Valley people are pledging to work with Fabi to host more groups interested in experiencing Texas Impact’s Courts and Ports. If you are interested in such an experience, please contact Fabi at fabi@texasimpact.org. If you are interested in learning more about this experience, contact any of the participants, Oneida Cantu, Jan Demro, Lisa Diana, Maria de Jesus Dixon, Lois Eichman, Dorothy Kraemer, Karen Larson, and Dinah Halopka-Ryson. 

As always, please feel free to contact me if you

have any questions at: csemper@yisd.org



Your synodical treasurer,

Carol Semper

All learning modules will be held on the second Saturday of the designated month from 10:00 – 11:30 am via Zoom (link to follow).

We are excited about this opportunity and invite you to join us.

May 11, 2024 – BOOK Study: 

“I’m Still Here” by Austin Channing Brown

Currently, we are looking for folks to donate quilts to be bid on and auctioned off. Once our quilts are in, they will be showcased online and at our Fall Festival in Fredericksburg. We would love for anyone that is interested in donating a quilt to fill out the form below. We are taking quilt donations until September 11th.

The Fall Festival will be held in

Fredericksburg on September 21, 2024!

Please fill out the following form and send us photos of your quilt at the time of your form submission so that it can be featured on our auction site. If you haven't begun your quilt, please still fill out this form for your intent to donate and then send us a photo of your quilt by September 11th. You are more than welcome to donate more than one quilt.

Quilts must be donated no later than September 11th and should be mailed and received by our office by no later than September 16th. 

Please contact Jessica Pina, our Outreach Director, with any questions you may have at jessica@crosstrails.org or 830-257-6340.