CtK’s Noisy Offering partner for July is Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp, or RTLC. Nestled in Hillside, CO, the site, originally a summer resort destination, was purchased in 1957 by United Lutheran Church – Rocky Mountain Synod and the West Central Augustana Synod. It was renamed Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp, offering Christ-centered hospitality and education to the first campers who arrived in the summer of 1958 to the campers arriving there this summer and, thanks to your generosity, to campers in the future.

Check out this awesome fly-over video: https://youtu.be/0Yuj2aJMXy8

You can see it’s truly an amazing place. There are opportunities for EVERYONE at Rainbow Trail:

Camp Grandparent: https://www.rainbowtrail.org/about/employment-and-volunteering/camp-grandparents/

Compass Points Adventure Experiences: https://www.rainbowtrail.org/compass-points/

Bridging Borders Service Projects: https://www.rainbowtrail.org/bridging-borders/

Retreats for Women, Men, Families, High Schoolers, Seasonal, or design your own: https://www.rainbowtrail.org/retreats/

Special Events: https://www.rainbowtrail.org/special-events/

Summer Camps:  https://www.rainbowtrail.org/summer-camps/

Our  littlest Lutherans (or Episcopalians, Methodists, Catholics, Non-Denoms, unchurched, all are welcome) don’t have to travel 5 hours to get a taste of what Rainbow Trail has to offer, because in addition to on-site camps, Rainbow Trail comes to Durango the second week of July every year to offer Day Camp to the Durango Community. Check out the July Faith Formation post for more info on this year’s Day Camp at CtK.

Our next Social Ministry Team Meeting will be on Tuesday, July 5th @ 10:00am in the Community Hall.

This is the mission of Manna Soup Kitchen, our June Noisy Offering partner.  In March of this year, Manna opened a resource and navigation center in Durango. This marks the start of a model for supporting needs in our community that people across the area have been dreaming of: a place where people who face food insecurity and the unhoused community can go for traditional meals, but also have access to a food market, showers and bathrooms, computers, washers and dryers, a takeout window AND the connection to resources for housing and employment as well.

Last year Manna 84,496 meals, had 352,850 pounds of food donated and 4,812 volunteer hours from members of the community, like our CtK team which has two works days a month to prepare the meals that day. In addition, there is a garden to provide fresh produce, a backpack program to support student food needs, and a culinary program to help people gain the skills to secure a job in the food service industry.

Christ the King has been a long-term partner with Manna over the decades of service to our community.  Manna continues to create new ways to help people with the most basic needs and to provide connections to ways to sustain their lives.

We hope you will be generous with your donations to Manna in June.  They are a strong partner and one who faithfully serves our area with a big heart and wonderful leadership.  Help us help grow these opportunities! Blessings to you all for your ongoing prayers and your time and resources. Check out their website at: mannasoupkitchen.org for more information.

Lenten ELCA World Hunger Results 

Wow!  As most of you may know, we started the Lenten season in March with our annual focus on ELCA World Hunger and the work they do in the U.S. and across the world.  We set a goal of $5,000 for CtK and blew through that quickly. Pastor Tim announced in late March, that we were now hoping for $7500 by the end of April. 

On April 3rd, Gabe Brannon, Mission Funding Director from ELCA Churchwide, attended worship, shared his message for the sermon and did a Q&A session after worship. Our congregation is one of the most generous ones in the U.S. for per capita giving to World Hunger. He focused on the three readings and in particular on the boy in the reading in John 6 and shared how this was a miracle of “community”, just like the work of ELCA World Hunger across the world. In keeping with Pastor Tim’s sermon series, “Oh, the Places We Will Go”, Gabe discussed what the ELCA is doing in eastern Europe right now. As of 4/3, Lutheran Disaster Response had raised $4.3 million and was working with partner organizations all over eastern Europe in response to the invasion of Ukraine. He also shared some examples of how ELCA World Hunger is at work in Indonesia (where 40% of the population lives on <$2/day) and there are 600,000 people with AIDS/HIV and half of those do not know they have it. In Peru, who has the largest percentage of undernourished children in South America. In Eswatini (formerly Swaziland, in Southern Africa), 60% of people live on <90 cents/day. 

So what was the response of the congregation? Pastor Tim then set a new goal of $10K.  Drum roll please–your giving as of 4/24 (including the monthly donation from the Social Ministry budget) was——$9,200! In addition, you also responded with gifts to Lutheran Disaster Response of $3,142.83 for eastern Europe/Ukraine. 

Once again, your prayers, support and commitment to the local communities across the country/worldwide working on all sorts of projects to address the underlying issues of hunger, and hunger itself are examples of community and love. THANK YOU and blessings to everyone’s efforts all year long.

News from your Mission Endowment Fund (MEF) Board:

Mission Endowment Fund Grants

We are pleased to announce the grant recipients for 2021. Total requests this year amounted to more than $16,000.00.   $10,922.00 was granted to applicants who requested funding for congregational, community and/or global projects who met the mission of the Fund. The mission of the fund is to provide for mission work beyond the operating budget of the congregation. Recipients must all demonstrate that their request is in alignment with the mission statement of Christ the King, “To love and serve God by proclaiming Christ’s gospel, strengthening worship, deepening discipleship, and serving our congregation, community and world.”  Below is a list of those projects that were funded.

Thank you all for your support.

Wendy Gonzales, Lynn Mitzlaff, Megan Reid, John Condie, and Gary Rollstin

Congregation

CtK Youth

Day Camp

Piecemakers Quilting Guild

Community

Big Brothers/Big Sisters

Grief Center

Garden Ministry

Housing Solutions

Gideons

Durango Derailers

Purple Cliffs Mission

World

Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala

La Esperanza Granada

Sheppard Foundation for Hope

Village Aid

ELCA World Hunger

Lenten ELCA World Hunger Focus 

Christ the King will again focus some of our energy during Lent on the work of ELCA World Hunger. The world may have enough food for all, but as many as 811 million people around the world are undernourished. Our faith leads us to believe in a God of abundance. As a church we live out our baptismal call to strive for justice and mercy for all.  The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed even more people into hunger and poverty. As the ELCA writes, “We are Easter people, clinging to the promise of God: ‘I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert’ (Isaiah 43:19).”

We will be using the 40 Days of Giving calendar for this journey.  They were passed out on February 27 at worship.  For those worshiping online, there will be copies of the calendars in the church office for you to pick up as you can.  We have set a goal of $5,000 for our Christ the King giving to ELCA World Hunger during March and April. Also, we are planning to host a special guest on April 3rd from the ELCA World Hunger staff.

Over the years, this congregation has heard the call to serve and support those whose basic needs are not met–locally, in our country and around the world. For this we are grateful. Please join us in this prayerful time of reflection, prayer, and growing faith as we journey to Easter and the promise of the risen Lord.

Christ the King’s “Love Fund”

 For many years, Christ the King has maintained a Love Fund.  Its purpose is to provide short-term monetary support to members, attendees, and staff in times of need.  This support comes as an expression of God’s love from the congregation and imposes no requirements on the recipient.

 Financial emergencies can take many forms—unexpected car repairs, unusual medical bills, temporary disability, or loss of work.  The fund has helped people in the past with rent and mortgage payments, legal fees, utility bills and more.  If you, or anyone you know in the congregation, is experiencing a financial emergency, bring it to Pastor Tim’s or Deacon Mandy’s attention.  The names and the identifiable circumstances are held in strictest confidence.  If they and the Social Ministry team find it appropriate and agree that there are no other reasonable options, the Love fund will try to help.

The flip side of this is, of course, that if you have been gifted by God in abundance, please consider donating to the Love Fund.  Just write “Love Fund” on the memo line of a check.  Lots of small contributions can go a long way.

We know there are members out there who are feeling the financial squeeze of COVID.  Talk to one of our ministers; let the Love Fund do what it was intended to do.