This year, journeying through Lent as well as the spring gatherings around our synod, I was heartened by the joy of our most basic calling: sharing the Good News.

At gatherings of conferences in Las Vegas, Tucson, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Sedona, a portion of our time was dedicated to simple open mic sessions, introduced by conference deans, where leaders of our congregations and ministries proclaimed the wonders of God's work in their communities. The feedback we received was clear: we live in a world desperate to hear any kind of good news.

On Sunday, March 24, we welcomed Rusty Kapela, June and Paul Ninnemann and Mary Shore into the life and ministry we share at New Journey Lutheran Church.

Easter Message - 2024

We, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, while observing two distant dates of commemoration this year, nevertheless join together in unity to proclaim to the world the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection, first announced by angels nearly two millennia ago at the empty tomb here in the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Pastor Beth will be on vacation beginning Tuesday, April 2 through Saturday, April 7. For pastoral care emergencies, please call Pastor Steve Kruse at (480) 600-8852.

Pastor Beth will be attending mandatory First Call Theological Education on Monday, April 8 through Wednesday, April 10, and will be available by phone at (623) 340-9956.

In her Easter message to the church, Bishop Eaton focuses on three words that describe what the women at tomb experienced when the angel announced that Jesus had been raised from the dead: fear, amazement and being seized or possessed.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

This is our rallying cry during the Easter season. The rallying cry of our faith.

It’s a group effort to cry these words in a world hell-bent on violence, destruction and oppression. Even as we celebrate the mystery of the empty tomb, we live in tension with a world that is not ok: our neighbors are lonely, one in 10 Arizonans face food insecurity, conflict in Gaza & Israel, Ukraine, Haiti rages, and we are managing our own illnesses, struggles, hardships, and worries. How can we proclaim: “Christ is Risen” with authentic hope and courage?

• Monday, June 17, 9:00 a.m.

• Monday, July 1, 9:00 a.m.

• September 8, God’s Work.Our Hands. Sunday: Lunch pack to follow worship.

• Monday, September 16, 9:00 a.m.

We invite you to contribute to one or both of these excellent actions to support people in need, during the period of April 7 to May 5, 2024. Options are available from $5 to $100. Please put your name on donor envelopes and clearly indicate (whether on-line, cash, or check) whether your gift is for Casa or for Good Gifts.

A. Easter Season Basket of Gifts for Casa de la Misericordia y de Todas las Naciones: You will be able to select an egg or two and commit your gifts to help support asylum seekers at Casa M. This shelter, built and maintained on an ongoing basis by about 120 residents who stay temporarily while their asylum paperwork is processed, has ongoing needs for beans, rice, flour, diapers, women’s hygiene products, and funds for utility bills.

You may contribute actual items (place them in the bin, available April 7, labeled “CASA”) or dollars (donor envelopes will be available with the basket of eggs). We welcome either choice: physical items can become more difficult to transport and may be “taxed” at the border; dollars spent in Nogales to purchase items there can strengthen the local economy.

B. Easter Season Good Gifts for ELCA World Hunger: “Clear the Lines” by choosing from the following items: chicks $5, fruit tree seedling $10, rooster $15, mosquito netting for a family $20, honeybees $20, piglet $30, ceramic water filter $30, goat $50, seeds and gardening tools $50. Environmentally friendly cookstove $105. This is the 50th anniversary of ELCA World Hunger. Additional choices, if you wish, are at https://goodgifts.elca.org/all-gifts; just mark your contribution envelop with your choice whether you choose from “clear the lines” or from the catalog.

• Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest cannot accept used clothing. Their employment counselors help refugees by taking them shopping, with vouchers, to purchase items that fit them and their job applicant situation.

• Native American Connection will accept used clothing. We will try to announce “quilt blessing Sundays” in advance, so that you can bring items on that day. While we welcome generosity, NJLC doesn’t have Fellowship space to store bags of clothing on a regular basis.

• Sunshine Acres has a big bin in the Target parking lot for child/youth clothing and shoes; if you are a small person, take someone along as the bin doors are heavy.

• Fresh Start Women’s Center has a clothing closet, including some for women who are job searching; you can call them to check what items they are taking at 602-252-8494.

• For prom or wedding dressy items, you can contact this East Valley organization (located in Chandler) to see what they will take: Donation Needs – The Cinderella Affair. Currently, thanks to donor generosity, they are full-up and not accepting more for the 2024 season.

• Goodwill, Salvation Army, Purple Heart Desert Thrift Shop (in Mesa, serves veterans), and Vietnam Veterans of America are also options.

Our first letter-writing Sunday for 2024 is April 7 (deferred one week, due to Easter). We invite NJLC members and friends to sign on to letters that will be available before and after worship.

If you prefer to write an individual letter – whether to express your own reasons in support of particular actions or to express an alternative view – contact information for local and national legislators, and advocacy information, will be available for you to pick up and take home. Make your voice known for only 68 cents! Or, sign up for Arizona’s “Right to Speak” process, and express your views – for free – directly from your kitchen table! Letters will be available for advance reading in the April 1 newsletter.

How Are We Doing Financially?

March 14, 2024

2024 Mission Plan Income: $136,040

2024 Mission Plan Expenses: $157,324

2024 Year to Date Actual Income: $49,507

2024 Year to Date Actual Expenses: $38,145

To read the approved February Congregation Council meeting minutes, click here. If you have questions, please contact any member of the Congregation Council.

Cindi Brady—President

Pete Galindez—Vice President

Mike Bartanen—Treasurer

Karl Flormoe—Secretary

Jo Martinson—Member at Large

Mike Wilson—Member at Large Pastor Beth Gallen

The congregation council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10 at 5:30 pm. Council meetings are open to any member of the congregation to attend. Should you wish to address the council, please contact Cindi Brady a week before the scheduled meeting to be placed on the agenda.

At the March 12, Congregation Council meeting, council spent a portion of their time sharing and dreaming about New Journey’s 2024 Vision: “Telling the Story"

We reviewed current ministries that bring meaning to our faith and purpose as a congregation and sorted through ideas, priorities, and goals we might pursue this year and in years to come. Sharing our Faith, Serving our Community and Advocating for Justice and Peace continue to be priorities for our congregation.

“It was so helpful to see all that we do right up in front of us—and you know? It’s all God’s story. What we do is all about the story of God’s love through us,” one council member shared. Amen!

Of course, dreaming, conversations about the future, deepening our current ministries or trying new experiments is an ongoing process of listening to God, one another and our neighbors. The Council will continue to pursue the vision and invites the community of New Journey Lutheran to share their ideas, input, questions, and wisdom as we journey together in this life of faith.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you spotted someone standing alone in the middle of a fellowship gathering? Have you listened to the many news reports on loneliness? Have you thought “but what can I do?”

Here’s a place to start! Northeast Valley Consortium (NEVC), in conjunction with the Grand Canyon Synod, and California Lutheran University, presents a timely and pertinent presentation, “Loneliness: How to live and serve faithfully to those within our community.”

Join Rev. Dr. Colleen Windham-Hughes, Associate Vice President for Mission and Identity, California Lutheran University and NEVC for the 3rd Annual Christian education seminar as we delve into ways to serve those experiencing loneliness. Christianity offers unique perspectives on the challenge of loneliness, emphasizing the importance of community connection and the cultivation of solitude with God.

Save the date: Saturday, April 13, 2024, 1-4 pm at Living Water Lutheran Church

For more details, click Loneliness and Christianity seminar — Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA (gcsynod.org)

From ages 5-95 and everywhere in between, there were 150 community volunteers who gathered at the Fountain Hills Community Center for the 11th Annual Fountain Hills Community Food Pack – Food for Kidz.

The New Journey Food for Kidz Team, thanks you for participating. You were the hands and feet of Jesus, giving of your time and talents. You helped make the food pack a success.

In these 11 years, 1915 community volunteers have packed a total of 704,200 meals during this event.

To our New Journey Lutheran community, “Great job!” Together, we have made steps toward alleviating hunger in our community and around the world. Your contribution helped us pack 64,000 meals for our hungry neighbors—thank you!

Brenda Galindez, Pastor Beth, Nancy McGarry, Denny Rubenow

New Journey Food for Kidz Team

Jesus said: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. (John 13:34)

New Journey Lutheran Church observes Maundy Thursday worship March 28 at 6:00 pm with a special service of prayer and healing.

The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin “mandatum” meaning command. It is the night we remember Jesus sharing a meal with his closest disciples, bending low to wash their feet in humility and love, and inviting the disciples to love one another.

New Journey Lutheran will remember and honor Jesus’ command this Maundy Thursday in a service of prayer and healing. Those gathered in worship will have the opportunity to receive individual prayer, the laying on of hands, and anointing by Pastor Beth and members of the Altar Guild.

The church’s ministry of healing emphasizes caring for the sick in the widest possible understanding. Every human person stands in need of healing in some dimension of life. Healing is a gift that need not be limited to those seeking remedy from a specific injury or illness. The ministry of healing applies to various needs-for example, physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational-that may be present among those who gather. Finally, the church’s ministry of healing extends also to those nearing the end of life, as it lifts up in prayer all human decision-making and entrusts the dying into the gracious arms of God.

All are welcome to join Maundy Thursday worship and live out Jesus greatest commandment: to love as we are loved. Bring your needs and prayers to this service, and by God’s great love in Jesus and through our hands, we will commend them to God.

Join us for worship on Good Friday, March 29 at 6:00 pm for the Stations of Peter.

This year, Good Friday worship invites us to journey through “the way of sorrows” to the cross, but through the eyes and experiences of one of Jesus’ closest disciples, Peter. As a nod to the “Stations of the Cross,” our service highlights Peter’s role in the crucifixion story.

In this way, we follow Jesus to his death with Peter as our companion. By focusing on Peter, we are invited to imagine how we might have acted and behaved had we been there as one of Jesus’ followers and friends.

The worshipping community participates in each station synchronously together while seated in chairs, and each station will provide multisensory ways to engage, confess, and lament the night we remember the final moments of Jesus’ earthly life.

Join us as remember and wait for the Lord this Good Friday.

Pastor Beth will be on vacation Monday, March 18 and Tuesday, March 19. For pastoral emergencies, please contact Pastor Judi Tyler at (602) 509-7016.

Make sure to watch for these upcoming events for the Northeast Valley Consortium.

Social Ministry Team will meet March 6, 9:30-10:30, at church. Topics include Easter Season “Clear the Lines” for Casa de la Misericordia and/or ELCA Good Gifts, community resource directory project, 5th Sunday advocacy letter-writing, and heat respite lunch pack update (June 17, 9:00 a.m. launch).