Alpine friends and community,
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator and Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.
We had a wonderful Christmas season together! Christmas and the holiday season can be a difficult and joyous time. I pray that you all felt the hope and comfort that comes from God. We had two worship services that were both well attended. It was a joy to celebrate Christ’s birth with you and meet new faces that I have not met yet. Thank you for your presence!
We have entered the new year and I cannot wait to see where God leads us and guides us. We are starting our year off with a conversation with Pastor Josh Ebner from the Northern Illinois Synod. My hope is that this initial conversation with Pastor Josh will help us understand where we are as a congregation, what ministries we are active in, and where we would like to see us go in the months and years to come. I want this conversation to be just the beginning. There is new life here at Alpine. Any hopes or ideas or questions you have are welcome AND appreciated! We are walking this faith journey together and God is guiding us all.
I am excited to start participating in confirmation classes. Confirmation is a collaborative class with Our Saviors Lutheran Church. This confirmation class consists of five Alpine youth members. I am hopeful for the growth and relationships that our youth will develop over the course of the confirmation class. Working collaboratively with Our Saviors allows our youth to connect with other youth in the larger Rockford Community. It opens the doors for our youth to have deeper conversation and gain insight and experience that is formative and educational. Not only are we working collaboratively with Our Saviors for confirmation, but we are exploring the possibilities of working together on service trips for all of the youth. There are two exciting trips that are currently being planned and Alpine’s youth are invited! There is an overnight trip to Lutherdale Bible Camp for a Confirmation retreat scheduled for March 20-21st. In July, from the 12-15th, there is a service trip for middle school and high schoolers being planned. This service trip will be in Madison, WI through an organization called “Serve Boldly”. If you would like more information on either of these trips for your youth, please reach out to me! I am overjoyed at these collaborative experiences that we get to provide for our youth.
Blessings to you all! God is working through us here at Alpine and beyond and we are ready to go where we are being called! Amen.
Respectfully, Pastor Rachel