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grace notes
a newsletter for friends, students and alumni of Lutheran Campus Ministry

LCM needs you!

While there are many financial needs in campus ministry right now, we are also looking for additional volunteers. CAN YOU GRILL? We need Mens and Womens groups to come out on game days and grill on the front lawn. The idea is to grow our visibility and raise funds through donations from what you grill. If interested, email Pastor Matt at atlpastor@gmail.com CAN YOU COOK? Every Tuesday night we are in need of people to bring food, drinks, ice and supplies for the students dinner. All the details are listed on our website, including a contact and donation tab for those who dont cook but would sponsor a meal. Email atlpastor@gmail.com if you or your church are interested. CAN YOU FUND LCM? More and more, our funding is being cut. Through growth, campus ministry has had the opposite that most congregations have had happen as a result: the more this ministry expands, the less money we have. Please consider making a donation online at gracepeople.org.

Grace House is alive and well in the heart of campus ministry!

Grace House 2011-2012 year has been filled with an exciting new energy. The following pages are just small glimpses of the life at our member campuses. I am proud to see the work that our students are doing to grow the ministry and fully expect a bright future. Please enjoy the newsletter, share it with friends, and plan to give to this ministry financially this year. Thank you for your support of the ministry! +Pastor Matt Simpkins

Save the Date!

Low Country Boil
August 25, 2012 4-7pm St Johns Lutheran Church 1410 Ponce De Leon Ave. Atlanta, GA 30307 rsvp: revrn208@yahoo.com Come out for great food, a silent auction on amazing items, hear an update from Pastor Matt and the students, and support the ministry at our annual fundraiser. We need you!!

GRACE NOTES

SPRING 2012

Grace House Expansion

Many of our regular gathering nights, we are packed to capacity in our current gathering space at the Grace House. We can usually find some space to sit, eat, and worship, but more and more, we are cramped beyond comfort. We recently caught a glimpse of the potential future when we shared an event with several other ministries on campus and had to set up out front, upstairs, in the basement, AND out back in the parking lot. If we continue to grow at our current pace, we will not fit in the house at all. While this is a great problem to have, it can potentially be harmful to the ministry if we dont grow to accommodate. We have been given $36,000, $25,000 of which was given by Mrs. Mary Kay Daly, widow of the former campus pastor Reverend Al Daly, to add a covered deck on the back of the LCM house that will house our worship, meals, fellowship, programs, and extra coffee house seating. We need just $14,000 more to complete the project and can still take donations to the deck addition. The deck will be built to be used year-round and will offer approximately 1000 sq feet of additional space. It will be structurally designed to eventually be built-in with walls as a fully finished addition. The plan is to add heaters and vinyl covering for the windows to make it year round space. It will have a sidewalk to the front of the house and open parking below. We will not lose any parking places with the new build. Below is a sketch (albeit quite rough) in order to give an idea of what it will look like from a side profile. The deck will be available for tailgating for GT home game days - additionally on game days, you may BYOB in the lot and on the deck!! You can donate right now online on our website homepage!

Rough Sketch of the Grace House Deck Addition

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GRACE NOTES

SPRING 2012

Grace [coffee] House opens doors

Grace [coffee] House was born from a desire to utilize LCM Atlantas space and to welcome the students of the surrounding area into our lives. The help of a capable few was enlisted and work began immediately with prayer and hope as our start-up capital. March 5, 2012, the doors were opened and we began serving the public with nothing but a sidewalk sign for advertising. We served free organic coffee Monday-Friday and experimented with times to best serve the community. We offered a variety of in-house made, fresh baked goods and specialty drinks in addition to regular coffee. As the season shifted, we added ice creams and iced beverages to our menu. Fully operated by donations of ingredients, finances, and time, the shop had very little overhead and managed to grow the ministry quite substantially. We have served more than 100 students over the eight weeks of business and made a considerable profit that goes directly toward furthering the ministry. Several students have become regulars and word of mouth has spread far and wide. We will certainly be warmly welcomed back upon our reopening in the fall. Our resident baker and barista, Robyn El Torro has become the new local favorite for many passers-by on the Georgia Tech campus. Faculty, staff, visitors, and students have begun spending ten minutes to over an hour in the house visiting, working, or studying. The Grace [coffee] House addition has changed our building from a mysterious little house on campus to a welcome space with open doors, great coffee, tasty treats and warm hearts.

All are welcome at LCM!

Pastor Matt received this note this year and asked if he could share it with others... What a wonderful thing to hear: As an openly queer atheist I was hesitant at first getting involved with LCM. I've had some pretty negative experiences in the past in dealing with Christians demonstrating a painful lack of compassion and empathy, so even though I'm a big fan of Jesus and his philosophy I am more wary of followers who don't truly FOLLOW his teachings. However LCM was tremendously open to me, to all of us who came, no matter where we were in our life journey. I felt accepted and loved and never once judged or pressured to change who I was."

GRACE NOTES

SPRING 2012

SKI TRIP 2012

Together we ski
A few weeks after I started going to LCM, I went on the Ski Trip. The Ski Trip was an amazing experience for me as I was able to get to know many of the people at LCM quite well and quite quickly during the Ski Trip. I have three very memorable moments from the Ski Trip. The first is from when someone said it was snowing and everyone rushed outside. No one could see the snow from the porch so after a moment mostly everyone went back inside. Tay and I stayed outside cause we claimed we could see the snow falling and we could. Then suddenly either Tay or I was drenched in a huge flurry of snow. However, when we went inside no one believed us when we told them how much snow there was outside. The second was when I was sliding to a stop towards the bottom of the mountain and accidentally, but gracefully, slid right between my friends Alex and Lindsay. I grabbed onto Alex, and then looped around behind him and while they began to laugh I said "Y'all ready to go again?" The third occurred throughout the entire trip. There was an air hockey table that everyone loved to play but whenever I played, the puck would always fly off the table. At first it was scary, but then everyone began to think it was hilarious that I could not keep the puck on the table and came up with the rule that I lose a point every time the puck goes off the table. I cannot wait to go on another trip with LCM, the Ski Trip is by far my favorite experience I've had since starting college and I cannot wait to spend more time with the wonderful people I've become friends with." - Anthony

New beginnings
"Being at Georgia Tech, every semester can hold ample opportunity for challenge and, at times, it can be a struggle to keep spirits high. Fortunately, I have been greatly blessed to find a home of kindness and love at The Grace House! I found myself coming to Tuesday night dinners at The Grace House this past Spring quite regularly. I am sure my attraction had something to do with the consistently wonderful (and free!) food, the delightful conversation, and the warmth of sincere fellowship. Also, I greatly appreciate the worship and the message following dinner. I really look forward to Tuesday night dinners and the inspiration I receive from these evenings! Another part of the year I enjoyed was going skiing with everyone from The Grace House. When I heard about the ski retreat, I was a little unsure if I should pass up time that I could be studying to go skiing with a bunch of people I barely knew yet. But alas, with the kindness and encouragement from my new friends at the Grace House, I felt I was genuinely wanted, so I made the decision to go. It was really great to spend the weekend in the mountains with everyone in Boone, N.C. I particularly remember an enthralling game of "spoons," Sarah baking gratuitous amounts of dangerously delicious cookies and me eating them until almost sick, and riding down the mountain with friends into face-numbing blusters of freezing water as the Beech Ski Resort desperately tried to make snow on a fifty degree day! We faced the man-made storm together. During the whole retreat, the conversation and a chance to be child-like was a much appreciated respite. I am so thankful I went and I look back on ski trip as one of the highlights of my Spring semester! I feel so blessed to have such a great and genuine fellowship at The Grace House!" - William

GRACE NOTES

SPRING 2012

This year at Emory was a year for new things and a year to grow. We joined up with the Lutherans at Ga Tech and that was awesome. We were a pretty small group starting out of about four to five students, but being a small group definitely has its advantages. Because we were smaller we were able to have good conversations and everyone was really close. We were able to be there for each other whether it was studying together or chilling and watching movies or even taking someone out for a surprise birthday dinner. We were able to form relationships on a really deep level, and I hope as we grow as a ministry at Emory and at GA Tech I hope that we are able to keep our small group dynamic in a larger group setting. - Ariel

GRACE NOTES

SPRING 2012

What we did
Ski trip Camping trip Whirly Ball FASET Tuesday Night Dinner Cooking out Fire Pit Smores Worship New Bathroom New deck plan St Patty's party

Christmas Party Pancake Nights Shrove Tuesday Holy Week Passover Lunch Hunger Walk Super Bowl Party Pride Parade MLK day of Service Beach Trip Vocational Discernment

Ash Wednesday Bible Study Movie Night Wednesday Morning Food Ministry House of the Rock worship Immersion Walk Coffee Conversations Peanut Butter Jelly and Theology Table Talk at Everybodys Pizza Pastoral Care Conversations

LUTHERAN CAMPUS MINISTRY

182 5 St NW Atlanta, GA, 30313
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