The Monthly Messenger

January 2021

Worship With Us!

The Season of Epiphany Sunday Schedule
The feast of Epiphany (“manifestation”) concludes 9:00 am
the Christmas season with a celebration of God’s
glory revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. In
Praise & Thanksgiving
Isaiah and Ephesians, that glory is proclaimed for Communion
all nations and people. Like the light of the star that Presiding: Pastor David Hill
guided the magi to Jesus, the light of Christ reveals Livestream on Facebook
who we are: children of God who are claimed and
washed in the waters of baptism. We are sent out to Due to current statewide COVID
be beacons of the light of Christ, sharing the good Restrictions, In-door service has
news of God’s love to all people. The altar been suspended until further
paraments are white for this season as a symbol of notice.
purity innocence and holiness.
You will continue to receive a
weekly email every Friday with the
upcoming Sunday’s Bulletin, which
you can use to follow along on
Facebook Sunday mornings at 9am.

https://www.facebook.com/SaronLu
theranEscalon

If you have any further questions,

please contact the church office at
(209) 838-7695
Table of Contents:
Pastor’s Message, Baby News! pg. 2
CARE, Church News pg. 3
Birthdays, KKM Update pg. 4
KKM Monthly Craft (New!) pg. 5
Guide for using Facebook pg. 6
Epiphany Trivia Quiz pg. 7
Upcoming Events,
Dec 2020 Crossword Answers pg. 8
Bible Crossword pg. 9
Scripture Word Search pg. 10
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Greetings from Pastor David
Dear Family of Saron:
The year 2021 is upon us. I pray that this year
will be different for all of God's people. The old
has passed away and new has come to each of us.
This newness comes to us from God and not
from a human source. This transformational
activity comes from God's Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Romans
12:1 these words: "With eyes wide open to the
mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers and
sisters, as an act of intelligent worship, to give
God your bodies as a living sacrifice,
consecrated to our Lord and acceptable by God”.
Don't let the world around you squeeze you into
its own mold, but let God remold your minds
from within, so that you may prove in practice
that the plan of God for you is good, meets all of
God's demands and moves towards the goal of
true maturity.
What will God do in our lives in 2021? It will be
a great joy to find out. “Behold I make all things
new!” We are a part of that newness that God has
for us. May our Lord bless you and keep you all
in His Peace and Love, Pastor David
Introducing
Rhys Gregory Cunningham!
Born to Katelyn and Aaron
Cunningham on 12/6/2020, Rhys
Gregory arrived at 12:07pm, weighing
in at 9 lbs. and measuring 21-3/4”
long. The Cunninghams currently live
in Fairfax, VA.
The new little family is doing well.
And we are all thrilled and feeling
very blessed. All thanks and praise to
God! Mom Katelyn is the daughter of
Kali Linn and Dave Cook.
Congratulations
Deborah and David!
Deborah Grochau and David Wright
are happy to announce the birth of
their second grandchild and first
granddaughter. Welcome to Cambria
Joan Stevens. Cambria’s parents are
Faith and Gregg Stevens.
Congratulations Grandma and
Grandpa and the Stevens family.
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Annual Meeting Rescheduled

The Church Council approved rescheduling the Annual
Meeting to June 27th in the hopes that we would be
able to be together as a congregation. Details about the
meeting will come at a later time.

Offering Envelopes
You may pick up your 2021 offering envelopes at the
church office.
C.A.R.E. requests for the month of
JANUARY 2021
Financial Matters ‘Cans of Tuna’
There continues to be a slight decrease in the general
offerings but the congregation is to be complimented Monetary Donations are always
welcome
for sending their offerings to the church. All offerings
received are offered in prayer during the service.
Please continue your faithful giving, which pays our You Might be Lutheran if…
monthly obligations, but also supports our financial Doughnuts are in the
position for the hiring of a pastor. official church budget

Finance
We wanted to thank those
that have sent their offerings.
If you are able, please send
your offering to the church.
Thank you

Message from Dave Strand

The Call Committee is working in a positive direction to select a pastor for Saron. Continue
your prayers that the process we are following will have a good outcome.

Church Directory
We will begin working on updating the directory and if you want changes in your information
please email the church office.
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Portals of RIDDLE QUESTION:
What is the smallest
Prayer
room in the world?
The Portals of
Prayer for
January-March
2021 have
arrived. They are
available in the
church office or
if you prefer
having one Birthdays!
mailed, just let January
Ann know. 04 Miguel (Dahlin)
08 Joyce Moe
12 Barbara Snyder
Join us on Facebook! 13 Harrison Grossi
Search for us by “Saron 13 Abigael Pendleton
Lutheran Church,” our icon 14 Steve Rose
is the front of the church. 18 Sarah Rose
23 Virginia Ferreira
24 Shane Spears
30 Paige Armstrong
31 Mike Alessi

The Messenger, Saron’s monthly newsletter is for all the family of Saron. If you have anything
you’d like included such as a committee announcement, family update, interesting tidbit, photos,
personal experience or anything you think others might find interesting, please feel free to email
all information to Karen Peters at
saronmessenger@gmail.com
We will do our best to include it in upcoming Messengers. Please include “Messenger” in the
subject line on your email.
Deadline to send information for
FEBRUARY 2021 MESSENGER is
1-20-2021
KKM UPDATE!
All of us on the Witness & Service team would like to give a big “Thank You” to everyone
who made Kris Kringle a success again this year! We would like to Thank all who helped,
crafted, donated & purchased from KKM. It’s all of you who makes KKM a very special
part of Saron’s Holiday season! See more on KKM on the next page…
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And 2021 Crafting Begins…!

As we have learned in 2020, doing anything as a group has
been a challenge due to COVID restrictions. The Witness &
Service Committee thought we would try something different
this year. Every month we will share a simple craft (hopefully!)
you can do at home to donate to our 2021 Kris Kringle Market.
If this month’s craft seems too daunting to you, maybe next
month’s will be more your style! If you have any ideas you
think might be a good KKM Craft, please let us know! You can
contact Becky Emery with your idea or email your ideas to
saronmessenger@gmail.com.
Here’s this month’s craft:
DIY HANDWARMERS
https://raeannkelly.com/a-little-cozy-goes-a-long-way-and-a-hand-
warmer-diy/ (link to view craft instructions online)

SUPPLIES:
• a fat quarter (or more) of this fabric or
whatever fabric you have laying around the house
• fabric scissors
• pinking shears (optional)
• sewing machine or needle
• thread
• long pins
• rice
• DIRECTIONS:
1. using fabric scissors, cut the pattern from our spoonflower
fabric OR cut 2-3/4 inch squares from your choice of
fabric. you’ll need two per hand warmer.
2. place two squares of fabric wrong sides together and stitch
a 1/4 inch seam around the outside, leaving a 1-1/2 inch
opening and backstitching in the beginning and end. (if
you don’t have pinking shears, place fabric right sided
together, sew as instructed and then turn right side out.)
3. fill 3/4 of the way up with rice.
4. using a long pin, block the rice from falling out of the
opening and sew closed.
5. using pinking shears, trim the edges…. it will keep them
from fraying.
💗 To use, warm up in the microwave for 20 seconds (or so),
but make sure they aren’t too hot before handing over to
little hands!
💗These reheatable handwarmers can pop in pockets or gloves
on way to school or work, so cozy!
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Guide for using Facebook
Greetings to everyone! I am writing the instructions for viewing the service live on Facebook. Tony and
I have enjoyed doing the videos during the services, and we really appreciate the feedback we have been
getting from everyone. Depending on the circumstances, we have had to change where we were sitting,
have worked hard on improving the audio, and we have stumbled here and there along the way. All of
the feedback and ideas have really helped, and we encourage everyone to continue doing this so we can
continue to improve.
There will be a couple of different sets of instructions on here, so please read the sections that apply to
you. I will state that if you do not have a Facebook account, you will not be able to get the notifications
of when we go live on Facebook with live videos. There have been occasional live videos after the
service, but at any time you can get onto Facebook to go to our page and click on previously done videos
to watch without an account. I will give instructions if you would like to create an account with
notifications.
TO GET ONTO FACEBOOK LIVE WITHOUT AN ACCOUNT
1. Go to google.com
2. In the search bar type in Saron Lutheran Church Escalon CA and click on the link
3. After clicking on the link, there are different options for our church.
Click on Saron Lutheran Church - Home | Facebook
4. Click to the Right side of the screen and start scrolling down. It will then pop a rectangular screen.
5. It will ask you to log in or create an account. Just click on Not Now just below that.
6. You may need to scroll slowly down the page, but you will see LIVE in a small red box in the top Left
corner of a video, and you will be watching it live.
6. You can click on any of the vidoes that are not live to watch at any time.
7. You will not be able to click on the thumbs up/like button unless you create an account.
If you wish to create an account so that you can like and follow our page, I will leave my contact
information below so that you may contact me if you have questions about setting up your Facebook
account.
INSTRUCTIONS TO GET TO OUR LIVE VIDEOS IF YOU HAVE FACEBOOK
I have received feedback from those who have had difficulty getting onto Facebook live. Here are the
instructions.
1. Click on the magnifying glass/search button at top right hand corner. Most Facebook pages have a
lightning bolt in the top Right corner which is a symbol for Messenger.
2. This will bring up an oval box that says Search Facebook. This is where you type in Saron Lutheran
Church Escalon CA. There is more than just our church called Saron Lutheran Church, so you do
need to put in our city, and it is helpful to put in our state.
3. Click on the picture of our church that will direct you to our page.
4. If you want, you can push the thumbs up/like button to follow our page and receive notifications of our
live videos at the time we are filming the service, as well as updates the church may have posted.
5.You may need to scroll down a little ways down the page, but do this slowly as I have tried to go too
fast and just past what I needed. The live video will be down shortly below all the information of the
church with our address, phone number and other contact information.
I hope these instructions are helpful for everyone. Again, if any of you have questions on how to get
onto Facebook, do not hesitate to call or email me below. God Bless to all of you, and I hope you all
enjoy the videos!
Krista Adametz
(619) 249-3391
tonyandkrisa@gmail.com
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Happy Epiphany!
th
On January 6 Christians all over the world are celebrating the Epiphany. Not exactly sure what “the Epiphany” is?
We’re here to help. Take the official … “EPIPHANY-O-RAMA QUIZ!”

1. The Epiphany: Here are the verses describing this often-

a. Is traditionally celebrated on the 12th day of misunderstood and historically significant
Christmas event:
b. Celebrates the visit of the Magi to the Christ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in
child Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from
c. Signifies the manifestation of Christ to the the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is
Gentiles the one who has been born king of the Jews? We
d. All of the above saw his star in the east and have come to worship
him.” (Matthew 2:1-2)
2. When exactly did the Magi visit Jesus?
a. While he was lying in the manger The Bible indicates that the king and “all
b. Months after his birth, in a house Jerusalem” were “disturbed” by this news.
c. On Jesus’ 1st birthday celebration at King Here’s what happened next:
Herod’s palace Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found
d. They didn’t out from them the exact time the star had
appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and
3. How many Magi were there? said, “Go and make a careful search for the
a. 3 child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so
b. 7 that I too may go and worship him.”
c. A “host” After they had heard the king, they went on their
d. We don’t know way, and the star they had seen in the east went
ahead of them until it stopped over the place
4. What exactly are “Magi” anyway? where the child was. When they saw the star, they
a. Wise men were overjoyed.
b. Kings On coming to the house, they saw the child with
c. Astrologers his mother Mary, and they bowed down and
d. Magicians worshiped him. Then they opened their
treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and
5. What gifts did the Magi give to Jesus? of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned
a. Gift card to a Christian bookstore in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned
b. Real estate to their country by a different route.
c. Gold, incense and myrrh (Matthew 2:7-12)
d. We don’t know Thank God that he sent His one and only Son
for all of us. Worship Jesus joyfully with all
your heart and use all your gifts for His glory.

5. “c.” See Matthew 2:11

probably the second most popular.
to lots of large-brained theologians. “Wise men” is
4. “c.” That’s the most accurate translation, according
were there.
3. “d.” The Bible doesn’t tell us exactly how many Magi
2. “b.” See Matthew 2:9-10
1. “d.”
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Dec 2020 Crossword Answers

Upcoming Events
FUTURE DATES:
THIS MONTH Feb 2021
No Annual Meeting Black History Month
Jan 1st Feb 2nd
New Year’s Day Groundhog Day
Jan 6th Feb 11th
Epiphany 6:00pm – Council Meeting
Jan14th Feb 14th
6:00pm - Council Meeting St. Valentine’s Day
Jan 18th Feb 15th
Martin Luther King Jr Day President’s Day

RIDDLE
ANSWER:
A mushroom!
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