CYF Blast

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, As of Wednesday, registration for summer 2025 is officially open!Our schedule for summer 2025 is as follows:  June 23-26: VBS @ Peace July 27-31: Wilderness Canoe Base July 27-August 1: Wapo Youth Camp August 1-3: Wapo Seeds Weekend August 8-10: Family Camp @ Camp Wapo Please see the “Summer Camps” section below for more information and for registration links. An important note on registration: Registrations are taken on a rolling basis. In other words, the earlier you sign…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, As we step into the new year, there are a lot of things that might catch us by surprise. For example, it’s already time to start planning for this summer! Our schedule for summer 2025 is as follows:  Vacation Bible School will be hosted at Peace once again, and in partnership with Community of the Cross Lutheran Church. Our students will be venturing to the True North, where they will learn about “Trusting Jesus in…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, Thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s Christmas Program, “Great Joy For All,” possible! This year we give special thanks to: May God’s love bring Great Joy For All this Christmas season and through the New Year! In gratitude and celebration, Pastor Joe Orner

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, This Sunday will be a very special day in worship as we host the annual Peace Christmas Program. This year’s program is called “Great Joy for All,” and there are 25 Sunday School students participating. In addition, the Peace Choir will sing, and the congregation is invited to join in the festivities as well.  Altogether, we will share the Christmas story through music, scripture, and storytelling—and don’t forget about the costumes! There will be…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, Growing up as the son of a nurse, and having an occupation where I am around people and students a lot, I’ve always had a pretty good immune system and don’t often get sick. But once or twice a year, I’ll catch something that completely knocks me off my feet, and it takes much longer than I’d like to get back up. That happened last Thursday, causing me to miss Sunday worship and last…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, This past Sunday was the first Sunday in the season of Advent—the four weeks that lead up to Christmas (similar to how Lent is the season that precedes Easter).  For us, Advent is a season of hopeful expectation. Over 2000 years have passed since Christ’s birth, and we know what we’re going to celebrate on Christmas—that God came to us in the flesh, fully God yet fully human—through the birth of Jesus Christ, the…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, Happy Thanksgiving to all! Today and this weekend, as you gather with family and friends, it’s my prayer that your time together would be filled with love, joy, and gratitude; that you would be able to enjoy laughter and smiles with everyone gathered at your tables, and that the thankfulness shared would fill you with faith, hope, and love. And as we give thanks for the blessings in our lives, I pray that our…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, On Sunday our Confirmation students had their fall retreat. Aligning with the year’s theme, “What is Church?” we visited two ELCA congregations that are very different from Peace, and each other—Central Lutheran and Fabric, both in Minneapolis. Pastor Stephanie Friesen described Central’s history for us, saying: “The short story of Central is that we are a 107-year-old congregation that was started by 12 local, Lutheran businessmen who saw the need of a unified Lutheran church in Minneapolis. There…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, This Sunday is Stewardship Sunday. And as I reflect on my personal and our communal stewardship of time, talents, and resources, one of my favorite aspects of our Sunday morning church services happens during the offering—it’s the children’s offering. Each week it is a delight to see the children come forward to participate in this great act of generosity. Always with smiles on their faces, they joyfully bring gifts forward that glorify God–gifts that…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, This past weekend we observed All Saints Sunday. It is a day in which we honor all the saints—past, present, and future—by remembering the dead and celebrating the baptized. And as Lutherans, we have a unique understanding of sainthood. While Catholics venerate exceptional individuals who have performed miracles or done amazing things with their lives, as Lutherans we believe that every person is a saint.  Because it’s in the waters of baptism that we are sealed by the…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, Thanks to everyone who came out for this year’s Trunk or Treat event on Sunday! I was so grateful to everyone who hosted trunks and for the top-notch hospitality and creativity you all showed. This event truly would not be possible without you—kids, parents, trunk hosts, community members, and everything in between—and I’m so grateful to you all for your help in making it happen. The love of God was most certainly shared!  Additionally, while we celebrated…

Dear Families and Friends of Peace, Over the last two weeks, students in Confirmation and Sunday School have been working on a service project—making care cards to send to Peace’s college students around the country.  It was very impressive how intentional the students were while making their cards, and the kind and encouraging notes they wrote inside are super uplifting. Having spoken with our college students over the last several years, I know that they will really appreciate receiving the…