St. John's Lutheran Church News

As you may know, for the past 8 years St. John's has been offering Freedom Session. Freedom Session is a healing and discipleship journey that has helped 1000's of people across Canada and over 53 in the Vernon area.  Freedom Session uses the 12 steps to move us from a place of being stuck, to greater healing!  Freedom Session runs for 20 weeks and covers 2 workbooks.   Ask any alumni and they will tell you, it is worth the investment of time and energy.  The follow up course is called Authentic Living.  Authentic Living is a 10 week course that gives some basics and specifics on how move forward and live the life you've always wanted to live.    

Freedom Session is being offered again this coming January, beginning on Thursday, January 17, 2019.  The course includes video teaching and 2 workbooks, Facing the Truth and Finding Freedom, available for a cost of $25 each.  Freedom Session runs on Thursdays from 6:30 - 8:45 PM.

Check out www.freedomsession.com for videos and more of an idea of what to expect.  Please call us at the office, or send an email for more information or to register.  Pre-registration is encouraged.

St. John's is hosting an info/intro night for those considering Freedom Session - Thursday, December 13th at 6:30. Along with some great information, there will be alumni in attendance, telling their stories.

Click HERE to open a PDF registration form.  Please print the form and fill it in  It can then be brought along to the intro night or the first session, or emailed back in to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 God's Kids

With the start of the school year, and end of summer, we begin a new year of God's Kids, our education program for kids aged 3-12.  There are some changes to the God's Kids program this year, starting with a new time at 3:00 PM.  We are hoping that with an earlier start time, more children will be able to attend as well as giving families a chance to worship together at 4 PM.

New this year, we will be making use of a new video based curriculum.  The new curriculum will allow us to send the video link to you, if your child is not able to attend a Sunday or you would like to look at the lessons to see what your child is learning each Sunday.  

If you would like any further information about our God's Kids Program or the new curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Loretta Brisco / Joel Haberstock

Our New Temporary Location:

We held our final worship service in our building on Alain Road on Sunday, April 8th, 2018. We are in the midst of decommissioning our present facility due to deterioration of the building. As part of this, we are putting up perimeter fencing around the Sanctuary, and the entry by Alain Road is being permanently closed.

While we consider our next steps, Community Baptist Church, located at 4911 Silver Star Road, has graciously offered us the opportunity to share their facilities for our services and activities.  We have been in CBC since April 15 and are very thankful for this partnership.  Please find us at Community Baptist at 4 PM for worship on Sundays or any weekday for pastoral care and support.

Blair House

An Affordable Housing Option in Vernon - A St. John's Connection

An older motel in Vernon has been purchased and set up as affordable housing to assist people to move off the street. Under the umbrella of the John Howard Society, the Blair House has been up and running in Vernon for almost a year. There are 38 rooms, 36 of which are single and 2 have a bedroom and living room (accommodating two people.) All rooms have a small kitchen with a full size fridge, micro wave, cupboards and a sink. Each person is to furnish their kitchen. Bed are supplied as well as a table and chairs. The bathroom has a tub with shower, sink and toilet.

A community kitchen has been installed in the manager's living quarters. St John's Lutheran church had the privilege to furnish this kitchen with the necessary items to be a full-service unit. This was accomplished with donations from the congregation. The John Howard Society was able to receive government grants to buy new appliances which included a stove, dishwasher, a fridge and deep freeze. A washer and dryer are also available for the residents.

Each resident pays $475/month rent.  Among other things, this accommodation gives the residents an address which is necessary when applying for a job. The long-term goal is to have the kitchen functioning by the residents to cook their three meals each day.  The goal is to form a family community and to take some of the pressure off other local agencies, including The Upper Room Mission. At this time a charitable organization is cooking twice a week with enough left overs to be taken back to the residents' rooms.

There are some on-going needs for the Blair House, including coffee mugs, forks and containers to store the reheat-able food. These items are often not returned to the kitchen.  Donations of old cottage cheese containers, yogurt containers and margarine  containers are greatly appreciated.

Folks can bring any needed supplies to the Church, care of Blair House, and Irene can take it from there. They can also be dropped off at the Blair House, located in the former Travelodge behind the Fruit Union Plaza.

November 23, 2017  

St. John's Eagles

August 14, 2017

Hi everyone, just a quick update on the tournament this past weekend in Golden.  There were 10 teams this year split into 2 divisions of 5.  So on Saturday we played each team in our division (4 games).  We lost our first one to Cloverdale by 1 run.  Played Bethel B and won handily.  Then we played Riverbend (Edmonton) and got beat by a lot (won't say how many) but they were eventually the winners of the tournament (very good team).  Our 4th game was against our good friends Drumheller who we beat handily.  So two and two for round robin.  With our record, we were placed in the 2nd division, playing for 5th place.  On Sunday, we lost by 1 run to Drumheller  in our 1st game and then beat Medicine Hat by 3 in our final game.  The combination of wins/losses, and runs for/against saw us winning the B division (5th place overall).  So our overall record was 3 wins-3 losses  (with 2 of the losses by 1 run)

FYI, this was the 30th year of the  tournament and St. John's Vernon has been attending for the last 27 years straight. Congratulations all around.

We went up to Golden a little light for  players ( 6 guys and 4 girls).  For a few of the  games we had a 7th guy  from Golden and for the rest  we played with 6 guys and 4 girls.  Hard to pick out highlights because there were a lot.  We had great hitting from everyone.  Good defense even in our bad loss... they just kept hitting the holes or over the fence.  We moved everyone around quite a bit so we played some different positions than normal.  Devin is recovering from appendix surgery 2 1/2 weeks ago, so he was supposed to be a spare but ended up playing most of the time. Even hit one out of the park.  Rebecca  (first tournament) also went up as a spare and ended up playing most all of the games and did great - thanks Rebecca (by the way easily the fastest person on our team).  Joel and Aaron roved the outfield all weekend and did a great job (and were clutch hitters every game), but more importantly let me play shortstop all weekend LOL.  Jeff covered third and catcher all weekend and hit well. Ali, Grace and Loretta were great... not only played great.. but went wherever in the field that we needed depending on who was available. The girls really hit well this weekend which by the way makes all the difference to the outcome of the games.  Cam...got off work Friday night in Kelowna at around 11 pm, grabbed a few hours of sleep and then drove up to Golden... got there halfway through the first game and then pitched all weekend long.. excellent job of pitching and hitting for him as well.

And lest we forget, the future St. John's team participated in the skills competition on Saturday afternoon.  Isaac and Sam came away with a multitude of 1sts and 2nds in their age group for a number of categories... base running, throwing, hitting, etc.  Congratulations to them .  And as you might guess with a bench that had no spares, we had some issues with

score keeping, so Isaac stepped up and kept score for us.  Did such a good job that the Drumheller team named him MVP in one of our games!

So yeah... we had a good time with good results.. met a lot of old friends again in good Christian fellowship.. Joel and Gary from Kelowna handled the church service extremely well.   Just all good stuff.... Looking forward to next year already (except for the aches and pains this morning from 6 games).  It's been a great year both league play and the tournament... Thanks to you all.

Barry

The Alili Family’s First Week in Canada

After spending 3 days in a type of Canada Boot Camp before they travelled here, and having some training at the Vancouver Airport upon arrival, a very tired Dad Nizar, Mom Meryem, Yezen who will be 2 in July, and Abdulkafi who is 5, arrived on May 25, and seem to be settling in quite well.

Immigration Services have a key role in helping them do so. They have arranged for a volunteer interpreter who is helping the family, and working with our committee. He has been a tremendous help to the family, and the committee. This past week, Immigration Services arranged for English classes for Nizar and Meryem. Learning English will be one of their most important tasks for the next few months. They were very eager to begin the classes.  They will attend the English classes daily from 9am to noon and the boys will be taken care of in the daycare that is offered.  

The first week was quite busy for the family. In addition to a number of trips for some of the immigration and new arrival things to happen, members of the committee have had some delightful initial visits, helped along with Google Translate. (And some giggles with the sometimes amusing translations it comes up with.) The family invited some of the committee for coffee on Saturday. Sunday a member of the committee took Meryem grocery shopping. Monday it was arranged for a family from St. John’s to take the Alilis to a park, where the kids played together. Wednesday some of the ladies from the committee enjoyed afternoon coffee (turkish), with a traditional rice dish Meryem had prepared. 

We anticipate the next week will not have as many visits, as the family settles in. We will be arranging for them to begin having visits and meeting people at coffee shops as they begin to get integrated into the community. Watch for further information on how you can be participate in that. 

The committee is very grateful to the many people who gave so much for the Alili’s apartment to be a beautiful place for them to begin their time in Canada. Meryem and Nazir have expressed their appreciation, and we are considering an event, perhaps this September, where they can express their thanks to all who have helped give them such a good start in their new home. 

With much appreciation to all of you, and thanksgiving to GOD, 

The Refugee Committee

If you have any questions or would like to get involved please don't hesitate to contact us at the following:

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250.549.2244

Funding Letter