Christmas Poinsettias & Christmas Decor

The flowers & decorations that make Trinity especially beautiful during Christmas celebrations are made possible by members of our Trinity family who wish to remember loved ones, or simply express special thanks to God, and make a donation toward the flowers and decor. Forms are in the Narthex. The names of contributors and those remembered will be published in January in the Narthex. (Suggested donation $10.00 per flower. You can take your poinsettia home after Christmas Day worship.)  Thank you!

 

Advent Devotions & Dinners

Special thanks to all the volunteers who made the Advent Dinners so special this year - all those who set up/cleaned up, served/hosted, and decorated for a candlelight meal, and to Rich Poole for making the delicious meal each week. Thanks to Ed and Darlene Sabin, Jennifer Castillo, Ken & Terry Boggs with Bella, Valentina, and Victoria, Nancy Gianfalla, Carolyn Burnette, Diann Grover, Karen Arnett, Julie Lasater, Andrea Gabriel, Marcy Shively, and Dianne and Doug Wiley. If I missed your name, I apologize! We appreciate you all so very much!!  

Sunday School Schedule Change

Sunday School for children and youth Grades VPK - High School will not be meeting this weekend, December 23, due to our single worship service at 10:00 a.m. or next weekend, December 30. Children's and Youth Sunday morning classes will resume on Sunday, January 6 at 9:30 a.m.  You are all invited to join the children as they lead the 3:00 p.m. Children's Christmas Eve worship service on Monday evening.

Christmas Day Worship @ 10am

Don't forget to bring a bell to ring!!

Food and Funds on the Fifth

December has five Sundays!  On the fifth Sunday, December 29/30, we will collect canned goods for donation to a local food pantry as well as funds to replenish Trinity's Pastoral Discretionary Fund to help individuals experiencing a temporary financial crisis. Please plan to bring in food and funds on Dec 29/30.  Because we know the Christmas season is very busy, we'll also extend donation drop offs for one additional week, to include January 5/6. THANK YOU!

Foundations of Faith Series with Pastor Doug

For all those interested in learning more about the Christian Faith and the Lutheran Church, for those conside ring church membership at Trinity Downtown, for all new full-time staff at Trinity, and for current members who would enjoy a class about the foundations of faith, please mark your calendars! This class is for YOU! The next session begins Wednesday, January 9, 2018 and will continue for eight weeks, concluding on February 27. Meet some new people in the Trinity family, spend some time in great discussions, enjoy some refreshments! These classes are always a lot of fun! Trinity's Senior Pastor, Doug Kallesen, will lead the class and discussion. (Location TBA) You will cover topics such as:

Feel free to extend this invitation to anyone else you think might be interested in participating - these are open to anyone!   CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.  Questions or concerns? Contact us at 407-488-1919 x101 or TLC@TrinityDowntown.com .

Music Notes

Many Thanks to our amazing Music Ministry volunteers who make our worship services even more joyful and special throughout the year! There are too many to list here, but you all know who you are and how precious you are to this Trinity Family. THANK YOU for all the many ways you serve the Lord with your musical gifts.

Serving with the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness and HOPE Team

Last year a group of Trinity volunteers spent a Saturday morning serving with team members from the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness and members of the H.O.P.E. team, reaching out to Orlando's homeless, and learning all about how Orlando service providers are caring for the needs of our homeless neighbors. It was a great experience for all those in attendance, and we learned a lot about the homeless cycle in Orlando.  We'll be serving again on Saturday, January 19 from 9-11am (optional lunch together afterward). 

Volunteers from throughout our Trinity family are invited to participate in a fantastic opportunity to reach out to our homeless neighbors AND to learn from some of our local ministry partners who serve to meet the needs of Orlando's homeless day in and day out! We'll be serving with, and receiving training from, staff from the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness and the H.O.P.E. Team! THIS is an opportunity you don't want to miss!!

Our volunteers are engaged specifically as an extension of the Downtown Orlando H.O.P.E. Team (Homeless Outreach Partnership Effort), which is a group of full-time outreach staff who actively engage and serve our neighbors experiencing homelessness. You may have seen them in red shirts talking to people out in our area. The H.O.P.E. Team builds relationships with individuals and families so that they can direct those individuals to appropriate service providers. The goal of this long-term initiative is to make homelessness r are, brief, and one-time.

Volunteers will meet at the CFC office on Orange Ave, hear a brief orientation from staff at the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness and the H.O.P.E. Team, break into teams and head out into the neighborhood.  We'll be directly engaging with folks downtown experiencing homelessness. Refreshments are provided for volunteers, and afterward we'll gather together briefly to share thoughts and insights. (Optional lunch together afterward)  All volunteers should be adults, please. Register Now! Questions?  Contact Chanda at TLC@TrinityDowntown.com or 407-488-1919 x101

Facebook Users

Help us Extend our Reach and Grow our Trinity ministries!

If you're on Facebook, please help us reach others by

The more our posts and events are shared and liked, especially by others outside our immediate Trinity community, the more likely someone new will hear about our church and school, see an invitation to worship, like and follow our Facebook page, check out our website... which brings them one step closer to Jesus and allows us to grow our ministry all to the glory of God. The more interaction we get on posts, the more Facebook recognizes our posts as something that should be shared more often and with more people. This really helps us to extend our reach beyond our own Trinity Family.  If you have questions, contact Chanda at TLC@TrinityDowntown.com or 407-488-1919 x101. Thank you.

LWML News

LWML's final bid of $40 for the child's quilt was received by Mary Lou Evanchyk.  She stated it will be a Christmas gift for her youngest nephew, Ethan, in Michigan. The $40 will be donated to Trinity Lutheran School K-8 Scholarships.

LWML will continue to collect individual boxed bath soaps (no hotel soap) until January 2, 2019.   The wash tub with a scrub board is on the west side of the Narthex. This is part of our mission outreach to third world countries where this soap is a precious commodity.

Finance Office Request

Please notify the Finance Office of all new and/or one-time contributions from investment firms. We'd like to make sure your contributions are correctly posted to your account. You may contact Finance Manager Liz Roberts directly at 407.488.1919 X110, or 901.674.7722; or via E-mail at liz.roberts@trinitydowntown.com . This notice applies to new and/or one-time contributions. It does not apply to ongoing contributions that are already routinely remitted to the church. Thank you all so very muc h for your generosity!

Trinity Shares Christmas

Thank you, generous Trinity members! We were able to brighten the Christmas season for nine families and 21 children this year with gifts and wrapping paper, food items and a Publix gift card, and personal messages to the children from their incarcerated parents. The caregivers of the children were all very grateful and expressed their thanks. Thank you to everyone who donated, and special thanks to Janine Delehunt for sorting, to Linda Short for her special place settings for each family, and to the wonderful delivery people: Amy Fischer, Chanda Gillenwater, Casey Hutchison, Sheila Mathews, and Marcy Shively.

Two additional Angel Tree families (with four children) were adopted by the Garden of Discovery and Garden of Creativity Pre-K classes. These families received an extra measure of love from the students through additional presents and gift cards. Many thanks to Dalene Burnam, Wendy Havens, and Jacqueline Jones for blessing their students with the gift of caring for others.

Rebecca's Garden of Hope at Our Savior Lutheran 

This past Saturday, another season of serving with RGOH was wrapped up as Trinity volunteers celebrated Christmas with the children and RGOH volunteers at their annual Christmas Luncheon/Party. In addition to the preparing and serving the meal, many Trinity volunteers "adopted" a child and purchased Christmas presents for them. It was a "Gift of Love" which included a message about the Legend of the Candy Cane and sharing of the true Christmas story. "Jesus is truly the reason for the season." Thanks to all who participated and contributed!

LWML Fall Project - Soap Collection

LWML's Fall project for World Relief is a collection of individually boxed bath soaps (no hotel soap). There will be a wash tub with a scrub board in the Narthex starting Saturday, November 17 and will continue until January 2, 2019. This is part of our mission outreach to third world countries where this soap is a precious commodity.

Trinity Lutheran School Advent Fun

There were lots of great projects and activities in the past couple of weeks at Trinity Lutheran School. Advent artwork, Generosity Project (adopt a family for Christmas), Trinity Shares Christmas via two CDC classrooms, K-8 Project Christmas (loving our homeless neighbors, see the video on our Facebook page), TLS taking part in the first Rotary Christmas parade, a Christmas tree entirely decorated by ornaments hand-made by Trinity students, caroling through Trinity offices, and so much more!!

Who Do You Know Who Has a Cool Truck or Vehicle?

We need your help to recruit new and interesting vehicles for our Touch-a-Truck event on March 9, 2019. The more unique the better, but simple and fun works too!  Some of our more unique "vehicles" have been the ReMax Hot Air Balloon, the Oscar Meyer Weiner Car, the Truly Nolen mouse cars, mini monster trucks, a rescue helicopter, huge construction cranes... Do you know/or have you seen anyone with an interesting business vehicle that would spend half a Saturday at Trinity with us to raise funds for Trinity Lutheran School? We need the vehicle and one employee who will stay with the vehicle and tell guests all about it. We'll feed them breakfast and lunch, give them a few free tickets for employees and advertise their business name and logo on the TAT webpage and Facebook page. Call them and ask if they're interested. Registration forms, info, and photos can be found on the website at  http://trinitydowntown.com/orlando-touch-a-truck/ . Or, send us their contact information and we'll call for you!  THANK YOU!  So far, Trinity members have recruited (let us know if you've sent someone our way):

TOUCH-A-TRUCK

The next Touch-A-Truck planning meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 10, 2019. The meeting will be held  in the 4th Grade Classroom (upstairs in Heritage Hall). Free dinner and babysitting will be provided. Please send your RSVP to PTL@trinitydowntown.com.  If you aren't able to attend the meeting, but would like to volunteer please let us know. We look forward to seeing you there!

Walk for Life with Choices Women's Ministries

The annual Walk for Life will take place, April 6th, 2019 at Blue Jacket Park in Baldwin Park. Join hundreds walking to raise money to save lives and protect women & families!  Anyone interesting in starting a team from Trinity?? Let the church office know.

Christian Yoga!

You're welcome to join us on first and third Mondays (and if we have enough participants, we could add second and fourth Mondays too) for a $5 Christian Yoga class at 6:30pm in Fellowship Hall. The class needs a minimum number in attendance to be held at such a discounted rate, so please email Beth at baschu4@bellsouth.net to confirm you're coming. Class starts at 6:30 pm, please arrive by 6:20 pm. Thank you! Bring with you an exercise mat (and block if you have), $5, comfy clothes, a smile, and enthusiasm!

Peace Comfort Dog

Peace will turn 2 on Christmas Day!  Since Jesus' birthday is so much more important, we will celebrate Peace's birthday each year on her vesting day, July 1st.

Please let us know!
Please let your Trinity family know of any scheduled surgery or hospital stay.  In addition to scheduled procedures, please give the church office a call to let us know about extended illness, unplanned hospital stays, or even the birth of a child.  You can call the office at any time and leave a message-no need to wait until business hours (407-488-1919 x101). During business hours, that information can then be forwarded to the appropriate caregivers.  For an emergency that requires the care of a Pastor after hours or over the weekend call or text (text preferred) 407-490-7339 and leave a message. We'll get back to you ASAP. We want to be sure to know when you need us-whether to pray with you before a scheduled procedure, sit with you during a loved one's procedure, pray for you while you recover, visit you in the hospital/at home or to share praise and thanksgiving prayers for good news/results. Just let us know. Thank you.

Urgent Prayer Requests

If you have an urgent prayer request that can't wait until you fill out a yellow prayer card during worship, please submit it via email to Pray@TrinityDowntown.com .  While submitting a yellow card during worship is still the preferred way to share prayer requests, sometimes a prayer need can't wait until Sunday.  Your prayer request (first name and basic details of the prayer requested) will be shared with a team of committed weekday prayer warriors and will also be added to Trinity's regular printed prayer list for the congregation.  All prayers are kept on the printed list for a period of three weeks, so please resubmit long term prayer needs regularly so that they stay on the printed list. Thank you.

Important Dates

Dec 22 Service of the Longest Night 6pm

Dec 22 through Jan 1 All Trinity Offices Closed

Dec 23 One Service: 10am Worship Service

Dec 24 3pm Children/Family Worship

             5,7,9,11pm Candlelight Communion Worship

Dec 25 10am Worship (bring a bell to ring)

Dec 31 New Year's Eve Worship 7pm

Jan 2   Offices, CDC, and Mini-camp reopen

Jan 6 Epiphany Cantata at 8am and 11am Worship

Jan 7 K-8 Back in Session

Jan 9 Foundations of Faith Series begins

Jan 19  Serving with the Coalition for the Homeless and HOPE Team 

Attendance and Giving from Last Weekend