All Members, Winter Residents, Family and Friends,
Greetings on this Monday 12/13/2025! What a great Sunday we had yesterday! Great attendance! Welcomed new members! And the Trinity Tots Christmas Program was outstanding! Great way to continue to prepare for the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem!
We have one more Sunday in Advent then we have Christmas Week!
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service will be on December 24th, at 7:00PM with real candles for the adults and battery opperated ones for the kiddos.
Christmas Day will be at 10:00AM with family centered Holy Communion. Family/Friends will be encouraged to come up for Holy Communion together.
Please plan on attending one or hopefully more of our services to celebrate the Birth of our Lord this 2025.
We are honored to be able to host a visit from FL/GA District President Rev. James Rockey and selected staff members on Thursday January 15th, 2026. The Church Council and other board members are expected to attend. But beyond that President Rockey desires to meet other inidividuals from the congreation both year ‘round and winter residents. There will be a dinner served at 5:30PM followed by a meeting. All the Heartland Circuit churches are invited so please sign up so we know how many people will be with us. Sign up sheet outside church office.
As I mentioned in preious emails, newsletter articles and sermons, December 2025 marks the 50 Anniversary of the Chartering of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lake Placid, Florida. Please take note that Rev. James Guelzow, founding pastor will be here to preach on January 18th, 2026 followed by a Luncheon. We need you to please sign up if you are planning on attending. The sign up sheet is on the blue bulletin board outside Susan’s office.
Our 50th Anniversary also gives us reason to pause and give thanks to God for His Faithfulness through the years. We are blessed here at Trinity as we have no mortgage, no outstanding debts and yes even some reserved funds in the banks for special projects and needs. So we have many things to be thankful for during the past 50 years and looking forward to the next 50 years.
When Susan and I arrived here in April of 1988 Trinity was worshipping at the church at the corner of Phoenix and Pine Street which is not the Seventh Day Adventice church. Additionally the church owned about 10 acres here on Lakeview which was a piece of property that was a continual slope from the road down to the lake. I said to Susan of all the property in Florida why did they buy a hillside. But in addition the previous pastor and church council has floated a $100,000.00 bond issue to assist with building the new facility. I did not know what to do with the bonds, so we sought out legal counsel and were able to achieve releases from all the bonds issued. We then in 1991 proceeded with breaking ground and building our current multi-purpose facility. We sold the previous property and applied those proceeds to the cost of the new building which was $300,000.00 for 8,000 square feet. We had this paid off in nine years.
During the past 5 years we have seen significant increases in everyday costs such as cleaning supplies, church supplies such as paper, communion wine, kitchen products such as cups, napkins, etc., insurance, town water/sewage, electricity and the fire assessment for our property and buildings. In addition we have put new roofs on all three buildings, replaced 3 air conditioning units out of 6 that were original when we built the building in 1992 and had to replace pumps in the lift station. Additionally we replaced all the contractor grade windows with double pane Window World Windows throughout the building. I believe our Church Councils and Finance Committee have been very frugal and have practiced good stewardship priciples with the gifts the members, winter residents and friends have entrusted to us throughout the years. We have been able to do pretty much all of this with minimal appeal to the congregation for financial assistance. Thankfully we have some very generous winter residents and friends of the congregation that enable us to accomplish many of these unexpected items.
In reference to our 50th Anniversary we have two projects we are looking at currently investigating.
- Our carillon has not been working for several months. We are in the investigation mode determining if the amp or the main unit were struck by lightning. Once this has been determined then we can decide how to proceed to either get it repaired or purchase a new system at a cost of about $6,000.00 or less.
- Additionally we are looking at solving the issue of what to do when an organist or pianist is not available to serve the congregation at our services. We are looking at several possible solutions to this and determine which would be the best solution for Trinity Lutheran Church looking towards the future.
The Church Council has recently agreed to set a fund raising goal $10,000.00 to assist us in purchasing one or more of these items listed in addtion to sending a thank offering to the District office for the past 50 years of ministry. We hope to achieve this goal during the year 2026. You will be hearing more about this in January.
I have attached my sermon for Sunday December 21st, 2025. See you Wedensday at 4:00PM for our final Mid-Week Advent Service for 2025.
Have a great week!