Living Faith Weekly News (Week of July 12, 2026)

Kay Michaelson
Jul 14
5 min read

**Living Faith gathers for outdoor worship on Sunday!**

What a beautiful morning to worship and give praise outside! The front lawn provided a just-right spot to be together in community to sing together and hear God's Word. Thank you to Pastor Paige for planning a worship of celebration of God's beauty in nature! Thank you also to Pastor Paige, Rich Ziettlow and Gail Kass for providing music for the service. Karen Schroeder read scripture and Sue Stream assisted with Holy Communion - thank you for volunteering! Tim Kass did the work of setting up the sound system so all could be heard. Angela Catton live streamed our service and Kay Michaelson, Angela and Kay Allen helped to set up the worship space.

Pastor Paige planned several special elements for the service: fun camp songs, a unique Thanksgiving for Baptism, a time for playing in the water, a children's message which centered around tools for gardening translating into parables, and special ways to pray!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/9366cc_c0504cc7e7e0417a902e53484e97436f/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

After worship, we enjoyed a potluck picnic in the Fellowship Hall of the PUCC. Thank you to everyone who brought food to share: Mark & Angela Catton, Sue Stream, Kay Michaelson, Yvonne Law, Dave Curry, Sharon Utesch, Rich & Jean Ziettlow, Bailey Quanbeck, June Ferguson, Kay Allen, Gail Kass, Sandy Heeren, and Trish Underberg. Sincere apologies if your name has been omitted!

Living Faith Morning VBS

Pastor Paige planned a morning VBS session centered on the theme of God's Garden. Thank you, Pastor Paige, for thoughtfully planning the morning's activities and thank you to Jess Kopperud for coming to assist!

Sunday, July 19th

Living Faith will gather back in the sanctuary for worship on Sunday with Pastor Paige leading worship, Mike Rathke accompanying us, and Yvonne Law reading scripture. If you would like to assist with Holy Communion, please let Kay know.

Tim Kass will assist with the sound system and usher, Angela Catton will live stream our service, and John & Peg McAllister will provide bread for Communion and help to set it up.

All are welcome to worship! We would love to have you join us as we pray, learn, and praise together! Living Faith worships within the sanctuary of the Presbyterian United Church of Christ located at 858 7th Ave. SE in Le Mars, Iowa. Our worship service begins at 11:00 AM.

Before we worship, we enjoy a time of fellowship with our PUCC friends at 10:00 in the Fellowship Hall. The coffee pot will be on!

Wednesday, July 15th - Concert at the Olson Cultrual Event Center!

Put your Living Faith shirt on and get your lawn chairs in the car and come on out to the Olson Cultural Event Center on Wednesday evening to enjoy the last Municipal Band Concert of the summer! The concert begins at 7:30. There will be a beverage truck and a food truck on site as well!

Living Faith's Church Council met on Monday and here are some items to note for information and also for your calendar:

July

Living Faith's Todd Lang and Angela Catton met with a group from the PUCC to talk about wifi and sounds issues within the sanctuary. There is now a new modem in the PUCC church office which will boost the strength of the wifi system. This will be helpful for both churches' live streaming efforts. We will also be experimenting with the sound quality by utilizing the speakers we used when we worshiped in the chapel.
The PUCC is fundraising for repairs to the playground equipment. The Church Council moved to give a donation towards these repairs.
Pastor Paige will be attending a continuing education conference from July 20 - 22. The conference is entitled "Worship, Theology, and the Arts." As a result, there will be no office hours on Monday, July 20.
Sandy Heeren is attending the WECLA Gathering in Des Moines from July 16 - July 19. She will give a brief report on this experience during worship on July 26.

August

The Church Council will meet on August 3 to work through the elements collected from our three Visioning sessions. They will work towards the goal of presenting a list of core values and a couple of mission statements to present to the congregation for their comment.
Backpack Blessing Sunday will take place on August 23. All students and school personnel are invited to bring backpacks that day where a blessing will be given and a reminder of the blessing will be handed out to put on the backpacks.
Pastor Paige will host an informational meeting on Wednesday, August 26 at 7:00 PM for students and parents in regards to the National Youth Gathering which will take place next summer. She will personally contact the Living Faith students who will be eligible to attend and invite them and their parents to attend.
Sunday, August 30 will be Pastor Jan's last Sunday at the PUCC. More details will be forthcoming as to this day.
Jim and Sandy Heeren will host a Porch Party on Sunday, August 30 at 4:00 at their home. All will be invited to bring a snack to share and lawn chairs. If you have a lawn game for families to play, please bring it along!

September

There will be a parent/student Confirmation meeting on Wednesday, September 2 at 7:00 PM. The first Confirmation session will start on September 16.
God's Work Our Hands takes place on Sunday, September 13. Living Faith will have a Service of the Word that day which will be lay led. (Communion will not be served that day.) As a part of the "sermon" for that day and in recognition of God's Work Our Hands Sunday, the Council would like to plan a service project that we could carry out somewhere in town. Preferably this service project would take no more than a half hour to carry out and would be one that all ages could help with. Please let any Council member know if there are projects you are aware of that could be done with these guidelines.
Living Faith will host a celebratory brunch in honor of the marriage of Pastor Paige and Bailey on Saturday, September 19th at 10:00 AM. Location and other details are to be determined.
Adult Bible Study will resume on Sunday, September 27 from 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM.

Final Call for School Supplies

The school supplies that the PUCC is collecting need to be brought to church by Sunday as these bags will be taken to a regional office for distribution the week of July 26. If you would like to donate any or all of the following, please bring them to the PUCC table in the narthex on Sunday. Thank you for your generosity!

A Message from Bishop Dalen

Bishop Scott Dalen recently gathered in Des Moines with a number of faith leaders from Iowa to proclaim their support for full inclusion of our neighbors for free and fair elections. Here is what Bishop Dalen posted on Facebook when he was asked to speak at this event: