Sunday, November 6, 2011, was Pastor Wenninger’s last worship service with us.

In addition to the service, which included a baptism and affirmation of baptism ceremony for seven of our youth, we gathered together after the service in the Fellowship Hall to recognize and thank the Pastor and Susan for their eighteen years of dedicated service to Grace.

We celebrated Roger's and Susan's service to Grace and presented them with several gifts; including a watercolor of Mees Hall at Capital University (where Roger and Susan met).

On November 6th, Daniel Arbogast, Alex Entsminger, Jackson Horchler, Noa Horchler, Will Lemstrom, Spenser Maidhof, and Chase Montgomery affirmed their Baptism at Grace.

Congratulations to these gentlemen as tehy enter a new phase of their life in Christ.

Saturday, November 5th, Grace held its annual Fall Festival.  The kids got to enjoy games, face painting, arts and crafts, pony rides, a petting zoo and hay rides.  There was delicious food and great fellowship.  It is safe to say that a good time was had by all.

After last year's performance of "Prodigal Son: a Modern Interpretation", the audience was left begging for more. Nina, loath to disappoint her adoring fans, returned to the Grace stage on September 18th. With a supporting cast of from the Grace Acting Company, Nina appeared as Zipporah, the wife of Moses in the Stan Heinricher original play "Tower of Babel".

The play explored the origins of the story of the Tower of Babel and how it become part of the Old Testament. Also discussed was how the New Testament addresses the human condition that arose from the Tower story.

Supporting cast members included Karen Lucher as the narrator, Dieter Gum as Moses, Eric Heinricher and Mark Montgomery as people in the audience. To relive the memories, click below to see some photos from this world premier event.

On September 11, 2011 Grace held a flag pole dedication ceremony.  Eagle Scout Christian (Hobie) Vogt recognized the fact that Grace did not have an outdoor flag pole and American flag.  As a part of his Eagle Scout project, Hobie raised the money to pay for the flag pole and managed the installation of the pole, lights, and a small brick pad and garden area surrounding the pole.

During the ceremony, we remembered those who lost their lives during the attacks on September 11, 2001.  A color guard from Boy Scout Troop 330 raised the flag and completed the ceremony with a bugle call.  Following the raising of the flag, those in attendance joined together and sang "You're A Grand Old Flag".

The family at Grace is grateful for this wonderful gift.

Click here to read more about Hobie Vogt.

News from Cindy Patterson who moved, with her husband Art, up to Maryland two years ago:

Because we brought some of our puppies [in training to be service dogs] to church and received a lot of interest, I thought people might like to know that I just graduated with a service dog of my own.  He is a black lab/golden retriever mix named Karlyle.  He picks things up for me, opens and closes doors, and places himself across my lap to stop my attacks of tremors.

The email newsletter and the website look wonderful, and I enjoy keeping up with everyone through them.

I Would Trust Jesus is the name of a large "faux stained glass" banner created by artist Diana Barclay Knapp and given as a gift to Grace Lutheran Church of Melbourne Beach.    The 6 ft. by 3 ft. banner depicting Peter's attempt to walk on water (Matthew 14:28-33) took hundreds of hours of work over about two years to complete.  It now hangs in the fellowship hall, along with a smaller banner depicting Zachaeus in the sycamore tree, called I Would See Jesus.  The latter is on indefinite loan to Grace from the Knapp family.

Diana calls her fabric work "faux stained glass" because the iridescent fabrics reflect light and seem to "glow" in a fashion reminiscent of stained glass.  Her newest and largest work, in particular, seems to change in subtle ways as the lighting in the room changes throughout the day, as well as when an observer moves around it.  Diana has spent more than ten years of her career developing the technique, beginning with the I Would See Jesus piece, which closely copies a real stained glass window in a cathedral in Milan, Italy.

"While my husband was a seminary student in St. Louis, he was assigned to Hope Lutheran Church in Highland, Illinois, for his field work.    One day his supervising pastor dropped by our apartment to bring some material related to his fieldwork, and I was in the midst of my second experiment with the techniques I was trying," Diana explained.   "Rev. Laetsch asked if what I was doing might be applied to creating luminescent coverings for the clear glass windows of Hope's sanctuary."

Pastor Laetsch's interest led to a series of five 2 ft. by 4 ft. faux stained glass windows created using translucent colored papers.  The Hope windows depicted familiar Bible stories, including the Wedding at Cana, The Good Samaritan, and Peter Walking on Water, following woodcuts from Das Buch der Bücher in Bilden by a German Lutheran artist named Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld.  Before being installed in the windows at Hope, the initial I Would Trust Jesus was exhibited in the library of Concordia Seminary.

Learning of Diana's previous work with fabric art and faux stained glass, Deacon Beth Oakley asked Diana if she would be interested in "making a banner" to hang in the fellowship hall.  "I had no idea what I was asking for!" Beth said after seeing the finished work.

On July 22, we met in the Fellowship Hall for Movie Night.  We had an all-American menu of hot dogs, chips, corn, tomato, and bean salad, and all-American Swedish apple pie.  After supper we watched "Yankee Doodle Dandy" on the huge inflatable screen.  It was lots of fun!