Our FELC Young Adults group will be providing the Tailgate Tuesday dinner at Lutheran Campus Ministry at UT (LuMin) on May 3. Tailgate Tuesday is a ministry of LuMin providing a free dinner to UT students, serving over 300 each week.
Prep for the dinner will begin at 3 PM. Service is from 5 to 7 PM. Cleanup after that. Any young adults wanting to participate should contact Pastor Coffey and indicate what time they plan to arrive.
This will be a fun, first service event for our young adults group — more to come!
Only the best French musicians were members of the musique de chambre, Louis XIV’s personal, private retinue of musicians who performed for him in his personal chambers. Louis’s highly choreographed day was capped off by the coucher, a set of ceremonies that surrounded the king’s evening meal and bedtime. There was always music, and over the years the coucher brought together such illustrious musicians as Lully, Marais, Couperin, and Rebel. Ausitn Baroque Orchestra, with the leadership of Artistic Director Billy Traylor, recapture what a musical evening in Louis’s innermost chambers may have been like, presenting music by the king’s favorites in sets interspersed with brief readings from diaries written at Versailles during Louis’s life. Join us – it’ll be très magnifique!
On Saturday afternoon, April 23, FELC friends, family, neighbors, and newcomers gathered for our longest-running social event (since 1964): our annual chicken BBQ! A menu of chicken, beans, potato salad, and tea was served to over 70 folks. Kids and parents enjoyed a visit to our neighborhood fire station, and the firefighters joined us for some BBQ. We are grateful to our crews for the leadership they offer.
BBQ Pit Masters: Randy Baden, Tim Atkinson, Derek Bridges, Joel Baden, Charlie Boas, Colin Coffey, Adam Mays, Sean Peterson, Terry Porter;
Chicken Washers: Charlie Boas, Larry Collmann, Sean Peterson;
Kitchen preparing chickens and BBQ sauce: Charlie Boas, Sean Peterson
Kitchen preparing potato salad: Trish Karli, Tessa Baden, Kate Baden VanDellan, Anne Wiebe
Kitchen preparing beans and iced tea: Nancy Baden;
Provided boiled eggs: Henri Atkinson, Fran Collmann, Merrily Porter, Barbara Wiederaenders, LaRu Woody;
What a joy to celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We invite you to view our First English Lutheran Austin Texas Facebook page for more scenes from Holy Week & Easter Day. Hundreds of folks gathered online and onsite from Palm Sunday through Easter Day. Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
And God said let there be light. And there was. And then the lighting contractors mistakenly took away all the lights when they were only supposed to take the uplights. And it was very dark. And then they fixed their mistake. AND now returned the repaired uplights. And there is even more light. And it is good! Our thanks to Heidi Goebel for coordinating with our lighting company.
Join us as we celebrate the good news of the resurrection of Christ. Since we are not having an Easter Vigil this year, we will incorporate parts of the Vigil liturgy in our Easter Sunday worship.
Flowering of the cross before worship (bring your flowers!)
We will have a fun Easter Egg hunt for all the little ones on Easter Sunday, April 17, during hospitality following worship. Remember it’s BYOB: Bring Your Own Basket!
We are more than a day care: we are a Child Development Center. The First English Lutheran Church Child Development Center is a nurturing place that will care for each child, ensure their happiness, and teach them to interact with others. The Center strives to create an atmosphere in which a child is respected as an individual. Our mission is to provide a quality experience that helps each child develop physically, socially, and emotionally. The Center is a Texas Rising Star 4-Star Provider. We have served the community as an outreach program of First English Lutheran Church since 1972 for children ages 18 months to 5 years.The Center is full-day and year-round. We are served by staff and also a board of directors comprised of parents of current students and also FELC members. Members include Sean Peterson (president), Nancy Baden (secretary), Michele Hockett Cooper, Monica Lund (treasurer), and Elizabeth Zimmermann.
Here’s a letter from our director:
April 7, 2022
Hi everyone,
First English Lutheran Child Development Center is strong in 2022. Keeping our doors open since July 2020 has been no easy feat. We have been successful because of the amazing cooperation of our families and the hard work of our staff.
A main priority is to keep everyone safe. I’m incredibly proud to say we have had zero cases of community spread, and only needed to close a classroom one time. We continue to abide by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Austin Public Health guidelines. We wear a mask in the building which provides safety for all our children and staff. This is also important given the limited access for children to receive vaccines. Extra cleaning protocols also support our community health.
Our classrooms are at capacity. Though we continue to be down one classroom given significant issues with hiring, we look forward to strong enrollment in the fall. If you know of any candidates looking for roles in child development, please send them our way!
Our balance sheet is healthy going into next year. We’ve benefited from several community and government grants. We had a successful fundraiser by current and former FELCDC families. This year we hope to make improvements to the playground, HVAC, and work on other projects.
After two years of this pandemic, we hope that the trend towards a semblance of normalcy continues!
Thank you for all your support especially during this unprecedented time. I continue to have so much gratitude for the families and community that has been built around FELCDC!
On Sunday, April 3, the FELC team of Brian, Cassi, Anne, Meiling, and Sarah served folks at the Micah 6 ministry center.
The Micah 6 Street Youth program is a series of services supporting young adults 30 and younger who are street dependent. Housed in University Baptist Church (UBC) near the UT campus, there are drop-in times on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Computer labs, a hot, home cooked meal, snacks, basic clothing, TV, a laundry, and toiletries are provided. Together, the Micah 6 partner churches, including First English, and additional individuals have served more than 10,000 meals in ten years. A safe place out of the elements and some essential services (that most of us take for granted!) is a keystone of this ministry.
In addition to providing financial support to the Micah 6 ministries, First English is a consistent participant in the Sunday afternoon/evening meal provided to the young people.
You can be a part of this ministry by preparing food or volunteering to serve the meal. The food need not be home-cooked; store-bought dishes are welcome. Any level of participation is appreciated.
Meals are served on Sunday afternoons at 4:00 pm and are delivered in the circle drive at UBC. Someone will be there to take your dish or we can even meet you somewhere else if that’s more convenient. Our next date will be Sunday, June 19 with head chef Anne Wiebe.
Please contact Heidi Goebel Heidigoebel@sbcglobal.net or Merrily Porter msporter58@gmail.com if you can cook and/or serve or if you just want to discuss this ministry. We’d be happy to talk about it or answer any questions. Thank you for your continued advocacy and prayers on behalf of those in our neighborhood.
Young adults at FELC met with the vicar and pastor for a great dinner at Hula Hut on April 4. In addition to getting to know each other, sharing stories of dumb things we have done, and enjoying a great dinner, we discussed ideas for service projects to do together. Plans are underway… more information is coming soon.
