Pack the Pews....  With Donations to the Valley Outreach Food Shelf!

The Valley Outreach Food Shelf is giving more than 40,000 pounds of food to 400 families each month who reside within the Stillwater Area School District. About 50% of the individuals served are children, 20% are elderly, 10% are physically or mentally challenged, and the rest are adults who are either employed - sometimes at more than one job - or unemployed and unable to find work.  

March is Minnesota FoodShare month and the only time of the year when local food shelves (Valley Outreach Food Shelf) are awarded incentive dollars from the Minnesota Council of Churches as a result of the local donations of food and dollars.  In other words, the more food and money donated in March, the more resources will be available to the food shelf during the rest of the year. Donated food is weighed and matched at 100%.  Ten pounds of donated food will result in 10 additional pounds from the food bank.  

Financial donations to Valley Outreach Food Shelf go far to serve our neighbors in need. Through food bank partners, Emergency FoodShelf Network and Second Harvest Heartland, Valley Outreach Food Shelf is able to purchase between 6 to 9 times more food per dollar than can be purchased through retail grocery stores.  Your donated dollar can purchase so much more when spent by Valley Outreach!   

Please make your donation check to Ascension Church and put "food shelf" on the memo line. It can be dropped in Sunday's collection. Or you can bring bags of food directly to church!

Please bring your donation to Church and let's PACK the PEWS!

To see the items needed for the Valley Outreach Food Shelf please click here. 

Guatemala Mission Fundraiser

You can support Ascension's mission to the God's Child project in Guatemala this summer by participating in a Spring Plant sale.  The Guatemala team will be taking orders after both services for the next three Sundays (March 11th, 18th and 25th).  Order your spring bedding and container plants, perennials and hanging baskets. These are high-quality plants from Gerten's. Delivery in time for Mother's Day!  Visit our table in the parish hall after church!

Youth in the News

We have some exceptional youth here at Ascension and I would like to start mentioning to you all who they are and what they are doing:

• Ava Wichser:  She is an 8th grader in our youth program who has been accepted into the Harid Conservatory's prestigious summer ballet program in Boca Raton, Florida.
• Tait Delahunt:  Tait is a senior this year at Stillwater High School and has won 2 State Medals for swimming.  One for the 200 medley relay and the other for the 200 freestyle relay.
• Ellie Hands:  She does cross country skiing both classic and skate skiing for Mounds Park Academy and went up to Biwabik for the State Ski race.  She came home with a medal.  
• Gabi Danielson:  Gabi went to St. Mark's Cathedral for the big Youth Music Festival and won the Canon Small Award.  This is awarded to students that have great attitudes, come prepared and are just all around good sports.  Gabi is in the 5th grade at St. Croix Prep.

We will begin another rotation starting the beginning of March so this would be a great time to have your child jump in to Sunday school and learn about Eucharist. This month our teachers are Buff, Lynn & Allan, Monica Davis, Ann Denton and Susie & Eric Danielson. The same rotation goes for 3 weeks and we will take off the week that the Stillwater Schools are closed.  All children begin at 9:00 am up in Children's Chapel, hear a story and then move to their class.

Learning about Eucharist

This rotation is designed to teach children about Eucharist.  Every Sunday when we gather at the altar, we remember how Jesus gathered his friends together for a special supper.  We remember how Jesus dies and then rose from the dead and we celebrate all the ways that God loves and provides for us.  This is a class about learning why we do the same thing every Sunday, names of all of the items, make some bread, wash some feet and listen to our prayers.  If your child does not receive Eucharist, this would be a great time to come and explore with Buff and Mindy.  All are welcome at our table.

UNITED FOR ALL FAMILIES

Several members of Ascension, including me, were privileged to work a shift making some of the sweetest phone calls to perfect strangers that I have ever made.  Our goal was to get people thinking on the subject of the proposed state constitutional amendment we will vote on in November which would restrict the definition of marriage to between a man and a woman.  

What really surprised me was the fantastic approach that Minnesotans United for All Families urged us to take in our work that evening.  We asked leading questions, simply inviting people to examine their feelings on the subject.  The amazing part was that when people did stop to think why exactly they felt the way they did, the prejudices and the fronts sometimes came down with little or no effort.  I heard multiple "I guess I never really thought about it before" statements.  People weren't hostile or scary.  They weren't even mad that I was calling them in the evening and at home.

People thanked me for calling.   

submitted by Amy Schwantes

On our recent trip to China we had many cultural experiences.  Observing the breadth of the exercise movement was enlightening.  It seemed in every park, or open public space, groups of people were moving to music.  Some groups were dancing.  Others did aerobics, worked on simple machines, or moved through obstacle courses.  Of course, we saw people of all ages participating in the gentle movements of Tai Chi. We were especially impressed with the number of older Chinese (retirees perhaps) gracefully moving in unison through the slow poses.  It looked almost effortless.   

When we were given the opportunity to work with a Tai Chi master in the courtyard of our hotel in Xi'an, we were eager to do so.   

We met in the open courtyard of the hotel with waterfalls, swimming swans, and prancing peacocks adding to the beauty and serenity.  The master was a quiet, gentle man with a beautiful smile and no English.  In spite of the language barrier he was able to demonstrate the moves we were to imitate, and he watched us in the windows of the hotel.  Then he came around to us individually and corrected our positions.  He would smile his approval as we kept trying to match his moves.  At the end of half an hour we knew we had done some active stretching though we at no time felt out of breath or taxed beyond our abilities.  It felt so good.  The next morning two of us met again with the master as he went through his routine, and again he smilingly led us through some basic exercises. This experience was a cultural highlight.

Tai Chi seems such a gentle and graceful way to keep the body moving and flexible at any age.  We would encourage Ascension members to give it a try.

Aggie and Rick Sewall

I was homeless...

More than 13,000 Minnesotans are homeless on any given night, including nearly 4.000 children. (Source: Wilder Foundation)

Half of homeless children are 5 years old or younger.  (Source: Wilder Foundation)

... and you built me a house.

Volunteers across Minnesota will work with ECS' EpiscoBuilders to build two houses - one in Brooklyn Park and the other in White Earth. This ambitious goal will require many individuals to donate their time, talents, and to help raise the funds it takes - around $125,000.

Youth volunteers 14 yrs and up from Ascension in Stillwater and St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis will work together with ECS' EpiscoBuilders to help build a house in White Earth, MN June 24 - June 28, 2012. 

If you would like to participate in this mission experience please fill out the sign up form and return to Mindy by Sunday, April 16 with a $40 deposit.  Trip includes transportation, gas, food, lodging, hard work and community. Total cost is $80.

Additional donations to Mission 2012 for the building of the house are needed and appreciated.

Please see Mindy for a sign up form. 

   Vacation Bible School and Mission Trip Dates

Holy Week Schedule:  Nursery Opened for all services

• Tues. 4/3, Healing Service, 7:00-8:00pm
• Wed. 4/4, Tenebrae,  7:00-8:00pm
• Thurs. 4/5, Maundy Thursday, 7:00-8:00pm
• Fri. 4/6, Stations of the Cross & Good Friday service,       Stations,5:00 to 6:00, Service, 7:00-8:00pm
• Sat. 4/7, Easter Vigil, 8:00-9:00pm

Easter Sunday, Services at 9:00 and 11:00am.   

There is No Sunday school on Easter Sunday.

Second Annual Bishop's Family Day

"Walking the Liturgical Calendar"

Saturday, April 21

10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.