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Bethany awards $10,500 to 17 entities

Greetings everyone,

Bethany Lutheran Church has a rich and vibrant history of supporting entities that further its mission. One way it does this is a yearly distribution of awards from its Endowment Fund. The Bethany Council on Sunday endorsed these gifts for 2017 totaling $10,500.

Coffee Oasis, $650

Compass  Housing Alliance, $500

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s hunger appeal effort, $1,000

Helpline House, $1,000

Morrow Manor, Poulsbo, $200

Support for Bainbridge’s liveaboard community, $500

Lutheran Community Services’ RSVP program, serving seniors, $1,000

Lutheran Peace Fellowship, $100

Bethany AED (Defibrilator) supplies, $300

Martha and Mary, $1,000

Neighbors in Faith, a program to increase understanding of different faith traditions, $500

NK Fishline, $750

NK High School Choir, $300

Paulinum Lutheran Seminary of Namibia, $500

Rachel Circle, $200

Reform Ride for Refugees, $1000

Church of Steadfast Love at the Compass Center, $1000

I have the honor of delivering the award to Paulinum Seminary in coming weeks, when I will visit the Lutheran church bodies in Namibia that support the seminary. I am grateful to the Bethany Endowment Committee for its generosity. Pictured are women in Namibia rejoicing our the companion relationship with the ELCA in 2010.

 - Rachel Pritchett

Bethany members prepare to leave for Namibia

Good morning, everyone

Did you know that Bethany has four members who soon will be in Namibia to work with other Lutherans and to attend the Lutheran World Federation assembly? This coming Saturday and Sunday during worship, myself, my husband Lloyd, and Dave and Trish Siburg will be blessed as we make final preparations for our visit. Thanks to Pastor Paul for doing that.

As chair of the Namibia Task Force of the Southwestern Washington Synod, I will lead a small team that will advance and sustain a longstanding ELCA companion relationship with the three Lutheran church bodies in Namibia. Besides Lloyd, members include Deacon Linda Walker of the New Jersey Synod and Stephanie Haselwood Armstrong of Elim Lutheran Church of Port Orchard. We’ll first attend the assembly, which celebrates the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation. We then will visit, worship and plan with representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia. After a safari at Etosha National Park, we’ll do the same work within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia. We’ll visit Paulinum seminary. And, we’ll give a formal greeting to the German Lutheran church. We hope to meet with a couple of key government officials. After that, we head to the German colonial town of Swakopmund on the coast.

The Siburgs will attend the assembly, and then take off on their own for a visit with the indigenous San people.

Please pray that all of us are good global representatives and that we are effective in furthering our companion relationship. Please pray for our safety in that vast desert country just north of South Africa.

Rachel Pritchett

P.S. Here's a photo of a malnourished boy I took in Namibia in 2010. I've thought and prayed for him many times since.