June 21st, 2026
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Lagers with the Lord, June 22nd, 6 pm at Buckshot’s.
Fellowship Servers needed for the summer! Please sign-up in the Narthex or call the office if you are willing to serve!
TACO’S FOR KIDS! Starting on July 7th, every Tuesday until August 17th, we are going to be doing Taco’s for Kids! We will be making 25 beef & cheese tacos and 25 beans and rice tacos every Tuesday for the youth of our community, along with some apple slices and cheese sticks, to hand out, as a way to provide some sustenance during summer when many of our youth don’t often have a reliable source of food. These are simple taco’s that provide a delicious snack to help our vulnerable youth. So what can you do? You can sign-up to come help put the taco’s together at 11 am on those Tuesday’s. If you want, you can even provide the Taco meat at home and bring it here for us to use it in the taco’s. Then, come help us hand it out from Noon to 2 pm over on Main Street by the library. Questions? See Pastor Brad or Heidi Kothrade and more importantly sign up in the Narthex or call the church office to sign-up.
The Women of Trinity is currently updating the Service Groups. Please share with the office any updated phone numbers. Also, we are looking for volunteers to help call people to help serve for funerals. Please contact Heidi Kothrade, Sandy Wheeler, or Deb Holmlund if you are willing to be a caller.
No Wednesday worship on July 1st!
Women of Trinity will be highlighting baby care kits for the months of May and June. If you are going to garage sales this summer these are some of the items we need: size 6-24 months – sleepers or gowns, cotton t-shirts, light jackets, sweaters or hooded sweatshirts, receiving blankets, dark colored hand towels and baby socks. We can also use Onsies, we cut them off to make t-shirts. You can pick up a list of what is needed in the Narthex. Thank you for helping us help others!
Vacation Bible School July 13th-17th, 9 am till Noon, for all youth 4 years old through 6th grade. Completely free! Run by Luther Park Bible Camp. See the attached registration form. Fill out and return to church so we know how many youth to expect. Looking for snacks and snack helpers. See sign-up in the Narthex or call the church office to sign-up.
Looking for mowers! See the sign-up sheet in the Narthex to mow the church lawn this spring and summer!
You can use Venmo to make your gift to Trinity! You can find us using: @TrinityLutheranBoyceville. If it asks you for a phone number, use 1349
MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD
I’ve been thinking about my Dad a lot lately. Maybe it is because I’m turning 50 or because today is Father’s Day, but he has been popping into my head a lot in recent weeks. But not just things about him, but one of his favorite quotes, his “philosophy of life” if you will. I’m going to share that a bit later, but it came back a major way as we drove through the middle on the night from Denver having left our Mission Trip early.
We left early due to sickness. Illness had hit our Mission Trip site hard, and we made difficult decision to leave early for the safety of the group. There were no good choices, and we made the best decision we could. But as we drove through the night, I couldn’t help but be filled with a sense of grief. Profound grief. Grief over those youth and adults who were suffering from illness. Grief over those in other groups were suffering. Grief over the mission partners with Youthworks who would no longer get to have us, and the other church groups who had already left, come to do service for them and serve the people of Denver. And huge grief for our kids who were missing out on the opportunity and experience of serving. Grief at what could have been.
See, they had been SO GREAT. It was shaping up to be one of the best Mission Trips in our history in terms of kids just getting it. They had jumped in early, immediately bonding with the youth from other churches. They had understand the assignment if you would and on the first full day all of the adults had reported that they had been amazing out serving. In their sharing that night you could tell they were locked in. My Crew, Mile High, which literally walked the streets of Denver on that first day engaging with the homeless, were stepping up in a huge way on Monday and on Tuesday they were super awesome as they played games with residents in a long-term care facility and were pumped to lead them in a party for Thursday. Even those that had some harder conditions on Tuesday reported great morale and a sense of purpose. They were looking forward to service, not dreading it. It is what I, as a trip leader on these things, dream of. Then the sickness hit and a few hours later, we were gone.
And that was why I was full of grief. Mission Trips transform lives, not just in terms of the people we serve, but the lives of those who are doing the serving. They learn about themselves and they see God in action in and through them. They see that faith means something in a powerful way. They watch as hope makes a real difference, a hope that comes through Jesus Christ. And they could start to see that happening. And it was easy, so very easy, as we drove away, to only think about what we had lost. What we were not going to experience anymore.
And then I thought about my Dad. And I thought about these words he carried around in his wallet: “This is the beginning of a new day. I have been given this day to use as I will. I will use it for good, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, and not loss; good, and not evil; success, and not failure; in order that I shall rejoice in the price that I paid for it.”
Yes, our days were short. But the trip was not a failure. These kids touched lives, however briefly. And they were touched and impacted. I guarantee that everyone in my group will never forget Daniel’s story, one of the workers at Denver Dream Center. I know that many will not forget the feeling of God’s awesomeness as we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park. These kids know, however brief, that God was at work in and through them in Denver. They traded a few days in Denver and those days were successes and that is all that matters. Not how it ended but what they did with the days they had. I will forever be incredibly proud of them, each of them, not only in how they served but also in how they handled the adversity at the end. I will be immensely grateful for the leadership of our adult leaders and their partnership as we had to make hard choices. I am thankful for the healing of our Savior Jesus Christ who watched over us on our drive back and who healed those in our group and watched over them.
It is easy to wonder what might have been. But I am grateful for what was and will cherish that time and all these servants of the Lord that answered the call. My prayer is that, in time, our focus will be less on the ending and instead on the memories of what we did while we were there. I’m thinking of Vicky’s eyes at the nursing home when she really liked something or Jerry kicking our butts at Uno. I’m thinking of hearing Zach’s story as we walked the streets or praying with Gerald on the street corner. I’m thinking of my whole van having Del Taco after showers or the crew going to Dutch Brothers for drinks and the stories of the kids as they came back from their service and Lydia and LillyAnn leading YeaGod’s during the Gathering and playing Hacky Sack with the boys and doing Church Clap with the girls and Christina forgetting to put our lunches in our cooler and me giving Lenny a big hug when I wasn’t supposed to. And my heart rejoices and I give thanks to God. Because, in the end, it is those memories that really matter the most and I hope they will matter the most to our kids.
May God bless you today and always.
Picture of the Day
