HELP for ECHO

ECHO Needs St. Mark’s Help … ECHO’s need for food donations continue! St. Mark’s has not held a food drive for ECHO this year, and as summer approaches, ECHO needs our help. There will be grocery bags in the narthex on June 30 with lengthy lists of needs attached. Please take a bag and purchase some items from the attached lists to assure your donations fill ECHO’s needs. The lists are long; but whatever you can donate will help ECHO and be much appreciated.

ITEMS FOR BACKPACKS NEEDED … CLICK HERE AND HERE TO LEARN MORE!!!

Donations that cost ZERO … click HERE for info …

Click HERE to see how Target shoppers can help raise funds for ECHO …

Click HERE to find out what to do for a “Food Donation Option When You Can’t Come to ECHO”

ECHO desperately needs your help to help fill the shelves of their Food Pantry … Need info on donating? Call 703-569-7972 or go to https://www.echo-inc.org/needed-right-now for their current needs.

Need help? Call 703-569-9160 … To find out what ECHO has to offer its clients, click HERE for English and HERE for Spanish.

Donation Hours
M, Tu, W, Th, F - 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Tu, W, Th - 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Pull POP tabs from Soda Cans!

… and place them in the narthex in the container shown at the left! Cindy Hausch-Booth is collecting pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House Charities, Greater Washington, DC! It's just so simple! Pop tabs are easy to collect and store and are less messy than collecting entire cans, and there is more concentrated aluminum in these tabs than in the cans, so we can get more money for something a lot smaller! 100% of the money we earn is used to offset the cost between the amount families are able to donate for their stay and our actual operating costs—a difference of about $197 a night. You can easily see that the little pull tab you used to throw away is very valuable to the guest families at our Houses.

Thank you for helping RMHCDC by “Pulling for the House!” Your pop tabs make a difference!

Don’t Let Your Giant Reward Points Expire!

Do you know you can use your points for other products besides gas? Right now you can get a dozen eggs for 200 points. If you don’t need them, or only need a half dozen, please consider donating them to Food For Others. Just mark the container as FFO and leave in the kitchen refrigerator. Thank you!

Funerals and Memorials Info

St. Mark’s website now have a separate informational webpage for upcoming funerals and memorials. See it at https://www.stmarks-elca.org/funerals-memorials-info.

🎶🎶  Calling All Interested
Singers AND RINGERS  🎶🎶

EVERY THURSDAY …

Bell Choir rehearses at 6:45 PM to 8:00 PM

Chancel Choir rehearses 8-9:30pm in Sanctuary

Karen Randall, Choral Director,
Music@stmarks-elca.org

Alice Real, Handbell Director,
Handbell@stmarks-elca.org

Second Quarter Benevolence: CAROLINE FURNACE AND MAR-LU-RIDGE

Contributions from you to St. Mark’s benevolence fund for the 2nd quarter of 2024 will be directed to local Lutheran campsites, Caroline Furnace and Mar-Lu-Ridge.

See also “the latest info” on our Q2 benevolence on our Quarterly Benevolence webpage.

ESOL Classes at St. Mark's

Classes in the fall began Tuesday, September 12, 2023. Classes are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 PM-8:30 PM; cost of books is $45. There is a need for ESOL teachers as well as volunteers to provide childcare (perhaps high school students who need community service hours).

For more information, contact Yvette Moy at at ymoy@stmarks-elca.org.

Save the Date!
Community Health Fair—August 17

St. Mark’s continues to focus our attention on loving our neighbors. Our annual community health fair, supported by Fairfax County, will be held on Saturday, August 17, 2024, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM. 

* Upcoming MUSIC EVENTS AT ST. MARK'S *

June 30 9:45 AM Service … Chris Michaelsen's Final Sunday as organist before retirement
Reception following Service

Community Meals Are Back!

We resumed our Community Meals, which were halted due to the pandemic, on Sunday, February 4 at 1:30 PM. We started slow with meals only on the first Sunday of the month. We will also not be meeting in the evening as we had been previously but at 1:30 PM immediately following the Spanish service. 

Our July Community meal that follows the Spanish service will not take place on its regular first Sunday of the month in light of the 4th of July weekend. It is being moved to July 14. We look forward to seeing everyone there. 

What do we need? To start, (1) we need volunteers; and (2) we need prayers that God will (a) give us strength and wisdom as we recommence this effort, and (b) bless our efforts to satisfy not only physical hunger but real spiritual need.

Flower Committee

The Flower Committee needs new members. If you are interested in joining the flower committee to help “dress” the altar on Sundays, please contact Trudy Stellar. We will be happy to train you. Click HERE for more information!

2024 Flower Deditations: Click HERE for the form to dedicate flowers or one or more Sundays in 2024!

Flower Ministry

On Mondays and Tuesdays the Flower Ministry team delivers small arrangements made from the altar flowers to St. Mark's members who are sick or housebound. We are in need of more volunteers to deliver. Please contact Lance Quesenberry lques48@gmail.com or call 703-401-1500 if you would like to volunteer or would like to ask questions.

Military Packages for Late June/Early July

We were considering taking a few weeks off from sending packages—you are always so generous, so we were going to give you a break. But then we got word (from the Love in a Box team, LIAB, who send packages to deployed Marines) about some Marines who are in a very precarious situation.

Click HERE to read their message … You can donate anytime in the military packages box near the elevator on the second floor; this Sunday morning, the box will be in the narthex. Or, if you prefer, you could instead donate funds and we will buy items to send, so you do not have to venture out in this heat!

Thank you, as always, for your generosity and your prayers—it sounds like this deployed group of Marines is in particular need of knowing we are thinking of them, praying for them.

YOU ARE INVITED …

** The Prayer Ministry invites anyone who is interested in committing to a renewed prayer life at St. Mark's to join us on Sundays after the service at 11:00 AM in the Fellowship Hall. Learn more HERE!!!

** Also, the "Watch and Pray" Lunch Bunch is scheduled for Tuesdays at NOON in the Fellowship Hall. Bring a bag lunch and come to share in prayer, food, and fellowship. All are welcome. Contact Ken Anderson for information.

** Everyone is invited to join the on-going Wednesday morning (10:00) “Watch and Pray” meeting via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/894781064 (password 5800) 

For questions or more information contact Raelene Long (llong41@verizon.net) or Cherry Moser (clmoser@cox.net).

Food For Others is in need of extra food—and extra people on Tuesday evenings. Please bring non-parishable food to the Narthex.
Thank you!

The last several weeks, we have been seeing a big surge in demand for our FFO food distribution on Tuesdays. Our FFO pantry helps to provide protein in our food distribution and to provide food when all the fresh food runs out. The goods donated by the supermarkets are primarily fruits, vegetables, and carbohydrates, not protein. Your monetary contributions will help us purchase many identical canned goods so they can be efficiently stored.

The increase in demand for our FFO distribution is taxing on the teams who receive, organize, and distribute the items. If you can spare a few hours on a Tuesday afternoon at 5:00 PM-6:30 PM, please consider helping one of our four FFO teams. No experience necessary. If you can help, even just one week, it will help us navigate this surge we are experiencing in demand. For further questions, please contact Debbie Brown, Nan Ackerman, or anybody you know who participates in our FFO teams. 

We are again running low on our empty egg carton supply. If you have empty egg cartons, please bring them to church again!

Please place your donations in the box in the narthex.