HTLChronicles

One Last Team


Photo credit: Mike Bartusek.
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Generosity Overflows

Holy Trinity is a generous congregation and gives away 10% of its annual income. The Mission Outreach team determines how the congregational tithe is gifted. Highlighted in the “CYF Happenings” section of the November 18, 2022 HTLConnections, the 7th grade Group 3 Confirmation students earned $1000 from the Mission Outreach team in the annual “Confirmation Giving Challenge”. The team was impressed with the students’ commitment to hand-delivering the $1000 donation and volunteer at FMSC to pack meal kits.
Smack dab in the middle of winter break, the 7th grade Group 3 students invited their Confirmation friends to join them on Wednesday, Dec. 28. Confirmation mentor Jamie Sticha comments, “We extended an open invitation to our Confirmation friends and had a group of 16. What an awesome way to share God’s love from one generation to the next!”





Jamie’s commitment to Children, Youth & Family (CYF) Ministry spans over a decade. “Sarah Becher and I led the Sunday School program for a few years after the split, and I was a member of the CYF Committee. I led my middle son’s confirmation small group for three years, and now I’m leading my youngest son’s small group. It’s such an awesome experience to be part of a young person’s faith formation. It’s another way for me to be connected to my kids, too! I usually learn something every week!”

Jamie was impressed with Ron’s dedication to the confirmation students. She recalls, “he actually drove to FMSC to let them know we were presenting their organization and to get additional information about their mission. They let him bring back a food pack & hair nets to add to our presentation. The students have great respect for him, and I absolutely LOVE partnering with Ron!”
With the help of dozens of other volunteers, 26,784 meals were packed during the almost two-hour shift. This effort will feed 73 children for a year. Holy Trinity’s contribution of $1000 was matched by FMSC “to produce meals to feed 8,333 children for one day,” Ron states.
Overall, the students enjoyed working together and trying different jobs. According to Jamie, the students shared that the experience ended up being more fun than they expected and they felt God working through them.
Thank you, Jamie Sticha, Ron Solheim, 7th grade Confirmation Group 3 (and friends), and HTLC Mission Outreach team for your generosity and for making a difference in the lives of others!
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Getting Ready With Scraps of Love

A quilt. Yes, even teenage boys appreciate quilts made with love.







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Compline


Who is that?

Just Be
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Community Gathering For All









Another thing that hasn’t changed since the beginning of RibFest is the fact that this is a FREE community event. There is no charge to attend. Some people stop by to listen to some music and have a beverage before making the choice to eat a meal. However, this year, food will only be served between 5 – 7 pm, so music lovers will have to make their decision early. Meal tickets are sold at the gated entrance of the front yard (near door 1 of the building). For volunteers, it’s the best gig all year!
Holy Trinity’s Executive Council Team was brainstorming about how to make RibFest “bigger and better”, and how to raise money for all of the new Strategic Plan 2.0 initiatives. Council President, Jackie Mackenthun, shares, “I’ve been to a lot of silent auctions and think they are a lot of fun. We have around 30 items so far and would love some more.” She says the biggest ticket item donated so far is from the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. Jackie hopes to see some donations for a family game night, day at the beach or a “gym rat” basket. “Holy Trinity has so many great teams and projects going on! The primary focus of the Silent Auction is to help raise money for the Strategic 2.0 initiatives, but so many other groups will indirectly benefit as a result of all of these ideas. Peace Garden, Racial Justice Team, Endowment Fund, and Youth Groups. So many great things to be excited for!”

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Brown Bags From Heaven







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The Little Free Pantry That Could


The original Little Free Pantry

The Little Free Pantry for household items

Liz Nelson fills the Little Free Food Pantry

Brody D., one of many Confirmation students committed to serving New Prague families, fills the pantry earlier this month.
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Tying It All Together

Broken to Beautiful



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Learning to Step Up



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The Beat Goes On



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Welcome, Lauren!


Pastor Alicia & Pastor Ben serving at Bethel Lutheran in Hudson, WI (2013).



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Share the Love

Years of Giving
The Gift that Keeps on Giving


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Fresh Look Welcomes All

Holy Trinity installed a new digital sign this past week. A project sparked by the love of Dennis Jasperson for his late wife and his church. As a long-time member, Jasperson wanted to find a way for his late wife Dorothy to remain a part of Holy Trinity. A way she can continue to welcome people to the church she loved.
“When we did the church visits [in February 2020], I came to the realization all these churches that were doing well had electronic signs. I knew there was talk in the past about this and I thought it would be a good time to bring it up,” says Jasperson, holding his steaming cup of coffee on a warm August morning. “I wanted to contribute, get it started, and hope that people would support it.”
So, in spring 2021, he and his family made a sizable donation in her name toward the construction of a new digital sign. It is important to them, however, that the sign reflects the vision of the congregation. “I didn’t want it to be a sign that I was saying what size or shape. I want it to be whatever the people want.”
Holy Trinity responded by inviting the congregation to a series of open meetings led by council member Mark Walser. From there, a committee formed to make Dennis’ hope a reality.
This was an important project for Walser whose kids enjoyed playing with Dorothy. After researching several companies who make electronic signs, he invited two of them to give a presentation to the committee. Walser was clear about wanting the input of the congregation. “I don’t want to spend people’s money without the support of the congregation.” The source of the sign was also important. “This is a quality sign, manufactured in the U.S, with design controlled in the U.S.”
For Jasperson, the sign is more than a communication tool. “It’s not about being boastful. It’s about letting people know what we’re about. There’s a place for them here. They are welcome and maybe we can provide what they’re looking for.”
A special congregational meeting was held in-person and via Zoom on September 12. After a presentation by Walser and a tearfilled speech by Jasperson, the vote to purchase the sign quickly passed. Employing a “Pixels to Panels” sponsorship campaign, Holy Trinity had enough funds to make the down payment which ensured the installation of the sign before Christmas by the end of September. Less than two weeks later, the digital sign was fully funded. Surprised by the speed of the fundraising efforts, congregational member Pat Remfert summarized, “We have a lot of passionate, committed and giving people in our congregation.”




Some people say this double rainbow was Dorothy Jasperson giving her sign of approval. Tell us what you think in the comments!
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More Than A Tree

Christmas Angels

Lydia & Ellen Popple ~ 2004

2018

2019
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All are Welcome

Holy Trinity to Continue Annual Thanksgiving Meal

Unflappable Donna
Legacy of the Endowment Fund
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The Garden and the Town


The Idea of Community

Last summer, Rotary was awarded the full grant of $10,000 for a Peace Garden from SMIF. Along with Rotary’s $2500 donation, they have a sizable head start on raising money for the plants and lumber. The Peace Garden, named after the Peace Center, will be built and maintained by members of the community to help those in need have better access to healthier options.
“This is small-town living at its best,” says HTLC Pastor Ben Hilding, also in the Rotary Club. “The Rotary principle motto is ‘Service above Self.’”
Pastor Ben is also impressed with the different organizations getting involved. The Boy Scouts offered service hours to help. The City of New Prague gave advice, support, and feedback on the location. The Green Team at New Prague High School expressed interest in collaborating. And local businessman Nick Slavik agreed to help with the build and coordination of the project.
“In a sentence? I can’t wait!” says Rita Goggins, Volunteer Services Coordinator of the Peace Center. “I’m excited the community has come together to think of us. It’s so helpful when they are behind us.”
Goggins and the volunteers at the Peace Center, supported by the Mayo Clinic, strive to provide their clients with the healthiest food possible. “We want to provide year-round the best possible food,” she says. “Fresh fruits and vegetables are always a need and a want. This will make it easier to provide the best food possible. And I love the community piece, the relationships.”
God is in the Details
The Peace Garden will be planted in Spring 2022, in the southeast corner of the parking lot in front of the trees. (For those directionally-challenged like me, that’s to the right of the Prayer Garden.) The beds will be elevated to make it easier on volunteers, especially those at Praha Village. All food grown will go to providing the clients of the Peace Center with healthier options.
How Can I Help?
“If people are interested in participating on any level, the planning of the garden, the building, the planting, maintaining, harvesting… all of that we need help with,” says Dohm. “But I don’t want to solicit people’s assistance and make them feel it’s long-term. You can even help for an hour.” Email Dohm (admin@newpraguerotary.com) to offer your services, sign up for the Garden Committee, or to ask questions.
The price of lumber rose significantly last year so donations are also appreciated. “Donations will go towards making it more accessible for those at Praha Village, making it a more personal space.” says Goldade. The New Prague Rotary Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3), so all donations are tax deductible. Checks can be made to the New Prague Rotary Foundation and mailed to PO Box 92, New Prague, MN 56071. “We’re even working on getting Venmo!” says Dohm.
The End
“We are so grateful to HTLC for the gift of the land usage in order to initiate this project,” says Dohm. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t even have been a remote possibility.”
Goldade is now on the board of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, but he does not participate in the grant committees. It is his job, along with many others, to make people aware of these available grants. He remains passionate about helping his neighbors, his community.
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From Dolls to Meals

HTLC Member Honors Parents With Gifts for Children
These staggering facts led HTLC member Sande Schoenecker to make a memorial gift in honor of her parents for the continued purchase of cuddle+kind dolls.

The Joy of Giving
“My father was able to leave money for his five children,” Schoenecker says. “When we received it, I encouraged my siblings to follow our parents’ example and tithe the money. It was a really fun thing to do! I got to think about where I wanted this money to go.”
Why Do We Give Dolls?
HTLC began giving the dolls to children at baptism, along with a prayer shawl, several years ago. For every doll purchased, cuddle+kind provides 10 meals to children in need through partnerships with multiple humanitarian agencies around the world. The agencies are sensitive to the needs of the community and provide aid in a manner they feel is best.
Jen and Derek Woodgate founded cuddle+kind in September 2015 after watching a documentary about the impact of hunger on developing children around the world. To date, they have given over 7.5 million meals to kids in need in 66 countries. Their goal is to provide 1 million meals each year. The Woodgates are particularly interested in helping female children.
According to their website,“Empowering girls is the key to healthier communities. Girls with more education have fewer children, have them later in life and are better prepared to care for and educate them. Studies have shown that a woman’s education contributed to 43% of the reduction in child malnutrition over time.”
The handmade dolls themselves also provide income for women in Peru. “We are proud to support over 750 artisans with sustainable, equitable, fair trade employment. We ensure that rural working mothers have access to flexible hours and are paid fairly for their work. This allows our knitters to care for their families, plan for their futures and for many, it brings meaningful change to their lives.”
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What’s a Huddle?


These teams will meet every two to four weeks to learn from various speakers and brainstorm ideas for the future. They will also meet monthly with the pastors to update them. Their final recommendations will be presented to the congregation in April/May 2022.
Remfert enjoys seeing new sides of people. “I’m always amazed to see the hidden skill sets that people have. We just have to let them use them. I hear people and think, ‘I didn’t know you knew how to do that!’ That’s how we make progress.”
Strat Plan 2.0 a close cousin to 1.0
CYF Team Lead Jay Schoenebeck feels the Strategic Plan 2.0 is strongly connected to the first. “I don’t consider them separate. A lot of those stakeholders who were involved in the 1.0 Plan came up with successful initiatives we are currently using,” he says. “We have to look at the good things that came from this Digital Reformation. All the changes that came like remote learning, Zooming for meetings. Outside factors influence how we do things. This is a natural time to look at ministries and make sure they align.”
Facilities Team Lead Jackie Lee feels it will be crucial to work with the other teams. “It’s not only the building [that is our focus] but I think that it’ll be important for us to listen to the other Strategic 2.0 teams, such as the Worship and CYF teams. They may have ideas that will require us to circle back on our thoughts.”
Lee is interested in determining how the Facilities Team can support the mission of the church. “I’m most excited how we as a facilities team can go back to the Vision, Mission and Values statement that was completed for the Vision 2020 and see exactly how facilities lie in helping live out that vision. Because if you read the Vision, Mission and Values statement there is no direct mention of facilities, but it is intertwined in all of them.”
“Being a welcoming church to ALL, no matter what, is very important to me,” says Welcome Team Lead Jamie Sticha. Her process: “We will meet to ground ourselves in the Mission / Vision / Values, honor the Strategic Plan 1.0, interview people who represent what it means to be welcoming and come up with a few recommendations for the church to consider.”
Chair Pat Remfert is excited about this process. “This is fun work! This is not figuring out how to close the church! This is figuring out how to do the Vision 2020. If we skip a generation, we’re done. It’s up to us to make sure we have the energy to ‘share God’s love to all people from one generation to the next.’”
Here are a few questions we’ve been getting:
How are we funding this?
In July, we announced we received the reKindle Congregational Development Program grant of $15,000 from Columbia Theological Seminary.
Will I be asked to volunteer?
Only if you want to. “We really try to work hard at being open, transparent. We’re trying to engage as many people in the congregation as we could to understand their skill sets. Get their ideas.” says Remfert. But volunteering will be voluntary, not “voluntold.”
Why should I come to the Huddle?
“Information helps us make informed decisions,” says Remfert. And Donna, Hospitality Coordinator, will be cooking.
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The Gift of Welcome

Holy Trinity now sports a pair of stylish chairs, a small conference table, and a safe railing in front of the new office wing thanks to a memorial gift from Ron Soheim and family.
Ron and his late wife Linda Solheim were married for 47 and a half years. “From the time we said ‘I do,’ we were married for 17,397 days.”
He remembers seeing her and wanting to know her name, if she was single. He bought her a coffee and asked her to dinner. “The first time we went out was August 12. Our first date was at Barnacle Bar at Frontier Dinner Theater (now Chanhassen Dinner Theatre) on August 12. We were engaged by August 24. Twelve days later. My pastor met her and said ‘You two are truly soulmates. You are meant to be together.’”
Ron and Linda moved from Chanhassen to New Prague on June 2, 2021 to be closer to family. But they also moved so Ron would have help with Linda’s care.
An Amazing Memory
The couple made plans to attend and join Holy Trinity. “Both of us were looking forward to being members of HTLC. She just didn’t make it. She passed away at least six months before we thought she would.”
Linda passed away the day after Father’s Day. “The morning of June 21, the most beautiful person left this life with me to become my most amazing memory.”
Ron treasures his life with his wife. “Our life together of 47.5 years was amazing. Linda had Lupus for 38 years. She was struggling with that all the time. Most of the time she had it under control, but for the last 15 years, she also had one of the rarest forms of cancer. She was a fighter.”
Someone Else in Control
“When we were planning the service, we didn’t have to do much,” says Ron. “Things just fell into place. Someone else was in control.” Partway through the meeting, Jamie showed the Solheim family into the sanctuary. Ron looked up at the screen in amazement. “I wanted the hymn ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ for the funeral. Jamie was showing us some options and there on the screen were the words for the hymn ‘Holy, Holy, Holy.’” The hymn was scheduled for the upcoming Sunday service, but happened to be on the screen at the time of their meeting.
A Memorial For Linda
After a few weeks after Linda’s passing, Ron began to spend more time at Holy Trinity and noticed a few details. “I just saw some needs. So I asked Pastor Ben and Jamie where there might be a need, a memorial fitting of Linda.” Eventually an outside railing, stained glass-style chairs, and a small conference table were purchased as a memorial to Linda from her family.
“Linda would have liked that, having railings for me, especially,” Ron says. I can hear the smile in his voice. “And she would have loved those chairs. She liked bright colors, and pretty things like those chairs.”
Now, thanks to a loving gift from a family, the entrance is safer. The lobby is bright and welcoming with the new chairs. And there is a small, intimate room with comfortable seating to meet, potentially with another grieving family.
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It’s a Sign

Dennis Jasperson wanted to find a way for his late wife Dorothy to remain a part of Holy Trinity. A way she can continue to welcome people to the church she loved.
“When we did the church visits [in February 2020], I came to the realization all these churches that were doing well had electronic signs. I knew there was talk in the past about this and I thought it would be a good time to bring it up,” says Jasperson, holding his steaming cup of coffee on a warm August morning. “I wanted to contribute, get it started, and hope that people would support it.”
The Sign Team
Holy Trinity responded by inviting the congregation to a series of open meetings led by council member Mark Walser. From there, a committee formed to make Dennis’ hope a reality. Together, members Jed Becher, Dirk Berger, Allen and Donna Gulbransen, Dennis Jasperson, Pat Remfert, Tim Thorp, and George Winn along with council member Mark Walser, Office Manager Jamie Bisek, Facility Manager Jon Bergquist, and Pastor Ben Hilding met four times and voted to recommend to the church council a sign of 5 ft. by 10 ft. with 8 mm pixels.
Signs are important to this committee. Says team member George Winn, “I always judge restaurants by their bathrooms and I judge churches by their signs.” The sign will be constructed by Think Digital, a sign company in Edina, and will cost $85,000.
Half A Sign
“In short, we have paid for one side of the sign and are looking to raise funds for the other,” says Pastor Alicia. “This is a project everyone can get involved with. You can purchase a pixel for 66 cents, or go as far as a panel. We’d love to have 100% participation.” (See breakdown below.)
This is an important project for council member Mark Walser whose kids enjoyed playing with Dorothy. Walser researched several companies who make electronic signs and invited two of them to give a presentation to the committee. But he’s clear about wanting the input of the congregation. “I don’t want to spend people’s money without the support of the congregation.” The source of the sign is also important to Walser. “This is a quality sign, manufactured in the U.S, with design controlled in the U.S.”
You Are Welcome Here
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