March 2014 Volume 2.3 Mission Statement Gloria Dei Reminder Gloria Dei Evangelical Lutheran Church Trusting God, we 15 Hayes St.Providence, RI 02908 love as God loves, (401) 421-5860 [email protected] acting justly and Pastor Santiago Rodriguez Council President Erin Abrahamsen helping one another Web site: http://gloriadei-ri.org/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ carry the word of News editors Dede Bruns and Vimar Rodriguez God. From the Pastor Dear Brothers and Sisters, In some circles February is called the month of the love. Here at Gloria Dei we take it very seriously. This month we celebrated our traditional night for couples. This is an exclusive time for that person we love. This was a special night where around 20 couples of Gloria Dei and First Lutheran enjoyed a time of sharing a delicious dish, beautiful live music, a dance time, fun moment, etc. We are very grateful for those people who made possible this great celebration to the love. Epiphany is over and let me continuing emphasizing about our journey that the church calls Lent. This season of reflection, re-evaluation and reconciliation starts with Ash Wednesday this March 5th. Please come at 7:00 PM. And remember who you are. We are planning our traditional Midweek Series every Wednesday at 7 p.m. for five weeks. The topic of the series will be: Making Change. Lent is a time of profound grace and we are invited to let the grace sink in, take root and change us. We are invited, in this holy season, to be stripped down and cleanse for all the obstacles that keep us from seeing our true selves clearly; stripped down so that we may come to understand more powerfully the love of God who embraces all of who we are. Every Wednesday we want to create a quiet, relax and informal moment where everyone can share freely in community without any kind of intimidation their journey in how we have been dealing with important changes in our life. We want to share where has been God in those moments. We want to hear what has been the role of the prayer or any other spiritual discipline in that process. Also we want to explore during this very important season those changing that we have experience in the past years as a community of faith here at Gloria Dei. And to know some area where Gloria Dei needs to experience some change now or in the near future? So, we encourage you to participate in full to experience the presence of God individually and in community during Lent season. Yours in Christ, Pr. Santiago Getting to know you Pastor Santiago Rodriguez This month Lydia Mwasha wrote about Pastor Santiago by doing an interview. 1. Where did you grow up? I was born and grew up in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. It is the first founded in Americas. DR is a small beautiful country of more than nine million of people. We are a combination of three cultures: Native Taínos, Spanish and African. God blessed us with beautiful landscapes, beaches, mountains, valleys, rivers. Is the land of the bachata and merengue and the baseball game. Millions of visitors are attracted to visit my country every year. 2. What was your first job? When did you decide to go into ministry? My first job when I was very young was in photomechanical printing. Later I became a community organizer and this continued involvement with the people in their struggle led me to the ministry. First, as a very active lay leader, I was called to lead the national association of youth with thousands of young members. God blessed me having Keila as part of my team leaders. And something else happened with that  3. What is your favorite bible verse? One of my favorite verse have been Philippians 4:4 but you can understand better my preference for this verse if you read the following verses from 5-7. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 4. Tell us something that people might not know about you? Well maybe you might don’t know that I am part of a big family of ten. Five sister and five brothers. I am the first boy and born on December 25th and regarding the catholic tradition my parents had to call me Jesus but just before I born my parents became protestant so thanks be to God they don’t have to follow that tradition and then they called me Santiago which is James in English. And James or Santiago was one the brother of Jesus. 5. What is your favorite music, TV program or Dish? Because I was an international traveler I learned to eat lots of dish. But I love fish like salmon, tilapia, all kind of vegetable, eggplant, rice and bean. I like to watch the news and few shows on the TV. And I Love music. I like Latin Jazz music, Gospel Music, Merengue, Bachata, etc. Editor’s note: Follow this link for a lesson in bachata https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dhM1igLHQk March Birthdays 3/6 Elvis Reyes 3/6 Vimar Rodriguez 3/7 Saira Phay 3/10 Robert Hudson 3/10 Anin Mwasha 3/12 Manuel Jimenez Coming up March 5 Ash Wednesday. Service at 7 PM March 13 Church Council Meeting 7 PM  Lenten Services in March and April  Fellowship at 6:30 with soup and bread provided by talented Gloria Dei cooks. Service at 7 PM. March 12, March 19, March 26, April 2, April 9 Mark your calendars for Sunday, August 17th. Gloria Dei has reserved the chapel and waterside pavilion at Colt State park for our annual outdoor worship and field day. Worship Support for March- if you are unable to perform this responsibility, please rearrange with another. Role/Date Worship Assistant Erin Abrahamsen Readers  Spanish Modesto Batista  English Power Point Pilot Usher Greeter 3/2 3/9 Joyce Collard 3/16 3/23 3/30 Gloria ShafaeeMoghadam Richard Johnson Jeanne Johnson Vilma Ponce Erin Abrahamsen Rafaela Radcke Modesto Batista Rafaela Radcke Jeanne Johnson Dede Bruns Richard Johnson George VonKeller Mike Tourinho Mike Tourinho Mike Tourinho Mike Tourinho Mike Tourinho