July 2019 – St. Mark's Online

July 21, 2019August 31, 2019

5K & Family Fun Day

A group of walkers during the 2018 event.

Help us fight hunger in Delaware and have some fun doing it! Join us for the 28th annual LCS Hunger Walk Run and (new!) Family Fun Day on Saturday, September 21, 2019.
The event, which is a fundraiser for Lutheran Community Services, will be at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1530 Foulk Rd. in Brandywine Hundred this year.

A team enjoying the after-walk picnic. — After the walk/run, we get together for a picnic!

Registration is open now and can be done online at www.lcsde.org. Forms also are available in the narthex at St. Mark’s.
All proceeds go to fight hunger in Delaware — and the more sponsorships you get, the more people we can help. Please bring cans of food to contribute to our Community Food Drive.
In addition to the 5-kilometer walk/run and the 1-mile stroll, the plan for the day includes lots of fun, including a cookout, games, raffles, veggie garden tours and more.
Registration begins at 9 a.m. and the event begins at 10. If you raise $50, your fee is waived. If not, the fees are $25 for adults, $20 for youth. It’s all for a great cause!
I hope to see another great St. Mark’s turnout for this great event.
~Kyle Schuldt

A trophy with three St. Mark's team members. — Yes, there are prizes! And St. Mark’s often walks away with some hardware!

July 21, 2019July 21, 2019

Worship and a picnic!

The grillmaster at work during the 2018 picnic.

You could call it our kind of block party! Once a year we join our neighbors at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant to worship our God and enjoy each other’s company.

We start with worship at 10 a.m. — just one service that Sunday — and then gather under the shady trees on PCOC’s lawn for a big ol’ picnic.

Expert grillmasters deliver sizzling burgers and hot dogs and everyone brings a dish or dessert to share.

Dwight Novotny, coordinator for St. Mark’s, says there will be Irish music this year, by the two-man band known as the King Brothers. Does it get any better?

Hope to see you there!

Shot of 2018 picnic — There is always great food at the annual St. Mark’s-PCOC picnic, but the best part is getting together and getting to know each other!

July 21, 2019

Welcome to St. Mark’s, Pastor David Mueller!

We are thrilled to welcome the Rev. David Mueller to St. Mark’s as our interim pastor.

Pastor Mueller was pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church for 30 years and has conducted eight interim assignments in the Southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware-Maryland Synods.

He and his wife, Estrellita “Gigi,” were remarried here at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church by Pastor Carl Sachtleben on December 14, 1984. They are happy to be back among the people of St. Mark’s.

And we are overjoyed to have them with us!

Pastor Mueller’s official start date is August 1.

July 14, 2019July 14, 2019

ROAR: The Mane Event!

ROAR is an epic African adventure that engages the whole herd!

At ROAR, kids explore God’s goodness and celebrate a ferocious faith that powers them through this wild life.

All children, ages 4 through 11, are welcome. They must be registered by an adult.

The five-evening event goes from 5:15 to 8:30 p.m. from Sunday, July 21 through Thursday, July 25. Our host is Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, 503 Duncan Road, our next-door neighbor.

Teens and adults are needed to make this year’s Vacation Bible School another success!

Please contact Elaine Murphy (semurphy@comcast.net) if you can help in any way.

News & People

Historic photo of Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1

Celebrating the centennial of Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1!

September 21, 2024

Did you know St. Mark’s has strong ties with Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1, stretching back more than 80 years? Our first service was held on the second floor of the company’s fire house on Jan. 11, 1942. We moved to our current site almost a decade later, and our first service was held in our new building on Christmas Eve 1951. When a disastrous fire broke out in our building in May of 1969, our firefighting neighbors rushed to our aid. You can read more about that fire and our history on our website. This year, Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1 marks its 100th anniversaryand we have plans to join their celebration and honor these first responders.

Get into something good with us this summer!

June 1, 2024

Join us as we launch our new summer schedule and get into something good together! Our summer schedule starts Sunday, June 2, with adult education at 9 a.m., fellowship at 10 and a single worship service at 10:30 a.m. Pastor Kelley will lead our first adult education class of the summer (9 a.m. on June 2), as we discuss the recent visit of Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist from Philadelphia who works for peace and non-violence in local, national and international initiatives. He demonstrated the work of the RAW Tools project during his visit on May 25, using the hammer and anvil in the photograph above to show how lethal weapons can be transformed into useful tools. God does transformative work in us, too, as we connect for study, prayer, worship and service. We also have plans to get together at community events this summer, using those opportunities to get to know each other better and get to know our neighbors better, too. We hope you’ll join us as this new summer journey begins!

Swords to Plowshares: ‘Youtherans’ host Shane Claiborne at St. Mark’s May 25

May 22, 2024

Join us Saturday afternoon, May 25 for a very special event as the “Youtherans” and Lutheran churches (ELCA) in Delaware and Maryland welcome Shane Claiborne and the “Swords to Plowshares: Forging Peace. Disarming Hearts” project to St. Mark’s. Using a forge and a hammer, Claiborne will demonstrate how weapons of violence — guns that were donated, broken down and decommissioned — can be turned into garden tools and other instruments of peace. The public event will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s parking lot. The Raw Tools project draws its inspiration from a Scripture passage in Isaiah: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, they will train for war no more. Everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree. No one shall make them afraid.” Also participating Saturday will be the Rev. Raymont Anderson, a survivor of gun violence and a representative of the Newark chapter of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. Claiborne is the co-author of “Beating Guns: Hope for People Who are Weary of Violence.” He worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, and is the founder of The Simple Way in Philadelphia and the leader of Red Letter Christians, a movement of folks committed to living “as if Jesus meant the things he said.” In 2023, he received The King Center’s Beloved Community Award for Social Justice from Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. “We do more than turn guns into garden tools. We are turning violence into peace. We are turning fear into trust. Through relationship, dialogue, and resources, we are welcoming neighbors with loving arms rather than bearing arms. Join us.”