I first noticed the school bus in our south property parking lot this summer. After seeing it there for a few days, I naturally became curious. During a coffee break with our Monday Morning Crew, Pastor Peter was asked about the bus.

When Mary Palumbo received Ruth Hagander’s Christmas letter last year, she was inspired to create some music. Working closely together, these two crafted Ruth’s lyrics together with Mary’s melodic vision for an original composition.

Some of you may have had the pleasure of meeting Addy at a Family Fun Night, helping out with VBS, or working in the kitchen during an event. For those of you who haven’t met her, Addy is a Roseville sophomore, always willing to lend a hand, self-confident, assertive, and hysterically funny.

Several Prince of Peace members sat with Kathleen Tempel in the gathering area of her assisted living facility. It was her 97th birthday, and Jan Hanson had organized a little party for her, complete with cake and coffee.

The Social Concerns Committee has renewed its efforts to bring the church into the community following the hiatus of the pandemic.  During the two years off, we lost two important committee members, Judy Florine and Barb Lyman.  We are striving to replace their skills and energy.

The Lydia and Ruth Bible Study Circles each lost half of their participants during the last two years. The answer was that the remaining five from each circle combined to form the Lydia/Ruth Circle which meets on the second Monday of each month in the church library.

November 13 2022 saw the return of our Tanzanian Dinner and auction, following a 2-year COVID break. We had so many volunteers who helped with food prep, auction setup, table decorating, serving, hand washing, and clean-up.

We at Prince of Peace are making a concerted effort to open our doors to the greater community and this has made for some “behind-the-scene” changes!

It’s amazing what can happen when you take an existing idea, re-imagine it, and trust the Spirit to take it where it needs to go. Such was the case with WOW (Women on Wednesday), an initiative that began this past September at Prince of Peace.

Befrienders delivered twenty-one large Advent Greeting Cards which were signed by members of the congregation. Homebound recipients are reluctant to take the old 2021 greeting card off their wall and often insist on just adding the new greeting.

One of the more sobering and passionate adult forums we had this fall was on November 20, when our guest, Ron Letnes (Rev. Dr.) shared about ENGAGE, one of the St. Paul Synod Public Witness Committees. Their mission is “to meditate on, educate about, and advocate for gun violence prevention in the non-violent Spirit of Jesus.” 

This is an example of how you start with an idea, and it grows as more people become involved. When I started in September, I was thinking about music I could play for the Halloween Spooky Music.