Thanksgiving Info and Devotion by our Intern Tirza

Your donations make all things possible. Please give generously to your Martin Luther Church this Thanksgiving and always.

Thanksgiving Food Drive and Special Collection for Loaves and Fishes Growing Project

Please donate non-perishable food items, as well as personal hygiene items, for our Community Pantry and Wesley Mimico United Church Food Bank. Financial donations to support our food ministry and Loaves and Fishes Growing Project are also appreciated.

The Loaves and Fishes Growing Project was started 25 years ago by a group of farmers and individuals who decided to grow crops for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. To date, over $3,000,000 has been raised by this Growing Project which has had fields throughout Southern Simcoe County. The success of this Growing Project is due to the generosity of farmers, churches, organizations, agri-businesses and individuals.

Seniors Group on Tuesday October 4 at 11:00 am at the Wienecke Farm

Please contact the office or Pastor Annika if you would like to attend. Please also share if you can drive or need a ride.

Neukirchener Kalendar 2023

We are accepting orders for the German Neukirchener Kalender in the church office until the beginning of October.

Intern Tirza Emmering

Dear Congregation,

I am very pleased to introduce myself to you as a new intern:
My name is Tirza Emmering, I am 32 years old and currently doing a second degree in Protestant Theology at the University of Tübingen.

After quitting my interesting job as a project officer for migration and development policy in a Stuttgart Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) three years ago, I was very excited about all the perspectives and deep(er) insights I would get in my new studies; hoping to add a new dimension to my faith and deepen it in a different way. I am still in that process and am looking forward to getting to know more about congregational life here with you in Toronto, in addition to all the interesting books and theories.

When I’m not sitting at my desk studying or playing piano or guitar and singing to relax from my studies, I love to be outdoors – swimming, running, playing beach volleyball or cycling – as long as it’s active!
In addition, I love to travel and am therefore very excited to get to know Toronto and its surroundings better.

I look forward to meeting you, having good conversations, fellowship, sharing faith, laughing together – in short: spending time with you!

Thanksgiving Devotion

I have to admit, I was a bit shocked and unsettled to learn that a fatal shooting had taken place in my immediate new neighbourhood of Martin Luther Church on September 15, just three days after I arrived. Can I feel safe here in the evening, or even during the day? Could something like this happen again soon? What are the serious problems in “our” neighbourhood?…

And let’s be honest: there are so many things that are going on, that feel worse or more difficult, that take away your courage…With all the daily challenges that surround us and demand our strength, the upcoming celebration can put us in a better mood and spread hope: We again celebrate THANKSgiving – like every year – a celebration that invites to change our perspective: away from the worries, to all the good things, big and small, that I may experience anew every day. I consciously put my “worry glasses” aside, not because this makes my worries disappear, but instead to put them in a different light and to reorient myself. I put on my “gratitude glasses” to become aware anew of how many blessings and resilience I also experience every day.

Those who give thanks do not take anything for granted and realize that we are richly blessed by God despite everything that makes our lives difficult. The glasses help us to discover the many small everyday miracles and the traces of God and his work in them: the surprisingly nice conversation with the otherwise grouchy neighbour, or the leaves that are gradually changing colour so beautifully – and of course also the delicious food of which I have more than enough every day, but also my health and my family and friends who share life with me… How good that we have a God who encourages us to see life through the glasses of gratitude and who rejoices with us about the positive things in our lives.
Giving thanks and being grateful does good – and not only for myself. It usually has the nice side effect that it also spreads to my neighbours. You know, a smile and laughter is contagious, shared joy is double joy 😊…

From gratitude in turn grows responsibility: Where I not only wish that I am ok, but also that I take an interest in the wellbeing of others, my neighbours; that I want to try, where I am, to make this world, my world, very concretely a little bit better.
I wish that we can all put on our “gratitude glasses” as often as possible, but especially now at THANKSgiving, and with this attitude, positively influence our world.

Warm greetings,

Tirza Emmering