The Final Shepherd’s Sale

 

Let’s Make it the Best Sale Ever! 

A Huge Impact

For 21 years, garage sales at Shepherd of the Valley have done a tremendous amount of good in our community. Each year, the Sale is an opportunity for our church to open its doors to the community to be a place of welcome, hospitality, and fellowship. Our volunteers especially look forward to coming together as one big church family. The neighbors we serve walk away with arms full of great finds at low prices. Each year we meet people able to buy furniture, clothing and other items for their homes that they otherwise can’t afford. When it’s all over, 100% of the proceeds and any unsold items go to local organizations that help children in need including District 196, Dakota Woodlands, 360 Communities, Lutheran Social Services, Kids ‘n Kinship and more. Since 2010 alone, sales have raised over $110,000!

All Good Things…

This year will be the final Shepherd’s Sale and we need your help to make the 2015 the Best Sale Ever. Each year, the Sale is increasingly harder to organize and execute well:

• The Sale demands an immense amount of volunteers to work long hours over a two week period.
• Summer is a difficult time to recruit volunteers and collect donations, but we don’t have space in the building at other times of the year.
• Many hours and strenuous tasks are required to set up, go through donations, operate the sale, and clean up. 
• Costs for many of our supplies have increased. Renting tables alone costs $4,000. 
• Each year, we borrow a large amount of supplies and materials from community partners like Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. 
• It is difficult and costly to dispose of unsold or unwanted goods, impacting our total fundraising proceeds. 
• The Sale takes up space in the entire church and puts strain on ongoing ministries. For example, it shuts down Our Daily Bread Food Shelf for over a week during summer – a period of increased need at food shelves. 

How Can We Better Serve Our Community?

Our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, calls us to reach out and become in tune with the needs of our community. As great as the Sale has been, we want to explore how else to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world. Our goal is to develop opportunities to support our community and raise funds for local organizations throughout the year that are not reliant on large amounts of labor, volunteers, space, and resources to be successful. We can better serve our neighbors by working smarter, not harder. If you want to be part of a team that plans new ways to serve the community, contact Lisa Hegerman at 952-985-7329 or lisa.hegerman@sotv.org. Once the sale is over, we will be focusing on fun ideas for the summer of 2016.

 Let’s Make 2015 The Best Sale Ever!

• For starters, we MUST have 70 volunteers each signed up at two critical shifts. Tuesday morning, June 16 (9:00 am – Noon) and Friday afternoon, June 26 (Noon – 4:30 pm).
• Once we have enough volunteers for these two shifts, we will need volunteers to commit to all other shifts from June 15 – June 26. See all shifts
• We will have a more focused list of accepted donation items this year, based on what has sold in the past. Disposing of unsold items can be costly. 
• Shop and tell your friends to come out and shop too!
• You can sign up to volunteer online using SignUpGenius or download and print our flyer and return to the church office.
• Full details and registration at www.sotv.org/sale

A Recap of a Busy June

The transforming winds of the Holy Spirit have blown briskly throughout Shepherd of the Valley this June. Usually the start of summer is a quiet time, but not so this year! If you've been away for a few weeks (no judgment here, it is summer!) here's what you might have missed:

• Band-led worship has moved from the Great Hall (at 9:45 and 11:00 on Sunday) to the Sanctuary (at 11:00 only). There are many reasons for this move. Essentially, the Sanctuary is a larger and better space for worship. You can read about the full list of reasons or watch Pastor Chris talk about them.


• Organ and piano-led worship continues to thrive--unaltered--at the worship times of 5:00 p.m. (Saturday), 8:30 and 9:45 a.m. (Sunday). In addition, we have added a service for the summer months at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, for folks who are out of town during the weekend. Often there's ice cream on Mondays too, and who doesn't like ice cream?


• Sunday fellowship (aka coffee and donuts) has moved from the Narthex to the Great Hall. There's much more space for people to visit and meet in the Great Hall, and now less clutter in the Narthex. In addition to coffee and donuts, we're offering a Hot Breakfast on Sunday, July 14, August 18, and in the fall on dates to be announced.


• We've added technology to the Sanctuary, under the leadership of our Production Manager, Omar Reyes (hired this spring): screens, new video camera, and a larger sound booth area that will enable staff and volunteers to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. It's pretty exciting!


• Pastor Paul Harrington has officially retired. There was a fantastic celebration of his ministry during worship on June 22, 23 & 24. You can listen to or watch his final sermon online. He and Margaret will remain active members of SOTV.


• If that wasn't enough, there were also two fun-filled weeks of Vacation Bible School and our most successful garage sale ever. This year the Shepherd's Sale had more volunteers than ever before and our largest ever profit. $28,000 was raised for children in need!

Thank you to the many, many volunteers who have made June worshipful, meaningful, and fulfilling. Is Christ calling you to get involved in the flurry of activity at SOTV? Check out our current list of volunteer opportunities.

Questions or concerns? Drop us a line. We review each and every comment - your voice really does matter!

God bless you this 4th of July.

Trip Sullivan
Communications Director

Wowed by a Wonderful Weekend

Wow! That’s the word that came to mind this past week after witnessing significant events at our church.

On Friday, SOTV hosted the funeral of Lt. Col. Mark Weber on behalf of Easter Lutheran Church. Volunteers and staff from Easter directed traffic, greeted and welcomed mourners. Representatives from the National Guard were on hand and the entrance to the church was flanked impressively by their honor guard. Word is some 800 people attended, and it was truly a wonderful celebration of life.

I heard many positive comments from people in our community that our church looked great and staff provided extraordinary support. Although our role in this event was very small, we were honored to be able to help minister to so many people during a difficult time, and be a place for people in our community to experience the welcome of Jesus Christ. Thank you to everyone who made this possible.

The Shepherd’s Sale is again underway and volunteers in record numbers are hard at work. And, the building of full of great stuff. Thank you to all the donors! All has begun well and smoothly during a very busy weekend. On the basis of this excellent beginning, we are looking forward to another successful sale on behalf of children in need.

Of course, this past weekend marked the celebration of Pastor Paul’s retirement. Worship was wonderful, the program very well done, and the meal managed superbly. It’s been a long time since we have fed that many people in the building at once and I thought it went great. There was lots of affirmation for Pastor Paul, Margaret and the whole Harrington tribe. I was especially impressed by the staff and volunteers supporting this event. Another Wow!

Don’t forget, all this is taking place on the heels of a great VBS program just a couple of weeks ago, and another week just around the corner. So, well done, one and all. In recent days and weeks a lot of people have experienced the welcome of Jesus at SOTV thanks to the good work by this community of faith.

Finally, thank you to all who come and take part in our worship and special programs. You are the church, and the reason we do what we do.

See you in church,
Pastor Chris Smith