One of our newest ministry opportunities is the NL Clothing Closet, which we helped to start through the NL Ministerium. To learn more about the Clothing Closet–how to donate clothing and how to volunteer (and, soon, how to apply for clothing assistance), visit www.nlclothingcloset.org

It’s that time of year! Time to apply for monies from our Touching Tomorrow Endowment Fund. Applications are due by December 1 and can be submitted via email, snail mail, or by placing your application in Jim Gill’s “Endowment” mailbox, located outside the Church Office. More information on how to apply and how these monies can be used is in the application below.

CLICK HERE to download –> 2023 Endowment Application

To give financially, click above, or here. Thank you!

Several years ago, Zion’s learned that many families in the Northern Lebanon School District have limited resources which do not allow them to provide their school-aged children with the necessities to start a new school year.  We have helped to meet this need for the students of our local, Jonestown, elementary school for the past couple of years.

In 2023, we are working with the newly formed Northern Lebanon Ministerium and the Northern Lebanon School District to meet the needs of ALL Northern Lebanon School District students and we need your help.

We are looking for financial sponsors for the 257 students identified by our school district as needing clothing and school supply assistance. With your help, each of these students will receive new jeans, new sneakers, a new back-to-school outfit, new underwear and socks, and a new backpack filled with necessary school supplies at a special Back to School Blessings event in August. By equipping students, physically, with what they need for the school year, we help empower them, mentally, to begin a new year with confidence. Your sponsorship is truly an investment in children’s lives and futures!

It costs about $100 to fully equip an elementary student for the start of the new school year, and about $125 to prepare a middle or high school student. However, financial gifts of any amount are greatly appreciated. When every person gives what they can, we, collectively, can move mountains. Thank you for your support. We truly can’t do this important work without the help of generous people like you.

Contributions can be made online or through checks marked for Back to School and made payable Zion’s Lutheran Church, PO Box 658, Jonestown, PA 17038.  We can also use volunteer help, prior to, and on the day of distribution. If you would like to help or have any questions, please call or email Deb:  adreiner74@gmail.com, or 717.304.8826.

Again, thank you. Your generous support empowers the lives of children and families in our community, and we are most grateful for your help.

A note about the used clothing that has previously been provided: Due to space constraints, this year’s Back to School Event will ONLY include new items (no gently used items will be available). However, the newly formed Northern Lebanon Ministerium is having active conversations about a year-round Clothing Closet for students and families in our district, and we hope to have news to share about this project soon.

It takes many, many pairs of shoes to ensure we have the right size for the 80 students we served in 2022.

The school supplies are ready to go…with specific supplies for each grade level.

This event wouldn’t be possible without our donors, sponsors, and volunteers! Thank you all!

It’s that time of year! Time to apply for monies from our Touching Tomorrow Endowment Fund. Applications are due by December 1 and can be submitted via email, snail mail, or by placing your application in Jim Gill’s “Endowment” mailbox, located outside the Church Office. More information on how to apply and how these monies can be used is in the application below.

CLICK HERE to download –> 2021 Endowment Application

This Lent, we are encouraging households to pack one or more personal care kits for Lutheran World Relief. These are distributed to families in crisis throughout the world and, right now, the warehouse shelves that typically hold these kits are EMPTY.

Here’s how to pack a kit:

Packing a Personal Care Kit for Lutheran World Relief

Every kit needs:

• ONE light-weight bath size towel (between 20” by 40” and 52” by 27”), dark color recommended.
• Two or three bath-size bars of soap equaling 8 to 9 oz (any brand, in original wrapping)
• ONE adult size toothbrush in its original packaging (multi-packs may be used by sealing an individual toothbrush in a business-size envelope; no plastic bags or wrap)
• ONE sturdy comb, remove packaging.
• ONE metal nail clipper (attached file option), remove packaging

To assemble: Fold the towel in half. Place the rest of the items in the towel, fold and roll so nothing falls out, and secure with yarn, ribbon, string or rubber bands.

Important guidelines:

• Be sure it’s a light-or-medium-weight towel which are easier for recipients to hand wash and dry
• Please only include NEW items
• Please do NOT include items with any religious symbols, the US flag, patriotic or military symbols, including camouflage (if discovered, these can threaten Lutheran World Relief’s ability to serve in certain countries)
• Please do NOT add, or leave out, any of the items listed, and please do NOT enclose the kit or any of its contents in plastic bags

Bring your completed kit to Zion’s anytime throughout Lent (and by Easter Sunday, April 4); we’ll pack it up with others and make sure it gets to the Lutheran World Relief distribution center in Maryland. THANK YOU for helping to care for our global neighbors at a time when distribution shelves are empty!

 Each kit assembled will be matched by a Thrivent Action Team grant.

Here’s the latest (December) edition of GOOD NEWS from Zion’s: Stories of how God is at work in and through our congregation –>

Winter Good News