Newest Posts

• 18th Sunday After Pentecost
  12 Oct 2025
  

  It’s a miracle! Multiple miracles! The waters of holy baptism have healed us. The body and blood of Jesus in holy communion have made us clean. We have died with Christ and been raised with him. For all this we have returned to offer thanks. From this place we are sent on our way rejoicing to share the good news.

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• St. Mark Community Garden 2025 Update
  9 Oct 2025
  

  St. Mark Community Garden was established in 2010.  It is a tranquil yet busy, dusty and sometimes dirty, fun and rewarding, beautiful and weedy acre of land behind our church.  When spring is cold and wet it can feel like it takes forever for crops to start growing and the weeds take off WAY BEFORE the crops get big enough to survive around them.  Other years it dries out fast and we scramble to get the irrigation started so the crops we have planted don’t die.  The rabbits are a constant problem and rarely allow us to grow many green beans to maturity.  And with all that, it is a slice of heaven on earth. Each year is a different story.  This year the potatoes were great, and the carrots were terrible.  Last year the carrots were outstanding, and the potatoes were so-so.  Cucumbers are usually a struggle and then one year we will have bushels of them.  Some years we have endless broccoli, and other times it gets aphids and can’t be used.  The funny thing is that the work we put into it is always the same, the seeds and plant starts are almost always the same, and the weather is the weather. And at the end of each season we have donated over 10,000 pounds of produce to the Thurston County Food Bank Gary Delozier is our head gardener and is usually at the garden EVERY morning from March through October.  The garden is then tilled in the fall.   Gary weighs and tallies up all the totals of produce and prepares a report which is reviewed by the garden committee in January at our annual meeting.  He takes a week or two off and then begins preparations for the next growing season.    Plants are started indoors January – March.  If you look in the windows on the south side of the Education building February through May, you will see baby cabbage, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, celery, cucumbers and squash. 46 raised beds are adopted each March mostly by community members, and a few church members. The church supplies the water in our drip irrigation system.  All those that adopt beds keep that produce, and then work 10 hours each summer in the Food Bank’s one-acre garden, usually at every other weekend work parties.  Earla F provides snacks for most work parties, and the highlight is her home-made muffins which are heavenly. Who is on the garden committee?  Anyone who would like to be!!  Who works in the garden?  Anyone that would like to!  This summer we had two energetic young men interns – grandsons of Earla Ferry (Gavin) and Kristina Tamm-Finnerud (Logan).  They worked hard and enjoyed themselves also. The growing season is wrapping up now in October, but the winter squash still needs to be harvested after the first frost.  Look for Gary’s silver truck parked in front of GUS (Garden Utility Shed) and if he is there, something is still happening in the garden. ~~Gail Frare, Master Gardner

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• A Land Acknowledgement
  9 Oct 2025

  A land acknowledgement is a formal, living statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous Peoples as historic stewards of this land and the enduring sacred relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories. A land acknowledgement is a simple, yet powerful step toward ongoing awareness and correcting the stories and practices that diminish Indigenous People’s history and culture. Therefore, we name the traditional Native inhabitants of this place as we gather and as we seek to be faithful caretakers of the beautiful land where we mutually live. We acknowledge that St. Mark Lutheran Church is on the traditional land of the Nisqually Indian Tribe. (“Nisqually” in the Luhshootseed language is “Squalli-absch” which means: People of the River, People of the Grass)

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• 17th Sunday after Pentecost
  5 Oct 2025
  

  A little faith goes a long way is Jesus’ point in the gospel. A mustard seed’s worth of faith has miraculous potential. The patience, tenacity, and endurance required for the life of faith are the blessings received in holy baptism, holy communion, and the word read and proclaimed in this assembly. Anticipate them. Receive them with thanksgiving.  

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• 16th Sunday after Pentecost
  28 Sep 2025
  

  Consideration of and care for those in need (especially those “at our gate,” visible to us, of whom we are aware) is an essential component of good stewardship. It is in the sharing of wealth that we avoid the snare of wealth. It is the one whom death could not hold—who comes to us risen from the dead—who can free us from the death grip of greed.  

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• Shepherd’s Table Community Dinner — All Are Welcome (Wed, October 1)
  21 Sep 2025
  

  Join us at St. Mark for a free, welcoming pasta dinner—no RSVP required. This “all are welcome” meal is offered in honor of a member’s son, who would have celebrated his 31st birthday on October 1, and in the spirit of Luke 14:12–14: sharing food, community, and grace with anyone in need.

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• 15th Sunday after Pentecost
  21 Sep 2025
  

  As we are invited today to consider what it means to be managers (rather than owners) of all that we have, it is crucial to recognize that we are bought with a price. “Christ Jesus, himself human, . . . gave himself a ransom for all.” Apart from the generosity of God we have nothing—we are nothing. By God’s gracious favor we have everything we need.  

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