Grace Notes at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Ankeny, IA

The stranger next to you

7/9/2026

It was ten degrees in Chicago, November 1986. A twenty-two-year-old walked through the cold.

He'd graduated college not long before, and grief had followed him there. His father and one of his brothers had died in a plane crash a few years earlier. He'd kept going to church for a while out of habit, but somewhere along the way his faith had quietly given out.

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our new Labyrinth

7/2/2026

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One project that is part of our Capital Campaign improvements to the church grounds is the development of a memorial garden along Elm Street. A paver path, resting stones, and plantings were installed last fall. The grassy area on either side of the path will be for the interment of ashes of loved ones. This week another element of the space was finished—our new labyrinth.

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Faith Healing

6/25/2026

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A woman suffering from an illness for twelve years simply touches the hem of Jesus' cloak and she is healed. Jesus announces that her "faith has made you well." The woman sought every cure and solution for twelve years. No physician or folk remedy had been able to heal. Faith did the trick. (Matthew 9:18-26)

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On the go with god!

6/18/2026

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HTLC VBS is a week-long experience for elementary aged children, and teen and adult volunteers. We meet in the evening, 5 to 7:30, because we heard from families that finding transportation for kids to get to VBS during the workday was a barrier to participation.

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the barnabas effect

6/11/2026

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Today the church remembers a man named Joseph. You probably know him by his nickname, Barnabas. The name his friends gave him means "Son of Encouragement," and apparently he earned it every day.

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The fifty word Gift

6/4/2026

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You cannot do everything. That's not a personal failure. That's just Thursday.

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Planting

5/28/2026

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No one plants dandelions under the sidewalk. They just break through.

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The Church Still knows...Worship

5/21/2026

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We live in a world that worships constantly. Just not God.

We worship at the altar of self. Self-improvement. Self-actualization. Self-care. Self-expression. The highest goal is to become the best version of yourself, to find yourself, to prioritize yourself. We worship our preferences. Our comfort. Our opinions. Our carefully curated feeds that tell us we're right about everything. We build our lives around what we what, what we deserve, what makes us happy.

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The church still knows...Covenant

5/14/2026

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We live in an age that has stopped believing promises mean anything.

And honestly, we come by that cynicism honestly. Institutions have failed us. Leaders have disappointed us. Relationships we thought were permanent turned out to have conditions buried in the fine print. We have been let down enough times that somewhere along the way, many of us quietly stopped expecting anything different.

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the church still knows...grace

5/7/2026

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We live in a world that keeps score. Every paycheck is earned, every reputation is built, every place at the table is justified somehow, and somewhere deep in our bones we carry the belief that people get what they deserve, good or bad. Love is offered carefully, forgiveness comes with conditions, and the idea of something simply given, with no invoice attached, doesn't quite fit any category the world has taught us to use.

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