BETTER TOGETHER.
Join us as we continue to support the flourishing of our beloved church community and its witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ beyond these walls. Together we follow the Spirit in mission and in joy!
Yes! I can help!
Help support the missional trajectory of our beloved church! The HTLC Finance Committee has worked hard to reduce a $44,000 deficit to just $9,100 for 2026! We believe we’ve done what we can without affecting our mission and momentum. This small gap doesn’t need a miracle, it just needs a little teamwork!
If every pledge increased by just $7.50 a month the gap would be closed!
Ready to get it done? Make a one time gift through the office or click here and make a “note” on your Vanco contribution!
Prefer to update your giving throughout the year? Fill out the form here so we can count it in our total to get this done!
Greater Impact
Christ-Centered
Worship
- Fostered an average worship attendance of 143 participants throughout the year.
- Called Associate Pastor Jeanette Perrault to assist in regular worship leadership
- 12 Trinity Ringers and 8 Trinity Chorale members offered regular musical offerings
- Celebrated traditional milestones: held 2 baptisms, confirmed 3 students, blessed 9 graduates, celebrated 2 weddings, and held 5 funerals
Intergenerational
Community
- Over 2,500 meals served during Wednesday night community dinners
- Sent 18 students to both Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp and Camp EWALU
- Fostered faith through regular Confirmation & Bible Explorers classes
- Expanded faith formation to include a new K-2 Class
- Expanded Trey Graff’s youth minister role to full time capacity
- Hired 2 new programming teachers to support our growing classes
Care for
One Another
- Called Pastor Jeanette Perrault to assist in leading pastoral care efforts.
- Empowered 6 lay-led care ministers to provide ongoing care and connection to members
- Hosted Holy Trinity Bible studies, service groups, choirs, and fellowship events
- Provided numerous hours of pastoral care accompaniment for members processing funerals, health issues, spiritual questions, and grief care.
- Continued to foster and deepen authentic relationships between members in our life together.
Love for
Neighbors
- Gave away tens of thousands of pounds of food through quarterly food giveaways
- Prepared thousands of ready-to-eat meals and basic supplies through our 24-hour food pantry
- Provided 150,000 hours of the highest quality childcare through Noah’s Ark
- Served and supported neighboring organizations: Dubuque Senior Giving Room and Washington Middle School, Dubuque Rescue Mission, MercyOne Hospital, and St. Stephen’s Food Bank.
- Hosted tens of thousands of hours of community group events within our building
- Made our voices heard among US legislation through collective advocacy communication
- Made and sent over 200 quilts to Lutheran World Relief
- Sent 100 school kits to Lutheran World Relief
Your Stories
“In February, on one of the darkest days of my life, I told my kids that I had been diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40. As we processed, I made them this promise: This will be sad. This will be scary. You will not be alone.
Together we reflected on the vast support they have around them. I witnessed their visible relief when we talked about HTLC, this steadfast community, that through the ebbs and flows, has always wanted what’s best for them and each other.
In the following weeks and months, our family walked, sometimes crawled, through hundreds of appointments, lab tests, images, surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation sessions, new medications, side effects, sickness, exhaustion, and worry.
We often remembered together that Jesus wept. Sometimes being a human is just sad, and, as Jesus showed us, it’s okay to feel that. It doesn’t need to be fixed. Even on the saddest days we still feel the peace that surpasses all understanding in part because of how the HTLC community has relentlessly shown us the love of Christ.
On days when I was literally too weak to stand, this community ran errands, drove kids, delivered gifts, brought more food than we could possibly eat, and sent more text messages than my tired fingers could possibly answer. Most importantly this community authentically saw us and extended genuine concern.
DNA tells us that the cells are aggressive. The doctor tells us we won’t know if the cancer is cured for twenty years. But, the gospel tells us that all will be made well no matter what. I am eternally grateful to this community for helping us remember that promise. Indeed we have never been alone.”
Kate Stierman
HTLC Member & Administrator
Finding Noah’s Ark Childcare Center to care for our two young children as I transitioned back to the workforce has been such a blessing for our family. My husband and I knew we had found something special in Noah’s Ark, and watching our kids develop friendships, confidence and their own sense of self has been one of the most powerful experiences in parenting for us yet. Not only were they learning in a safe environment, but they were finding a community for themselves rooted in kindness and faith. What started as childcare grew into a support system for us. Between our fellow Noah’s Ark parents and the helpful guidance of teachers, we had friendly voices to talk to about the excitement and challenges of early childhood, finding fun extracurriculars for our kids, and ultimately the transition to Kindergarten.
As Kindergarten approached, I realized how much I would miss many of the small Noah’s Ark traditions that brought both structure and excitement to our daughter’s week. She, of course, would miss pajama Fridays. But I was really going to miss seeing how excited she was to go to Chapel with Trey every week, and hearing her interpretation of his lessons in faith. She was building an identity in her faith, and she was excited about it! Signing up for HTLC Wednesday Nights was an easy decision to keep this wonderful momentum going.
Our daughter is always excited for Wednesday Nights, and it has become something our whole family looks forward to. One of my most important wishes for our children is that they develop a strong faith to carry them through their lives and that they find joy in worship. Fostering this is a rewarding, but often daunting, task as a parent. With the Noah’s Ark community as a foundation, we are now watching our daughter build her faith in such a natural way. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and, as a family, we are excited and grateful to be a part of this community.
-Susie, Noah’s Ark Parent
This winter, we were deeply saddened by the unexpected death of long-time member Carol Baumann. As Pastor Jason and the HTLC Community supported her family through the funeral planning process, we were all touched, and even a bit amused, to discover through the sharing of memories, how Carol authentically became a version of her best self at HTLC.
We are honored to share the news that Carol chose to leave a generous estate gift to HTLC, a reflection of her deep trust, faith, and commitment.
In the months ahead, our congregation and leadership will thoughtfully and prayerfully work together to steward this gift in ways that honor Carol’s legacy and ensure a lasting impact.
Here is a message from Carol’s family, reflecting on the role HTLC played in her life and the legacy she leaves behind.
In many ways, my sister, Carol Baumann, embodied the theme of “Better Together”. Although Carol would often operate “behind the scenes”, her gift was when she was with others. Carol never met a spotlight she didn’t like, and truly let her light shine in a group. Examples of this would be:
- Singing with the children from Noah’s Ark. She made such an impression there that one young boy commented that “Tuesdays won’t be fun anymore without Miss Carol”.
- Singing in the choir and being a cantor. Carol loved lifting her voice in song with others. She took on the job of organizing and cataloging all the choir music.
- Finding special gifts. Carol would often find things, sometimes on the internet at good prices, and would buy many to share. One example: nice gloves and hats donated to the food pantry. Another: kitchen tongs – she found some in nice colors that worked well, and she shared them. Our family all received them at Christmas, and your church kitchen was gifted as well. (They really do work well.)
- Another special gift: Creating a welcome basket for someone new at the church containing unique things from Dubuque.
- Creating puzzles to entertain people for blood drives, food giveaways, and her Care Receiver.
- Baking cookies and working the blood drives and food giveaways. Carol had many gifts which she loved to share with others, and baking cookies was one of them. Each cookie was a piece of Carol being shared with others. As far as the events themselves, can you imagine anyone “working the room” like Carol did? She not only made all feel welcome, she made all feel respected. She had a true gift.
Carol loved her home at Holy Trinity. Serving others was part of who she was and what she was called to do, and the congregation gave Carol a place to share her many gifts. She wanted the ministry at HTLC to continue to be a blessing to others. Truly, better together.
-Sister of Member Carol Baumann
I decided to do my Eagle Scout project for Noah’s Ark and Holy Trinity because I think it is cool that we have such a great preschool and I enjoy helping out with the younger kids on Wednesday nights. For my Eagle Scout project I wanted to make the Noah’s Ark playground better, so we installed artificial grass. It was so fun seeing how excited the kids were the first day they got to play on the new grass.
Many other Boy Scouts from my troop helped with the project. Our troop is chartered out of Holy Trinity and we have a lot of our meetings and activities at the church. I have a lot of fun memories from scouts that were in the church, like the scout lock-ins, water fights, food drives, and hanging out with my friends.
I’ve also had many fun experiences through church like going to camp at Rainbow Trail in Colorado and the National ELCA Youth Gathering. At Rainbow Trail it was so fun spending time with a bunch of kids at church camp and in nature that we want to go back to Rainbow Trail next summer. While at the Youth Gathering in New Orleans it was a blast going on a swamp tour and seeing alligators.
I’m thankful to have so many different experiences through HTLC, and have a good community of people in church.
I’m thankful to have so many different experiences through HTLC, and have a good community of people in church.
-Zach, HTLC Student
