9:30 AM — Worship & Summer Sunday School
Guest Preachers: Scott and Meg Rambo
(Visit www.wgm.org/rambo to learn about the Rambos and their mission.)
Lectionary Readings: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 Ephesians 5:15-20 Psalm 111 John 6:51-58
Music: Dee Gillet, soprano – Doxology by Rick Vale & Sandi Patti
Celebration of Found Coins: Metuchen-Edison Area Interfaith Clergy Association
10:45 AM — Fellowship Time

Summer Worship & Sunday School will be held at 9:30 AM. through Sun-day, September 6, 2009. (Note: There will be no Summer Sunday School sessions on the holiday weekend of September 6.) On “Homecoming Sunday,” September 13th, we will re-sume our regular schedule with Worship and Sunday School for Pre-K through 12th Grade Youth at 10:15 AM. The Adult Class will also resume its sessions at 9:00 AM on Sep-tember 13 in the Sunshine Room. Save the afternoon of Sunday, September 13 for our an-nual “Homecoming Picnic” at Merrill Park in Colonia (Rain Date: September 20). Details in the September edition of The Lamplighter, weekly Worship bulletins, and in weekly Centen-ary E-pistles to those for whom we have E-mail addresses.

This Sunday at Centenary: August 16, 2009
The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost

9:30 AM– Worship & Summer Sunday School
Guest Preachers:Uganda Missionaries Scott and Meg Rambo
{You can learn about the Rambos and their ministry at http://www.wgm.org/rambo}
Lectionary Readings: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 Ephesians 5:15-20
Psalm 111 John 6:51-58
Special Reading: 2 Timothy 2:1-10
Children’s Message: Pastor John Painter
Celebration of Found Coins:Metuchen-Edison Area Interfaith Clergy Association
Music: Dee Gillet, soprano – Doxologyby Rick Vale & Sandi Patti
10:45 AM – Fellowship Time(Room 20)
Food Collection—This Sunday, August 16
Please bring cereals, staple food items in plastic jars or cans, and paper products to share with senior residents in Perth Amboy. We and they are deeply grateful for your generous sharing.
Special Appeal for Diapers and Infant/Toddler Food for Amandla Crossing:Your assistance is needed to provide diapers (sizes#3, #4, #5 & #6…andpull-ups) and infant & toddler food for children at Amandla Crossing. Please bring the items to Centenary and leave them in the boxes provided in the Narthex. Thank you. —Your Mission Committee

Men’s Clothing Needed by August 16
Tookie Bacon has asked for donations of certain clothing items for men that will be distributed through the Job Corps. Items Needed at This Time:men’s T-shirts and dress shirts; ties; belts; and, men’s work boots. (Please do not bring other items—there will be a general appeal for clothing for women, children and men later in the fall.) The students at the Job Corps (16-24 years old) need these items for job interviews and office jobs. We would be most grateful if you could bring your donations to the church by this Sunday, August 16.Please leave them in the hallway area outside the Counter’s/Storage Room. Further information: contact Tookie Bacon at 732-548-0947.
Persons are invited to sponsor the time of coffee and refreshmentsfollowing our Sunday Worship services.Please consider sponsoring a refreshment time and signing up for one of the many available weeks on the2009Refreshment Chart in the Narthex. Please Note:No one has signed up to sponsor Refreshments after this Sunday, August 16!Information on what you need to provide is available on the information sheet attached to the Refreshment Chart.Thank you for providing hospitality on a Sunday morning.

Volunteers Needed to Teach Sunday School Beginning in September
Please speak with Maria Morgan (732-662-9391) or Cathy Jean Savoia (732-826-1921) if you can offer your time and love to our children…Pre-K through 6thGrade…on Sunday mornings at 10:15 AM. You do not have to commit to every Sunday…and “substitute teachers” are always welcome and needed. Thank you.

Back-To-School Picnic
Sunday, September 13

Come One, Come All

To the Back-To-School Picnic following service on Sunday, September 13 (rain date September 20). It’s going to be in Merrill Park, Colonia, (same as last year) where you can play volleyball, badminton, croquet and other assorted activities including softball, so bring your glove. Hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken and beverages will be provided. Please bring your favorite salad or dessert. Also bring a folding chair for relaxing afterward. Hope to see everyone there!

Directions: R on Dellwood. L on Grove Ave. R at light onto Middlesex Ave./Rte 27.
At 6thlight (2.5 miles), R onto Green St. Immediate L just after underpass onto Middlesex Turnpike.
0.5 miles to Merrill Park. Once in park, follow one-way road 0.5 miles to Grove 1B on the left.
Parking lot is just past Grove 1B, to the left.

Centenary United Methodist Church
Invites you and your friends to our
OPEN HOUSE
Sunday, September 20, 2009
10:15 AM service

As we return to our fall schedule of family and church activities, we invite everyone to bring one or more friends, neighbors, or family members to experience the warm welcome of
Centenary. The service will include some special moments designed to help our
visitors learn about us, Centenary, and Methodism.

Please invite your friends and family to join us for worship.

Our hearts, our minds, and our doors are always open.
Centenary United Methodist Women
DO YOU KNIT, CROCHET, OR DO ANY OTHER CRAFT??It is not too early to think about doing something for the Women’s booth at the Metuchen Fair. The Metuchen Fair is the first weekend in October and we need many items to sell at the fair. This is our only fund raiser for the year. If you have any ideas or can make some items for the fair, please talk to Sylvia Woodfield (732-549-9042) and give her your suggestions. If you have an idea for a craft, let her know and we can arrange for a workshop so that others may share in the craft.
CAMPBELL SOUP LABELSand other related products: We are still collecting these labels for the Red Bird Mission. There have been BIGchanges to the Labels program. The part of the label that we need is the UPC section along with the Labels for Education symbol.Please check out the UMW bulletin board (in the area near the Men’s Room) for more information on how these labels need to be collected. There is a basket in the Church Library to receive your labels. The Red Bird Mission, in Beverly, Kentucky, is a Mission Project of the United Methodist Church. The latest newsletter from the Red Bird Mission says they expect to be able to acquire a van in 2009 with their 1,600,000 points received from all the Labels that they received for the last two years.

Please faithfully use your offering envelopes during the Summer, and at every possible opportunity to help with the progress our Church is making in underwriting our ministry and mission this year. God is good to us, and one by one we can make a difference in sharing the gospel story, if we work together in the days ahead.
Thank you in the name of Jesus Christ for making ministry possible.

Some Thoughts for This Week:

Never work just for money or power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night. – Marian Wright Edelman

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. – Anais Nin

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

If God can bring blessing from the broken body of Jesus and glory from something that’s as obscene as the cross, He can bring blessing from my problems and my pain and my unanswered prayer. I just have to trust Him. – Anne Graham Lotz

Confess your own sins, not your neighbor’s.

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reasons for remaining ashore. – Vincent Van Gogh

Perhaps we would reach a greater height if we had more depth.

Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of a life amount not to wisdom but to scar tissue and callus. – Wallace Stegner, The Spectator Bird

May I forget what ought to be forgotten; and recall, unfailing, all that ought to be recalled, each kindly thing, forgetting what might sting. – Mary Carolyn Davies

Don’t let go of the vine. – Johnny Weissmuller, film’s Tarzan
(Evocative of the advice: “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!”)

Realize that every material thing you have isn’t owned but loaned to you from God.

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you. – Mortimer J. Adler

Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past. – Tryon Edwards

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it. – Lou Holtz

We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it. – John Newton

If you’re too busy to go fishin’, you’re too busy. – Jed Clampett

Enthusiasm is a volcano on whose top never grows the grass of hesitation. – Kahlil Gibran

Our first communication in the morning is to give praise to God and each other and to thank the Lord for his promises. – Martin Brown

Next Sunday at Centenary: August 23, 2009
The Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost

9:30 AM – Worship & Summer Sunday School
Preacher: John D. Painter Theme: An Attitude of Gratitude
Lectionary Readings: 1 Kings 8: (1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43 Psalm 84
Ephesians 5:15-20; 6:10-20 John 6:56-69
10:30 AM – Fellowship Time(Room 20)

Summer Music Volunteers Still Being Sought:Volunteers are providing music during the Offertory. The selection needs only to be about two minutes and can be vocal, piano or instrumental of any kind (accompaniment, if needed, will be provided by Jonathan Benjamin, Jim Sabo or Steve Mosteller.) A sheet has been posted on the Choir Room door for you to choose a preferred week (August 23 & 30 remain open) or speak with Shirley Mosteller.

Summer Worship & Sunday School will be held at 9:30 AM. through Sunday, September 6, 2009.(Note: There will be no Summer Sunday School sessionson the holiday weekend of September 6.)On “Homecoming Sunday,” September 13th, we will resume our regular schedule with Worship and Sunday School for Pre-K through 12thGrade Youth at 10:15 AM. The Adult Class will also resume its sessions at 9:00 AM on September 13 in the Sunshine Room. Save the afternoon of Sunday, September 13 for our annual “Homecoming Picnic” at Merrill Park in Colonia(Rain Date: September 20).Details in the September edition of The Lamplighter, weekly Worship bulletins, and in weekly Centenary E-pistles to those for whom we have E-mail addresses.

Prayer for the Week of August 16:O God our Creator, Alpha and Omega, to you a thousand years is like a minute, but for us every second counts. Every minute is scheduled; every minute is precious. A minute of overtime means a minute away from our loved ones. But at this moment, we have chosen to give our time to you; to step out of our demanding schedules, to stop and pray and remember that life is more than what our appointment books tell us. God, we honor and praise you with our most precious commodity—our time. Amen.

I look forward to sharing with many of you in Worship along with our special guests, Scott & Meg Rambo, and to joining with you and them in Christian Fellowship this Sunday morning at Centenary.

In Christ’s Love, Pastor John