Dear Centenary Church Family:

Greetings from Heifer Project International’s Overlook Farm in Rutland, MA, where our six youth, Pastor Bauknight and I are preparing for our closing time here and then our trip back home to NJ. It has been an exciting, inspiring and challenging five days as we have explored issues of world hunger with our mentor, Allie Dart; were split into two families and each spent 24 hours living and working within two “countries” in the Global Village here…Guatemala and Thailand; and joined with the small paid and large volunteer staff here at Overlook to undertake the numerous chores necessary to sustain a large working farm. We are grateful for the experience, and I suspect these few days have made a lasting impression upon our young people…they certainly have done so for their pastors! We all look forward to sharing our stories with you.

We will gather in our Sanctuary at 9:30 AM this Sunday, August 19, for the Worship and praise of God. I will bring a word to the children, after which they will be invited to participate in our Summer Sunday School program in the Sunshine Room. (Just a reminder that there will be no Summer Sunday School sessions on August 26 or September 2, and that we return to our regular 10:15 AM schedule of Sunday School for pre-K children through 12th grade on September 9.) My morning Message, Warning Labels, will be based on the reading from the prophet Isaiah 5:1-7. We will also share in a reading from the Gospel of Luke 12:49-56. Special Music this Sunday will be provided by Jennifer Choi, daughter of Pastor John & Kim Choi of Dreaming Fellowship Church. Jennifer will play The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23) by Yoon Yung Nah. Our Celebration of Found Coins is designated for the Metuchen-Edison Interfaith Clergy Association to assist with meeting short-term emergency needs of individuals and households in our communities.

Food Collection—This Sunday, August 19: Thank You for bringing your cereals, staple food items in plastic jars or cans, and paper products to share with persons in need in our area. We 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 #4, #5 & #6…not pull-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

ClothesLine Ministry Alert: Back-to school month is almost here and, in addition to clothing for our needy children, we have been asked to provide as many school supplies and backpacks (new or gently used) as possible. We consistently serve approximately 150 school aged children so we are asking for help from all of our partnering congregations and individuals to obtain these educational necessities. You may leave your school supply items and backpacks in the hallway across from the Counting Room at Centenary. If you would like to arrange a time to drop things off at the new ClothesLine storage/sorting facility on Jersey Ave. in New Brunswick, or wish items to be picked up, please phone Tookie Bacon on her cell at 732-306-8736. On behalf of our children, we thank you.

Refreshment Sponsors Needed: Persons are invited to sponsor the time of coffee and refreshments following our upcoming Sunday Worship services. Please consider sponsoring a refreshment time and signing up for one of the available weeks on the 2007 Refreshment Chart posted in the Narthex. Thank you for providing hospitality on a Sunday morning.

Flower Arrangements: Persons are invited to sponsor flower arrangements for our Worship services on Sunday, mornings. Please sign up on 2007 Flower Chart posted in the Narthex. Floral arrangements cost $25.00 each week to sponsor. Information is available from our Flower Chairperson, Linda Serentino (732-940-2135) or by calling the Church Office. Thank you for providing these beautiful tributes for our Sunday services.

News from Our United Methodist Women:
Metuchen Fair—Saturday, October 6: October will be here before we realize it. Don’t let your hands and brains go on vacation. Use them to make some items for the United Methodist Women to sell at their table at the Metuchen Fair. This is our only fund raising activity so we need all the help we can get. If you need patterns for knitting or sewing, please see Sylvia Woodfield or Millie Pleuler. Marion Banks has been keeping up with her knitting of afghans for the fair even while she has been recuperating from her recent illness. Millie is always knitting something. Gladys Lehman, who now lives in Illinois, sent us a box of knitted items which she made for us for the fair. Wendy Woodfield is crocheting some scarves. Äli Woodfield has already made some fur scarves which have already been sold. Watch the Bulletin for details of upcoming workshops we will have for the Metuchen Fair.

Campbell Soup Labels: Campbell Soup Labels—or rather the barcodes—are still being collected. There is a listing of exactly what is collected located on the United Methodist Women’s bulletin board adjacent to the Men’s Room off the narthex. You can put what you have collected in the basket in the library. These barcodes are sent to the Red Bird Mission in Kentucky, a United Methodist Mission. They use these coupons to acquire educational equipment for their mission school.

PECANS, PECANS, PECANS: Our United Methodist Women will again be selling pecans, other nuts, candies, trail mix, etc. this year. So don’t go out and buy any pecans from anyone else. We will have the pecans, etc. in the fall, hopefully by early October for your holiday baking. If the women have made enough money at the Metuchen Fair to cover our expenses, the proceeds from the sale of these nuts and candies will go to help the church budget.

Centenary Book Club: Members of the Club are reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen during the summer, and we will use this as the basis of our discussion for our first session on Friday, September 14, 2007, at 7:30 PM in the Sunshine Room. If you are still needing a copy of the book, please contact Rev. Bauknight at (908) 419-4101 or by e-mail at REVTDB395@aol.com. The Book Club looks forward to any and all who wish to join, male or female and 18 years of age. We look forward to seeing you in September and hope that the returning to Friday night will continue to boost the participation and support of TGIF as well.
Pastor Bauknight to Be Away Through Early September: Assistant Pastor Terrilisa Durham Bauknight will be on vacation from Monday, August 20 through Monday, September 3. Our prayers are with her during these days of refreshment and re-creation.

Some Thoughts for This Week:

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. – William Shedd

Should you shield the valleys from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their canyons. – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy. – Bob Hope

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself meeting them. – Phyllis Bottome

If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this whole thing was started by a mouse. — Walt Disney

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

To realize a dream, you must have a dream to realize. – Mark Victor Hansen

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? – Corrie Ten Boom

Sit and daydream, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

God brings persons into deep waters not to drown them, but to cleanse them.

Over every mountain there is a path, Although it may not be seen from the valley. – James Rogers

Prayer for the Week of August 19: Thanks be to you, O God, for life that leaps forth in flames and heats our unthinking coldness. Thank you for never-ending heights to climb and rest that renews us as we go. Thank you for unexpected flowers that line our way and sunlight on the leaves that remind us of the glow of your loving life. Thanks be to you for everything that brings us hope, O God. Amen.

Next Sunday, August 26, 2007:
9:30 AM – Summer Worship / The 13th Sunday After Pentecost /
The Sacrament of Christian Baptism
There will be no Summer Sunday School session on August 26th
Guest Preacher: David Gutierrez Theme: Making a Difference in the World
Lectionary Readings: Jeremiah 1:4-10 Hebrews 12:18-29
Psalm 71:1-6 Luke 13:10-17
Special Readings: Romans 12: 1-2 Colossians 3:12-14
10:30 AM – Fellowship Time (Room 20)
12:00 PM – Dreaming Fellowship Church Worship, SS, Fellowship
Sanctuary, Parenting Room, Sunshine Room, Room 20

We look forward to welcoming Mr. David Gutierrez to the Centenary Pulpit next Sunday, August 26. Dave Gutierrez is the father of Centenary member Valerie Agtarap, and grandfather of Samantha and Patricia Agtarap. When I learned that Dave Gutierrez would be visiting in Metuchen in late August, I asked him to bring the morning Message to our congregation.
Dave was elected as President of the Philippine Haggai Institute Alumni Association, Inc. (PHIAA) for an extended term (1999-2000) during which he served as full-time Regional Representative of Haggai Institute from June 1, 2000 to June 30, 2005. Presently, his continuing ministry with Haggai Institute is serving as a volunteer Resident Coordinator for the Men Session twice a year; one month in Singapore and one month in Maui, Hawaii, USA. He will be coming to NJ in August directly from the men’s session in Hawaii.
Dave and his wife Fanny reside in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila. They have four daughters and six grandchildren.

Summer Worship and Sunday School will held at 9:30 AM through Sunday, September 2. (Except there will be no Children’s Summer Sunday School program on August 26, and September 2.) On Sunday, September 9, we will resume our Sunday morning schedule with Worship and Sunday School for Pre-K through 12th Grade Youth at 10:15 AM. (The Adult Class will continue to meet at 9:00 AM.) Watch for further details in the September edition of The Lamplighter.

I look forward to sharing with you in Worship and Christian Fellowship this Sunday at Centenary.

Shalom, John