Dear Centenary Church Family:

Greetings from OBX!! Tina and I have been enjoying our time here exploring North Carolina’s Outer Banks. We’ll be packing our bags into the car tomorrow morning to begin our return trek north to NJ, and expect to arrive back in Metuchen sometime Saturday evening. It will be good to see many of you this weekend at Centenary.

We will gather at 9:30 AM this Sunday, July 16th, for Worship and Summer Sunday School in our air-conditioned Sanctuary. Members of our United Methodist Youth Fellowship (UMYF) will lead us in Worship on this summer Youth Sunday. And for those of you who want to rise and shine a little earlier this Sunday, a light, continental breakfast will be served by the UMYF beginning at 9:00 AM in Room 20. An unusual feature of the service this Sunday will be the morning Message, which will be offered through the medium of film: The Word in Film… In addition to the film which we will watch in Worship, there will also be a special children’s film offered during the Summer Sunday School following the message with the children in Worship. The Scripture readings for our service this Sunday are 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 and Ephesians 1:3-14. Our Celebration of Found Coins is designated for the Aldersgate Center Capital Campaign to assist with rebuilding facilities at our Annual Conference camps, conferences and retreat center which were recently destroyed by fire.

“FIESTA”—Vacation Bible School—July 31 to August 4, 2006
WANTED: Caring and loving people who enjoy working and having fun with children. Also to help guide children on their Christian Journey through Vacation Bible School. We are in need of teachers and youth workers who speak English and/or Spanish. This year’s VBS will be a dual language program that models God’s love in all our friends and neighbors in all that we say and do. “FIESTA” will be held Monday, July 31 through Friday, August 4, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon and includes Hot Bible Adventures, Chadder’s Drive-in Theater, Cactus Crafts and Missions, Maraca Munchies, Grande Games, and Sing and Play Ole’. Our FIESTA Finale will be on Friday, August 4th at Noon. Child Care will be provided for younger children, age 1 through 3 years old. Registration is $12.00 per child; $30 per family of 3 or more. For more information and registration please call the Church Office at 732-548-7622 or Cathy Savoia at 732-826-1921.

THE CLOTHESLINE
August is almost here again—Centenary’s opportunity to assist some very needy mean, women and children of our community by giving our clothing and our time. On August 13th we will be at Elijah’s Promise Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick distributing clothing from The ClothesLine, our old school bus/mobile closet.
During the month of July please bring your clean, gently used summer clothing (no stains, holes, missing buttons, broken zippers, ring-around-the collar, etc.) for all shapes and sizes of men, women and children. Place your bags at the end of the hallway across from the Counting Room. On Sunday, July 30th, immediately following Worship and Fellowship Time, we need volunteers in the Youth Room to sort and size each item so that they can be loaded onto the bus for an orderly distribution.
The following is a list of things our clients need (please remember: no winter clothing—we’ll ask for that in October or November—storage space and volunteers to sort continue to be our major obstacles):
Shorts, jeans and casual pants T-shirts and tank tops
Blouses and polo shirts baseball caps
Sneakers, sandals, casual shoes sheets (please mark sizes), pillowcases, towels
Children’s summer clothing—infant through teen (at the moment we have none!)
It is an enormous help if you either stick a piece of masking tape, with size, on each item or write size and gender on outside of bags (e.g. men’s T-shirts, size medium; girl’s summer clothes, size 5/6).
The barrel offerings during June will be used to purchase new socks and underwear for which the clients are extremely grateful.
Sunday, August 13th (2:00-4:00 PM): Distribution at Elijah’s Promise Soup Kitchen, 18 Neilson Street, New Brunswick.
Sign-up sheets are in the Narthex for both the July 30th sorting time and August 13th distribution at the Soup Kitchen. PLEASE! PLEASE!! Many, many people are depending on us… Thank you, Tookie Bacon

Refreshments: Persons are invited to sponsor the time of coffee and refreshments following our Sunday Worship services. Please consider sponsoring a refreshment time and signing up for one of the available weeks in late July and August on the 2006 Refreshment Chart in the Narthex. Information on what you need to provide is available from Pastor Painter or by speaking with Millie Pleuler (732-750-4434). Thank you for providing hospitality on a Sunday morning.

I will be attending the 2006 Greater New Jersey Annual Conference (GNJAC) School of Christian Mission, Harvesting Peace, at Hamilton Park Conference Center in Florham Park, NJ, from Friday afternoon, July 21st through Sunday afternoon, July 23rd. I will be attending the study session on India-Pakistan, in preparation for offering this class at our Sunday Adult Study in September. In case of a pastoral care need while I am at School, I may be reached on my cell phone: 201-463-5552.

Some Thoughts for This Week:

“Life is part positive and part negative. Suppose you went to hear a symphony orchestra and all they played were the little, happy, high notes? Would you leave soon? Let me hear the rumble of the bass, the crash of the cymbals, and the minor keys.” – Jim Rohn

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.” – Og Mandino

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. – Ruth Ann Schabacker

Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve and mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we do deserve. – Unknown

God often uses small matches to light great torches.
A dewdrop does the will of God as much as a thunderstorm.

God demands a whole heart, but will accept a broken one if he gets all the pieces.

Have the courage to let go of the things not worth keeping.

Never, if possible, lie down at night without being able to say: I have made one human being, at least, a little wiser, a little happier, or a little better this day. – Charles Kingsley

Upon you I call, O God, who made me and did not forget me when I forgot you. – St. Augustine of Hippo [adapted]

I will look forward to sharing with many of you in breakfast, Worship and fellowship this Sunday.

Shalom, John