9:30 AM — Worship & Summer Sunday School
Preacher: John D. Painter Theme: The Amateur Hour
Lectionary Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a • Ephesians 2:11-22 • Psalm 89:20-37 • Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Music: Carla Giordano, Piano – In Church
Celebration of Found Coins: CUMC Youth Fund
10:30 AM — Fellowship Time

Food Collection—Sunday, July 19: 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…and 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

Summer Worship & Sunday School at 9:30 AM
Worship and Summer Sunday School will held at 9:30 AM through Sunday, September 13. Please make note of this seasonal change in our Worship and Sunday School schedule for the Summer. (There will be no Summer Sunday School sessions on the holiday weekend of September 6.) On Sunday, September 13th, we will resume 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 September 13. Save the afternoon of September 13 for our annual “Homecoming Picnic” at Merrill Park in Colonia. 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.

This Sunday at Centenary: July 19, 2009
The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

9:30 AM – Worship & Summer Sunday School
Preacher: John D. Painter Theme: The Amateur Hour
Lectionary Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a Ephesians 2:11-22
Psalm 89:20-37 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Children’s Message: Pastor Terrilisa Durham Bauknight
Celebration of Found Coins: CUMC Youth Fund
Music: Carla Giordano, piano – In Church
10:30 AM – Fellowship Time (Room 20)

Food Collection—This Sunday, July 19: 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…and 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
Summer Music Volunteers Being Sought: Again this summer 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 your preferred week, or contact Shirley Mosteller.

Vacation Bible School—“Rome”—July 27-31: Strap on your sandals for fun, adventure and God’s love—in Rome! The children will explore a crowded Roman market place, tiptoe past Roman guards, encourage Christians in an underground church and visit Paul for daily discoveries about Paul’s life.
Rome…where the Bible comes to life! Race a chariot, try on a toga, and experience the power of Scripture and the courage of the early church.
Rome…where the Apostle Paul is your Bible teacher. Each day you will visit Paul’s cell, soaking in Scriptures as Paul shares what he’s writing and applies it to kids’ experiences.
Vacation Bible School will cost $15.00 per child. Please call the Church Office for a registration form at 732-548-7622.

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 many available weeks on the 2009 Refreshment Chart in the Narthex. 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.

Summer Giving
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.

PANCAKE BREAKFAST
Blueberry Pancakes
Plain Pancakes
Waffles
Scrambled Eggs
Bacon and Sausage
Orange and Apple Juice
Coffee, Tea, and Milk

Saturday, August 8, 2009

8:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Only $7.00 per person
Children 10 and under – $5.00

Proceeds will be designated to support a proposed November 2009
Volunteer-in-Mission Trip to North Carolina to work with our United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) in flood repair and relief.

Centenary United Methodist Church
200 Hillside Avenue, Metuchen, NJ
732-548-7622

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 LABELS and other related products: We are still collecting these labels for the Red Bird Mission. There have been BIG changes 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.

Some Thoughts for This Week:

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.

Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them. – Hugh Miller

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. – Helen Keller

The only way out is through. The only way to heal the pain is to embrace the pain. – Fritz Perls

One-half the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough. – Josh Billings

Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them. – William James

Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again. – Sarah Ban Breathnach

Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent. – Mignon McLaughlin

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? – Abraham Lincoln

Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves, without any insistence that they satisfy you. – Dr. Wayne Dyer

God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. – Saint Augustine of Hippo

Happiness keeps you sweet;
Trials keep you strong;
Sorrows keep you human;
Failures keep you humble;
Success keeps you growing;
But only God keeps you going.

If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. – Chinese Proverb

Love consists in looking together in the same direction. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other. – Rainer Maria Rilke

Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all. – D.L. Moody

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. – Abraham Heschel

Next Sunday at Centenary: July 26, 2009
The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

9:30 AM – Worship & Summer Sunday School
Preacher: Terrilisa Durham Bauknight Theme: Seeing to Believe
Lectionary Readings: 2 Samuel 11:1-15 Ephesians 3:14-21
Psalm 14 John 6:1-21
10:30 AM – Fellowship Time (Room 20)

Pastor John Painter will be attending the 2009 Greater New Jersey Annual Conference (GNJAC) School of Christian Mission, Together at the Table, at Centenary College in Hackettstown, NJ, from Friday afternoon, July 24 through mid-day Sunday, July 26. Pastor John has been asked to lead the “Early-Bird Bible Study” at 7:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday at the School this year. Assistant Pastor Terrilisa Durham Bauknight will preach at our 9:30 AM Worship Service at Centenary on Sunday, July 26. If you need to reach Pastor John with a pastoral concern during the weekend, please feel free to call him on his cell phone: 201-463-5552.
Pastor John will be participating in the Conference Study: Giving Our Hearts Away: Native American Survival. The additional studies that are being offered this year include Faith and Food; Beauty and Courage of Sudan: Why a Dream of Peace Is Possible; and, Sharing the Word in Today’s World.
The Cooperative School of Christian Mission is sponsored by the United Methodist Women of the Greater NJ Annual Conference, with additional support from the GNJAC. The School offers a unique opportunity for local church laity and pastors to engage in a concentrated weekend of study, action, worship and fellowship around current mission themes.

Prayer for the Week of July 19: O Lord, I live in tension. I feel you calling me away into the quiet, sacred, holy and lonely spaces, and I also feel the heat and the crush of the urgent. Needs are all around, pressing me for answers, pushing me for help and pulling me for time. And yet I cannot fully engage the needs without the perspective that only you can bring from my time in the quiet places. Grant me grace, Lord, to know when to retreat and when to engage. Give me ears to hear you in the quiet and eyes to see you through the haze of urgency. Amen.

Summer Worship & Sunday School at 9:30 AM through September 6
Worship and Summer Sunday School will held at 9:30 AM. through Sunday, September 13, 2009. Please make note of this seasonal change in our Worship and Sunday School schedule for the Summer. (Note: There will be no Summer Sunday School sessions on 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 12th Grade 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 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.

I look forward to sharing with many of you in Worship and Christian Fellowship on this summer Sunday morning at Centenary.

In Christ’s Love, Pastor John