Dear Centenary Church Family:

We will gather in our air-conditioned Sanctuary at 9:30 AM this Sunday, July 23rd, for Worship and Summer Sunday School. Assistant Pastor Terrilisa Durham Bauknight will share the Word with the children and also bring the morning Message, Please Take Your Vacation, using the Gospel reading from Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 as her text. We will also share in the Epistle reading from Ephesians 2:11-22. Soprano Nancy Conroy will sing Domine Deus, from the “Gloria” of Antonio Vivaldi. Our Celebration of Found Coins for July is designated for the Aldersgate Center Capital Funds Campaign.

Pastor John Painter is attending the 2006 Greater New Jersey Annual Conference (GNJAC) School of Christian Mission, Harvesting Peace, at Hamilton Park Conference Center in Florham Park, NJ, beginning today through Sunday afternoon, July 23rd. He is 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 he is at School, Pastor Painter may be reached on his cell phone: 201-463-5552.

Final Worship Service for Jesus Followers United Methodist Church This Sunday Afternoon: Pastor Hoo Sug “Steve” Lee will lead the remaining members of Jesus Followers United Methodist Church in their final Worship service at Centenary this Sunday afternoon at 1:30 PM. Following a recent decline in attendance and participation, the difficult decision was reached to disband this Korean-language mission congregation. JFUMC has been sharing our facilities and relationship with Centenary since May 2002. Pastor Lee and his family will shortly move to Wayne, NJ, where Pastor Lee will assume the position of an Associate Pastor at Bethany United Methodist Church. Our prayers and best wishes go with the Lee family as they move to their new home in Fort Lee, NJ, next week and begin their new ministry in Wayne.
“FIESTA”—Vacation Bible School—July 31 to August 4, 2006

“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’. The program will be offered in English and in Spanish. 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.
ASSISTANCE NEEDED WITH VBS SETUP—SUNDAY, JULY 30TH @ 4:00 PM: Cathy Savoia is seeking persons to be available at 4:00 PM next Sunday, July 30th, to help with setting up on the front lawn and in the Sanctuary for Vacation Bible School. If you can help out, it would be deeply appreciated.

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 next week– 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. Next 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.

Some Thoughts for This Week:

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seed of today.

Swallowing words is always easier than eating them.
You cannot take credit for beauty at sixteen; but if you are beautiful at sixty, it is your soul’s doing. – Marie Stopes [adapted]

Relativity applies to physics, not ethics. – Albert Einstein

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. – Alexander Graham Bell

There is no situation so chaotic that God cannot from that situation,
create something that is surpassingly good.
He did it at the creation.
He did it at the cross.
He is doing it today. – Handley C. G. Moule
A gloomy day only makes a rainbow all the more noticeable.

God’s best gifts are not things, but opportunities.

Reputation is for time; character is for eternity. – John Gough [adapted]
The Gospel message breaks hard hearts and heals broken ones.

If you seek a life of great adventure, go into the world and live like a Christian.

You will be in my thoughts and prayers this weekend from Florham Park as you gather for Worship and Fellowship at Centenary.

Shalom, John