Dear Centenary Church Family:

We will gather in our Sanctuary at 10:15 AM this Sunday, June 17, to share in the Worship of God on The Third Sunday After Pentecost / Father’s Day. There will be no regular Sunday School program, but child care for infants and toddlers will be available during the service. We will recognize our three high school graduates during the time of Celebrations and Concerns. (See information below.) I will share a Father’s Day word with the children. My morning Message, Do You See This Woman?, is based on the reading from Luke 7:36-8:3. We will also hear a reading from Psalm 5:1-8. We will receive Heewon Park and Trang Ly-Park as new members of the Centenary Church Family. Our Chancel Choir will sing in Worship for the final time until September 9, as they offer Amazing Grace/Pachelbel’s Canon, arranged by Jean Anne Shafferman. Our Celebration of Found Coins for June is designated for the ClothesLine Ministry.

Food Collection—This Sunday, June 17: Please bring 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

Just a Reminder that our Centenary United Methodist Youth Fellowship will be holding a Car Wash immediately following Worship services this Sunday, June 17:
CUMYF CAR WASH!!
When: Sunday, 17 June 2007
Where: Back Parking Lot of
Centenary United Methodist Church
Time: Immediately following Sunday Morning Worship until the last car is done
Cost: $5.00

Give your Dad, Granddad, Uncle, Godfather or someone special a great present and help the youth raise money for their mission projects

We Will Welcome Our Newest Members This Sunday: Heewon Park and Trang Ly-Park will be received as members of Centenary on June 17 by Certificate of Transfer from Monmouth Grace United Methodist Church in Eatontown, NJ. Please greet Heewon and Trang and warmly welcome them to the Centenary family during Fellowship Time this Sunday.

Wedding Bells: Congratulations to Ann Elizabeth Thompson and Richard Jeffrey Wood who were united in A Service of Christian Marriage at Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church in Kitty Hawk, NC, on May 12, 2007.

It’s a Girl! Congratulations to Brian and Shawna Abry on the birth of their daughter, Kiersten Abry, on Monday, June 11, 2007. Special congratulations and best wishes to “Grandmom” Kerry Abry.

Congratulations to our 2007 High School Graduates: According to our membership records, these three young persons will graduate from High School this month. We congratulate each of them as we share in a brief time of recognition for our graduates during our morning Service of Worship:

Kristen Cordero – Planning to attend The Pennsylvania State University
Melissa Knudsen – Planning to attend Middlesex County College
Nicole Padovano – Planning to attend Rutgers University

REFRESHMENTS—Sponsors Needed: 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 this Summer on the 2007 Refreshment Chart posted in the Narthex. Thank you for providing hospitality on a Sunday morning.

IHOP FUNDRAISER
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2007
For a change we will have a fundraiser for the Church Budget at IHOP on Centennial Avenue in Piscataway.
The deal is this: Everybody and the friends we know come to eat at IHOP between the hours of 5:00 to 8:30 PM
–See Details on the Poster in the Narthex–
2007 Summer Camp Programs at Aldersgate Center and Pinelands Retreat Center: Information about the 2007 Summer camping programs for children and youth (and some specialized adult and family programs) are posted on the Children’s Ministry bulletin board in the hallway alongside the Sanctuary, near the Narthex. Please check out the dates and programs to see if your elementary-age child or Junior/Senior high youth may want to participate in a summer camp experience at Aldersgate Center (Swartswood, NJ) or Pinelands Retreat Center at Mt. Misery (Browns Mills, NJ). You may also check out the offerings and register online at either www.aldersgatenj.com or www.mtmisery.com. Scholarship assistance is available through the Church. Please speak with Children’s Ministries Director Cathy Jean Savoia or Pastor John Painter to get additional information about these programs and appropriate registration forms.

Some Thoughts for This Week:

Let me tell you this: Faith comes and goes. But if it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will. – Flannery O’Connor

I’m looking forward to looking back on all this. – Sandra Knell

I find that it is not the circumstances in which we are placed, but the spirit in which we face them, that constitutes our comfort. – Elizabeth T. King

If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain. – Maya Angelou

Some folks go through life pleased that the glass is half full. Other spend a lifetime lamenting that it’s half-empty. The truth is: There is a glass with a certain volume of liquid in it. From there, it’s up to you! – Dr. James S. Vuocolo

No one has an exclusive on opportunity. When the sun rises, it rises for everyone. – Chinese proverb

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. – Confucius

Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. – Robert Fulghum

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. – Anne Bradstreet

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. – Oprah Winfrey

Next Sunday: June 24, 2007 -
9:30 AM Worship–The 4th Sunday After Pentecost
Preacher: Terrilisa Durham Bauknight Theme: Go Ahead, Break the Law
Lectionary Readings: 1 Kings 19:1-15a Galatians 3:23-29
Psalm 42 Luke 8:26-39
10:30 AM – Fellowship Time (Room 20)
Summer Worship & Church School at 9:30 AM Begins on June 24th: From Sunday, June 24th, through Sunday, September 2nd, Worship and Summer Sunday School will be held at 9:30 AM. (Except there will be no Children’s Summer Sunday School program on July 1st, August 26th and September 2nd.) Please make note of this seasonal change in our Worship and Sunday School schedule for the Summer. On Sunday, September 9th, 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 next year.) Watch for further details in upcoming editions of The Lamplighter.

Prayer for the Week of June 17: O Christ, our washing of your feet may come in different ways. Our thankfulness for all that you have given to us is just as real as the woman in Simon’s house so long ago. The oil that we anoint your life with is born within our hearts like drops of relief when we joyfully find that you still love us. The tears we often shed are just as real as those you met around the table—tears of surprised wonder that we are still your friends in spite of our very human journeys. Thanks be to you, O Jesus Christ. Amen.

Painters Away Time: Tina and I will be leaving for some vacation time in the Williamsburg, VA, area next Saturday, June 23rd. I expect to return to the Centenary Church Office on Monday, July 9th.

During my absence, our Assistant Pastor, Terrilisa Durham Bauknight, will be “on-call” for pastoral care emergencies. Please contact the Centenary Church Office if you have need of pastoral care. Or when our Church Office is closed, you may contact Pastor Bauknight at 908419-4101 (cellular).

I look forward to sharing with many of you in Worship and Christian Fellowship this Father’s Day Sunday at Centenary.

Shalom, John

John D. Painter, Pastor
Centenary United Methodist Church
200 Hillside Avenue
Metuchen, NJ 08840-1900
Office: 732-548-7622, Ext. 11
Home: 732-549-1786
Cell: 201-463-5552
Study: 732-516-9226
Fax: 732-548-6256