Central United Methodist Church Courier

“Make a difference in the world for Christ by reaching out in love and service and by nurturing spiritual growth.” Volume 11, Issue 11 May 2009

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT TEAM REPORT By Edy Laverdure

Everyone knows how wonderful and exciting it is to receive a gift. We at Central have been very blessed with gifts lately Many people have given us the gift of their time and talents in the renovation of our sanctuary. Countless people have shared their knowledge and their enthusiasm on this project. Still, today, we continue to receive these gifts from a variety of our members. Planning for the sanctuary windows, the re-building of our parking lots, the replacement of our education building windows and refurbishing the hallways continues, and it amazes me to see how many members of our church have the skills needed to fulfill these projects. Another blessing we have received lies in all the donations made to our church for this capital improvement project. People have donated and are still donating money to purchase pews, windows, air conditioners and the carillon. Others have increased their giving to the capital campaign to make all this happen. Now another wonderful gift is coming out way. One of our members has offered to do a matching gift for the capital campaign. A matching gift Sunday will be held on May 17th and on that day we will be asked to donate an additional amount to the campaign. Our donations will then be matched by this donor! What a wonderful gift this is! Think of all the possibilities we can create with this gift. How blessed we are! During all this renovation and planning for the future, we have not neglected our missions. Mission support has always been a big part of who we are at Central. The one problem we face with all this giving has been finding a neat and attractive way to

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collect and store all the donations of canned goods, blankets-, coats, baby items, etc. Have you ever passed through the gathering area and wished it could be straightened up somehow? Well, a portion of the old pew front rail was saved during the remodeling and has been placed in the gathering area. The Mission Team is going to devise a way to store all of our "collections" behind the rail. I think we will all appreciate the gathering area more when it is completed. But don't let these changes change the way we support our missions. In times like these, our donations mean more than ever to our community. This is our way of giving thanks for all the wonder-

A Word from Pastor Watts One of the many good things about our congregation is that whenever there has been a need and I have asked you for your help, you have responded generously Whether that need is a new young mother in Pleasantville who just had a baby and has nothing with which to care for that baby, or a family in need at Christmas, or a person battling cancer having a benefit, or Ranch Hope needing to build a new Administration Building destroyed by fire, or People in Pass, MS. needing to rebuild their hmes, or orphaned children in Uganda needing someone to build them a home, you have generously responded! And those of us who have had the privilege of taking these resources to these people have been so blessed to see the faces of those to whom these gifts have meant not just Hope, but Life. Many of us have been there to receive heartfelt thanks, often with tears and to see the shine in their eyes. You have been so generous when we needed to care for our immediate facility and property improvement as we entered into the Capital Improvement projects that have renewed our sanctuary. While the economy has caused us to scale back and delay our long term project, there are some projects we continue to move forward on, such as the replacement of our sanctuary windows, the repair of our steeple, air conditioning for our children's Sunday School rooms and for Adams Hall, parking lot improvements, etc. Your generous support is helping us make a lasting investment in the future ministries of our church and the children, youth, and young families whom God keeps sending us.

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I wish you could hear the vibrant energy on Sunday mornings of over 100 children, youth, and teachers in interested and excited conversation about God, leaning bible stories of our faith. I wish you could see the faces of almost 40 youth in our basement on Sunday rights in JYG and UMYF and Confirmation Class having fun and talking together about their faith. I wish you could see- -on Tuesday mornings, our Toddler room filled with young Moms sitting in a circle with Bibles on their laps while little ones crawl and toddle around the room and Moms talk together about God's Word and how it applies to them right now. I wish you could see the faces of 23 people in Bible Study on Tuesday mornings in the Chapel, and 15 at the Beanery in EHT on Tuesday nights, and some 15 in Bible Study the Chapel on Tuesday night, growing in their faith, and so much more. There are 90 adults, youth, and children involved in choirs, praise teams, music classes practice almost every right of the week, and men playing Basketball in Adams Hall on Monday nights, and on and on. I remind you of these wonderful stories of our growing faith family and ministries to also tell you of another need. Sometimes in caring for all the needs of others, we can forget about the needs we have in our own ongoing caring ministries. While we continue to care for all these wonderful needs, our giving to our own ongoing ministry has been struggling. Since January, we have significantly cut back on spending for our ministries, asking each department to be frugal, yet income to our regular ministry has fallen short each month of our expenditures. As of the end of February, we have expended $23,500 more than we have received. Obviously, we cannot continue to spend more than we receive. Fortunately, because of your generous giving in prior years and prudent spending by our ministry teams, and careful investing by our Financial team, we have reserves we have been able to draw upon. I know that for some in our church family, during these last few months, daily family life has been seriously impacted by the potential loss of home, the loss of one spouse's job, and the tightening of belts. We are trying to be a support to the families we know who need us. So in these difficult times, we need your continued faith generous, even sacrificial support where possible. Candy and I, facing our own challenges, like you, but we have purposed to God, we will continue to be faithful to Christ with our tidies and offerings of thanksgiving. God has been so good to us throughout all of our lives. We will continue to stretch ourselves to make a healing difference in this world for Christ through His Church, Thank you for all you are doing and for the lives we are able to touch for Christ because of you.

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The Goings-on at Central By Chuck Wolfram The Annual Conference will hold at the end of May, and this gives YOU the opportunity to serve the church on the Conference level. One of the things we do at Conference is elect all the committees that actually nm the conference on a day-to-day basis. In reality we simply accept whatever the Nominating Committee puts before us. The Conference has all the same committees that a local church has, among which are History and Archives, Finance & Administration, Christian Unity, Church and Society, Status and Role of Women Global Ministries, Higher Education, Communications, and plenty of others. Please speak with one of the pastors or lay members as soon as possible if you are interested in serving. We need your written consent to get your name on the Nominating Committee report. You also have to agree to attend the meetings. The Church Council is reading Three Simple Rules: a Wesleyan Way of Living by Retired Bishop Rueben P. Job (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), a short book that our bishop wants us to read that’s on the same rules Pastor Watts was preaching on at the time. Do no harm, do good, stay in love with God. Our pastor told us he wasn't going to read the book until he finished his sermon series. The IMMT made about $,600 from their annual roast beef dinner. The money goes to Ranch Hope. Thank you to all who came out that night. The Staff-Parish Relations Committees is considering a plan to dedicate one night each month, which we will hold all of our committee/team meetings. The proposed plan also is that meetings will last no more than an hour. There are six teams that regularly meet every month. The. Church Council will meet a week after this meeting night. The Friends-Central Cemetery Association will hold their annual meeting and luncheon on Saturday, May 91 in Adam’s Hall. If you belong to the association, please come.

Notes from the Sound Booth By Andrew Zaplitny

Over the past few months we have finished all of the capital improvements in the sound booth and surrounding area. We now have a very versatile sound and video-projection system. Also a new lighting control system was added to give us total control of the lights; we also are going to incorporate our video recording system into the new video distribution system soon to come.

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We were very excited to try out all of our stuff for Easter, putting it all to its biggest test yet. We had, great success with the different services and using the versatility of the new systems. If you are interested in being a part of this growing ministry, see Andrew Zaplitny or Carlyn Yard to get plugged in.

A Look Into JYG… By Garrett Ewing, 8th Grade Member of JYG

Central United Methodist Church is made up of people from Linwood, Northfield, EHT, and Somers Point. CUMC has many, many, many things to do. One of them is Junior Youth Group (JYG). JYG is very full of merriment. We learn about God and do games to get us to enjoy learning about God. It is our place to ―hang out,‖ and enjoy the friends we have in JYG. We intereact with games and events to learn about God and how to be more Christ like. God is awesome! Each time we meet, we learn something we didn’t know about God. For example, on Palm Sunday, we washed each other’s reet. During biblical times, people didn’t have shoes, they had sandals. So when someone came into a house it was very honorable for someone to wash their feet. Jesus did this with everyone he met. Another example of the fun times we have was the district lock-in with other churches on March 27-28. During the lock-in we worshipped God, and had lots of fun while trying to stay awake—(yes, all night)! Since this was a district event, other churches such as Tuckerton Church, Sea Isle City, and many more joined us during this event. Learning about Jesus and God is fun! Next, it is our place to ―hang-out.‖ Even though we learn about Jesus and God, we also go there to talk to our friends you only see at JYG because they may live in another town, or because you have sports you have to go to, or lots of homework you have to do, etc. That’s just one more reason we go to JYG. We go there to talk to friends we could not talk to during the week. Finally, we enjoy going to JYG because everything we do is exhilarating and educational. Even though it’s just a little bit educational, when it comes to God, you got to take risks for Him because he takes risks for you. It’s even fun when we learn because Mrs. Casagrande or Mrs. Hogan have something tied into learning about God, such as a game, a movie, or talks that have to do about Him. Going to Central United Methodist’s Junior Youth Group is very, very enjoyable!!!!

JYG JYG will once again be doing PROJECT BABYSIT on Saturday, May 9th, from 6pm to 9pm in Adams Hall. Please look for registration forms in the bulletin or in the gathering area. JYG will be having a CAR WASH with ―prayer‖ on Saturday, June 6th from 9am to 1:00pm, in the church parking lot. As you an see from the schedule, our youth are very busy. We would appreciate your support in order to fund events like: A Close Walk and Our visit to the Lighthouse. For more information on any of these events, please contact: Devan Cronin, Sue Hogan, or Maria Casagrande.

JYG Calendar of Events (June—July 2009) JUNE 6th, Saturday 7th

Car wash with prayer, 9am –noon in church parking lot No JYG meeting

14th

Regular Meeting

21st

Third Sunday Worship

28th

Concert in Millville, leave church at 5:00pm

JULY 5th

Regular Meeting

7th, Tuesday

Beach Volleyball in OC 5:45pm

12th

Absecon Lighthouse visit

14th, Tuesday

Beach Volleyball in OC 5:45pm

16-18th

A Closer Walk (camping on the beach in Wildwood)

19th

Third Sunday Worship

21st, Tuesday

Beach Volleyball in OC 5:45pm

25th, Saturday

Help out @ Church BBQ

26th

No JYG meeting

28th, Tuesday

Beach Volleyball in OC 5:45pm