Annandale Reformed Church New Life Community

Annandale Reformed Church New Life Community

CONNECTIONS

Web Site: www.annandalereformedchurch.org

Our Mission Statement

We are a family in Christ called together by the Holy Spirit to serve God in our community. We are placed here to worship, to nurture and serve, and to make the joyous life in Jesus Christ more accessible to our neighbors.

September 2016 Vol 26, No 9

11

A Word from our Supervisor!

September is the “get-going” month. August slipped away like a too-short weekend. September arrives like a bride-groom late for the wedding. Yikes! That means School is back, and Sunday School too, over scheduling is back and a jam-packed fall stands at the starting line like a marathon ready to start, (and Christmas is coming too, oh my!).

But wait. Pause. One last party. Annandale’s Community Music Festival on September 10 celebrates the Reformed Church’s 150th Anniversary and the life of Pastor Ken Lobb. Wow! Remember and celebrate. I’ll bet you know one or two (or ten) people to invite. It’s a public celebration of God’s good gifts to us.

Then let the race of Sep-Oct-Nov-Dec begin. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” Summer was fun, but there’s work to be done. Our course is to follow Jesus amidst the noise of commerce and consumption, candidates and election, sports and media of

all sorts. How to keep from growing wearing or losing heart? Keep on “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross …and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

Rest will come. We will arrive at the finish line. Until then it’s a long haul, but we don’t run alone, and we follow the one who wins for all. Stay focused on Jesus.

Rev. David Ruisard

Sunday School

Our first day of Sunday School is September 18th.

Sunday School has been asked to contribute to a time capsule in honor of our 150th anniversary. There will be a special presentation and a special Children's Sermon on September 18th. Please have your child/children bring items in from this year for our time capsule on our first day.

Here are some ideas:

-Popular toys or tools.

-Labels or packaging of favorite foods or other products. Include price tags, if you can.

-Newspapers or magazines showing current events or current trends.

-Photos

-Journals.

-Letters to future congregation, to future Sunday School students

-Currency

-Favorite things.

-Clothes and fashion items of the current time

-Personal messages to and from others

-Indicators of high technology. Even if nobody can read the contents of a DVD or Thumb drive in 50 or 100 years, you might still enclose one to demonstrate the state of the art.

-Favorite scriptures

-Books

-Magazines

-Sunday School lessons

-Anything that represents 2016 and their life and faith

The catch is, they have to be able to part with these items. The items will be buried in a time capsule by the Boy Scouts. We need a really good collection of items from 2016 that the children think our future congregation will find interesting, amazing, outdated, etc.!!! We want this to be fun yet meaningful! Each child can bring in as many items as they want to contribute. They can bring items in throughout the first few months of class, but we would like a nice turn out on September 18th!

On our first day, September 18th, after the presentation and Children's Sermon, the children will all go together as one class, get re-acquainted and share their time capsule items. They will leave their items in class that day. More information will come as to when and where the time capsule will be finished. If you have any questions about this project or the first day of class, please let me know at 908-574-9726.

We are looking forward to another great year! This year, we will be having 3 classes and have exciting things planned. Parents, encourage your children to bring a friend! We would love to see more smiles in our classes!

We are so thankful to our returning teachers, Jeannette Betza, Tera Lunger, Sofia Sannazzaro and Christina Vogel(and me).

We are not only thrilled but extremely grateful to have Courtney Lunger back teaching and for the first time in our Sunday School, Karen Caran! Karen has taught Sunday School for many years and we are so blessed that she is joining us. Once again this year we are blessed to have Donna Exley presenting her inspiring Children's Sermons, which are just as meaningful to the adults as they are to the children!

Of course, you will be hearing more from me as the weeks go on. We hope you all are enjoying this last bit of summer and we can't wait to see your children on September 18th! Lorrain

Kid’s Korner

On the last page of the newsletter is a 150th Anniversary word find for you. Pick out all the words and when you come on the 18th you will learn what they mean to the history of our church.

150 years

“KenFest”

A reminder that we hope to see you out on the lawn on Saturday, September 10th. There will be music for your enjoyment from noon to 6 pm. Bring your chair or blanket and your friends and neighbors.

Our Boy Scout Troop 288 will be manning a food concession and we have an ice cream vendor there also.

BRICKS

The orders for the Bricks and Tee Shirts will be submitted by the end of September. Don’t miss out!

There are still quite a few people who would like to have a brick in the wonderful walkway created by Hunter Vogel.

We are now taking orders until mid-September (being sure everyone is back from summer vacation).

We will have order blanks on the back table each week. The cost will remain the same, $50.00 per brick and you can have up to three lines of engraving on each. Once we place the order, the Scouts have volunteered to insert them in the walkway.

If you wish to purchase one, fill in the order blank and make your check payable to Annandale Reformed Church and give it either to Joyce or Cheryl.

STAY HEALTHY.

We want you all to keep healthy. Don’t forget we have the hand sanitizer on the back table for your

Ladies Society

The Ladies will resume their monthly meetings on Monday, Sept 12th at noon at the Country Griddle. They will use this time to plan their activities for the coming year.

They are selling Tee Shirts for the celebration of our 150 years. The order blanks will be on the back table. The cost is $25.00 ($28.00 for 2XL)

The shirts will be purple and have our emblem on the front like we did for the sweat shirts. There will be message on the back in yellow that will simply say

All ladies of the church as invited. Please join us.

STORY OF THE BAGPIPER

As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man.

He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Nova Scotia back country.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions.

I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight.

There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late.

I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.

The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around.

I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.

And as I played "Amazing Grace", the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together.

When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head was hung low, my heart was full, as I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I never seen anything like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

Worship

It says here in the paper that Worship will start at 10:30 on Sept. 11th.

Serve Your Church

In keeping with Pastor Ken’s “example of serving”, please consider signing up to read scripture or host fellowship hour. The large easel sign-up sheet has been recreated on the white board on the bulletin board in the narthex.

(Please use the dry erase marker provided when writing on the white board)

Note: if you sign up for scripture, please send Lynn Hughes an e-mail so she can send you the scripture once received from the visiting pastor.

To insure that our worship time moves along smoothly and timely, we encourage everyone to use coffee hour for the time to have those conversations with others and keep the greeting time what it is meant to be, a time to tell others that God loves them and so do you. When you enter the sanctuary take that time to reflect and prepare yourselves for a time of worship. Our music minister will be playing some soft, relaxing music to help you. prepare yourselves for the quiet time. We know everyone wants to chat with each other and that is so great that we are such a close knit family, but again we encourage you to share those great conversations during coffee hour.

Don’t miss the next 150th Anniversary Event

Sunday, Sept. 18 during service

The Founding of our Church mini play

Come and observe the discussion that occurred as four of the village residents met 150 years ago to discuss establishing a place of worship in this community.

Christian Greeting

The Worship Committee is working hard to insure our worship service runs smoothly and stays close to the hour time frame.

We need your help during the Christian Greeting part of the service. We ask that during this time you greet people around where you are sitting and not move about throughout the sanctuary. This will allow us to start the Praise Singing in a timely manner.

We know everyone wants to chat with each other and it is wonderful that we are such a close knit family, but we encourage you to share those great conversations during coffee hour.

Shared with us by Jack McBurney

Jesus and the Mudpuddle

(You gotta believe a 6 year old)

Howard County Sheriff Jerry Marr got a disturbing call one Saturday afternoon a few months ago.
His 6-year-old grandson Mikey had been hit by a car while fishing in Greentown with his dad.
The father and son were near a bridge by the Kokomo Reservoir when a woman lost control of her car, slid off the bridge and hit Mikey at a rate of about 50 mph.
Sheriff Marr had seen the results of accidents like this and feared the worst.

When he got to Saint Joseph Hospital, herushed through the emergency room to find Mikey conscious and in fairly good spirits.
"Mikey, what happened?" Sheriff Marr asked.

Mikey replied, "Well, Papaw, I was fishin' with Dad, and some lady runned me over, I flew into a mud puddle, and broke my fishin' pole and I didn't get to catch no fish!"
As it turned out, the impact propelled Mikey about 500 feet, over a few trees and an embankment and in the middle of a mud puddle. His only injuries were to his right femur bone which had broken in two places.
Mikey had surgery to place pins in his leg.

Otherwise the boy is fine. Since all the boy could talk about was that his fishing pole was broken, the Sheriff went out to Wal-mart and bought him a new one while he was in surgery so he could have it when he came out.

The next day the Sheriff sat with Mikey to keep him company in the hospital. Mikey was enjoying his new fishing pole and talked about when he could go fishing again as he cast into the trash can.
When they were alone, Mikey, just as matter-of-factly, said, "Papaw ,did you know Jesus is real?
Well," the Sheriff replied, a little startled. "Yes, Jesus isreal to all who believe in him and love him in their hearts."

"No," said Mikey. "I mean Jesus is REALLY real."
"What do you mean?" asked the Sheriff.
"I know he's real 'cause I saw him." said Mikey, still casting into the trash can.
"You did?" said the Sheriff.
"Yep," said Mikey. "When thatlady runned me over and broke my fishing pole, Jesus caught me inhis arms and laid me down in the mud puddle."
GIVES YOUGLORY BUMPS DOESN'T IT!

GOD WILL DO THE REST
I asked the Lord to bless you as I prayed for you today

To guide you and protect you as you go along your way
His love is always with you
His promises are true
And when we give Him all our cares we know He will see us through
So when the road you're traveling on seems difficult at best, just remember I'm here praying
And GOD WILL DO THE REST

Attitude is Everything

A good lesson for all of us. A famous writer was in his study. He picked up his pen and began writing:

Last year, my gall bladder was removed. I was stuck in bed due to this surgery for a long time. The same year I reached the age of 60 and had to give up my favorite job. I had spent 30 years of my life with this publishing company.

The same year I experienced the death of my father. In the same year my son failed in his medical exam because he had a car accident. He had to stay in the hospital with a cast on his leg for several days**and the destruction of the car was a second loss. His concluding statement” “Alas! It was such bad year!!”