News & Notes 6/17/09
Hello St. John’s Church Family,
What a wonderful day today!! Hope you get to be outside sometime today to enjoy it. Of course one easy way to “get out” would be to go to Friendly’s Ice Cream in Dover tonight - between 5 & 8 PM! It’s our next Fundraiser - we’ll receive a percentage of that restaurant sales from tonight. As always, we’re not encouraging anyone to “bust their budget,” or spend money they don’t have. If it fits your budget, why not head out for dinner and/or ice cream?
Got word of wonderful news in our church family last evening. Holly (Eaton) and Travis Corbin gave birth to their first child, Jackson Eric, who arrived at 9:36 PM - at Wentworth Douglas Hospital. Everyone’s fine - even the proud grandparents - Joanne and Guy Eaton!!
After I wrote last week that John & Ann Ewalt prepare the meal for the homeless network in Hampton last week, John replied: “Just thought you should know that Ann and I were not alone in preparing the SIHN dinner at Hampton UMC on Wednesday. Behind the scenes, Susan Koslowsky provided a cooked pork roast, apple sauce and gravy, which we transported along with the rest of the meal and served to the client families. Ever since we have been involved with SIHN, Susan has provided and cooked the meat and delivered it to us on her lunch hour, since she works all day and can’t bring it to Hampton.” Thanks for straightening me out, John.
Nancy Whitehouse asked me to spread the word of a “UNH Open Barn” - free admission - rain or shine - Saturday, June 20th, from 10 AM till 3 PM - at the UNH Dairy Barns in Durham. You can visit the cows and calves; experience the children’s performers, Julie and Brownie; sample free milk and ice cream; take wagon rides; tour the UNH Dairy Facility; and more. Sounds like a treat to me!!
This Sunday is Father’s Day. May I offer my “Happy Father’s Day” to all those Dads and Granddads out there. We need your help to create an altar arrangement for the “Tools of Hope” offering. The Outreach Committee would like to adorn the altar with your Dad’s favorite hand-tool - rakes, screwdrivers, trowels, drills, saws, etc. Could you bring yours (with your name clearly marked on it so we can get it back to you) to the church sometime between now and Saturday morning at 9:30 AM? Also, there’ll be a listing in the bulletin of all the Dad’s who have been honored or memorialized by the purchase of one or more “Church World Service Tools of Hope.” But it ’s not too late to make a donation. Five dollars will by a tool - you can place it in the offering plate this Sunday, too.
Remember that we’ve begun the “summer schedule” for worship. We have just one service, at 9:30 AM.
Speaking of that one service - or more specifically speaking of childcare during that service . . . what, you weren’t speaking of childcare? Well maybe we should have been! Anyway, our Childcare Coordinator, Sandy Shepard, would like to offer childcare for children up through six years of age (we presently offer it up through three years of age). But to do that, she would need at least two more volunteers each Sunday, because she would like to have the children who are potty trained through six years of age taken care of in the room to the right of the nursery (those kids are too big and too active to be playing around the small children and infants). If we can provide this “extra room,” then more folks might be apt to attend worship in the summer! So, we’ll create a sign-up sheet - but those don’t usually attract too many folks. You can help us “break the pattern.” Look for the sign-up sheet outside the nursery, and make your commitment to help out. It would be great to have parents take a turn - but it would be great as well to have folks who don’t have children, or don’t have children in that age range, to “staff” the summer nursery. Won’t you help?
With school ending in a couple of days, and with the announcement of Jackson Crobin’s birth, I thought I’d share this story. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, “Grandma, guess what? We learned how to
make babies today.” The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. “That’s interesting,” she said, “how do you make babies?” “It’s simple,” replied the girl. “You just change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es’.”
That’s all the news for today. Sorry I won’t be able to see you at Friendly’s - I have to head out to Annual Conference in a short while. I’ll be back in time for worship on Sunday. See you there. Peace, Mark