Author: barbarafox

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Member News: Bob and Debbie Meola

Bob and Debbie Meola are a director-producer team who have contributed their many talents to PUMC for ten years. Their latest production for a community theater group — Shrek the bob filmingMusical — opens this weekend at Montgomery High School.

Bob and daughter Tricia did the fabulous video for the “Opening Doors” capital campaign and he most recently made the instructional video for using PUMC’s kitchen appliances  (in photo above)

Debbie is designing PUMC’s altar arrange2014 3 23 water largements to go with our Lenten sermon series (her “Water” altar is at right). She also co-leads a Girl Scout troop with another PUMC member, Alison Koblin. She and Bob have three daughters — Katie, Tricia, and Abby.

The Meolas began their careers as a producing/directing team in many corporate studios. Currently Bob manages the productions studio at Chubb, and Debbie is a freelance writer.

The Meolas are founding members of Sourland Hills Actors Guild, a non profit, volunteer run community theater in Montgomery Township. As director (Bob) and producer (Debbie) they offer four performances of Shrek the Musical,  Thursday to Sunday, April 4 to 7. Click here for tickets and info.shrek

Shrek tells the story of an ogre and his loyal steed Donkey, as they set off on a quest to rescue the beautiful (if slightly temperamental) Princess Fiona. Add the diminutive Lord Farquaad, a gang of fairytale misfits and a biscuit with attitude, for a family-fun musical comedy! The message of acceptance makes this a great production for all ages.

Community theater groups like these offer opportunities for  area children and adults to audition and perform or work behind the scenes — to build self confidence, work together as a team — and hear the delight of an audience appreciating their hard work! The Meolas are wonderful role models for how to take joy in using one’s God-given talents and training to help others.

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The Landscape of Lent: Wilderness

2014 3 9 altar earhGod’s Word shows us that even life’s barren and hostile wilderness cannot separate us from God’s love and the destiny God has for us. That’s what ZhiHui Poh preached on March 9 in a Lenten sermon at Princeton United Methodist Church. His topic in the Landscape of Lent series was the wilderness — the wilderness in which the Israelites wandered, the wilderness in which Jesus was tempted, and the wilderness in our own lives.

He offered an inspiring message about how to think of “life’s wilderness” three ways — as part of God’s grace, as part of God’s discipline, or as part of God’s confidence in us. To continue reading, click here.

(The altar was designed for this service by Debbie Meola).

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Youth Leaders for Service and Worship

Our young people will take leading roles in our church this weekend! On Saturday, March 29 at 6 p.m. they stage a fundraising dinner and auction for the Appalachia Service Project (ASP). Tickets for the March 29 dinner are $5, and all are welcome. Among the 2013 asp debbieitems on the auction block:  condos in London, England and Key West, Florida. The ASP program welcomes all teens of all backgrounds, church members and non-church members alike, to participate in this life-changing experience.

On Sunday, March 30, at 9:30 and 11 a.m., three graduating seniors — Alexander Birkel, Daniel Prakash, and Anthony Teng — will deliver the sermon.  Their topic in the Landscape of Lent series is “Mud.”

Sunday Schoolers from second grade on up will attend the 9:30 worship service. After all — soon it will be their turn to lead a Youth Sunday!

Then on the Thursday before Easter,  April 17, at 7:30 p.m., the youth choir and a string quartet will present Faure’s Messe Basse for the service of Upper Room Communion.

Come and support our youth!

 

 

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The Landscape of Lent: Wind

2014 3 16 wind photo sanctuary Some of God’s best work happens in the midst of chaos and ambiguity, said Catherine Williams in her sermon at Princeton United Methodist Church on Sunday, March 16, 2014. The theme was “Wind,” and it was part of a Lenten sermon series on the elements. Here is an excerpt, and for the complete text, click here. The audio version is also available on Sermon.net.

Some of God’s best work happens in the midst of chaos and ambiguity. I was never more aware of that than in my clinical pastoral exposure in the chaos of emergency rooms, in the ambiguity of the psychiatric floor, or in the limbo of the intensive care unit and its waiting rooms. As a terrified chaplain-in-training, despite my predilection for order and control, I discovered that some of God’s best work takes place in the midst of life’s disruptions.

May those of us today who are trying to live through situations of ambiguity and uncertainty allow the wind of God’s spirit to fill us with peace. Often in this place of peace we encounter God’s wisdom, God’s knowledge, God’s understanding, God’s perspective of the situation that simply had not occurred to us before, nor would ever have, had we not placed our trust in God.

So come Holy Spirit, blow upon our hearts this day.

Blow your healing breath where there is pain and sadness.

Blow like a gale where there is complacency and inertia.

Blow, wind of God, blow over our trampled, broken dreams and bring them to life.

Blow over our callous hearts and soften them for your compassionate use.

Blow over our broken families and breathe forgiveness into places of disillusion.

Blow over frail and dysfunctional bodies and cause a rush of healing life to flow within them.

Blow over our failed systems of justice and overturn the rampant corruption and fraud that oppress your people.

Blow over city streets filled with violence and crime; let your reign of peace exert a leavening influence in our families and schools so our children learn to love peace and hate war.

Come holy spirit, breath of God, may this Lenten season give way to the Easter of our lives where we are reborn and renewed from above…

in the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the blessed Holy Spirit, Amen

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Fighting Cholera in the Congo

Tom Lank, formerly on the staff at PUMC — he led the 2010 mission trip to the Congo for the United Front Against Riverblindness — sent us a note from Bishop Ntambo asking for help in the cholera outbreak. The mission team met him in the DRC. “several PUMC folks will recognize the Bishop and may feel called to respond to the need,” says Tom. We were glad that Tom, Gretchen, and the girls could come to the African Soiree to present the very special UFAR award, honoring Pete, to Liz Meggitt and her family.

The message from Bishop Ntambo: Each year, North Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo experiences a severe Cholera outbreak that claims thousands of lives during the rainy season. UMCOR needs your help to respond to this outbreak and help prevent it from happening again. Watch this video to hear from Bishop NTAMBO Nkulu Ntanda on how you can help.

We are also asked to keep the people of North Katanga in our prayers.

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Helping the Homeless in Ewing

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Our sister church in Ewing, Trinity, is collecting clothing and blankets (new, with tags, or gift cards) for those made homeless by the devastating explosion and fire in Ewing Township. About 55 homes were damaged in the explosion and resulting fire, and about 20 others are uninhabitable. Our district superintendant, Rev. Varlyna D. Wright, suggests that items may be brought to the church or to the district office at 1985 Pennington Road, Trenton NJ 08618. Checks are also welcome. Or contact Brian Joyce at bdjoyce@comcast.net or by phone at 856-952-9066.
Click here for the Trinity Church web page.

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Windows Feeding Light into the World

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Six stained glass windows from Canterbury Cathedral are on view at the Cloisters in NYC. They were crafted in the 12th century, 800 years before the beautiful windows at Princeton United Methodist Church were made. Yet despite the difference in age, the windows on Nassau Street share the same inspiring properties.

In the Middle Ages, said critic Holland Cotter in his review of the exhibition for the New York Times,  “Churches were conceived of as truth-holding boxes of light, but also as power stations, feeding light into the world.”

What an exciting concept! When we pass through the Sanford Davis Room, we see the awesome, huge “Let the Children Come to Me” window.

sd window

Now that window can remind us that the church holds the light of truth and that we can help “feed that light into the world.”

Noticing the “Let the Children Come to Me” window is particularly fitting for Sunday, March 3, when the Sunday School lesson focuses on that very story in Luke 18: 15-17.

One big difference between PUMC’s windows and those in medieval churches where the windows could be 60 feet above the floor: Ours are mostly at eye level.

As in medieval times, the light shining into our windows changes according to the weather and the time of day. Little Sam noticed that during the coffee hour last week. “Look Mom,” he said, “Just now, the light shone through Jesus’s face!”

Photograph of the Cloisters by Byron Smith. Photograph of the PUMC window by Patricia Hatton. The Cloisters exhibit remains through May 18, 212-923-3700.
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God’s Kingdom Belongs to Them

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You never know what you’ll find when you poke your head into a Sunday School class. On this day a hall monitor with a camera found the 2nd and 3rd graders doing a service project, using sand and balloons to make “stress balls,” part of a cheery “get well kit” to give to shut-ins.

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Meanwhile Yvonne Macdonald was teaching a song to 3 and 4 year olds; they performed it last week.

ss k-1The kindergarteners and first-graders were busily at work.

And the 4th and 5th graders were painting about Psalm 23 and working on their sewing projects.

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Who gets the most out of the children’s Sunday School classes? Could it be the teachers? After all, as the saying goes “We teach what we need to learn.” And — the lesson for this Sunday, March 2, is on Jesus and the Children, the story in Luke 18: 16-17 about how children are the best ‘welcomers’ of God’s kingdom. Said Jesus: “God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children.”

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African Women Extraordinaire: March 1 and 6

Elsie speakselsie and cake

Princeton Theological Seminary stages a one-day symposium on March 6:  African Women Extraordinaire: church, health, and women’s development. The full-day workshop is $50 and is being planned by Dr. Elsie A. McKee, who spoke at the UMM Men’s breakfast last month amd told of growing up in the Congo and of her connections with the Shungu family.

Elsie is Princeton Seminary’s professor of Reformation Studies and History of Worship. She is also the International Liaison and President of Women, Cradle of Abudance, a North America-based organization that promotes the work and ministry of Femme Berceau de l’Abondance.

If you go to the African Soiree this Saturday, March 1, you will see her there as well. Elsie is on the board of United Front Against Riverblindness and co-chair of the African Soiree.

So much good work!