The gift is a piece of music that she is writing especially for First Reformed Church which emphasizes the musical skills of our congregation, and exemplifies the mission and atmosphere of our church. These are two events that the members of our congregation will not want to miss.

Mrs. Nelson-Wolff is a very talented musician and has been gracious enough to have sent music to us many times before. We have sung her music during the introits in Advent and Lent. It is richly melodic and written in the antiphonal style, which means that one group sings and another group responds. Finally, we will get to meet this gifted woman on September 11th in the fellowship hall of our church.

If it isn’t a non-member wedding or a concert, it may be a small congregation seeking worship space, or a community group needing space. What we once thought to be a burden is now a blessing for many in the community. This past month, we have agreed to allow a Kenyon Seventh Day Adventist congregation to use our sanctuary on Saturdays, starting in September. They will also be using Fellowship Hall for meals for part of the afternoon on that day. We will have the opportunity to negotiate with them about special events, and they have been made aware that there may be Saturdays when we will need use the space ourselves. They are very willing and flexible.

More exciting is the theater production presented by the New Brunswick Collaborative Arts. Starting the second week of August, our sanctuary will begin to look like a stage. They will be building one! Later on in the month, they will be performing Romeo and Juliet – but this time with an ethnic twist. Furthermore, the Collaborative Arts group has been working with the high school, some of whom are hoping to be a part of the cast. Keep your calendars open the second half of August for this special production. Oh, and by the way, I didn’t mention the best part of it: It’s for FREE!

On August 6th, we will watch the movie Home at Last – a movie about homelessness in the United States. Gary and Lauren Bernhofer will be hosting us. Again we will start at 7:00 p.m.and bring a dessert to share.

Please save the dates of September 24th and 25th for our annual retreat. We are looking to go away overnight this time. Activities and studies will all relate to the theme Fire. We will start with dinner on Friday and have some activities around a real fire. On Saturday we will have more on the agenda. Please let Erie know if you are planning on coming. We have two locations for the retreat and are still working out the details.

We announce the actual location in the coming weeks.

Our first regular fall meeting will be on October 10th. That is the second Sunday of the month. We decided to change to this Sunday so more people may be able to attend our meetings. As always all women of the congregation are welcome!

Next year, we will have at least one new face in the group as Lily is leaving for college. She will be missed as she been a long member of the bell choir, she even played before with Mei Li. If all goes according to our plans we hope to play once during the summer. On August 8th a special worship service is planned to honor Marie Washington for her devotion to her faith and the many ways she expressed it over the years in a variety of ways. Since we know that she enjoys bell music, we are working on a musical piece for that worship service. After that we will take a break and start rehearsing again in September.

If you would like to be a part of the bell choir let me know! I try to accommodate as many people as I can as long as the players are committed to come to rehearsals fairly often.

Have a great summer and enjoy all the sounds of it!

The choir sang, several instruments played, and poems were read.

I think the pictures capture some of the spirit.

The wedding of Elian and K.T. Titre – shown with their children Natya and Elian.

Since we all liked the Honor Roll breakfast so much, the Women’s Guild has decided to hold another one next year on Mar 5th! At our meeting on May 16th, the women talked about how exciting the breakfast was and what we all learned from it, through Lisanne Finston’s presentation. The Warwick Retreat will focus on a movie with the kids and the adults in order to learn more about the food industry and the over-processing of food. The movies Food, Inc. and Supersize Me are quite explicit and extremely interesting.

The Women’s Guild, though, also felt that there are other topics that we, as a congregation, are dealing with and so we are planning two Friday night movie events: Jul 16th and Aug 6th. The plan is to have a potluck dinner and to watch a movie together. An announcement will come later of exact times and locations.

If you are able to host either of these events, please see Erie.

Looking Ahead for the Women of our church:
Please save the dates of Sep 24th and 25th for our annual retreat. We are looking to go away overnight this time. Details will follow in the next newsletter.

The Advent Breakfast is scheduled for Dec 4th. Pastor Susan has been asked to write another skit about the birth of Jesus, this time from Joseph’s point of view.

Finally: the prayer shawls are still being made. Moreover, we have some ready that can be given away. If you know someone who could benefit of getting a prayer shawl, please see Erie.

That’s why at the First Reformed Church it has become our tradition to start Mother’s Day off with a breakfast prepared and served by the men. Jim Hance, Rod Gray, John Coakley and Gary Bernhofer provided the food items for the breakfast. Those already mentioned, along with Ben Berman and Pastor Hartmut, helped with the set-up, did the serving and helped clean up afterwards.

The main menu item was an egg/sausage and cheddar cheese casserole. The recipe was one given to Lauren and I many years ago by Christine Delhagan. The men also served a vegetarian version of the recipe . Other items included on the menu were: cake, fresh orange juice and fruit salad. I guess the guys are getting pretty good with putting together a meal because things went very smoothly and everyone seemed satisfied. (Maybe I shouldn’t make this public as we may be asked to help out more often in the kitchen!)

A free will offering was taken and the proceeds were credited to the Worship and Music Committee.

(Editor’s Note: Thanks, Gentlemen! The meal was delicious!!)

We are certainly not an ethnic church. Neither are we characterized by a particular ethnic majority, nor do we deem this theologically desirable. Mainstream America is a very diverse place. However, this does not mean that we shall neglect our ethnic roots.

On May 1st, when much of the international world celebrated Labor Day, we swam against the stream by celebrating a belated Queen’s Day at the Van Wickle House on the shore of the Delaware-Raritan Canal in Somerset.

In the Netherlands, Queen’s Day is held on Apr 30th, but in many places the celebrations start on the evening before with flea markets, as a celebration of the birthday of the Queen Mother, Princess Juliana. For us, May 1st was an opportunity for everybody to be Dutch for a day. We could browse the stalls that had various items for sale; we could listen to traditional Street organ music and Jazz music. Lunch was available, where rolls with cheese where a main part of the menu of course. What would a Dutch lunch be without some nice cheese!

It was a little less royal at the Van Wickle House, but here, too, we had special guests. Symen Van Wickle and his wife Geradina, who built the house in 1722, were reenacted by Rev. John DeVelder and his wife, Linda, and gave a lively presentation. Rev. Dr. John Coakley gave a presentation about the Rev. John Livingston, and Dr. Firth Fabend gave us lasting insights into the lives of Dutch women in New Jersey at the time
of the American Revolution by reading from her novel, Land So Fair. In addition, the Van Wickle Dancers, mainly consisting of members from our church, gave two nice performances and invited people from the general public to take part in it. Look at the pictures and see how Dutch we can be! What the pictures don’t show is that we all participated in a new dance this time, and we got so many nice comments about that. And Mother Nature seems to be willing to give us nice weather for Queen’s Day, so it was a hot day again. That is the main reason why you might see some hats not being worn, but if you ever want to see the costumes up close, just ask Erie or Ellen.

Sunday, Jun 27 — Outdoor Worship Service at 10:30 a.m. followed by Potluck Lunch Congregational Meeting regarding the budget

Saturday, Jul 10 — Rod’s Grille Night at 6:00 p.m.

Friday, Jul 30 – Sunday, Aug 1 — WARWICK CAMPING RETREAT

Sunday, Aug 8 — Special Worship at 10:00 am, including a Testimonial to Marie Washington for her many years of Christian Service

Aug 23 – 27 — Vacation Bible School Week for children between the ages of 3 – 13! This is a combined event with the four collegiate Reformed Churches. This year Highland Park Reformed Church is hosting it.

Sunday, Aug 29 – at 10:00 a.m. – Collegiate Churches Outdoor Worship at the Van Wickle House including potluck picnic.

One of the first of Julius’ projects was the building of a large mail box by the entrance door on 9 Bayard Street. Until then, mail delivered through the slot used to land on the floor. Sometimes, we lost a piece, and sometimes two. The new mailbox changed all that.

Another project was the replacing of the wardrobe in Fellowship Hall. Without much ado, the frail old pieces ended in one of our many dumpsters, and Julius built us new ones. Later, you could see him lead a small team of volunteers rebuilding the walls of the pantry in the sexton’s house.

Then there was the plan for the new church library. Julius built the large windowsill, the conference table in the center, and the media center at the entrance to the room. He also built all the shelving in the room. Later, Julius built shelves and a wardrobe for the choir robes in the Robing Room.

Julius also organized much of our outside work when he coordinated the lawn mowing of our volunteers. And always, always, he has been seen with the wooden toolbox he stationed here at the church in order to fix this or that. Broken locks, chancel furniture, the frame for an air conditioning unit — you name it, Julius has done it all.

His efforts were crowned when he helped to get our preservation project underway. In order to expedite consistory discussions, he appeared at one of the meetings with a foam board filled with pictures that showed the extent to which our buildings had fallen into disrepair. As we all know, he came not a day too early.

Shortly thereafter, we found ourselves forced to replace the roof on the education building and to shore up its tower. Thanks to Julius, we had at least the structures in place to cope with these emergencies: Margaret Westfield as architect under contract, and a contractor and subcontractor to carry out the work without delay.

Now, Julius has passed on the baton — maybe not for all the particular projects, but for the chair personage of the Preservation Team. Caryn Aran is the new leader on board, and we welcome her with open arms.

When we finished the women’s bathroom, one could see Julius and Caryn work side by side — Elijah passing on his mantle to Elisha; you remember the story from 2 Kings 2.

We will recognize Julius’ service to the church and the passing of the baton to Caryn with a special coffee hour on Fathers’ Day, Jun 20th, after worship service. Please help us to make this a special day.

For our June meeting on the 30th, we plan to go to a restaurant as a final close for the season. The details will be determined and we will announce it at worship.

Please know that everyone over the glorious age of 65 is welcome to come along — friends included!

For a number of years now, the men of the church take over the kitchen on the morning of Mother’s Day. They come in and prepare all different kinds of delicious food for everyone. One year, we had pancakes of all different ethnic backgrounds; last year, the eggs were cooked to order.

This year, Gary Bernhofer is organizing this event again. Breakfast will be served from 9:30 a.m. If you want to help or supply any kind of food, please let Gary know or email him at JRTPals@aol.com.

There will be a basket for donations; this year the donation will go to the Worship and Music committee to help offset the programs and activities they organize.

The musicians are flutist Kevin Willois, clarinetist Kenneth Ellison, and pianist Lynda Sapaonara, pianist. Some of you will remember Kenneth Ellison’s performance of a Brahms clarinet quintet when the Franklin Strings Plus One performed on the series and will enjoy hearing him again in a very different ensemble.

The April recitals — one of music for cello and piano and one of songs for soprano, baritone, and piano — brought great pleasure to those who heard them.

Earlier on in the year, a group of volunteers was supposed to come and help us with various activities as part of the Rutgers Martin Luther King Volunteer Day. That event was snowed out, so it was arranged that the volunteers would help the Women with their spring cleaning. Also, one of our building user groups had agreed to send a group of young people to help us out.

The Women’s Guild had made a list for the eleven volunteers that were expected to show up around noon on Apr 17 . To our surprise, we had in total about sixteen young, h th ardworking people from these groups. It was a job in itself to come up with jobs for them and to supervise their activities. But so much got done!

All of us that were at worship the next day could appreciate the hard work one volunteer put into vacuuming all the pew cushions, top and bottom. That was quite a task. Others worked hard to wash down the knee boards and backrests of all the pews. Even the ones without cushions, and the upstairs pews were not forgotten! The carpet was vacuumed throughout the sanctuary. The choir folding chairs got cleaned. And did you notice that the breezeway windows looked so much brighter? Every single pane was cleaned by other hardworking volunteers.

In the Fellowship Hall, all the chairs and tables got a good and thorough cleaning. The woodwork below the windows got washed. The doors to the bathrooms got a coat of paint. The deacon’s bench in the vestibule got two coats of paint, so now it matched the ones in Fellowship Hall. The vestibule walls were washed, as were the windows of the entry door. In the kitchen we had two gentlemen give the top of the stove a cleaning.

All of this would not have been done if Joan, Julius and Norma had not been there and help me think up jobs fast enough keep all the volunteers busy.

Thank you Ahmad, Alyssa, Dwayne, Haja, Hawanatu, Jennifer, Jelitza, Magan, Marette, Matt, Nisha, Randy, Sheri, Tori, Victoria and Zaahir. Our church and education building looks cleaner, more inviting thanks to all your hard work!

For our May meeting, we decided to do another visit. So on May26th, bring your brown bag lunch to First Reformed Church. We will eat at noon, and then head out in two cars to Johnson Park and the East Jersey Olde Towne Village. Hopefully the weather will be nice for us.

If you are not familiar with East Jersey Olde Towne, let me share with you the following: it features the largest collection of original, reconstructed and replicated 18th and 19th century structures, which “represent the vernacular architecture typical of farm and merchant communities of central New Jersey”. Structures include the New Brunswick Barracks (Visitors Center), Runyon House, Six Mile Run House, Vanderveer House, Indian Queen Tavern, Fitzrandolph House (Storytellers Cottage), and the Smalleytown Schoolhouse.

Again, anyone — even your friends — who are over the age of 65 are welcome to come along.

May Friendship Day Celebration

Join us for our
Annual May Friendship Day Celebration

A Celebratory Service inviting us to remember
“How we as Church Women United,
live the vision of our founding mothers through:
Prayer, Outreach, Sisterhood, Sharing, Worship, and Celebrations using these as
Blocks to build a wall”

Scripture: The Book of Nehemiah

~ providing a model for rebuilding ~

When: Saturday, May 8, 2010
Where: Reformed Church of North Brunswick
(The Sanctuary)
17 Laurel Place, North Brunswick, NJ 08902
Telephone Number: 732-545-2736
Time: 11:30 A.M.

“Fellowship of the Least Coin”
presentation of Young Church Women United
and
“Valiant Woman Awards” will add richness to the day