On Sunday, May 18th, Walter Boyles was confirmed during our regular service. This celebration was the culmination of almost two years of meetings, discussions, curriculum planning and teaching. Sandy, Hartmut and members of the Christian Education Committee did not want to simply proclaim Walter confirmed because he reached a predetermined age. We all wanted this to be meaningful. Covering traditional Reformed theology with Walter was not possible. So what could be done?

A search for appropriate materials was not successful. We are a small congregation, but we are not short of members that know how to teach individuals with autism. With Hartmut’s input regarding essential religious topics, Sandy, Heather and her husband, Dan, went to work designing a way to teach Walter. They used principles developed at Eden Family Services, a school for autistic children. After many sessions, it was apparent that Walter had demonstrated sufficient knowledge to be confirmed.

Now, back to Sunday’s service: what a great celebration it was! Several of Walter’s classmates and their families were guests at the service. Certainly our Eden guests left our church with a clear understanding of how important Walter is to us. The play, presented by our FRC kids and written by Pastor Susan, was fun and featured Walter in a speaking role. The sermon delivered by Pastor Hartmut was excellent and touched on how much we have learned from Walter. The music, which was offered by Stef Beemsterboer, Ellen Hamilton, and our organist Viktoriya, was very moving. And, of course, the food after the service was excellent.

The Reformed tradition tells us that self-pride is not a good thing. We could not help, however, being proud of Walter and for his accomplishment, as well as being proud to be a member of a congregation that welcomes and loves Walter as much as we do.

And this year’s show at Hofstra continued in this vein. Never before did our group receive so many comments and signs of appreciation. The accompanying pictures show this well: lots of laughter, affection and joyous swirls. And the weather was simply gorgeous. May 4th was a great day for our Dutch Dancers at Hofstra University.

Thank you, Erie, for having organized this so well!

No need to bring anything. Just know that they have a dog and a cat in case of allergies.

Many thanks to all those who attended the Hall Education Fund’s Square Dance and Silent Auction on Saturday, Mar 29th at the Presbyterian Church. It appeared that a good time was had by all who attended. It provided a time to visit and meet people from the other churches who are partners with First Reformed Church in supporting the Hall Fund. In addition, over $2,000 was raised to enrich our scholarship fund.

On May 27th, the Hall Education Fund will conduct the annual interviews of the young people who have applied to us for financial help. This year there are eleven candidates from three high schools: New Brunswick High School, Health, Science and Technology High School and Piscataway Vo-Tech. All of the students are New Brunswick residents. It is always a sobering, and ultimately uplifting, experience to listen to their stories.

Heartfelt thanks to those of you who support this important work.

At our monthly prayer shawl meeting, we decided who is going to receive some shawls as we had finished quite a few recently. Thank you to all of you who have donated money, time and/or effort for this worthwhile activity. The shawls are always very much appreciated and people talk about them a long time after they have received them. Our next meeting will be May 21st. Consider joining us even if you don’t know how to knit or crochet. Perhaps you can help us with a Raggedy Ann or Andy.

The kids are always very eager and excited for the Easter Egg Hunt.  This year Pastor Susan also included puzzle pieces in envelopes, which were then put together for a special message.

This year’s Easter Egg Hunt even included the smallest child!  Aliece Sena looks for some eggs among the stones.

 This year will be a bit different, though, in that a Jazz band, which will include Dan Epstein (Heather’s husband), will provide musical jazz variations of Good Friday hymns. They will play in between the readings set for remembering the events which led up to Christ’s crucifixion.

Our usual Maundy Thursday dinner will also be held a bit differently since our House of Manna is in Fellowship Hall. We have arranged through Elijah’s Promise to have food prepared for us as well, so we can begin eating along with our families at 6:00 p.m., and then from there we can go to worship.

Please inform Pastor Susan or Joan Fekete about attending the dinner. We would like to give a head count to the cooks at Elijah’s Promise. Also, we ask for a $5.00 donation per person for the meal. The proceeds will go to the benefit of the soup kitchen.