But now, with the color choices made by our wonderful architect Margaret Westfield, the house begins to develop its very own charm. Of course, what you see is only a first coat. Much more painting is needed. However, already now we have inkling of how beautiful the house will be in the future. And so we thank Tori, Mariel, Christine, Leanna and Maggie for their generous work. We also thank the RUTGERS administration, especially advisor Jennifer Simon, for organizing events like this one. Our New Brunswick community will be the better for it.

And last, but not least, we want to thank Julius Fekete, the senior voice on our Property Committee, who was there to show us which conduits above the panels we could paint, and how to stand a ladder on a slant.

Twenty-three Rutgers students and their two student supervisors followed the call and spent several hours with janitorial and other chores in our buildings. Their cheerful work included:

• The washing of doors and moldings in the church and the education building.
• The polishing of furniture in both buildings, including all upstairs and downstairs pews.
• Finishing of painting the breezeway; painting a doorframe in fellowship hall.
• Washing of all chairs and tables in fellowship hall.
• Filling of holes in the front yard.
• The washing of stalls and doors in the bathrooms.

While I busied myself leading the students in their various work stations, several members of the Property Committee had rushed to the scene in order to support all this wonderful work. Jim Hance tested the drainage system for gutters and leaders on both buildings. Julius Fekete remounted a nasty door hinge in the church office, and Gary Bernhofer fixed ceiling tiles in the kitchen and mounted a padlock to one of our supply closets. The men also started the work on a downspout on the Sexton’s House.

We closed the day with a fun tour of the church and plans for another such work day in April. The young people are a true blessing to our church!

Members of our Property Committee accompanied the students. They replaced light bulbs, removed debris in the cemetery and reinstalled repaired storm windows. But most importantly: They passed on the story of First Reformed Church by talking about the founding of Rutgers University, the great overseas missions of the 19th century, and the meaning of socially involved faith today. The students were grateful for the experience, and we could not thank them enough for the beautiful work they provided for us.

Now, he is tackling the Sexton’s House. He started in September, but when hurricane Irene hit, many churches needed his emergency assistance – and so did our retreat center in Warwick, where Paul has his office. However, Paul keeps coming back faithfully.

This time he is painting the exterior of the Sexton’s House. Our architect, Margaret Westfield, provided the specifications as a gift to the church. Since then, Paul has been applying Victorian colors to the house!

We also want to thank Jaime Johnson, the new chair of our Invitation & Outreach Committee, because he, too, has been diligently involved with scraping and painting the house – besides his volunteering for House of Manna on many days.

Enjoy the picture of Jaime and Paul with Robert Longo, our sexton. They all are part of our family here at First Reformed Church.

Sknaht uoy is “thank you” spelled backward. Regardless of the way it is spelled, still it is meant for all those who served at the Men’s Shelter in March. Some nights there were 15 homeless men; other nights there were only 11 or 12.

March is the last month that shelter is provided for them, so now the homeless men will have to find some other place to spend the night. Just think about how cold it is still outside.

Volunteering this time around was a little different for us. It was not as much fun without Jim Hance, our official Shelter Boss. As most of you know, he became ill and is still in the hospital. No only did we volunteers miss Jim, but the homeless men also mentioned him. They always asked us for updates about his condition. Not what one would expect, right?! But many of our homeless guests have been rotating from one house of worship to another for many years. (Unfortunate but true!)

Thank you to all that served – not only those from First Reformed, but also the many other groups and organizations who gave of their time to make it possible for the men to stay.

For those of you who need some more planning, we provide the following calendar in this month’s newsletter.

With this in mind, on Rally Sunday we will get a chance to start up the new Fall season and the return of regular programming of our church. With the start, we will celebrate newly painted pews, new upholstery on the chancel furniture, and even a new Communion set on the Communion Table. That’s a lot of new-ness! And to add to our celebration and new things list, over the summer we were informed by letter from the Acting Commissioner, Charles A. Richman that Governor Corzine signed into legislation funding for NJ Historic Trust, which includes our state grant for the historic preservation project.

This may sound a bit surprising and scary in these economic times, especially since the grant is a matching one. However, may we continue to remind ourselves of several things: First, that we have four years for this project and the fund-raising; second; we are free to limit our 2010 preservation efforts to a very conservative scope. With that said, it is clear that, at this time, we want and need to address the steeple and the church roof, the beam in the church attic, as well as the soffit of the education building.

As you can imagine, there are still many things on our buildings that will need to be worked on. Let me just mention the worst problem, which is the structural situation beneath our sanctuary floor. These must do building issues seem overwhelming, though. Inevitably, when we look at the big picture, they appear to be impossible. And so we loose hope. But, as my grandmother used to say, “To eat a whole cake, you have to take one bite at a time.” I think that it is the same for our building needs.

How can I respond so hopeful? Well, let me just remind our doubtful minds of how our pew painting project went this summer. At first, it was awful. We started out sanding lightly, then washing it down, then spot-painting it with primer. And, wow, after two weeks it appeared to be done. Then, we noticed that the paint was pealing. OH NO!!! So we had to start all over again, only this time we did it more thoroughly.

Several of us thought that we were doomed, and it would never be finished. “Impossible!” they claimed. Yet, YOU ALL responded to the call for help. In total, there were 13 church members who helped Julius Fekete accomplish the impossible, not counting the numerous helping hands that brought lunches and other support. Yes, we did it together. One day, it was two other volunteers. Another day it was a whole family. A little bit at a time. And now, it is finished.

It is our calling to remain hope filled even in the midst of uncertainty. Likewise, with the grant monies and our fund-raising efforts for our buildings: we have to do it one step at a time – together.

Hopefully yours,
Pastor Susan

Now that we are facing fall and cooler temperatures, we are going back to our beautiful sanctuary for our services. What a change a coat of paint can make! The pews are looking so good. A big Thank You to all those volunteers who helped to bring this about: Julius Fekete, Ellen & Bruce Hamilton, Pastors Hartmut & Susan, Lily Kramer-Mills & friends, Margaret Coakley, Heather Epstein, Norma Vande Bunte, Ben Berman (was this in your job description?), and the Beemsterboer family. And, by the time this article is printed there may be a few more names to add to the list.

That reminds us, if you would like to write a thank-you note and are looking around for a nice card, consider using one of our note cards. They are beautifully decorated with drawings of the various buildings, which we have worshiped in as First Reformed Church. We sell them in packs of 4 or 10. Just see Ethel if you would like some, or stop by the church office!

Talking of Ethel, she deserves a big thanks as well, as she was responsible for baking all those delicious cookies we enjoyed every coffee hour in the summer. Now it is open to all of us to provide refreshments after the service. They can be something simple; most of us are just looking forward to something to nibble on while catching up with the other members. In addition, be assured there is always someone who is willing to explain how to make the coffee and hot water.

Looking forward to see all of you soon in our sanctuary!

Then on Saturday, Mar 28th, we once again showed that many hands make light work! With the help of Junior Girls Scout troop 71669, 5th grade from Cranbury, we had a clean-up day. The girls are working on their Bronze award (the highest award a junior Girl Scout can get) and they picked House of Manna for their service project. So from 9:00 until 11:00 we cleaned all the chairs and tables in the Fellowship Hall, top, and bottom. And you would be surprised to discover how much dirt and unmentionables we found under the tables and chairs. Then we cleaned the woodwork in the Fellowship Hall, all the doors we cleaned and even the bathrooms were done. Meanwhile, the women of the church cleaned in the kitchen, the windowsills got a good going over, glass doors were cleaned. The cabinets were emptied and reorganized. House of Manna supplied their own plates so we put ours back in our cabinets and put away the new plates. We looked at all the items in the cabinets and made a decision if it still was used and needed by the church or that a toss was the better way to go. It was a lot of work but it is so satisfactory to see all the gleaming surfaces and know that everything is clean again!

A big thank you to: Allison, Brittany, Elina, Ellen, Ethel, Evelyn, Imma, Janet, Joan, Kathleen, Katie, Kelly, Lisa, Maggie, Nicole, Norma, Olivia, Petra, Premilla, Renee, Sandy, Susan, Tessa, Theresa and Walter.

Julius has provide great organization with the volunteers for mowing the lawn throughout the summer.

This has saved our church $3000! Can you imagine that?! Thanks to so many of you who have been willing to arrive early and mow.