Pastor`s Message

FEBRUARY, 2014
Pastor’s Message
WHAT’S INSIDE
PASTOR’S MESSAGE 1
WE GATHER TOGETHER 2
OUR CHURCH FAMILY 3
FAMILY MINISTRIES 3
HAITI MISSION MONTH 5
NEWS AND NOTES 6
FEBRUARY CALENDAR 8
NOYE’S FLUDDE SIGN-UP 9
Have you noticed lately how many words surround us each day? Signs on the
road and in stores, websites, text messages, emails, newspapers (we still get
the paper kind), shows on TV where there is a constant ticker tape of words
scrolling at the bottom, radio programs, books and magazines.
While this constant shower of words is often incredibly useful (stop sign), or
meaningful (the Bible or a hymn), I’ve found it can also sometimes be
overwhelming trying to take in all that information. (I envision trying to
drink down all the water coming out of a fire hose). Let me pause here to say
that the irony of writing words about words for the front of this newsletter of
words does not escape me…
This time of year, post Christmas, pre-Lent, often finds me more
contemplative on these gray, cold cozy days. Does it for you, too? I enjoy this
season of winter. It seems to invite us to slow down the hamster wheel of
thought and activity, to listen to and watch the stillness with our cold hands
wrapped around a steamy mug. To move away somewhat from all the words.
And so I offer an invitation to you.
You’re invited to try to steal a moment, a half an hour, a day – to breathe
deeply – and hit the reset button. To make space in your day, as challenging as
it may be sometimes, to foster your relationship with God by listening to the
stillness, with as few words as possible perhaps. Just breathe, being present in
this moment and listening.
The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville
2688 Main St.
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
(609) 896-1212
www.pclawrenceville.org
Christ’s blessings to you and yours,
—Jill Cifelli
LAWRENCEVILLE LETTER
We Gather Together
Lent Begins March 5—Ash Wednesday
March 5, 7:30-8:30am, 12:30-1:00pm, 7pm
For the first time, PCOL will have three services that
include the imposition of ashes. There will be
opportunities to receive the sign of the cross in the
morning and during lunch, ideal for those who work, and
a full service that is youth-led at 7pm in the
Meetinghouse.
Adult Education
“A Path for Our Journey”
Lent is the season that invites us to embark on a more
intentional faith journey —to open our hearts, minds and
spirits to receive the risen Christ on Easter Sunday. But
how? How can we as individuals and as a community of
faith draw closer to God? Are there practices that are
deeply rooted in the Christian tradition that can guide
us? The answer is “yes.”
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The Adult Education Committee has prepared a
devotional resource, Pathways to Spiritual Growth,
designed to help you experience the presence of God.
Each of the seven pathways starts with a short narrative
illustrated by Scripture passages. Questions for reflection
followed by practical suggestions create a way to make
God’s presence real in daily life. Each pathway includes
additional resources for deeper study. We encourage you
to use Pathways to Spiritual Growth as your Lenten
devotional.
Pathways to Spiritual Growth will be available in print as
a booklet, in electronic format on the church’s website,
and as a devotional sent to your email box each week.
Look for details to follow soon.
Pathways to Spiritual Growth will also be the focus of
adult education sessions offered after worship each
Sunday in Lent (February 23-April 6). Each week, our
Deacons, Elders, Trustees, Staff, Sunday School Teachers,
Youth and members of our church committees will
FEBRUARY, 2014
introduce a different Pathway. We urge you to attend all
seven adult education sessions, though each session
stands alone.
Pathways to Spiritual Growth

February 23 – Faith Practices

March 2 – Serving

March 9 – Fellowship

March 16 – Mindfulness

March 23 – Sharing the Faith

March 30 – Worship

April 6 - Stewardship
The “Fludde” is Coming!
On the weekend of May 31, 2014, PCOL will be putting
on an intergenerational production of the story of Noah,
titled “Noye’s Fludde” (Noah's Flood) by Benjamin
Britten. This is a play based on the style of medieval
miracle plays of England, performed by ordinary people,
crafts/tradesmen and their families, with minimal scenery
and props. This particular play is set to music, and there
will be a small orchestra made up of professionals
and amateurs from the congregation. Noah, his family,
and a large group of “animals” will be needed for this
production, as well as craftspeople for scenery, costuming
and other jobs—so adults and children alike should start
polishing your violin bows, practicing your animal
noises, and warming up your sewing machines.... Visit
www.pclawrenceville.org/noyes-fludde to volunteer!
Our Church Family
Sympathy
Birthday Endowment Fund
The sympathy of the congregation is extended to the
family of our member Janet Fearon upon her death: to her
husband, Dana; to her son, Jim and his wife, Teal Derrer,
and their children, Ben and Sadie; and to her daughter,
Mary Jack, and her husband, Wellborn, and their children
Will, Spencer, and Sarah.
Gifts to the church’s Birthday Endowment Fund were
made in celebration of the following persons who had a
birthday in December: Bob Blazer, Buz Donnelly,
Elizabeth Ferguson, and anonymous gift.
The sympathy of the congregation is extended to the
family of our member Arlene Goad upon her death; to
Lori Goebel, Byron Veale and their children, Ben and
Natalie, upon the death of Byron’s father, Harry Veale; to
the family of our member Jane Tobish upon her death; to
Tim and Karen Stauning and their children, Rob, Mark,
and Meredith, upon the death of Tim’s father; to Holly,
Mitchell, and Matt Tkacs upon the death of son Mitchell,
Jr. (brother to Matt); and to Jeff Pomeroy and his sons,
Zach, Jake, and Alec Pomeroy, upon the death of Jeff’s
father.
If your birthday is coming up, you are invited to pick up
a Birthday Endowment envelope from the church (or
send a check with a memo that it’s for the Birthday
Endowment) and make a gift of $1 for every year of your
life. All ages can take part, and you help to build the
endowment that will support the church far into the
future. You may also make Birthday Gifts in memory or
in honor of others. If you would like the gift
acknowledged to someone, please be sure to give the
church office the person’s address.
Family Ministries
Christian Education and Worship News
Nursery Care is provided every Sunday in the nursery, room
103 during worship. Cara Taylor is our permanent
childcare provider. Silent beepers are available. Childcare
is provided for all children nursery-grade five prior to
worship for scripture meditation and during forums,
adult education, and new member classes. Volunteers are
needed!
Preschool Sunday School is held each Sunday for children ages
three through pre-kindergarten. Class begins at 9:45 and
is held in the classroom located at the bottom of the stairs.
Each Sunday free play, Bible story time, crafts, music and
snack will be provided. Volunteers are needed!
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LAWRENCEVILLE LETTER
Sunday School: We continue to use the
PC(USA)’s We Believe workshop curriculum for
children in Kindergarten through 5th grade.
Children will have the opportunity to learn one
Bible story for four weeks in a different rotation
each week! Our rotations include art, drama,
computers, and audio-visual learning. Our first
unit, the Good Samaritan, Luk e 10:25-37,
concludes on February 16 and our next unit,
Jesus Teaches: Build on This Foundation,
Matthew 7:24-29, begins on February 23.
February Sunday School Schedule
 February 2: No Sunday School—Levi
Sunday
 February 9: Kindergarten and 1st Grade will
be in the computer lab, Rm. 105. Grades 2-5
will be in the drama rotation, Rm. 104.
 February 16: Children’s Chapel
 February 23: Our next unit begins. Children
in Kindergarten and 1st Grade will be in the
AV (movie) rotation, Rm. 106. Children in
Grades 2-5 will be in the art rotation, Rm.
102.
 March 2: Children in Kindergarten and 1st
Grade will be in the drama rotation, Rm.
104. Children in Grades 2-5 will be in the
computer lab rotation, Rm. 105.
Children’s Chapel February 16: At the end of each
four-week unit, the children will attend
Children’s Chapel, which will be held from 9:45
to 11:00am in the Chapel. Children will worship
together and are encouraged to participate. If
your child would like to read a prayer, play a
musical instrument, or lead a hymn, please
contact Kalpana Shrestha or Robyn Campbell.
Mission News. During the month of January the
children collected canned and nonperishable
food items. All donations will be distributed
through Crisis Ministry. During the month of
February, the children will be collecting money
for the Haiti sponsor a student campaign.
Supplies Needed for Haiti! On March 11, ten
students and six adults from the Pennington
School will head to Haiti on a mission trip with
Pastor Luc and Harmony Ministries. The
delegation will include Dr. Richard
Levandowski, Logan Campbell, and Robyn
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Campbell from PCOL. The group will have a
collection box located in the Fellowship Center.
Please consider donating the following items:
toothbrushes, travel-size toothpaste and soaps.,
reading glasses, anti-fungal cream, antibiotic
ointment, acid, pain, and allergy relievers.
Thank you to our Sunday School teachers who taught
the first rotation: Tran Kim-Senior, Tom Roper,
Lindsay Sanford, Kalpana Shrestha, Wendy
Simpson, Kimmy Stokesbary. Thank you to
Melissa Harbaugh for teaching preschool for the
month of January!
LOGOS
LOGOS is a midweek enrichment program for
children ages three through grade five. Each
week the children will have the opportunity to
build relationships with their peers, youth, and
adults in the congregation and nurture their
relationship with God through music, playtime,
art, family dinner hour, and Bible study.
February LOGOS Schedule
 February 5: Haiti Mission Night: A special
presentation about Haiti. We will begin our
sponsor a student campaign.
 February 12: Valentine’s Day: Love is in the
air! We will show our love for Haiti!
 February 19: Cold and Flu Night: Stay warm
and cozy! We will collect medicine and
vitamins for Haiti tonight.
 February 26: Mardi Gras in Lawrenceville.
 March 5: Ash Wednesday: We will have a
special service as we begin Lent.
All of our programs are open to the community.
Please feel free to forward information to other
families that may be interested in participating.
The Children’s Ministries Team will be gathering on
Monday, February 3, at 7pm in the Computer
Lab (Room 105). If you are interested in joining
the Children’s Ministries Team, please feel free to
come to our meeting!
If you are interested in volunteering or would
like more information about any of our
programs, please contact Robyn Campbell at
[email protected], or 609-8961212x107.
FEBRUARY, 2014
February is Haiti Mission Month
For the past 25 years, PCOL has been involved in the life and work of Harmony Ministries, based
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which is led by our mission affiliate Pastor Luc Deratus.
 Sunday, February 9, Pastor Luc will be with us during the 10 am Worship Service and will
answer questions at the Forum following worship at 11:30 am.
 A Special Offering will be received during worship on February 9 which will help fulfill
our 2014 pledge of $8,000 for rice, beans, medicine and support of Pastor Luc.
It has been four years since the devastating earthquake in Haiti; while there has been some
rebuilding, many Haitians are still living in tent camps.
One bright beacon in Haiti is our Missionary Pastor Luc Deratus. He has worked tirelessly and has made wise choices with the
generous gifts from the members and friends of PCOL. In the four short years since the earthquake, he has made significant progress
in rebuilding and restoring hope to the members of Harmony Ministries. Within days after the earthquake, he had the rubble of the
collapsed churches and other buildings cleared and erected makeshift tents where church services have been held since that time.
Within months, the weekday schools for children in first through seventh grades opened using the tents for classrooms. Because of
the generosity of so many and with the grants from the PCUSA, the new church in Port-au-Prince is scheduled to be completed in
the next few months. (Please see the photos of the new sanctuary in the Fellowship Hall; they will be on display each Sunday
during February following the worship service—the new building is magnificent, and will hold over 5,000 people.) During the
rebuilding, members of our partner church, Pinnacle Presbyterian, in AZ, have traveled to Haiti to see the progress with the
rebuilding. They feel confident that the new building is very sound. A contingent of our church members hopes to attend the
dedication of the new sanctuary.
The new school (the fourth for Harmony Ministries) in LaSalle in its second year has nearly 100 students; this is the first opportunity
for most of these children to attend school. What joy he is bringing to the children of that area!
This past year, each month members of the Hope for Haiti consortium took turns sending Pastor Luc $4,000, with which he purchased
rice and oil, bags to fill with rice, and medicines, and subsidized the doctor who is at the Harmony Medical Clinic four days a week.
Each bag held five pounds of rice,, producing over 1,200 bags each month; a bag of rice feeds a family of four for three to four days.
This support was enormously important in helping beat back hunger and providing medical care to those who could not afford it.
For many years, our church has supported Pastor Luc’s schools through “Sponsor a Student,” helping students in the Port-auPrince, Thoman and Leogane schools, and now LaSalle. Pastor Luc has been able to hire more teachers, build more classrooms,
purchase school supplies, and provide lunch for the students because of this support. You can “Sponsor a Student” for $50 for one
year. If you are interested, please fill out the form below, send it to the church office or sign up following worship in the Fellowship
Center following worship any Sunday in February.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
____ I have enclosed a check for $__________ for the Haiti Special Offering for beans, rice and medicine.
____ I would like to “Sponsor a Student” and have enclosed $__________ to support ___ student(s). ($50 supports one student for one
year)
____ I have enclosed a check for $__________ for the Deratus Fund, which helps support Pastor Luc’s living expenses.
Name: _____________________________________________________________________________________
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LAWRENCEVILLE LETTER
News and Notes
Exploring Membership Gatherings
Lawrenceville Presbyterian Preschool
If you know of anyone considering membership
here at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville,
please share the news. We’ll be having our
Spring Exploring Membership gatherings after
worship from 11:30-1 pm on March 16, 23, and
30. This is a class series and content for each class
will be different. Childcare is available. For any
questions or to sign up, please contact Jill Cifelli,
896-1212x103, [email protected].
There is a flurry of activity during the month of
January down in the preschool classrooms. On
January 16, the Chickadees and Owls
participated in a service learning project in honor
of MLK’s birthday. Parent Chris Thern of Cherry
Grove Organic Farm donated supplies and
support for the children to make bag lunches
for TASK. The following week, the students took
their annual trip to the Lawrenceville School ice
skating rink to enjoy some slipping, sliding and
skating! If you are close by and can hear the
sound of Owls and Chickadees, this month there
will be an additional bird sound! The
preschoolers will welcome chicken eggs from
Quiver Farm. They will experience the hatching
process and be caretakers of the chicks for about
a week. Word of mouth is our best
advertisement. Please spread the word that LPP
is now enrolling for next year! We will be
conducting open houses and opportunities for
Ladies’ English Afternoon Tea
February 23, 2-4pm
We invite you to a delicious and authentic
English afternoon tea at the Manse. A limited
number of tickets, at $20, will be available after
church on February 2, 9, and 16. All proceeds
benefit our mission giving. Hosted by June
Arcamone, Andrea Rabitz, and Catherine
Thomas.
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FEBRUARY, 2014
families to visit the preschool. For more info,
please check the LPP website,
www.lawrencevillepreschool.com, or contact the
Executive Director, Alison Young. Remember to
like us on Facebook.
Home Communion
If it is challenging for you to join us for worship,
perhaps due to mobility or health reasons, please
know we’d like to come share communion with
you in your home. On Sundays when we
celebrate communion in morning worship, elders
and deacons are interested in sharing the
sacrament of communion. We visit in teams of
two in your home for about a half hour. The next
date for communion during our Sunday morning
worship service March 9. Contact Jill Cifelli for
more information or to let us know you’d like us
to come share communion with you on March 9.
Phone: 896-1212 x103 or
[email protected].
Save the Date: Fat Tuesday
Pancake Supper
March 4, 6-7:30pm
Don’t worry about dinner that night. Come share
hot-off-the-griddle pancakes, syrup, and
beverages with your church family! These will be
provided by the Board of Deacons, and they
invite you to bring your favorite pancake
topping to share! There will also be a brief
"Looking Towards Lent" educational time.
Peacemaking Committee
The Peacemaking Committee received a
challenge to get to know a Latino immigrant
family in order to understand what life is like for
those living on the edges of our society. This
family would be representative of the 25% of
Mercer County’s residents who immigrants.
The Executive Director of an immigrant support
foundation, the Latin American Legal and
Education Fund (LALDEF) has introduced us to
a single mother of three children, ages 7, 5 and 3,
who lives on Hamilton Avenue, just a few blocks
from the Trenton Arena. She is more fortunate
than most because she has a green card, steady
work and good daycare for the children when
she needs it. However, she earns only $300 a
week, making it difficult to move from a studio
apartment in a dangerous area of Trenton where
the children cannot go out and play. One of the
latest shooting murders occurred in front of the
liquor store next door to their apartment.
The committee was asked to provide the children
with cultural outings because their lives are so
circumscribed. Members of the committee met
the family and took them to the gaily lit Grounds
for Sculpture just before Christmas; the children
seemed to be having the adventure of their lives.
Other members plan to take them on the
Riverline train to the Camden aquarium. The
older children speak English so communication
is not a problem. We invite others from the
congregation to join in this venture. Contact
Ellen Heath at 695-2729 for more details.
Stay in Touch!
Would you like to be on our eNews list for
weekly emails? Get info about our Men’s
Ministry events? Receive the
monthly newsletter by email?
Sign up for any of these lists at
our website,
www.pclawrenceville.org, or
using this QR code:
Our Church Staff
Pastor: Rev. Jeffrey A. Vamos—[email protected]
Associate Pastor for Congregational Life: Rev. Louise Johnson—
[email protected]
Associate Pastor for Youth, Young Adult, and Worship Ministries:
Rev. Matthew Pigman—
[email protected]
Associate for Pastoral Care Ministries: Jill Cifelli—
[email protected]
Director of Music: James D. Moyer—
[email protected]
Organist: David Hogue—[email protected]
Director of Children’s Ministries: Robyn Campbell—
[email protected]
Nursery Childcare Provider: Cara Taylor
Church Administrator: Jeanne Aicher—
[email protected]
Office Manager: Beverly Mills—[email protected]
Communications Coordinator: Aaron Sizer—
[email protected]
Administrative Assistant: Ruth Conover—
[email protected]
LPP Executive Director: Alison Young—
[email protected]
Office Volunteer: Linda Myers
Custodian: Victor Rosado
Pastor Emeritus: Dr. H. Dana Fearon, III
Parish Associate: Dr. Thomas Baker
Visiting Parish Associate: Rev. Robyn Whitaker
Mission Affiliate: Pastor Luc Deratus
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LAWRENCEVILLE LETTER
February Calendar
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FEBRUARY, 2014
PCOL is planning a church-wide performance of “NOYE’S FLUDDE” (pronounced as Noah’s Flood) by Benjamin
Britten. The work is based on the Medieval Chester Miracle Plays and was composed in 1957. It is a charming show that will be performed on Saturday, May 31st at 7:00 pm and Sunday, June 1st at 3:00 pm in the
Meetinghouse. A full schedule will be available soon. We need MANY volunteers in MANY areas. Please look
over the list below and see where you might be able to help out! We want this to be an all-church, intergenerational project. Please consider helping out – and if there is not something for you on the list, please
see Anne Lewin or Jim Moyer – we are sure we can use your talents!
Name: ______________________________________________________________________
Phone: ______________________________________________________________________
Email: _______________________________________________________________________
___ Children to sing (and be animals)
___ Youth (some minor acting/singing parts)
___ Female Youth/Women – singers/actors (Mrs. Noye’s gossips)
___ Instrumentalists: recorder, violin, viola, cello, bass, trumpet, percussion
___ Costumes – adults
___ Costumes - children
___ Set construction
___ Set design
___ Make-up
___ Choreography
___ Set painting
___ Rainbow design
___ Publicity coordinator
___ Programme coordinator
___ Ticket sales manager
___ Usher coordinator
___ Parent helper coordinator
___ Reception coordinator
___ Dressing room coordinator
___ Rehearsal accompanist (piano)
___ Muscle to help move items in Meeting House/Set up Ark
Other: _______________________________________________________________
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LAWRENCEVILLE LETTER
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2688 Main Street
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
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