Vacation Bible School: Be Strong in the Lord!

God at work in the lives of familiar Bible characters. This is such an important lesson to stay strong during tough times. Videos will premiere live each evening through zoom. This will include live intros and closings from myself and teachers, record-ed Bible stories and music from Cokesbury and pre-recorded vide-os of craft from Mary Ann Jones. We want to make sure you have everything you need to participate virtually in VBS so we will equip families with the materials needed. A Drive-by Bag Distribution (kids bags with supplies and instruc-tions) will be scheduled the week prior to Virtual VBS. Please visit the VBS website for updated information and registra-tion.

We know children and parents alike look forward to our Vacation Bible School each summer. Unfortunately, due to the uncertainty of the Covid-19 virus and what rules and regulations will be in place in August, we have made the decision to provide a virtual VBS experience. At St. Paul’s church we believe Vacation Bible School is an extremely important part of your child’s spiritual growth and we hope to still bring the children that opportunity into your homes. Date: August 2nd – August 6th Where: Virtual ZOOM Who: Grades Pre-K – 6th Grade Knights of North Castle invites children to be strong in the Lord and discover the strength of God’s power. Kids will explore Old and New Testament stories and see

https://2020.cokesburyvbs.com/stpaulsUMCVBS2020/ Please complete the registration so we can begin to prepare our kits. This will take more preparation than normal due to sending all the supplies home to children. Registration will be closing the week of June 22nd so we can begin preparation. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. We look forward to “seeing” everyone this summer and connecting virtually through zoom. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Ephesians 6:10

Sincerely,

Elaine Luoma

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church West Deptford, NJ

July-August 2020

Communion on Wednesdays Every week @ 7 A.M.

Do This in Remembrance of Me. –Words of Jesus at the Last Supper

Worship from home

Order of Worship may be printed from our website for each month

ALL Prayers: All who are ill and those caring for them Ednamae S on hospice trouble breathing and daughter Jennie T Char may require more brain surgery Kathy metastasized cancer start-ing new chemo Bette needs prayer Family struggling through in-tense conflict Lori attempting to establish a safe place for herself and her child A pastor deeply hurting unable to connect with the church the pastor serves and thinking no one understands Rasheed struggling to find hope while feeling alone Michele surgery on liver and co-lon for cancer Sandy D poison ivy & other health issues Caren in rehab struggling needs peace Young couple trying to live out their faith Katie J cancer back limited op-tions Allison attempting to bring peace to person filled with con-flict Khadijah and family going through great difficulties Seancarlos living with mental health challenges Family & friends of Helen T who passed away, and son Don Family & friends of Warren G died from COVID Doug B health issues Peg & Bill F praise married 70 years Diane W in rehab Cindy F health issues Kathy undergoing chemo Michele chemo & upcoming surgery Gary B chemo Bob R recovering at home Jenelle A Sam & Erica trying to decide whether to change wedding plans Family & friends of Jackie Z who passed away

A mom & 3 children living in abusive household A young man in PA challenged in his faith A woman who is doubting An out-of-state worshiper over-whelmed with fear Blake H struggling in new job Couple who had to change wed-ding plans, lost money Edie McC health Heather H Buffalo police officer & trooper run over by demonstrators Praise for peaceful demonstrations in West Deptford and Gloucester County. Our nation with the riots Mary Ski broken elbow in a cast Logan S pain and hand nerve damage Family & friends of Arlene D Aunt Kay S on hospice Dorothy M chemo, radiation, sur-gery and daughter Beth Chris T injection for pain Doug B appendicitis surgery Mark C cancer and parents Eve & Ron Wende N stomach issues and stress Kaylee W knee surgery Julia working at Pitman Manor Family & friends of Ellie R Lil Q fell Dixilee L eye problems Ruth & Bob S praise 71st wedding anniversary Ed C lost wife to cancer

Every week: All those in need, unspoken requests, all service-men/women, our nation and lead-ers.

Ongoing Prayer Concerns: Joyce N., Felicia A., Vanessa M., Garry & Peg P., Diane W., Samm S., Hope T., Gerry M., Barbara B., Chris S., Janet B., Terry D., Helen R., Corey T.

Serving in the Military: Daniel D, Rachel R, Gabby T, Ed S, Joseph B, Kailey R, Jaime Dan S, Brandon H, Chris Y, Shaina S, James A, Donna R

Shut-Ins & Nursing Home Residents: Jean K., Jackie Z., Bertie C., Harriet L., Ron & Eve C., Betty C.; Rosie P.; Edie M.

2 July/August 2020 Lamplighter

JULY BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES

1– Linda Bryan 1– Dave Fish 1– Jacki Forte 1– Charlie Kyser 1– Don Strock 1– Bryan Weber 2 - Susan Speakman 2– Peg Purnell 2– Carter Weber 3– Pat Haase 3– Mary Ann Jones 3– Chris & Charlie Taylor 4– Joe Bryan 5– Joel & Sally Ann Glicka 6– Avaleigh Vatseva 8– Austin Moore 9– Gloria Lee 10– Jaqueline Hassel 10 – Sharon & Jacob Eichel 11– Bob & Marge Rowand 12– Elaine Luoma 14 - Hope Hooley 15 – Hermine Morgan 17– Nina Broadwater-Cosme 17– Steve Cervantes 19– Jennifer Keegan 20– Sharon Rutter 20 - Wayne Sierocinski 21 – Vicki Gibson 22– Jessica Bryan Sims 22– Erin Vatseva 23– Jaye Hamel 23 – Grant Dechen 23– David & Leisa Keegan 24– Chris Bailey 25– Kate Black 25– Janice Grassia 25– Nicole Martz 26– Matt & Kim Dechen 26– Rich Gibson 27– Suzanne Fish Morris 27– Alyssa White 28 - Logan Sierocinski 29– Jeffrey Matlack 30– Steven Gortowski

30– Courtney Seaton 31– Bev Betz 31– Dana Rowand Brown

AUGUST BIRTHDAYS

& ANNIVERSARIES

1– Ken Betz 1– Denise Brown 1– Charles Haefele 1– Cameron Kovack 2– Dave Hosier 2– Everett Vatsev 3– Bill Golle 3– Kaiden Grassia 3– Jessica Parks 3– Charlie Taylor 4– Bill & Elaine Blair 5– Jane Felder 5– Harry Ladner Jr 7 - Cameron Houghton 7– McKenzie Stevens 8 - Jeannette Branson 8– Bernice Nolte 9 - Jim & Cheri Clement 10– Barbara Hoffman 10– Scott Newmann 11– Matthew Taylor 13– Tom Stevens 14– Joe & Linda Bryan 14– Fred Cochran 15– Mary Ellen Felder 16– Gerrie Lynn Dyal 16– Jennifer Kinley 16– DixieLee Leonardo 17– Barbara Browning 19– Melissa Thomas 23– Brian Golle 24– Merrilee & William Chapell 24– Austin Gittinger 25– Lauren & Jeff Jones 26– DixieLee & Jim Leonardo 27– Skeeter Heritage 29– Jack Keegan

Staff Editor: Trista C Jones

Assistant Editor: Denise Hosier

Regular Contributors: Pastor Dave, Ruth Schultz, Carol

Strock, Sunday School

Production: Trista C Jones

The Lamplighter is published bi-monthly, in Jan., March, May, July, Sept. & Nov. Deadline is the 15th of the month preceding publication.

For more info contact Trista C Jones or email

admin@stpaulsthorofare.com.

THELAMPLIGHTER Bimonthly Newsletter of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, PO Box 125, West Deptford, NJ 08086 Pastor: Rev. Dave Delaney Phone (856) 845-6638 E-mail pastor@stpaulsthorofare.com Sunday Morning Worship: 9:30 a.m. Sunday School: 10:45 a.m.

And even when we come together in those early dates of open church we will not be allowing anyone to rush up and hug and kiss their friends. We will strictly maintain a social dis-tance out of love for all. Our church has a great reopening leadership team (Meghan Beidle, Lori Brown, and Kim Gibson) who are working with me to develop a step-by-step plan to bring us back together at St. Paul’s. But we depend on all of your love for our church and for each other to agree to follow the rules we will have in place. I can’t predict a date when the doors open but we are moving towards that date. Our Vacation Bible School will be exclusively online because we don’t see any time this summer when it will be safe for our kids and our volunteers to fill the church with people getting close with each other. Our online worship services includ-ing Holy Communion are not going away. What is really important now is that our church family doesn’t start rush-ing to buy into the false stories that some are spreading about it being safe to go without a mask. I will be forever grateful to our Governor for instituting policies that helped slow down the impact of the virus in New Jersey, even in the face of loud voic-es that have resorted to calling him childish names. The world communi-

Lamplighter July/August 2020 3

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” Psalm 37:7

Once upon a time watches merely told time and you had to wind them if they were going to keep time accurately. But now watches like mine keep time, give you the news, and measure your steps. And step measurement has become more important than time for most of us because it is directly related to keeping ourselves in good health. You could say that since the GLOB-AL PANDEMIC hit around the world that time and taking steps have truly developed new defini-tions. As we grieve all those who have lost their lives: young people and old; healthy folks and the in-firm; and the rich and the poor; we have seen time morphing days into days, and weeks disappearing into months. Friends and strangers have died and friends’ and strangers’ lives have been saved by doctors and nurses around the world. Many of us have had more than one moment during these weeks when we didn’t know what day of the week it was nor what day on the calendar, be-cause we have been living in a never-before time. But St. Paul’s of West Deptford has never stopped being church. Not for a single moment, much less a day, week, or month, has your church stopped being church. How-ever, on Sunday March 15 we did lock our doors for all our safety. Those doors remain locked today because our church leadership still wants to keep each of you safe! If we hurry to open the doors be-cause some people think that COVID-19 no longer is real, it would be a foolish and extremely sinful action for us to take. It would put anyone who came to church and their family members at risk.

ty has never faced a reality like this before, and every leader from your pastor on up has attempted to do the right thing for the safety of all. I do want to give a SHOUT OUT to a few very special people who have helped church continue as church. First, Carol and Don Strock have worked so hard allowing us to feed hundreds of hungry people since the pandemic started. Without them our coordinated and safe delivery system wouldn’t work. And the other de-serving special recognition is Elaine Luoma who every Sunday has given our kids a ONE-ROOM SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASSROOM to connect them with God and Christ. Sunday School is now on vacation until Sep-tember. Psalm 37 also has this verse, “Trust in the Lord and do good!” Since March 15 our church has become a global church with people around the world joining us for worship and devotions! Since March 15, we have had more than 200 individuals wor-shiping with us every single Sunday. Since June 1, our streaming Wednes-day morning online Communion services have been blessing people across the United States. We have provided counseling and assistance to people far beyond the building we call church. WE have proven that St. Paul’s is much more than the building we meet in on Sundays. I miss all of you. My family misses all of you but even when the doors open you won’t be seeing Megan for a long time. We have to protect her health even though she wants to hug everyone.

Blessings!

Pastor Dave

Outreach

Summer has Arrived While we still are not able to worship together, we continue to receive your mission offerings each month. Upcoming Mission Projects & Offerings

• July Our first Sunday offering

(July 5) will benefit Native American Awareness Sunday

On the third Sunday (July 19) the offering is for

Rice for Liberia.

• August Our first Sunday offering

(August 2) is for Shared Ministries

Our third Sunday (August 16) will be supporting St. John of God School for Special Children

Many thanks to all our church family for your continued dedication to our Mission Projects even during these unprecedented times. We truly are stronger together.

Ruth Schultz

4 July/August 2020 Lamplighter

MISSION: Rice for Liberia

One way of showing the world that we aren’t about our building, but rather we live as people who love our neighbors, was in our feeding of the ICU staff at Inspira in May. They have thanked me over and over again. So for the summer Pastor Dave has challenged our St. Paul’s church family to help feed some of the hungriest people in the world, the people of Liberia. “Hope for Liberia,” which we support, is working with four of the poorest churches in that Western African nation. Ninety-two percent of

Liberians live in poverty, with many of the families living on a half cup of rice each day. Hope for Liberia wants to purchase 100 large bags of rice for each of these four churches. Each bag of rice costs $25.00. For June, PD is challenging our church to raise enough money to buy 100 bags of rice ($2500) for the congregation of the Repairer House Fellowship Center in Monrovia (Liberia’s capital city); PD has told Hope for Liberia that he thinks we can raise this money, and we have created the TEN DOLLARS for RICE fund. We need 250 individuals (62 families of 4 with each person giving $10) giving $10 each to reach the goal. PD has been pushing this during his morning devotions and on all of his social media. When you send your weekly offering in please add a second check marked TEN DOLLARS for RICE. PD hopes to be in contact with the pastor of the church in Liberia in the next few days. The photos above & below are from their church.

Lamplighter July/August 2020 5

Everything’s Online! Watch or Listen In this time of social distancing and no interactions, the church is still active and providing worship, Bible studies and daily devotionals. You can participate through the Internet, and even if you don’t have a computer or smart phone you can still listen to worship by telephone. We’ve been live-streaming our worship service on Facebook for a while. Now we’ve added ZOOM, so even if you’re not on Facebook you can still watch worship online or listen on your phone. Here’s everything you need to know: Worship streaming on Facebook, Sundays at 9:30 a.m.: https://www.facebook.com/StPaulsUMCThorofare/

Worship online using ZOOM, Sundays at 9:30 a.m.: https://zoom.us/j/352579798 Daily Devotions and updates on Facebook, every day at 9:30 a.m.: https://www.facebook.com/StPaulsUMCThorofare/ Bible Studies via ZOOM, Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. and Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m.: https://zoom.us/j/6215058879?pwd=nsnKfafurYg If you don’t have Internet see instructions in the box for listening to ZOOM on a regular telephone.

Blessings!

Pastor Dave

We Love the ICU

How to Join a ZOOM Meeting by Telephone

1. Dial one of the following numbers: Toll Free 833-302-1536 -or- 408-638-0968 -or- 646-558-8656.

2. You will be prompted to enter the meeting ID - the nine (9) or ten (10) digit ID provided to you by the host. It is the number at the end of the links, e.g. 352579798 for Sunday worship.

3. You will be prompted to enter your unique participant ID - Press # to skip.

Try it and let us know if you are able to connect and hear our worship service.

Pastor Dave has gotten to know the staff at Inspira ICU pretty well. He’s the one they call when someone is critically ill or dying and requests a pastor. He has spent many a night in the ICU, comforting and praying with family members as their loved one goes home. So in these times of COVID-19, when all our medical professionals are stretched to the limit, we decided to feed them. PD said, “Feeding strangers is a relatively simple act but it is a Christian act of faith and one that Scripture tells

us to do, beginning in the Torah and right through the New Testament. Our tables are to be open to all.” Originally it was to be once a week for the month of May, but

the response from our members was so great that we are able to feed the staff twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, for May. Thanks go out to Pal Joey’s in Sewell for working with us to make a lunch of sandwiches, salads, and the fixings affordable. Thank you so much to everyone for their donations honoring our frontline warriors battling the coronavirus. God bless you, and stay safe!

6 July/August 2020 Lamplighter

LEADERSHIP TEAM met in May on Zoom. This dedicated group of people

helps keep our ministry relevant and takes care of the business of the church.

WEAR RED FOR PENTECOST: Even though we weren’t in church, many of our members wore red on May 31. Here are a few photos of our faithful members who watched worship online that day.

Wednesday Morning Online Communion In my faith walk there is something that I needed and that is Holy Communion. So I have made the decision to offer online Holy Communion on Wednesday mornings at 7 a.m. through our Facebook page. The “service” shouldn’t last more than 20 minutes and will include prayer, Scripture, and the meal. I would like to invite you, your family and friends into this worshipful moment each week. For the elements of the meal you can have a piece of bread or a cracker plus a small glass of grape juice, another juice, water or wine. There is a peacefulness in the world in the early morning and I want all of us sharing in the meal to feel that peace while connecting with God.

Pastor Dave

Lamplighter July/August 2020 7

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER SERVICE

was on ZOOM with seven pastors & musicians participating.

You can watch the service on our web page by going to “NEWS”

and click on the article about the service.

MEN’S BREAKFAST: Our men might have to make their own breakfast, but they still get together twice a month on ZOOM, on the first Saturday and the third Wednesday. If you’re interested in joining them to talk things over, let PD know.

HAPPY 71ST ANNIVERSARY to Ruth & Bob Schultz. They celebrated in quarantine with many calls from family.

8 July/August 2020 Lamplighter

SUNDAY SCHOOL has been meeting every week, but is now finished for the summer. Be sure to have your children sign up for Virtual Vacation Bible School via the link on the website.

Thanks to Virtual Worship Volunteers

We’d like to extend our gratitude to the volunteers who have helped make our online worship so

successful. Without their help, the online experience would be much less professional. Thank you to: • Music leaders: Glenda Steffee,

there every week; Carla Branyan, Rich Favetto, Denise & Molly Hosier, Kathie Spellman, Charlie Taylor.

• Technical help: Bev Betz & Norm Branyan on the computer/sound, Gary Rutter operating video.

• Worship: Pastor Dave leading us, and Dave Fish with children’s messages.

Thanks to Gary for the pictures!

Lamplighter July/August 2020 9

It Takes More Than Rabbit Ears By now almost every member of our St. Paul’s church family has watched a worship

service or a communion service, my daily devotional PD@930, or even our “One-Room Sunday School Classroom” on their computer, smartphone or television set. St. Paul’s is broadcasting live literally seven days a week! It is so important for everyone to understand, we are streaming all these essential services of faith with a tablet and a cell phone. We have not invested in the technology that would create the best possible images and sounds for all of you. In spite of that I think we are doing a really great job! However, things have gone wrong and can go wrong. One week we cut off Rich’s head and mine. No one will ever forget when the entire streaming shut down as Dave Fish stood up to give his children’s message. I want to give credit to Gary Rutter who has played around

with our wi-fi feed to make sure that we have a better connection to the Internet each week. In addition, you may have noticed that thanks to Gary you are seeing the lyrics and prayers plus getting images of everyone involved. Thankfully, we started streaming our worship services more than a year ago. We were ahead of so many churches and there were some who asked, “why are you bothering?” We were streaming to make sure those who were home sick could still be at church, as well as those on vacation. As many of you know, our streaming of Bible Study has allowed Gail from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to be a part of our Wednesday evening Bible study for years. The streaming of worship, devotions, Bible Study, Sunday

School, and special services like our Wednesday morning Holy Communion will continue into the future. We are reaching people around the world through our technology. And yes, we have a plan to make it even

better. Gary has been in contact with the Conference’s tech people and we are ready to invest in the technology that will allow us to share the message of Jesus Christ with even greater clarity! In the meantime, never forget that you can take St. Paul’s wherever you go! You can watch old services, join a Bible study, and even learn how to cook some new recipes, all thanks to our use of simple technology. Tune in to see what’s next!

Blessings!

Pastor Dave

THANK YOU!!

Many thanks to our faithful members who have been calling every member of our church family every week during this pandemic. You are awesome!

Beverly Betz • Carla Branyan Lori Brown • Vicki Cusack

Donna Delaney • Kim Gibson Denise Hosier • Mary Ann Jones

Dana Kovack • Elaine Luoma Samm Smith • Don Strock