The
Circuit Rider
Asbury United Methodist Church Newsletter – Published Monthly
DECEMBER – 2010 90 Church Avenue, Forestville, Connecticut 06010 Volume 17, Issue 11
Sunday, December 19, 2010
10:00 am
A traditional Christmas Pageant will be sung and told by the Sunday school children of Asbury on Sunday December 19th at the 10:00 am service.
A reminder to all participants in the pageant: there will be a dress rehearsal on Saturday, December 18th from 9:30 to 11:30 am.
Please join us Sunday, Dec. 19th as we visit and sing carols to our shut-ins and those of our members who are in nursing homes.
We will meet at the church at 1:30 pm where we can pick up our caroling songbooks. Once we are finished caroling we will continue our fellowship at the parsonage. Refreshments will be provided.
We are looking for individuals and/or families to light the candles on the advent wreath for the Sundays leading up to Christmas and for the services on Christmas Eve.
We need individuals and/or families for both the 8:30 and 10:00 am services on: December 5th December 12thand December 19th. We will also need people for both the 5:30 and 11:00 pm services on Christmas Eve.
If you can help, please contact the church office at 584-0529 as soon as possible.
TIME’S RUNNING OUT!
Have you purchased your poinsettia plant for the altar?
Please use the order form
provided in this newsletter. Deadline is December 12th.
Friday, December 24th
5:30 pm and 11:00 pm
At the 5:30 pm service there will be a carol sing, as well as the Bell Choir and the Chancel Choir.
Or if you can stay awake join us at the 11:00 pm service where we welcome the birth of Jesus at midnight.
Both services include candle lighting and communion.
Monday, December 27th
and
Monday, January 3rd
Asbury United Methodist Church
DECEMBER – 2010 The Circuit Rider Page 2
for December
Worship Leaders
5th……....….Michelle Voisine
12th.……..……….Marilyn May
19th.………..Christmas Pageant
26th..…....……………Bill King
8:30 am service – Carl Aspland
Greeters
5th…….….….Carole Lishness
& Sandra Richardson
12th.…………….Colleen Smith
19th.……..Mary Gibson, Hailey
McDonald & Tommy Esten
26th..……………Betty Topalian
Fellowship Hour
5th……….…..….Lorna Baxter
& Joan Tilley
12th.…….….Natalie Cummings
19th.………..The Bacon Family
26th..…….......……………TBA
Ushers
Wayne Fuller, Bonnie Emery, Chad Lockhart, Dennis Floyd, and Roy DiYulio
Communion Stewards
Treaty & Wayne Fuller
December Altar Guild
Carole Lishness
December Birthday Caller
Geri Beveridge
The deadline for the January Circuit Rider is Sunday, December 12th. Please leave all articles in the mailbox in the church office or e-mail them to: .
DECEMBER
12/03 Dianne Smith
12/03 Bill McBaine
12/03 Bridget Cook
12/04 Jessy Sanchez
12/04 Ryan Partiss
12/06 Kelly Guglietta
12/06 Lorrie Barnaby
12/06 Allison Rusgrove
12/07 Gayle VanBuren
12/07 Victoria Puppel
12/08 Geri Beveridge
12/09 Eula Foster
12/10 Mark Vose
12/10 Edward Coloske
12/10 David Nestico
12/11 Julie Schilling
12/12 Melissa May
12/12 Molly Anderson
12/13 Jane Foster
12/13 Donna Achilli
12/13 Kim Sivers
12/13 Gabrielle Raymond
12/14 Kaylee Pinette
12/14 Robert Pullen
12/14 Kelly Bolduc
12/15 Keith Sauer
12/15 Anthony Agvent
12/15 Natalie Newton
12/16 Douglas Henry
12/17 Edith Nelson
12/17 Chad Lockhart
12/18 Justin Marshall
12/19 Brenda Rheaume
12/19 Emma Avery
12/20 Howard Bradley
12/20 Paige Buckley
12/21 Kara Cranford
12/21 William Bechert
12/22 Ethan Buckley
12/24 Jennifer Cannon
12/24 Sondra Clement
12/25 Betty Dorman
12/25 Todd Komanetsky
12/26 Houston Vaughn
12/27 Kathleen McIntyre
12/27 Shirley West
12/28 Colin Cummings
12/28 Wayne Bacon
12/28 Jacqui Denski
12/28 Christopher Weyrauch
12/29 Andrew Audibert
12/29 Roy DiYulio
12/29 Michael Charest
12/30 Kim Bechert
12/31 Karren Grayson
12/31 Elizabeth Baker
12/31 Ronald Archambault
Starting this month our birthday list will be coming straight from our new membership software. If there are any omissions or corrections, please contact the church office at 860-584-0529 or e-mail Melissa at
There will be one worship service on
Sunday, December 26th
at 10:00 am
There will be NO
Sunday School classes held on Sunday, December 26th and Sunday, January 2nd
Don’t forget to tune in to WFSB Channel 3 to check for any delays or cancellations of Asbury functions and services.
Asbury United Methodist Church
DECEMBER – 2010 The Circuit Rider Page 3
FAMILY PAGE
Please keep these people in your prayers……
Tyler Voisine, Mark Cannon, Jack Topalian, Arlene Chabot, Elsie Lyons, Rachel Manning, Sue Bromirski, Ellinor Archer, Mae McCabe, Anna Petit, Edward Coloske, Fred Dumond, Bob Conrad, Shelly Pierce, and others who have needs of which we may not be aware.
Serving Overseas
Scott Maskery, Todd Anderson, Christopher Couture
PRAYER CHAIN
If you wish to relate prayer needs to the chain, please call Phyllis Petit at 589-6059 or Dorothy Zurawel at 589-4079. Please keep your call brief, and be aware of the privacy rights of the person(s) for whom you are requesting prayers.
Long time member, Evelyne "Vinnie" Lewis passed away, Thursday, November 4, 2010. Funeral services were held at Asbury on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 11:00 am. A time of fellowship hosted by the Senior Group followed the service.
Dear Asbury friends and family,
I would like to thank Pastor Laura, the confirmation class and all of you for the wonderful cards, notes and visits, and for your support in the ALS walk. It was a wonderful day, and we raised $755.
God be with you,
With my love to all of you
Ellinor Archer
Dear Asbury Family,
Thank you all for your generous spirit of support through my latest physical challenge. The many cards, e-mails, phone calls and offers of rides have touched my heart once again and is so appreciated.
God bless you all,
Carole Lishness
To my Asbury family,
Thank you for all the prayers and cards that were sent to me during my recent illness. They were appreciated far more than words can express.
With love,
Pat Sallstrom
A note from Amber and Michelle:
Hello everyone! I just wanted to give a BIG thank you to all of you who donated to our Kidney Walk team. With your help, Sigs for Tyler was able to raise $1,190! Tyler and his friend Sam came up on Saturday and we spent the night in Portland before the walk. We had a blast even with a little bit of rain. For those of you that did give a donation, expect something special to arrive in your mail within the next week. If you did donate and for some reason do not receive anything from me, please please please let myself or my Mom know! Thank you again for your support.
God Bless!
Amber :)
Tyler has finished most of his appointments with MD's. We met the last person on the transplant team last Tuesday and the team had already met on him the day before. He is officially listed on the donor list. Even while we work up living donors (people that want to donate and are eligible) he accrues time on the organ donation list in case things don't work out or the other thing is if a perfect match comes up for him, he is eligible. He is pretty high on the list because of his youth and the severity of his disease.
Throughout these last few weeks we still have not been able to definitively discover what happened to his kidneys but we do know that his bladder didn't cause it. This was a concern since the new kidney will still be routed into his bladder. His anemia is improved and he is doing well on dialysis & on his medications. We have navigated the Medicare system thus far & Tyler is working with social security as well.
Many of you have e-mailed me questions about donating...and with that I am going to refer you to the Living Donor Coordinator whose name is Coleen Smart. Her number is 860-545-4632. I have learned new things since last I wrote that I can share but for specifics call Coleen. First of all you have to be 21 not 18. Hartford's program requires this. Also it doesn't matter if you are 0 + or - just 0. The first step is to call Coleen and she will send you out an information packet with 3 forms to be filled out. After she receives them back and reviews she calls you to get some blood tests (about 6 tubes) if you
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Asbury United Methodist Church
DECEMBER – 2010 The Circuit Rider Page 4
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are an eligible donor. This is the initial screening to see if you match Tyler. After the results are in she calls you and then we proceed from there. There are a number of different tests that a person would have to go through to make sure the donor will be alright without one kidney. This entire work up is at no cost to the donor. It goes on Tyler's Medicare. I guess it is more cost effective to have him transplanted then on dialysis for life. That's what I know so far.
The best news for Tyler is that he was accepted back to UCONN and plans to return to school in January. He is working with the Center for Students with Disabilities to work on housing etc. He will need some accommodations related to the dialysis. We will keep you posted. He is very excited.
I think that is all for now...Again thank you for your thoughts and prayers and visits and calls. Tyler is really managing great with everything. He is setting such an example for the rest of us. And when I get overwhelmed or stressed I just read the cards you have sent and remember I am not in this alone.
I will keep you updated as updates become available...
Faithfully,
Michelle
Troop 29 will be holding an open house at Asbury on December 16th from 7 – 8:30 pm for boys ages 11 – 17 and current Webelos II Scouts that are interested in joining Boy Scouts.
A BIG THANK YOU
TO ALL WHO MADE THE 2010 PORK ROAST DINNER
A HUGE SUCCESS!
Pastor Laura, JoAnn Bacon, Wayne Bacon, Dave Barry, Harriet Donovan, Bill Bechert, Jean Tibbitts, Marilyn Bechert, Geri Beveridge, Mark Hultman, Bob Bolduc, Heidi Borkowski, Jim Doncet, Elene Myers, Lori Schaffrick, Jim Schaffrick, Jeff Achilli, Tammy Buonafede, Becky Lauzier, Ali Rusgrove, Michaela Amadio, Nathan Butler, Keri Guglietta, Melissa Buonafede, Larry Clark, Lee Cranford, Chuck Coloske, Linda Grey, Eula Foster, Cecil Foster, Treaty Fuller, Marilyn May, Scott Labadia, Wanda Nestico, Phyllis Petit, Lorana Sardilli, Gardner Wright, Melissa Gray, Carole Lishness, Donna Frank, Jim Taylor, Katie Schaffrick, Connor Cummings, Clayton Wheeler, Kate Bechert, Lorna Baxter, Stephanie Achilli, and our District Superintendent Ken Kieffer, who helped serve and clean up!
YANKEE PEDDLAR FAIR
There are many to be thanked for the success of our Yankee Peddlar Fair, and I'd like to now take that opportunity to give my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all of you that worked so hard to make our fair not only beautiful, but one that will be remembered. It is the hard work, dedication, fellowship and caring that really make it so successful.
Special thanks to our committee heads: Stacey Anderson - The Peddlar's Grille, Carli Beveridge - Grandma's Attic, Amy Majors - The Cookie Jar, Maureen Martel - Auctioneer's Gallery, Pat Sallstrom - Ye Olde Craft Shoppe & Co-Chair, Wanda Nestico - Country Bakery & Candy Shoppe, Asbury's Men - Country Breakfast & Cemetery Boxes, Gardner Wright & Heidi Borkowski - Apple pies.
Dear Friends,
I want to thank you for your generous contribution to the Blankets + Program, especially appreciated in this challenging economy. Thanks to caring donors like you, Church World Service can provide food, water and other necessities to families displaced by natural disasters, as we are doing in Pakistan now. And with your help, we can also assist impoverished communities as they work to improve their farming techniques, develop reliable water sources, and build a more sustainable future.
In a world wounded in so many ways, I remain hopeful because of the creative, resilient women, men, and children we assist around the world, and because of caring people like you, who empower us to act on your behalf. May God bless you for your compassionate support.
Yours in service,
Rev. John L. McCullough
Executive Director and CEO
Congratulations
to the following folks
with perfect attendance from
August - October 2010:
Jim & Deb Bechert
Bill & Jan King
Dorothy Zurawel
Margaret Ruel
Thomas Johnson
Anne & Lukas Morin
Sally Petit
Betty Topalian
Asbury United Methodist Church
DECEMBER – 2010 The Circuit Rider Page 5
Here is Al Bingham’s next offering on his project of making poems out of each book of the Bible
Leviticus
The Lord saith unto Moses let not your people falter,
To put gold and silver around my sacred alter
Again God saith to Moses watch over those all sinning,
Burn an offering unto Me and start a new beginning.
God said to all his people My laws to you I've spoken,
And you will all be doomed this day if any law is broken,
When your skin is turning red it's very plain to see,
If it doesn't turn to white you're getting leprosy;
The Lord said you should never lie nor steal from one another,
You should treat your neighbor as though you were his brother.
If a stranger comes before you, you should treat him with accord,
I brought you out of Egypt, I'm your mighty God and Lord.
The Christmas Meal Program 2010
ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH
The Christmas Program delivers meals to over 300 local residents who are not able to drive or may not have family. The Christmas Program also serves a hot meal on Christmas Day in the Fellowship Hall at Zion Church for residents who can come.
We are looking for Volunteers who would like to drive and deliver meals on Christmas Day, or Volunteers who would like to help serve the meals in the Fellowship Hall (Zion Church). If you are interested in driving or serving and would like to sign up, please contact Paul Eckstrom at 860-583-6060
We are also seeking $5.00 Gift Card or Monetary donations from the Community. The Gift Cards will be given out Christmas Day to Everyone who receives a meal! Ideas where to purchase Gift Cards: Walmart, Subway, McDonald’s, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Shop Rite, Harvest Bakery, Friendly’s, Starbucks, Etc…..
Please send Gift Cards and Donations directly to: Zion Lutheran Church, 27 Judd St., Bristol, CT 06010 Attn: Paul Eckstrom 860-583-6060
Please consider volunteering or donating to such a wonderful and rewarding program. Let’s make 2010 a wonderful Christmas for Everyone!
Thank You and God Bless during this Holiday Season!!
50 Year Members
A special thank you to all of those that baked and participated in our 50 Year Members Celebration held on Sunday, November 28th. We are honored to be a part of this annual tradition and congratulate our 50 year Members. You are very special to all of us.