THE MESSENGER March 2015

COMMACK UNITED METHODIST CHURCH Remember Malaria? If so, you are older than I am! Since 1951 malaria has been considered eliminated in the U.S. There was actually a peak in 2011 of just under 2,000 cases in the States but those were primarily recent travelers to malariaendemic countries. For those not familiar with the disease it is transmitted by an infected mosquito. Typically, someone with malaria experiences a high fever, chills, joint pain and headaches. Left untreated, symptoms eventually advance to organ failure and death. While we don’t worry about malaria in the U.S. there are places in the world where the disease is rampant and fatal. Sub-Saharan Africa is one such place. In 2007 there were about one million deaths due to malaria. Nearly 90 % of malaria’s victims are children under the age of 5 and pregnant women. But due to the efforts of several organizations, including the United Methodist Church and its Nothing But Nets campaign, that number had been reduced to almost half by 2012. Consider the number this way: in 2007 one person died of malaria nearly every 30 seconds. The statistic is now one person dies every 60 seconds. Better but still not as good as it could and should be. And so the UMC and its partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Foundations and others, continue to distribute nets for safety while sleeping, educate people about the disease and prevention, train health workers and maintain clinic and outpost where people are most affected. Hopefully, we will be among those who remember when malaria was beat in Africa and mosquitoes became no more than a nuisance. This Lenten Season we will join with other UM churches to share worship on Wednesday evenings. As we gather, each congregation will take up an offering and 100% of the offering will go to Imagine No More Malaria. Come worship to support & strengthen your own heart and soul. Give an offering to God that will support and strengthen the fight against malaria. Check out the website and be in prayer and action for the people and the communities so affected by this disease.

www.ImagineNoMalaria.org Peace, Please check the schedule for services, located ion back of this newsletter

486 Townline Road, Commack, NY 11725 ~ (631) 499-7310 ~ www.commack-umc.org

Prayer: God, Please grant us the grace to never sell ourselves short. Grace to risk something big for something good. Grace to know that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. Amen

March Birthdays 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th

Ginny Eichenauer Nina Frielicher Peter Titolo Joe Megna Patti Spory

18th 19th 23rd 28th

Edna Beck Lille May Cummings John Titolo Sam Prasad Jeff Kopping

May God’s awesome blessings be upon you this day. Happy Birthday!

Craft Workshop We meet every Tuesday 10 am to 1 pm in room 9, R.E. Bldg. Come join us to plan and create items for our fall fair. Bring a bag lunch along with your talents and ideas.

Happy Birthday to Edna Beck who will be celebrating her 100th birthday on March 18th. We wish you a fabulous day, Edna, and many happy, healthy years ahead !!

Our next meeting will be held on March 12 at 7:30 pm in the parlor. Ginny Eichenauer will present the program “Welcoming Women in all Stages of Life,” to help remind us to understand the importance of welcome not only in our meetings, but also to every woman, no matter her culture, race, language of phase in life. Tracey Kopping is our hostess for the evening.

LYDIA CIRCLE The Lydia Circle meets the first Wednesday of the month from 10:30am -12pm in the church parlor. Ladies, on March 4th, Come! Join us for light discussion and fellowship.

HISTORIAN’S CORNER SUBMITTED BY JOHN MULLER, CHURCH HISTORIAN

Continued on next page

HISTORIAN’S CORNER Continued

Sunday, February 8th was Flower-gram Day. 60 individuals received greetings, well wishes and thank-you’s in the form of a single carnation, rose or bouquet. This is the sixth year the Youth Group has run its Flower-gram Fundraiser. In addition to bringing cheer to the congregation, especially those confined to home, the Youth raised just under $300. Funds are used to offset annual retreat costs. This year, the confirmation class along with Rev. Lynda assisted youth group parents in making deliveries to recipients unable to come to church. They got to experience first hand the smiles and expressions of gratitude a simple flower can bring. Special thanks to the work team who assembled the flowers. The 600 carnations, 24 roses, 154 stems of baby’s breath and 24 ferns arrived mid-week. Russ & Lindsey Bailey joined Deb and Mike Hervey in trimming stems and setting all those flowers in water the evening of their arrival. On Saturday afternoon, the assembly teams came ready to turn those individual flowers into what everyone saw beautifully arranged and ready for distribution on Sunday morning. Russ & Tyler Bailey were the very quick and agile carnation team – the 2 of them trimmed, sleeved and tied ribbons for 91 carnations! Margie Zoltowsky gently assembled and sleeved our beautiful roses. Marilyn Alexandre and her friend Annie assembled all 24 bouquets. Zach Zoltowsky kept all teams supplied with over 200 feet of ribbon while Tom and Penny White helped Deb Hervey make sure all greeting cards were attached to the correct flowers.

Souper Bowl Raises $271! February 1st, the congregation learned some astonishing facts about hunger from our Youth during the Super Bow Cheer Squad Try-Outs. Our Youth Group and Sunday School class helped raise awareness and increased the level of enthusiasm in cheering the fight against hunger. At the conclusion of their skit, the large soup pots were passed for a collection. $271 was contributed to the youth’s efforts to fight hunger. The youth will split the funds collected between purchasing Peanut Butter and Jelly for our PB&J gang when donations are low and an organization that fights hunger either nationally or internationally.

The Sunday School spent January learning about the many miracles that Jesus performed. They learned that most of the time, Jesus was in the midst of doing something else and was interrupted by a request to heal someone. They learned the significance of the mealtime spent together and how many of those that Jesus healed had been ostracized from the family dinner table and part of the joy they felt was not only feeling better or being able to see or not having sores on their bodies was being able to rejoin their families to break bread together. Also, in every town that Jesus visited he ate meals with people. He broke bread with them. The class learned how the daily flat bread was prepared and what biblical meals were like. Here is what was mainly eaten with the meat being only for the very rich and/or at very special occasion. Bread: barley and flat breads Fruit: grapes/raisins, figs, dates, pomegranates, oranges, olives, nuts, pine nuts Vegetable: onions and leeks, cucumbers, legumes Dried or salted fish Locusts, crickets, grasshoppers Meat: mutton, goat, foul, lamb, beef Dairy: eggs, cheese, yogurt Condiments: honey, hummus Spices: black peppercorns, cumin, dill, cinnamon Salt, both as a flavor enhancer and a preservative The children then made flat bread and shared the biblical bread they made with the congregation after service. When Jesus ate with people, he always broke bread with them. His ministry lasted three years – about 1000 days. He ate two meals a day. That’s 2000 meals that he shared with his disciples and friends. On the last night of his life, when he broke the bread and blessed it, he made that bread into something that his disciples would remember. “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Look for more of our Sunday School Griddle Bread to be used in a future communion service. Recipe for Unleavened Griddle Bread: Makes eight 6-inch breads: 1 cup whole wheat flour 2 cups white bread flour 2 teaspoons salt 1 cup 2 tablespoons water Olive oil for cooking Consider using smocks

Mix the two flours and salt in a large bowl. Gradually add water and mix until a loose dough forms. Flour the clean work table and let knead each ball of dough for 10 minutes. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Knead the dough again for one more minute and shape into 6-inch flat breads. Coat the pan with olive oil and cook until the bread rounds look nicely toasted and puffy; this will take about 2-3 minutes.

February was spent learning about the parable of the Rich Young Man. The story was compared to the fable “The Quilt Maker’s Story”. This fable for our times celebrates the joy of giving. A generous quilt maker, with magic in her fingers, sews the most beautiful quilts in the world, then gives them away. A greedy king, his storehouse stuffed with treasures, yearns for something that will make him happy. Will the quilt maker sew a quilt for the king? Will the king ever learn to share? Can the quilt maker teach the king to be happy? What will the king do with all his splendid things? The children decorated squares made from old jeans. These will be sent to Operation Quiet Comfort where they will be turned into quilts for soldiers. The congregation will have an opportunity to participate in this project the remainder of Lent. Squares and fabric pens will be available on the table at the back of the sanctuary.

March 1st is Pretzel Sunday The Sunday School will be learning how the pretzel got it’s shape and baking them for the congregation to enjoy during fellowship time.

UPCOMING EVENTS Looking for donations for Fashion Show especially house wares , knicks knacks and jewelry.

Come in Winter Clearance

THE PB&J CLUB WILL NOT MEET IN APRIL.

To stay up to date visit our calendar on line; http://www.commack-umc.org/Calendar.shtml

Advertise your business in “The Messenger” In order to help defray the cost of printing and mailing, we will be including an advertising page or pages each issue. You can place an ad in our newsletter that will encourage our members to patronage your business. All ads will be business card size. Over 220 Annual cost : $85 (10 issues) copies a month! One time ad : $20 If you would like to be in our next issue, please see Mary in the office to make payment, and summit your ad All submissions must be finalized by the 15th of previous month.

McGowan Painting FREE ESTIMATES Tom McGowan [email protected]

(631) 767-8352 Residential / Commercial Interior / Exterior Wallpaper Removal / Power Washing

EED A HADYMA? SMALL JOBS ARE MY SPECIALTY FOR SEIORS QUALITY WORK REASOABLE RATES AD MORE CALL STEVE WAIDELICH (631) 732-4186

THRIFT SHOPPE 486 Townline Road, Commack, NY 11725 Tuesdays & Fridays 10am - 4pm 1st Saturday 10am - 2pm

Clearance Sale on all clothing with special $$ dollar $$ racks for February (631) 499-7311

Commack United Methodist Church 486 Townline Road Commack, Y 11725

on Profit US Postage Paid Permit # 24 Commack, Y

* If there is any change to this address please inform the church office ASAP

If you would like to be emailed the Messenger next month instead of receiving a paper copy; please email Mary in the office at [email protected]