1. Annual Meeting – September 25-27, 2009
2. Celebration of Rockcraft Retreat Center – Sept. 13
3. Free Choir Robes and/or Hymnals
4. 1000 Tongues to Sing in Brewer – Sept. 20
5. Today’s Thought
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1. Maine Conference Annual Meeting will be held at Sunday River on Sept. 25 – 27, 2009. Registration, lodging and workshop information is now available on the Maine Conference website (www.maineucc.org ) Information about the Pre-Meeting Retreat with Rev. Otis Moss III is now available. If you have questions, please check out the “Nuts and Bolts” page on the website or call Sue at the Conference office.

2. SAVE THE DATE:
A Celebration of the Ministry of the Rockcraft Retreat Center is being planned for Sunday, September 13, 2009, from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. We hope to draw on the talents and memories of many for whom Rockcraft has been beloved sacred space in these past 40 years. Like with all good Rockcraft experiences, there will be food. We are calling fiddlers, horn players, bag pipers, guitar players and other musicians: if you would like to offer your musical gifts to this event, we would love to hear from you. We would also like to collect an assortment of photographs which could be put together into a display. Please call Cathy Croudis at the Conference Office (846-5118) or email Diane Wendorf (nothingsinister@yahoo.com) or Peggy Dunn (pwd2007@gmail.com). Watch for further information, and put this date into your calendar!

3. FREE CHOIR ROBES AND/OR HYMNALS
Choir robes are cream colored with brown yokes and full sleeves that fasten at the wrist. There are about 26.
Hymns for the Living Church was published in 1974 by Hope Pub. Co. and printed in 1987. Covers are dark blue. There are about 24.
If you have an interest in these please call Pastor Biggar at the Standish Congregational Church - 642-3386 or e-mail at crbbiggar@earthlink.net

4. You're invited to Brewer High School on Sunday, September 20 from 2:55-3:20 p.m. because the people who are First Congregational Church of Brewer wanna see how many people we can get together to sing the hymn "O, For a Thousand Tongues To Sing." It promises to be a fun-filled event for people of all ages and stages of life.
The gym doors will open at 2:10 and there'll be a variety of musical entertainers performing until 2:55. We're asking people to bring a can or box of food as a donation to the Brewer Christian Food Cupboard.
Please help us spread the word and publicize this event in whatever way you have.
Save the date! Come and bring a friend, or two, or three and we'll find out what 1000 voices sound like!

5. One Sunday, I watched a church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years. He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age.

After a enthusiastic introduction, as the applause quieted down, he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gate to the podium. Without a note or written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak....

"When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50-odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me... the only thing that would comfort was this verse...........

"Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
We are weak but He is strong......
Yes, Jesus loves me...
The Bible tells me so."

When he finished, the church was quiet. You actually could hear his foot steps as he shuffled back to his chair. I don't believe I will ever forget it.

(Part 2 next week)