Conway Village
Congregational Church
July 2023
The Good News!
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Pastor’s Message ~ A Walk with God
‘When Jacob awoke… he thought,
“Surely God is in this place,
and I was unaware of it.
Genesis 28:16
Would you like to set aside your everyday life and journey to revelations of faith? Perhaps you need “A Walk with God”. On Saturday, August 19th and Sunday, August 20th, we will be offering a journey to historic places, graveyards, and museums to discover the realities of Christian faith during times of great duress.
A Walk with God will be studying the Witch Hysteria of 1692 in Danvers and Salem Massachusetts. We will find ourselves rediscovering a time of hard work, thatched houses, indentured servants, and simple pleasures, an age when people believed evil was present, well defined, and concrete in nature. Would you like to discover an age of great deeds (and great greed!) when religious belief was considered paramount to survival?
Our Biblical faith begins, (in the Hebrew Scriptures), with Abram and Sarai leaving their home in Ur and venturing into unknown territory to discover God’s lessons for them. The Biblical story continues as Moses takes people into the wilderness as a pilgrim people to discover the unique revelations God has for them. The Christian faith is a faith of movement, of journeying, of seeking God’s presence in the darkest of times, so that the faithful can live out God’s revelations in a vital way. Jesus was constantly on a journey of faith to bring hope to the faithful in the hardest of times, bringing light to the darkest moments. 
Are we living in such a time of darkness?
Are we in need of God’s revelations more than ever?
Why not take the time to take “A Walk with God” by journeying through history to a time of darkness when the truth of true faith is vividly realized? Why not visit original homesteads, the remains of a parsonage, churches, graveyards, and memorials dedicated to giving perspective to the Witch Hysteria of 1692?
Why not seek the lessons of the past, the Time-tested Spiritual Knowledge, that we need for our lives today.
Sign-up sheets for the journey, with specific costs and details of the event, will be available Sunday at worship. We look forward to discovering God’s presence in historic places so we, like Jacob, may say “Surely God is in this place, and I was unaware of it.”
Rev. John Hughes <’}>< <’}}><< <’}}}><<<<
Diaconate Message
So many changes . . . the weather, the world, the United States, New England, New Hampshire, Mount Washington Valley, our towns, our church, our families.
Like it or not, life is all about change. We never know what tomorrow might have in store.
What we do know is that God will always be there for us, celebrating our joy and comforting us with our losses and providing us with the strength we need.
Beth Campbell
Diaconate: Judy Workman and Louise Saxby, Co-Chairs; Beth Campbell, Dawn Vitters, Nancy Divine
Food Pantry Wish List
Ramen Noodles-Chicken or Beef
Rice-A-Roni-Chicken or Beef
Ketchup – 20 oz.
Mustard – 20 oz
Mayo – small jar
Stable Milk box – 20 oz.
Juice – Orange or Apple – 64 oz.
Small Soup – Chicken Noodle or Tomato
Jelly – Grape or Strawberry-16 oz.
Small canned Chicken or Tuna-5 oz.
Baked Beans – 15 oz.
Tomato Sauce – 15 oz.
Beef Stew – Canned – 15 oz.
Boxed Crackers – 1 lb.
Boxed Spaghetti – 1 lb.
Canned Veggies – Peas, Carrots-15 oz. Instant Oatmeal – 1 lb.
Paper Towels
Toilet paper – individually wrapped
Shampoo – White Rain or Suave-24 oz.
Dawn Dish detergent – small size
July 2023 Worship
Sunday, July 2nd – Communion
Psalm 86:11-17
Scripture: Isaiah 44:5-8
Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42
Sermon: “Whoever Receives You”
Sunday, July 9th
Psalm 45:10-17
Scripture: Genesis 24:42-46
Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Sermon: “Take my Yoke and Learn from Me”
Sunday, July 16th
Psalm 119:105-112
Scripture: Genesis 25:19-34
Gospel: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Sermon: “Be a Sower of Seeds”
Sunday, July 23rd
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
Scripture: Genesis 28:10-19a
Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Sermon: “Surely God is in this Place”
Sunday, July 30th –
Scripture: TBD
Sermon: TBD
Council Connections
It was nice to have a month that had good financial reports. Thanks to the Spring Event, which raised roughly $1,800.00 more than what we budgeted, for a best ever Spring Event fundraiser of $6,800.00, the monthly income for the month of May was $18,297.22. This is a welcome help to our deficit budget, but we still have a long way to go. We also have some unbudgeted repairs that we have to do. We are still in the process of getting prices, but we will launch a special appeal at the special called meeting of the congregation on July 16th.
Even though we haven’t officially gotten to summer yet, the Council is already prepping for the Fryeburg Fair. We have heard reports that the apple crop in NH may have been damaged by the late freezes we had. This may cause us to find our apples from some different vendors this year. It is still early to tell, but I will be calling around to see who was hit by the freezes and who wasn’t. In any event, I’m sure the price of apples will go up. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and requires a lot of help from everyone. Please keep the last week of September and the first week of October open on your calendars to be ready to help where needed.
The Council discussed the needs for the sanctuary in regard to the Zoom platform and other needs in the church that have been lingering around for a while. Steve Graustein clarified some of the things.
The new phone system is waiting on a new wire that needs to be run from the outside phone box to the control room downstairs. Steve and I will do this on Wednesday the 21st. This will enable the church to finally switch the phone lines from Spectrum to Consolidated. The new wire will allow the fire alarm system to be on the Consolidated lines with new phone numbers. Then the new phones can be installed in the church and this should resolve the few problems people have had with calling in and trying to leave messages or get information. Steve also reported that he found new speakers that have amplifiers inside the speakers that will work with our IT set-up. This will save having to buy a new amplifier which was one of the problems. Many things that we need are still at the mercy of the supply chains, but we are working as fast as we can to get the equipment that we need to provide the best worship experience. Paul Weld and I will be working on two projects. The new sign for the church just needs the lettering put on and some repair work on the posts. The second project that we will try to accomplish before July is the platform for the second television in the sanctuary.
The Council was notified from Paul & Sylvia Weld that they were going to be backing off from being in charge of the Food Pantry come January. The Council thanked them for the over 20 years of dedicated service to the Food Pantry and as the Council gets a list of guidelines on how to run the Food Pantry, we will be looking for a few volunteers to take over sections of what it takes to run the Food Pantry. These areas include inventory and food ordering, food pick-up and stocking, running reports and checkbook operations. So, if you find yourself with nothing to do, the church has many options available to occupy your time.
Blessings to all,
Carl F. Vitters, Moderator
From the Trustees
On the horizon at the Brown Church
July and the celebration of our nation’s birthday bring with it hot summer days, warm summer nights, and summer traffic. We enjoy our summers in the valley, and all the outdoor activities they offer. Although, I know I find myself, particularly when sitting in traffic, looking forward to Fall when the air is clear and crisp and the traffic, like the mosquitos subside.
Autumn is the season for Leaf Peepers and Fair Goers. Here at the Brown Church Fall also means Apple Crisp season. Our Apple Crisp booth at the Fryeburg Fair is by far the largest fundraiser for our church, contributing approximately 20-25% of the church’s overall annual budget. Put simply, our church would likely fail to operate without this revenue source. The fair also is our biggest outlay of cash in purchasing the ingredients. We are grateful for the businesses that provide us significant discounts to subsidize our costs for supplies for our Famous Apple Crisp. Here’s where you come in. Apple Crisp production requires by far the most volunteers and volunteer hours comprising of 250 volunteer time slots totaling over 900 volunteer hours to make and sell 500 pans of Apple Crisp. This year the Fryeburg Fair dates are October 1st – 8th. Apple peeling and baking prep will likely begin Monday or Tuesday September 25th or 26th. So please mark your calendars September 25th through October 8th. We will need as many hands-on deck as possible. Invite your friends to join in the fun at the church peeling apples in the morning or the evening or to serve the crisp in the booth with you. We encourage anyone (and everyone) to volunteer.
A new event this year will be the combination of a traditional event this church held for many years, the Holiday Fair, with an event that we first introduced last year, the Tree Lighting & Caroling event.
A Hometown Christmas Fair & Tree Lighting will take place on Saturday, December 2nd. 
The date coincides with the start of Advent on the following day, Sunday, December 3rd. Instead of the three-day fair that we used to hold the weekend before Thanksgiving, we will have a one-day Fair. At the fair, we will sell baked goods, greenery/balsam swags, quilted and wood crafts, and stocking stuffers. We will have a Pick-A-Prize auction like we had at the Spring event. Santa will visit so parents can bring their children for pictures with Santa. We will serve our traditional Hot Turkey Sandwich Luncheon. The event will be capped off by the tree lighting and caroling in front of the church and hot cocoa in the final hours of the fair. Some segments of this event are still in the concept phase and the details will be worked out in the coming months. We will be reaching out to businesses for donations for the pick-a-prize. We hope to feature the local Conway Village businesses and organizations and make this event truly a Village wide event as indicated in the name “Hometown Christmas”.
CVCC Board of Trustees
Trustee Board: Anne Getchell, John Edgerton, Duddie Andrews, Nancy Irving, Nancy Divine, Tom Workman, ex officio member, Treasurer
Trustee Board: Anne Getchell, John Edgerton, Duddie Andrews, Nancy Irving, Nancy Divine and Tom Workman, ex officio member, Treasurer
