All of the answers for this month's Articles Trivia can be found in TODAY'S issue of the Asbury Articles! The answers are listed at the bottom of the newsletter!

Join us in worship this Sunday, July 31 as we celebrate Jackie Bennett’s 7 years of ministry among us! 

We will have a celebration in worship and there will be a basket for cards, checks, etc. in the Fellowship Hall (these may also be left in the office). Please submit whatever you want in the scrapbook (a note on a 3x5 card or picture on 8.5 x 11 paper) to the church office by Thursday.

If you would like to participate in Asbury’s worship services, please consider becoming a Children’s Moment Leader and/or a communion server!

Children’s Moment Leaders have the opportunity to periodically talk to the children in our congregation during worship. In just a few minutes, they discuss a given theme/Bible verse by relating it to a personal experience and/or by illustrating it with pictures, poems, props, or puppets -- they are only limited by their creativity!

As for communion servers, individuals or couples periodically help to serve the bread or the juice to their fellow congregants during worship services.

If you have any questions about these volunteer opportunities, and/or if you’d like to receive training for them, please contact Pastor Kathy.

Come listen to our Music Camp kids give a performance at Asbury's Chapel on Friday, August 5!

Let's show them some love and support as they show off everything they've learned!

It's July, which means it's time for Asbury's annual campaign (along with other churches in Livermore) to provide backpacks filled with school supplies to students in need within our schools!

The school district's Child Welfare and Attendance specialists have determined how many of which kind (elementary or middle/high) of backpack are needed at each school, and Asbury will help deliver filled backpacks the week before school starts.

Saturday, August 6 at 1pm

Asbury UMC Sanctuary

Sign up to donate blood or platelets and save a life! You can schedule an appointment by checking appointment times online or by calling 800-733-2767. When signing up, enter Sponsor Code: ASBURY 925.

Our friends at Asbury UMC,

Thank you so much for your service trip to Butte County! Your team donated 432 volunteer hours across multiple projects. That equates to almost $15,400 in donated labor value!

Your team played a part in seeing Butte County fully recover from the Camp Fire of 2018.

Thank you so much for your hearts of service, and we look forward to your next trip.

- The HCRN Team

We at Asbury have been hard at work to improve Asbury's digital presence and technology. There have been recent improvements and developments, and we wanted to share those with you!

First, we spent a lot of time this summer analyzing the A/V booth and the hardware involved. We have had meetings with tech companies CMIT and ENT and a group from Cornerstone to look over our set up and provide their insight. Out of these meetings came bids to map our internet network, and we have moved forward to have ENT come out this week for this work. Additionally, we got the joystick in working order again and have resolved worship screen issues. Lastly, our entire A/V team will have a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss trainings and plans for our next improvements for our livestream on Sundays and for the experience of in-person worshippers. 

Second, time has been spent analyzing our current contracts and hardware in the office. We have cancelled out of unneeded contracts and saved the church money while also taken inventory of our current staff computers.

Third, we have been working on the development of a new website and phone app that we will discuss more in the coming weeks. 

Lastly, I really want to thank Cameron David, Alaina Harrison, Ruth Hawley, Kirby Fong, Scott Smith and others for their help and work over the past couple months helping move along all of this great progress. 

Blessings,

Brad Biggerstaff

You have only to read the paper or listen to the news to know that homelessness and affordable housing are large and complex social problems affecting our nation, our state, and Livermore itself.

But what can we do as citizens and as the congregation of Asbury? That, too, is a large and complex question.

A good first step always is to look to the Scriptures, to the example of Jesus, and to Asbury’ core values. Jesus reminds us that what we do for “the least of these” we do for Him (Matthew 25:40-45), and our core values call on us to “serve others with love.”

So, what can we do to serve the unsheltered in Livermore? An idea has been put forward that we could build tiny homes on part of the unused land behind our sanctuary. Hence, Church Council asked some members of the congregation to form an exploratory task force.

We have few answers yet and lots of questions still, but it seems like there is a unique coinciding right now of opportunity and need for tiny homes.

We will host a series of speakers describing some of the approaches we have learned about. Our first event will be on September 11 in the Fellowship Hall after worship. Please put that date on your calendar and plan to be there. If you cannot attend in person, a recording will be made available on the Asbury website.

Of course, before any action is taken, the congregation will have a chance to vote on the idea of building tiny homes.

Looking for a small group to join?

The Monday Night Small Group has openings for new members. We meet from 6:30pm - 7:30pm on the first and third Monday of the month via Zoom to discuss whatever book the group has chosen to read.

Our next book (starting in August) will be “Questions from the Pews” by Sue King, a former Asbury pastor. Contact Ruth Hawley for more information.

Asbury follows the guidance of the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) regarding indoor masking. Currently masks are highly recommended but not required. Sunday School teachers and nursery staff will continue to wear masks when children less than 5 years old are present indoors. We encourage everyone who is able to get vaccinated and boosted.

We need more of your smiling faces to be greeters for Sunday mornings!

Sign up to be a Sunday morning greeter and help make Asbury the warm, inviting, welcoming place that it is!

We also need volunteers specifically to help greet the adults from Heritage Estates that worship with us! We need one person to greet the van (9:40/9:45am), and another person to make sure that the seniors are back to the bus stop on time after worship (11:30am).

Sign up here to help specifically with the Heritage Estates worshippers and if you have any questions or concerns about this, contact Donald Faul.

Please pray for the requests that were made during prayer time on Sunday.

If you would like to be on the email prayer chain, please contact the church office.