Each week, there will be a hidden "Easter egg" somewhere in the Asbury Articles to make sure you're paying attention ;)

AND at the end of each month, we'll have trivia at the bottom of the newsletter to test your knowledge of what you've read that month in the Asbury Articles! Your prize? Bragging rights!

Asbury follows the guidance of the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) regarding indoor masking.

When the ACPHD strongly recommends masking for all, Asbury will require masks be worn at all indoor events. Masks are now highly recommended (but not required) in worship, as required masking mandate was lifted on June 25 by ACPHD.

When ACPHD relaxes indoor masking recommendations, Asbury will follow suit and require masks for those not fully vaccinated. Sunday School teachers and nursery staff will continue to wear masks when children less than 5 years old are present indoors.

Getting vaccinated and boosted is also another way we can love our neighbor and do no harm. People are always welcome to mask if that is their preference. Group leaders or groups may decide to implement a mask mandate in their group to protect their members in need of greater protection.

Register by July 22nd

Music Camp is coming! We'll learn about music through singing, instruments, and play. Campers will have the opportunity to perform for each other, residents at Heritage Estates Senior Living, and the Asbury community during the Sunday worship service.

For additional information, contact Fernanda.

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.

St. Paul’s Sanctuary was severely damaged by the fire on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. The whole building has tested positive for asbestos and lead. The usable space (the office, the fellowship hall, the classrooms, and kitchen space) will take about three to six months for toxic clean-up and for restoration of power. Current positive estimates for the whole building is 18 to 24 months, God willing.

St. Paul’s congregation has worshipped outdoors for the past three weeks. By the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we happened to have arranged some ministry projects prior to the fire. On Sunday, June 19th, the community came together to start a vegetable garden in our play yard. We built four raised beds and planted pre-started seedlings. We are inspired to do three more beds soon, some outside the fence so the harvest can directly be available to all our neighbors.

On Friday, June 24th we partnered with 'Our City Forest of San Jose' to plant 13 trees on campus as part of our effort to combat climate change.

If you are inspired to help St. Paul’s UMC overcome our current challenges, we need worship books – either new or used (New Revised Standard Bible, United Methodist Hymnal, The Faith We Sing and Worship & Songs) We have put together a Google sheet through the El Camino Real district office for the list of items needed.

Please label any resource “Gift to St. Paul’s UMC after 2022 fire, from xxx” Due to porch pirate issues, please send these books to:

200 East San Martin Avenue, Unit 171, San Martin, CA 95046,

or drop them off next door to St. Paul’s UMC at the 'Stevens House':

435 S. 10th Street, San Jose, CA 95112.

We have also created a GoFundMe online platform to help us do ministry:

1) building up the vegetable garden to provide fresh veggies in our downtown food desert

2) helping 'Front Door Communities' (our tenant partner) pivot and continue to serve the most vulnerable people with food and self-care items, five days a week. (www.fdcsj.org), and

3) helping our congregation be mobile; creating worship at other spaces while we wait for our least damaged interior spaces to be cleared for use.

For questions or more information, please contact Pastor Helen Kung at:

(408) 910-2157

helen.kung@cnumc.org

PastorHelen103@gmail.com

We need volunteers to help greet the adults from Heritage Estates that worship with us!

The van from Heritage Estates normally arrives at Asbury on Sundays approximately from 9:40 am to 9:45 am and returns to pick up the seniors at approximately 11:30 am.

We need one person to greet the van and make sure the occupants get safely off the bus and to the entrance of the church, and another person (or perhaps the same person) to make sure that the seniors are back to the bus stop on time and are there to help them re-board the van.

There are currently 2-3 seniors that come to Asbury UMC from Heritage Estates, specifically. It is important that the van greeters get to know these seniors a little and spend some time (particularly on the departing assignment) talking with them.

Sign up here and if you have any questions or concerns about this, contact Donald Faul.

Saturday, August 6 at 1pm

Asbury UMC Sanctuary

Our VBS Food Truck has re-routed to a weekend of celebrating community for everyone of all ages to participate.

We'll work in the Fertile GroundWorks garden, eat lunch, swim, have a hot dog dinner and campfire, and camp out on Asbury's property! We'll wake up on Sunday morning to breakfast before worship at 10am.

Following worship at 10am, we'll have lunch, a shave ice food truck, a giant waterslide, games, science, and arts & crafts with space to do art from home in the fellowship hall!

Sign up to participate and/or to provide food for the various meals! Make sure to include how many people are in your party. You are welcome to invite family, friends, and neighbors to join in the fun.

If you would like to make a donation to our program, please make it to our Serving Others With Love summer project: Fertile GroundWorks. You can also drop it off to the church office or offering boxes labeled "Fertile GroundWorks."

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, pending approval by Church Council, 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.

Did you know the popularity of mac and cheese in the U.S. has African-American roots?

Or, that despite them being labeled either as yams or sweet potatoes in the grocery store, all of them are just varieties of sweet potatoes? Yams aren’t grown in the U.S.

To get a sense of how influential African-Americans have been on our cuisine, check out “High on the Hog” on Netflix. Any one of the four 52-minute episodes will give you some insight into early American history and foods.

If you are interested in discussing any of this information, join the Antiracism group on the 4th Tuesday of either July or August. We’d like to have a potluck to taste some of these foods; probably in August. We welcome food lovers of all sorts to join in the fun.

Read your e-Articles for further updates!

QUIZ TIME!

When is the first informational event for the Tiny Homes initiative?

The Men's Bible study meets every Thursday at 7:45 a.m. via video conferencing. Our current study is of comparative religion, a very relevant topic in today's diverse world.  The next lecture will be ”Creation Myths and Sacred Stories."

Whether or not you've been attending, you are welcome to join us. There is no homework. Contact Art Molvik if you would like to join this group and get the link.

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

Think back to when you enter a building the first few times and how helpful and inviting it feels to have someone there to greet you with a smile and guidance on where to go. Or even when the place is no longer new, think about how warm it feels to see that familiar smile when you walk through the doors.

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

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.