FATHER'S TWO CENTS WORTH

We welcomed to our parish Fr. Abraham Adejoh this past week, and we hope that He will find his stay with us supportive and enlightening.  There will be a parish reception for him (this present week-end) at the school cafeteria Sunday at 12:30 p.m.  Everyone is invited to come and welcome our new Associate Pastor.  It will be a luncheon / reception.

Thanks to all who came to clean church this past Monday.  I understand there were many Eighth Grade students who came to get their Confirmation Service Hours in.  There were many others who came to do the cleaning, and we are grateful to them.  We are also grateful to the persons who came and “weeded” flowerbeds around church.  Jeremy Friess has been taking care of the flower-beds on the East side of church all along, this summer.  The flowers look nice and I am grateful to all who help keep them that way, taking time to water the flowers.

Thanks also to Art Wilhelm, Larry Wilhelm, Kawika Cornman, Bruce Jung, Jimmy Amann, and anyone I may have missed for taking down the concrete railing on the front side of the church.  Most of it was “an accident waiting to happen”, and a liability threat.  In a way, the front of the church looks more open and cleaner as one can get a full frontal view of our church.  At the moment, we are looking toward immediate improvements, and long range developments—all depending on how the finances run.  I ask everyone to be careful for the voids left by the removal of the old concrete right now.

The start of school is now less than a month away (Aug. 12^th).  This summer has truly sped by, and will go faster as we look forward to Homecoming and our staffing of the Hamburger stand.  We will be needing workers for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shifts.  Please contact Jimmy Amann if you can help out—235-4198.  For those who are new to our parish, we invite you to join in and meet other members of our parish at this time.

Our Parish Picnic is quickly approaching on August 27-28^th.  We sent our raffle tickets this week to all of the parishioners, and we ask you to sell them to others, or to buy them yourself.  This is big source of income to the picnic and is “money in the bank” even if we should have unfavorable weather.  The success of the picnic is very important to our parish finances, since it helps us to support our school, and the parish operation.  Please do all you can to make it a success! ALSO, PRAY FOR GOOD WEATHER.  WE ALWAYS NEED DIVINE HELP FOR ALL THE WORK THAT GOES INTO THIS EVENT.

Next Sunday, Bishop Braxton will be here to make his parish visitation, and will celebrate all the masses next week-end.  The letter he sent to me, he asked me to pass it on to all of the parishioners, and it is enclosed with this week’s bulletin.  He also wants to meet with all who hold leadership roles in the parish, and I guess we will do this between masses on Sunday.  As the letter states, he is making the 10:30 mass his major event, and asks all make every effort to attend.  Pray that all goes well.

As I mentioned last Sunday at all masses, we need to increase our Sunday Contributions by almost $850 a week to meet our future needs.  Please help as much as possible to reach this goal.  We have been struggling over the past year to meet the bare budget.   God bless all of you for your past support.

WELCOME RECEPTION FOR FATHER ABRAHAM

Next Sunday, July 18th we will welcome Father Abraham Adejoh to our parish. A luncheon in his honor will be served at 12 noon in the School Cafeteria. Everyone in our parish family is encouraged to attend. Let’s give Father Abraham a BIG Holy Childhood welcome!

We are asking the ladies of the parish to bring cookies for the luncheon. The cookies may be dropped off at the cafeteria after 9 AM on Sunday morning.

GIFT CARDS: Now in stock Papa John’s $10.  Don’t forget about these popular restaurants: Tony’s $25, Applebee’s $25, Logan’s Roadhouse $25, St. Louis Bread Co, $10 & $25, Texas Roadhouse $25, Ruby Tuesday’s $25, Red Robin $25, Subway $10, Pizza Hut $10, Cold Stone $10, Chili’s $25, Burger King $10, Arby’s $10, and Starbucks $10.

PARISH PICNIC -  AUGUST 28, 2010:

¨ The Country Store needs your help with canned vegetables, fresh vegetables, jams, jelly, and fresh baked goods.

¨ We are still collecting money to purchase quilts for our church picnic. Please help; your donation is greatly appreciated and greatly needed to help make our Quilt Bingo a success.

HOLY CHILDHOOD CHURCH PICNIC FISH FRY: We will be having a fish fry on Friday, August 27, 2010.  

HOMECOMING HAMBURGER STAND: If anyone would like to help out and support the Hamburger Stand on August 6th, 7th, or 8th, please contact Jimmy Amann at 618-235-4199 or email him at jamann6@norcom2000.com to sign up! Your help is very much appreciated.

SHEPHERD SUNDAY, JULY 25: The Mascoutah Concerned Christians Food Pantry needs the following items this month: cereal, pancake mix, canned tomatoes, applesauce, sloppy Joe sauce, saltine crackers, & dish soap. Thank you for supporting the food pantry!

MASCOUTAH HOMECOMING PARADE / HELP WANTED: Looking for students / adults to walk in the parade to represent our Church and School. This is a good way to get your hours needed for your 8th grade trip, Confirmation, or just because! We also need representatives for both parade days. If you have any questions or would like to sign up, please call Stacie at 566-0355 or show up at the Citizen’s Bank back parking lot.

SPECIAL RAFFLE & SPECIAL QUILT RAFFLE TICKETS will go on sale starting Saturday, July 31st in front of church. You can purchase 1 ticket for $1 or 6 tickets for $5 for the Special Raffle, or you can purchase 1 ticket for $2 or 4 tickets for $5 for the Special Quilt Raffle.