UPDATE: The event has moved indoors to Fort Lee High School and will begin at 11am. **The parking lot is located behind the High School. To access it from Lemoine Ave, take Bridge Plaza N toward the George Washington Bridge, then turn left on N Hoyt Ave, which leads directly into the school’s parking lot.

On Sunday, July 3rd, we will be joining with 3 other evangelical churches in Ft. Lee. For that Sunday, we will have our weekly worship service at Ft. Lee Middle School Field at 11am, in lieu of service here at church. We hope to see you there!

The service will be held at 11am, Sunday July 3rd at Lewis F. Cole Middle School (467 Stillwell Ave, Fort Lee, NJ 07024).

Directions from Bethany Well Fort Lee:

1. Travel east on Main St.

2. Turn right onto Anderson.

3. Turn right onto Stillwell.

The school will be on your right. Click the map for more details.

Bethany Well Summer Retreat:
July 29-31
Tuscarora, PA

$150 per person
$75 for full-time students
$25 per kid for families (up to 2 kids)

This year, we are starting a campaign to not only fast from drinks, but to donate whatever money we would otherwise spend on drinks to charity: water. They are an organization that raises money to provide clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. So we are asking you to donate $20/wk over the next 6 weeks. Or if you can’t afford that, then $10/wk. Or if you drink a LOT of coffee, then $40/wk. Or if you’d like to make a one-time donation, we’d accept that as well. We are asking you to do this because 1.1 billion (buh buh, billion) people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water.

For $5000, we can build a well in a village and provide clean drinking water for over 250 people. So, even if you can’t go without coffee, think about donating anyways. But, I hope we can all step up to the challenge to forego the quad, venti, half-caff, one pump sugar-free vanilla, two pumps sugar-free hazelnut, extra-hot, ristretto latte, with half soy, half lowfat organic milk, with two paper cups that you normally order in order to show some self-restraint for awhile.

Donations will be collected each week through Easter Sunday. Let’s build a Well!

Read more for more info about charity: water.

It’s hard not to think about water today. In the western world, we face growing concerns about our stewardship of the world’s most precious resource. There’s talk of shortages, evidence of reservoirs and aquifers drying up, and of course, plenty of people who simply don’t care.

But forget about us.

Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have clean water.

It’s hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in six might be easier. One in six people in our world don’t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without.

Here, we’d like to introduce you to a few of those billion people. They are very real, and they need our help. They didn’t choose to be born into a village where the only source of water is a polluted swamp. And we didn’t choose to be born in a country where even the homeless have access to clean water and a toilet.

We invite you to put yourself in their shoes. Follow them on their daily journey. Carry 80 pounds of water in yellow fuel cans. Dig with their children in sand for water. Line up at a well and wait 8 hours for a turn.

Now, make a decision to help. We’re not offering grand solutions and billion dollar schemes, but instead, simple things that work. Things like freshwater wells, rainwater catchments and sand filters. For about $20 a person, we know how to help millions of people.

They’ll have to know the right answers to bible stories that they have been learning over the past few Sundays, so make sure to quiz them before giving them their candy, and let’s teach them if the forget!

Any concerns, questions? Contact Jamie.

Since we’re all about sharing, here’s the quick prep you can do at home and have plenty of left overs to help save a few bucks for lunch during the work week. First, you need 2 boxes of Zatarian’s Low Sodium Jambalaya mix. To kick it up a notch, pick up a warm rotisserie chicken from any grocery store. Proceed to pull off the chicken meat into bite size pieces and set aside (we discard the skin). Kick it up, yet again, by browning bite size pieces of hot Italian sausages (6 links = 1 1b) and set aside. Open 1 can (approx 16 oz) of diced tomatoes and set aside. Bring to boil about 4 cups of water in a big pot. Dump the 2 boxes of Zatarian’s Jambalaya mixture, diced tomatoes, pulled chicken meat, and browned bite sized hot Italian sausages. Stir it all in and bring it back to a boil… then set it to low heat and simmer for a good 30-40 minutes with the lid on…….. SHAZAAAAMMMM… take a little taste test to see if the rice has fluffed. If so, take it off and serve. Pack it up and store in the fridge for your lovely leftover lunch meals!

On a more deeper note, I learned quite a few deep things cooking this jambalaya concerning the body of Christ. Indulge me a bit, some food for your thoughts. Each ingredient is essential to make this dish work. Every textured bite creates a party in the mouth. Just like when the world tastes and see that God is good through the diversity and texture of His body, the church.

What are you waiting for? Let’s be the seasoning in our community and add a little spice to Fort Lee.

-Team Food Coma

PS. Next month’s Team Food Coma special (August 10th): Mac N Cheese (bacon bits will be available ahem kwak!) accompanied by warm corn bread interlaced with sweet corn kernals with a side of spring salad topped with ginormous croûtons lathered in Vidalia Onion Dressing.

Also, please be advised: This is a Rain-Or-Shine Picnic. We will be there worshipping, cooking, eating and just having a grand old time whether we be blessed with sunshine or cursed blessed by rain.

So, we’ll see you there at 11:00am. Rain or shine, be on time!

Bethany @ Gracehouse

Our boys played a great game on Sunday but couldn’t keep it up til the end. Final score was 17-18 Gracehouse.