William Jennings Bryan

The Electronic Communications Ministry
of St. Andrew?s United Methodist Church
15050 W. Maple Rd.
Omaha, Nebraska, 68116
Bruce Davis, Editor
Web site: www.standrewsomaha.net
Access the monthly newsletter by this link:
http://www.standrewsomaha.net/downloads/Juneprint.pdf
LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE GOD
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THIS WEEKEND AT ST. ANDREW?S
Saturday, July 25, 5:00
Sunday, July 26, 8:30 & 10:00
NEBRASKA HERITAGE WEEKEND
Bruce preaching:
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN & THE CROSS OF GOLD
Special Guest: Senator Scott Lautenbaugh
Including:
An overview of the life and faith of one of the most significant Americans of his time.
Excerpts from his speeches read by State Senator Lautenbaugh
The real story behind The Scopes-Monkey Trial
A discussion of Inherit The Wind
Onward Christian Soldiers
Lots of great photographs
The Old Time Religion Medley
A primer on the Gold Standard
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I finally got around to seeing the video shot by MAJOR TODD SCHUG in Baghdad, shared in our worship services on the 4th of July Weekend, while Nancy and I were on vacation. I knew it would be wonderful, and I hope you get an opportunity to see it too. You will be blessed. Todd is back in Georgia, now, reunited with his ?peaches,? as he calls Liza and their daughters??..Several weeks ago, I wrote of a futile attempt to find a Pizza Hut lunch buffet. Thanks to reader suggestions, Nancy and I were at the Pizza Hut on 90th and Fort yesterday. It was a wonderful culinary experience, with fresh salad and a variety of thin-crust pepperoni options??Are there any Jack Reacher fans out there? I think the newest book, GONE TOMORROW, is one of the best in the series. If you?re not familiar with Jack Reacher, he?s the creation of author Lee Child: a contemporary hybrid of John Wayne and the David Carradine character on Kung Fu, a former Military Policeman who travels light, doesn?t say much, but has many adventures. Bad guys/gals beware!?.My summer reading has included a re-visiting of William Faulkner?s Snopes Trilogy. I?ve finished THE HAMLET and am half-way through THE TOWN. I doubt that I?ll try THE MANSION, though; the third book was written in Faulkner?s last days and doesn?t hold together very well. A hundred years ago, my great-grandparents were living in hamlets like Lock Springs, Missouri--little holes in the road not so unlike Faulkner?s Frenchman?s Bend. Then my maternal grandparents moved to the town of the Breckenridge. Faulkner?s fictional Jefferson, Mississippi, always brings images of Breckenridge to mind. I grew up in towns, myself, but like so many in my generation have long since become a city dweller. But smalls towns and hamlets are very much part of my interior DNA and revisiting them through Faulkner always feels like going home to a place that was gone before I got there?.. Seen any movies lately? Nancy and I really liked PUBLIC ENEMIES.
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PIZZA WITH THE PASTORS
Sunday evening, July 26
5:00-6:30
This is a very informal evening designed for people interested in talking about membership at St. Andrew?s. Sign up in the Rotunda or e-mail Mandy Barkhaus: mbarkhaus@standrewsomaha.net
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HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT FROM NANCY DAVIS:
Let?s all do this exercise: At the end of the day, ask yourself, ?Did I take time to dance a little today?? Check yourself every evening and if you can?t think of anything you did on a particular day to dance, promise yourself you?ll do better the next day! Keep dancing!
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Please join me in a word of prayer:

Lord God, I thank you for another day of life. I pray for our youth on their way home from their mission tour. Bring them home safe.
I ask you to bless our weekend of our worship. I heard Todd talking this morning about the comfort he found through the chaplaincy ministry in Iraq, and a place of prayer called The Oasis. Todd?s prayer even included America?s enemies, asking that their hearts be softened and there will be peace for all. I pray that St. Andrew?s will be an oasis of spiritual peace for all who come through our doors, particularly into our worship experience.
If there are any families going through their own internal wars, hidden from the rest of us; may husbands and wives and fathers and sons and mothers and daughters find peace through shared faith in you. May the homes of our Saints be places of oasis rather than hostility.
I look forward to being with my friends at St. Andrew?s this weekend. I heard Todd, a long way from home, talk about missing his friends here at St. Andrew?s. Give us grace never to take our friends in the faith for granted. There will be new people coming to the congregation this weekend. I pray we will extend a hand of friendship to them and they will find St. Andrew?s to be an oasis for their journey. And as always, I ask you to provide the resources necessary to do the ministry you have set before us.
I ask all this hopefully in Jesus? name, AMEN

BRD