The United Methodist Women of Bardsdale will be holding a Fall Courtyard sale this Saturday, October 1, from 8 AM until noon at the freshly repainted and historical church.

There will be clothing, shoes, kitchenware, books, tools and knick-knacks. Just in time for the holidays, there is also a selection of Christmas decor.

Proceeds will benefit the ministries of the Bardsdale UMW.

The church is located at 1498 Bardsdale Avenue.

By Joshua Rhett Miller

An undated photograph circulated by religious rights organizations shows Youcef Nadarkhani and his family.
An Iranian pastor who has refused to renounce his Christian faith faces execution as early as Wednesday after his sentence was upheld by an Iranian court.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who maintains he has never been a Muslim as an adult, has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith in Jesus Christ, the 11th branch of Iran's Gilan Provincial Court ruled. Iran's Supreme Court had ordered the trial court to determine whether Nadarkhani had been a Muslim prior to converting to Christianity.

An undated photograph provided by the American Center for Law & Justice shows Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor who faces execution for refusing to recant his Christian faith.

The judges, according to the... http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/28/iranian-pastor-faces-execution-f...

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/28/iranian-pastor-faces-execution-f...

Pope Benedict XVI called for a common front with Christians to defend traditional church values and shun“lukewarm” faith during a speech to 30,000 young people in his homeland of Germany Saturday. AP reports that the 84-year-old pope warned of threats posed by abortion and gay marriage, and declared in a separate meeting with Orthodox Christians that religion must not be banished from public life. The Pope said that christian churches “are walking side by side” in the battle.

“They speak up jointly for... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/pope-says-catholics-cannot-accept-gay-ma...

An honors student in Fort Worth, Texas, was sent to the principal’s office and punished for telling a classmate that he believes homosexuality is wrong.

Holly Pope said she was “absolutely stunned” when she received a telephone call from an assistant principal at Western Hills High School informing her that her son, Dakota Ary, had been sent to in-school suspension.

“Dakota is a very well-grounded 14-year-old,” she told Fox News Radio noting that her son is an honors student, plays on the football team and is active in his church youth group. “He’s been in church his whole life and he’s been taught to stand up for what he believes.”

And that’s what... http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/22/texas-school-punishes-boy-for-oppos...

(Ron and Elaine had the Bootery in town)

Received the following email from Elaine Ipswitch this morning (Sept. 13th).

My niece, Payge Siebenhaar, and her boyfriend were coming to visit us when they lost

control of their vehicle and it rolled. Payge was ejected and airlifted to Rapid Regional

where they fused her neck. She also fractured her pelvis, broke her foot and has other

various injuries. Dr. said neck surgery was successful.

Her boyfriend had minor injuries. We will appreciate your prayers.

Thank you, Elaine & Ron Ipswitch

The Fillmore First United Methodist Church has honored Marty and Marlene Schreffler with a gift to Heifer International. The Schrefflers have taken a very active leadership role in the church for many years. Marty has served several terms as Treasurer and Marlene as Administrative Council Chairperson, off and on, for over 25 years. They have both served in many other positions as well, and are wonderful volunteers.

Heifer International provides livestock and training to families and communities around the world, giving them a way to raise themselves up from poverty. The recipient of the gift will pass on the “gift” of the animals’ offspring to another family, creating a chain of ongoing self-reliance.

The Heifer Project has always been special to the Schrefflers. They had the privilege of seeing the program in action when they were visiting overseas, and have always been very supportive.

We are pleased and proud to honor them for their service in this way.

(Story courtesy Sarah Hansen)

On Friday, October 7, at 7 o'clock p.m., organist Dr. James Welch will play a concert to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Bardsdale United Methodist pipe organ. The concert is a return engagement for Dr. Welch, who played the original organ dedication concert in 1986 to an overflow crowd.

Former university organist at UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Welch teaches at Santa Clara University, serves as organist at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, and concertizes around the world. He and his wife Deanne are parents of sons Nicholas and Jameson.

At Bardsdale church Dr. Welch will play a program of delightful pieces, especially chosen for an audience of both new and seasoned music lovers, including families. His program will feature a toccata on “Amazing Grace'' by J. Christopher Pardini and an arrangement of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Classical favorites include Bach's “Jig” Fugue and the famous “Toccata” from Widor's Fifth Symphony, which will climax the hour-long program.

The 12-rank pipe organ was custom-built for the church by historic Schoenstein & Co. of San Francisco, Jack M. Bethards, president. Built in 2 stages, the instrument was completed in 1993 when the chimes, given in memory of Angela Grice Young, were hung. Gold-leafed pipes were antiqued to make the instrument look as though it were built at the same time as the Church.

The Bardsdale United Methodist Church, located at 1498 Bardsdale Avenue, 3 miles south of Fillmore, is both a National Historic Landmark and Ventura County Landmark No. 50. The congregation first met in 1892, and the building cornerstone was laid 1898. In 2012, the Church plans events to celebrate its twelve decades of ministry in the Fillmore area.

A free-will offering will be taken. A meet-the-artist reception will follow. Quick tours of the organ chamber are available before the concert begins.

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI “WOMEN’S WEEKEND RETREAT”
Have you made a retreat in a while? Refresh your soul. You are invited to participate in a Women’s Silent retreat on September 23-25 at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra. Transportation is available. Please contact Martha at 524-9337 for more information and reservations.

Catholic Charities Serves Ventura County With Your Help!– An Appeal at Saturday & Sunday Masses, on Sept. 10th & 11th will be made to benefit the human services provided to needy families, homeless individuals, vulnerable seniors and at risk children of Ventura County. As this country suffers through the most serious economic crisis since the “great depression” the number of people seeking assistance at Catholic Charities has grown enormously. Our government has begun to eliminate all forms of assistance programs. People who never dealt with poverty are desperate for your help. A second collection will be made at all masses to support services provided by Catholic Charities of Ventura County. Thanks to Father Barney and Saint Francis parishioners for your generosity and caring support.

Attention Seniors: A class just for seniors 60+ called “Seniorcize” starts on Friday, September 9th at Saint Francis in Rooms 5 & 6 at 10:30 am. It is being offered at half price ($22. for 22 sessions) as a community service of the not-for-profit SCAN Health Plan. The sponsors are; Fillmore Senior Center, Catholic Charities and SCAN Senior Resource Center. The Teacher is Jaci Gutierrez who helped started the well known Bone Builders program for seniors in Oxnard. According to Jaci, "this class will be a fun way for seniors to help control stress, diabetes, weight and strengthen their bones." Call the Fillmore Senior Center at 524-4533 to register. They are hosting this class on Mondays also at 10:30 am.

Attention all 2011 Confirmed High School Students—Let’s meet and eat every last Saturday of the month 12:00-2:00pm in rooms 5 and 6 . Toni Galvez will be available for guidance and follow up. Not mandatory, it is voluntary. Do you want to continue to grow in your faith? Come join us Saturday September 24th !

Join us at the HANDICAPABLE LUNCHEON Liturgy Luncheon Entertainment 11:30—1:30PM Saturday, September 17, 2011 at Saint Paschal Baylon Parish Hall 155 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. Contacts Joe and Jackie Kammerer for reservations at 805-524-2001

Youth Confirmation and Junior High Registration
Registrations for Confirmation 1 and 2 , Jr. high Ministry and 7th & 8th Grade First Communions is by appointment. Please call Vidal at the pastoral Center and please bring a copy of your child’s BAPTISM Certificate.

From Johnnie Benson:

Say a prayer for our classmate Allen Horn (formerly from Fillmore, lived on Hume dr.) and his family, they live in TX..and they are in the middle of that huge fire in Magnolia, TX. He and his family packed up everything, and left their home about 30 minutes ago. (4:00 PM TX time)

Saint Francis of Assisi “Women’s Weekend Retreat”
Have you made a retreat in a while? Refresh your soul. You are invited to participate in a Women’s Silent retreat on September 23-25 at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra. Transportation is available. Please contact Martha at 524-9337 for more information and reservations.

Catholic Charities Serves Ventura County With Your Help!– An Appeal at Saturday & Sunday Masses, on Sept. 10th & 11th will be made to benefit the human services provided to needy families, homeless individuals, vulnerable seniors and at risk children of Ventura County. As this country suffers through the most serious economic crisis since the “great depression” the number of people seeking assistance at Catholic Charities has grown enormously. Our government has begun to eliminate all forms of assistance programs. People who never dealt with poverty are desperate for your help. A second collection will be made at all masses to support services provided by Catholic Charities of Ventura County. Thanks to Father Barney and Saint Francis parishioners for your generosity and caring support.

Attention Seniors: A class just for seniors 60+ called “Seniorcize” starts on Friday, September 9th at Saint Francis in Rooms 5 & 6 at 10:30 am. It is being offered at half price ($22. for 22 sessions) as a community service of the not-for-profit SCAN Health Plan. The sponsors are; Fillmore Senior Center, Catholic Charities and SCAN Senior Resource Center. The Teacher is Jaci Gutierrez who helped started the well known Bone Builders program for seniors in Oxnard. According to Jaci, "this class will be a fun way for seniors to help control stress, diabetes, weight and strengthen their bones." Call the Fillmore Senior Center at 524-4533 to register. They are hosting this class on Mondays also at 10:30 am.

Attention all 2011 Confirmed High School Students—Let’s meet and eat every last Saturday of the month 12:00-2:00pm in rooms 5 and 6 . Toni Galvez will be available for guidance and follow up. Not mandatory, it is voluntary. Do you want to continue to grow in your faith? Come join us Saturday September 24th !

Join us at the HANDICAPABLE LUNCHEON Liturgy Luncheon Entertainment 11:30—1:30PM Saturday, September 17, 2011 at Saint Paschal Baylon Parish Hall 155 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. Contacts Joe and Jackie Kammerer for reservations at 805-524-2001

Youth Confirmation and Junior High Registration
Registrations for Confirmation 1 and 2 , Jr. high Ministry and 7th & 8th Grade First Communions is by appointment. Please call Vidal at the pastoral Center and please bring a copy of your child’s BAPTISM Certificate.

by Tiffany Gabbay

In a move almost too shocking to comprehend, kindergarten children in Basel, Switzerland will be presented this year with fabric models of human genitalia in a “sex box” to teach them that “contacting body parts can be pleasurable.”

Pictures of the sex box were too graphic to include, but can be viewed here.

To make matters worse, the kit is intended to be given out to the primary school students by teachers during sex-education classes. That’s right. Sex education classes for kindergartners.

And, if that were not bad enough, the sex box allegedly uses models and recommends children massage each other or rub themselves with warm sand bags, accompanied by soft music.

What’s more, Basel education minister Christoph Eymann, from the liberal democrat party, opposed parents’ requests to exempt their children from the lessons, saying the government uses schools in order to have unrestricted access to children.

“Primary school may be... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/graphic-sex-box-for-swiss-kindergartners...

FCC Prayer Requests

Peggy Boblett got the flu and it triggered her Fibromylgia and she is in a lot of pain.

Praise! Harley Grace Mc Kelvey: Jeanie Collins Ruiz Granddaughter! Born 8/22/11 @ 1:17 am; 6 lbs., 14 ozs.; 19 ¾” long. Jeanie’s Daughter, Kim & baby are doing well and are staying with Jeanie for a couple of weeks!

From Jennie Real: Please pray as I have asked before, for unity as a family for my 3 sons. We need to forgive one another. We need to be closer. Now that we have a new member in our family, Baby Lucy, we need to be closer.

Pray for Steve & Sally Lochelt & family: Steve’s mom passed away on Sunday night. Pray for comfort & peace.

Pray for Tom Robertson (Husband) & family, Marge LeBard (Mother) & family & Brian Stafford, Ken's Son: Joyce LeBard Robertson passed away after a long battle with cancer on Monday. At her request there will be no services for her.

Jim Mefford (former Fillmore resident) – Out patient surgery on 8/25 to remove a smaller than 1/8” spot on his bladder.

Mary Mefford (Jim Mefford’s daughter-in-law) – Breast cancer. She had a mastectomy and is going through radiation and chemo.

Melisa Ritchey Collins (Jeanie Collins Ruiz’s niece) – She is back in the hospital due to pregnancy complications. They were going to induce her on September 16, but if the baby’s heart rate drops three times within an hour they will do a C-section sooner.

Most of us can remember many of the books on the assigned reading list in middle and high school — from Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” Today, however, required reading for students apparently includes “Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines,” a book that features a scene depicting a homosexual orgy and “Norwegian Wood,” a book that features a sex scene between a 31-year-old woman and a 13-year old girl.

That’s right. Books on gay orgies and lesbian sex as required reading for students.

Fox Nation reports that a New Jersey school district has apologized to parents after requiring high school students to read the graphic books.

“Some of the language is... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/school-reading-list-featured-books-on-le...

By The Rev. Bob Hammond
St. Stephen’s Anglican Church

Traditionally, September marked a new beginning, not quite in the way of a January 1st, but still, with the thought to changing family routines, in a way, a new set, of new years resolutions. September was the time when kids historically returned to school, it was the signal for the last of the year’s lengthy vacations, and it was for sports fans the beginning of football season. And, for many families it was also the time to think about Church life and Church attendance.

Our world, however, has changed and as September rolls around, many kids will have been in school for almost a month, work schedules are rarely impacted by the school year, and football season not only will be well on its way, but other sports’ seasons will be pushing into the arena. There will still be however, some people who will wonder about their Church life and Church attendance, and whether they should consider going to Church.

There is a story making the rounds, which I believe pretty well addresses the question; “Why Go To Church?” It is about a Church goer who wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote the following:
“I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"

To be spiritually nourished, we each need a point of reference in making decisions for ourselves, our families and our community. There is a great deal of confusion in our society today because there is no universally accepted reference point. Consequently there are many different perspectives or points of references in our lives.

For Christians however, there is a constant point of reference, and that is Jesus Christ.
If you are looking for a reference point in your life, to be spiritually nourished, visit a local church, and consider returning home to God.

A 26-year-old mother was killed when gunmen opened fire in a small northern New Jersey town as she was walking with her husband and her 3-year-old son late Tuesday night, authorities said.

Bullets also wounded her husband, but the child remained safe.

Nazish Noorani and her husband Kashif Parvaiz, also 26, were on their way to a relative’s house with one of their children around 11 p.m. when gunmen opened fire. The couple had recently moved from Brooklyn to Boston so that Parvaiz could attend graduate school at Harvard University. Their other child, 5, was with a relative when the shooting occurred, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Investigators are now... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/target-specific-pakistani-mother-gunned-...

OUR MISSIONARY CO– OP SPEAKER THIS YEAR IS SISTER FELICIA AGIBI Sister will be speaking at all of the Masses this weekend witnessing her love for the missions in Africa. A second collection will be taken after communion to help the work of missions. Thank You.

Attention Seniors: A class just for seniors 60+ called “Seniorcize” starts on Friday, September 9th at Saint Francis of Assisi in Rooms 5 & 6 at 10:30 am. It is being offered at half price ($22. for 22 sessions) as a community service of the not-for-profit SCAN Health Plan. The sponsors are; Fillmore Senior Center, Catholic Charities and SCAN Senior Resource Center. The Teacher is Jaci Gutierrez who helped started the well known Bone Builders program for seniors in Oxnard. According to Jaci, "this class will be a fun way for seniors to help control stress, diabetes, weight and strengthen their bones." Call the Fillmore Senior Center at 524-4533 to register. They are hosting this class on Mondays also at 10:30 am.

Youth Confirmation and Junior High Registration

Registrations for Confirmation 1 and 2 , Jr. high Ministry and 7th & 8th Grade First Communions will be on August 16, 17, 18, and August 23, 24, 25th . Registrations will be from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. Please bring a copy of your child’s BAPTISM Certificate. Registration Fee is 80.00 dollars per child. For more information contact, Vidal Morales at 524-4408..

BAKE SALE—TODAY SUNDAY AUG. 21ST AFTER THE MORNING MASSES

Attention all 2011 Confirmed High School Students—Let’s meet and eat every last Saturday of the month 12:00-2:00pm in rooms 5 and 6 . Toni Galvez will be available for guidance and follow up. Not mandatory, it is voluntary. Do you want to continue to grow in your faith? Come join us!

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI “WOMEN’S WEEKEND RETREAT”

Have you made a retreat in a while? Refresh your soul. You are invited to participate in a Women’s Silent retreat on September 23-25 at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra. Transportation is available. Please contact Martha at 524-9337 for more information and reservations.

Written by Tiffany Gabbay

To celebrate the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, Palestinian TV has launched a new program called “The Best Mothers.“ But who constitutes the ”best mothers” according to Palestinians? Apparently ones whose children were suicide bombers who killed innocent Israelis and themselves, and hence, became “martyrs.”

The 10-minute segment, that reportedly airs every day, features a different Palestinian mother in her home, talking about the children of whom she is most proud.

Palestinian Media Watch reported that... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/palestinian-tv-show-celebrates-ramadan-w...

Islamist organizations are hard at work creating Muslim enclaves in the West, including right here in the United States. These efforts are designed to create Islamic autonomous areas, often with the expressed desire of incrementally bringing the host country completely under Sharia-based governance. This campaign has not stopped or even slowed down since FrontPage Magazine and the Middle East Forum shined the light on it one year ago.

One group leading... http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/12/sharia-enclaves-in-the-west/?utm_sour...

As with the situation in Egypt, this is not at all the first time we have seen such behavior in Pakistan. Two such prominent cases in Pakistan have been those of Saba (or Sarah) and Anila Masih, and Farah Hatim.

The news organization Fides has reported that "at least 700 Christian girls are kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam every year." Hindu girls are targeted as well, and many cases go unreported, or are brushed aside by authorities.

Here is yet another... http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/08/pakistan-bishop-of-islamabad-warns-for...