Do you remember a time when you really got

excited over something that you purchased? It may have been a car, a T.V. or maybe it was a computer. As time had passed, did you still get the same euphoric feeling every time that you use that item? Probably not. However, that doesn’t stop us from seeking out the next new thing to get revved up about. I remem-ber when I bought my first iPhone, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever

that I could audibly give commands to my phone while it did whatever I asked. However, Siri never seemed to understand my accent, and I had to repeat myself over and over for it to finally follow what I was saying. Also, my phone eventually just got old and I started to desire something newer.

That example helps me understand Jesus when he said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on

earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...” (Matthew 6:19-20). If the things of the world are what we treasure, we will even-tually be left feeling empty as everything in this world will ultimately turn to dust. Our relationships with our God and his children are what is eternal. If that is the treasure of our hearts, we are cherishing in things that will never leave us empty.

continued on page 1

Treasures of the Heart by Cary Fisher

5 Gifts from God

Love makes our friends a little dearer.

Joy makes our hearts a little lighter.

Faith makes our paths a little clearer.

Hope makes our lives a little brighter.

Peace brings us all a little nearer.

—Author unknown

INSIDE

Who Are You? page 3

Doodles and Master-pieces page 4

Taste & Inspiration on page 5

What’s happening? see pages 6 & 9

Our Church Family page 8

Kid’s Page on page 9

For the members, family and friends of the Downey Adventist Church

Pathfinder Camporee

The Pathfinders will be headed to Oshkosh

Wisconsin for the week of Aug 10-17. They’ve worked long and hard to attend. We will also have several new Master Guides when they get back.

The theme for 2014 is based on the outstanding historical Old Testament character Daniel. A prophet and leader he lived in the world, right in the epicenter of

civilization at that time and yet was not conformed by it. We believe that it was his relationship with Jesus that made him forever faithful. We also believe that Jesus is the true forever faithful One to us. Our Pathfinders will have their hearts and minds refreshed in this story for our time.

Let’s remember them in prayer. =

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My prayer is that we can let go of our desires for the things that are finite and to value what is infinite.

Sermon Calendar for August

August 2nd - Myths of Christian Education by Bill Aumack - The Seventh-day Adventist Church operates the 2nd largest private school system in the world. Our offering and part of our tithe money goes to support Christian Education, so this a topic for all of us. If you talk to enough people, you’ll hear a lot of different opinions about Christian Education not all of which are accu-rate.

August 9th - Who Are We #10: “Spiritual Gifts” - We believe that God’s people are to be led by the Holy Spirit. When we are

spirit led, God will give us special gifts to help us function in the man-ner in which God created us. Paul writes, “so Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evange-lists, the pastors and teach-ers, to equip his people for works of service, so that

the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:11,12).” We also believe in the spirit of prophecy as an important gift for our

understanding of end time events, and our church was blessed with the ministry of Ellen White as someone with that gift.

August 16th - Who Are We #11: “Stewardship”

- While God made this world, He entrusted us to take care of his creation. The Bible says, “each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4:10). We also show stewardship by taking care of ourselves, by living a life of temperance, and by being faithful in giving back to God a portion of what He has given to us.

August 23rd - Who Are We # 12: “The Second Coming” - We believe that understand-ing and believing in the second coming of Jesus plays a crucial role in being a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. Paul wrote, “For the Lord him-self will come down from heaven, with a loud com-mand, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God...” (I Thessalonians 4:16). This text tells us that the whole

world will know when he does come, and we also believe that our lives are changed when we live with a mindset that Jesus can come at any moment.

August 30th - Who Are We # 13 - “The New Earth” - This will be the final installment of our “Who Are WE” series. The book of Revelation points to us that God will renew this Earth, and We believe that God’s plan to end sin will be fulfilled, and we will spend the rest of eternity with God in our new home.

See you when the church gathers. =

WE

D

ID

IT

The Latest Word V 26 N 08

BILL AUMACKresponsible for this

LINDA AUMACKcopy editor

LAURA LUNApaper distribution

CARY FISHERpastor

address mail to: Downey Seventh-day Adventist Church9820 Lakewood Blvd.Downey, CA 90240office: 562.869.6013fax: 562.622.1691 downeychurch@gmail.comwww.downeychurch.com

distributed monthlyissue date: Aug. 2014 copyright 1992-2014

If the things of the world are what we treasure, we will eventually be left

feeling empty

“

”

Treasures of the Heart (cont. from page 1)

August 2014

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if believed, I belong in the State of California, but the perfect city for me is Washington, D.C. Hmm, that’s a long commute. I am sweet and sour, as well as quick tempered. I am Raj from the television show, Big Bang Theory. If I were something other than a human being, I’d be a pigeon, a sunflower or chocolate ice cream. The song “Don’t Stop Believin” (Journey) was writ-ten for me, and I should wear my hair in graceful braids. I am Dopey, Shakespeare and Eve, all rolled into one. That pretty much confirms what I’ve always known: I am a very complicated and

confused person!

Okay, so the quiz-zes are for fun and not capable of truly identify-ing anyone’s personality. But it makes me think for a moment about the ways in which we obtain our identity in life. If we are not careful, we can

allow many things of the world to mold or shape us. Music, television, work or even hobbies, all tend to affect our lives. The Apostle Paul said, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be trans-formed by the renewing of your mind. . . .” (Romans 12:2). So he might be tell-ing us, among other things, that we should seek our identity from God. After all, He created us and knows us best. So what does God say about us? I encourage you to grab your Bible and find out. Here are a few verses which speak to me:

• “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I

now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

• “You are a chosen peo-ple, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the

praises of him who called you out of dark-ness into his wonder-ful light.” 1 Peter 2:9.

• “. . . to all who did receive

[Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12

In only three verses, I am reminded of the iden-tity God has given me in Christ and the purpose to which I have been called. It might be an uplift-ing exercise to memo-rize a verse or two each day to remind us of the things God says about us, because in so doing, we can replace conflict and confusion with the peace that passes understanding. Amen? Amen! =

August 2Bill Aumack

Myths of Christian Education

August 9

Cary FisherWho Are We #10:

“Spiritual Gifts”

August 16Cary Fisher

Who Are We #11: “Stewardship”

August 23Cary Fisher

Who Are We # 12: “The Second Coming”

August 30Cary Fisher

Who Are We # 13: “The New Earth”

Worship Schedule

The Word & You

by Linda Bewley Who Are You?

God’s word says, “But those who

hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Have you ever taken one of the quizzes on Facebook which promise to define things about you? Their titles go like this: “Which state do you belong in?” or “Which Disney character are you?” For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been taking quizzes that interest me to see what they say about me. As far as Facebook is concerned, I am the Bible verse quoted above. And,

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I love to doodle. If there is paper and a writing uten-

sil nearby I will start doo-dling. I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember. As a child, at Christmas I almost always got a draw-ing notebook and pens or pencils. I got in trouble in school quite a bit for this habit. The teacher always thought I wasn’t listening. However, the contrary is true. I’m usually listening better when I am doodling. They’ve learned that at work and don’t mind if I doodle in meetings because they know it helps me concentrate.

With all the doodling I’ve done in my life, it would be natural to assume that I would be a half way decent artist. Unfortunately, that isn’t true. On my very best day, I’m a pretty mediocre art-ist. Remember that’s my best day, so usually it’s worse than that. I don’t really understand that. How can I be so mediocre at something I spend so much time doing? It just doesn’t make sense.

This reminds me of my Christian walk. I’ve spent my whole life practicing a Christian lifestyle. I work at it, much harder than I practice my doodling. I can be lackadaisical in my doodling. I don’t really work at it that hard. It’s more of a whatever hap-pens, happens. But I’m

more serious about my Christian walk. I’ve put a lot more serious effort into that. Yet sometimes that effort seems no better than my lackluster doodling. No matter how hard I try, the picture painted by my Christian walk seems crude and ugly. Not the beautiful master piece that I would like it to be.

In his book Dangerous Wonder, the late youth-ministry pioneer Mike Yaconelli debunks the idea that Christianity is “all about coloring within the lines and coloring well.” He writes: “God’s grace is so outside the lines of our understanding that we can only stand in awe and wonder. Christian-ity is not about learning how to live within the lines; Christian-ity is about the joy of coloring. The grace of God is preposter-ous enough to accept as beauti-ful a color-ing that anyone else would reject as

ugly.

“The grace of God sees beyond the scribbling to the heart of the scrib-bler — a scribbler who is similar to two thieves who hung on crosses on either side of Jesus. One of the two asked Jesus to please accept his scribbled and sloppy life into the king-dom of God … and he did. Preposterous. And very good news for the rest of us scribblers.”

Are you concerned with your ability? Or with Jesus’ ability to accept your scribbles? That’s worth pondering about... =

by Bill Aumack Doodles and Master Pieces

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18

Wednesday Night Fellowship

Starting August 6th

7 P.M.

Youth Room

with Pastor Cary

Drive in the exit (by pastor’s office) and park in the back.

You can enter the Youth room from the back.

August 2014

5

Once again, we are so amazed and excited

to continue sharing with you the nutritional infor-mation we’ve learned in the last small group ses-sion, “C.R.E.A.T.I.O.N. Health: God’s 8 Principles for Living Life to the Fullest.” In that series, Dr. Winnie King poses a question that I’ve often wondered when speaking with vegetarians about their diet. ‘Is it possible to get enough protein on a vegetarian diet?’ I’m sure the answer is yes, but it’s difficult to imagine, as a meat eater, being satisfied when finished with a meal with no meat as the main source of protein. It is, howev-er, some-thing I’m quite con-scious of in my diet and with prayer for strength and God’s guidance with this, my goal is to eliminate meat from my diet altogether. Anyway, she goes on to say that a proper vegetar-ian diet, (“proper” being the key word here) will supply us with all of our protein needs. With plant foods we experience a slow continuous release of energy, helping our body

maintain consistent sero-tonin levels. This helps control mood, appetite and food cravings throughout the day. And high-fiber foods reduce emotional distress by increasing brain functions since it’s being fueled by a steady release of glucose.

We’ve become huge advocates of fast food. What??!! McDonalds, Taco Bell, Jack-In-The-Box, Pup ‘N’ Taco, you wonder?? Absolutely NOT! We’re talkin’ God’s fast food! Bananas, apples, almonds, etc.... Just a few wonderful examples of fast food the way God, our

creator, intended with all the great fla-vors, tex-tures, col-ors, aromas and even sounds. I love the first bite of a juicy,

cold, sweet, crisp apple. CRUNCH!!!! Green or red. They’re both deli-cious. (no pun intended)

Dr. King informs us of the healthy aspects of colors and rich nutrients in food. Purple, red & blue fruits and vegetables are rich in phytochemi-cals called anthocyanins.

These rid the body & brain of free radical damage. Orange, yellow and green veggies are rich in stress lowering carotenoids.

Those of us who eat cruciferous vegetables have a much lower risk of prostrate, colon and lung cancer. Cruciferous veg-gies include kale, cabbage, spinach, turnips, broccoli, collards, cauliflower and my favorite thing to say in the kitchen, bok choy. It sounds so powerful!! BOK CHOY. These all contain compounds that signal our genes to increase enzymes that detoxify the body.

Ingredients • 2 heads Romanesco broccoli (about 1 1/4 lbs. total), broken into small florets

• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 teaspoons orange zest

• 1 tablespoon orange juice

• 2 teaspoons finely chopped capers

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 1/4 cup roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley

• 1 can (15.5 oz.) can-nellini beans, drained and rinsed

Preparation1. Put Romanesco florets in a steamer basket and set in a large pot filled with 1/2 in. water. Steam over medium-high heat until tender-crisp, 2 to 3 min-utes. Transfer to a colander and rinse with cold water.

2. Whisk vinegar, oil, orange zest and juice, capers, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add remain-ing ingredients and stir to coat.

3. Serve and enjoy!

Enjoy! =

Broccoli & Cannelini Bean Salad

Taste & Inspiration

Pilar & Phillip

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

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17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

7:46 pm sunset

7:39 pm sunset

7:30 pm sunset

9:30 am S.S.

9:30 am S.S.

9:30 am S.S.10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

9:30 am S.S.10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary12:30pm Fellowship Luncheon

Visit www.downeychurch.orgS.S. – Sabbath School

C.S. – Community Service

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10:50 am Worship Bill Aumack

10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

4

7 pm Band Practice

10

Downey Adventist Church

7 pm Band Practice

7:53 pm sunset

7 pm Band Practice

7 pm Band Practice

31

7:21 pm sunset 9:30 am S.S.10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

7 pm Band Practice

7 pm Church Board

Pathfinder Camporee - Oshkosh, Wisconsin

School Begins at AUS

Pathfinder Camporee

7 pm Wed. Night Fellowship

7 pm Wed. Night Fellowship

7 pm Wed. Night Fellowship

August 2014

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August Birthdays Zelina Archila – 1 Gabriela Miranda – 5 Flower Munguia – 6 Gabriel Miranda – 8 Frank Duran Jr. – 8 Byron Molina, Sr. – 15Orlando Archila – 15 Sarah Guerrero – 15 Samantha Ramirez - 27Celene Aispuro – 31

If your birthday is left out in the monthly newsletter, please contact the church office so we can put it in.

Upcoming EventsFridays - 7:00 p.m. Band Practice

Aug. 2 - Christian Education SabbathAug. 10-17 - Pathfinder Camporee, Oshkosh, WisconsinAug. 21 - Board Meeting 7pmAug. 23 - Fellowship Luncheon

The Latest Word deadline is the 5th of the month.

Coming Soon

Sept 6 - Parking Lot PartySept 21 - Health FairOct 11 - Small Groups start

Be sure to keep up with the latest news by signing up for the Wednesday email. You can sign up here www.downey-church.org/Signups.html or send us an email at DowneyChurch at gmail dot com and we’ll add you.

THE LATEST WORD

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The Latest About

Our Church Family Congratulations to

Brian and Vanessa Luna! They were married on July 19th. Be sure to congratulate the newleyweds.

Ask Linda Aumack and Alex about their recent trip to Colorado.

If you have any Church Family news, please con-tact the church office so

we can get it into the newsletter. =

Thanks!

Thank you to everyone who has been saving Box Tops for Education. That is greatly appreciated.

For the Box Tops for Education, please save the Box Tops coupon.

Please give your labels to Linda Aumack. Thank you for your sup-port! =

At the time of this writ-ing, VBS hasn’t hap-

pened yet. But we’re quite sure it was a great week.

There are so many peo-ple who help with VBS. From the kitchen to the classrooms, to the crafts, to the registration table, to the music, to the people who

help decorate, to the sto-ries and the games; there are just too many names to list them all. But everyone works so hard and puts so much into making sure all the children learn about Jesus. That’s awesome!

Thanks again! =

Two big events are com-ing up in September.

Number 1: The Parking Lot Party is Saturday, September 6th. This year the theme is going to be Western. So get ready to invite your friends to a fun evening of food, games and relax-ation.

Number 2: The Health Fair on Sunday, Sept 21. There will be various booths based on

the principles from the C.R.E.A.T.I.O.N. small group series. This will be followed up with a big community outreach in January. This is also something you will want to invite your friends to. =

Save the Dates

August 2014

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August 2014

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Downey-Florence Seventh-day Adventist Church9820 Lakewood Blvd., Downey CA 90240

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DATED MATERIAL

Ponder This...

= “Faith is to believe what we do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” —St. Augustine

= “Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.” —Randy Pausch

= “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” —Mark Twain