Lawrenceville Presbyterian 'Fall Fest' Set for Saturday

will hold its annual Fall Fest on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the church at 2688 Main St. (also known as Route 206 or Lawrence Road) in Lawrence Township.

The event will feature art sales, music, a flea market, food from Frank’s BBQ, “Kid’s Corner” and a bake sale.

Proceeds will benefit local charities including Eggerts Crossing: Every Child Valued, Isles, Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK), Crisis Ministry, and also international charities in Haiti and Nepal. 

The church issued the following news release about the event.

As a preacher’s kid growing up in Elkhart, Ind., and drooling over Rockwell Delta Tool catalogues, Jeff Vamos never intended to  take up the cloth, but through a circuitous route he is today the minister of The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville. His first true love was woodworking so much so that when as a teenager he scraped enough money to buy a table saw and a lathe, he was in business going door to door selling salad bowls laminated and turned to perfection.

After four years at Duke University he considered law specializing in human rights, but he eventually had the calling that he might better serve humanity dealing with the transcendent, “the ultimate reality” he explained. What we call thinking outside the box. 

That defining moment came when as an administrative assistant he attended a board meeting of the Presbyterian Church National office in Mexico and heard of a Dutch priest who went to Chile in the mid-60’s to evangelize the poor but instead found that the poor evangelized him.  He recounted how twenty one of them protected him from the forces of military dictator Augusto Pinochet after the coup which overthrew President Salvador Allende. It was a time marked by severe human rights violations and tens of thousands were arrested.

Vamos, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary spent a number of years as a parish minister in Manhattan before marrying and settling down in California where he managed for the first time to have an actual wood shop in his garage even building an attached studio for wood turning so he could do more intricate work.  In those days he fed his passion with honorariums from weddings and funerals.  Nowadays, he’s quick to add, such money goes into the pastor’s discretionary fund to be used for church needs.

In the manse are several examples of his fine work, all of cherry; a dining room table, coffee table, china closet and more tables in his office along with candles and urns.  His most recent accomplishment is the completion of a mandolin which he may someday learn to play.  He tries to balance woodworking with writing. He’s at work on a novel which may, with his many talents turn out to be that great American one, but he says, “it’s hard, it’s hard.”  He pauses, “woodworking is easier, you can see the whole thing from the beginning.

Last winter a majestic Beech tree which had been thriving in the church cemetery since George Washington marched up Route 206 split after an ice storm and had to be taken all the way down when they found it had been damaged from within. 

“It was a terrible loss,” Vamos said.

He and other church members wanted to make something positive out of it. They engaged Willard Brothers, on Basin Road who milled, stacked and air dried it.  It is now sitting in their shop ready for use.

At the Fall Fest coming up Saturday, Oct. 29, blocks of the wood will be sold as commemorative pieces as well as items already made from the wood ie: candlesticks, cutting boards. Plans are also afoot to be able to commission a piece of furniture if one desires.  

Renowned sculptor and woodworker, George Nakashima created his masterpieces often from cross sections of tree trunks with live edge pieces.  He believed that it is necessary to remove the desire to promote one’s individual ego from the creative process and to devote work each day to the divine. His grandson works for Willard. 

What will Jeff Vamos do?  He’s already set to make a communion table from the ancient Beech tree for the Wink (Worship in a New Key) service on Sunday nights.  He is a man of enormous energy.  And despite his long work day, up at 5:30 a.m., in the office at 6, no one doubts that he’ll do it.