Subject: Mullica church marks 200 years with puppets, praise: By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL Staff Writer, The Press; "They're still coming here after 200 years," the Satan puppet lamented. "Ugh, I think I'm losing my touch." Then he lost his voice, having been slipped off a hand at the end of the puppet show. It was time for the children's choir to sing, the next event in the Pinelands United Methodist Church building's bicentennial celebration. The milestone that embarrassed the devil drew about 100 people to a Pleasant Mills sanctuary flanked by cast-iron stoves. The small white building, trimmed in forest green, is one of four in Mullica and Washington townships that comprise Pinelands United Methodist. The Rev. Paul Maliel, the denomination's district superintendent, delivered a guest sermon on a church building's physical and spiritual foundations. The physical foundation is getting a touch-up: A bush at the entrance still bears streaks of white paint, and the Batsto Citizen's Committee on Sunday morning donated $1,000 toward maintaining the heating and air conditioning. As for spiritual foundation, churches sometimes struggle to keep their congregations young, but children were everywhere Sunday morning. The small choir of a dozen crowed, "I'm in the Lord's army, yes sir." One girl drew a roomwide "aww" when she thanked God for a loved one's improving health. Babies fussed, and boys in the back giggled when pastor Raymond Schmeling swatted a conspicuous flying insect to the floor, where another parishioner squashed it with a hymnal. "You bring in all creatures of God," Maliel deadpanned. Any church in the woods is susceptible to the occasional bug, especially if that church is 200 years old. Its durability had Schmeling and Maliel sounding optimistic notes Sunday morning, and the stars of the puppet show predicted services would carry on for another 200 years. "Sure, things have changed, but God never changes," observed a wise, elderly puppet, plush Satan's foil.