Grand Valley United Methodist Church
August 2022 Newsletter
In this newsletter:
1. Welcome
2. Parting words
3. July 31st Worship
4. Shoes for Kids
5. VBS Thank Yous
6. Office Closed
7. Grand Valley Days Pancake Breakfast/Bake Sale
8. Creation Justice Grant
9. National Night Out
10. Mefor’s Newsletter
11. Birthdays
12. Calendar
13. Event Details
14. Pastor’s Report
15. Church Reports
16. Just for Fun
GVUMC would like to extend a big welcome to Pastor Michael Ingersoll, our new pastor, and his wife Roxann. Rev. Michael is a retired United Methodist Elder who has served several churches in the Mountain Sky Conference, most recently First UMC in Glenwood Springs. Pastor Ingersoll will officially take the reins as of August 1st as a part-time pastor. We look forward to having him as a part of our GVUMC family.
Here is a little about our new Pastor in his own words:
My name is Michael Ingersoll and I am looking forward to serving as the next pastor of the Grand Valley UMC. I have been married to Roxann for the past 50 years. We currently reside in New Castle. We have two children. Charity and her partner Corneel Booysen live in Nashville, Tennessee with our three grandchildren Addison, Anneliese, and Luke. Jarred and his wife, Jenny Wardell, live in Denver.
I am a retired minister of the United Methodist Church. For the past 30 years I have served churches in Caro and Akron, Michigan; Steamboat Springs and Oak Creek, Colorado; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Cheyenne Wells and Kit Carson, Colorado; and Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Ministry is my second career. My first career was a mechanic for fourteen years. I enjoyed the challenge of the work and getting my hands greasy. My call to ministry came in 1975 and I started going to college part time in 1976. After I graduated in 1984 from Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan we moved to Denver so I could attend Iliff School of Theology. While in seminary I was the Director of Youth and Education at Lakewood UMC.
Roxann and I are mission minded. Roxann has organized over 17 national and international mission trips. We have led mission teams to Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Honduras to help build homes and smoke free wood burning stoves. The trips in the USA were for disaster recovery.
Another one of our ongoing mission projects is located in Veracruz, Nicaragua. Regan Downs, our Nicaraguan team translator and friend, started an English Academy in his home. This is located in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Managua. His hope is to give the students a better chance at future jobs. After Regan started the school, he mentioned to Roxann that some of the students needed financial help in order to attend the English classes. She has partnered with Regan to help find sponsors to pay for the tuition. Since my retirement we have spent a few weeks each year helping out at the school. Roxann helps teach and I do needed repairs and help out in the classroom.
Other activities that we enjoy are riding our tandem bike with friends, traveling to visit our family and friends, reading, Roxann studies Spanish, and I like handy-man projects.
May God bless our future partnership!
Michael
Dear Congregation,
As I reflect on our last 2 years together, I smile when I think of the early worship services on the lawn, or the first worship services when we got to worship inside again. Or how about the vacation bible school in 2021, when the church was filled with children and volunteers. Or Christmas Candlelight this year and Easter. I remember the delivery of shoes and backpacks, of vegetables from the Abundant Garden, and times when I visited AA and AL anon and saw the work of God in people using these facilities. I have had many wonderful visits with the people of Mesa Vista. And I was so pleased to see our congregation open our doors and our hearts to the Pentecostal church so they would have a place to worship. I recall when we raised funds to send to the Mefor missionary family, or the discretionary funds that go to people in need who stop by the church. One of the most impactful changes I experienced is when I got to stay after worship for the entire fellowship time or potluck meals after church. I enjoy being with you, doing ministry together and addressing issues and joys of our life. I love the new piano and the music we have heard, the contributions of the choir and bells. And the gathering of all hands at the end of worship when we sing God be with you til we meet again.
Stacey and I give thanks to God and to you, the people of Grand Valley United Methodist Church for the joy and the lessons we have learned here. I am a better pastor today than I was when I arrived, and I have you and God to thank for that. As we move on, you will continue to be in our thoughts and prayers.
Pastor J.R.Atkins
Our July 31st Worship was our annual Service on the Mesa, held at Bert Botkin’s, and a potluck following the worship. As always, thank you Bert for having us all there!
It’s that time of the year when we ask for your support for the purchase of shoes for school-age children. We will be working with the Family Resource Center in identifying those in the community that have a true need for the shoes. This is a big Mission & Outreach project, and they can use all the help they can get with the shopping and distribution. Contact Laurel if you can help. Last year they bought and distributed 95 pairs. Our distribution date will be Thursday, August 18th.
You can also support this project financially. Please help us with a generous check made out to the church with the wording of “shoes” on the memo line. Our goal this year is for $2500, so we need your help!
Thank you, in advance!
Our Vacation Bible School, Jerusalem Marketplace, was a success because of the members of the congregation who supported our efforts. I would like to thank Laurel Koning, Bonnie Gana and Eryn Alexander for registering our participants each day. They each played an additional role as our musical instrument maker, bell ringer and all round go for and the village playground respectively. Dan Temple was Jesus for the week and the kids loved him. Pastor JR was our celebration leader and taught the kids new songs and dances with a middle eastern flare. Our other booth participants were; Dave Penrose as the carpenter, Jessica McElroy as the jewelry maker, Michelle Foster as the basket weaver, Cindi Smith as the pottery maker, Guilliermina Serano as the spices person and Grace Reuter as our matzo cover weaver. Dennis Caputo was our Rabbi for the synagogue school. He and his son Alex kept things moving. And a big thank you to Milli Dunham for being our drama director!
Pam Haskell provided a wonderful service as our first aider and filled in wherever needed. We had five tribe leaders, Carol Schelling, Lee Allen, and Ted Birdsill from GVUMC. We were fortunate Sharon Temple, Betsy White and Mary Jane Wahlman helped our tribes bake bread and it smelled wonderful! Penelope Olsen helped with the videos for staff training. Judy Beasley provided all the sheets for our booths, The booths were built by John Chapman, Fred Inman, Dan Temple and Al Reuter. John and Fred served as our Roman Guards. We were doubly fortunate to partner with the Pentecostal Church of God. Not only did they provide for tribe leaders and assistants, they supplied all the food and water!
Finally, I would like to thank Bert Botkin for the super luncheon for all our staff. It was so yummy and lots of fun. We were so happy to see Bonnie Gana. That’s true dedication to drive from Florida to help with Bible School.
Thank you everyone! Until next year!
Debbie Penrose
The office will be closed the week of August 21st as Karen will be taking a long-overdue vacation! The office will be back to normal hours on Wednesday, August 31st.
Grand Valley Days is coming August 19th-21st! Saturday, August 20th, Grand Valley UMC men will hold a pancake breakfast from 7:00-10:00 – cost is $6 – and the women will hold a bake sale from 9:00 until they sell out. Proceeds from the pancake breakfast are used for general operating expenses.
Baked items will be needed for the bake sale, which begins at 9 a.m. under the tent. Please bake up a storm and bring your items to the Church on Friday or Saturday by 9. The proceeds from the Bake Sale will be used for UWF’s mission support.
With both of these events, they will need help. If you can help out with the pancake breakfast, please contact Fred at (970)285-9096 (or the church office), and for the bake sale, contact Michelle at 216-7949 (or the church). Without your help, these events can’t happen.
From the Mountain Sky Conference:
GRAND VALLEY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
CREATION JUSTICE $1,000 GRANT
Grand Valley United Methodist Church (GVUMC) in Parachute, Colorado received a $1,000 grant from the Mountain Sky Conference Creation Justice Task Force. This grant helped us replace the windows in what we call the Faith House. This building was the parsonage a long time ago and is over one hundred years old. It is used not only by our church for activities like Vacation Bible School but also other organizations such as AA, Al-Anon, TOPs weight loss, and even yoga. Some of the windows that were replaced were the original windows and had the wavy glass so common one hundred years ago. They were replaced with double pane windows which will lower our heating and cooling bills. We have also installed new blinds for the windows which will also help with the heating and cooling costs.
Other ways that we are cutting our electrical costs are by replacing the traditional fluorescent tube bulbs with LED bulbs.
Would you like to learn more about the ways your church can save money, launch new “green” initiatives or expand upon existing ones? Please visit the Local Church Engagement webpage HERE or reach out to the MSC Creation Justice team at [email protected].
Grand Valley UMC will be having a table set up at the National Night out, Tuesday, August 2nd from 4-7 p.m. at the Battlement Mesa Shopping Center. If you would like to help out setting up or at the table, please let Dan Temple know.
fNewsletter B. 22
Mutambara Mission Hospital
Nhedziwa, Chimanimani, Manicaland,
Zimbabwe.
[email protected]; [email protected].
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We send you greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We hope and believe that you and your families are all doing well.
We want to thank you for your financial, and spiritual support to our ministry in Mutambara Mission Hospital. Through your support we have been able to do this. See picture below.
Preparation before repair.
Below picture after repair of this portion of the road.
One source of concern is our three doctors who are really hard working and committed and are in great need of financial support to motivate them. Like other civil servants in the country, income is really low. This is made worst by the biting inflation which is now hitting all economies of the world. They have requested some support from the hospital management. Their hard work has made Emmanuel’s work a lot easier. But this may be short lived as one of them told me about processing documents to move to greener pastures. It was certain to us that the other two may not be different. We held discussion with them and the indication is that if the hospital can assist them, that will be an encouragement and motivation to continue work. We are therefore appealing for special support for these doctors. We believe that even a minimum monthly support of $100 each (total $300 monthly) will be appreciated. We will not want to lose them at least for now.
Florence is doing fine with her responsibility for the pregnant women in the Waiting Mothers Home/shelter. As of now there are 57 pregnant women in the shelter. Some have come from far away as Harare area, 5 hour- drive from here. We are not sure what attracts them, but one probable factor of the free feeding. The specific free feeding fund has been coming principally from the German United Methodist Church board, the Reimers (Drs Marvin and Sylvia Reimer) from the Upper New York Conference, and in the past years, other friends from the Upper New Conference. We thank them all for this specific support. Sustainability is still an issue. We shall update you in the next newsletter. We thank everyone for your kind support through the Advance giving.
Pregnant women in the Waiting Mothers’ Home warming up in the sun.
The southern Africa region and probably most countries in the lower Southern Hemisphere are going through Winter season now. Here in Zimbabwe the winter this year is too, too, Chilly and wet, falling short of snow. As far back as we could remember, it has never been this cold since we arrived here in 2006. This time, we really needed to warm up our rooms and purchasing of more heaters for the staff in various departments. We didn’t have enough to warm up patients in the wards except for the Paediatric ward. Other patients would use double blankets to keep warm.
Warming up our home at the end of the day’s Job.
Our children and grandchildren are all doing well in the USA. Anulika is on summer holidays and has travelled to visit her siblings in Atlanta and Grand Rapids, MI. Chukwuebuka and his family are doing well. Osita is doing well too. We thank God for the gift of Health.
Prayer Requests:
1. We pray for financial support for our doctors.
2. We pray for God’s intervention in the troubled spots of the World; especially the kidnapping, killing, stealing and destruction in Nigeria and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Thank you so much for your unfailing support.
Yours in Christ,
Florence Mefor, Advance # 13991Z, Emmanuel Mefor, Advance # 13390Z
Mutambara Mission Hospital Advance # 3022286.
August birthdays:
2 – Liz Larson
4 – Sharon Temple
7 – Mary Miracle
11 – Jim Landrum
22 – Al Reuter
25 – Dan Temple
28 – Ron Olson
Our Seekers Class (Adult Sunday School) meets every Sunday morning at 8:30. We invite all to attend.
Join us for Bible Study every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. or at 6:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. We hope you can join us.
Choir and Bells are on summer hiatus. They will start up again in September, after Labor Day. Choir and Bells practice on Wednesday afternoons. We are always looking for participants, so if you would like to join either of these wonderful musical groups, please contact the office at (970)285-9892 or by email: [email protected]
Prayer Partners meet the 2nd and 4th Thursdays at 10:00. If you have anyone that you would like to add to the Prayer Partner list, please contact either Bert Botkin at (970)216-8682, the church office at (970)285-9892 or send an email to: [email protected]
Rev. J.R. Atkins
Grand Valley United Methodist Church
July 2022 Pastor’s Report
1. Pastoral Transition – This past Sunday it was announced that I have been appointed to serve 2 churches in the Cheyenne, Wyoming area: Grace UMC in Cheyenne and Pine Bluffs UMC about 40 miles East of Cheyenne. There is a parsonage in Pine Bluffs where we will reside. Both churches are similar in size to GVUMC. This appointment provides me with full-time status which is needed for my continued process of becoming an Elder in the UMC. My last Sunday to preach will be this Sunday, July 17 although I will continue to be responsible for the church through the end of the month. I will continue to work on the worship plans and prepare for a new pastor and other activities of the church. We will be moving the last week of July and start the new appointment on August 1st.
2. A Table for All – As I mentioned last month, we have a group ready to pursue “ A Table for All ” when the applications become available in the coming months. The conference is raising funds of $1,000,000 to support 20 or so churches, over a 3 to a 5-year term with up to $50,000 for each church. In addition to funding, coaching and other means of support will be provided to the selected churches. 2 people have volunteered to work as Co-Leaders, Michelle Foster, and Sonia Brinkerhoff (from the Friday night Common Table Group). If you are interested in this program, please let them know so you can be included in future meetings. You can find more information on the conference website at https://www.mtnskyumc.org/a-table-for-all-ac22
Peace be with you,
Pastor J.R. Atkins.
Church Council Report
COUNCIL MUSINGS
During the July 12th Council meeting, we learned that the sanctuary doors were supposed to be delivered to our supplier that day. Since we have been waiting eleven months for them, we will believe it when we see the doors installed.
The painting of the Faith House, along with new blinds for the new windows, and a repaired toilet are all done. New Exit signs were also installed at the Faith House. A panic bar for the sanctuary door is being installed. We are reminded to ensure that the kitchen door is locked once the Church service has begun for our own protection.
Mission and Outreach has been very busy. Shoe distribution is coming up August 18th and they are asking for donations to cover the average cost of $30 per pair for the committed 75 pairs. They are also going to have a game and ice cream social for the kids on August 22nd, the day before school starts.
The garden is going gung-ho and they are working on a $1,000 grant from the Methodist Helping Methodist Foundation to fund the cost of the garden for the rest of the year.
Food for the Resource Center is desperately needed. Especially needed are: spaghetti and spaghetti sauce, powdered milk, corn, cereal, and instant mashed potatoes. So, remember these things when you are bringing in Food on the Fourth.
We learned that Sunday school for children will be starting in September at 9:00. It will be held in the Faith House and they hope to pull from the VBS and the Games and Ice Cream Social attendees.
United Women in Faith has disbanded because four people cannot keep it going. But they still will hold (held) the yard sale on July 23rd and the bake sale on Grand Valley Days August 20th. They will need help for both. They hope to fulfill their mission pledges to the District and their missionaries, the Pedersons with these two fundraisers.
The Church will be having a table at the National Night Out on August 2nd. National Night Out is sponsored by the Garfield Sheriff’s department. There is a free meal of hamburger and hot dogs and displays of the department’s equipment along with booths from various Sheriff departments and other businesses. The Sheriff’s department will provide us with a tent, table, and three chairs. Give-a-way items for the kids have been ordered and we will have brochures about the Church and Sunday school to hand out. Help will be needed to set up at 3:30 and to man the tent from 4-7. Please talk to Dan Temple if you are willing to help out.
Mission & Outreach
The Abundant Garden is going very well! The plants all look healthy and we have already harvested zucchini and summer squash. Tomatoes are soon to follow! Thank you to all the “green thumbs” that keep it going.
Treasurer
FINANCIALLY SPEAKING
There continues to be a drain on the Church’s cash reserves and May and June were no different. For the two months, $6,500 of the reserves were used to pay the expenditures. Because of the volatility of the stock market, the Council has approved taking $30,000 additional out of the long-term investments and putting $15,000 in the money market and $15,000 in a one-year certificate of participation (CP) at the Methodist Helping Methodist Foundation. The CP will pay 1.11% at least, perhaps more. It isn’t much but it is better than losing value.
The Church currently has two other CP’s at the Foundation. One has a balance of $12,226, is paying 3% and matures on 7/18/24. The other has a balance of $15,722, is paying 2.55% and matures of 8/27/25. The long-term investments, as of June 30th, had a market value of 140,555. In addition, there was a total of $11,164 in the Church’s two money market accounts, one at the Foundation and one at Alpine Bank.
The Church’s designated funds, which are those funds that have a specific purpose such as the shoe fund, and liabilities totaled $58,100 as of the end of June. The largest of these is the Capital Improvement fund, which had a balance of $49,935. The most recent expenditure from this account was the windows for the Faith House. A grant was received from the Conference of $1,000 to help pay for the windows.
If you have any questions regarding the Church’s financial position, please do not hesitate to contact me at 231-383-0488, [email protected], or stop me after church. I would be pleased to answer any questions you have.
Penelope Olson
UWF
The UWF has delivered their first 6 Memory Books that they have been working on. Although the group has disbanded due to lack of people, they still get together the 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 10:00 to work on these books. Please feel free to join them!
*English is the only language where you drive in parkways and park in driveways. It’s also the only language where you recite in a play and play in a recital.
*Your fingers have fingertips but your toes don’t have toetips. Yes, you can tiptoe but not tipfinger.
*The word queue is just a Q followed by four silent letters.
*Jail and prison are synonyms. But jailer and prisoner are antonyms.
*When you transport something by car, it’s called a shipment. But when you transport something by ship, it’s called cargo.
Church Contact Information
PO Box 125
Parachute CO 81635
(970)285-9892
[email protected]
www.GrandValleyUMC.com
OFFICE HOURS:
Wednesday – Friday
9:00 – noon