May 2021 Newsletter

Time is just flying and Vacation Bible School will be here before we know it!! VBS will be running June 14-18 in the Faith House. Several of you have volunteered to help us and we appreciate that so very, very much!

We will be holding an introductory meeting on Monday, May 24, at 7:00 p.m. at the church for all volunteers, as well as anyone else who would like to attend. In this meeting, we will discuss the Rocky Railway program and go over the specific duties for each station. We will also be giving each station leader his or her booklet to be followed during VBS. We hope all of you will be able to attend this initial meeting. If anyone is unable to, please contact Bonnie at 720-917-4355 or Deb at 303-304-7286, and they will arrange to meet with you individually.

There will also be a meeting the morning of June 1, time to be determined, to go into more specifics of assignments and answer questions. Then another meeting will be held on June 3 in the evening, for anyone who would like more training or information. We want all of you to fully understand and know your assignments so you’ll be comfortable and enjoy this great experience working with the kids!

Again, thanks to all who are willing to devote time and energy to making Vacation Bible School a success and hopefully the beginning of many more!!

RightNow Media is an amazing, impactful resource your families are going to love! And we are looking forward to sharing it with you! Below you’ll find some helpful information to make getting started easy:

1.    Use this invite link. This tool will direct you straight to the registration page for your church’s account.

•  https://www.rightnowmedia.org/Account/Invite/gvumc

2.    This is the QR code. All folks need to do is hover their phone’s camera over the code and it will prompt them to open a mobile browser. Once that prompt is selected, your church’s registration page will open up and they can sign up quickly.

3.    There is also a custom text code for our church.
Text the code  GVUMC  to the number  49775  

and you will receive a text back, welcoming you to RightNow Media and providing you with the invite link to register.

Also, we encourage you to download the RightNow Media app on your mobile device’s app store so you can have access to this resource in the palm of your hands!

Greetings Friends of the Mountain Sky Conference!

As the Mountain Sky Conference officially became a new organization in 2018, the uniting documents became the GUIDING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES. Within this document, Section C is dedicated to explaining the structure of the conference. The conference has 5 Focus Areas:
• Leadership Development
• Congregational Vitality
• Community Engagement
• Responsible Stewardship
• Communication

The focus areas are governed by the Mountain Sky Roundtable. This is the executive governing body between annual conference sessions, called the Mountain Sky Roundtable, whose general purpose shall be to address the needs and goals of fostering spiritual movement, establishing outcomes, and evaluating progress of the ministries and missions of the conference.

Each year, the Nominations Team follows the process in the Guiding Policies and Procedures (GPP) to nominate new laity and clergy leaders for these teams. You may be hearing from a member of the team in the next few months about a leadership opening that you might be able to fill!

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

You can help the Nominations Team by suggesting a good leader for one of our teams! There are two ways to self-nominate or nominate someone you know:

2021 Online Nomination Form

2021 Nomination Form (.doc)

Please consider the gifts of those around you and lift up names for conference leadership!
The nominations report will be presented for a vote of the body at the 2021 Annual Conference Session, Oct 21-24, 2021. You may see the 2020 nominations report here

Peace to you,

Rev. Annie Arnoldy
Director of Connectional Ministry
Superintendent of Leadership Development

“Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up.” (Galatians 6:9, Common English Bible)

The Mountain Sky Conference of The United Methodist Church
6110 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111
303-733-3736 | www.mtnskyumc.org

INDOOR/OUTDOOR YARD SALE JUNE 5th 

The meeting was brought to order by president Ron Olson.  Present were Pastor J. R. Atkins, Ron Olson, Bonnie Gana, Deb Penrose, Laurel Koning, Mary Jane Wahlman, Michelle Foster, Bert Botkin, Al Reuter, Grace Reuter, and Penelope Olson.  Pastor Atkins led us in prayer.

Grace moved, and Al seconded to accept the minutes as printed in the newsletter.  Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report – March looked much better than February.  We have received funds from the government to help fund Bonnie’s and Karen’s January and February’s salaries through the Employee Retention Program.  Michelle moved, and Mary Jane seconded, to approve the $1,604 invoice from Portell Computers.  Motion carried.

Finance Committee – The committee met.  We are waiting for the audit to be done.  Money is transferred as needed.

Trustees – The screen door on the parsonage is torn.  It is going to be fixed.

Missions and Outreach – The Family Resource Center is putting together food boxes through the school year end.  They will be closed in June but back up in July.  Missions is still doing hygiene bags.  The Resource Center has asked for size 6 diapers for the boxes.

The garden has been turned over.  The golf course is delivering the sludge dredged from the ponds.  Foster parenting will be done 4/19 at 10 a.m. at Laurels.  Planting will be done 5/10 or 5/19.

The Upper Room is still being distributed.

Worship – The committee is meeting as needed and trying to stay ahead of the ever-changing regulations.  They need people to sign up for ushers, greeters, and readers.

UMW – They are still meeting.  The yard sale is on 6/5.  Grand Valley Days is happening and, if allowed, UMW will have a bake sale.

SPRC – No report.

Christian Education – For Vacation Bible School, flyers are already out.  They have the station leaders but need crew leaders.  There will be training for the volunteers on 5/24 at 7 p.m.  Registration is 4/24.  Banners will be going up this week.  Volunteers will be needed 6/12 & 6/13 to set-up.

Pastor’s Report – Worship Tech and Grants: The installation of the new TV, computers, monitors, and software for worship is complete. Sara Francis has been trained on how to download the worship content that is produced by Chris Portell at Palisade and display it for Sunday in-person worship. We have spent the funds that were estimated in the initial budget of $2500.00. Thus, we might want to wait till we about the next grant possibility from the conference endowment before spending additional funds on a camera and broadcasting video in the fellowship hall. As for the Endowment Fund Grant, the 2021 Application has not been posted yet and is expected in April or May. The total estimate for the project is $4325 with a breakdown of $1000 coming from the Congregational Development Grant that we have been told we will receive. $2000 from a “Dare to Dream” grant from the conference endowment funds and $1325 from our church funds.

Vacation Bible School in the Holy Land-2022: While J.R. was living and serving in Bethlehem in 2017, he worked on a project with Christmas Lutheran Church, one of the approved partners of the Methodist Liaison Office in Jerusalem, to invite an American Church to help deliver Vacation Bible School in Bethlehem. J.R. mentioned this to Bonnie and Deb as we met about our VBS in June. We all prayed and considered the possibilities of acting on this opportunity and J.R. has had a Zoom call with Reverend Munther Issacs, the pastor in Bethlehem. The next step for both churches is to seek the blessing and support of our church leaders.

The dates being considered for VBS in the Holy Land are July 18-29, 2022.  In their culture, they call VBS “camp” and they usually last for 2 weeks, Monday through Friday from 9:00-4:00.

At this point the funding would be covered by individuals going as staff and support personnel, donations, possible conference support, and possible support from organizations who support the Holy Land such as the United Methodist Kairos Response and the Methodist Liaison Office in Jerusalem.

Although Grand Valley UMC would be the foundation church sponsoring the partnership, there may be other Methodists in the Valley who might like to join us.  We are anticipating up to 50 youth participating in the VBS/Camp so we may take 15-20 people to facilitate and support the partnership.

Those traveling to the Holy Land would likely have an opportunity to see Holy sites and engage with the culture before camp begins, on some camp excursions, and after the camp, before we return home.

The Council discussed if our Church should support doing a VBS in the Holy Land.  Penelope moved, and Michelle seconded, that GVUMC should become the lead church on a VBS in the Holy Land in 2022.  Motion carried.

Technology: J.R. explained that the Dare to Dream grant application process was not yet out, but the Church had been encouraged to apply for it to pay for the equipment needed to complete our technology.  We still need cameras, connectivity to the fellowship hall, and the ability to send it out over the Internet.  J. R. will get an update on the cost.

Sara Francis needs someone else to learn how to do the technical part of the service for when she is not available.

New Business

We need to have Sunday School ready before VBS so we may build on the momentum.

We will introduce RightNow Media this next Sunday in Church.  J. R. will ensure we have cards to give out to people.  This is a relationship building for Christ.

Penelope asked if someone would be taking over doing the video and songs like Chris Portell does now.  J. R. said that was possible.  He will talk to Sara Francis about doing that.

Meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m.

We are really ramping up now that spring is here.    We continue to work on hygiene bags (which contain shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and multiple-packaged toothbrushes, soap and hand sanitizer).  These bags can be purchased for $6 at the Dollar Tree in Rifle.    If you would like to contribute money that will be dedicated toward hygiene bags, please make sure that your check or envelope is marked for Family Resource Center.

We are also getting ready to get the garden planted.   We had our “Foster Parenting Session” at Laurel Koning’s earlier this month.   We have zucchini, squash, cucumber and melon seeds planted.   We will be getting some well-needed nutrient soil added to our garden in just days.   We plan to plant on Tuesday (May 11^th), right after Mother’s Day (if the snow has left the mountain).  We had 13 foster parents and can use any and all help when we get the garden going.   Stay tuned.   I will keep information coming thru the newsletter!

Deb Penrose and Bonnie Gana are working hard on Vacation Bible School.   They need volunteers to help.   Vacation Bible School will be held June 14 thru June 18.   Please contact the church office to leave your name and phone number.   Deb or Bonnie will get back in touch with you.If you or anyone you know needs assistance, please reach out to us.   We would be pleased to get in touch with them and assist in whatever way we can.

God Bless you all for your continued support of the Mission and Outreach Committee.

What a wonderful turn-around March’s financials were from February’s.  March total giving was up 145% over February.  In addition, expenditures were almost $2,000 under budget.

Part of the reason for expenditures being under budget is that we were able to participate in the Employee Retention Credit, offered by the IRS, because the Church was closed in January and February and we continued to pay Bonnie and Karen.  The IRS ended up giving us a credit of almost $1,000 towards payroll taxes and Bonnie’s and Karen’s wages.  We will probably not be able to participate again, unless we have to close the Church again.  This helped the Church end the month with excess revenues of $5,800 for the month.

For the first three months, giving is at $28,700, which is 50% above our budget.  Total excess revenues through the same period are $6,900.  In addition, the investments grew another $1,560 this month.  Total long-term investments were valued at $183,200 as of March 31^st.  The two certificates of participation (similar to CD’s) totaled $27,000 and money market accounts totaled $18,100.  So, the Church has plenty of cash, though some is not very liquid.

Thank you for your continuing support.