Grapevine September 2001

Philippians 1:2-6
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that the One who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

God has begun such a good work in our church construction. And I KNOW the people of the Mountain Vista United Methodist Church will carry it on to completion through the power of God. There is such a spirit of joy and enthusiasm over this construction process that you can feel it in the air. It's contagious!

I thank my God every time I think of how much love for God and the people of God is being shown by the people of Mountain Vista as you dig the holes, lay down the pipe, attach the valves, fill the holes back up, prepare the meals and snacks for workers, cover the infrastructure of the building with the "Holy Graffiti" of God's Word, and form an even deeper bond with one another in the process. We're not just building a building. We're building the Church--the People of God expanding and extending their reach with the hands and heart of Christ.

THANK YOU! My heart is overflowing with the wonder of seeing what God is doing through YOU!

I look forward to September 8, 15, and 22. On these Saturdays we'll need you more than ever to join in the process of covering the exterior of our church building with the beautiful, cultured stone. You don't have to be a stone mason. I've been told that with just a little training, EVEN I can get the hang of it. We'll be joined, as we have been every Saturday so far, by a group of willing workers from neighboring LDS churches as well as many friends from our sister United Methodist Churches in the valley.

(FYI: There will also be a number of television news stations and newspaper reporters joining us to cover the story. It REALLY IS news, you know: The FIRST United Methodist Church ever built in West Jordan, Utah....history in the making!!!!)

REMEMBER: On September 8, Daniel Cook & Associates (Our "Building God's Way" construction firm) will be providing the beef for a barbecue at noon. Please bring your own drinks and table service as well as side dishes and desserts to share.

It will be quite a celebration of God's miraculous works through the Mountain Vista United Methodist Church.

We would like to acknowledge the birthdays and anniversaries of our church family each month. Celebrating in September are:

Bret Beasley - September 3
Peggy Robison - September 4
Robin Wilder - September 6
Mariah Parkin - September 9
Laura Van Voorhis - September 21
Jacob Alvord - September 22
Sami Benson - September 26
Sophie Stephens - September 30

Dave and Melinda Grierson - September 7
Tom and Peggy Robison - September 4
Clark and Carol Edblad - September 30

There once was a group of folks that had a vision: to experience, to express, and to expand God’s love through Jesus Christ not only in their group but to others who wanted to know about the Good News all over the area. Through the years, this group of people scrimped and saved to build some savings so that they could have a place to fulfill their mission. Throughout this time, they experienced God’s love through Jesus Christ in many ways. The fellowship bond among this group was powerful, the things they were able to accomplish in the name of Christ were phenomenal in special missions both locally and globally. The lives that they were able to reach touched all ages. The one limitation that had was a place that they could minister to the people only two days a week for total of about eight hours a week. The rest of the time ministry had to be held wherever a group could find to meet.

Finally, through the generosity and the giving nature of this group, enough seed money was raised to begin the process of building a church. The excitement and anticipation grew to feverish levels while countless hours were spent on the planning and developing a site plan and building that would serve the needs of the group, without going bankrupt. Contracts were signed; workers were lined up to begin the work; the overseers were supervising and supporting the workers; volunteers were recruited to help minister to the workers, to assist in the frequent clean-ups of the site; to work in the landscaping and other areas of the building process. There was widespread prayer throughout the land for the safety of the workers and the success of the project. There was a tremendous outpouring of sweat equity throughout the community contributing to the project from all denominations. A significant number of people wanted this project to not only become a reality, but to succeed in its vision to expand the love of God throughout the valley.

We are nearing the end of our story, but the beginning of our vision. For the first step in this process is to create a place to expand our love. We need to touch more people. We need to minister to the needs of the people; to the young and old, to the lost and to the found, to the diversity of the culture, to the churched, to the dechurched, to the unchurched, to the rechurched. The blessings of God are abundant and they multiply throughout the land as those that are touched reach out and experience the love of God through Jesus Christ.

The anticipation grows. The excitement blossoms. The expectations are reaching a fever pitch. The zeal is thriving. We will probably be moving into our new building sometime in late September or in early October. We will be holding services in a building of our own. We now have freedom to establish a scouting program, and support groups, and weekday bible study and a food pantry, and other programs that would benefit our community. We can have a pot luck whenever we want. We can illustrate to others what the love of God is all about, through our fellowship, through our worship, through our prayers, through our programming, through our mission work, through our study.

It has been said that things worth having are not easy. This project has been exhausting. This project has been trying. This project has sometimes fostered some hard feelings. But it is the will of God. He has blessed us with many gifts and miracles. He has placed challenges before us and we have met them. We have inserted symbols and scriptures throughout our building so that we know that the foundation that we have laid for our vision is biblically based and showered throughout with the love of God and the belief of our people.

When the Building Committee presented the scope of the building project to the congregation last January, we saw the realities of our own building begin to take shape as the planning and developing of our dreams drafted a building that we could call our own. We planned to use the seed money in our building fund of $200,000 dollars, plus our own fund-raising activities, plus our building pledges for the year 2001 plus a mortgage of $175,000.

Our final building price has escalated beyond what was anticipated, mostly because of unforeseen problems that we could not have anticipated and needed items and labor not included in the building contract. We have looked at increasing our mortgage to $200,000 but we were only approved for $190,000, which brings us to a shortfall of about $10,000 to $15,000. The Board of Trustees and the leadership of the Church would like you to fervently pray for guidance on how to handle the shortfall. The congregation has done an outstanding job in rising to the occasion in their prayers, in volunteering in and around the site, in the mission work for the construction work, in their fund-raising efforts, and all the support that they have contributed to this project. We ask that you prayerfully consider ways that we can raise the last little bit of money needed to fulfill our vision of experiencing, expressing and expanding God’s love through Jesus Christ throughout the area.

If you have been waiting to contribute, please consider contributing now. If you can give a little more please pray about doing that. If you can think of someone or someway that can help us raise that money, please talk to Pastor Steve (282-5742) or Mike VanVoorhis (254-2623) or Dave Grierson (576-1429).

We are planning a mini-boutique to help raise funds for a new altar. We are open to suggestions but to start, we are planning on making are Christmas stockings and ornaments and some small gifts. There will be fun/fellowship work days one afternoon a week at the home of one of the ladies. For more information or if you would like to host a boutique work day, please contact Betty Ross at 562-3016. If you are unable to attend these sessions but have items you would like to donate to the boutique, all gifts would be greatly appreciated.

Much gratitude to all of you who stepped up to take on ministry coordinator positions in our church...

Children's Church:	Michelle Strohn
Ushers:	Robin Wilder
Greeters:	Phil & Pam Lynch
Tech Support:	Charles Haden
Refreshments:	Wendy Haden
Worship Assistants:	Duane Haidle
Sunday Set-Up:	Jim Wilder
Sunday Take-Down:	Carole Molyneux
Meal Ministry:	Rhonda Nelson
Acolytes:	Melody Wilder

Let's all take the opportunity to thank these volunteers when we see them. Also, thanks to the many who signed up to help in these positions on the recent sign-up that was passed around in church. If you have not signed up yet for a particular Sunday Ministry, please talk to Tracy Reinhard.

Sunday, September 9, Mountain Vista Youth Fellowship will meet at Stephanie Cafarelli's home (7624 S. 2230 W.) to make plans for the fall: discussion topics, service projects, fund raisers, and "fun" raisers (i.e. bowling, skating, movies, ski diving....maybe not ski diving.)

There is a "Back to School" pot luck scheduled at the church on September 16th. There will be little goodies for the students going back to school as well as for the parents. Sign up sheets will be in the back of the church. We are looking for salads, desserts, casseroles, chips and drinks. For more information call Rhonda Nelson, or Melinda Grierson.

October is pastor appreciation month, and last year we put a treasure box in the back of the church that allowed any of us to give things like theater tickets, dinner vouchers, car washes, or more personal coupons for services (like babysitting coupons), or gifts. We are looking for ideas for this year so we can show our appreciation to our spiritual leader, Pastor Steve Reinhard and his family. We can give one larger gift or a bunch of little gifts whichever the preference may be. If you have any ideas, please see or call Patti Chauza (566-9644) or Dave Grierson (576-1429).

Thanks to all who participated and helped make this year's Vacation Bible School a success. Special "Thanks" to Warren Parkin who hosted this event.