United Church of the Valley
A Partnership Church
United Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ
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A Progressive Christian Community
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"He will cover you with His feathers and under
His wings you will find refuge"
Psalm 91:4
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We just wrapped up the first half of 2020, and it feels like we have experienced two years worth of change in six months! The pandemic has really turned church life upside down. But for all we are missing, we have gained so much as well. It has been wonderful to hear from our former pastors! And we have enjoyed visiting with former members from across the country.
Lynne Bradley is KILLING IT as our video producer and editor! She has become an expert on so many new technology platforms. Lynne loves to learn, and she has been scouring the web for tips and ideas on how to improve our online presence. Jamie Barnett and the Dunlop family are providing us with some amazing music! I especially loved Lorian's one-woman choir! We hope you have been enjoying our online services and fellowship opportunities. We would love to hear your feedback.
Unfortunately, it looks like we will be doing church online for the foreseeable future. With new local COVOD-19 cases doubling every week, it will be some time before we reach four straight weeks of decline in the number of new cases. Keep wearing your masks, washing your hands, and doing your part to avoid the spread of this terrible virus. Stay safe and healthy, and hopefully we will be able to meet in person again soon. In the meantime, keep sending us your pictures! We love to see your homes and families.
Since our building is closed, our rental revenues are almost non-existent. Some of our partners have graciously donated rent even though they are unable to use our space. It is nice to see how invested they are in The Community House. It is their home, too. Giving is also down. We appreciate everyone who has sent in their tithes and offerings via mail, Venmo, and PayPal. You are keeping us afloat!
The federal government is also helping to keep us going. Thanks to the Paycheck Protection Program, we were able to secure money to cover 24 weeks of payroll. This has allowed us to keep all of our employees on at full pay. We were also able to give a well-earned bonus to Lynne, Deb, and Ruth D. for going above and beyond to continue their responsibilities remotely and enhance our online services and communication. Please join me in thanking them for all their extra time and effort!
United Church of the Valley has always known that a church is not a building; it is a group of people working together to make God's kin-dom of heaven a reality on earth. Your hearts for service continue to reach out to this community in big and small ways. Your love for one another continues to be shared across phone lines and internet cables. And our faith remains strong despite the challenges that seem to arise on an almost daily basis. Through faith, hope, and love, UCV will emerge from the second half of 2020 stronger than ever!
May God bless you all!
Sandy Selby
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SUMMER CAMP AT UNITED CHURCH OF THE VALLEY!!
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We are excited to be starting our At Home Summer Camp on Monday, June 29th, with close to 60 students enrolled. Most campers are from our local valleys (Murrieta, Temecula, Menifee, Hemet, Winchester), with others from as far away as Moreno Valley, Carlsbad, Encinitas, San Marcos, Corona, Riverside and Fullerton! The first 50 enrollees were mailed a tree cookie necklace and welcome letter, lovingly hand addressed by Donna Richards and mailed by Sandy Selby. It has been a joy to hear from all of the families who are grateful for the opportunity camp is providing. And our community has really stepped up to make it happen. Due to the overwhelming response to his Cartooning Class, Bigfoot Graphics' owner Tony "Bigfoot" himself will be teaching an additional class to the one we already had scheduled. Temecula Yoga Collective is allowing use of their room and camera set-up for the Kids' Yoga class. Our own local music teacher Sean Barnett and the Barnett Family Band made camp song videos for the kids to sing along with. There's so much more...too much to list here. Thank you to all of our volunteers who are giving of their time to support teachers and kids in our community with running our online camp. We live in a beautiful place: the Kin-dom of Heaven is near.
Registration is now closed
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Donations Request
: If you would like to participate in supporting our work, donations are still being accepted on behalf of the camp. Proceeds will benefit our teacher partners, camp scholarships for Pilgrim Pines, and COVID relief efforts. To make a donation, please see the information below. Please note Summer Camp when donating.
Summer fun has just begun!
Camp Director Keira "Kiki" Eddy
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To send a check, please use:
United Church of the Valley
41685 Date Street Suite 100
Murrieta, CA 92562
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Or donate online:
(3.5% fee)
Venmo: @ucvchurch (free)
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Calling all Creatives!
Lying low? Feeling crafty? Why not help our Prayers and Squares team with our fall fundraiser! Beginning in October, we’ll be hosting a UCV fundraising boutique, featuring an array of one-of-a-kind, handmade items suitable for holiday gift giving. Proceeds will support our new comfort-quilt outreach ministry, with any extra funds going towards sanctuary chairs.
All are welcome to participate! If you’ve a special talent, please consider donating your creations to our sale. If you’d like to talk over possibilities, contact any member of our Prayers and Squares team:
Watch for updates on our UCV Facebook page!
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There are no special themes for July. PLEASE send in any pictures, new or old, so we can continue to see everyone’s smiling faces.
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So Close to our Goal of 50 Chairs
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As we prepare to move in to our new permanent home on Date St. in Murrieta, we are in need of assistance. We need chairs so that everyone can share in a comfortable Sunday service. A donation of $50 provides a chair for our sanctuary. You can honor a friend or family member or maybe it would be in memory of a friend or family member. Our goal is 50 chairs and as of May 25th we are at 35, just about half way there. To help us reach our goal please click on the button below to donate. Thank you for your consideration.
UPDATE
: As of June 28th we have 41 chairs donated, we are getting so very close to our goal of 50, please consider making a donation of $50 for a chair, you can honor a friend or family member.
God's Peace.
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Origami Peace Crane Count
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Crane Count
The flock is still growing, but hopefully we can reach our goal of 1000 Cranes, not only for good luck for as a prayer for peace—in the world, in our community and as a blessing for peace, justice and abundance for our new sanctuary. There’s still time to help. Talk to Sandy or Lynne for paper and instructions.
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Bringing our tithes and offerings to God is an important spiritual practice that cultivates gratitude and generosity. While we cannot physically pass the offering plate, we can continue to bring our gifts to God through online or mail-in donations.
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To send a check, please use:
United Church of the Valley
41685 Date Street Suite 100
Murrieta, CA 92562
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Or donate online:
(3.5% fee)
Venmo: @ucvchurch (free)
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It seems hard to believe (or does it?) that we’ve been doing virtual worship for three and a half months. For a variety of reasons, we’ve chosen to create a video playlist on YouTube that then gets directed to both our website and Facebook. It’s been a pretty steep learning curve, but I’m impressed with all that we’ve been learning. For your information, it really takes a “village” to get these videos out each week—from team planning meeting to creating and recording each of the segments, from choosing music to recording it (which often includes having Pei-Ying or some of our other musicians making a recording and then layering other musician’s videos), from gathering slides for a slideshow to putting it all together. Literally, it’s 10-20 hours of work each week. We aren’t complaining—we are all committed to making sure that there is meaningful worship available every week. There are a couple of perhaps unexpected advantages to this format—we’ve learned that we have regular worships that are joining us from Texas, Illinois, and perhaps other places that we don’t know about. You can go to church in your jammies and you can choose the most convenient time to watch. The disadvantages, of course, are that some in our congregation don’t have the technological ability to connect, there aren’t ways to interact, and, of course, we all miss those hugs! While, sadly it appears it will still be a while before we can open our brand-new double doors, through the magic of the internet, our doors have always remained open.
One of the things our planning team has especially missed is knowing if anyone is out there watching—and, equally important, feedback to know if our worship is meeting the needs of our congregation. We really have no idea who/how many are tuning in each week. We really would like to hear everyone’s feedback. Are you watching our video worship every week, once in a while, never? What can we do to make our video worship more meaningful? On July 12, we’re going to try a zoom service. If you need help setting up, check with Sandy. And, be sure to join our weekly 11am “coffee” hour on zoom. Please share your comments to Lynne (
lbradley93168@gmail.com
).
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We have added a time of
Joys & Concerns
to our online Sunday service. Please email any joys & concerns you would like read aloud to Sandy Selby at
moderator@ucvchurch.org
. You can also send confidential prayer requests. Just indicate as such and let Sandy know if you want it shared with any of the other spiritual counselors.
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Behind the Virtual Pulpit in July
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We will continue providing our Sunday services online. The worship team has special services planned for July 19th, check out the video. These services will be available online on
Facebook
and
YouTube
by
Sunday morning
, and on our
Website.
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July 5th - Rev. Dr. Sharon Graff
July 12th - Sandy Selby (live zoom service)
Click on video below for more information
July 19th - Rev. Stephanie Toon
July 26th - Lee Eddy
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You can find our Sermons, past and present, on our YouTube channel (click the video) as well as our website (click the button).
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Health, Travel and Thank You News
- Sue Berry is now at Casa de las Companas--18655 W. Bernardo Dr. room 140B, San Diego, CA 92127. She would enjoy receiving your prayers and cards. She received her Prayers and Squares quilt this week. Her son Bill will keep us posted on her health.
- Carol See is on her way to Washington. She will be living with her daughter Connie and family. Bandit went with her. Donna had lunch and a nice visit with them before they left town. She received a Prayers and Squares blanket. Carol has dementia and needs more care then she was receiving down here. Connie will take her to choir, church service, and other activities at the church that Connie attends.
- Irene's dad has started treatments for pancreatic cancer. Keep her family in your prayers.
- The brain scan that Elsie had a few weeks ago was clear. Keep her in your prayers. She has had breast cancer and cancer in her neck.
- Continue with your prayers for Holly's friend Ben, and family members Karen (mom), and Jason (brother). He remains in the hospital.
- Keep Debbie Hudson in your prayers. She is now home and doing better. She would appreciate text messages and/or cards.
Other Happenings Around Our Church
- Join our coffee hour on Sunday. Catch up with what is going on in our church family. Look for the zoom on our website. Sandy and Lynne have helped me get on zoom and I enjoy the fellowship.
- Sherry and Mike are back East visiting their new granddaughter, daughter, and son-in-law. Watch for pictures.
- A thank you to Sherian and Ruth for the thoughtful cards they sent to our members.
Conference news
Donna Richards and Sandy Selby represented the United Church of the Valley at this years virtual conference. They sat in Sandy's beautiful backyard and participated in the meeting. It was quite a different meeting. No friends to hug. No great worship or discussion/workshops. The budget was passed. Rev. Petra who is the head of the Outdoor Camp Ministries team gave an excellent report on the status of Pilgrim Pines and the camp program we are doing this year. We need a lot of monetary support to keep the camp going. There was a resolution on Black Lives Matter. There were several changes so it will be voted on later. Another resolution was on our churches being accessible to all (A2A). There was the recognition of years of service for the ministers and those who had passed away during the past year. There was the nomination and installation of the new officers. I hope that we will soon be able to do meetings in person. It would make the meeting much more interesting.
Please call Donna at 951-217-0735 if you could help send out cards to our members and friends and/or make phone calls to our members so that we are in touch with each other. Not everyone is participating in the coffee hour or following UCV on Facebook. Donna and Sandy have phone numbers and addresses for most of our members.
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Pilgrim Pines is doing camp in a box and a virtual Camp at Home. They made over 200 boxes of which 126 people are doing just Camp in a Box. There are 75 people doing the virtual Camp at Home with the Camp in a Box. Thank you for all the hard work that the Outdoor Ministries Team is doing to make this possible. Donna is part of this team. Please support Pilgrim Pines with your donation to keep the camp functioning at this time. Donna is still selling raffle tickets at $10.00 a ticket for a camp tee-shirt quilt. all proceeds go to the campership fund. You can also rent a cabin at the Pines or rent the cottage which is a self-contained cabin. Proceeds from the rental of the cottage goes to the campership fund. Donna will be doing the camp in the box with the Martinez family. To find out what is going on at camp go to Pilgrimpinescamp.org.
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Even fellowship can be online, thanks to the innovative minds at Zoom! Join us Sunday’s at 9am for Book Study and 11am for Fellowship Coffee Hour. UCV has its own Zoom meeting room at
https://zoom.us/j/9516981520
You can join from your Zoom app using meeting number 9516981520
Or you can join by phone:
One tap mobile
+16699006833,9516981520# US (San Jose)
or dial
+1-669-900-6833
and then enter
9516981520#
You can start your own online fellowship, too! Just email Sandy Selby at
moderator@ucvchurch.org
to get on the meeting schedule.
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Our Friends in Nicaragua Need Our Help
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Unfortunately, the news in Nicaragua is of great concern. The corona virus has now taken hold in the country. The small, simply equipped clinic in Chacraseca is doing their best to serve the community but their resources are definitely limited. Just Hope is doing its best to supply masks and other PPE, and the leaders are doing their very best to get word out about safeguards that need to be taken. Just Hope, the non-profit foundation that has done so much over the years to work with this community to help support and develop local leaders, is going through some very difficult times as well. Their income is generated largely from donations and the mission trips of US groups. However, due to the virus, and before that political unrest, they are in need of cash to be able to continue to pay the hard-working Nica staff. For any of you that are able, an extra donation to Just Hope at this time would be so appreciated. You can donate through JustHope (click link below) or through UCV and note "Nicaragua" (see information below)
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Although we are still under a “Shelter at Home” state ordered mandate, our contractors /sub-contractors are allowed to work as long as they hold strickly to the Social/Physical Distancing parameters and wear masks at all times. Our contractor, Arnie & Chris Venti, are being inventive as they manage our project with the safety of themselves & their sub-contractors being a major concern. Arnie & Chris are only making occasional visits to our site, when the workers are gone, and then using Skype to coordinate the work. They have made stipulations as to how the work is to be done…only one sub-contractor at a time with the absolute minimum number of actual workers. So scheduling is becoming a little more challenging. Deb Hudson and Ruth Sharp are being updated daily, via text/email, on the progress. Ruth & Deb drop by once or twice a week to check out the progress (not at the same time and always wearing masks & gloves).
1) Framing, drywall & wall texturing of all the walls.
2) 95% of Audio/Visual wiring has been installed.
3) All the remaining work for the HVAC system has been completed.
4) The emergency sprinkler system installation has been completed. Fire department finally signed off and all the wiring in being completed now.
5) All of the electrical has been completed and the light fixtures installed. The drop ceiling has been completed.
6) The flooring has all been installed
7) Interior painting has been completed.
8) Exterior building sign has been installed.
9) Double door, entrance, has been installed and the exterior landscaping has been scheduled to enlarge the entrance way.
10) Expanded concrete entrance should be completed by mid July.
11) The sanctuary chairs have been purchased from Center for Spiritual Living, along with some other items. They will be delivered the first week of July. A major Thank You to our AA groups for volunteering to move them over.
Our contractor Arnie Venti, and his son Chris, has done an amazing job of scheduling sub-contractors, their workers being in compliance with 'safe practices' and all the inspections and special requirements that the city keeps sending our way.
We are so very close everyone, and hopefully by the time of the August newsletter we'll have a completed sactuary. We are blessed beyond imagination and look forward to sharing those blessing with our community...hopefully in-person before too much longer.
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Sunday Service - Virtual
until further notice
Monthly Game Night -
SUSPENDED until further notice.
Every 3rd Saturday of the month from 6:30 - 8:30 at The Community House
Monthly Potluck - SUSPENDED
until further notice
Book Club -
W
e are meeting online every Sunday at 9 am Zoom Meeting Room
AA Meeting -
Virtual Only Monday - Friday 7am
Voices of the Valley Youth Choir -
SUSPENDED until further notice
UCV Council Meeting - 1st Monday of the month 6pm Zoom Meeting Room
AA Meeting -
Virtual Only Every Monday 7pm
Women's Al-Anon Meeting -
Virtual Only Every Wednesday 5:30pm
Men's AA Meeting -
Virtual Only Every Wednesday 7pm
TVP Board Meeting - 2nd and 4th Thursday 6pm at The Community House
AA Big Book Study -
Virtual Only Every Friday 7pm
AA Step Meeting -
Virtual Only Every Saturday 8am
Trans Family Support - 1st Saturday of the month 4pm
Citizens Climate Lobby Meeting -
Virtual Only 2nd Saturday of the month 9:30am
C.O.D.A.Meeting -
Virtual Only Every Sunday 5:30pm
AA Meeting -
Virtual Only Every Sunday 7:30pm at The Community House
The Community House is located at
41685 Date Street, Murrieta 92562
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United Church of the Valley is a Partnership Church
United Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ
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951-698-1520 admin@ucvchurch.org
www.ucvchurch.org
41685 Date St. Murrieta
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