Pastor David invited Rod Edmonds, our Treasurer, to share an update on our church finances. Over the past several months, we’ve heard from John Murphy on the new roof, Dave Perry on the Asylum project, and Edy-Kay Ward on our scholarship program. We've attempted to give regular "high level" updates on our church finances, but it’s time to hear the update from the horse’s mouth.

In his previous updates, Rod gave us some comfort as to our financial condition as we navigated the "stay at home" COVID world, and we learned of ways to support the church and our ministries, even when we were not physically in church for worship.

Needless to say, your response has been nothing short of exceptional!

by Emily Farrenkopf

While life looks quite different for everyone these days, our youth continue to be resilient, flexible, and all around wonderful! Youth group has been mostly virtual since mid-March, with two in-person exceptions. Typically, we all log into Zoom on Sunday evenings and chat and check in. Brant and I have learned how to be creative with virtual games and we have also had to learn how to engage people in an entirely different way than before.

While this has been a wonderful experience overall, we have had a number of youth not log in at all or respond to outreach. Brant and I are trying to come up with creative solutions to keep folks engaged and plugged into our program. As most of the congregation likely knows, we had one in-person gathering to celebrate our seniors which was truly amazing! At the end of June, we also did a youth fishing trip to Golden Ponds. We had a number of youth come to this outing and we absolutely loved chatting in person and feeling connected in ways that we can't achieve on Zoom.

Brant and I have decided to try to do an in-person, socially-distanced activity once every three weeks throughout the fall as long as restrictions and limitations allow. This upcoming Sunday, we will have a scavenger hunt set up outside of the church for all of our youth to participate in. We are requiring masks for the entire time we are together and we will not be providing any food and drinks in hopes to keep everyone as safe as possible.

Brant and I will continue to try to think of creative, safe, outdoor activities throughout the global pandemic to keep our youth engaged and to help them feel like they belong here, no matter what the world brings. While times are strange, I am clinging to the belief that God remains steadfast. I often end prayers with thanking God for being the same God yesterday as He is today, and He will be tomorrow - no matter what our days bring. I am holding tighter to that than ever before.

My prayer for my youth is that they will continue to take life one moment at a time and that they might truly believe that "this too shall pass." I look forward to the day where we can eat together and run around the church playing all of our crazy games again, but for now, we are embracing our new normal.

Pastor David Burt and Edy-Kay Ward sat down for a virtual chat with two Heart of Longmont Scholarship recipients, Leslie Grafelman and Brynn Beaton. In this interview they talk about what they're up to, what's next in their studies, and how the scholarship has helped them.

The Heart of Longmont Scholarship has had more applications this year than last year, but we have about the same amount of money, which means with more awards we are faced with potentially reducing the scholarship values. While we have several endowment accounts that fund the scholarships, in order to provide scholarships at the same level as last year, we need about $2,000 more in support.

If you want to help support our students and the scholarship fund, you can send a gift to the church office. Be sure to note that your gift is for the scholarship fund. The students appreciate your support!

by Butch Howard

For more information, including access to the full rate schedule, go to https://www.mountainskyumf.org/faith-based-investments-giving/.

Send them to communications@heartoflongmont.org by August 3!

Do you have a prayer request? We have a new prayer request mailing list! Please send your prayer requests to prayers@heartoflongmont.org.

Many of you have asked how to connect with our two adult Sunday school classes hosted on Zoom. Here's how! The Zoom invites for each are below.

Topic: Adventurer's Sunday School

Time: Sundays at 08:30 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.

Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZwkcu-hpz8pHNLh6lp9IQIdYB-hWrV44Q3v/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGgpz4sE92Rsx-BRpw-HY_4M_PxmClego1xlEnpE3l6UyryD8APOoVtJoyE

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 889 5699 4366

One tap mobile

+16699006833,,88956994366# US (San Jose)

+12532158782,,88956994366# US (Tacoma)

Dial by your location

    +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

    +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

    +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

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    +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)

    +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

Meeting ID: 889 5699 4366

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbmIBSBjaO

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcwNcMLWd

Your United Methodist Women would like the congregation to know that if someone needs something and can’t--or shouldn’t--go out please contact Lynn Greenhalge at 303-651-3911 or halge@aol.com. We will get it taken care of! If you just need someone to chat with please let us know that as well! We’ll give you a “phone buddy”!

We need to stick together in these trying times and we want you to know we’re here for you, our church.

We'd love to share your stories! Send your submission to communications@heartoflongmont.org with "Pulse" in the subject line.

Carol Barnett will be in the office to help with any special needs you may have. If you come to the office you will need to wear a mask and use the hand sanitizer inside the office doors. We may need to limit the number of people in the office at any one time. 

You can always call Carol at the church office, 303-776-3523 during those days and times. Or you can email her anytime at office@heartoflongmont.org.