Sunday's communion offering raised $310 for Evergreen Christian Outreach (EChO). Thank you for your generosity!

Join us this Sunday, July 11 at 9:30 a.m. in Fellowship Hall for a Welcome Celebration for our new pastor Sarah Clark.  Be sure to introduce yourself to Pastor Sarah, and please wear your nametag.  We’ll have snacks, doughnuts, and coffee and lemonade.  If you’d like to contribute something, please contact SPR Chairperson Dixie Miller at  miller.dixie.d@gmail.com or cell 720-308-5678.  Let’s let Pastor Sarah know we’re blessed to have her at UMCE!

This summer's worship series is called "Inspired: Finding Ourselves in the Story." It is based on the book Inspired by Rachel Held Evans. The writer Joan Didian famously wrote "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." Scripture is the story of God and us, of God with us. It is a living, breathing, captivating, and confounding story that unfolds through the lives and experiences of many faithful people who were seeking to know God, to know themselves, and to understand the world around them. In other words, people much like us. This summer, we will tell and retell some familiar and not-so-familiar stories from our sacred scriptures as we reflect on our own stories of faith. We will find ourselves in the stories, and discover the invitation from God to join in the unfolding story of grace, love, and redemption that is at the heart of our faith.

The story of the people of God begins with a question - posed in Psalm 137 - "How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?", and with the story of a family that Rabbi Burton Visotzky calls "the longest running soap opera in history." The story of faith is a story that invites us to see God at work through less than perfect people, situations, and responses to God's call - - and yet, through it, we find grace, we find hope, we find purpose, we find meaning. The story, as told to us in scripture, invites us to wrestle with it, and to come away forever changed. This week's story comes from Genesis 32:22-32. You can find a link to the scripture here.

My friends, you’ll remember that we began “Daily Response to the Word” in order to give our members a self-paced option for study that would help us grow in discipleship and Christ-likeness while apart during the pandemic. Now that the church is increasingly opening and we are more and more able to gather together, it seems the need for Daily Response has lessened. This is evidenced by the light response we received from a recent questionnaire on how and if this daily feature is being used. In view of this, effective today (July 1st) I am ceasing its production.

Dearly Beloved,

As I write this, I’m beginning to dig my worldly possessions out of the boxes they traveled to Colorado in and thinking about where to put pictures on the walls. It is moving time for the United Methodist Church. Churches across the connection have been experiencing goodbyes and looking forward to new possibilities for ministry and relationship. This year, that includes us!

Transitions and changes always come with some excitement, some sadness, some nervousness, and a whole lot of questions. I know that I am experiencing all of those things right now, and I suspect some of you are too. Over the next weeks and months, I look forward to getting to know each other and discovering some of the ways we can be in ministry together, sharing the love of Jesus with our community in Evergreen and beyond. For now though, I thought I’d let you know a little bit about me.

I’m a shoe-loving, reality-tv-watching, book-loving, curious, enthusiastic, hopefully-on-most-days-following-Jesus-and-loving-her-neighbor kind of a person. I’m also an ordained elder in the Mountain Sky Conference. I graduated with a Master of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary in 2011. In my spare time I’m relearning to play the piano (something that I started during COVID), and enjoy playing board games and watching movies with my family, and practicing yoga. Now that we’re in Evergreen, I’m looking forward to exploring the trails and really want to try kayaking! If you come to my office, you’re likely to find me listening to the Beatles, Prince, or Beyonce.

I met my husband Jerry in 2015 when we both joined the Board of Directors for Not In Our Town Billings, an organization that seeks to bring the community together to stop hate and learn to promote justice. Jerry and I were married in 2019. Our son, (Jerry’s son, my stepson), Zion turns 15 this month and will be a sophomore in high school. Zion is spending the summer with his mom and will be joining us here in Evergreen in August. Our family also includes a very adorable dog named Wesley. Wesley and I first met each other at the Bitterroot Humane Society in Montana in 2011.

For the past seven years, I have served with the people of Grace United Methodist Church in Billings, Montana as their pastor. Prior to serving there, I was the pastor of the United Methodist-American Baptist Church in Hamilton, Montana. My passion for ministry lies in preaching and crafting worship, teaching, and social justice ministries. I believe that we are at our best as church when we are nurturing each other in faith through worship, prayer, and learning and then going into the world to live out that faith as witnesses to and carriers of God’s justice, mercy, and hope. I see my role as pastor as one of equipping disciples by nurturing, teaching, praying, empowering, accompanying, and leading.

I am very excited to be joining you in ministry at UMCE. I have heard excellent things about you all as a church from folks in the conference as well as others in the Evergreen community. Your reputation as a welcoming church committed to caring for the community proceeds you!

Jerry and I have been so blessed by your warm welcome, kind notes, and emails during this transition time. Thank you so much for the joy-filled, caring reception that you have given us. I can’t wait to know you more and to work with you. As we take steps out in faith together, may we sense God’s ever-present grace encouraging us, comforting us, and calling us to new relationships, new experiences, and new possibilities.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Sarah

The Adult Learning Team is meeting again and you are invited! If you are interested in learning more about this team and how you can help, please join us! Tuesday, July 13th @ 4pm via Zoom. Contact Jessica to get Zoom details.

The Barefoot Mile walk and fundraiser is happening again this year on Saturday, AUGUST 21ST and we are organizing an UMCE team! Join our team and receive a special team shirt!

Please register ASAP as I need a few weeks to have the shirts made! Register here today!

Our 2021 Mountain Community BFM Fundraiser is scheduled for August 21st. To register to walk either in person at Marshdale Park OR virtually (any time, any place) to raise financial support, please visit www.thebarefootmile.org. For more information on JOY International, visit www.joy.org.  

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” -Benjamin Franklin

Hello there Mean Street family! We have wonderful news to announce: our newly renovated showers are now up and running! Will, one of our volunteers, donated considerable time and skills over many months to repair showers that had been sitting dormant above our café for years.  With the help of Ilya, a plumber also volunteering his time, they replaced the old, leaking drainage lines and installed a new hot water system. Generous donors Megan and Kerry provided the funds for a new tankless water heater which provides hot water to the showers, café kitchen, and a new washer.  Another volunteer, Barb, graciously donated the new washer along with a new dryer for the many towels and washcloths that we will be using. Several other donors have given us funds to purchase needed toiletries and underwear. God’s blessings in this endeavor are overwhelming. We have been offering showers and haircuts for the past two weeks and the difference in our clients is marked; giving the homeless a measure of dignity that they rarely experience and that, until now, we could not provide.

All of this has been made possible by our donors, volunteers and prayer partners. Thank you all for your support in these troubled times. We are truly blessed to serve God with you. If you would like to become more involved in this ministry, consider volunteering and giving.

Visit us on the web:  www.evergreenumc.org