Our traditional Children’s Christmas Pageant has been adapted. It will a shorter service about 30 minutes and will be held outdoors. Families will be separated by safe distancing. Plan on standing unless for physical reasons you’ll need a chair. We have additional logistics because of COVID restrictions, so please contact Sarah Sailor by December 21 if your child, grandchild or friend is able to be a part of the pageant. Paula Huffaker will be our keyboardist and song leader. If you have a child who would be willing to provide special music for the service, please contact the church office by December 14.  

With so few people actually coming to the church in person at this time, we will probably sell most of them online. You can download an order form HERE. 

At the annual Charge Conference on December 6, the 2021 budget was approved. For a copy of the 2021 budget click here. Here are our budget income streams for the upcoming year:

We are fortunate to have outstanding church officers, administrative ministry teams and program ministry teams in place for 2021. New officers and administrative team members were voted on at Charge Conference. Program teams add folk interested in their ministry area throughout the year. Click here for a listing of our 2021 officers, administrative teams and program teams. We will honor outgoing, continuing and new leaders during worship on Sunday, January 3. Throughout the year, please pray for and support these great servants who give of their energies and commitments on our behalf and on behalf of our Lord. 

Thank you to those who provided input over the past couple of weeks around how we have adapted, responded, grieved, celebrated and changed because of how our ministry has been impacted by COVID19. The responses were compiled and presented to D.S. Rev Jessica Rooks and the Charge Conference. For a copy of the responses click here.

Thank you to our Church Council members for their exceptional preparation and participation in this year’s Charge Conference. Thanks to the other folk who joined in Charge Conference, where we heard about the variety of ministry accomplishments of the past year and took time to see what directions we might go in 2021. For those who would like a copy of the complete Charge Conference booklet, which contains the reports and action items click here.

that those who seek will someday know.  

Please note that there will be no Happenings on 12/25 or 1/1, rather we will have a special edition on Wednesday, December 30th.

Here’s an idea of how you could complete your 2020 pledge. Give some of your IRA dollars to support God’s Kingdom before the end of 2020. A few years ago Congress made permanent the opportunity to make a charitable gift from an IRA to a qualifying non-profit.  UMCE is a qualifying non-profit. You can convert your required minimum distribution (RMD) to a charitable distribution by rolling over part of an IRA to UMCE.  In doing this you avoid paying any additional tax. If you’ve fulfilled your RMD for 2020, keep this in mind for next year to pay your 2021 pledge. The IRS web site provides guidance relating to the waiver of required minimum distributions (RMDs) from certain retirement plans and IRAs in 2020 due to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, P.L. 116-136.  Please consult your accountant for additional information.

Although the age limit has been raised to 72, you may still make this kind of gift if you are age 70 ½ or older. These tax-free gifts can be up to $100,000 and satisfy the required minimum distribution (RMD). All you need to do is to contact your IRA custodian and request an amount be transferred to UMCE or to the Mountain Sky United Methodist Foundation for the benefit of UMCE. This would be a great way to save on taxes and complete your pledge, increase your gift or create a new gift, at the same time!

With Christmas almost upon us a lot of us are doing more online shopping especially this year when it is not as safe to go out shopping. When you order from Amazon be sure to use Amazon Smile and select our church as your charity of choice. By using Amazon Smile a portion of most items purchased gets paid to our church. 

The Christmas season is a time when many of us do more cooking and baking. Plus many of us are eating at home more now with restaurant indoor dining being limited and colder weather making outdoor dining not as comfortable. When you buy groceries be sure to use your Safeway card or ensure that your King Soopers rewards card is linked to our church in their community rewards program. Safeway cards can be purchased at the church and they are reloadable at the store. King Soopers process is different. You need to go online to the community rewards section of the King Soopers website and select our church as the preferred organization that you want to receive benefits. It is a simple process; however, if you have trouble doing it or don’t have a computer, please contact the church office for assistance. Written instructions are available at the church. The church gets 5% of everything you buy at Safeway and King Soopers, including gasoline.

 

An order form is provided HERE. The completed form and payment may be left in the Alternative Christmas donations basket in Fellowship Hall on any Sunday in December, or if unable to be in church on those dates, sent in to the church office. Checks should be made out to the United Methodist Church of Evergreen with the note “Alternative Christmas” on the memo line. To ensure contributions are credited to the intended organization, please include your order form with your check.

SPONSORED THIS YEAR: Bethlehem Bible College; Blue Spruce Habitat for Humanity; Center for Health and Hope (formerly Center for Church and Global AIDS); Colorado Coalition for the Homeless; Evergreen Christian Outreach; Family Promise; JOY International; Kenya Youth Sponsorship; Mean Street Ministry; Mountain Resource Center; Pura Vida Ministries; and Urban Peak Youth Shelter.

There are so many beautiful hymns and carols for Advent and Christmas. Here is when they will be part of online and onsite worship in the coming weeks.

We have remained open with all services throughout this entire strange year and we plan to continue to do so, God willing. We continue to covet your prayers and your continued support in all areas. We are such a small staff that without our faithful volunteers, donors and prayer partners, we would not be able to operate!

We are still open four days per week serving a hot meal each day and our food bank is still open two days per week. We serve approximately 500 meals per month in our café, and have approximately 300 shoppers through our food bank per month.

 

Our Outreach to the motels on East and West Colfax is still going strong and lives are being touched. We still take burritos and other goodies out as well as bibles, resource guides, coats, toys, toiletries and much more to tearful, thankful eyes.

 

As our client numbers have increased, so has our need for volunteers in every area of the ministry. We have many current volunteer opportunities, and will be having a new one soon that will require much help. We are remodeling both a men’s and women’s shower that are in our building so that we may begin to offer showers to our clients since literally every other shower avenue has shut down for them. This will be a large undertaking but much needed for our clients. If you feel that God is calling you to come join us in this capacity, please give us a call! We would love to give you a tour of our facility if you’ve never been here before to see what you might want to do!

 

Learn more about how to get involved at their site HERE.

Visit us on the web:  www.evergreenumc.org