As of the end of Saturday, all wet drywall and flooring have been removed from the building. The trash pile is slowly receding as trips are made to the landfill, and these trips will resume on Tuesday. We have secured warehouse space and transported salvageable items there for storage.
We want to thank everyone who has shown up in such a big way since Thursday. The last several days have been a lot of work, but they’ve been worth it. Our remediation consultant was “blown away by how much was done.” He feels that we likely saved a ton of money working as fast and as completely as we did. It’s a huge victory. Thank you!
What’s Next
We’ll be meeting with the remediation consultant this week to determine next steps for the building. As for the church, we will continue our regular ministries and programs to the best of our abilities. This includes things like Growing God’s Way, VAMOS, fellowship opportunities, etc. You’ll be hearing about those in Pastor Tim’s regular emails.
Council is planning for:
Worship – For the remainder of September, we’ll worship via Zoom/YouTube at 9AM. We are pursuing alternate locations for in-person worship.
Volunteer Opportunities – We need your help! See the next section of this message.
Flood Recovery Updates – After the service on Sunday, September 12, we’ll spend 15 minutes on a status update and Q&A.
This Week’s Volunteer Opportunities
Tuesday, September 7
9-11 AM
Boxing up books in the library
Moving storage items on the second floor of the fellowship hall
We need a small team of people to help with this
There’s no sign-up; just come when you can
Saturday, September 11
Four shifts: 8-10 AM, 10 AM-Noon, 1-3 PM, 3-5 PM
Moving trash to dumpsters
There’s no sign-up; just come when you can
Wear closed-toe shoes and sunscreen; bring gloves if you have them
Friends and acquaintances are welcome!
Photo Album
We’ve started a Google Photos album to document this chapter in Messiah’s history. Click the button below to view others’ photos and share your own.
Offerings: We appreciate your financial gifts to Messiah! During this time, flood relief is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, but we’ll continue to have ordinary expenses so your regular offerings are important, too. There are multiple ways to give:
Mail your regular offering envelope to the church. We’re checking the mail every day and are maintaining our regular process of counting.
Use your bank’s bill pay feature. This method allows you to set up recurring payments, and the church benefits from your full donation with no reduction for fees.
Submit a payment on Messiah’s website. Go to our Online Giving page, select one or more funds to receive your gift, and complete the transaction with a credit card or your bank account information. We’ve set up a Flood Relief account and you can include your regular offering and flood relief in the same transaction. Link: https://messiahevents.com/onlinegiving
Use Vanco’s mobile app. Vanco is in the process of introducing a new app. If you’ve used the Give+ app to set up recurring payments in the past, no changes are needed at this time. If you haven’t used this method before, we recommend waiting until the new app is rolled out later this month.
GoFundMe. We’ve set up a campaign specifically for flood relief. While we welcome your gifts here, there are significant fees associated. We’d love to have you share with your network, but one of the other methods above is better for Messiah members. Link: www.messiahevents.com/gofundme
Inventory: Did you take home church items for cleaning and safekeeping? If you have something, please enter it in our Google form so we know where to find it when we’re ready to bring it back to church. Link: www.messiahevents.com/inventory
