Congratulations to our New Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) Members. At our June PPC meeting we welcomed Joe Kowalski, Caroline Lubinski and Nicole Piwonski to the Council. Stepping down from our PPC after completing their terms are Dave Graef, Barb Francis, Susan Buffa and Betty Nawrocki. I thank them for their time, input and assistance over these past few years. It is a tremendous help for a pastor to have parishioners who can offer advice, history and insight on the direction of the parish. I am looking forward to working with our new Council in the Fall when our 50th anniversary celebration will be front and center. Summer Circle (Vacation Bible School) is now just one week away. I can feel the excitement growing in the walls of our buildings! As part of the Ohio valley, we don’t have much “mountain experience” in Michigan. The Porcupine Mountains the Western Upper Peninsula are the nearest mountains in these parts (unless you’re looking up from a pothole!). Mountains have always been places of inspiration and revelation. Please keep our adult and youth leaders together with our children in your prayers as they prepare to climb the mountain of the Lord.

Thanks to your faithful stewardship we have been able to perform two major projects that maintain the beauty and safety of our buildings. The social center floor is costing about $12,000.00 (twelve thousand dollars.) It will look very much like what we had before. We did entertain the thought of giving the social center a new look. In addition to the new tile, which was essential, this would have involved work on the walls and the dividing walls. While it would have been fun it would have been a needless expense (especially new dividing walls which are very costly, particularly as the ones we have work well.) Ultimately we decided it just wasn’t good stewardship to spend significantly more than what we needed.

The roofing work continues. A clarification that this project is only the shake shingles, not the flat part of the roof. Again, thanks to your generosity we were able to take this expense from our savings and not endure a capital campaign. The cost of the new roof is about $350,000.00 (three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.) This is a big expense. Because of this I am really hoping that everyone will pull together and help us to reach our CSA target, especially this year. It will take awhile to replenish the funds from our savings and, given the age of our building, I do sometimes worry about what the next major repair might entail and how we will pay for it. It would be a great help not to dip into our operating budget for the CSA, especially in this, our jubilee year. Remember that if we go over our target 100% of that overage comes back to us. Some parishes utilize the CSA as an annual fundraiser for capital expenses, using their overage toward the upkeep of their facilities. That practice has merit – – but for now let’s take care of business this year. Thanks again for your generous support.

The MCREST Needs Board will soon be in our Gathering Space if it isn’t already. We are hosting MCREST, the Macomb County Rotating Shelter, the week of July 3rd. Please help us provide for our guests by doing something many of you love to do: shopping! Seriously, because you do such a great job in providing the items we need for McRest and Christian Service ministries we don’t budget much money for such events. This is a case where a budget is misleading. Looking at our parish budget one would think we do little or no Christian Service at all, when, of course, precisely the opposite is the case. That is ALL BECAUSE YOU ARE SO GENEROUS AND COMMITTED TO THE POOR. May we continue in that spirit and keep building on that foundation.

Fr. Randy Phillips