Girdwood Chapel -- ChapelNews

You can see what I've been doing, trying to report for the Alaska Conference HERE.

GIRDWOOD CHAPEL UPDATE

APRIL 2008

INTRODUCTION

Easter saw standing-room only at Girdwood Chapel UMC.  We had 50 butterflies hanging above the altar as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection from the dead and as a sign of the 50 days of the Easter Season.  The kids (and many adults) went home with an Easter egg filled with jelly beans and a poem about the true meaning of the day.  We also had some special vocal music and a guest cellist who has been worshipping with us for the last several months while she’s wintering in Alaska.  This was all after our annual Sunrise Service at the top of Mt. Alyeska.  It was a wonderful day…a great day to be a Christian.

Spring is settling in on Girdwood.  Persons are trying to get their last month of skiing in and catch the sunny days on the mountain.  Bicycles are moving out of garages.  And the days are getting longer for us.  With Spring comes our annual assessment of our building process and looking forward for the work to be accomplished next.

BUILDING UPDATE

Our building remains unfinished after three summers of workteams.  It’s all closed in and most of the electrical and mechanical work has been accomplished.  But, it is unfinished.  The workteams have all done excellent work and we owe a great deal of thanks to the wonderful churches who sent up their men, women, and children to hammer, dig, cut, climb, pour, and drill on our new chapel.  We are grateful to them and our excellent site managers:  Phill Manderson (2005), Brett Dahlgren (2006), and Asa Rogerson (2007).  Each of them was exactly the person God intended for us to have at the time they were here.

One problem we had with these summers was the fact that some large-ticket items were left undone because all of our funds were going towards the work that the workteams could accomplish.  This meant, for instance, that we didn’t get sewer and water hook-ups or even our full electric hook-up.  Workteams cannot do that labor and we delayed taking care of it.  We’re at a point now where we have to take care of these items.  Therefore, we only have one workteam coming up this summer.  They’re coming from outside of Washington DC to put up our siding.  Moreover, they are trying to raise the funds to pay for the siding themselves.  This will enable us to tackle those previously mentioned “big ticket items.”

The goal at this point in time is to get into a “usable building.”  By “usable” we mean unfinished but legal to occupy.  


The following are items to be purchased and the estimated cost (total is $344,076):

Sewer/Water Service -- $115,000
Electric Extension & Hookup -- $60,000
Siding & Soffit -- $22,540
Exterior Doors & Hardware -- $7,600
Interior Doors & Hardware -- $26,000
Relights (Windows) -- $8,500
Floor Coverings & Base -- $17,150
Gypsum Board -- $3,101
Paint -- $3,085
Bathrooms (partitions, plumbing, etc) -- $16,000
Fire Sprinklers (dry & wet) -- $39,000
Lighting fixtures -- $14,300
Electrical Trim -- $4,800
Kitchen (plumbing/cabinets) -- $7,000

The following is our estimated revenue ($344,076) and the dollar breakdowns:

Cash on hand -- $83,154
Pledges 2008-9 -- $150,000
Anticipated local church and community giving -- $12,000
Advance Special Support -- $98,922

It is worth pointing out that the sewer/water hook-up is much higher than anyone anticipated.  Our engineers, our architect, our building committee have been caught off-guard by this figure.  We had budgeted only $25,000 originally.  Our engineers were assuming approximately $60,000 after some price-hikes around the area.  We are in the process of trying to work that $115,000 figure down to something we find more palatable.  Yet it is also worth pointing out that this is the first item, in all that we’ve constructed, that we thought was way off of our estimates.  This doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.  But there is some comfort in knowing that our other figures were pretty accurate.

We are hoping that Advance Special support from our supporting churches will step in the gap of  our funding for the remainder of this project.  Then, as soon as we’re able to utilize the new chapel, we’ll be able to begin expanding our ministry, outreach to the community, and have the space to worship, and educate, and serve as we see God leading us.  As we have been graced by others to get to this point, we know that we’ll be relying on that grace as we continue to grow and build.

MINISTRY UPDATE

I am please to report that ministry continues even as we worship in our small, 31 foot by 31 foot building with our port-a-potty out front.  2007 saw the end of our contemporary worship service, for which we had great hopes.  First, our music leader at our contemporary service moved out of Alaska.  He was young, energetic, and one of the best guitar players in our community.  We, frankly, could not find anyone to come and lead music at the level we needed to continue that worship experience.  Secondly, as we changed that service in a quest to reach unchurched persons, we found we couldn’t quite get the components correct.  We hope to revive the service at some future date when the timing is right.

While, over the last year, that particular worship ministry didn’t take root as we had hoped, other ministries are continuing and, indeed, blossoming.  I want to highlight the following:

Youth Group -- We still meet on Sunday evenings and have anywhere from two to twenty-two in attendance.  We have been on retreat to Hope, Alaska and will be sending a few youth to Alabama for a mission immersion experience in June of this year.

Sunday School -- It’s still going on.  Our adults meet at the home of a member.  Our younger children meet in the present Chapel.  Our Middle Elementary children meet in the office of our new facility -- although we sometimes go to a coffee shop if we can’t warm up the space enough for the kids to be comfortable.

Children’s Ministry -- We’re planning on starting a mid-week 5th - 6th grade ministry in the coming year.  Previously, we’ve considered our youth group to be 5th grade and older.  Yet, as our youth get older and it looks like we’ll have more Sr. High youth attending, we believe it might be best to start our younger kids out in a different group.  Right now we’re looking at the possibility of a Friday afternoon gathering.

Food Ministries -- We have a food pantry located at a member’s home.  We are a distribution center for organic foods in the community.  We are also planning a community garden this year.

Confirmation Class -- For the first time in four years we have youth involved in confirmation class.  They are meeting with mentors throughout the process.  Each pair is working at their own pace and we hope to have everyone finished by the fall of 2008.

Women’s Bible Study -- This began as a study for women in our local congregation but has expanded to include those who attend worship in other places in Anchorage on the weekends.  It has really met a spiritual need for those in attendance and they take it very seriously every Wednesday night.

Men’s Group -- The men have been harder to mobilize, but the goal is to form a regularly meeting group.  We’re not sure if it will be study-oriented or will stress fellowship or service.  The key is to build and nurture relationships in the faith of Christ.  It will be interesting to see how that evolves.  I know, in talking with other pastors, that Men’s groups, for whatever reason, seem more difficult to launch.


DOEPKEN FAMILY UPDATE

Jim is now at the tail-end of his eighth year serving in Girdwood.  That’s a long time in United Methodist years.  He’s still chaplain of the Fire Department.  He’s vice-president of PTA and on the Lion’s Club.  On a Conference level, he is Director of Communication and will also be on the Jurisdictional Nominating Committee in Portland in July.  He’ll be attending General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas in April, serving as an alternate delegate.  This winter he sprained his Medial Collateral Ligament in his right knee while skiing and missed more than a month of time on Alyeska mountain.  It seems a full recovery has been made and he’s been able to get in some of that spring skiing that was mentioned earlier.

Julie is still the librarian at the local school.  She’s a regular at the Wednesday evening Bible Study.  She’s on the task force for a new library and is on the board of directors for the local daycare.  This winter she helped work on a technology grant for her school and will be the beneficiary of new “toys” for her library to use as she and other teachers utilize that space for education.

Samuel is 12 now and is as tall as his father with a voice not quite as deep.  People are now confused when they call on the phone.  He has a lead role in the school play.  He enjoys skiing, cross-country, track, and soccer.

Moriah and Sussannah are now 10 years-old.  Moriah is still our tom-boy with Susannah being much more of the “girly-girl.”  They both enjoy soccer and skiing and cross-country running and cross-country skiing.  They are both in the school play and in the choir.  Moriah is playing baseball and Susannah recently took a class on baton-twirling.  

Abigail and Bethany, now 14 months-old, have been the subject of much prayer over their short lives.  Bethany’s club feet are doing very well.  She wears a brace 12 hours each day, which means every night at bedtime the brace gets put on.  She recently was examined by a doctor from Seattle Children’s Hospital and he was impressed by her recovery.  However, she will need to continue wearing the brace during the night until she’s 4 years-old.  Bethany will have surgery this summer to remove a cyst above her left eye.  Abigail has had some issues with acid reflux which is being treated with Zantac.  Just last week we found out that she has something called “Duane’s Syndrome” which is a problem with her eyes and their lateral movement.  It affects her left eye and may involve surgery at a later time.  This is new to us and we’re still trying to figure out what we’ll be able to do as parents to assist her.

We also got a dog over the summer.  His name is Hurley, named after a Duke Basketball Point Guard.  He’s a Welsh Terrier and (as terrier owners will understand) 100% terrier.  

CLOSING

Well, thanks for reading.  If you’ve gotten this far, you have learned more than you might have intended to learn about what’s been happening in the life of Gidwood Chapel and the Doepken family.

Thank you for your time and all the support you’ve been able to give.  Really, we would not be here and giving this report at all if it weren’t for generous friends from the Lower-48.  Ministry continues here because of the gifts that we have received.  And we hope that we are able to be a gift to this community because of it.  Thanks again.

Peace,

Jim Doepken

All churches in the Alaska Conference are being asked to write a brief (less than 400 words) account of ministry over the past year to be included in the conference journal.  This is something that could not happen in a larger conference and hasn't been done here for several years.  This coming year, however, it's making a comeback.  I think it will be a wonderful historical snapshot in years to come.  Below is what Girdwood Chapel has submitted.

2008 Ministry Report from Girdwood Chapel UMC

In 2007 Girdwood Chapel had its third summer of construction for its new facility.  At this point, the building is enclosed and much of the interior electrical work is completed.  In 2008 we plan on getting sewer and water to the building and will be working on our full electric hook-up.  The installation of siding will improve the exterior.  This has been a long project for a little church and has been made possible by generous gifts from members, friends, and supporting churches.  While we had hoped to be in the building by fall of 2008, financial realities will be likely be pushing that back.  Therefore, we continue meeting in our 31’ x 31’ building with a port-a-potty out front.

Ministry is continuing in our small space.  Worship attendance remains mostly steady.  Sunday School takes place in three different locations after our second worship service.  And, youth group still meets on Sunday afternoons, with as few as two to as many as twenty-two youth attending from the congregation and the community.  In summer 2008 we plan on sending a group of youth to a mission event in Alabama.  Also, there is a women’s Wednesday Night Bible Study, nurtured by laypersons in the congregation.  We find that this study is reaching out beyond the walls of the church and including others in our sphere of ministry.  We’re hoping a men’s group might meet a similar spiritual need.

New this year, Girdwood Chapel is a pick-up location for organic food delivery in the community.  In addition, our plans of having a community garden appear to be shaping up nicely for this summer.  These two programs, along with our food pantry, are examples of how our church cares for the whole of the community around us.

Over the last five years, our congregation has, for good and bad, been shaped by our building process.  Much of our time, our talents, and resources have been directed to this process.  We long for the day that we can move into our new sanctuary and have the space to grow along with the surrounding Girdwood Community.  However, we have peace that God will complete it in His own time and our ministry and outreach will expand into our new ministry setting.
 

We recognize that Girdwood Chapel is a "Mission Project" for many churches.  And we recognize that we could not be where we are without the help of so many wonderful Christian brothers and sisters in the United Methodist Connection.  For that, we are very grateful.

But we also need folks to know that, even though we are a mission project, we are engaged in missions as well.

Here are some of the things we've been up to:

• A food pantry (items stored in the home of one of our members)
• Lodging for persons with nowhere else to stay
• Support of "Nothing But Nets" anti-Malaria campaign
• Youth Mission Trips (we're headed to Alabama this summer)
• Local support for persons in need of clothing or other home items.
• We have provided fuel or rent assistance
• Operation Christmas Child 
• Plus we actively educate our youth on mission needs around the world, particularly through World Vision's "30 Hour Famine" program 

Thank you for all that you have done to serve us.  We promise to continue in our efforts of serving others.

Peace,

Pastor Jim 

I was recently asked by a couple of Girdwood Chapel’s faithful supporters for an update on Girdwood Chapel and the Doepken Family (thanks Debra of Covenant UMC in Fort Wayne and Jack of Cottonwood UMC in Arizona).

First, let me tell you about Girdwood Chapel and its construction project.  As most of you know, we’ve had three summers of work teams at Girdwood and have constructed a beautiful building.  The walls, the roof, and most of the electrical work are done.   The next big, labor-intensive task we have is putting up sheetrock.  While we have been hoping to do that over the winter, we have yet to get any heat in the building.  Therefore, very little has been done.  The reason we don’t have any heat is quite simple.   The heating and ventilation company we have been using has been very patient with us; working around our sometimes sporadic cash flow and trying not to be in the way of work teams.  At this point, they are busy and we are waiting on them.  We hope to have heat sometime in February or March and then can make it a little more attractive for workers to come and put up the sheetrock.

However, in spite of the lack of heat, we’ve been using our new church office as both as a part-time office and a Sunday School room for the upper elementary class.  There are some Sundays (January 13, for example) where our little, portable heaters just couldn’t get that space warm enough for Sunday School.  We’re hoping a warming trend will come through any minute.  But since it’s 7 degrees out now, I’m not sure that’s happening.

I know this is not as much activity that our former workteam members would like to see.   It’s not as much as we’d like to see.  However, we feel we’re doing what we can while waiting for our contractors.

In the summer of 2008 we are planning on just one workteam, from Annandale UMC near Washington DC.  This church is coming up with a huge team that will tackle all of our siding and soffit work and will bring a big team.  This is the only construction team we’re working with for a couple reasons.  First, after three summers of housing workteams, our church members are looking forward to having full use of their homes this summer.  We do celebrate and appreciate all the work that has been done, but we know that eight more teams was going to make for another long summer.  The second, and bigger, reason is financial.  Workteams, generally, do a lot of work in the time that they are here and we have needed to have supplies on-hand to keep them going.  That has meant a prior financial commitment from the people of Girdwood Chapel before the workteams arrive.  Therefore, if we had committed to eight teams in 2008, that would have meant that, by early winter of 2007 we would have been committing to have a certain amount of cash on hand for the supplies those teams needed.  However, we thought it was more important for us to first direct cash to our big-ticket items of heating, electric, and water -- things which work teams cannot do for us.

The reason it’s working out with the team from the Washington DC area is that they are not only funding their travel to Alaska but are also funding the supplies they will work with.  This is an extra $23,500 expense on their part.  This frees up $23,500 from our budget for non-workteam projects that are at the top of our list.

We have had a great time with our workteams and have done great work.  This summer, because of the reasons stated above, had to be different.   Next summer, however, might be different and we could be looking for some team to come up the the Last Frontier to help us with finnish work.

Financially, we’re not doing so badly.  We had a capital campaign in November and, in a report to the congregation on January 13, we announced that we had collected $78,000 in pledges.  That, coupled with a “two-for-one” challenge grant, brings our total to almost $120,000.  We are still looking for another $22,000 in pledges.  This, with the challenge grant, brings us up to $150,000 locally. 

The goal with this new pledge drive is to get us into the new facility in early winter 2008.   We desperately need the space for ministry and, as pastor, I have to admit that our church folks are somewhat weary of the construction process at this point.  We want to be in that new space.  We know that God will provide.  But, I occasionally get the question, “How long, O Lord?”

Ministry is, as many of you know, still going on.  We do not have our Sunday evening worship anymore as our two very talented musicians left the state and we haven’t found replacements for them in our small town.  We are moving toward working with the Food Bank of Alaska to have our church serve as a pick-up site.  We are also working with Circle Farms of Washington State to be a pick-up site for Organic Food in our community.  Both of these projects will bring new persons into the church on a regular basis.  A final ministry in the works I wanted to tell you about is an after school program for children in grades 5 and 6.  Previously, our youth group was for those in 5th grade and up.  Now that we have more Junior High Students it makes sense to us to have the 5th and 6th graders meet at a different time since they are at a different place spiritually and socially.

Let me give you a little update on the Doepkens as of this January.

Our twins, Abigail and Bethany are coming up on their first birthday next week.  They are doing well and are gaining some weight.  We appreciate all the prayers offered on behalf of Bethany for her club feet.  They are looking good and we think it’s a miracle how normal they appear.  She will be in a brace for another two years as her feet are given time to grow in their normal positions.  She wears the brace for 14 hours a day.

Our other twins, Moriah and Susannah, are also doing well.  They are in fourth grade and love their teacher.  They are both active in many things, including piano, soccer, cross-country running, and skiing.  Moriah is still our tom-boy and Susannah is our “girly-girl.”  They are a joy to have around and it’s fun watching them grow up.

Samuel is 12 1/2 and is as tall as I am.  He’s in 7th grade and we’re impressed by how he is doing academically.  He, too, does soccer and skiing.  He has taken up the cello and performs in the school orchestra.

Julie is working half-time at the local school library and is spending the other half of her time being mom at home.  She’s been on the local Library Task force that has overseen the construction of a new library which should be complete later this year.  She’s also on the board of the local daycare.  She’s a regular at our Wednesday Evening Women’s Bible Study.

I, Jim, am finishing up my eighth year in Girdwood as Pastor.  It’s been a wonderful ride so far and I hope to be here several more years. 

I was talking with another United Methodist pastor about churches we’ve served.  He mentioned one appointment he served and said it would always be dear to him because that’s where his kids really grew up and where he felt like he was “home.”  Girdwood is that place, so far, for me and the rest of the family.  We’ve been here long enough to feel like real ministry has been done and long enough to feel like we’ve really been a part of the community during this time.  In the United Methodist Church, we’re appointed year to year.  We know that and we know that, eventually, we’ll be asked to move to another ministry setting.  But, for now, we are thankful that we’ve been appointed year to year...right here.

God bless you all.

Peace,

Jim Doepken