24 September 2021
Good Day and Greetings to Everyone!
We have officially graduated into the Fall season this week. Although I love the summer season and really love a good snow storm, Fall is my favorite time of the year. The cool, crisp air of morning and the mild temperatures of afternoon are almost perfect conditions to enjoy the outdoors. The lower path of the sun through the sky provides a lighting effect that seems to have been perfectly designed to compliment the colors of the trees, often highlighted by a darker sky and big magnificent clouds. There’s nothing quite like the Fall breeze that swirls and scatters the fallen leaves along the ground and walkways. For me, it triggers thoughts of from my past, almost as if every leaf that is kicked up and swirled around is a wonderful memory of my life, each one a different color and a different shape. Each year adds new leaves and new colors to this mosaic of life. I really love the Fall! We serve and love an awesome God!
It has been a great week at Yorkshire church. Our administrative council met on Tuesday and, as you all know, I love a great meeting. This meeting did not disappoint! We discussed many great things that are happening within our church and have begun to set plans and goals for the future. Preschool is firing on all cylinders and our Scouts are back in action. In Education news, our classes are up and running, BUT, this past week, we had some challenges. Get this…we had too many children for the allotted number of teachers in both children’s church and our children’s Sunday school! Many thanks to Kristin Berman and Lexi Morrow who jumped right in to provide the necessary support to these programs. Your vision and awareness on Sunday morning to these needs and your willingness to step up, before any of us knew of the challenge, is greatly appreciated! What a blessing! So, if you are reading this, and feel that you would like to be involved in teaching, or helping a teacher support our students, let Rick Focht or the church office know. We will work with you to get you plugged into an area that meets your interests and callings.
In the area of missions, there is also some great things in the works. This week, one of the missionaries that we are supporting will be speaking to our fellowship and sharing her work in the Dominican Republic. It is great to hear how our fellowship is able to be a part of God’s work throughout the world. Rebecca Jacobs will speak to both the 9AM and 11:15AM services. Our mission’s team is also putting together a Fall fellowship event; Trunk or Treat. The event will be held outside on Sunday, 23 October from 1-3. There is a great deal of info that you will see in the very near future, but the gist of it is that we will offer a safe and fun opportunity for the children in our church, preschool, scouts and community to interact with members of our church and fill their bags with candy and treats in our parking lot(s). Expect great music, games, face painting, et al! I also will go on record here and make the following proclamation. There will be NO dunk tank. I want the team that is coordinating this event to read that again… there will be NO dunk tank!
Our Trustee’s report was focused primarily on the upcoming and required work to get our fellowship hall back in action. The necessary repairs to this flooding issue continue to be evaluated by Steve Spangler and Josh Strange. They are working with contractors and engineers to not only fix damaged portions of the fellowship hall, but also to ensure that the cause of the flooding is repaired. Yesterday (Thursday, the 22nd), we flooded again in significant fashion. Although frustrating, it gave us an opportunity to see just how the flooding developed over the course of the morning storm. It also revealed some elements that will require additional evaluation. The fellowship hall is an essential part of our church operations as it hosts our larger Sunday School
classes, Preschool activities throughout the week, and Scouts several nights a week. All of these activities have been displaced. We are moving forward with as much of the repair work internally that we can while final solutions are being engineered. As a result of yesterday’s rain, we once again have a mini-lake under the stage area. Beginning on Monday, October 4th, a team will begin removing the stage and current storage areas that are behind the current wall. This will open up the room to the walls and potential areas where water is entering the facility. Then, on October 11th through the 20th, a special team will be in to remove the current flooring, which includes the abatement of old asbestos tile which is underneath. This will be a complex process, but a necessary one. These are just the first steps of the repair process that can be completed while the water source issues are being addressed. During this time, our rain gutters, which contribute to our issue, will be upgraded also. So, there will be much going on at our church as we are doing all we can to get our fellowship hall back in operation as soon as possible.
Our Finance team report was very positive. The efforts to restructure our financial platforms and processes are providing great benefit to our fellowship as we grow in our worship, education, and outreach efforts. Our year to date (Jan – Aug 2021) financial picture continues to be positive:
Yorkshire Financial Picture including Joyful Noise Christian Preschool: January 2021 thru August 30, 2021
Income: Expenses: Working Capital:
$282,492.00 250,659.00
$ 23,752.00 (Positive Working Capital)
Our balance sheet also remains strong going into the fourth quarter. With this said, we will be incurring significant expenses to repair our facility as stated above. This year, we paid our insurance premiums in full and early. This has paid off as our insurance will be providing us $24,000.00 towards our expenses. But we anticipate the repair and restoration costs being well more than double this number. The good news is that because of your generosity, we can manage and cover any costs we incur. Our finance team is working to evaluate the best means to fund these expenses and will be reviewing financing options as part of their plan. The church has strong balance sheet, which allows us to have some good options in this area. But, it is also a time to state that if you are feeling called to participate in helping us navigate this situation from a financial perspective, any additional gifts to the “Building Fund” would be of tremendous benefit to our situation.
There were many other great discussions and meetings this week. I am blessed to serve with an incredible team of dedicated leaders here at Yorkshire.
In closing, I want to emphasize what a blessing it was to hear the sounds of our choir this past Sunday morning during our 11:15 service. Your gifts filled the church with great joy and everyone was touched by your performance! Great job Choir. I want to also extend Mike Heintzelman’s comments during the service to especially thank Beth Gross
and Jackie Linsey for their directing and accompanying efforts! Thank you!
Peace and Blessings! -pastor dave.
dkominsky@susumc.org
125 Edgewood Road, York, PA 17402
• (717)755-4952
• www.yorkshirechurch.org
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