The mission of Mount Olympus

Presbyterian Church is to invite

people to experience Jesus

Christ and become his passion-

ate followers.

Volume XLX, Issue 5 June 2015

MOPC High School and College Graduates (Read about their accomplishments & plans on pages 4-5)

Day of Prayer on June 10 Details on page 8

Kenya Mission Trip See page 12

Vacation Bible School/Service Camp

Registration has begun; volunteers are needed! Details on page 13

Group photo from Children’s Ministry Family Retreat in May. More Family Retreat photos on pages 14 and 15.

June 2015

Dear MOPC,

From June 8-17, I will be on an eight-day silent retreat at Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House in Sedalia, Colorado. This will be a time of solitude, silence and prayer.

On the one hand this will be a time to be away from the work and responsibilities of ministry. On the other hand, it will be a time of work: work on my own inner life, attitudes and heart. As athletes work on their physical condition, pastors need to work on our spiritual condition.

It is not uncommon for pastors to burn out by speaking many words and giving much of ourselves while not tending the fire of God’s Spirit inside of us.

I will be assigned a spiritual director who I will meet with each day. This person will help me dis-cover what is happening in my own soul, and where my life is with Christ.

I often go to a conference during the summer where I hear speakers, receive teaching, and participate in workshops. But this year I realized how much “information” I have obtained through oth-er conferences, and my own reading and study.

What I sense my soul needs right now is not more information, but time to be quiet and foster my relationship with the Lord.

Pastors are compulsive people. We

can easily find our souls drained by busy-ness, the demands of having a “successful” ministry and church, and meeting the needs of others. It is easy for more to go out of us than what is com-ing into us. While I regularly spend time

in Scripture and prayer, I have re-cently been thirsty for a long peri-od of time to stop and be with God, so that my soul can be re-newed and rested.

I suppose years of ministry is like running a long marathon, where recovery, hydration and even

some first-aid is needed.

During this retreat there will be sins to confess, attitudes to confront, grace to

receive, rest to be enjoyed, new insights to embrace.

I want to be able to listen to God myself so that I can listen to him for others. I want to allow the Holy Spirit to fill my soul so that my preaching and teaching,

counseling and organizing, praying and listening, leading and directing will come from the fullness of Christ.

I want to be shaped by the Spirit not by the messages of world.

So I will step away for a few days and rest in God, for myself and for you.

In His Grace,

Phil Pastor Phil

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Pastor Phil’s blog is at utahgrace.tumblr.com

As athletes work on their physical condi-tion, pastors need to work on our spiritual condition.

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Sundays at 9:45 a.m. in Room 502 June 7 – Jeremiah / Lamentations Jeremiah’s life spanned one of the most troublesome peri-ods in Hebrew history. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Jeremiah is an excellent example of someone who survived difficult times with grace.

June 14 - Ezekiel Among biblical writers, Ezekiel is the master at dealing with catastrophe. As we will see, he not only proclaimed God’s message to the people, but he had to live the mes-sage before them. It was not easy to be a prophet! June 21 – Daniel Daniel stands out as one of the greatest men in Jewish history. His is a dramatic story: he was God’s faithful witness in a wicked and idolatrous kingdom. But he makes it clear that God is sovereign in the affairs of this world. Note: Beginning June 28, the study of the twelve “ minor” prophets will take us to the end of the Old Testament books by the end of July. They are minor only in the fact that they are shorter than the four major prophets. Their messages are equally important. June 28 – Joel/Amos/Obadiah [*different from sermon topic for this Sunday] Joel’s message grew out of a national calamity—the invasion of a plague of locusts, which came with a terrible drought. Amos is a “rustic hill preacher”—not a prophet in the professional sense, but God’s man with God’s message, warning that judgment is coming to Israel. Obadiah (the shortest book in the OT) deals with the brothers, Esau and Jacob—Edom and Israel.

A Year Through the Bible: For helpful resources on our journey through God’s Big Story, go to www.mountolympuschurchtumblr.com.

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Hats Off to Our Graduates!

Madison Bigford graduated from Skyline High School and will attend SLCC to meet her general education require-ments before transferring to the U. Madison plans to double major in business and nutrition, and work toward a Personal Training license. She is passionate about art and fitness.

Montana Campbell graduated from Judge Memorial High School and plans to go to work at her family’s bed and breakfast in Alaska this summer. She will be working and taking a year off school.

Anna Greeneisen graduated from Olympus High School and will attend Western Washington University next fall. She has not decided what major to pursue, but hopes to discover that as she takes various undergraduate classes. Anna is going on our MOPC Kenya trip this June and is very passionate about service work.

Stephen Hall graduated from Judge Memorial High School on May 31st. He played varsity football, was a leader in the sports medicine program, and a member of the dance company at Judge. He plans to attend the University of Utah in the fall, ma-joring in Mining/Engineering.

Sena Hughes graduated from Whitworth University (B.A. Theology, Communica-tion) on May 17th. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and received the Communication Department Outstanding Service Award. Sena is in the job market in Spokane, seeking employment in the promotional communication/non-profit field.

Elyse Jones graduated from Judge Memorial High School with Honors and will be attending George Washington University in DC this fall as part of the Women’s Leadership Program. She plans on taking pre-med curriculum.

Miranda Jones graduated from Judge Memorial High School with Honors and will at-tend Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, where she will be in the honors pro-gram, studying biochemistry with a pre-med focus.

Jessica Sterrett graduated from Rowland Hall on May 30th. She received the fol-lowing awards and honors: All-State and All-Region in Women’s Soccer, North Ameri-can Champion in Freeride Skiing, 8th in Junior Worlds held in Andorra. Jess will be majoring in Mechanical Engineering at CalPoly this fall. She is currently working at Sprouts in Holladay.

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Brooke Jorgensen received her B.S. in Nutrition from Southern Utah University on May 1st. She graduated Magna Cum Laude. Brooke planes to attend graduate school in the fall with the goal of becoming a Physicians Assistant.

Emily Joyce graduated from Skyline High School and will attend the University of Utah and participate in their Honors Program.

Conner Nipper graduated from Skyline High school, where he was president of Operation Smile Club and played on the Rugby Team. He is attending the U and plans to study architecture and business.

Ben Parker will graduate from Skyline High on June 5th. He was a 3-year varsity LaCrosse player and was on the Honor Roll at Skyline. In the fall, he plans to attend the University of Utah.

Pastor Charlie McFarlin

A former member of MOPC who went on to serve as pastor of Spring Hill Presbyteri-an Church in Staunton, Virginia in 2003 is retiring. He will be presiding over his last service at Spring Hill Presbyterian on June 28th, followed by a reception in his honor. An announcement of the service and reception, with a photo of Pastor McFarlin, is posted on the bulletin board in the hallway to Fellowship Hall. If you remember Char-lie, you may want to send him a card c/o Sheila Price, 3206 Spring Hill Road, Staun-ton, VA 24401.

Presbyterian Women is on hiatus during the summer months. We will resume our meetings in September.

Senior Adult Fellowship luncheons will resume in Septem-ber. Have a fun Summer! Thanks for making our luncheons a fun time of food and fellowship!!

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The Mount Spring is a fun and busy time at the Mount. We kicked off our new series on the Book of Proverbs and will hear from a great lineup of speakers including: Dave and Jamie White, Paul Burgess, Jared McClure, Cade Garlock, Matt Cain, and Kathy Terrion.

We have teamed up with college ministries from K2 and Capital Church to host a city-wide Memorial Day BBQ at Sugarhouse Park with college ministries from all over Salt Lake. We hope to start a conversation and build a foundation between these college ministries that will enable us to come together in the future for service projects, out-reach, and worship events.

Sam Hall (member of the Mount) has started hosting a weekly ‘Food and Fellowship’ event for the Mount that takes place every Wednesday night. We come together to eat and hang out for a bit before participating in a short devotional. In May we focused on the subject of prayer. This event and our Thursday women’s group have been well at-tended and great for community!

Our women’s group continues to meet every other Thursday night. Once a month we have a community-building activity (such as dinner together, movie night, bowling, etc.) and the other weeks we discuss how to apply the principles in the book “Love Does” to our daily life/faith walk.

We are excited to see what God will continue to do through the ministry of the Mount and the ways He will stretch us in the year ahead. Pray for us in this season of growth!

This summer, from July 23-August 5, Heather Castle (Mount member) will travel to Western Ukraine with ServeNow on a mission trip to teach English to young adults at a summer camp in the Carpathian Mountains. The conflict with Russia in East-ern Ukraine has left many people displaced, and English camp provides camp attendees with encouragement and the ability to communicate in conversational English. Her aim is not only to provide them with this marketable skill, but also to com-municate the word of God. Heather is seeking MOPC's support in raising funds for the trip. The cost of the trip is $2580, and she appreciates as much help as you are willing to give in the form of prayer or a donation. You can give directly at weservenow.org/donate. If you have any questions about her trip, contact Heather at hmc1122@westminstercollege.edu.

Additionally this summer, Haley Seeger (Mount member) is going to Bali in June to work at an orphanage with Loving Orphans Global. She is also working to gain funds for her trip by selling tank tops for $20. If you are interested in supporting Haley, you can give to her directly or visit http://www.gofundme.com/halesandbrit.

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Meet Betty Merritt Betty Merritt has had a love affair with Wyoming her en-tire life. Her early education, employment, and love of sheep and wool all come from her roots in Wyoming.

During her teen years, the Casper Presbyterian church became the come-to place for most of the high school students in Casper. Attendance there was due to a youth leader named Billie Sigafoo. Today at high school reun-ions people still talk about her. Billie left Casper and passed away a few years ago, but Betty would be thrilled to know if anyone else in our congregation remembers her.

Betty and Bud attended Casper “First Pres” in their high school years and were mar-ried there in 1960. They moved to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah and have lived in the same house in Mill Creek for 46 years. During these years Betty taught Jr. High for 22 years. Bud (Hubert) is a licensed architect.

Betty and Bud have a daughter and family in Anchorage, Alaska and a son and his family in Missoula, Montana.

In her youth Betty spent occasional summer time in the Saratoga/Encampment (WY) range, and to her dismay learned that sheep sent to slaughter brought more money to a rancher than did sheep sent to shearing. Betty encountered a few women in the ar-ea who prized small amounts of fleece for hand spinning.…thus began a quest to spin/dye the perfect yarn (and save the sheep from ultimate death.) For many years wool-en and worsted yarns were widely available only for the carpet industry. Soft dyeable woolen yarns were not available for the fiber artist or home knitter at that time.

Living in the Mountain West, Betty has ample opportunities to buy many exquisite fleeces. Individual families raise an abundant number of sheep for pets and ultimately for shearing. Utah State University is one of the country’s leading authorities on sheep husbandry and range management. They have a variety of fleece for study by individu-al hand spinners.

As a member of Presbyterian Women here at MOPC, Betty enjoys the Prayer Shawl Ministry. Prayer Shawls (albeit made from acrylic yarn!) are available for any person in need of a comforting wrap for shoulders or laps. Should you feel a prayer shawl would be a comfort to anyone (church member or not), please contact any member of Pres-byterian Women or call Betty.

Prayer Requests?

Call the church office at 801-277-2674 e-mail prayerchain@mtopres.org with your requests for prayer. If you would like to join the prayer chain, call 801-277-2674.

Prayers of Praise Praise for the recent births of McKenzie Brooke Dolloff, Kai-da Violet Brozek, Cooper Baskett, and Thaddeus Jeffrey Wall to MOPC members.

Praise for all the fathers who bless their children by serving as Christian role models.

Praise for Amberly Vincent, who com-pleted the 11-month, 11-country World Race mission trip and for her safe return.

Praise for friends and family who heighten our enjoyment during good times and support us during times of trouble.

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Prayer Concerns Pray for our Kenya mission team that their work in Ken-ya will shine the light of Christ in the lives of those they minister to and in their own lives.

Pray for our graduates that they may choose callings that are fulfilling to them and pleasing to God.

Pray that VBS, Service Camp, the mis-sion trip to Wind River, and our other summer youth programs may nurture the faith of MOPC’s young people.

Pray that the nominating committee will have the Spirit’s guidance in finding new elders and deacons.

MOPC Day of Prayer

June 10th is our Day of Prayer. On that day you are invited to attend a 30-minute time of guided prayer in the sanctuary at 7:00 a.m. to pray and listen to God. Throughout the day we are requesting that you find a time to pray either on your own or with a friend. You may use Phil's guide on "How to pray for 30 minutes." We will also be sending out an email of prayer requests on June 9th to those who have signed the "commitment to pray" poster in the gathering area. Please send your prayer requests to sbar-nish@mtopres.org by noon on June 9th and put “Day of Prayer” in the subject line so your request won’t be confused with a prayer chain request. If you do not have e-mail, please let us know so we can make other accommodations for you. At 7 p.m. that evening there will be a time of prayer for our Kenya Team and our VBS team as well as time for anyone wanting prayer from our prayer team. We hope you will join us in any way that you feel called to participate.

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Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1

12:30 pm Staff 7 p.m. Personnel

2

6:30 am Men’s Bible

7 pm Children’s Ministry

Team Office & Tech.

3

7 pm Stephen

Ministry

4

7 am Order of Thursday Men

5

7 pm Rescue Mission

6

7

8:30 & 11:00 a.m. Worship

9:45 Sunday School

6 p.m. The Mount

8

12:30 p.m. Staff

9

6:30 am Men’s

Bible 7 pm Finance

Deacons

10

Day of Prayer

11

12

Kenya Mission Trip 9:00 Sandwiches

for 4:45 pm Salvation Army

13

Utah Food Bank Kenya MissionTrip

14

Kenya Mission Trip

8:30 & 11:00 a.m. Worship

9:45 Sunday School 12:15 pm GMT

6 p.m. The Mount

15

Kenya Mission

Trip 12:30 p.m. Staff

16

Kenya Mission Trip

6:30 am Men’s Bible

17

Kenya Mission Trip

7 pm Stephen Ministry

18

Kenya Mission

Trip

19

Kenya Mission Trip

20

Kenya Mission Trip

21

Kenya Mission Trip

8:30 & 11:00 a.m. Worship

9:45 Sunday School

6 p.m. The Mount

22

Kenya Mission Trip

9am VBS & Service Camp

12:30 p.m. Staff Team

23

Kenya Mission Trip 9am VBS & Ser-

vice Camp 6:30 am Men’s

Bible 7 pm Session

24

Kenya Mission Trip 9am VBS & Service

Camp

25

Kenya Mission 9am VBS &

Service Camp

26

Kenya Mission Trip

9am VBS & Service Camp

27

Kenya Mission Trip

28

Kenya Mission Trip

8:30 & 11:00 a.m. Worship

9:45 Sunday School

6 p.m. The Mount

29

7:30 Personnel

30

7 pm Facilities Team

Birthdays & Events

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Thank You, Thank You, for your prayers, cards and many kindnesses during my last bout with bronchitis. Especially for your prayers! GOD is good. —Pauline Forster

Kudos to Amberly Vincent! In May Amberly completed the World Race, eleven countries, eleven months of mission work. She flew from China (the last country) to the West coast and spent a few days with other racers and friends in Los Angeles before coming to Salt Lake City on May 27th. Your prayers for Amberly and her fellow racers have been SO appreciated.

Attention Golfers! Come and play in the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship Inaugural Golf Classic at Valley View Golf Course on July 17th. Support this great cause and enjoy a day on the links. Breakfast at 6:30 a.m. Shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. $100 per person, 4-man scramble format—put together your own team or be matched up by the tournament. $10,000 hole-in-one contest/$10,000 putting contest

Additional hole contests on every hole—prizes galore! Silent auction, raffle & door prizes.

Ulster Project Car Wash Come get your car washed on Saturday June 6th from 11.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church located at 2500 East 3900 South. Proceeds support teens participating in Ulster Project Utah. This Catholic/Protestant peace project works with teens from Northern Ireland and the U.S., and is in its 30th year in Utah. MOPC Local Missions has supported Ulster Project for over five years and several MOPC teens have participated in the past.

Utah Food Bank: We will return on Sat., June 13th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Join the MOPC group at the Food Bank for a fun time helping others. 3150 S and 900 W. No open-toed shoes and ages 12+. If you need a ride, call Pauline. Look for the sign-up sheet in the gathering area.

Crossroads Urban Center:

Canned pasta and ramen noodles are the items most needed this month, but all non-perishable food is always appreciated, especially food in snack-size containers and single-serving beverages.

Please leave your donations in the Crossroads box in the gathering

area.

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Myanmar Mission College and Orphanage The second quarter loose coin offering goes to Our Father’s House orphanage as well as Myanmar Mission College in Rangoon, Myanmar. Both institutions were started by David Biak Kung, the brother of the first pastor of the Chin Christian Church that meets at MOPC.

The orphanage originally started to care for orphans from Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Since then they have added children who are homeless because they have been abused at home or because their parents are too poor to care for them. They have also been able to take in several girls who were trapped in the sex trade industry. The or-phanage provides food, shelter, money and uniforms for school and ensures they have a trade to support themselves when they are old enough to be independent. Several of these children are very bright and hope to become medical doctors.

The Myanmar Mission College focuses on training local people to be pastors, but spe-cifically to be evangelists in their own people group, as well as others in Myanmar. These young people are committed to staying in Myanmar and evangelizing, which puts them at risk of being persecuted and working in professions that pay very little. They proceed with much faith. Pastor Phil and Elaine Davis were able to travel to Bur-ma in 2013 and teach at the college.

Reminder: This money comes from loose COINS in the offering plate each week. Con-sider saving your pocket change each week and bringing it to church. Rarely do we miss the change, but it makes a world of difference to these young people.

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Summer 2015 at Inverted

Congrats to our high school seniors! Madison Bigford, Montana Campbell, Anna Greeneisen, Elyse Jones, Miranda Jones, Emily Joyce, Anita Magill, Conner Nipper, Ben Parker and Jessica Sterrett. We’re so proud of all your hard work and we’ll miss you very much as you head off to the land of grown-ups! Before that though, we’d love to celebrate your time in youth ministry with a special dinner on Sunday, June 7th at 6:00pm. Bring your parents and let’s sit around the table and share memories, laugh and hope for the future!

Middle school summer camp is here! We’ll be taking our middle school students to Hume San Diego from July 5-10th. We’re excited to be a part of the great summer camp tradition at Hume Lake and can’t wait for all that God will do this summer! There are still a couple spots open, so if you know any-one who’d like to join us, contact Jared asap at jmcclure@mtopres.org

Welcome new 6th graders! It’s always so much fun to welcome new students into youth ministry. We promise to get you all plugged in and feeling connected and comfortable. Our policy is to allow new 6th graders to start participating in youth ministry activities right away…and that includes summer camp and fellowship events. We’d love to have you!

Our Kenya team is off and away June 12th! A team of our high school students and adults will head to Nakuru to work with Kenya Partners for the month of June. We’ll be doing some construction projects, restocking the medical clinic, working with the children and teens in our 800-bed orphanage and school, and with the preschool aged kids in our two slum schools. Please, please pray for our team; for good attitudes and energy for our team, for safety in all we do and wherever we go, for lives to be transformed, and for the love of God to guide us as we serve our Ken-yan brothers and sisters. Thanks for all your support. If you’d like to receive team email updates, please contact the church office to be added to our list!

Summer Activities We’ll be having some fun summer activities in July and August, so check your youth cal-endar and the Inverted Facebook page for more info. You can count on some water fights, hiking trips, service projects, and more. It’ll be a great summer!

Inverted is on Facebook. Please Like/Add us to get updates on events, pictures, info!

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Thanks to everyone who helped support our Art Show on May 17th! It was so much fun!

May 29th 6:30-8:30 p.m.: SR45 end-of-year party

No Children’s Church May 31st: May 31st is the fifth Sunday, which means it is Family Sunday. Families will be in the service together. There will be nursery for our littlest members of the family.

Vacation Bible School and SR 45 Service Camp: June 22nd-26th 9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon (VBS) 9:00-3:00 p.m. (Service Camp) The theme is "Conquering Challenges with God's Mighty Power" Registration is open. Look for a donation board listing needed items.

Family Retreat Wow! What a great weekend we had last month connecting with other families. The photos on the next two pages show what fun we had!

Father’s Day is June 21st

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Family Retreat May 2015

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Church Staf f & Ministry Team Leaders

Pastor Phil Hughes Pastor Emeritus Jeff Silliman Executive Administrator Sheila Barnish Administrative Assistant Emily Piper Youth Ministry Directors Jamie White and Dave White Asst. of Youth Ministry Jared McClure Children’s Ministry Director Ruth Rudy Director of The Mount Melissa Dolloff Treasurer Jeanne Mehlhoff Child Development Director Julie Hessheimer Facilities Manager John Mehlhoff Adult Ministries Director Elaine Davis

Office Hours: Mon—Fri 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Ph: (801) 277-2674 Fax: (801) 277-2059 Pastoral Email: phughes@mtopres.org Exec Administrator: sbarnish@mtopres.org Newsletter Email: epiper@mtopres.org Website: www.mountolympuschurch.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/mountolympuspresbyterian Address: 3280 East 3900 South Salt Lake City, UT 84124

Elders Serving on Session

Class of 2015 Class of 2016 Class of 2017 Bill Gartner Matt Cain Maggie Loring Donaree Neville Mason Harvey Mark Jackson Steve Mascaro Shauna Huston Armand van Hien Debbie Penney Fred Larsen Lauri Winge

Adult Ministry Pauline Forster Children’s Ministry Katie Peterson Congregational Life Linda Duffy Facilities Management Gary Peterson Finance Bill Gartner Financial Secretary Mitch Spackman Global Missions Debbie Penney Local Missions Gwen Mitchell Office and Info Tech Jim Wight Outreach Directors Marina Collins/Julie Davidson Pastoral Care Assistant Kathy Terrion Prayer Ministry Karen Jackson Worship Kathy Wight Youth Cathy Dupont

Our Ministry of Care BOARD OF DEACONS

Class of 2015: Debbie Harvey, Janet Hutchinson, Deanne Jorgensen, Marilyn Marshall, Carol Smedley, Kathy Vincent Class of 2016: Mike Bicker, Pauline Forster, Betsy Hamilton, Shirley Knox, Melissa Reynolds, Julie Shaheen Class of 2017: Barbara Lincoln, Chris Chytraus, Mindy deHoll, Karen Jackson, Mary Templeman, Karen Duzy

STEPHEN MINISTERS Kathy Terrion*, Candy Vila*, Bruce Bemis*, Barbara Alexander, Don Alexander, Paul Owen, and Sheridan Metcalf.

* Stephen Ministry Leadership Team