The four services on Christmas Eve (5:00, 7:00, 9:00 and 11:00 p.m.) need MANY volunteers to serve as ushers, greeters, communion servers, readers, Welcome Center volunteers, liturgists, and sound booth volunteers. 

If you can help in any of these areas, contact the office at office@hilltopumchurch.org or 801-571-5777 ext. 1. 

We have an opportunity to join more than 125,000 volunteers in 39 states in a commitment to building communities and strengthening lives through your involvement with Family Promise, a program that assists the transitionally homeless. Hilltop has been a host site for over a decade and provides housing to families four times a year.

Our next opportunity to serve homeless families as they work to get back on their feet is December 4-11 at Hilltop House. The giant signup boards will be in Fellowship Hall, in mid-November. We are looking for a ‚Cleaning Team‛ to begin next year. This can be done at your convenience before and after each hosting week. It would be great if 2-3 folks shared this job. Claudia Bilbao is stepping down after doing an amazing job. Call Susan for more information or to volunteer.

As you ponder whether you will volunteer as an evening host, overnight host, day host on weekends or would like to provide a hot evening meal or groceries, please take into consideration the following facts...

• Families with children comprise one of the fastest-growing segments of the homeless population today.
• 13% of Americans live in poverty, in-cluding one in five children, the highest rate in the industrialized world.
• 42% of homeless children are under the age of 6.

Please give one of the most valuable assets you have—time. For questions please call coordinator, Susan Dunlap at 801-598-0626 or Volunteer Coordinator Katie Simpson at 801-419-9330.

In case no one noticed we trimmed all of the annual/perennial flower beds at church last weekend during the Love your Church work day.  We had 15 brave souls show up to help out.  I would like to thank the following individuals:  Vern Rosenstiel, Skip Poole, Spencer Booz, Keith Christensen, Pearl Smith, Claudia Bilbao, Mary Bilbao, Sara Hake-Brooks, Dick Linville, Jim Simpson, Tom Campbell, Lisa Campbell and Michael Campbell, Fran Gard and Kent Gard.  We accoumplished a lot but did not get everything completed.  The Work day list is on the Trustees Bulletin Board if you would like to contribute.  Vern and Skip cleaned the exterior of all the Church Windows.  This was a huge task and needed to get done.  Keith and Spencer installed new sinks and faucets in the upstairs restroom at Hilltop House.  These will help tremendously to conserve water at Hilltop House.  The Hurley's stopped by to donate an entertainment center for the living room.  This is much better than the rolling cabinet that was rickety and about to fall over.  I am attaching photos of some of the beds Church memebers kept up this summer. 

Family Promise will be using Hilltop House starting Sunday 10/24/2010.  Please consider volunteering to help one of the days/nights along with food. 

A year ago Hilltop UMC was donated some very good carpeting that was used for a trade show one time by Hewlett Packard.  It is a light gray color with a very long fiber.  We have been storing the three large carpet rolls in the garage area at Hilltop House.  Trustees made the decision that the carpet needed to be installed before our next Family Promise weeks in October of 2010.  On Tuesday night the 21st of September Spencer Booz and Kent Gard removed the carpet from the upstairs of the house.  We cleaned off the old carpet, pads and removed all of the staples.  Later that week Fred Butterfield installed the new carpet in the upstairs rooms of the house.  On Saturday the 25th we moved the furniture back into the upstairs rooms that had been moved out.  The new carpet looks great. 

The week of October 4th the carpet in the basement was removed and moved to the dumpster.  Fred then installed the carpet in the family room and the small bedroom downstairs.  Now we have the new carpet in the entire house.  Our next immediate goal is to do womething with the floor in the kitchen.  It really needs to be covered over with either new vinyl flooring, wood or ceramic tile.  It is very reminiscent of the 1970s with some major staining coming from the adhesive used to install it when first put down, prior to HUMC buying the property.  If anyone has 285 feet of spare flooring they are not going to use that would work in a kitchen we could sure use it for Hilltop House.  Please stop and look at how nice the house is becoming as we use it for the needs of the Church and the community. 

On Friday September 24, 2010, Vern Rosentiel, John Burns and Jack Schoon started removing the old roof from Hilltop House.  We set up Saturday the 25th as the day to get volunteers together to get this done for the entire roof.  Vern, john and Jack got a head start so we could have the shingles delivered to the roof instead of us hauling them up via the ladder.  They worked a good portion of the day and the shingles arrived around 3:30 PM.  Saturday morning dawned clear and beautiful.  We had the following individuals show up to help and they were very appreciated: Spencer Booz, Keith Christenson, Vern Rosentiel, Skip Poole, Robert Osbourne, Bob Meeks, Rex Masters, Scott Johnson, Jack Schoon, John Burns, Dave and myself.  John Papas, who owns Papas Roofing, lent us his tools to do the job correctly and easily.  He also helped explain how we needed to put the asphalt shingles down.  He loaned us scrapers to remove the old shingles, compressed air nailers so we would not lose any fingers from hammers, his dump trailer to put all of the old shingles and roofing material into and his magnet to pick up the old nails that landed in the yard.  If I left someone off it is due to my age.  On Saturday we were off the roof by 3:30 due to the heat of the day.  I was starting to leave toe marks in the shingles after nailing them to the roof.  The heat was great to help set the shingles into place.  Spencer Booz helped me get the south face completed on Sunday the 26th, we were both praying while nailing as we missed all three Church Services.  Vern, John  and Jack Schoon and Scott johnson worked over the next three days in the morning to get the job completed.  My wife thanks all of you for your help, as she had visions of Kent on the roof late into the days trying to get the job done.  We now have a new 30 year roof on Hilltop House that we can have pride in getting done. 

Again thanks to all of you who helped.