The Dedication of the New Kitchen and Dining Hall

May 28, 2014

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

It has been two years and three months (822 days, to be exact!) since the fire that devastated our kitchen and dining hall.  At our lowest moments along the way, we may have thought for a fleeting moment that the day of returning to that space would never come.  But the promise given by God through the prophet Isaiah to the exiles has proven true for us along our own wilderness experience:

Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you;

    I have called you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

    when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,you won’t be scorched

    and flame won’t burn you.  (Isaiah 43:1-2)

The first Sunday after the fire, in our first worship service in the community center, our resident guitarist and songwriter extraordinaire Charlie Leissler offered this original song, which beautifully captures the promise of Isaiah:

To another new beginning

Lead us forward from this day

And as one this congregation

Will gladly say

This is Your house

This is our home

This is our gift to You

We will rise up

We will move on

And Your strength will pull us through

Yes Your strength will pull us through

Yes, indeed, God’s strength has pulled us through, and we are finally ready to dedicate our brand new kitchen and Schuldt Dining Hall this Sunday.  After worship, we will gather for a luncheon, joined by three congregations whose support has been essential in allowing us to continue ministry these last two years:  Memorial Presbyterian, Bethlehem Lutheran, and Crossroads Community.  They took up special offerings in the wake of the fire, and allowed us to use their facilities for over forty funeral luncheons and a number of weddings.  In addition, we have invited members of the Cherokee Fire Department to join us, to thank them for their stellar care on the day of the fire.

But Sunday will be more than just a debut of a new kitchen and dining hall.  It will be an opportunity for us to rededicate ourselves, and this campus, for the purposes of putting God’s love into action for generations to come.  Along the course of this reconstruction, we have remembered that our purpose as a church is not to build monuments, but to create movements, and these facilities are merely the tools through which we can accomplish the mission of this church to transform lives, improve the community, and change the world.

And what tools these new spaces will be for years to come!  In addition to replacing lost and damaged parts of the campus, we have made many dramatic improvements:

·      The kitchen and dining hall are now air conditioned, with a new, energy efficient system.  This will greatly enhance the usability of the space throughout the summer and early fall. 

·      We now have a state-of-the art audio/visual system, with the capacity to send a live video feed from the sanctuary down to the dining hall, for use in overflow situations.  The system also enables laptop and DVD projection, and wireless microphone usage.

·      The space is now completely handicap accessible through a renovated northeast entrance, that is at the same level as the loading area. 

·      The electrical service has been upgraded to a three-phase system, that will ease future expansion to the education wing of the campus. 

·      All of the appliances are now energy efficient, including a brand new dishwasher that runs a load of dishes in less than one minutes per cycle.

·      Our residential stoves and ovens have been replaced with a ten-burner, continuous surface stove, two commercial ovens, and a high-capacity convection oven. 

·      We have a new beverage and dessert service center, featuring two Bunn commercial coffee makers with on-demand, filtered, hot water that starts brewing coffee at the touch of a button.

·      We have increased the storage and seating capacity of the space, and with the new flexibility of the nearby Feller Lounge, we can seat more than 250 people at one time.  Both round and rectangular tables now allow us to change the configuration of the seating to meet the needs of each event. 

·      And, of course, the raised ceiling, new windows, and beautiful finishes in the room create a more modern, stylish, and intimate feel in the dining hall.

As you can see, there is much to be proud of in our new space, and we can’t wait to debut it to for the public this Sunday.  But more importantly, this is a chance for us to give thanks to God, for seeing us through the fire, and promising to use this space to put God’s love into action for generations to come.

See you Sunday!

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

531 W. Main St.

Cherokee, IA  51012

Ph:  712-225-3955

Email:  mdevega@sp-umc.org