Dear Parishioners,

The repeated storms around our area have caused problems for many. Right when we believe that we have all the tree branches cleaned up or that all the strong storms are behind us, there is more damage done and more to clean up! It’s already been two months since the tornado of May 7th. Those who have suffered damage have made varying degrees of progress. That’s certainly true around the church campus. We have made many repairs. We have cleaned up the yard from debris. Over 200 trees came down on the property, in addition to all of the damage done to the buildings. Some of the damage has been taken care of already. With other damage that has been identified, we have signed contracts and have approval from the insurance company to proceed. Now, it’s just the waiting game for the contractors to get to us to begin some of these repairs. There are many of you that look at the rectory each week and wonder. This definitely has been one of those cases of things going on behind the scenes. The architect and the company that is going to help us rebuild have been here, they have made plans and we are hoping to have all these approved by the City of Portage. It’s also just about time for the trusses to show up to begin the repairs on the roof, especially the west and south sides of the rectory which seemed to experience the most damage. Please keep all this in your prayers as this all falls into place so that the work will go quickly in the weeks to come.

Fr. Joseph is getting ready to experience his second weekend with us here in Portage. I think he is beginning to realize just how large our Vacation Bible School program truly is. As we begin Vacation Bible School on Monday morning, please keep all our youth and volunteers in your prayers so this will be a successful week that will remind our youth to keep themselves close to Christ! 

Thanks for reading!

Fr. Mark