January 14, 2026 Midweek News
Hello church,
On Monday the clergy from our local United Methodist Circuit (Mission Valley, Polson, Libby, Troy, Bigfork, Lakeside, Kalispell, Whitefish, CFalls) gathered for our monthly meeting.
Pastor Ross from Libby and Troy shared some updates regarding the Libby and Lincoln County flooding and response. Water is still not drinkable in the city of Libby due to water turbidity and safety concerns. Coffee shops are closed. McDonald’s is only serving milkshakes – no soda or tea!
With the help of our Annual Conference Disaster Response team, Pastor Ross applied for and received a $10,000 grant to help provide safe water to residents. He has utilized $8000 so far, coordinating with the Red Cross and other relief efforts.
Pastor Ross was very grateful for our efforts to assemble and deliver a total of 75 flood cleanup buckets as a circuit. Even Eidsvold ELCA church in Somers assembled some buckets! All the buckets were distributed and appreciated. I’m personally grateful to you for your work helping our church assemble and donate 20 cleanup buckets.
The CFUMC Mission Team contributed $849 toward bucket supplies. Some individuals donated cash or supplies. Hanson’s Hardware gave us a significant discount on nice leather gloves, and Ace donated 20 5-gallon buckets! Twelve people from CFUMC assembled our 20 buckets. That equals about $1500 of costs and many hours of effort – no small amount for a last-minute response. Thank you all!
What’s next? 65 more flood buckets were sent from Colorado but are not needed. Nine other buckets were assembled after the first round of work. The clergy agreed we need a depot for wildfire and flood cleanup buckets closer than Bozeman or Billings to respond with relief with presented with future needs. Polson UMC has space to store supplies and has agreed to serve as a depot for our local region. At a future combined worship service, our circuit will raise more funds to prepare more buckets for our depot.
Please continue to pray for Pastor Ross, Libby UMC, and many businesses and individuals dealing with fallout from storms and flooding.
Blessings,
Pastor Jared