Thank You!
I write this newsletter with a heart full of thanksgiving for how God has worked through you all to double our giving goal (total pledges: $1,457,390). We also reached 73% household participation for which I’m also thankful. Through all this God has reminded me what a privilege it is to be your pastor.
Because of your generosity, the timeline for when we would be able to put an offer on a building has moved up. But there are still a number of steps that need to be taken care of. Most of all I want to encourage us to pray because we can’t do this without God’s blessing.
Just this week I’ve started reaching out to others who have supported or shown interest in our ministry. When I first came out here 13 years ago, I raised support, and I plan to reach out to many of those contacts again. But I’m also thankful because I realize that my list of people who are excited about the ministry here is much longer now. Will you pray that God will move some of them to give the remaining amount we need?
Probably the most difficult aspect of our plan is trusting that an LDS ward close to our current location will come for sale in the next year or so. We can’t control this. The main realtor handling all the sales for the LDS Church has indicated there likely will be several wards going for sale in West Jordan, though we don’t know any specifics. Yet God has been at work in this too. We’ve connected with someone who works for the LDS Church’s Real Estate Division, and they want to meet with us at some point. We don’t have an appointment yet, but would you pray that God would bless this meeting and grant us favor so they might be willing to sell a ward near us?
This has been time-consuming, but it’s also been encouraging to me. I enjoy projects where I can make tangible progress. I love being a pastor, but sometimes it’s hard to quantify spiritual growth. Projects like this are a refreshing change of pace. But in the end the building is not the goal. The goal is to be able to better reach more people in this valley and grow them to maturity in Christ. I believe a building is an important part of reaching that goal, and I’m excited to see how it will unlock more ministry possibilities, not just for JVC but for the people we’ll be able to train for ministry and the healthy churches we’ll be able to plant.
God has blessed us beyond anything we deserve. I’m excited for the future, and I hope you are too.
In Christ,
Pastor Jon