New visitors at Utah Valley Church

Ministry

Utah Valley Church

We were blessed to have four first-time visitors at our church gathering Sunday night.  We never know who will be attending our community gathering and it’s exciting to see God bring new people. In our sermon we covered John 3:16-21.  The message focused on the association between sin and disbelief which results in God’s justice and belief in Christ which results in God’s grace. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:18). We praise God for sending His Son! Please continue to pray for our small church community and for the effectiveness of the gospel to reach our neighbors, this city and our county.

Trip to Colorado City/Hildale

On December 13 we plan on traveling to Colorado City, AZ/Hildale, Ut, a polygamist community of more than 5,000. Quite a few of these people have been excommunicated from the “church” and now live as “apostates”.  We will be assisting Holding Out Help in providing a Christmas party for the families and individuals that have left or been kicked out of their church. The FLDS (Fundamentalist Later-Day Saints) have been banned from celebrating Christmas for quite a few years now, so many of these children will open Christmas presents for the first time in their lives. We hope to make some lasting relationships and reconnect with those we befriended on our previous visit.

Chandra becoming a mentor

Through our connection with HOH, Chandra recently became a mentor of a former polygamist lady who recently left the local polygamist community in which she grew-up. She will have an opportunity to build a lasting relationship with this woman and share the grace of Christ with her. It seems that God is slow to answer some of our prayers, but He always answers immediately when we ask Him to place us in the path of people who are seeking Him.

Family

Our first year in Spanish Fork

November 21st marked our first anniversary of living in Spanish Fork, Utah. It has been a fantastic year. We prayed for favor in our neighborhood and God delivered. We have developed friendships with our neighbors and the kids have lots of friends their ages.

Thanksgiving and birthdays

We’re excited to host our second Thanksgiving dinner in our new home. We will be having a couple families join us for the holiday. We’re smoking turkeys and have lots of other dishes planned. We miss our families a lot this time of year, but we’re glad to become family to others.

Our newest family member (we’ll call him RJ) has his 15th birthday on the 29th. Judah will be having his second birthday on  December 1. We also received a message from our boy in basic training and he will be flying home on December 19th for Christmas!

Thank you for you love, prayer and support.

 

For the sake of the Gospel,

Matthew and Chandra