Answered Prayer

Hi and welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! For those of you who are visiting for the first time, let me fill you in just a little. I am part of a team of people who have re-located from the Fort Worth, Texas area here to Herriman, Utah with the purpose of planting a Christian church and ministering to the lost here. I'd like to invite you to read the previous posts and commit to praying for the needs you read about here at Texas Loves Utah. We could not be doing what we are doing if it were not for our family of believers back in Texas and across the nation who have selflessly committed to sharing this journey with us through prayer and encouragement. Please be a part of that group of prayer warriors!

While we're on the topic of prayer, there is a huge answer to prayer we are celebrating this week! God has heard our prayer and provided a public meeting place for our Sunday services! Beginning September 15^th, we will be inviting the people God places in our lives to meet at the J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center! We could not be more thrilled about the opportunity to meet in this beautiful facility! We moved here in faith that God would provide a public facility ideal for reaching this community, and He has done just that. 

J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center in Herriman, Utah

What we love about J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center:

• This new, beautiful facility attracts residents from all over Salt Lake County and, therefore, is a place people are not only familiar with, but also a place where they already feel comfortable.

• The rec center is open on Sundays so we will have the opportunity to reach out to  customers and staff while we are there worshipping. 

• We will have access to 3 huge rooms including:

an adult meeting room complete with a projector screen, tables, and chairs

a dance/activity room perfect for elementary age students' Sunday School

a nursery/ pre-school room and access to child-size tables and chairs, nursery furniture, toys, television and more

Praise God for exceeding all we hoped for in a place to do His work! Both the low cost of rent and the supplies provided here will help in saving funds to be used for other aspects of our church plant. We really believe that the facility God is providing through this beautiful meeting place will be a wonderful tool in reaching the lost of Herriman, Utah. We cannot wait to begin meeting here and inviting new friends and neighbors to join us here in worship!

The Lord of the Harvest

We can't thank you enough for not only following this blog, but especially for praying for the needs you read about here. We believe that prayer can do anything God can do! This week we ask that you join us in praying for one of the biggest needs on our hearts, that God would add believers to our church planting team. Many of you are familiar with the story in the New Testament when Jesus responds to the crowds of people who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” with compassion, commanding his disciples to “ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” (Matthew 9:36-38) The harvest is certainly ripe here in our community, and we need help!

We're praising God that Karis' school teacher, the woman I wrote about in the last post, along with her husband and daughter, joined us for worship Sunday morning! They are precious people who love the Lord. Please pray that they make a commitment to help us start this new church! Also, there is a couple from our church back home who will be here visiting us this weekend. They are currently praying about whether or not they will move here and be part of the church plant later this year. Please pray that God makes it clear to them that they are, in fact, supposed to be here with us. ;)

We are all meeting so many people at work and in our neighborhoods. Many here are “churched”, but there is also a huge number of them who don't belong to any church at all. The reality is that they all need Jesus. Because we are all from Texas, we are so accustomed to assuming until told otherwise that most people we meet have at least heard the true gospel. But not here. There are SO many who are lost, “sheep without a shepherd”. Please answer Jesus' call to pray for laborers. There is much to be done here.

The team worshipping together in Ben's home-Please
be praying for the opportunity for us to begin meeting
in a public place! More on that soon! :)

Affirmation

God has a funny way of “sending” us out to do His work-and then coming along with us. Each of us on the church planting team has been called “brave” countless times. Many believers have told us, “I could never do what you are doing.” The truth is, though, that God doesn't really send us-He just allows us the opportunity to come along for the ride. Stepping out in faith is really just a matter of saying “yes”. After that, it's all pretty much downhill. I say this because ever since we all answered “yes” to God's call to move from Texas to Utah, He has put constant accounts of affirmation in each of our paths. It's His little way of saying, “I'm here. I've got you.” I could share dozens of examples with you, but today I'm praising God for one in particular.

One of the biggest fears the team had as we prepared to re-locate here was that of persecution. It was clear that we were not just moving to any other state in the US, but to one with a culture all its own. We spoke with many Christians who lived in the valley already and and received mixed responses to the question, “Will we be welcome there?” We knew well that it was very possible that we might be ostracized in our neighborhoods or in our workplaces because we do not belong to the religion that is so prevalent here. An even bigger fear was that our children would be made to feel left out. The Heltons- our lead pastor, Ben, and his wife, Kristen- have 3 school-aged children and made the prayerful decision to enroll them in public schools. Since making that decision, I know that they haven't for a second stopped praying that their children would be made to feel welcome-not only by their peers, but also by their teachers. Here's where this story gets good. On their first day of school, Ben and Kristen walked each of their children to their designated classroom. Karis, their middle daughter and arguably the most sensitive of the 3, was introduced to a smiling teacher who stood at her door to welcome students. As Karis' parents chatted with her new teacher, God was certainly present. Within seconds of ending that conversation, dozens of phones back in Texas received a message from Kristen, and I'll leave you with that text:

“God is so good. I have been continually praying for my kid's teachers. Today when I met Karis' teacher, we were talking and she mentioned that she was looking for a church. She is a Christian-one of only 4 teachers in the entire school. She was so excited to meet us and wanted to know all about the church. Please pray she and her husband join our team. She and I both got chills and had tears in our eyes that God had connected our paths!”

From left to right: Rachel, Jax, and Karis on their first day of school

Move In

The team at Ben's house... can you believe the view?!

Thanks for joining me back here at TexasLovesUtah! I hope you got a chance to check out my first post. It describes who we are and what we are doing here in Utah. Today, I want to share with you the how.

As many of you know, our last trip up here in June was intended to be a time of prayer as we sought out exactly which city in the valley God wanted to plant and subsequently jobs and homes near that city. And, of course, as life tends to happen, it wasn't until the evening before we flew out that God directed us here to Herriman. So, needless to say, our apartment hunting was all done online. As the team unloaded everything Cody and I own into our new little apartment here in Riverton (just outside of Herriman city limits), the first thing I noticed...I know...I'm such a girl... was a HUGE lack of closet space, and, I'll admit, I panicked.

After a couple days of showing Cody that although I really was willing to give away non-essentials AND store things creatively, and our things still wouldn't fit, he broke down and took me to IKEA. :) When we finally finished zigzagging our way through the maze like little mice and making our selections-f you've never been to IKEA, you ought to..it really is an experience- Cody ran home to trade the car for the truck (poor planning on our parts, I know). I was left to do the loading in the warehouse. So I did what any girl in my position would do...after changing Jaz's dirty diaper on the warehouse floor, I decided I needed some assistance and went over to the help desk to play the “I have a baby” card. While the sweet college kid helped me load up our new treasures, he asked the inevitable question, the one we've been asked a lot already and answering it has yet to become less uncomfortable, “What brings you to Utah?” I've gotten in the habit of taking a deep breath and praying the quickest of prayers before answering with a smile, “We've come here to start a Christian church!”. This IKEA guy's response has still been the most interesting to me. He replied with a grin, almost mischievously, “Oh!!! You're here to combat the LDS Church, huh?!” Without much thought, I told him, “in a nice way!”

The truth is, though, and we were reminded of this Sunday morning through Ben's “practice” sermon at our first official/unofficial service in his home, that God is doing the fighting for us! He has been fighting for His children since the beginning of time and won't stop until Jesus returns! The Heavenly realms are at war here and around the world! What is so cool about this truth as we move across the country in hopes to win lost souls for the Kingdom, is that the harvest is already ripe for picking! God has gone ahead of us to combat the Enemy on behalf of His children! So, our job, as His ambassadors, is simply to LOVE! Our plan before coming here was to build relationships..friendships even, to take our time to connect and intertwine our lives with new friends and neighbors..and to watch God love the people of Utah through us. Now, more than ever, we are seeing people DRAWN to us.. not because we are cool or nice or anything on our own...but because we have JESUS in us.. and because He is drawing people to Himself through us.

Pray that we continue to build relationships with neighbors and co-workers. Pray that God continues to remind us that He does that combating.. that He has sent us here to LOVE with His love! If we can do this, if we can be vessels ready and willing to have love poured out through us, then we will surely see souls saved and lives won for Jesus Christ!

Williams family's first hike together! Check out that wink face!

Another shout out to my baby girl Jaz who turns 5 months this week!

Welcome to Texas Loves Utah

Hi and welcome to Texas Loves Utah!

Thank you for joining me here and committing to walk alongside us on what is sure to be the adventure of our lives! As you may know, I am part of a church-planting team who has moved from Weatherford, Texas to Salt Lake County, Utah just this week! I can't believe how time has flown during the months of preparation and now we are finally here!

WHY UTAH?

For the past year or so God has been speaking to our pastor Ben Helton and his wife Kristen, and my husband Cody and I, about an opportunity to re-locate to Salt Lake County, Utah with the purpose of starting a new church and ministering to the lost here. God wants us to be a part of the work He is doing in a city that is less than 2% reached, a city where  almost 30, 000 people live without even 1 Christian church! After a year of prayer and consideration, we have answered “yes” to this call. We are here, together with a church planting team of 4 families, to bring the gospel where it is desperately needed!

 OUR HEARTS

          We want the people of Herriman, Utah to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and to find freedom in His perfect grace and love. The culture we've joined is one of neighborly love, good deeds, and hard work. Still, so many here do not know the GRACE that Jesus died to bring us. Our prayer is that as we are meeting people and building friendships, God will use us to show HIS love- a love that is unconditional and perfect, a love that died on a cross and did ALL the work to make salvation FREE to us!

 JOIN US

The purpose of this blog is to connect you, our body of believers back in Texas and across the nation, with what God will be doing through us in here in Utah. So many of you have surpassed our highest hopes in your generous giving toward this mission. What a blessing it is to know that your hearts are not only to give, but to partner with us as we bring the life-changing gospel of Jesus to Utah! Our hope is that your next step will be to follow along with us via this blog and PRAY for the specific needs you read about here.

 MEET THE TEAM!

Lead Pastor Ben Helton, his wife Kristen, and their kiddos Rachel, Karis, and Jaxson

Adam and Rebecca Harris

Jessica Stephenson

My husband Cody and I, and our baby girl Jaz

Even though we are all super busy settling in right now, God is ALREADY bringing people into our paths that we feel certain we are meant to love and minister to! I want to invite you to follow this blog and see what God has in store for Utah! :)

Check out this video of our first visit to Herriman in Summer 2012. It features other church planters working in here the valley explaining why this is such a wide open mission field. 

http://vimeo.com/47873070