The Newest Addition

Hello, Texas and each of you who follows along and prays along with us here at Texas Loves Utah! Just a quick message to thank you for your patience as I (Keely) take some time at home with my brand new baby girl! Thank you for continuing to pray for our church plant here in Herriman! Pray that many hear the Good News of Jesus' Grace for the first time this Christmas season! We promise to fill you in on all God is doing here very soon!

Baby Girl Jayden Mae born to Cody & Keely Williams
November 11, 2014

Next Steps

As promised, here is the video showing our October 12th One Year Anniversary and Baptism Celebration! Thank you for continuing to pray for each of these new believers as they learn to walk in a daily relationship with Jesus. Our next Baptism Celebration is scheduled for Sunday, November 23rd! We are so grateful to watch as new friends take their first step of obedience after trusting in Jesus!

We also ask that you continue to pray as we outgrow the meeting room where we hold our Sunday service. We are currently looking into several options including meeting at a school, renting commercial space, or providing 2 Sunday services at the Rec Center where we meet now. We trust that God will guide us in this exciting next step, and we appreciate your prayers as He closes and opens doors for us!

One Year Anniversary Celebration

Welcome back, y'all! On Sunday morning, October 12th, we celebrated one full year of being open to the public in Herriman, Utah. We opened the celebration in the Rec Center's natatorium with the baptism of 13 new believers!!! We are so thankful for each individual life that has been changed and made new through the amazing grace of Jesus Christ! 

I've included a few preview pics for you here. We are also currently working on a video that captured the entire morning, and I will post that video as soon as it's ready!

 After the Baptism ceremony, we returned to our worship room where we enjoyed birthday cake and balloons, worship through music, and a One Year Celebration video in which the people of Lifestone had the opportunity to share what they love most about our church! 

Check out that video here.


We'd also like to share with you this congratulatory email to our pastor from North American Mission Board's Send City Coordinator:

Ben,

I'm writing to say congratulations to you and Lifestone Church for seeing the highest number of conversions among all the Send Salt Lake plants over the last 12 months.  From Oct, 2013 to Sept, 2014, you reported 22 professions of faith/ baptisms, nearly triple the average number of conversions among all of the plants.  

Keep up the great work.  We're praying for you daily.

Travis S. Kerns, Ph.D.

North American Mission Board, SBC

Send>>North America City Coordinator

Send Salt Lake City

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to each of you who have supported Lifestone Utah through prayer, encouragement, and finances. We are witnessing quite a harvest here in Herriman. Thank you for allowing God to use you as such a vital part of what He is doing!

93 and Counting...

A happy little praise report from Herriman, Utah! Last Sunday there were 93 souls present at Lifestone's service! On October 12th, we hope to baptize 10 or even more new believers!  We know that all of this is an answer to YOUR prayer and thank each of you who agrees in prayer weekly-even daily that God will do a big work here. As we come up on our one year anniversary, we are just in awe of all that He has done in the past year. 

As God continues to grow Lifestone in number, PLEASE be in prayer that He guides Pastor Ben on his search for a new meeting facility for Sunday mornings. We have officially reached and exceeded full capacity (Sorry, Mr. Fire Code) at the Rec Center and are currently seeking what God has for us next. Pray that God provides a place where many more will come to know Him, where the masses of Herriman, Utah can be reached for Jesus Christ!

Next post, I promise you a full report of our October 12th Anniversary festivities including Baptism pics and the details on all God will do at Lifestone that day! We are expecting big things as we celebrate such an amazing year of harvest here in Herriman!

CAN'T WAIT TO CELEBRATE!

Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! We are so grateful for each of you who reads along and prays along as we work to bring the love and grace of Jesus to the people of Utah. We trust that you will continue to pray for Lifestone Church and for the other churches in our part of the country who want to see Jesus' love change the lives of the people here!

On Sunday morning, October 12th, we will celebrate our year anniversary of being officially open to the public of Herriman, Utah! There is so much to celebrate! This past month our attendance has averaged 75 and this coming week 5 small groups will begin meeting to connect with each other and God's Word! We are still discussing the details of how we will celebrate. We plan to create a video in which individuals have the opportunity to share how God has used Lifestone in their lives. (I'll definitely be sharing this video with you as soon as it's ready!) We have also talked about doing a cookout or some type of luncheon following the service. 

What we are SUPER excited about, though, is that on October 12th we will celebrate our third Baptism Celebration! We can't think of a better way to celebrate a year of all God has done than to invite the newest believers in our congregation to participate in the first step of obedience: Believer's Baptism! Several individuals have come forth recently with questions regarding Baptism, what it means and why we do it. It is our prayer that many will choose to make their decisions public in this way, and that the 12th will be a day on which God's love is proclaimed in a big way! Praise Report! On Wednesday night at Youth Group, TWO students prayed to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior! God is certainly doing a big work in the lives of our students here. We had 18 in attendance this week and the students were incredibly eager to join in on our discussion of the simplicity of the Gospel-how Jesus did it all for us! Pray for the courage of many who, like these two students, have put their trust in Jesus and are ready to take the next step of Baptism! Pray that these Baptisms serve as a powerful picture of what Christ has done for all of us and that those who witness will have a clear understanding of the Good News.

Also, please be in prayer for those families in our church, and other churches in the area, who have recently moved out of the local culture's religion and are navigating their way through a new life in Christ. So many of these new believers have such a hard time grasping the concepts of grace and freedom as they have lived their entire lives bound by hundreds of rules and unreachable standards. Pray that each morning the Holy Spirit gives them the assurance of their new-found salvation-despite their imperfection! Pray that God guides them out of a life ruled by religion and into a relationship with Jesus. The gift of amazing grace and its simplicity can be so hard to grasp, even to those who have not lived in such a rigorous religious system. 

Thank you for your prayers and encouraging words-each of you is such a treasure to us. I leave you with the Great Commission and pray that you might heed these famous words of Jesus in your own corner of the world! 

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 NLT

Year TWO!

WELCOME BACK!

Two weeks ago, our Texas church planting team celebrated one full year of Utah residency! We had fun reminiscing about all our experiences as brand new "Utah-ans". Each of us has now passed the driving test to obtain our Utah state driver's liscence, and we all have cool Ski/Arches Utah plates adorning our vehicles. The men in our group have experienced the back-breaking work that is shoveling snow and now have a better understanding of why we see some men outside shoveling in nothing but shorts and boots! We have hiked through national parks and forests, we’ve seen both sunrises and sunsets over the mountains, and we have skied some of the best snow this country has to offer! 

Most importantly, we've gotten a real taste of the spiritual depravity that dwells right here in this beautiful landscape. Our hearts break as we watch our neighbors and friends work to earn grace. The reality of why we are here sets in daily as our co-workers joke that they’ll never go to Heaven because they’re not good enough. We understand now more than ever why God's heart is to reach these precious people with His love and the GRACE He offers through His Son! 

We enter this coming fall season with much anticipation of the work God will do through us. We would love to see God grow our Sunday attendance from our current average of 60 to around 100 by mid-October, when Lifestone Herriman will celebrate our one year anniversary of being open to the public! We also plan to have 4-5  separate small groups who will meet during the week to fellowship and study God's Word! Please pray that God continues to bring up new leadership within our church. As we grow, we are in constant need of disciples to step up and lead new believers as they, too, learn to walk in all God has for them.  Over the past year, we have seen many lives changed through Jesus' love, and we trust that God has great things in store for the year ahead as well!

Check out these pics from one of our small groups...our Youth Lifegroup!

Utah teens diving into God's word!

Prayer Huddle!

Students used marshmallows and spaghetti noodles to
 discover the importance of a strong foundation...

and dominoes to remind us the potential
 of the actions of one individual!

Thank you, TEXAS, and to each of you...for LOVING UTAH through your prayers, encouragement, and giving! Greater things are yet to come!  

ONE YEAR!

                                ONE YEAR ALREADY?!

Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! This weekend marks one full year since our move from Weatherford, Texas here to Herriman, Utah!!! What a year it's been! God has certainly blessed each of us by making this new city feel like home with so many new friends and amazing stories of what God is doing! Thank you to each of you back in Texas and around the globe who have helped make this transition easier on us. Year one would have been a whole lot tougher without your prayers, your financial support, your encouraging letters and sweet Facebook messages! 

KID'S CLUB! 

Check out these pics from our Kid's Club a couple weeks back! This Bible school in the park was a HUGE success! We were able to share the Gospel with about 30 kids and we also had the opportunity to meet several new families at Party in the Park (pics also below!) 

Our favorite story from Kid's Club week: One family in particular, whose kiddos had attended Kid's Club all week, attended Party in the Park at the close of the week. After hanging out with Mom and Dad and listening to their story, we learned that just 6 months ago they made the decision to leave their old faith in order to seek the Jesus of the Bible!!! This family attended our Sunday morning service that weekend and has continued to attend Sunday mornings, our small group Bible study for adults, and their teenage son has been attending our Bible study for youth! GOD IS GOOD!!! Pray for this sweet family as they begin to learn more about GRACE, about God's SIMPLE plan for salvation. Pray for them as they struggle with stepping away from the teachings they've always known, as they step away from the faith of their families, as they seek out TRUTH despite all the obstacles. Pray that they quickly find that Jesus' yoke really is easy and that His burden is light! We could not be more excited about walking along-side our new friends as they discover what it means to be children of God!

Bible study in the shade:)

North American Mission Board missionaries agree to have their hair painted green-all for Jesus!

Cheetoh puff toss!
Target: head covered in shaving cream!

PARTY IN THE PARK!

We got to use NAMB's sweet party trailer-
complete with 3 bounce houses,
blow up slide, cotton candy, snow cones, and popcorn!

Grill Masters!!!

Chillin'.

Busy, Blessed Summer!

Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! Thank you to each of you who have followed and prayed along on this awesome journey! We count ourselves so blessed to be a part of God's work here in Herriman, Utah, bringing Jesus' love and grace and planting a new church to a community where there has never before been a Bible-teaching church!

Lifestone Church's youth group returned from camp at the beautiful Big Canyon Ranch (near Park City) last week! Our students had an AMAZING time and enjoyed a peak hike, a bungee swing, climbing and rappelling, paintball, and team adventure challenges. They also had the opportunity to study God's word and worship Him along-side about 70 peer believers! We are so thankful that God is working in each of their lives, and we are excited to see how He continues to grow each of them into disciples ready to reach the world with His Good News!

Praise songs after a long hike to this beautiful mountaintop!

Go girl!

Climb on!

Wheeeeeee!

This summer has been busy- Lifestone also had the opportunity to return to a local elementary school to love on teachers and thank them for a year of hard work. The faculty and staff of 60 enjoyed a lounge-turned-luau including a catered lunch and ice cream floats! We love showing love and encouragement to these teachers! We are so thankful for the privilege of letting these men and women know that we are here, that we love them, and that God loves them!

PLEASE BE PRAYING:

Next week, Tuesday through Friday, we will have our first annual "Kid's Club". We will meet at a local park and invite kids to enjoy an obstacle course, soccer, water games, and Bible stories. Camp will come to a close with bang- PARTY IN THE PARK Friday evening, where we'll invite all of the families of the kids we meet to join our church family for hot dogs, snow cones, a bounce house, and water games. Pray that each child and his/her family experiences the love of Jesus through our efforts. Pray that hearts are opened to Christ and that many even join us for worship Sunday morning! We are so excited about this super fun way for us to love on Herriman kids and their families and share Jesus' love with them! 

Herriman Days!

Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! We are having such a blast loving God and loving people this summer in Herriman, Utah! This past Saturday was the annual Fort Herriman Days celebration, which included concerts, a carnival, bike and running races, a car show, and local vendor booths, and we were so happy to take part in the festivities! The Lifestone Church booth offered free hand puppet painting for the kiddos and passed out 1,000 pairs of sunglasses (with our church web address printed on the side) as well as 1,000 invite cards to our Sunday morning worship services! This event was such a cool opportunity to tell Herriman that we are here and that we love them! Check out these pics from our day o' fun!

Lookin' good!

One happy family sportin' our sweet shades!

North American Mission Board missionaries donned Lifestone gear and served at our booth!

Check out that view!

Herriman Royalty!

Also, please be in prayer for our upcoming youth camp! This Sunday, we leave to take a group of students to Big Canyon Ranch in the beautiful mountains near Park City. This camp, put on by some of our fellow Bible-teaching churches here in the valley, will give our students the opportunity to hear the Good News- like they've never heard it before- and spend 4 days with other believers their age! Pray that these students will experience who God is and get a glimpse of all the amazing things He has in store for their lives! 

Much to Celebrate!

We were happy to learn this week that the latest issue of On Mission, a magazine sent to all Send North America associates, mentioned our church plant! 

"Until October 2013, Herriman, Utah was the largest city in the United States without an evangelical church. Send North America: Salt Lake City coordinator Travis Kerns reported the history-making change with the launch of Lifestone Church in Herriman, population 24, 433. 'In October Lifestone started with church planter Ben Helton,' said Kerns. 'In March Lifestone celebrated its first baptism!'"

Sidenote: The aforementioned Travis Kerns and his family joined our congregation this Spring, and we could not be more thrilled to have them as part of our church family! Both Travis and his wife Staci serve faithfully alongside us in various volunteer roles as we work to bring the Good News of Jesus to the lost here!

That's right! You're not seeing things! We were blessed with the opportunity to hold our second baptism celebration here in Herriman this past Sunday! Two believers were immersed in celebration of their decisions to surrender their lives to Christ! Praise God that He is using our church to change lives for eternity!

Please continue to pray for Lifestone Herriman and also for the other plants here in the valley. The longer we are here, the more we see the truth of how challenging this mission field really is. Pray that we are persistent, yet gentle, as we come face to face daily with the realities of a culture in desperate need of grace.

"Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth."

2 Timothy 2:25 (NLT)