Summer 2016: Part 2

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!

We are SO enjoying the fall temps here in Utah! But before we jump straight in to the new season, we want to share our youth group's amazing summer with you. 

We absolutely love working with Utah teenagers. The majority of our youth group are students whose families are also new to Biblical Christianity. Our students are diving into the Bible's teachings right alongside their parents, and it is a beautiful thing to watch father and son, mother and daughter work out its implications together, transforming into the likeness of Christ, as we all do-one day at a time.

JUNE: Youth Camp

For the 3rd consecutive summer, we teamed up with 5 other Bible-teaching churches here in the valley for camp where our students were challenged to search for their identities in Christ, not in who the world says they are. Camp is always such an encouraging time for our students as they are reminded that they are not alone in their Christian walks. Please continue to pray for them as they enter a new school year and once again are surrounded by their peers who believe differently than they do. Pray that God gives them courage and wisdom to share Truth in love, and that their faith would be strengthened daily as they come face to face with opposition. Check out these pics from camp:

Mountaintop Worship

Paint Wars!

JULY: Mission Trip to Los Angeles

We took a group of 11 students into the heart of Los Angeles to serve the people who live and work there. We had the privilege of partnering with Center for Student Missions (CSM) who provided our students with a mission opportunity that we wholeheartedly believe changed their lives forever.

CSM partners with ministries in urban centers who work year-round and are in need of short-term volunteers. Our students were given the opportunity to use their gifts to share the love of Jesus through meeting both physical and spiritual needs of the people we will meet. How awesome to think that the youth of Lifestone Church served on the front line of ministry right here in our own nation and had the privilege of "helping the weak" in Jesus' name! Paul writes in the New Testament: 

"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Acts 20:35 (NIV)

Check out this mission trip testimonial written by Janessa Calton, a high school senior who was on our youth trip to LA this summer and was kind enough to share her thoughts on the trip with us. 

"This trip to California was unlike any other. This was a trip of of love, of the genuine love of Jesus. We saw the side of California that most people don't see or don't like to think about. I was impacted most by getting to know the people who really live on the streets of California. We got to share the love of Jesus throughout the city of L.A. Before, when I thought of homelessness I just thought it was sad, and there was nothing I could do about it. I also thought they had messed up really bad to be where they're at. I now know that it's so much more than that. We learned that you don't need a dime to help- you just need to know how to listen. I've learned that homelessness is different than what most people think- every situation, circumstance, and story is different. All of us screw up, but not one of us deserves to be ignored. Most of all, I learned that in the end I am no different, Jesus taught me that."

Road Trip!

Our students served lunch to over 120 guests
at the Long Beach Rescue Mission.

"Pastries in the Park" opened the door for a lot of conversations
with LA residents and also for impromptu salsa lessons!

After our debrief at Santa Monica Pier, we decided
we might as well take full advantage and enjoy...

 Our understanding of true service and putting the needs of others before our own grew tremendously as we served the people of LA. We closed each day with a discussion of the challenges and rewards of service, how it made us feel to serve selflessly, what it really means to make an impact on individuals, families, communities, and eternities.

AUGUST: Fall Kickoff Bowling Party 

We had a blast bowling and officially welcomed 7 new 6th graders into our youth group!

Please continue to pray for our church plant here in Herriman, Utah. This weekend will be our first Sunday in our new facility! If you haven't already, check out our previous post for renovation pics! We'll post soon with "final reveal" pics and information on how to pray for our upcoming official grand opening.  We can't wait to celebrate 3 years of service by welcoming the families in our community to our beautiful new home!

Summer 2016: Part 1

WELCOME BACK TO TEXAS LOVES UTAH!

Monday, August 1st marked 3 years since our team packed up our lives and moved from Weatherford, TX here to Herriman, UT to plant a Bible-teaching church in the largest U.S. city without one! 

God has been so faithful to bless our new church plant and to grow a healthy church family. It's crazy to think that 3 short years ago, we were inviting our friends and neighbors to join us for worship in the basement of our pastor's home. What a privilege it has been to see 50+ come to know Jesus as Lord and many, many families join in our efforts to see this valley reached for the Kingdom!

KID'S LIFE CAMP 2016

Kid's Life Camp (aka VBS) was a HUGE success! It was awesome to see the people of Lifestone Church come together to put on this amazing outreach event for our community! You'll notice in the following video that we had TONS of teenagers helping out! A BIG shoutout to FBC Powell, Tennessee who sent a mission team of 32 students and adults to serve at Lifestone's Kid's Life Camp-We couldn't have done it without you!!

WATCH KID'S LIFE CAMP VIDEO HERE!

Please join us in thanking God for this opportunity to tell 62 1st-5th graders about God's love for them! Our big event culminated at what we called "The After Party" where we invited participants' families to our Sunday morning service to watch as campers shared the songs and dances they learned during the week. After the service, everyone was invited outside for a BBQ picnic, bounce houses & snow cones. This party was an awesome opportunity to welcome several new families to worship and fellowship with us at Lifestone on a Sunday morning!

NEW FACILITY RENOVATION
We are in awe, to say the least, at how quickly God has provided us a church home. As you read in the last post, we have been GIVEN a 1.3 million dollar property including a building structure just 4 miles down the road from our current meeting location, HIGHLY visible, and on a very well-traveled street. Over the past 9 weeks, volunteers have been selflessly giving of their time and efforts to tear down and re-build virtually every existing wall in order to maximize the space we have. The new layout will offer us an expanded lobby, worship area, and children's areas for both elementary and preschool/nursery.

We kicked off construction with a 
church-wide demo day!

Soon after, new walls were going up!

Remember that group from Tennessee? 
They spent a couple afternoons 
working at our building as well! 

A little landscaping action!

Thank you again, FBC Powell!

Please pray that God continues to provide the financial resources and workers needed to reach our project completion goal of late September. If you feel called to give toward our project goal of 10k, please do so below.

Please notate that you are giving toward this specific project by adding .10 to the amount. Gifts are tax-deductible. Thank you for giving!

 GIVE HERE

The Big Announcement!

Hello, Texas, and all who follow and pray along here at Texas Loves Utah. We have some awesome news to share with you...

GOD HAS BLESSED US WITH A CHURCH HOME! 

Click here for a  VIDEO TOUR of our new facility 

and to hear Pastor Ben share our plan for renovation!

We are still in awe that we have been GIVEN a 1.3 million dollar property including a building structure. As you heard in the video, our new property is 4 miles down the road from our current meeting location, HIGHLY visible, and on a very well-travelled street. We are so thankful that Pastor Sam Coleman of South Valley Baptist Church led his church to give in this way! 

NO MORE MOBILE CHURCH 

If you have ever been a part of a mobile church, you know how taxing weekly setup and teardown can be. Setting up the stage, the musical and A/V equipment, kids' areas, cafe and welcome centers week after week... all to tear it down a couple hours later. We cannot tell you how excited we are to be able to take this burden off our faithful volunteers and free them up to serve in other ways! There really is rest for the weary..    

THE PLAN

Lifestone Church will continue to rent space throughout the summer at the high school on Sunday mornings during renovation. We hope to complete Phase 1 by late August which is to renovate the current structure and to create space for our current attendance. Soon after, we will begin to add square footage and look ahead at how to create space for all those God wants us to reach!

PLEASE PRAY

Please, please join us in thanking and praising God for answering our prayer for a church home more quickly and more beautifully  than we could have ever hoped or imagined. Pray that we are good stewards of this amazing gift, that this resource will be used for generations to come as we work to share the Love of our Savior with the residents of this valley.

Easter 2016

 Thank you for your prayers! God met and exceeded our expectations with well over 200 people present to celebrate Easter at Lifestone and hear about the transforming love and grace of Jesus!

Our awesome band kicked off the morning
by leading us in songs of celebration!

 Ben's sermon focused on the concept that we can indeed find love, hope, peace, friends, and truth when we trust Jesus as Lord!

Here's the front of the mailer we
 sent out to 10,000 homes in
our area.

Kid's Life Elementary wrapped up a 4 week series that answered the question "Why Do We Celebrate Easter" through Phil Visher's new "What's in the Bible" curriculum. These puppets, crazy videos and songs have been a hit already and our kids are thrilled to hear that they'll be going through the entire Bible with these fun characters this year!

                                      

Our Kid's Life Preschool class learned about how the 

entire Bible points us to God's Big Rescue Plan: Jesus!

                                       

                                       

We love family pics with the Easter Bunny!

                                                     

                                       

                                                   

We sent each new family home with a "movie night" gift bucket including a pamphlet with info on how they can "GET CONNECTED" in the existing ministries at Lifestone!

Our celebration culminated on a soccer field with a gorgeous mountain view where over 3,000 eggs and hundreds of oversized lollipops awaited our eager little hunters!

                                      

                                     

                                                     

The After Party.....

                                       

Sorry, ladies, the bunny is a married man!

Please continue to follow and pray along here!

 We believe God is not finished with Lifestone Church Herriman yet. We believe He will continue the good work He's started until the day of Christ Jesus!