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)

Jesus Loves Utah Teens!

Wednesday Night Youth Group Bible Study 

Hey y'all...

I'd like to share with you a little about our student ministry here at Lifestone, Utah so that you can pray for these kiddos in very specific ways. We've been meeting with the student group for 3 weeks now, and we have grown in number so quickly! We met with only 2 girls on our first evening, and last night there were 11 in attendance! 

We meet with them at a local cafe and it has been a ton of fun. We hang out, usually play a little game, then dig in for a brief Bible study. We also plan a couple of fun activities each month that kids can feel very comfortable inviting their friends to. Tomorrow night, we're going to meet them at a nearby park for a game of Ultimate Frisbee! Our prayer is that we not only have a good turnout but that we meet other kids while we're there as well. 

Late June, we're partnering with 5 other Bible-teaching churches for a Youth Camp up in the mountains near Park City! Be jealous-we'll need jeans and jackets up there! Pray that students continue to sign up to come with us and that God changes their lives while they're there!

Right away, it was extremely evident to us that these kids are super Bible-illiterate. They are truly a product of the culture here where families either consider themselves non-religious or they prioritize other "scriptural" books above the Holy Bible. Pray for patience for us as we teach the Bible beginning with the most basic concepts. What a difference this is from teaching in Texas, where even kids who don't attend church at all know the story of Jesus and what He did for us.

Already, in our small group, we have students from families of no faith, FLDS (Polygamy) and Buddhism. As we work to instill them with the Truth of the Bible, we are also having to work to un-do a lot of false teaching that they have come to believe. 

We think about how cool it might be to have these students grow into mature, servant-hearted followers of Jesus. They will certainly be the minority here, but, wow, the impact they will have!

Please, please, please be in prayer for our youth leaders, the students and also their families. Pray that they learn to love Jesus with all their hearts and with all their lives. Thank you for your continued prayer for Lifestone Church and the work God is doing here. Together with your prayers, we really can make an eternal difference!

NAMB Video!

Hello Texas! 

  Check out this video the North American Mission Board created for their "Send North America" campaign. The video specifically promotes the support of church plants here in Utah. Lifestone Church is highlighted quite a bit including clips of our pastor, Ben Helton, our praise team in action, and also our recent baptism ceremony! Please pass this video along to any church group or individual who you think might support us or pray for us!

God is doing amazing things here in Utah, and we know that YOUR prayers have so much to do with that! He continues to send people to Lifestone Church who are questioning who Jesus really is and we have had the amazing privilege of leading many to Christ! We ask that you continue to pray for Lifestone Utah, that the impact we have on His Kingdom is beyond any of our imaginations! (Ephesians 3:20)


Lots of Love from Utah!
Keely Williams and the Lifestone Team

Your prayers were SO answered!

Hello Texas! We can't thank you enough for your amazing faithfulness in praying for our Easter service here at Lifestone Utah. We totaled 125 people on Sunday- over double our previous attendance record and about triple our current average! The weather was perfect-72 degrees and sunny, and our festivities went off without a hitch. We enjoyed a 600-egg hunt, balloon animals, and pics with the Easter Bunny!

How exciting to witness such a huge work that God is so obviously in the midst of! Please continue to pray that God uses our new church to reach the lost here with the Good News of who Jesus really is and what He really has done! Enjoy the pics!

Easter Promo Video!

As promised, here is the Easter promo video for our church! I think you'll be very pleased! We will use this video as a Facebook advertisement, email it out to our attenders, and show it in our services. Please pray that God uses this creative project to help bring the people of Herriman, Utah to hear the best news ever this Easter!

Calling All Prayer Warriors

WELCOME
Thank you for joining us back here at Texas Loves Utah! For those of you who are new to the blog, we are a team of 4 families who moved from Weatherford, Texas here to Herriman, Utah with the purpose of planting a new church and ministering to the lost here. Our new church, Lifestone is the first ever Bible-based church to be planted in this city, one that is considered by the North American Mission Board to be less than 2% reached for Jesus! With your support and prayers, and through the power and love of our Almighty God, we are here to change that statistic! Please check out the previous posts to learn all that God has been up to in the past 7 months since our move, and we invite you to follow along and pray along as God's plan for Herriman, Utah unfolds!

EASTER
We ask that you begin praying today for our Easter service on April 20th. As you all know, Easter Sunday is a huge opportunity to welcome families into your Sunday service who might not attend on any other Sunday. We have big plans for promoting Lifestone's first Easter service and for making it a day parents and kids will never forget! One of our new friends here has already agreed to dress up as the Easter Bunny for a funny promotional video that we plan to post on Facebook and other online outlets! I'll do my best to get that video posted here on the blog, too, so all of you back home can laugh along! Pray, pray, pray that God brings the masses to hear the TRUE message of Easter! So many here have never been introduced to the Jesus you and I know and love.

HUGE PRAISE REPORT!
Phil and Ashley Smith, our friends from Weatherford, are moving here this weekend to join in on the work God is doing through our church plant! We are so thankful that God has provided Phil a nursing job here, and we are trusting God to provide the Smiths a permanent home quickly!

THANK YOU
Thank you, Texas, and to our prayer warriors around the world. You are such a big part of the work God is doing here. PRAYER CAN DO ANYTHING GOD CAN DO!