Striding forward

We have recently began two services! On January 18th we added a second service which has brought in some exciting and tough changes. We have had and continue to work on staffing both services with volunteers. This has been a challenge in the sense that we are asking people to serve at two services instead of one.
I believe God knew this was coming though because the people of this church have stepped up and, for the most part, are joyfully serving in areas of Children's ministry, youth ministry, audio/video, music, and our mainstreet ministry (greeters, ushers, parking, and guest info) for two church services. There is still a huge need to get people involved, so please pray that God would touch people's hearts to do so.
So why did we go to two services? We needed the room! God is reaching out to people and they are coming to church to get connected to him! It is exciting! Just this last week, we had some more folks from Colorado City join us.
God is doing some wonderful things in southern Utah and I want to say thank you for your prayers and support!

Recap of December

left: Pastor Tom and myself getting ready for service
The month of December brought about a new experience of a warm winter, followed by a cold Manitoba Christmas.
The first part of the month was exciting as things at SMCC the Springs had seen great growth in November and new connections in December. Being that St. George is a retirement community we had a lot of our regular attenders head out of town yet Sunday service attendance didn't suffer as we had a lot of visitors join us throughout the month. We hope to see many of them stay connected in January.
I did forget to mention that in November we baptized three people who's lives have been changed.
Before Melissa and I headed off to Canada for Christmas I had the privilege of meeting some of our attenders from Colorado City. They are very nice people and it is enjoyable to have them at our church.
While we were in Canada, it is with great pleasure that we are able to report that we also had a very well attended Christmas Eve service. After many mailings and connections sent, we had a full crowd of around 180 in attendance. God is doing some exciting things down here in Utah!
As far as being in Canada, it was cold but nice to connect with family and friends. For those of you who we saw, it was enjoyable and thank you to those of you who have decided to support the ministry down here in Utah. This month, I hope to send you a DVD with more specifics about what is going on down here.