In Psalm 26, we read, “…I come to your altar, O Lord, singing a song of thanksgiving and telling of all your wonders.” I want to take a few minutes to tell you of the wonders God has been doing here at Grace Church during the month of June.
We are blessed and thankful to be almost fully reopened after the pandemic. The final move to reopen will be to relaunch our AWANA clubs this fall (Sept. 8). People are coming back to worship, groups are gathering for fellowship, and it is good to see people’s faces as they enter the church & join together for corporate worship.
- In the month of June, God blessed us with:
- 5 people trusting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior
- 5 adults & 2 teenagers taking the step of baptism
- 5 adults completing our membership class and becoming part of our church family.
- Salvations – 5
- Music was a BIG part of our ministry in May/June.
- HCA band concert
- HCA choir concert
- Caroline Canning’s senior recital
- Night of Worship for the whole church family
- We were blessed by our Annual Church meeting. While that may seem strange to some, our church is of one accord and unified in purpose.
- We exceeded our 2020-21 missions budget and increased our missions budget by $10,000 for 2021-22.
- We made a few changes in our Bylaws to better serve our people.
- New Deacons and Church officers were elected to serve the body.
- A new budget was passed to help us accomplish the vision God has given to us.
- “Supper 8” is our effort to connect the adults in our church body and to introduce new families to our church members. This has been so well received with 90+ adults participating and enjoying meals in each other’s homes.
- Pastor Duane preached on the Sunday that Flora & I were with our family in Virginia. His message on “Rest” was very much needed by the educators in our church, who have been stretched so thin by hybrid learning during COVID.
- Our Grace Family kicked-off our summer Sunday nights with “Worship and Watermelon” on June 13. We had not seen rain in months; but that event had to be moved inside, due to the monsoon! People still came, worshipped, shared testimonies, enjoyed the watermelon and each other’s company.
- We were blessed to honor the dads of our church on Father’s Day. We recognized men in some humorous categories and gave bright colored socks to the winners! That night, the men and sons of our church gathered for a basketball fellowship in our gym.
- Our Grace Ladies hosted a craft night that was VERY well attended! They had such a great time painting pottery and making bird houses. You should take time to visit our Facebook page, to see pictures of this event.
- VBS was back to a normal format this year, although the attendance was slightly lower. We had 300+ participating in the “Treasured” VBS and we also hosted a VBS for adults that was also well attended. Our thanks to Miss Method, all of our volunteers, and the Nicholson’s for directing our adults.
- Summer Day Camp has been a hit this year with 120+ children enrolled. They are having a great time with trips, daily activities, crafts, games, and so much more. We thank God for allowing us to open up to the public again this summer.
- We also thank God for the excitement we are seeing as we look toward the fall.
- AWANA returns on Wednesday, Sept. 8
- Our new Equipping-U will also launch with a 4-year discipleship track made-up of 12-16 in-depth classes including: Doctrinal studies, OT Survey, NT Survey, Bibliology and more!
- Our LIFEgroups will become “Connection groups” and some new efforts will be made to connect our church family and revamp our curriculum for more participation.
- We’re also adding a brand new weekly welcome class for our first-time guests.
- Finally, there is so much happening at Highlands Christian Academy!
- Our enrollment looks GREAT for 2021-2022 with many new students joining our HCA family.
- All of our teaching positions have now been filled and we believe God has brought us some wonderful and exciting educators who are excited about their subjects, but also committed to our “Biblical Immersion” model.
The list of blessings goes on and on! We take no credit and give God ALL the glory for the things HE is doing at Grace and Highlands. We also thank each of our family members, who are embracing the mission and supporting the vision.
