Update and Upcoming

One of the most exciting things happening right now with Vision Onward is witnessing the people we have made contacts with coming to church. Although, coming to church is NOT the ultimate goal. . . .developing a relationship with Christ is. . . .it is an exciting first step toward that process. This past Sunday we were able to pick up 4 boys to bring to church and one of the mothers plans on attending with us in a couple of weeks. One of the boys we took this wanted to light a candle during worship for an answered prayer. Jeff asked him what prayer had been answered and he said, "That you would pick me up for church." Wow, talk about a goose bump moment. It brought tears to my eyes when Jeff told me.

We also saw another woman with her children that we met at the Walk This Way event attend this past Sunday. Many people at the Walk This Way event were asking us what church we attended and it seems to have sparked their interest in checking out our church. We pray that they will feel welcomed and loved at Grace and continue pursuing a relationship with Christ.

Jeff has been brainstorming about what steps to take next with Vision Onward and he has decided that we should always have 2 short term goals and 1 long term goal that we are working toward. Our two current short term goals include :

1. Ya'Way / Vision Onward Building- Jeff is going to be going out to Colorado to attend an event that The Big Red Bus is having in order to get a feel for how they utilize their bus for ministry. Also, to see some technical issues of bus design, set up, and tearing down type stuff. We have a lot of work ahead of us in reconstructing the bus. There is also a lot of work to do on the building to get it in good enough condition to use.

2. Deeds 4 Needs - -We are working on finishing up the "real" Deeds 4 Needs website that will hopefully be much more user friendly for everyone with much more information on it as well. Jeff's vision is to make this website a nationwide website that can be utilized anywhere in the country as long as there is an administrator in the area.

Our long term goal at this point is working on an apartment complex that we can begin to use for transitional housing for struggling families. While the families are staying in the transitional housing, we want to be able to have mentors teaching them important life skills and helping them learn how to handle their finances. We would allow the families to live there for 6 months as long as they are working and following the requirements that are agreed upon in the beginning. This would allow them to work on restoring their credit if needed and to also save money to go toward their future housing. This is also a great opportunity to build relationships for spiritual mentoring as well.

As far as upcoming events, we are planning on having a GARAGE SALE / WORK DAY at the Vision Onward building on Tuxedo on October 20th. We want to have the blow ups out for the kids, maybe cook out some burgers and hot dogs, work on the building and/or the bus and have the garage sale all at the same time. If anyone has anything they would like to donate toward the garage sale, please call Jeff at 350-0205 to set up a drop off or pick up time.

We would also like to serve a THANKSGIVING DINNER in November, but this will depend on the progress of the building. If the building is in good enough condition, we would like to serve dinner to many of the families we have made contact with over the past few months.

We will have more details to all of the upcoming activities in the near future.


"Joy comes not from finding ways to skirt God's plan, but by living in harmony with it." -Jeff Myers Passing the Baton