Garage Sale / Work Day Success

It was a long day yesterday, but much was accomplished. We sold tons of stuff at the garage sale and there was a lot of work on the building completed.

There are 3 rooms we want to get completed in the building as soon as possible so we can start using it. Although we did not complete all the work we had hoped to, we did raise enough money from the garage sale to cover the costs for all the supplies that were purchased for these 3 rooms.

We are very grateful for all the donations from people in the community for the garage sale! We had a ton of stuff to sell.

We are also thankful to all of our friends who showed up to pitch in with the garage sale and the construction on the building. There are so many to name and I will try to cover them all- - -Jude, Mindi & Lake Henry, Kipplyn, RandiKate & Chandler Summers, Frank & Shonna Dickinson, Laura Jones, Derrick Royer, Rob Nyoff, Henry, Rainbow, Johno, Chelsey, Daniel Walker, Alex, Rachel, & Dominique Feria, Mike & Kara Howze, Kristin Girard, Jim & Laura Robertson, Seth, and John. I hope that covered everyone- - -sorry if I missed someone!

We still have a lot of stuff left over and we are considering holding another sale next month!

We also want to give a HUGE thank you to the Nyoff family- - -especially Jim and Rob! They are a new family in Bartlesville and they have been such a huge blessing to us and to Vision Onward. They have jumped right in and have been able to help us with lots of "construction" things that we would have NEVER been able to do on our own. It has been so neat watching how God continues to place exactly the right people in our paths in order to accomplish His plans. It is also neat to watch how God is using other people, who are willing to serve, to advance His kingdom. The Nyoff's are an awesome example of servants of God and we are so very thankful for them!!!

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

GARAGE SALE / WORK DAY Saturday, October 20th

We will be having our garage sale / work day this Saturday from 7 am - 4 pm at the new Vision Onward building located at 301 Tuxedo. We will serve donuts for breakfast and have hamburgers & hot dogs for lunch. We will also have the blow ups out for the kids to play!! Come on out and enjoy the day with us while we work on the building and have our garage sale! If you have anything you would like to donate for the garage sell, contact Jeff at 350-0205!

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