June Update!

ear Friends,

It's a been a while since my last update, and for that I apologize. I trust that this letter finds you all doing well, growing in the Lord, and enjoying his Grace daily.

Life as a church planter has been a roller coaster ride, to say the least. There are very high ups and very low downs. But through it all, we are learning a radical kind of trust and dependence upon Jesus Christ. At church, on Sundays, we just finished a sermon series through the book of Philippians and was so encouraged at the last few sermons on how much God provides for his people. Just a mini-recap: God provides a peace in all our anxieties (Phil. 4:6,7), God provides a Contentment in any and every situation through Christ (Phil. 4:13), and God promises to meet all our needs (Phil.4:19). [You can listen to these sermons and others on our website: www.mygracepoint.org] Personally, for me, these promises of provision have sustained me to continue the work of Church Planting, serving our people, and loving our Community.

Summers at GracePoint are fun times. Our Men's & Women's Groups are committed to doing some Reach Out events with one another as we take a break from regular meetings.

Our GracePoint family has also grown a bit. We've added three more stable families to our numbers, two more college students, and some regular visitors! Our group is also looking more and more diverse ethnically with more Caucasian and Latinos!

Summer Kids @ GracePoint is a new summer program for our kids and our Community kids. Once a month, we provide a fun service to our families at our church for free of charge. A few weeks ago, we had a great time in our first activity: Movie Night. We transformed our "sanctuary" into a Stadium Seating Theatre and hosted 19 kids from our church and from our Santa Clarita Community!

Our next Summer Kids event is next week, a Craft & Ice Cream Sundaes extravaganza! Through these events, we really hope to build bridges and connect with our Community. Please pray for our Summer Kids program throughout the summer.

As for our other pressing matters, financially, we are in more need than we ever have been. As said earlier, the last three sermons in Philippians have been a great source of encouragement for Sindy and me. Particularly, the last section where Paul thanks the church for their "sharing in his troubles" (4:14), the church sending Paul "aid again and again" when he was in need (4:16), and finally, how much he was overflowing and so "amply supplied" by their gifts and love (4:18). We learned this past Sunday that God supernaturally blesses his people to meet their needs through the work and support of his children!

Friends, we believe this promise and wholeheartedly embrace the power of God to meet all our needs (4:19). And we know that He uses people like you to supply our needs, to encourage us, pray with us, and to share in our troubles. What a sweet fellowship that for us, in the eyes of the Lord, and for the watching world to see.

I hope that you'll be able to give and join us in this Gospel work in Santa Clarita, Ca. More and more we are meeting people who are somewhat "churched" but know very little of who Jesus is and what a renewed and free life in the Gospel looks like.

We are so indebted to those who are continually giving and supporting our work here. Every month, your donations give us strength and hope to continue. Thank You.

Here is a link and how you can donate to the Gospel work here:

https://processor.pcanet.org/mna/donationsII/donation.cfm

A few instructions:
1. Under the Donation Heading, choose Church Planter/Staff (not Ministry Type)
2. Scroll down to "Park, James- Santa ClaritaValley, Ca"
3. Fill in Amount
4. Fill in the Rest (Your personal info & your CC info).

Friends, thank you so much for your support and backing. Truly God is good to us in providing us with your love, support, and fellowship.

Big News for GracePoint!

Dear Friends & Family,

“Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;” These words of the famous Puritan prayer, the Valley of Vision, can sum up our time thus far as church planters, in the valley, and I’m not talking about the Santa Clarita Valley.

The “Valley” is commonly understood as a deep, dark, and lonely place. For the past year, this Valley has been our home. Later on, the Puritan prayer says that this “valley is the place of vision.” Friends, it’s only by being in this Valley that God has given us a hope and a vision for GracePoint.

Since we started in February of 2009, we have been meeting at home locations, first my sister’s home and then our home in Valencia for the past seven months. We have had some visitors and some good Reach Out events, but nothing to build upon. So, our vision for 2010 is Reach Out and our biggest and boldness Reach Out move is just that… to move!

We have just recently acquired a warehouse space in the Valencia Industrial Center as the

new GracePoint location! The space is perfect for us. We’ve been waiting for a place like this to rent and we thank God for opening doors for us!

Obviously, this Vision requires much help & support from others, like you. GracePoint has saved up enough for a few months, but in order to lease it for the one year (required), we need your help. Let me explain further why this Vision is so necessary.

Visiting a new church is not always easy, in fact, most people dislike it. Add to that, visiting a church that meets in a home is even more awkward. Do they have a meeting room? Where do our kids meet? Can you even have church in a home? Visitors normally want to sit in the back and be unnoticed. That can’t happen in a home where this is no “back”! We need a site to attract more visitors and to make our visitors feel comfortable and safe in a Church setting.

Finally, most of you know that I am a sports fan and so I’ll quote from one of my favorite sports movies, “If you build it, they will come” (Field of Dreams, 1989). Now, we don’t expect to see miles of cars lining up to come to GracePoint after we move, but we do expect to see significant growth and interest after the Lord “builds it.”

If you are familiar with the Valley of Vision prayer, it is full of paradoxes. As Sindy and I were sharing, praying, and crying recently, we came up with a new paradox that’s not in the Prayer: “To go backwards is to go forward.” I wish I had the time to tell you all about our journey and our time in the “Valley.” But for now, I hope this is enough to encourage you and to elicit your prayers and support.

Friends, this is the biggest, boldest, and scariest move that Sindy and I have ever made (besides actually becoming church planters). The only way that we can do this Gospel work is through your prayers, support, and donations. Many of you have been amazing in your giving for 2009 and I don’t want to forget to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. Will you please consider giving to the work of GracePoint for 2010 and beyond, for Santa Clarita, and beyond?

As many of you already know, giving to GracePoint has never been easier with online giving.

Here is the link: https://processor.pcanet.org/mna/donationsII/donation.cfm

A few instructions:
1. Under the Donation Heading, choose Church Planter/Staff (not Ministry Type)
2. Scroll down to "Park, James- Santa ClaritaValley, Ca"
3. Fill in Amount
4. Fill in the Rest (Your personal info & your CC info).

GracePoint June Update

Dear Friends,

June has been a busy and eventful month and so we thank you so much more for your prayers and support. June gloom has come and gone and now it feels like the sunny (and hot!) Southern California that we are used to. Here's a short recap of the month of June:

1. Movin' on Up! Literally, we moved way on up North of Los Angeles. On June 12th we officially received the keys to our new rental home in Santa Clarita and on June 19th, we finally moved in! God is so good in blessing us w/ a great home in a great neighborhood. There is enough space to host meetings and fellowships of many kinds.

2. Preview Service #3 @ Parks Home. Our 3rd Preview service and our first one at the new home was a great success! Partly because our home was still barely furnished so there was plenty of space for everyone. From Matthew 5:13-16 we learned about being salt & light and how to be missional, just as Jesus was.

3. Open House Dinner. On Sunday, June 28th, we had our regular meeting followed by an Open House dinner for all our members. We were blessed as well with some special St. Louis visitors too!

Prayer Needs:
1. Pray for relational connections and outreach in our community.
2. Pray that GracePoint survives the summer. Summers are typically slow times for churches as people go on vacations and such. So please pray that we can get through the summer well and be ready for the Fall!
3. People. For those of you near here or know anyone who lives in the Santa Clarita Valley, we would love to connect with them and share the Gospel with them.
4. Fund Raising. As we are on the field and ministry gets to be more "hands on" we will be in need for more funds. Please pray for a) more and new supporters and b) our pledge givers to fulfill their pledges sooner than later.

For those of you who want to fulfill your pledge or be a first time giver to the work of God, you can go here:
https://processor.pcanet.org/mna/donationsII/donation.cfm

A few instructions:
1. Under the Donation Heading, choose Church Planter/Staff (not Ministry Type)
2. Scroll down to "Park, James- Santa ClaritaValley, Ca"
3. Fill in Amount
4. Fill in the Rest (Your personal info & your CC info).

We get so excited every time we meet another person or a church who is committed to coming along side with us in the mission to the SCV. Through this, we know we are not alone and that we have a great team behind us in prayer and support from all parts of this world. Thank You and God Bless You

James v. the Allergies Update

So, woke up at 6:30am on a Sat morning, left the house w/ my brother in law at 7:10am. Drove 45 mins to Hacienda Heights and got to the Acupuncture "Office." My bro in law & I had no idea what to expect.

The "Dr." came in asked me what I had, told him I had allergies... so he proceeded to stick needles in my head, arms, and legs w/o any warning or description of what he was going to do. We waited for 10 mins. He came in again, and again w/o warning, took out he needles and told me to turn over. Then he "drilled" in a few more needles on my neck back and legs. We waited another 10 mins. He came in took everything off and said, "Done."

The Result: It's Tuesday today, so after 4 days my allergies are..... gone! I can't believe it! No pills for the past 3 days. No runny nose. Only sneezed 3 times in 4 days. Amazing. Don't know how long it will last, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Allergies be Gone!

Man, I thought when I moved from St. Louis that I moved away from allergies. When I lived in LA for 14 years, I never even heard of allergies, except for pet allergies & food allergies. After a few years in STL, the allergy bug hit me there and my life was not the same. Too much foliage, too much humidity, etc. So, when I moved back here to LA, one thing I was looking forward to was an allergy free life! But no such luck. After a few months of fighting it (losing the battle), we have found a potentially devastating blow to the Allergy bug: Acupuncture.

This Saturday morning, my brother in law and I are going to drive 45 mins away to see a Chinese acupuncturist. We hope to come back allergy free! Here we go....

Buy Into Pizza

Working here at the Master's Seminary in Ca, there is a big spread for lunch for all the students. 3 guesses as to what is for lunch? Pizza, pizza, and pizza! If I were a businessman, I'd open a pizza shop. I don't think pizza will ever (EVER) go away. As long as there are sports events, schools, offices, and the need for mass quantities of food for cheap, pizza will always be profitable!

On another note. It was just confirmed that the Master's Seminary in fact, HAS a dress code. They are to wear a shirt & tie, not jeans and no t-shirts. So, here I am sitting in the Library and eating lunch in their student lounge wearing jeans, a button down shirt (un-tucked!), and a bright yellow Lakers cap. I think they are going to call Security soon.

Dress code? Seriously? Now, I really hope I don't see J-Mac...

Human Nature

Reading: Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul D. Tripp. This book has been very insightful to read. Tripp has great insight into the reality of human nature. Here is one such instance:
"Sin not only causes me to respond sinfully to suffering, it causes me to respond sinfully to blessing."
What a great insight to our condition.