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).