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).
