Valley Mission Church of the Nazarene

110 Hillcrest Way, (in Judah) Bedford, Indiana  47421

December 21, 2020

Dear Valley Mission Family,

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!  We want to start this letter off by giving thanks for our church family.  We appreciate the efforts that so many have made week after week for our church.  The Sunday service production crew is a huge blessing!  Our church board along with Gary Ritter have recently helped us make some great financial decisions in regards to our mortgage.  So many of you have participated in contacting each other, keeping your pastors encouraged, and keeping things moving as we hope to join together in person shortly.  We are also thankful for the continued faithful financial support of Valley Mission.

 We also would like to thank the board and the church for the financial gift we received for Christmas.  It is very much appreciated as were the gifts from those of you that reached out personally to our family. We were so incredibly proud of all those who participated in Carols by Candlelight.  It was the first time we tried to produce this virtually.  In my opinion the entire crew did an amazing job!  We certainly hope next year is live and in-person, but making the most with what we have is a true gift.

Last Sunday I preached a message called: ‘Advent Love Through A Family Tree’.  It was out of the genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew chapter 1.  Through the years when I preached, it has always amazed me what people hear and take away.  Following the service, I went out to greet those who came for Drive-In.  Gary and Anita were there and Gary said something to me so very true.  He listed many of the people found in the genealogy.  They were not exactly upright, holy folks in many stages of their life.  Gary said, “that genealogy is really all about redemption”.

He is right!  The Christmas story is about many things, but primarily it is about redemption.  The family tree in Matthew ultimately led them and us to redemption.  Forgiven of sin.  Reunited with our heavenly Father.  Filled with His Spirit.  Changing our lives and changing the world.

We pray that you experience the JOY of your salvation as never before.  I have no idea if 2021 will be more of the same or completely different.  What I do know for certain is I am saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and it has made all the difference.  Come what may, Jesus remains!

 We want to remind you of a couple important dates and times and hope you will join us for worship.  Thursday Dec. 24th we will do our Christmas Eve devotional live on FB at 6 pm.  On Sunday Dec. 27th we will worship at 10am using Facebook Live, Drive-In, YouTube, valleymissionnazarene.org, and DVD.  Starting on Sunday Jan. 10th we will once again offer in person worship along with all other current methods.  

Merry Christmas!

Pastor John, Pastor Melony, and family