Volunteers from The Gathering Place in Roy bless Roy Elementary with Backpacks
The Gathering Place Church in Roy and Holiday Oil Co of Utah have partnered together to provide backpacks filled with school supplies for 65 students at Roy Elementary School. The Gathering Place adopted Roy Elementary over a year ago and has been blessed help fill needs of families and teachers at the school. Holiday Oil is a valued partner that the church looks forward to working with in the future for community outreach.
If you have any questions about this ministry or to start a backpack ministry in your community, contact Pastor Jim at The Gathering Place in Roy, or visit SendRelief website for step by step instructions.
Pastors and Wives pose on the last day of Recharge for a group photo.
Park City, UT – “But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.” Mark Dance started the Recharge: Pastors and Wives Retreat with those words of encouragement from Acts 20:24. The room was filled with pastors, church staff, mission partners and their spouses from several states and entities. Each one came to this event with many different burdens and stressors put on them by life and leading the churches they serve. This event sought to help pastors and their spouses carry the weight of their mission call upon their lives. They don’t have to carry that weight alone.
“The hope for this event is that pastors and their wives know they are appreciated for the work they do serving churches across our two states” commented Rob Lee, UISBC Executive Director.
Our 2023 Recharge: Pastors and Wives Retreat at Newpark Resort in Park City, UT held July 18-20 was a huge success and would not have been possible without partnership between three entities working together with one goal in mind: to bless the pastors and their wives who bless our churches across Utah and Idaho. GuideStone Financial Resources provided travel and accommodations for Mark and Janet Dance who oversees Pastoral Wellness at GuideStone. Worship was provided by Danny Kugelberg from Church at the Gates in Missoula, MT. North American Mission Board provided gifts and meals, as well as the majority of the financial expenses to allow our pastors to attend with no personal financial burden to themselves other than transportation to the resort. Utah Idaho SBC picked up the remainder of the expenses for meals and rooms. Every pastor and their spouse was blessed with resources, gifts, and gift cards from all the ministry partners who participated.
Mark and Janet Dance provided uplifting and challenging words to the pastors and their spouses in attendance.
The three days were highlighted by four sessions led by Mark and Janet Dance with the focus on encouragement and also allowed several hours of free time for couples to interact with other guests, or to just spend time together as a couple. The facility was the perfect setting for all of those missions to be accomplished.
Dallas Claypool of Sand Hollow Baptist Church in the Treasure Valley area of Idaho came with his wife, JoEllen. He commented on his social media after the event concluded “the best part was meeting some of the awesome pastors and their wives who are fighting the good fight. They spoiled us rotten and refilled our hearts and souls. My only regret is that it’s taken me seventeen years to make the time to go. If you are pastor and they invite you to the next one of these events, drop everything and GO! You won’t be disappointed.”
Amy Mamatela, whose husband Dan pastors in the Millcreek area of Salt Lake City commented to one of the convention staff, “you all make us feel like royalty with such wonderful rooms and thoughtful gifts. Thank you so much, we are glad we came”.
The next Recharge: Pastors and Wives Retreat will be in McCall, Idaho in the spring of 2024. The schedule and format will be very similar to the Utah event, running Thursday-Saturday, April 25-27. If you are interested, block out those dates on your calendar and stay tuned for more details which will be posted and distributed through our website and UI Connections monthly email blast.
We are grateful for the partnership between GuideStone, North American Mission Board, and your State Convention in providing these events. Through partnership, we are more effective than any of us could be on our own. Thank you to our ministry partners and friends who made Recharge 2023 possible.
UT/ID- September has been a busy month in church planting across Utah and Idaho. We also had a couple of churches pass full board approval for membership into UISBC.
We want to welcome Water’s Edge Fellowship in Burley, ID as a full Executive Board approved church who has been meeting since [insert launch date here] and will be able to seat their own messengers at our upcoming annual meeting in Meridian, ID. Pastor Dave Carver has given over two decades of ministry service to Utah and Idaho churches and is a leading church in the Magic Valley Association in baptisms [verify]. Find out more about Water’s Edge on their website at watersedgeidaho.org
We also welcome Gospel Grace Church meeting in the heart of Salt Lake City, who is now full Executive Board approved member of UISBC and will be able to seat their own messengers at our upcoming annual meeting. Gospel Grace is a church planting church, which started when four families moved to the Salt Lake Valley in November of 2011 and began a church planting movement. Over the next several years, GG would go on to plant Gospel Hope in Riverton, UT and Gospel Peace in Logan, UT, all while the original Gospel Grace church continues to grow and thrive. Their entire church planting story can be found on their website, gospelgrace.com.
Celebrate with us these new churches and church plants across Utah and Idaho.
Gospel Peace in Logan, UT
Hope Valley in West Jordan, UT
Resonate Collegiate Church at UofU in Salt Lake City, UT
Nueva Esperanza in Caldwell, ID
Nueva Esperanza in Ontario, OR
Twin Falls Community Church in Twin Falls, ID
God is working faithfully through people across our two states. Hearts are being transformed and lives changed. Pray for these churches and their sponsoring ministries as they seek to impact communities across Utah and Idaho with the live changing gospel of Jesus Christ.