Valley Harvest Family,
This week in America 150 churches will open their doors for the last time. The tragedy is not that beautiful church buildings will have to be repurposed, but rather that so many churches are being built upon the wrong foundation. The church belongs to Jesus Christ. Having bought the church with His blood, He has sole ownership of her and His church has no authority apart from Him. Jesus did not intend for His church to be here today & gone tomorrow (Matthew 16:18). The difference between a church that lives and a church that dies is seen in a church’s willing submission to Christ and His written Word.
Praise the Lord that He has confirmed our commitment to His written Word this year. It has been made clear that we are a people who are dedicated to learning and applying the truth of God’s Word, as we build authentic relationships with one another, reach out to the lost, worship our Savior, and serve Him and our community. We are committed to growing God’s people, God’s way. God wants as much fruit from our lives as possible and prunes us to make us more productive. He has laid out the conditions for His church to reap a spiritual harvest. We have been praying that He would raise up workers to send into His harvest (Matthew 9:37-38) and are seeing His answer. As God’s colaborers (1 Corinthians 3:9) He has allowed us to be a part of this glorious work.
We will be holding a ministry fair on Sunday, October 16th to educate our people about the 16 currently active ministries at Valley Harvest and enlist volunteers to serve. We have planned 18 different ministry team-building events between November and January. It is going to be a busy year of ministry and we need everyone’s support. Every resource we are blessed with must be aimed to equip our people to minister to the harvest He is bringing in (Ephesians 4:11-13).
Our fiscal year concludes on September 30th. As part of closing the fiscal year, we ask all Valley Harvest members and attenders to review last year’s stewardship and proposed 2022-23 budget. This package has been prepared for you to review and pray over prior to our upcoming family Q & A meeting and member vote. We will be hosting an open Q & A meeting on Sunday, September 18th after worship service at 11:45 and invite our Valley Harvest family to attend this meeting to ask questions they might have regarding the budget. Childcare will be provided for this meeting.
On Sunday, September 25th after worship service at 11:45, we will conclude our fiscal year with an affirmation vote of our current members. Childcare will not be provided during this meeting, as it is expected to be brief. We are looking forward to what God has in store for Valley Harvest and the community of Chowchilla as we confidently move forward into the next year.
Letter from the Finance Committee
On Monday, August 15th, the Finance Committee held its quarterly meeting to look over the church’s income and expenses for the 3rd fiscal quarter (April – June). Giving was up for the quarter, and we were able to cover our expenses. We did not need to draw any from our savings to cover any expenses. Praise the Lord! His provision for us never ends. We have also looked at the budget for the next fiscal year to assist the elders in preparing it. Costs continue to rise, causing some of our expenses to be higher than anticipated, but we are happy to report our solar billing has finally been sorted out correctly. We are getting credits for both of our buildings from the power produced by the panels over the sanctuary and CWC. With this, combined with the near completion of our walk-in freezer, we anticipate our utility costs to go down this year. While our offering has been down overall this year, we are grateful God has blessed us with savings that allow us to continue to do ministry. We ask that you would continue to pray for Valley Harvest as we seek to be good stewards of what God has given us. Please come to our budget Q&A on September 18th and on September 25th to vote on our budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
