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“I love to tell the story of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true; It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory, To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

From despair to hope, defeat to victory, death to life, Easter is celebration. The resurrection is so central to Christianity that without it there isn’t any Gospel to believe. With it, Christians are of all people most joyful and hopeful. But the resurrection isn’t just central to the Gospel, it’s also a key component of the glory of God. God, and God alone, gives life. He is where all life comes from. So without a God who can cause resurrection, there is no God of the Bible.

Vietnam is one of the last five nations with a Communist government and ranks #16 among the countries that persecute Christians. The minority Christian population numbers less than 10% of the population, and there have been increasing attacks on them. Christians have great difficulty in obtaining the mandated government registration for their churches. In addition, church buildings have been demolished by government officials, and pastors have been jailed.

History The Spanish Ministry has more history than the two-and-a-half years Josie and I have been here. From the beginning, outreach to Hispanics in this valley has been an integral part of the plan. Our core purpose to exalt the Savior, equip the saints, and extend the Kingdom includes proclaiming the Gospel to all peoples around us. Spanish speakers make up the majority of people in our valley, and 80% of them are entrenched in a religion of works and tradition, hopelessly lost in sin. Our prayer and goal is to establish a Spanish congregation that raises mature believers, believers with a developed sense of total reliance on Christ alone whose lives exhibit the same commitment.

We are thrilled to welcome Blake Boys and his family to Grace Church of the Valley. Blake has just finished his first full week as a pastor here and we are excited to have him here and working. Blake will be giving the majority of his time overseeing our Sunday worship as he chooses songs, arranges the service order, shepherds the music and sound teams, leads rehearsals, develops musicians, works with facilities, and more. Blake will also be giving time to our media, including our website, app, social media, and audio and video resources. In addition, Blake will help plan and administrate events.

We are on the brink of some really exciting developments when it comes to more permanent facilities for our church family.

As Pastor Scott began the book of Jonah last week, one of the issues he covered was the debate about Jonah being a literal, historical book. That topic made me think of how essential our fundamental, basic convictions about the Bible are. One of God's blessings through kids is the reminder of how much we assume. For instance, before our kids were born I was under the mistaken impression that babies are born with some basic understandings. Turns out that not only are children born without basic communication abilities, hand-eye coordination, or motor skills, there's even a learning curve on how to eat. To eat! Pretty hard to get more basic than that.