January 2025 Newsletter
Greeting fellow partners and prayer warriors,
I want to take this time to thank you for the wonderful blessing it is for you to choose to partner with us on this new endeavor this past year. Your investment in God‘s kingdom is bearing much fruit, and will continue to have a Kingdom impact for years and years to come.
I’ll like to share a snapshot of what God has done in 2024…
Our first Sunday morning Worship Services was held August 18th, at the Mount Sterling American Legion building. We had 63 in attendance! On this day we also had a church picnic at Mt Sterling lake where we celebrated the baptism of our very first salvation!
We continued to worship and hold weekly Bible study at the American Legion, knowing we had to be out of the building by Thanksgiving. As time quickly passed by, we began a desperate search for a new place to worship. It came down to the wire, but as always God came through! Let’s just say it was another of those many times He chose to challenge our trust and patience! Just in the nick of time, a space became available in the former Service Master building. At the very same moment I was in the office negotiating the details of our rental agreements, my phone began to buzz. When I had finished the meeting, I checked my phone and, wouldn’t you know it, another church right here in town was selling 90 sanctuary chairs for $5 each! I called their pastor and immediately headed that way to look at the chairs, which I found were in very good condition. Their pastor then told me since it was for a church, they were going to give the chairs to us free of charge! What a mighty God we serve!
What a blessing not to have to set up and tear everything down every Sunday! We held our first service in our new location, November 17th, with 53 in attendance! We are now currently averaging around 40 people in weekly attendance. We have also experienced one more salvation and celebrated two baptisms.
God continues to move within our church family, creating an excitement within our community and reaching the people of Brown County with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Thank you once again for faithfully partnering with us as we serve together on mission for Jesus! We could not do this new church plant and Kingdom work without you!
Pastor Don Hannel
New Vision Community Church
Mount Sterling, Illinois