Pastor’s Message (Page 37)

Vamos Amigos!

Dear Valley Church family and friends, Thank you so much for your prayers and support for our LOL Mexico team. Please continue to pray for our team of 43 as we leave on Sunday. We wanted to tell you a little about the family we’ll be building the home for in Ensenada. Rodrigo and Ivonn…

Living for Christ in a Toxic Culture

Look up the definition of the word “toxic” and here is what you will find: containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death or serious debilitation; extremely harsh, malicious, or harmful. Open the newspaper today and you’ll have no doubt that we live in a “harsh, malicious, and harmful” world. Mass shootings,…

Mud, sweat, and tears

Last summer several of us from Valley Church ran in a “Spartan” race in southern California. It was 14 miles of mud, hills, dirt, mud, lake, obstacles, and more mud all at a sizzling 100 degrees! Sounds fun, huh? By the time we were done, all we wanted was Tylenol, a shower, and In and…

Tribal Worship

Dear friends, One of the most interesting places I have traveled to has a unique expression of religious devotion. Each major village is fiercely loyal to its tribe and constructs elaborate temples for worship. There are three kinds of participants in the worship service. The performers dress up in colorful costumes and engage in highly…

What is Maundy about Thursday?

This week Christians all over the world are paying special attention to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you grew up in a tradition that celebrated Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday, you are familiar with the rich history of Christians throughout the centuries celebrating some of the darkest…

Give it a rest!

In the story of Alice in Wonderland, the Red Queen says to Alice, “Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”