2018 has been quite the year, in a good way. So much has happened since I began officially as the general manager of Mars Hill Café back in January. As I type this evening, memories flood my head of all that has occurred so far—memories for which I am grateful.

Never in a million years did I think that place would be Salt Lake City, Utah. I had the opportunity to travel out to SLC twice in college with the college group at Mars Hill and participate in inner-faith dialogues and immediately was exposed to some of the brokenness here. A couple of months before graduating from UM, and not having any idea what the next step was going to be, I was told about an internship in SLC working alongside a church plant for the summer.

Have you ever walked out of a Sunday gathering longing for something more? What you are longing for though is difficult to explain.

Maybe you, like many others I have talked to, have devoured the biblical teaching at Mars Hill for a while, but still don't feel connected. Maybe you long to meet new people and get involved with the ministries of the church. Perhaps you don't know where to start.

Bosnia and Herzegovina sounds like a fair destination for tourism. It is in fact a location marked with great historical significance including, the Ottoman empire, the assignation of Franz Ferdinand that sparked World War I, and an interesting Civil War that happened there in the 90’s. There are sights to see, trails to walk, information boards to read, but, no, it doesn’t carry the same ring as destinations of other short-term mission trips. It isn’t South America or Africa. It’s Europe, Eastern Europe to be exact. Wasn’t Europe the epicenter of Christianity for hundreds of years? So, why would an American church send missionaries there?

What does it look like for ordinary Christian people to live out their faith in day to day life? It can be challenging to know just what serving God looks like outside of Sunday.

As you may already know, Nicaragua is experiencing civil unrest. Political uncertainty has thrown the economy into a downward spiral, which will inevitably hit the small business development and the "empowerment model" of our mission the hardest. As a result, our Nicaraguan friends and the One Collective (Iteams) crew have shifted their focus, at least for the time being, from development to relief.

I fear that because we use the word worship to describe only what happens in the sanctuary, we have unwittingly programmed ourselves to think that worship in the sanctuary does not continue in the fellowship hall.

Mars Hill college students had the opportunity to engage LDS students with the gospel on the campuses of BYI and UT this Spring. Read about the trip here.

Overall, I felt like this weekend was a success on many levels… I saw people accept Christ as their Savior; I saw students grow closer to Jesus and turn away from sins; I saw the group grow closer as a whole and encourage one another; and I saw them have a great time doing all these things. I couldn’t have done it without such a great supporting cast of volunteers and leaders and, most of all, the Spirit at work in all our lives.

Because of your support we have seen stories of pain turn to joy, stories of death turn to life, and stories of despair turn to hope. God has shown us his goodness and we are grateful to work alongside you as we take part in building the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

As a thank you for being a Story Teller, we want to share four of those moments with you from 2017.

We are busy. Families, work, finances, friends, church, kids, sports, science projects, homework, and the list goes on and on.

With so much happening in our lives, how do we evaluate where we are?

Our initial plan was to find one homeless person in a park downtown, get him some dinner, listen to his story, and share the love of Christ with him any way we could. And that is what we did. At the end of the night we asked if we could return the next week and our new friend said yes. None of us had ever done anything like that before. We had stepped way out of our comfort zones in an attempt to do good works for God.

We left our 1st Community Group (and may leave our new one soon).

Has the church misunderstood Matthew 18 in light of church discipline?  How do we desire holiness in the church while also pursuing the unbeliever?

Christmas Family Devotion.

As I look upon the slain lamb it brings understanding of what has been done. What I could not do, Christ did for me. Where I was without hope, Christ gave me hope. Where there was darkness, Christ gave me light.