Finally...the stories...
This year has been a banner year (not actually sure of what banner year comes from but I’ll be looking it up later)…crazy fruitful…like garden of Eden fruitful…as if weeds could not choke out the growth because they were being choked out by the gorgeous blooms surrounding them. Salvations, intense life transformation and more. The speed of it made it too difficult to record it all so I will spend part of this summer gifting you with the stories that God has gifted to us so you can rejoice with us.
At the start of 2025, God answered a prayer that we have prayed in desperation for 15 years. Let me fill you in on the details…
Shortly after God called us to Utah in 2010, we began the research of universities in Utah to figure out where this God-sized dream would launch from. We were drawn to three locations: University of Utah in Salt Lake, Weber State in Ogden and Utah State in Logan.
Why? There was a local AG church that we and our students could attend in the vicinity…maybe sounds a bit crazy as a top priority, but we knew it was critical that our students be deeply involved in the body of Christ so that after college they already would know what it is like to thrive in the local church.
Fast Forward to a phone call…our regional director, Paul, called us while we were interning at the University of Arkansas in 2011 and mentioned a campus that we quite literally hadn’t heard of. “I think you should consider Utah Valley University in Orem.”
All of those words were foreign to us. Orem…who has even heard of a town called Orem? Like Salt Lake City or uhm… I immediately asked Daran if there was an AG church in the area. Upon investigation on good ole google and and good ole ag.org, the closest AG church was 25 to 30 minutes away. Upon further investigation, this town of 90,000 had only one evangelical church that was located in a repurposed building tucked away in a neighborhood.
We felt like the answer was no, but kept hearing this phrase said by Paul, our director not the apostle, “There is no Christian ministry on this campus of 33,000 students.” I didn’t even know a place like that could exist in the United States of America - no Cru, no Intervarsity, no Navigators, no representation of Jesus on a campus that could engulf 96% of towns in America…and so the thought simmered on a back burner where you set impossible or non-palatable recipes…
We started to plan our first exploratory trip to Utah and turned it into a spring break missions trip for our students in Arkansas. First we needed to find a missionary or church to work with in Utah. Daran was given the name of a missionary, David Nicholson, by someone he met at a conference, with the added words, “You gotta call this guy.”
So he did, and on that phone call, David explained that he was a church planter in Eagle Mountain, UT (about 30 minutes away from Utah Valley University in Orem). He also explained, to Daran’s surprise, that they were planning to plant a church in Orem by the university in the coming months. My excuses evaporated, and UVU was added to the list.
Months later we arrived in Eagle Mountain at the home of David & Melissa Nicholson with our tiny Spring Break team and Ayden, our oldest child, in tow. We walked in the door and we immediately met Shiloh…After coming to know Jesus on a rooftop listening to “Focus on the Family” on the radio, he started attending classes at UVU. He noticed quickly that there were no Christian clubs. He started to pray for a Christian club at UVU.
When we were introduced, he grasped our hands in a firm hand shake and said to us through watery eyes, “I’ve been praying for a Christian club at UVU for a long time." Needless to say, we didn't visit every campus in Utah on that trip. Our destiny had been set.
On that trip, we got to help out a bit with the Orem church plant. We canvassed neighborhoods and helped hold a special event. We were so hopeful for the future that God had in store for our partnership with New Community Church and the Nicholson’s. They had connected with our hearts.
But to our dismay, a little over two years later when we finally moved to Utah, the Orem church had closed, however, Dave & Melissa had moved the location of the Eagle Mountain church closer to us (about a 15 minute drive) into a dance studio. This became our home church, and we were all in, although I continued to pray for a church in Orem. As we added students to our ministry, many of them chose New Community Church as their home too and on a good Sunday there would be about 60 of us which I often joked was “mega church” sizefor our county.
In 2019, it seemed that my longtime petition for a church in Orem was becoming a reality. We had the opportunity to move to a location in Orem in which we would not have to set up and tear down every week. (Shout out to all of you that do this weekly. It is not for the faint of heart.) And it was on the main thoroughfare in the city, albeit the top floor of an office building.
We “quickly” overhauled the space and moved in. My gratefulness seemed palatable on our first gathering in the building on October 6, 2019. With an unfinished ceiling above us and painted plywood beneath our feet we rejoiced with about 30 people in attendance for what was to come.
I don’t have to tell you what came next because months later, all of our worlds shut down. To say we didn’t fight would be completely inaccurate because we did. We met virtually. We met outside. We did everything we could but to no avail. In September of 2021 we held our last event and grieved for what we thought would be. After 15 years of life in Utah County, New Community Church closed.
Churches closing in Orem were “old hat” to me by this point. I had seen the birth and death of churches of every denomination in our town, some only having a life span of 1 year. It seemed like we were just the latest statistic on top of the pile and my heart was broken. Can one be homeless if they have somewhere to lay their head, but nowhere to grow their heart? We went with our students to the only other church in town and prayed again for a church in Orem.
It all happened so slowly and then so quickly. In January of this year we celebrated our first service with Free River Church and Pastors Clinton and Jayln Ballew in the very same space. I could not hold the tears back that dayas we met with over 40 others in a room with completed ceilings and floors. (Shout out to New Community Church for laying said floors and installing said ceilings in all those years ago.)
So much has happened. Salvations, life transformation and more, but I will save that for the next addition including the story that brought us from the dismal day in 2021 to the day of celebration in 2025. To be continued…
Along with all the changed lives this year we have seen, our expenses have risen (which is a good thing, right!) unless you are me - the number cruncher who can’t make the numbers crunch.
We have fed more students than ever. We have discipled more students than ever. We have done one-on-ones with more students than ever. We have gone through more paper products than ever, so as always I am coming to you with the need and asking you to help fill it.
Our goal is to raise what we lack in two areas:
Operation Deficit: $3336
We have never had a deficit at the end of the year, maybe I should have had more faith at the beginning of the year when raising start up funds. This was simply from more mouths to feed, more people at all of our events, and more toilet paper:)
Staff Retreat: $1260
I would absolutely love to offset staff retreat costs for this team that has knocked it out of the park this year. I am hoping to cover at least half of the cost for them. It currently costs $180 per person. If I can raise half of that, it would be such a blessing to all of them.
Here are the ways you can give: (as always the gift is tax-deductible)
ONLINE- just follow this link and it will take you directly to our giving page https://chialpha.churchcenter.com/giving You can use the “general fund” option or the “scholarship” option if you want it to go directly to staff retreat.
VENMO - @xautah
CHECK - Send check to Chi Alpha Utah 716 S 850 E Orem, UT 84097.
Again, I marvel at all of you and your faithfulness and generosity that have seen us through dry seasons to a season of fruitfulness. You are quite literally the best!
The Lemons
P.S. If you were wondering about the “banner year”origins (and I know some of you were), I’ll save you the trouble and tell you that the only thing I could find on good ole google is that the first known publication of the phrase was this:
“The year just closed has been the banner year for New Hampshire Home Missions. The amount raised for the cause is $505,38 more than ever was raised before in any one year.”
Way to go 1853 New Hampshire Home Missions!!!