The Renewal of Spring

THE BAGLEY BRIEF

Dear Partners in Ministry,

We pray that the spring season is rejuvenating your outlook as you watch new life appear all around you. Virgil Kraft wrote, “Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.” May we all take time to reflect on what God is seeking to teach us through the wonder of spring. We sent our last update right after New Year’s Day and it’s time to share again what God has been doing in and through Hope Bible Church here in Montpelier, ID and throughout Bear Lake Valley.

First, we want to thank each of you for your prayers, your financial support, and your faithful encouragement. You have been a part of all that God is accomplishing here and your partnership is invaluable to us. We have been praying Paul’s requests in Philippians 1:9-11 for all of you.

Last Sunday, we had our twentieth Sunday service as a new church. We’ve been overjoyed to have had at least one brand new person from the valley at each one of these Sunday services. So far, we have met one hundred and twenty-seven people from the valley who have stepped into our building to join in worship. Many of our regulars have faithfully invited family, neighbors, and friends to come and get to know us.

Of course, we’re not having that many people at each service and some have visited and not come back but we’re making important connections with people. More importantly, they have been able to hear the good news of the gospel of grace. Since our first Sunday, we’ve been averaging forty-two people on Sunday mornings. We were not expecting to have that many people coming this early in the work, but God has done exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ask or think, according to His power.

Laura and I have seen how beneficial it is to have a team in the church planting endeavor. As a team, we felt led to start some midweek discipleship opportunities in the new year. My mother is teaching a Ladies’ Bible Study each week. Ten women have been faithfully attending. Amos and Emily Stott have started a Junior High/Senior High Youth Group, and the group is growing in friendship and attendance. We are so thankful that our girls have a Youth Group to be part of! During the time of Youth Group, I lead an Adult Bible Study. We have been having fourteen people come regularly. Mary Jo Kvistad facilitates a fellowship time every Friday evening for people who have felt lonely in the winter months. I love watching each team member using their unique gifts for the Lord.

Speaking of teammates, we are excited to have another member joining our team here. One of my former students, Orrin Arnoldt, from Montana will be moving here the weekend of April 6. He will be working in the valley and assisting us with his gifts. God has been so good to give us co-workers who are burdened for the area and for a church to be established in this corner of Idaho.

This month, we started sharing music at a local Assisted Living residence. Emily Stott and one other woman from our church join our family in this outreach to senior citizens. In February, our family was asked to sing at a Benefit Concert for our local Senior Center. We met so many people through that event, and we’ve been asked to participate in the next concert. God is giving us ways to make inroads in the community.

One major encouragement came to us through a Spring Break Missions Team that traveled out to help us from Frontier School of the Bible. A team of five people spent seven days (March 1-7) serving here in the Valley and learning about ministry opportunities in this area. While here, they helped us remodel our sanctuary and, in doing so, opened up extra room for seating and fellowshipping. What a blessing they were to us!

Our family is settling into life in Montpelier. Our daughter Joy is loving her job at the local Veterinarian clinic. God is using her there to connect with so many local people. Cherish is taking Driver’s Ed right now. She has also started playing the piano in a rotation for the worship services. Delight is becoming more experienced with horses as she invests a lot of time with our horses in the back yard. Cherish, Delight and Will have joined the local 4-H and are trying their hands at a lot of new projects. Comfort is quite mobile now and seems to be developing a love for horses herself! Laura is making friendships with neighbors around us and uses her gift of hospitality to welcome many people into our home.

For me, I’m so grateful to be a full-time pastor again. I’m also thankful to be ministering together with my family. God is giving us a deepening love for the people who are coming to church and for the people of this community. God is also stretching us in brand new ways and it’s causing us to run to Him for wisdom, guidance, and strength.

How can you be praying for us right now? First, pray that our testimony will be blameless in all our interactions in the church and community. Also, pray that our growing team will serve with one spirit and one mind for the faith of the gospel. Please continue to pray for my Dad and Mom as they deal with Dad’s Lewy Body Dementia.

Pray that God will open the hearts of the unbelievers who are attending and that they will be saved. We are so burdened for them to come to faith in Christ. Pray that each ministry of the church will help people grow as disciples of Christ. I’m beginning to see potential leaders for the future of the church. Pray that I will know how to invest in them and that God will raise up strong local leaders. Pray that Satan’s attempts to derail the ministry will be thwarted. Pray that people all around us will be drawn to the pure grace of the gospel and to the Savior who came to seek and to save the lost.

Thanks again for enabling us to be here and for your help in seeing a healthy church established in this place. We count it a privilege to be an extension of your ministry here in southeast Idaho. We will continue to pray for you and that you will “be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:11) The renewal we watch in creation every spring is just a picture of God’s supernatural ability to bring new life to this sin-sick world.

With Much Gratitude,
Bill, for all the Bagleys

Address: 355 N. 2nd St., Montpelier, ID 83254

Email: bagleybunch5@gmail.com