"Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commands." (Deuteronomy 7:9)
It’s hard to believe that a year could go by so quickly and that God could do such wonderful things in our midst, even while doing our best to navigate a global pandemic. It’s been a year since I was first voted in as pastor of Hyland Heights. It’s been nearly a year since the coronavirus pandemic really began. It’s been a year filled with 50 baptisms, many new members, growth in life groups, much laughter, and a number of tough decisions. Through it all, this truth remains: God is faithful to His people. His promise is His salvation, His presence, His blessings, and His timing. God has been faithful to Hyland Heights and, as always, we want to celebrate His goodness to us.
Below are a number reasons to celebrate what God is doing at Hyland Heights, as well as our most recent weeks of giving.
Joining the Mission: Just 2 weeks ago we had the opportunity to celebrate 8 New Members who have joined Hyland Heights! We praise God for each of these new members who desire to connect, grow, and make an impact through our church family. If you are wanting to make Hyland Heights your church home, you can sign up for our next connect class at hhbc.net/nextsteps.
Declaring Salvation: On the same day, we celebrated 6 more baptisms. Seeing and celebrating those who go public for Jesus is a reminder of the Gospel and reason to give God praise. To learn more about baptism at Hyland Heights, go to hhbc.net/nextsteps and click the baptism link.
New Student Leadership: On Sunday, February 28th, at a special called business meeting, our church overwhelmingly voted to call Jackson Richardson as our next Student Pastor. We are extremely grateful for the vision and leadership that Jackson has provided for our student ministry during the interim and look forward to many wonderful things yet to come as our Student Ministry continues to connect, grow, and make an impact for Jesus.
Children’s Ministry Growth: Camp kickoff was only 2 weeks ago, but we already have over 100 children registered for camp this summer. This is shaping up to be one of our largest groups to go to camp ever! Praise God for the opportunity to share the gospel and disciple so many kids each year. We look forward to seeing how the Lord will move in their hearts and lives this coming summer.
Go. Love. Serve. This coming weekend is an exciting opportunity for every member of Hyland Heights to share the love of Jesus with our community. Following a shortened 11:00 worship service (9:30 will be normal), our Life Groups will be heading out to the mission field. If you are still not connected to a Life Group, we can help you get connected or there will be several options available for you as well. If you are unable to physically go out, we will also have prayer stations set up around the worship center for you to be praying over our community and groups, as we know there is no power when there is no prayer.
If you post pictures on social media, make sure to use the hashtag: #goloveserve21. You can also send pictures of your Life Group’s projects to our Social Media Coordinator, Karly Rouillier at krouillier@hhbc.net.
Matching Gift Opportunity: As you might know, we have been given a $10,000.00 matching gift to purchase 2 new side projectors for our worship center as 1 is out completely and the other is starting to show signs of failure. This means that your gift is doubled when you give to this need. To date, $2,935.00 has been committed to this designated line item. If you would like to help us reach this goal, you can give at hhbc.net/give and select “projector matching gift” in the drop down menu.
Easter Sunday’s Coming: As Easter quickly approaches on April 4th, we hope that you take this opportunity to invite your friends and family to join us for one of our 3 worship services; 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00. We look forward to seeing God move in great ways this Easter Sunday!
Celebration of Faithfulness: We want to remind you that on March 21st we will have an opportunity to thank and celebrate Gene Steele as he retires after 8 years of serving as our pastor to senior adults. If you would like to, we encourage you to drop a card by the office that we can give to him and Monnie on that Sunday.
In addition, we also want to say thank you to Alisa Keesee, as she retires from 14 years of service to Hyland Heights as our Financial Director. We are grateful for her years of service and are praying she can finally enjoy that time on the beach we know she loves.
If you have any questions about your contributions, you can contact Suzanne Burley, our Financial Admin who will now be handling this role. Suzanne has been on staff at Hyland Heights since 2010 and we are excited to have her in this new role. Suzanne’s email is sburley@hhbc.net, or you can reach her by calling the church office. For other financial questions, you can always contact Ed Peterson at epeterson@hhbc.net.
HHBC Weekly Financials:
Because we have not sent out a celebration letter the past couple of weeks, below includes the past few weeks weekly offerings:
February 21 Offering: $ 34,379.14
February 28 Offering: $ 40,831.00
March 7 Offering: $ 34,895.80
Weekly Budget: $33,228.00
Thank you for your continued generosity! God is moving in incredible ways at Hyland Heights and each gift continues to help us live out the vision of Jesus as we connect, grow, and impact our world for the gospel.
Other Sunday Reminders:
Please remember that giving in worship will continue to look different as long as Covid-19 persists. We will not pass the plates for your safety, but will have offering boxes at each entrance to the worship center where you can give as you enter or exit. If you cannot be here in person or prefer to mail a check, the address to the church office is: 11452 Wards Rd. Rustburg, VA. 24588. For many, we know that you have started to give online, and this continues to be an excellent choice to make giving easier/safer for you and to make sure that the ministry and mission of HHBC continues to impact more lives in the weeks to come. If you would like to give to Hyland Heights online, simply go to hhbc.net/give.
HHBC continues to strive to keep our church family safe during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. We continue to encourage everyone to take the precautions you would take when entering into any other building. If doing things like social distancing, washing hands well, and wearing masks can help us love our neighbors better and avoid potential spread in our church family so we can continue worshiping together in person, we should strive to do these things as much as we are able. We also want to remind everyone that the 9:30 service still has plenty of room for you and your family to join us while best maintaining social distancing. Thank you for your help and understanding as we strive to keep the people we love as safe as possible. For additional information on HHBC’s response to Covid-19 go to hhbc.net/coronavirus.
Thankful for you and our faithful God,
Dr. Josh Carter
Senior Pastor