Dear Church Family,

God is continuing to move at WFMC! This last year has been pretty incredible. Here are a few highlights:

• We started 2 new micro-churches!! Beans and Bibles has been meeting Sunday nights at Biggby in Westland. Dinner Church is meeting at Jefferson Barnes in Norwayne on Monday nights. Both sites have been engaging and discipling people in the community who were not attending other churches. Your ongoing support is making it possible for us to reach new people with the good news about Jesus!
• We adopted Schweitzer Elementary!! Many of you have been helping out by teaching kids to read, serving in the lunchroom, and more. We’ve been serving popsicles to kids on hot days, providing recycling bags, and stocking the teachers lounge with coffee and other items. We have other opportunities to help out as well and our presence there is making a tremendous impact on our community!
• We currently have over 80 people involved in growth groups. We have also had many new people jump in to serve in various ministries. New people of all ages are finding a home at WFMC through our Sunday morning ministries and youth groups too. We had our highest quarter of attendance in the last 8 years this year!
• We also kicked off several new initiatives to bond our congregation and engage our community!

People are coming to Jesus, getting discipled, and getting baptized throughout the year. Maturing believers are    taking their commitment to God and community to new levels. And the community and world around us are seeing the love of God through us as we live on mission.

The last 7 years around Thanksgiving we have taken up a special 1 time offering that has helped us improve our reach into the community as well as enhance our ability to minister on-site. Through these offerings we have created our first handicap accessible restroom, added a ramp to our gym, re-done our lobby floor, added monthly funds for benevolence, given to mission initiatives, fixed our sound system, created better access for the hearing impaired,    re-designed our bathrooms, and much more!

Two years ago we started a 3 stage plan to work on our lobby, bathrooms, and sanctuary. Our lobby is updated and our bathrooms are nearly done! However, our leadership team would like to shift our focus for the year to address some more pressing needs than the sanctuary, as well as give us a sabbath from year round projects.

A typical harvest offering has been ranging from $10-15K because of your amazing generosity! Assuming it’s in that ballpark this year, here’s how we’d like to see those funds applied:

A) Cover the rest of the restroom renovations: Cost went $2000-$3000 over what we anticipated.

Some restroom costs were more than expected such as labor on portions we had to hire out for plumbing, door    installs, etc. The great news is we ended up being able to get much nicer tile, panels, countertops, etc than we had planned as the companies we worked with gave us some amazing deals. Overall we saved $15,000-$25,000 on the cost of the project over original quotes. In addition to those who gave: thanks so much to all the teams who helped with the designs, installing tile and ceilings, and more. It was truly a gigantic team effort, and we praise God for how it’s all turning out!

B) Paint the gymnasium & kitchen: $4000-$6000

Due to the water issues in there, the gym had to be addressed sooner rather than later. The floor is looking beautiful. Thanks so much to the WFM Preschool for their $3000 donation!! This area is used weekly by our youth, growth groups, stretch and strength classes through LifeCare, and the largest Narcotics Anonymous group in the state of MI! It’s a great tool for ministry and it will be nice to patch the walls and update the paint after 15-20 years.

C) Get new panels for the sign out front and install LED lighting in place of existing lighting: $1200-$1500

This original sign has served us well but is really showing its age. We’d love to project an updated image outside for those thinking about checking out a church, and Sign-a-Rama in Garden City is offering us a phenomenal deal to update it. Future advertising for special days, services, etc, will be done on nice banners that we mount out front.

D) We’d also like to once again tithe on this year’s amount. Five percent would go to benevolence to help local families in need and 5% would go to purchasing life time water filters for families/villages through I.C.C.M.

We believe these changes will enhance the experience for every member, as well as continue to draw new people. Thanks in advance for your prayerful generosity! Onward & Upward!!

– Pastor Tyson & the WFMC Leadership Team (See pictures below.)

Our bathrooms are looking amazing!! (before & after)

     

A picture of our proposed new sign on the left (frame will get painted).

   

Our gym and kitchen have beautiful floors, next step: paint!!