Dear Mission del Sol Community,

Grace and peace be with you! We have been together for five years which marks a strong and healthy life together as Pastor and congregation. We care for each other through all the big and little things. And we are constantly working to Reach Out with Active Hands and Loving Hearts within Mission del Sol and in the community. What is important to remember is that God is doing so many awesome things here! Thanks be to God!

This year, the Elders and Deacons continued their focus on building community within our church body and in the neighborhood. I am proud of us. We spent a lot of time revamping our Neighborhood Block Party and thought more about how to work on building community. You can see the powerful ways the Holy Spirit has been at work in our community below. Just look around, read the short reports or watch the photo videos below that tell about the community of Mission del Sol.

A special thanks goes to our staff for all their hard work, their time, attention to detail and determination. We could not do it without all of us together. 

You will see the report is broken into the four areas of our ministry: Serve, Grow, Connect and Give. Under each area there is a short summary of our activities, our focus on the vision statement and some hopes for the coming year. Make sure you take a few minutes to watch the highlight videos of some of our ministries. Below you will find a link to the agenda for our Congregational Meeting on May 18, 2025.

At the meeting, we will vote on the pastor's terms of call, a slate of nominees, and hear a few updates from me and other leaders about the future. We will also hear a report from the Finance Commission about how 2025 is going financially and get an update on the Vision Campaign. Please contact me  if you have questions about anything we are talking about.

I want to thank the Nominating Committee for their diligent work in filling our open spots for leadership. Please thank Greg Allemang (Chair), Bill Gunther, Diane Seller, and Jayne Prohaska for their work. You will note below we still have some openings for leadership. If you might be willing to serve, please contact me or Greg.

I hope you have found God in the life and ministries of Mission del Sol. Thank you for your patience, grace and ideas as we follow God's call for us. We all play an important part in our community. Thank you for sharing your gifts. See you at the meeting!

Shalom,

Kelsy

CONGREGATIONAL Meeting Agenda

Community is at the heart of what God is talking about when we are called to serve God and one another. Service is about loving our neighbors, caring for those who need help, and walking beside one another. We do all this with God present with us. 

Together we have reached out to serve our community in mission in a variety of ways: collecting hundreds of pounds of food for St. Mary’s Food Bank including our summer water drive, packing sack lunches for East Valley Men’s Center, delivering meals for Meals on Wheels every six weeks, four weeks of families joining us from Family Promise, youth and kid mission projects, I-HELP, or our collections for the Kyrene Foundation including 530 undies and 550 pairs of socks from our most recent drive. We have reached out to a lot of lives and they have reached out to us. What is so great about these projects is that we have helped others but also the volunteer base has grown for each of these projects. 

Casa del Sol Affordable Housing, our 501c3 ministry providing affordable housing to individuals and families in the surrounding community of Mission del Sol. It has been a slow but steady pace forward of having conversations, meeting with experts, applying for grants and learning that this work requires diligence, time, patience and community. This past year we were able to be a part of the Arizona Charitable Tax Credit which put us on our way to having the funds to purchase our first home. During the Congregational Meeting, you will hear about opportunities to help us share this vision with others, give directly, or share your Fry's rewards with Casa del Sol. Please continue to be in prayer for this ministry. We can't wait to see what God is doing in and through this important work for the community. 

Community begins with our relationship with God. We work on deepening our life with Christ each time we gather at Mission del Sol. We have worked on growing that relationship through engaging sermon series, special services, Lent and Advent bags, Bible studies, small groups, devotionals written by our Elders, Deacons, Staff, Pastor and Members, Vespers services, Worship in the Park, Blessing of the Animals, Lenten Art projects, and Soup Suppers. It is through the steady faithfulness to these projects that our life with Christ is deep and wide. Thank you to all the folks who make these opportunities possible especially our folks in the sound booth, ushers, greeters, and liturgists who make our services possible. And to all our artists, writers, and volunteers who help with all our special services, projects and activities that guide us in deepening our community with the triune God. Thanks be to God! 

Our music ministries have created community, too! Each week they share their gifts and their hearts with us through worship. Thank you to Smith Graham, our Music Minister for the weekly musical leadership of the Mission Bells, Mission Chorale, and Heart and Sol Worship Band. Juhee Park tickles the keys beautifully to the glory of God. We have hosted concerts, listened to our beautiful piano and invited the community to come in to our space. Music always brings us together. Thank you for the inspiring music and to all who helped make it happen! 

Our community grows in faith from our youngest kid to our oldest member through our Christian Education program. During regular Sunday School for our elementary kids, adults and youth group gatherings, we have had opportunities to deepen our faith by asking tough questions and learning more about the Bible. We also held our Advent Festival and the EGGstravaganza as fun opportunities for us to learn about God during the holy seasons of the year. We hosted a monthly adult education opportunity called Insights where folks gathered to learn and think together. We continued to think about our community through the lens of justice issues, particularly related to poverty, as we engaged in discussions during our monthly Social Justice Book Group. The biggest news is the hiring of our new Family Ministries Coordinator, Jessica Pisarski. She has taught our 3-7 grade Sunday school class, monthly youth group events and hosted our family ministries activities. We love her! 

These small and big moments of growing help our community be strong in our life with Christ so that we are really be able to reach out with active hands and loving hearts. I hope you had a chance to participate in some of them. If not, make sure you make space for community this year!

God calls us to serve and love everyone and it starts with the people in our church community. This year we had lots of opportunities for community including our annual Fall potluck, special hospitality gatherings and regular hospitality after church. We gathered for church work days, sent fun Sunshine Boxes to our college students and homebound members, and gathered in small groups. We hiked throughout the valley, met for Wednesday Morning Book Study, Yoga Classes, and Monthly Happy Hour. We served 8 people regularly homebound communion again, which has been life-giving to our homebound members! These moments of community have helped us connect to each other and it is good!

We also celebrated 7 new members joining our faith community and we grieved the loss of 6 of our beloved members. Our community continues to grow and change with each of those who are with us one gathering at a time. God is creating our community. 

We also have been reaching out to connect with the community so that more folks know about who we are and what we are about. We hosted our fourth Annual Block Party, invited the community to our events like the Blessing of the Animals, piano concerts, and Advent Festival. We welcomed several new groups to meet weekly on our campus, including Weight Watchers and a new networking group BNI Success Syndicate. We continue to enjoy having the Community Choir of Arizona, Boy Scout Troop 285, BNI Goldminers, Girl Scout Troop 2567, multiple AA and Al-Anon meetings, and the Vietnamese Revival Church meet at Mission del Sol! It is great to have folks reaching out to gather on our campus regularly!