Jim and I (Tammie) have attended and served Community Grace for 28+ years. Jim has had many years of doing maintenance on the facilities, sometimes stretching the life of things just a bit longer until necessity demanded a change. That was the case with the A/C for the Worship Center. We are thankful it no longer limps but runs efficiently with the new system. 

We also both love serving the body and the community, so when this Building Initiative was announced, we prayed and crunched the numbers and then added to our normal giving. Why? Because we are passionate about these things, and we knew the need was great. It's been fun watching God do his work through His people, and we are thankful we can be a small part of that.

I have been attending Community Grace since February of 2020 and since the day I first walked in the door I have felt more love and acceptance than I ever have in my entire life as a believer. When I first started coming, I was in a place of isolation in my heart and mind towards the Lord. It honestly was a last-ditch effort to see if following Jesus was actually worth it. I have grown more in my faith and walk with Jesus in the last three and a half years because of the faithful community of believers that is Community Grace. 

I am involved in a small group and I also serve in a few different ministries which have continued to strengthen and encourage my walk with the Lord. I brought some pretty heavy baggage through the door and was met with grace and truth from our pastoral staff. They walked alongside me and gave wise counsel. They led me to a path of discipleship, which is something I didn’t realize I lacked in my life, but I now see I could never live without. I am now regularly being discipled and am also discipling someone else, which is the goal and mission of the Church isn’t it? “We exist to glorify God by being Christ followers who make Christ followers.”

I am so thankful for how God has used the ministries of Community Grace to completely change my life and my relationship with Him. I ask that you prayerfully consider giving a gift to the Building Impact Initiative. Know that when you give, it is not just giving money to a fundraiser so we can buy more stuff, but you are directly equipping the church to be the church. 

Understandably, everyone cannot always financially give, but would you give the gift of time in prayer for this project? Pray that we would use this gift that the Lord provides to bring glory and honor to Him, and that this initiative will help Community Grace continue to impact our community and the world for the Lord.

This summer it will be 48 years since my family moved to the Warsaw/Winona Lake area and my parents chose to make Community Grace our church home. I was just a toddler at the time. We had been attending the North Canton Grace Brethren Church prior to our move and lived closer to many other churches but because of Warsaw Christian School being part of the church at the time, my parents felt Community Grace was the place for us. My mom prayed that if she were to have a teaching position with WCS, they would reach out to her, and God answered that prayer by having them offer her a position as a kindergarten teacher. My mom had been a teacher and headmistress at a Christian school in Canton, but kindergarten was a perfect spot for her, and she remained there for nearly 30 years. All that to say, between being with my mom while she served at church and school, and attending church and school activities, I spent as many hours in this building as anywhere else in my early years.

As the song teaches us, the church is not a building; but the material resources that God has given Community Grace have been a great benefit to me and many others. It is within these walls that I first heard many of the Scriptures that are now hidden in my heart. Psalm 100 and Psalm 23 are forever in me because of reciting them at my kindergarten graduation on the stage in the sanctuary. It is within these walls that I first met people who would become lifelong friends and my spiritual community. I have celebrated our marriage, mourned the deaths of our daughter and my father, and committed and recommitted myself to Christ and His teachings too many times to count here. The closest I have ever felt to heaven has happened within the walls of this building.

I could (and maybe should sometime) write pages and pages about the people at Community Grace who have made an impact on my life, and while God certainly is not bound by any material limitations, I do want to be a good steward of the resources He has given us with this property and these buildings. I want others now and until Jesus returns to have a space to hear God’s Word, to grow in their faith, and to have the privilege of serving God and this community alongside other believers. I want us to embrace and embody what Jesus prayed for in John 17 when He asked the Father “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” I pray others will join and I “wait in expectation” (Psalm 5) to see what God will do!

We’ve been attending Community Grace as a couple since 2014. It is where we got married, where our kids have been dedicated, and where we have been challenged and encouraged by people who love us. Our closest friends and the people who know us best are here.

Giving our tithe to Community Grace allows us to take greater ownership in the mission the church seeks to accomplish in our community. Not only are we volunteering our time and our talents, but we are also giving back a portion of the financial gifts God has given us to further His mission through our church.

A good reminder to me is that God is going to work with or without my gift, but I would rather be a part of what God is doing than not. When you give, no matter how much, it is going to go further than any particular goal or project because it is money given for God's work.

As a young boy and a pastor’s son, I was given the task in our small church to be an "usher" and pass the offering plates each Sunday. I did this for countless years and each Sunday I got the opportunity to watch my father drop his own check into the offering plate. He was a pastor and still saw the purpose of tithing as something he needed to do.

As I grew older, and started making my own money my parents always stressed the importance of giving back to God "of the first fruits." My parents taught me this was 10% of the gross of my paycheck. I never had a problem with their rule because I saw them taking it as seriously as they expected me to take it.

I continued to tithe into college, as a single man, and we continued as a young married couple with significant student loan debt. It was nonnegotiable. Sometimes things were tight, but there was always enough. I wouldn't say we have ever had a lot, but what we have had has been enough.

We have come to find that God has blessed us in so many ways, it seems wrong to not give him a portion back. He asks for our whole heart but only a tenth of our paycheck. It could have been the other way around, but He is a good father who wants to give good things to His children.

We want to be good children and answer his love with our gifts. We encourage you to consider a gift to The Building Impact Fund and invest in the future of our Church!

This is Guillermo Barbosa, and I have been a member of Community Grace since 12/15/2021. Being a part of this church has been a wonderful experience! It is hard to describe in words the joy, and my spiritual journey has been fantastic.

This church invests in a variety of ministries and I was privileged to participate in the Men’s Leadership Classes that started in January and finished in May 2023. It impacted my life drastically because I felt that I grew spiritually more in those months than in previous years.

It helped me to get to know other men in the church better, which made me more comfortable being part of this church. The classes were very well prepared and very well presented, impacting the lives of many men and their families.

I have been privileged to work in the summer soccer camp and winter Friday Night soccer ministries. This church has invested in these ministries not only financially but with resources. The church provided the means to purchase new goals, new soccer balls, and did some repairs to the gym. These ministries have been successful, and now we have expanded to include girl’s soccer ministry on Saturdays.

I am participating in the “Building Impact Initiative” because through it, we will impact the local and global mission; individuals, families, and our community will be blessed and God will be glorified. I am happy to do it, and I encourage others to participate. God loves a cheerful giver.