A NOTE FROM THE JONES'

In 2006, we were small business owners serving our 12th year as youth leaders at our local church in central Indiana. Our two children had grown up in the same town and the same church since birth, and our immediate family members all lived within 15 minutes from us. We were very comfortable and had no idea that God was about to turn our lives in a completely different direction. He sent Chip & Jamie Thompson to speak at our church about their ministry in Utah, and God sparked an interest in us to take a high school youth team to minister to the Mormons in Utah.

We stepped foot on Utah soil for the first time one year later in 2007 with that mission team, and God changed our lives forever. He softened our hearts for the LDS people revealing the bondage and heavy burden they were under. We saw firsthand how they were entrapped by the pressure of works-based false doctrines, and that week, God placed a calling on our lives to "set the captives free" in Utah.  When we returned home, God began moving amidst the severe economic downturn to sell our business and our home while providing the support needed to move to Utah to serve with Tri-Grace Ministries in 2009.

The LORD had been using the Thompsons to break hard soil and plant gospel seeds before we arrived, and as we continue forward together we are seeing Him provide fruit from those labors as well as more workers to shoulder the load. Although God equipped us to wear many hats through the years, He has now shifted us into more of a ministry oversight role as Executive Co-Directors. Shane still oversees the Coffeeshop Ministry, and God continues to use us as a Christian influence in our predominantly Mormon community and on the Snow College campus.

As we look back at how God's hand has directed us, we are humbled to be used by Him in a spiritually dark land that is in need of the Good News of grace. What an amazing privilege to be used by Him! We are encouraged to see God changing the demographics in Utah as He brings more people out of Mormonism. We are thankful that our adult children, Maris and Keegan, along with his wife, Rachael, have remained in Utah to work and minister in the Salt Lake Valley. Pray that God will continue to use each of us on this mission field, and that He will set the captives free bringing many to salvation.