What's New??

Hello from the Miles Family!
We have quite a bit to update you all on...

At church:

We have had great turn outs for men's and women's Bible study. It has been so great being able to study God's word together in small groups. Please continue to pray that people would continue growing through this ministry.

We have LOVED having the Goulds here. Matt and Ali Gould moved here at the end of August to be our youth pastor. They have been such a blessing and are greatly appreciated by our church. They are also great friends and a huge encouragement to John and me.  Please pray for Matt as he is looking for a new job - for continued prayer for them as they are adjusting to being newlyweds AND living in Utah. :)

We have also been SO BLESSED having the Warner family here. They are planning on planting a church in Provo and are attending Grace while they get everything in the works for the plant in a few years. They have jumped in with both feet in serving at Grace. They have been such a wonderful support to us these last few months. Please keep them in your prayers while they get things in motion for their future plant.

We have had a lot of great people step up and serve at Grace. Its been so great to see God using all kinds of people in this body of believers to serve one another. We really do have a great bunch of believers. ;)

We have also continued to see a number of unbelievers coming in to Grace, with searching hearts, and finding Christ. Its been amazing to see how many people are seeking truth in this valley. Please pray for those who are searching. Please pray for those that have found Christ to grow in Him. There are a lot of people who are facing a opposition and persecution for their new faith. Please be in prayer for them.

We've also experienced a lot of numerical growth which has presented the need for building expansion. That's a good problem to have though! We need to raise about $12,000 more to complete our balcony and upstairs bathrooms.

Our 5 year balloon on our building loan expires in January of 2014. We are praying for God's leading and if its His Will, eliminating that all together. We currently owe around $238,000 on our building, and our long term goal is to be debt free. The monthly mortgage is a hindrance, but we know that our God can provide all of those funds or perhaps make a significant dent by year's end. We've been able to put some money towards that in 2012 and will continue in 2013. Pray with us in that, too.

At Home:

First, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all your prayers for our family this last year as we have been dealing with Autism/ Aspergers Syndrome with Taylor (see our July update for more info).

Taylor was tested by the public school system in September and qualified for a special preschool. Praise God! She stated attending school 3 times a week for 2 hours. A bus picks her up in the morning and drops her off after school. She has a great teacher, 4 aids, and a speech pathologist that work with her. Taylor LOVES school and the bus.

Her communication has improved so much and meltdowns are very seldom because of it. She is putting her own sentences together, and she initiates play with other children! We are so thrilled with everything God has been doing though Taylor. Another praise- she seems to not have a problem with flour anymore- either she grew out of it or God healed her. Thank you so much for your prayers for our little girl.

It makes me think of 2 Corinthians 12 when Paul is praying that God would take away his ailment. But vs 9 says "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Our Taylor GRACE is an amazing testimony of God's grace. He continues to use her in my life to teach me. I can't wait to see how God is going to use this in Taylor's life as she grows up. I know there will times of hardship, but God is glorified through our weaknesses. I know God has an amazing plan for her life.

I also wanted to tell you a little about our youngest, Avery Joy.

She is a happy, healthy, spunky little girl. She is now 14 months old and has been a JOY. (and a stinker).

We didn't know ahead of time when we chose their middle names that they would be so fitting. :)

Here are some of our latest family pictures. Thanks for praying!!

Summer Time!

Its been a while since the last post! I apologize for not being better at this!! I am making a commitment to be better at keeping you all informed.
That being said, we have so much to share with you. First of all, its camp season. John and I spent the week at teen camp last week. It was an amazing week of camp. We had about 45 high school students attend this year. This was the first year that we split the middle school and high school groups because of how big it was last year. We had 2 students trust Christ! We are so thankful to Frontier's counseling team, Nathan Reichert, and all of the staff for contributing.  Please be in prayer for middle school camp starting tomorrow. Jr Camp is the week after.

Grace has also been experiencing a lot of growth the past few months. We are running almost at full capacity- and its the summer time. Usually the summers are lighter in church attendance- but we are still growing. We have plans to begin a building project on a balcony that will seat an additional 40 people. We  have already began raising funds for it. Please pray for us to be able to raise the funds to complete the balcony.

We have experienced growth from believers as well as people accepting Christ for the first time at Grace. We have a family that has been attending Grace for a few months. It started with one family member coming and inviting her family to church. One by one, her family and some extended family began coming to grace and 5 people have gotten saved. God has been doing so many amazing things in this valley! Its been so encouraging and exciting to be a part of the ministry here. Please continue to pray that God would continue to work in the hearts of the people in our valley, and that we would continue to see people getting saved and growing in their relationship with the Lord.

The Warner family has also been attending Grace. Paul Warner was the planter and pastor of Faith Community Church in Eagle Mountain. He and his wife have followed God's call to leave FCC in the hands of Larry and Naomi Fox and plant again in Provo. They are taking the next year to gear up and raise funds for their next church plant. They will be attending Grace during that time and will be serving Grace with us. We are so excited and thankful to have Paul and Bren. Please pray for their family as they will be raising support for their church plant.

John and I also have a prayer request for our daughter, Taylor. We have recently learned that she has a gluten intolerance. Its not as severe as Ciliac, which we are very thankful for. She is not able to eat anything made with wheat. I am very thankful that we were able to find out so we could make her feel better. Please pray for her as it will be difficult as she gets older when she can't have the same food or snacks as others. Please pray that she would adjust well to her new diet.

We have also been suspecting that she may have Aspergers. We had noticed that she was developing a little slower than the other kids in her speech and communication. A few weeks ago, a relative of ours who is a child and family counselor mentioned that he had noticed some things about Taylor. He thinks she has a very high-functioning form of this disorder. Aspergers is in the same family of Autism. To find out more about Aspergers, you can click here. In Taylor's case, she has no trouble showing affection and making eye contact- which is a huge blessing. She does struggle with over-stimulation and meltdowns, communication, speech, some motor skills, playing and socializing with other children her age, and obsessing over things. She is very advanced with numbers, letters, shapes, and her memory is incredible. She has a great sense of humor and loves to sing. I believe that she will be musically talented as well.


For me, it wasn't a shock because I knew that something was different with Taylor. It doesn't make it easier, though. Its hard to imagine that your child will be a little different from all the other kids... I worry about her struggling to make friends or feel different if she has to go to special classes. But I know that the Lord has a special plan for her and made her this way for a reason.  Taylor has not been officially diagnosed, but we have been working with her as if she has it. We don't currently have health insurance and most cases are not diagnosed until age 4. So we are waiting and watching. We have started educating ourselves and have started working with her as if she has it. We have already noticed much in improvement in 1 month and we are very optimistic that if we continue to work with her, you wouldn't even be able to tell she has it by the time she is in school. Please pray for us- its been a lot all at once with Taylor. It means so much to us to know that you will be praying for our precious little girl. 

Thanks again for reading and for all your prayers and support! God Bless! Love, The Miles

Taylor Age 3 (at the end of August)

Avery 8 months

February 25, 2012

Hello from Springville! Its been a little while since our last post- so lets catch up!

Grace Bible Church has been filled with blessings. We have grown so much and have so many new faces. And youth group is no exception- we have about 35 kids now! (And they are GREAT kids) We have an intern from Frontier School of the Bible, Barry Duerksen, who will be with us through September. Please pray for him to be able to connect with the kids, learn about being a youth pastor, and continue to grow in his walk with the Lord. We also have a couple that is coming out to work with our youth in the fall- which is one of our biggest needs right now. They are getting married soon and will be moving to Utah. Please pray for them over the next few months as they will be adjusting to married life and moving from California to Utah- two big adjustments!

On Sunday mornings, we have been running from 160 - 180 people and our maximum capacity is 185. We have 2 options- two services or expand somehow. We really would like to stay away from two services because it makes fellowship difficult since people don't get to always see each other on Sunday mornings if they attend different services. We have been praying about the possibilities we have with increasing our seating. Since we are in an older storefront building and share walls with business on either side, we are limited on what we can do. There is a possibility to add in a balcony that would seat an additional 40 people. We will be getting a quote and an inspection from the city to see if we can pursue that. Please pray for God's will and His provision to meet this need for our growing church!

Our church also has so many new babies! We have had a baby dedication just about every other week. We are so thankful for these new little ones- and that their parents choose to dedicate them to the Lord. One couple in particular - Justin and Danielle - have been trying to get pregnant for over 6 years. They had a few miscarriages and almost gave up and were ready to pursue adoption. Danielle became pregnant again last year and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last week. Its so amazing to see God answer prayer! - Here's baby Roman~

And this is baby Lydia, another family in our church dedicating their first child

Thank you so much for your prayers for our growing family as well! We love being the parents of these two beautiful girls. I love that we get to use words like "girls" and "kids". Avery is such a blessing to our family, and Taylor has been such a great big sister. Avery is 3 1/2 months now- it goes by so fast!

Thanks again for your prayers and support!

Love, The Miles :)

Avery Joy Finally Arrives

Avery Joy Miles was born on Thursday, Nov 11. She weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz and was 18 inches long. Labor and delivery went really well! Thank you so much for your prayers! We are so blessed with two beautiful girls!

Installation Sunday

We had a wonderful service on our installation/ anniversary Sunday! Thank you so much for your prayers.


We also started Sunday school and we have had a great response! Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!

Fall Update!

Hello! Its been a few weeks since we posted last- its been busy! We had our ladies fall retreat 2 weeks ago in Park City, UT. We had a wonderful time of learning and fellowship. We are so blessed with an awesome group of women at Grace. Above: Mountains surrounding Park City Below: Bella teaching one of our sessions

All of our fall programs have been going great! We started youth group and discovery club. As you can see below, John is having so much fun with our kids. :) We are also happy to report that we are at about 80% of our monthly needs! John is putting in his 2 week notice tomorrow at Kraft and we are so thankful! Its been a great job for John- but it will be so awesome for him to finally be full time at Grace. It has been very difficult trying to balance a full time secular job AND being a pastor, youth pastor, kids club leader, and more! He can't wait to be able to dedicate himself fully to teaching and shepherding our church body. Praise God!!

Please be in prayer for the following things:

Installation /Anniversary Sunday- Oct 30th.

Pastor Derrick will be coming back to do a special service for us in celebrating 14 years as a church and installing John into the church as Pastor. We will also have a Tentmakers rep there (Tim Miles, of course!) who will be speaking as well. We are very excited and know that we will have a lot of people at church that day. Please pray for the Smothers and Miles families as they travel this weekend.

Baby Avery

We are about 2 1/2 weeks away from Baby Avery's arrival. Please be in prayer for her continued health and safe delivery. We are also having family travel up for that, so please be in prayer for them as well. Also- thanks for your prayers for Taylor- she transitioned to a big girl bed beautifully. I know this probably doesn't seem like that big of a deal- but I was SOO stressed about it. :) Thanks for praying.

Sunday School

Grace Bible Church will begin having Sunday school classes the first week of November! We are so excited! Please be in prayer for more helpers and for people to be excited about having an extra hour to learn about and worship God. We have had a great response so far. John will be teaching Adult Sunday school. We also have some kids classes going on as well. Please pray for all the teachers and helpers for wisdom from God while they prepare and teach their lessons. John will be going through Doctrine- so it will be a great series for new Christians especially.

Thanks for reading and for your prayers and support!

Baptism service, Clines, Deputation- and More!!

August was such a BUSY month! We have so many things to update you all on!

We had a baptism service with our sister churches in the valley at the Provo River. John had the privilege of baptising 6 people from Grace Bible Church. Its always so nice to get together with the other churches in the county and encourage each other.


We also said goodbye to the Cline family- which was bittersweet. We were so thankful that their house sold and they were able to move on to their new ministry at Tentmakers- but we were also very sad to see them go. They have been such a huge part of Grace. It was a blessing serving alongside their wonderful family. Their family is in our prayers as they begin their new ministry in LaGrange. We love you and miss you, Clines!


Our little Taylor turned two years old! I can't believe how fast that went by! We are so thankful for our little girl. Please pray for her as there will be a lot of adjustments when Baby Avery arrives. Not only will we be kicking her out of her crib and trying to potty train- she will be a big sister and have to share mommy and daddy. Please also pray for our little one on the way- Avery Joy. She is due on November 17th. Please pray for her continued health as we go through the final 9 weeks.


John, Taylor and I just got back from Colorado on Monday. We had scheduled to speak at 2 churches over the weekend. We were so blessed to be able to share our ministry at Grace Bible Church in Parachute, CO and Rocky Mountain Bible Church in Frisco, Co. We were so thankful to visit with Pastor Charlie and the people at Parachute. Thanks for having us! Also- we were able to see family at Frisco- Bruce and Donna and Derrick and June. Such a great weekend!!

We are at 75% of our monthly support needs- which is such a blessing and testament to God's faithful provision! Thank you so much to those of you who have partnered with us in financial and prayer support!

Please continue to pray for John as he balances his secular job and church over the next 2 months until the baby comes. John will be working at Kraft until November so we will have health insurance to cover the baby bills.

Please pray for our ladies retreat that is coming up on Oct 7th- please pray for unity and spiritual growth as well as great fellowship.

Clines' Farewell