RVC Men have the privilege of serving breakfast at EAA on Tuesday morning, July 26. We are looking for men to help prep at the church around 5:00 a.m. and those to serve on the EAA grounds around 6:30 a.m. Text Jeff Gorr (920-422-8167) if willing/available to help. 

ELDER RETREAT REPORT

The elders and their wives met for a weekend retreat on June 3-5. Since the Covid lockdown changed many things, we decided to meet together with our wives to look at what is happening at RiverValley and to ask for our Lord’s direction. The following is a praise report along with a few initiatives we want you to know about.  
 
Praise Report
First of all, we believe that God is doing something special here at RVC. What we mean is that it seems God is causing His Spirit to be poured out. Although we don’t keep track of people who come to Christ each year, we have noticed that we have more than usual. During the pandemic we grew, and we continue to grow now. God has provided for us abundantly, and we feel a sense of awe at the strong hand of our God on RVC right now.  
 
Specific Praises 
Kids Ministry: Although it hasn’t returned to pre-Covid numbers consistently, we are still filling the needed ministry positions with volunteers. The attendance of kids remains up and down since the Covid pandemic.
 
Youth Ministries: Our youth ministries have an average of 55 middle schoolers and 30 high schoolers each week.
 
Young Adults: The attendance of college students and retention of young adults is strong. Our young adult LifeGroups are very strong. 
 
Welcome: Our greeters and ushers do a great job of catching many new people each week. 

LifeGroups: We work hard to involve people in LifeGroups. We continue to add groups each year. We have 29 LifeGroups and will be starting more in the fall.
 
The Internet Live Stream: We continue to have people attend in person who've been watching online for a year or two. Our high-quality presence has been a means of increasing in-person attendance on Sundays. One downside is we have more regular attenders who come 2 times a month instead of 3 or 4. 
 
Bible: We remain committed to the Scriptures as the whole Word of God. We teach a congregation of people who love truth and are gracious. We want to be marked by grace and truth even as we grow. We have a congregation that follows well, who respond to what we have prayerfully asked whether it’s a schedule change, volunteer recruiting requests, or a giving day. As elders, we are honored and humbled by the lack of divisions and factions.
 
Areas of Opportunity
Welcoming and Inviting In

• Continue to reinforce RVC's strength of being a people committed to grace and truth.
• Continue to prioritize “Rooted” and LifeGroup engagement.
• Continue to train LifeGroup leaders.
• Improve welcome and support of college students. 
• Improve events which welcome new people to be a part of RVC (e.g., Men’s "Eat, Meet, & Shoot”, Women’s “Belong and Become”, etc.).
• Clarify the new member process (Connect 101,102,103, and New Members Class) 

Ministering to Hurting People

• Financial Help – Offer Financial Peace University.
• Marriage Help – Train a new set of marriage mentors.
• Spiritual Bondage – Continue growing Freedom Encounters (Prayer and Deliverance) ministry.
• Consider a pornography addiction ministry.
• Consider an abuse recovery group.

 Prayer 

• Begin an RVC Prayer Team which will pray every Sunday during services. The long-term plan would include prayer team people available after every service.  

 Discipleship of New Believers

• Women’s Ministries has begun a mentor/mentee ministry.
• Work in a discipleship plan for men next year tied to RVC | Men.

 Space

• We have not found a group of people wanting to start a church plant in a particular area, so we are considering an expansion site in Oshkosh to meet the various ministries and Sunday attendance.
• As a result of recent growth, there is a possibility of the Worship Center being full in the fall before there is any realistic plan of acquiring and setting up a new space. Be prepared for some focused requests to help us keep RVC a place which is welcoming while we are developing the plan.
• The elders are developing more detailed objectives around the space, but the following needs rise to the top:  
  • Space big enough for 200 people to meet
  • Space for our growing youth ministry
  • Space for LifeGroups to meet 
  • Space for community outreach ministries

Apologetic Readiness

• Preparedness and willingness of people to winsomely engage others with the truth of the gospel, even if it costs them personally to do so.

MINISTRIES YOU CAN PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER 

College Support Ministry (Team of 4-6) A team which would provide support for our college students. We are envisioning providing welcome back bags of goodies as college students return, maybe a meal after church a couple of Sundays, a farewell pizza party, or a care package during finals.
 
RVC Prayer Team (Team of 25-30) A team of people who will divide into prayer teams that will pray during the Sunday morning worship service. There will be training led by the pastors on how to pray twice a year to start. There is a long-term goal of having people trained to pray with people after each service.  
 
Marriage Mentors (Team of 6-12 couples) We have 4 trained marriage mentor couples available right now at RVC, but we need more. Marriage mentors are couples who come alongside another couple as friends. There are about 6 hours of training, and the mentoring material takes 10 weeks. This is a great way to build marriages. 
 
Addiction / Recovery Group (Team of 4) This would be a group that works at hosting recovery ministries for abuse or addiction.

Compassion Team (Could use a few more team members) Works on caring for the community of Oshkosh. They host “Martha’s Meal” once a month as well as plan ways for us to engage and support our local area.

Pass on your faith...Get trained to mentor or be a mentor.

PRAISE REPORT FROM JESUS FOOT SOLDIERS

Pastor Wyatt received the letter below from a man who was witnessed to by one of the Jesus Foot Soldiers overseas. (You may remember that Jesus Foot Soldiers are part of Asia Frontier Outreach and some of the Jesus Foot Soldiers are fully sponsored by RiverValley Church.)

Along with receiving Jesus as his Lord and Savior, this man also received a medical miracle from the Lord (along with several other wonderful miracles!). His testimony is long but worth reading. 

For the safety of this man and his family, we ask that you not forward this email; he lives in a part of the world where it is not safe to be a Christian. 

I came to the saving knowledge of Jesus through JFS Ye Fa sponsored by RiverValley Church.
 
My name is Gu Lay Lee. I am married and have 2 children. My religion is Confucianism. I believe in and worship my ancestors. I am the head of villages and there are a few major villages under my charge. There are over 3600 people in the villages. I had a sickness which was a tumor in my intestine and it was cancerous as it was investigated by getting a biopsy. 
 
The Doctor suggested doing an operation but the operation cost is beyond my ability to pay and I have been suffering from this for 5 years now. Finally, I had to resign my head man position. My villagers respect and trust me very much because I am setting a good example for all my people in the villages. However, this sickness gives me great pain and suffering and I can’t bear it. So, I had to take painkillers every day as well. My medication is costly and eventually, I had to borrow money from friends for medicines in order to relieve my pain.
 
One day about 1 pm our local time, one Jesus Foot Soldier as an Evangelist (his name is Ye Fa) came to visit me with a Bible and this evangelist read Matthew 9:35 to me and said “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.” When I heard this Bible verse my faith rise up and I wanted to hear more, then this evangelist started sharing with me more about Jesus. He spent time with me two hours by sharing about Jesus and many things from the Bible. I finally accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior Lord and this evangelist prayed for me. From that night all the pain was gone and there was no more suffering and no more pain. I was rejoicing and giving thanks to God every day. By God’s grace, my wife accepted the Lord Jesus Christ when she saw me healed by accepting Jesus Christ. My wife had also a complicated sickness and she was also healed right after accepting the Lord Jesus Christ and then my family and my relatives came to the Lord.
 
Wow!! This is incredible and what a mighty God we received and this is a supernatural God.
 
After two weeks I went back to see the medical Doctor and it is over 400 miles away from my village to travel to see the doctor. I traveled on foot for 4 hours then I had to take the bus for another 500 miles away. When I met the medical doctor I told him that there is no more pain in my stomach then the doctor investigated my intestine and asked me to come back after 20 days. I was giving thanks to God and believed in God that there is no more cancer in my body but I trusted Jesus who healed me. After 20 days I went back to see the Doctor know the result. The doctor was amazed at the investigatory result there is no more cancer and the tumor is no more. I was crying in front of the Doctor and I told the doctor that the evangelist who prayed for me and Jesus healed me. Then the doctor asked me are you Christian then I replied that yes I am a believer who believes in Jesus the God of almighty who healed every sickness. Then the doctor said congratulations and then he also said keep following that Christian God. I don’t have any medication for you to cure. The Doctor said I give up on your sickness. I then left a piece of the gospel tract to the doctor and I also wrote down my phone in the gospel tract. He took it and put it into his pocket with interest. That gospel tract was given to me by the evangelist to read.
 
One more miracle:
Well, when all the villagers found me healed by Jesus through this evangelist and then the villagers came to visit me one by one and group by a group who accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and I invited one of the evangelists to pray for their sinner’s prayer for them. Finally, half of the villagers who came to the saving knowledge of Jesus and my wife is now sharing the testimonies of how Jesus healed her and I am also sharing about God’s love and Jesus who died for us and was resurrected from death. Half of the villagers are now worshipping the Lord Jesus and three evangelists are teaching and disciplining us weekly for our spiritual growth. We have found a powerful God. All the new converts threw all their spirit worship altars away and burned them all. Others left their worship to other gods. Half of our villages (over 1000 people) became believers.
 
The last miracle:
After two weeks later the doctor called me and he wanted to meet me. I was a bit worried about why this Doctor called me. I was wondering if perhaps my medical result has any problem. My mind was quite disturbed by the doctor’s calling. Then I thought I should call him again and I called him and asked him about any problem concerning my health. The doctor said it is nothing to do with your sickness but I wanted to hear more about Jesus. Wow! I was overjoyed and excited. I told the doctor, yes, I will come and also will bring my Bible teacher along with me and my Bible teacher can tell you more than I can. The doctor said yes, please. So, I took the evangelist who first met me and prayed for me to heal. Anyway, when we met the doctor and his wife, they both look so peaceful and the doctor was quite serious when I met him before. Then the doctor asked us and the evangelist many questions the Evangelist began to share from the Bible and it was 3 hours spent time and we sat together with the doctor and his wife in their house. After three hours of sharing the doctor and his wife have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior Lord. They were so touched by the gospel tract and we sensed that the gospel tract spoke to the doctor and his wife. The title of the gospel is, “Where will you be after this life?” The doctor asked for a Bible and we were able to get a very old Bible for him. The doctor and his wife are now attending one of the Churches in their City. The Doctor said to me before we left, if this Jesus did not heal you, you will live a few more months only but now you will live longer. Thank you for introducing this God to us. I was deeply blessed to hear this again from the Doctor.
 
Thank you, Jesus.  I am praying this message and testimony may heal you physically and spiritually. Thank you for taking the time to read this quite a long testimony. I have many more to write but the space doesn’t allow me to do them.
 
May God bless you all the readers.