Rodney and Susan Henderson

 Settled in the Soo ...  As of February 1, we were officially settled in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. God granted our desire to integrate quickly with our new church family. Our goal was to love them and love them well - and love them we do! In our short time here, God has also allowed us to: learn the ministries of the church serve Pastor Dave and his wife, Teresa meet with the elders and their wives and hear their hearts for ministry provide a “fresh set of eyes” towards the current church paradigms help the church leadership develop or evaluate methods and procedures currently not in place interview ministry leaders and document current methods and procedures suggest and help implement a new bulletin design implement a new church website (click HERE ) implement a new church database, mobile app, and more serve on the Worship Team help prepare Easter Music assist (boots on the ground) as needed Read MORE ....

First - the GREAT News! You may remember our last prayer letter outlined the amazing ways God is using grief to draw people to Himself. We are excited to give you the AWESOME news that Lady #3 (from our October letter) is now a follower of Jesus ! In her words, “I feel lighter, I feel fuller than I ever have”. Praising God once again! Next - the SURPRISING News! There was a song that became popular in churches about 20 years ago called “Trust His Heart”. As we were thinking about writing this news, these lyrics came to mind: God is too wise to be mistaken God is too good to be unkind So when you don't understand When you don't see His plan When you can't trace His hand Trust His Heart God is leading us to leave South Holly Church - soon. We will finish our responsibilities here by Christmas, have our farewell dinner and say our goodbyes on January 8, and then be done serving at South Holly Church. This was not in our plan, nor was this our timing, but it is

God uses grief. In fact, God uses LOTS of things to bring others to Himself! We (Rod and Susan) are currently facilitating their 7th full cycle of GriefShare at South Holly. Each cycle is 13 weeks in length, which allows time to get to know each of the participants and walk their grief journey with them. For various reasons, we considered canceling the fall cycle of GriefShare and waiting until January to resume. God did not let us - and here’s why…… Read MORE......  

 Let us tell you about a guy - we’ll call him “Peter”. Some back story first - In March, the management of our church’s website volleyed back to Susan, who, with her eye for detail, got on the back door of the website to see what needed to be updated, if anything. God showed her that there was a problem with the “Contact Us” card, meaning that there were individuals that had filled it out, hoping and expecting to hear a response from South Holly. The link was broken, so South Holly never received those emails. None of us knew….. The South Holly Staff reached out to those individuals, apologizing for the delay in response, as they had all requested information 2 months earlier. Pastor Shannon sent a message to “Peter”. “Peter” attended Men’s Group the next day, and the week after that, and so on. The next month, his whole family came for Easter, and they continue to come. “Peter” actually showed up to help with set up that Easter morning - before they had ever attended a Morning Worshi

Planting 10 churches in 10 years sounds pretty amazing, especially for a church that has just reached about 100 in attendance, but that’s the plan. Our lead pastor of 2 years, Shannon Popp, has a heart for planting churches, and with some ABWE help, we are on track to plant a church by Easter of 2023. The pastor for the first church plant, Table Fellowship Church, is currently South Holly’s Worship Leader, Pastor Arick Graham and his wife, Rachel. We are working hard at growing South Holly, developing the processes to prepare not only for our growth but also for the sending of a significant percentage of our church families to assist in planting Table Fellowship. Additionally, a fellowship of Telegu-speaking families from India are using South Holly as their church home location. They have their own pastor, who has recently joined South Holly, along with his family, for emigration reasons. They will at some point plant their own church in the community near us, which makes another chur

  “A” …. is a 25-year-old business professional with a winning, outgoing personality and with whom Rod has developed a good friendship. “A” owns his own business and has a background in marketing. Unless God changes his path, we fully expect him to be a millionaire at a young age. He is that good at what he does, which makes him the perfect person to assist Rod in his plan to present the Gospel to one million hearers. “S” …. is a 50-something woman who Rod and Susan met through GriefShare. Susan continues to pour into her life, meeting her for lunches. While she was quite open to hearing about Christ for a time, she is now more resistant to the possibility of a relationship with Christ. Still, God continues to place this woman on Susan’s heart, and their relationship continues to deepen. “G” …. is a 21-year-old intern at South Holly. “G” has an awesome testimony of how God turned his life around in a very dramatic fashion. He not only interns with Pastor Shannon, he is Rod’s “ri