Exciting News!

People often ask us why we call ourselves Bloom. The answer is simple: it’s what we want to happen inside of people once they experience the grace of God. And it’s no accident that our logo is a dandelion going to seed…because those seeds penetrate the hardest of soils to spread like wildfire.

With that, we’re so excited to tell you all today what we shared with our Bloom community this morning. We opened our doors a little less than a year ago, and already God has created a huge opportunity for us to live out our mission of creating opportunities for people to experience the grace of God in a HUGE new way…the dandelion seed is spreading…to Peru.

Danny and Stephanie Gutierrez, along with their two beautiful daughters, are heading to Lima, Peru, as missionaries. After Danny and Luke visited Peru in June, it became clear to them that the people there are hungry to learn about God’s grace…and even clearer was Danny and Stephanie’s overflowing heart to share it with them.

As most of you know, Danny’s father pastors a church in Lima. While the Gutierrez family is living there, Danny and Stephanie will be helping his father and reaching out to the surrounding community. They’ll be spending three weeks in Peru this fall and will make the big move in March. Our community will be doing all we can to support them as they wrap up their lives here in Minnesota. And we’re thrilled about our direct Bloom connection to South America.

Luke will continue to lead Bloom as its senior pastor. As of this weekend, Danny transitions from his role as one of the lead pastors into his new role as a Bloom pastor on the mission field.

We all are so excited about what has happened in the lives that make up Bloom in our first year. We’ve seen amazing leaders surface, seen people’s talents come to life and have experienced a community turn into a family filled with compassion for one another and the world…and who are crazy in love with Jesus.

We know that Danny and Stephanie are only some of the first from our community to courageously take on an exciting new opportunity as the result of God’s nature bursting inside of them. There will be more…and we can’t wait to see what else God is going to do through this inspiring community. We’re so thankful for our amazing team of leaders who consistently help us equip and empower people to run toward what God has for them…and for Bloom. There are a lot of seeds on that dandelion.

We can’t wait for God to continue to unfold the story that is Bloom.

Thank you all for being such a great support to us.

Grace & Peace,

Danny & Stephanie // Luke & Amy