Terry Long (2026)

24/09/2026

WELCOME TO OUR STORY
This page is now a permanent home for Our Story — the story Alison and I shared about our life, ministry, family, faith, mistakes, lessons, and the people God used along the way.
The complete series is here for you to read and listen to whenever you would like.
If you are new to the story, I recommend beginning with Part 1 and working your way through to Part 31. Each part is one piece of a much larger journey.
This page is now preserved as an archive and is no longer actively monitored. Comments, messages, reviews, and new visitor posts have been limited so the focus can remain on the story itself.
My hope is simply that something here encourages you, makes you smile, helps you remember God’s faithfulness, or reminds you that none of us becomes who we are overnight.
Thank you for taking the time to share a little of our journey.
— Terry

20/08/2026

Rocky, Bob, Cat #1, Cat #2 our family

20/08/2026

OUR STORY — PART 31
I’M NOT WHO I WAS
And now we come to the last episode.
At least for this part of the story.
Over these past couple of months, I have tried to tell the story of Calvary Chapel Salt Lake City. How we came to Salt Lake. How God called us. How He provided. How He opened doors. How He took a bunch of misfits and used us for His kingdom.
Not because of us.
Many times, in spite of us.
But He used us.
And for that, all I can say is:
Thank You, Jesus.
When I look back over those thirty-five years, I see so much.
I see people coming to faith in Jesus.
I see marriages restored.
I see families helped.
I see children growing up in the church.
I see baptisms, weddings, funerals, Bible studies, outreaches, food ministries, thrift store miracles, radio, television, Israel trips, staff meetings, tears, laughter, failures, forgiveness, and grace.
So much grace.
I taught through the entire Bible.
Verse by verse.
Line by line.
Book by book.
Some books I taught more than once.
And through it all, one message stayed the same.
Jesus.
That was always the message.
When I came to Salt Lake City, I was one kind of man.
When I left, I was another.
There is an old Brandon Heath song about realizing you are not the same person you used to be. I think about that when I look back over my life.
Because that is true of me.
The young man who came into Salt Lake City all those years ago was ready to kick butt, take names, and build a church.
He had passion.
He had faith.
He had zeal.
He also had arrogance, stubbornness, sharp edges, and a whole lot to learn.
The older man who left Salt Lake City was different.
Still imperfect.
Still stubborn at times.
Still needing Jesus every day.
But different.
Softer, I hope.
More thankful.
More aware of grace.
More aware that ministry is not about winning arguments or building something impressive.
It is about Jesus.
It was never really about building a church.
It was never really about religion.
It was about a God who loves us and wants a personal relationship with us.
That was the message from the beginning.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Just like Paul said when he came to Corinth, he did not come with impressive speech or human wisdom. He came with one message: Jesus.
That is still the message.
Over the years, the way we communicated that message changed.
At first, we were known too much for what we were against.
There was a season when people were not always sure if Calvary was a safe place to bring their LDS family members, their neighbors, their hurting kids, or their broken friends.
They did not know what I might say.
And honestly, I understand that.
God had to change me.
He had to teach me that truth without love can become brutal.
And love without truth is not really love.
We needed both.
Truth and love.
So we began praying every week:
“Lord, make this a safe place for people to come and learn about You.”
That prayer changed us.
It changed the church.
It changed me.
We did not stop teaching the Bible.
We did not stop believing the truth.
We did not stop calling people to Jesus.
But we wanted people to know they could come.
Come with questions.
Come with wounds.
Come with confusion.
Come with a past.
Come with a story.
Come and hear about Jesus.
Because Jesus was always the point.
And how do we get to know Him?
For us, it was always through His Word and through a personal relationship with Him.
That never changed.
Every week, I would say in one way or another, “Bring your Bible.”
We are going to open this book.
We are going to read it.
We are going to talk about what it says.
Sometimes we will rejoice in it.
Sometimes we will struggle with it.
Sometimes we will say, “This is hard to understand. Can we talk about it?”
Sometimes we will say, “This is hard to live. Can we be honest about that?”
But we are going to stay in the Word.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
Peter wrote that the word of the Lord endures forever.
That is why we kept coming back to the Bible.
Not because we were smart.
Not because we had it all figured out.
But because God’s Word endures.
And the other thing that became sweeter and sweeter to me over the years was simply drawing near to Jesus.
There was a song we used to sing asking the Lord to draw us closer and let the world fade away.
That prayer means more to me now than ever.
James says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
That is still true.
As I have gotten older, my personal relationship with Jesus has become more precious to me.
Not less.
More.
As I have been telling these stories, I have cried more than I expected.
I have thanked God.
I have laughed.
I have winced.
I have remembered things I wish I had done differently.
I have remembered people I love deeply.
I have remembered victories that only God could have given.
And I have remembered mistakes that still remind me how much I need His mercy.
But through it all, Jesus has been faithful.
He was faithful when we drove into Salt Lake City in the middle of the night.
He was faithful when we had no money, no building, no plan, and no idea what we were doing.
He was faithful in the living room Bible study.
He was faithful in the community center.
He was faithful in the storefront.
He was faithful in the church buildings.
He was faithful in the hard seasons.
He was faithful in the miracles.
He was faithful when people came.
He was faithful when people left.
He was faithful when I knew what to do.
He was faithful when I had no idea what to do.
And He is faithful now.
Today, Alison and I are living in the Pacific Northwest.
I can see the ocean.
Almost every day, I look out and see deer.
It is quiet in a way my life was not quiet for a long time.
And I am thankful.
I am thankful for Salt Lake City.
I am thankful for Calvary Chapel Salt Lake City.
I am thankful for every person who served, prayed, gave, showed up, forgave, stayed, helped, challenged me, loved us, and walked with us.
I am thankful for the ones I have named in these stories.
And I am thankful for the many I did not name.
You mattered.
You were part of the story.
You were part of what Jesus did.
And if there is one thing I want to leave you with, it is this:
It was always about Jesus.
It still is.
It will always be.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He was with me then.
He is with me now.
And as Alison and I walk through this next season, this last third of life, I believe He is still leading.
Still teaching.
Still correcting.
Still comforting.
Still calling.
Still walking with us.
One day, this body will be laid down somewhere.
Maybe not in the grave I bought in Salt Lake City.
God seems to enjoy changing my plans.
But wherever that day comes, I know this:
Jesus will be there too.
Because He has been there all along.
From the very beginning, this was His story.
And by His grace, He let us be part of it.

20/08/2026

OUR STORY — PART 30
THE LAST THIRD
When I turned sixty, it surprised me how much I began to feel my age.
I started saying something I had heard many times before:
“Getting old is not for sissies.”
And I was learning that was true.
I could tell my teaching was not quite as sharp as it had been. For more than thirty years, I had taught multiple services on a Sunday. Many times, I taught three services, the same message, but each one a little different.
Then one day, for the first time, one of our camera guys told me that I had repeated the same story twice in one service.
I had never done that before.
That got my attention.
I also started feeling little pains here and there. Nothing was really wrong with me physically. I was not getting Alzheimer’s.
I was just getting old-timer’s.
Alison was feeling the same thing.
We had been doing ministry for a long time. The church had a large staff. There were many activities, ministries, services, outreaches, meetings, and responsibilities.
One evening, Alison and I were sitting in the backyard talking quietly.
She looked at me and said, “What do we want to do with the last third of our life?”
That question landed.
The last third.
As we talked and prayed, we began to realize there was still another chapter ahead of us.
And strangely enough, that chapter did not seem to include me continuing as the pastor in Salt Lake City.
That was a new revelation for both of us.
I had always thought I would be in Salt Lake City for the rest of my life. I had even bought a grave there, as I told you before. I really believed that was where this body would be laid down one day.
But God had other plans.
Through Alison’s question and the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit, I began to feel like the Lord was giving us a green light to start exploring something new.
Not quickly.
Not carelessly.
But honestly.
At the same time, the ministry was in good hands.
God had given us a strong pastoral team and a great staff. These were people who loved Jesus, loved the church, and were already carrying so much of the work.
Pastor Mike had the title of executive pastor, but in many ways he had already been running much of the church. He and his wife, Ashley, had been such a blessing. Mike carried so much of the administration and behind-the-scenes work of the church, and because of him, I was able to let go of more and more.
We also had good Bible teachers who were loved by the people.
Hudson was one of them.
I remember when his mother was pregnant with him. He had been around the ministry his whole life. To watch him grow up and become a good Bible teacher was a joy I cannot fully explain.
Daniel was another.
He had pastored a church locally in Salt Lake City, and during COVID he came on staff with us. It was such a joy to have a more seasoned pastor alongside us. Daniel carried himself with wisdom, especially in counseling and ministering to people. He had the heart of a pastor.
God had also given us a wonderful worship leader in Bryson, along with his wife, Alexis.
Those two were such a gift.
Bryson was not just a worship leader. He had a pastor’s heart. He cared for the team. He cared for the church. He loved people well.
Then there was Reuben, who pastored the Spanish ministry. That ministry had become large and was growing fast. Reuben had also been with us forever. I remembered him as a kid in the church, and what a joy it was to see him and his family serving the Lord in that way.
And on and on the list goes.
David Baker, with all his creative skill and faithful friendship.
Harley, who took over the children’s ministry after Kim Gibler, whom I mentioned in an earlier episode.
Diane, faithfully handling the finances.
So many others.
God had built a team.
A good team.
A team I could trust.
But I also knew that if we were going to walk through a transition, the staff would need care.
So I called a friend of mine, Darrell, a retired and seasoned senior pastor, and asked him to come on staff.
I asked him to be a pastor to the staff.
I wanted him to meet with them, listen to them, minister to them, and help them process whatever transition might be coming.
Each week, staff members were able to have one-on-one time with him. They had someone they could talk to, someone outside the normal chain of command, someone who understood ministry and could help them walk through change.
That was one of the best things we did.
Bringing another seasoned pastor alongside the staff helped protect the process and care for the people.
Then we began making it clear:
This is what it looks like the Lord is doing.
And we started moving forward.
Geographically, I was ready for trees, ocean, calm, and small-town life. Salt Lake City had grown like crazy. It had become busy, crowded, and intense.
I loved Salt Lake.
But I was ready for quiet.
We looked at Ireland.
I loved Ireland. We had been there several times and had friends there.
But it was too far from the kids.
So Ireland was out.
We looked at Maine, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
I liked those places too.
But again, the East Coast felt too far from the kids. Our children were on the West Coast, and we wanted to stay closer to them.
So we began driving up the West Coast.
California?
No. I grew up there, and I did not want to move back.
Oregon?
There were a lot of places in Oregon that seemed like they could fit. We had good friends there, and some of the towns felt close to what we were looking for.
Then we got into Washington.
And something began to click.
The Pacific Northwest started to feel like a very loud green light from the Lord.
Trees.
Ocean.
Quiet.
A smaller town.
It felt like the Lord was saying, “This is where I want you.”
Even the specific town seemed to become clear, but that is a longer story for another time.
The important thing is this:
We were not leaving because we were mad at anyone.
We were not leaving because something bad had happened.
We were not leaving because the ministry was falling apart.
We were leaving because it was time.
It was time to hand the work to the next generation.
So that is what we began to do.
It became about a 2- to 3-year transition. In some ways, it did not feel like it took that long because many of the leaders had already been with me for years.
I poured into them everything I could.
I tried to prepare them.
I tried to step back.
I tried to let them lead.
And eventually, the time came.
The church gave us a big going-away party.
It was sad.
It was beautiful.
It was hard.
It was right.
Then we packed up the truck.
And just like when we first moved to Salt Lake City all those years before, we looked a little like the Beverly Hillbillies again.
Only this time, we were not moving into the beginning of the ministry.
We were moving into the next chapter.
That is how we retired.
Not suddenly.
Not angrily.
Not because the story had failed.
But because Jesus had written a new chapter.
And it was time to turn the page.

19/08/2026

OUR STORY — PART 29
WHEN LESLIE WALKED IN
In the last story, I told you how the thrift store began.
God had given us a location.
He had given us displays.
He had given us inventory from Go Bananas.
People had started bringing donations.
And we had a vision for what the thrift store could become.
But there was one problem.
We had no idea how to run a thrift store.
There was another problem too.
We did not really have a budget for it.
We needed money for basic things. Displays. Signs. Supplies. Equipment. The kind of things you need before a store is really ready to function.
And once again, God provided in a way we did not see coming.
On the back part of the church property, there was a cell tower. The company that owned the tower had been renting that space from us and paying the church around six or seven hundred dollars a month.
One day they approached us with an offer.
They wanted to give us $100,000 in exchange for no longer having to make monthly lease payments.
We would still own the property.
The tower would stay where it was.
They just would not owe us the monthly payment anymore.
At first, we had to think that through carefully. But when we did the math, it was actually a very good deal.
And just like that, God gave us $100,000.
Money we did not have.
Money we did not know how badly we were going to need.
Money that allowed us to pour into the thrift store.
We bought displays.
We bought supplies.
We put up a beautiful sign so people would know we were there.
We were able to get the building ready to be a real thrift store.
A good thrift store.
But as I said in the last episode, the ministry grew quickly.
Almost too quickly.
The church was already large. We had a full staff. We had other ministries happening in the community. I was pastoring, teaching, leading, counseling, and trying to keep up with everything else.
And then I was also at the thrift store almost every day, trying to figure out how to make that work too.
It became too much.
The thrift store was a thriving ministry, but I could not carry it.
I remember praying, “Lord, I do not want to shut this down. It is helping people. It is touching lives. But we need help.”
That is when Leslie came into the story.
Leslie had been an executive leader in a grocery store company. She was not just working in a store. She was one of the leaders. Her store was used to train other managers because of how well it was run.
She knew systems.
She knew people.
She knew organization.
She knew how to take something busy and make it work.
And God knew we needed her.
Leslie had first come to the church because her boyfriend was attending. He brought her, and she began coming.
She had an LDS background, but she did not know much about Jesus in the way we were teaching Him from the Bible.
But as she sat under the teaching of the Word, God began moving in her heart.
That still, small voice began speaking to her.
And one Sunday morning, Leslie gave her heart to Jesus.
Not long after that, while she was sitting in church and I was preaching, she sensed the Lord say something to her.
“Someday you are going to work for that man.”
She did not know what that meant.
I certainly did not know what that meant.
A couple years later, Leslie was serving in the church. She was an usher. She loved Jesus. We knew her somewhat, but I did not really know the details of her background or all the leadership experience God had built into her life.
Then one Sunday morning, I saw her in the foyer.
And instantly, I had this thought:
Talk to her about ministry.
So I walked up to her and said, “What are you doing with your life?”
That is probably not the smoothest opening line.
She just looked at me.
Then I said something like, “Wouldn’t it be better than making all that money and giving all that energy to a grocery store company, if you gave your life to serving the Lord here with us?”
Then I said, “Why don’t you come on staff and help us at the church?”
Honestly, part of me almost thought it was a joke.
There was no way she was going to leave a secure, well-paying executive job to come work for the church for a much smaller amount of money.
But Leslie started crying.
She told me that morning was her birthday.
And she said the Lord had already told her that morning that I was going to ask her to come on staff.
That got my attention.
It also made me a little nervous.
Because I remember thinking, I do not even know if we can pay her.
But I knew God was doing something.
I had seen Him do things like this before. Little unusual moments. Little divine interruptions. The kind of moments where God starts moving someone into the calling He has for them.
I was not surprised God could do it.
I was just surprised because I did not see it coming.
Leslie came on staff, and because of her skill, leadership, and love for Jesus, she very quickly became my personal assistant.
And then I asked her to help me with the thrift store.
I said, “Leslie, I need you to help me fix this.”
Not because the ministry was broken in heart.
The heart was good.
The need was real.
People were being helped.
But operationally, it needed help.
A lot of help.
Leslie stepped in at the very moment I was about ready to shut it down.
And she changed everything.
What had felt overwhelming and stressful began to take shape.
Systems were built.
People were organized.
Processes were improved.
The store became more polished.
The ministry became stronger.
And the mission stayed the same.
Help people.
Love people.
Pray for people.
Tell people about Jesus.
Over time, the thrift store became one of my favorite ministries we ever had.
And it was never just Leslie.
Dulce had been there from the beginning and continued to be such an important part of the story.
John helped.
Jessica helped.
Angelica helped.
And many others served, led, volunteered, donated, sorted, cleaned, carried furniture, prayed with people, and loved the community.
Today, the thrift store has a large staff and many volunteers.
Every day, items go out to help people.
The rescue mission has been helped.
Other ministries have been helped.
Families have been helped.
People in crisis have been helped.
And many people have walked through those doors and discovered that the thrift store was not just a place to buy something inexpensive.
It was a place where people cared.
A place where people prayed.
A place where people loved Jesus.
A place where ministry happened.
I still think about how close I was to shutting it down.
And then God brought Leslie.
That is how He works.
He provides the money before you know you need it.
He opens the door before you know where it leads.
And sometimes, right when you are ready to quit, He sends the person you did not even know to ask for.
Calvary Thrift Store became one of the great blessings of my life.
And one of the reasons it did is because, at just the right time, Leslie walked in.

18/08/2026

OUR STORY — PART 28
THE THRIFT STORE
In the last episode, I told the story of how Utah Food for Families began with a simple pallet of chicken.
The thrift store started in a similar way.
We were just trying to help people.
Early on, we became aware of many refugees and immigrants coming to Salt Lake City from other countries. Many of them arrived with very little. They needed clothes, shoes, furniture, dishes, pots and pans — basic things to help set up a home.
So we began asking the church and the Christian community for help.
“If you have extra clothing, furniture, household items, or things a family could use, bring them to us. We will get them to people who need them.”
And people responded.
Fast.
Items started coming in so quickly that before long we were renting storage units. Then another storage unit. Then another.
We turned those storage units into little shopping centers where refugee families could come and pick out what they needed.
It was beautiful.
But it was also expensive.
And after a while, we realized it was not really solving the problem the way we hoped. We were helping people, but the system was clunky, costly, and hard to manage.
One of the women involved in those early efforts was Dulce
Dulce had a heart to help the refugees and was very involved in serving them. One day she had an idea.
“What if we opened a thrift store?”
That way, we could keep helping people, but also generate revenue to support ministry and make the whole thing more sustainable.
I thought it was a great idea.
I also thought it was a terrible idea.
It was great because it made sense.
It was terrible because we had never run a thrift store.
We had no idea what we were doing.
But that seemed to be a common theme in our story.
So we prayed.
“Lord, if this is what You want, give us wisdom. Give us direction. Open the right door.”
We began looking for space, and before long we found a location that just felt right.
It was in a good area with a lot of traffic. The landlord was willing to work with us, and the rent was very reasonable. The space was small, but we thought it might be enough to get started.
At the time, there was a consignment shop in the space called Go Bananas.
The woman who owned it was closing the business because she needed to care for family. So we asked if we could buy the inventory, displays, computers — everything she would be leaving behind.
She gave us a price.
And honestly, it felt too low.
I remember thinking, I do not think I can sleep at night if we give her that little.
So I raised the offer.
Then I thought about it again and raised it some more.
I kept moving the number until I finally reached the place where I felt like I could sleep.
That became the number.
She was a Christian, and she loved the idea of that space becoming a Christian thrift store.
Later, I learned something interesting about that building.
That particular space had a long history of Christian presence. It had been a Christian bookstore. It had been a church. Then it had been Go Bananas. And now it was becoming our thrift store.
That may not sound like a big deal, but in Salt Lake City, that felt unusual.
It felt like holy ground.
Like God had already been using that little space long before we ever walked through the door.
So we moved forward.
And very quickly, we learned something.
We really did not know how to run a thrift store.
We just knew we wanted it to be more than a place where people bought used things.
We wanted it to be a lighthouse in the community.
A place where people could be helped.
A place where people could be prayed for.
A place where people could receive kindness.
A place where the money that came in would go back out to help ministry and serve people.
We did not want to be afraid to give things away.
We did not want to be afraid to help.
We wanted people to know that the thrift store belonged to Jesus.
Before long, donations started pouring in.
People heard what we were doing and began driving across town to bring us their items. Clothes, furniture, household goods — more and more came in.
Soon we realized the space was not big enough.
We did not just need room for shoppers. We needed room in the back to process donations, sort items, price things, and get them onto the floor.
A space behind us became available.
Then a space beside us became available.
So we expanded.
But just as we were getting ready to open, the city came to us and said, “You cannot have a thrift store here.”
There was a rule in that area that did not allow a thrift store within a certain distance.
That was a problem.
We explained that we had signed the lease with the clear understanding that this would be a thrift store. We went before the city commission, talked with them, and explained what we were trying to do.
In the end, they gave us a conditional use permit.
That meant we could have the thrift store there, but we could not move it somewhere nearby later and keep that same permission.
In other words, God had opened a very specific door.
And we needed to walk through it.
So we opened slowly.
We learned as we went.
And the thrift store began to grow.
Almost too fast.
I was still pastoring a large church. We had other ministries going. The church was growing. Life was full. And now I found myself at the thrift store almost every day, trying to figure out how to make it work.
For a while, I felt like I lived there.
I was overwhelmed.
We had donations coming in, people needing help, volunteers serving, customers shopping, and a ministry growing faster than we knew how to manage.
And there came a point where I was ready to shut it down.
I remember thinking, Lord, I cannot do all of this.
The idea was good.
The need was real.
The ministry was touching people.
But I could not carry it.
We needed someone who could step in, understand the heart of it, and help lead it.
And that is when Leslie came into the story.
But that is a story for next time.

17/08/2026

If you scroll back through the photos, you’ll see the thrift store outreach and how we later moved it to the church. God was—and still is—doing great work through Utah Food for Families.

17/08/2026

OUR STORY — PART 27
A PALLET OF CHICKEN
The COVID years were hard for everyone.
They were hard for people who lost loved ones.
They were hard for people who got sick.
They were hard for families, churches, schools, businesses, and communities.
And they were hard for the church.
When COVID first hit, we closed the church for about a month. When we opened back up, we tried to be very careful. We took temperatures. We practiced social distancing. We cleaned the church between services with special chemicals. We did everything we knew to do to help keep people as safe as possible.
It was a strange time.
People needed community more than ever, but we also had to be careful.
During that season, I was part of the governor’s clergy task force in Utah. The governor told us churches were considered essential, and we could stay open, but there were guidelines we needed to follow.
We tried to take that seriously.
I had a pastor friend who was very hesitant to open his church again. He had a great outdoor space, and I encouraged him to think about meeting outside, where people could gather more safely.
He still was not sure.
So I told him, “Honestly, maybe you should stay closed. A lot of your leaders are coming to our church now. A bunch of your people are coming too. So it is actually working out pretty well for us.”
Now, I said that with a purpose.
I was trying to give him a little push.
And it worked.
I told him that on a Friday, and by Sunday he was meeting outside, socially distanced, doing everything he could to keep people safe.
To this day, he still thanks me for that little push.
That was the kind of season it was.
Nobody knew exactly what to do.
We were all trying to figure it out.
And as we prayed, we kept asking, “Lord, what would You have us do?”
We wanted to help people, but at first we were not sure how.
Then one day, a friend of mine who worked with a homeless rescue mission called Alison.
He said they had a pallet of frozen chicken and asked if we could do anything with it.
Alison called me and said, “Can we use a pallet of chicken?”
I said, “Absolutely.”
Then I started making phone calls.
I called other pastors to see if they knew people who needed food. Then I went over with my truck and picked up the chicken.
Before long, I had a truck full of frozen chicken and no great master plan.
So I started giving it away.
If I saw someone or talked to someone, I would ask, “Are you vegan or vegetarian?”
If they said no, I said, “Good. I have chicken for you.”
That may not sound like a highly organized ministry strategy.
But it worked.
We found people who were shut in because of COVID, and we brought them food. We gave chicken to anyone we could find who needed it.
But after all of that, we still had an ice chest full of chicken.
So I thought, God has blessed us with a thrift store. Let’s use it.
I will tell the thrift store story another time, but for now, we decided to let people know that we were going to do a Bible study at the thrift store and give away free chicken afterward.
We moved clothes out of part of the clothing area and set up about fifty chairs.
I thought maybe twenty or thirty people would come.
They did not.
The place filled up.
People came, and yes, they were thankful for the chicken. But what surprised us was that many of them seemed even more hungry for the Bible study.
They wanted community.
They wanted hope.
They wanted to be with people.
So we knew right away that we needed to move it outside.
The next time, we got permission from the landowner and moved everything into the parking lot.
We set up chairs outside.
We created a place for worship.
I taught the Bible.
And people started coming.
A lot of people.
Then we began praying, “Lord, give us food so we can give it away.”
And food came.
Dannon Yogurt gave us food.
Sara Lee began giving us bread.
Sam’s Club helped.
Costco helped.
Trader Joe’s helped.
And many others began giving food for us to distribute.
At times, we had semi-trucks full of food.
It took days of processing, organizing, sorting, and preparing. Then we would have the day when people came and received food.
It was a lot of work.
And it took a lot of faithful volunteers.
But we were able to reach a lot of people.
Soon, the parking lot of the thrift store was filling up with cars and people. They came for food, but they also came for worship, Bible teaching, prayer, and encouragement.
The city of West Jordan became concerned because the traffic was starting to affect the streets around the thrift store.
So they came out to see what we were doing.
To their credit, they were very positive. They helped us think through how to manage the crowds more safely. They gave us guidance on social distancing, provided masks and gloves, and helped us with basic safety and hygiene practices.
We were grateful for that.
At first, people would park their cars and come over. If they wanted to be part of the Bible study, they could sit and listen. If they wanted worship, they could worship. Then we would fill shopping carts with food and bring the food to their cars.
And while we were bringing the food, we would tell them about Jesus.
We would tell them there was a God who loved them.
We would ask if we could pray for them.
We would let them know we were there to help if we could.
God moved in beautiful ways.
I remember one young woman who came during that season. She was in her early twenties, and she was crying. I went over to talk with her and asked what was going on.
She was scared.
She was living with her grandparents nearby and had snuck out to come hear the Bible teaching.
She was afraid of what was happening in the world.
I told her God was in control. I told her Jesus loved her. I tried to comfort her.
Then I gave her a hug.
As I hugged her, I realized she was burning hot.
I asked, “Are you okay?”
She said, “No. I am really sick. I think I have COVID.”
And I had just hugged her.
That was COVID ministry.
It was messy.
It was risky.
It was confusing.
And it was real.
I did have COVID three times, but the Lord protected me from getting severely sick. I also had friends who passed away from COVID, so I do not tell this lightly. It was serious. It was painful. It was hard.
But people were desperate for connection.
They wanted a friendly face.
They wanted prayer.
They wanted someone to tell them they were not alone.
The ministry grew so quickly that we eventually moved it from the thrift store parking lot to the church property. We had a larger parking lot there and could create a safer drive-through system.
Cars came through by the hundreds.
As people pulled up, volunteers would greet them, ask if we could pray, give them food, and tell them about Jesus.
No matter what they believed.
No matter where they came from.
No matter their background.
We were there to love them.
Over time, that little beginning became Utah Food for Families.
It grew into one of the largest food distributions in the state of Utah.
And it is still going today.
Every Thursday, people receive food, prayer, and the hope of the gospel.
And it all started with a simple pallet of chicken.
A pallet of chicken became an ice chest of chicken.
An ice chest of chicken became a Bible study.
A Bible study became a parking lot full of people.
A parking lot became a food ministry.
And that food ministry became a way to tell thousands of people about Jesus.
That is how God works.
Sometimes He opens doors that look like big visions and careful plans.
And sometimes He opens doors that look like frozen chicken in the back of a truck.
All He asks is that we say yes.
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” Jesus said, “and all these things shall be added to you.”
We watched that happen again and again.
During one of the hardest seasons we had ever known, Jesus was still working.
And all we had to do was be faithful with what He put in front of us.
Even if what He put in front of us was a pallet of chicken.

Terry Long

24/09/2026

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