I first visited the Phoenix area on a ministry trip back in October of 1987 and was very much drawn to the rugged and raw beauty all around. Moving out to Arizona (from England) back in September 1992, the Valley of the Sun has been my home since March, 1993. I love the place and the people.

High schooler, Michael Heiland put this outstanding time lapse video together as a six month school project.

The Valley from Michael Heiland on Vimeo.

As I watch the video, I am reminded of the Scripture in Acts 18. Verses 8-11 read, “And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Commenting on this phrase “I have many in this city who are my people” (verse 10), C. H. Spurgeon writes, “They are Christ’s property, and yet perhaps (right now) they are lovers of selfish pleasures and haters of holiness; but if Jesus Christ purchased them, He will have them. God is not unfaithful to forget the price that His Son has paid. He will not suffer His substitution to be in any case an ineffectual, dead thing. Tens of thousands of redeemed ones are not regenerated yet, but regenerated they must be; and this is our comfort when we go to them with the quickening Word of God.”

What was true for the ancient city in Paul’s day is no doubt true of Greater Phoenix in our own. Surely, the Lord has many in this city who are His people. That is why I stay, pray, preach and teach, reaching out to the people here, knowing that God has ordained to use means to achieve His ends – the rounding up of His precious sheep. The cry of my heart is, “O Lord, help me play my part in seeing them brought safely home to You.”