Missions Minute - The Lytles (July 28, 2026)

Hello, Summit Church!

Thank you so much for your continued prayer and financial support. It means so much to us and truly enables our family to do what we are doing in Strongsville! Here is an update of what has been taking place recently at First Baptist Church of Strongsville and in the life of our family.

The Church:
June 21st, Father’s Day, was an especially exciting day here as we had the chance to see a young adult, Nick, and his dad, Joe, baptized! I had the privilege of leading both of them to Christ at a coffee shop in Strongsville just before Easter of this year. Joe first and then Nick followed about a week later. In addition to Nick and Joe being baptized on Father’s Day, Riley, another young adult, was baptized as well! All three are new believers within the past few months. God used social media to open Riley's eyes to his need for Christ. Joe had a heart problem and then a tumor was found in his brain. He had run from God for years. These medical issues caused him to stop running. Nick saw what his dad was going through and the decision his dad made for Christ and saw his need for Christ. None of these guys have any real Church background but today they are all three growing in Christ. It is awesome to see God at work! I’ve included pictures below.

On July 12th then, we had another baptism service as another young adult, Jerome, wanted to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism. Jerome grew up in the Catholic Church but has since truly turned to Christ. Jerome’s girlfriend, Cassie, has been at our Church since she was a child and had him start coming with her when they started dating. Jerome is growing in Christ by in big ways and recently it became apparent that the Lord is preparing Jerome for Church ministry in the future. I talked with him about that possibility and after prayer and talking with others, he is so excited to move forward. First step - believer’s baptism. Again, it is awesome to see God at work! There is a picture Jerome’s baptism below as well.

Instead of hosting our own VBS this summer, we decided to focus on domestic missions and have a small team go up to help Faith Baptist Community Center in Cleveland with their VBS, July 20-24th. What a blessing it was to be a part of that! We praise the Lord for what He is doing through that organization!

Overall, we just praise the Lord for the health of the Church here. People are really owning the mission, taking Steps of Faith, and growing spiritually. They are caring about the earthly needs and eternity of each other and family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and people they do recreation with. We praise the Lord for all of that! As we look forward to the fall, we are, as a Church, participating in a 36 hour fast that goes from 6pm on August 9 through 6am on August 11am really seeking the Lord and asking Him to work mightily here.

We are excited to finally be making some headway on the reconstruction of water damaged part of our building. It has been a long process. We really sense that the Lord provided us an opportunity through the water damage, to prepare our building for what He wants to do here in the future. That has led us to look at opening up the space and updating it. I’ve included a conceptual rendering below. The project total cost will be $105,000. We have $50,000 of that from insurance and gifts that were given when the water damage happened initially. Our people here will be working to contribute as much as they can. If you or someone you know would be interested in giving towards that reconstruction project, you can send a check, made out to the Church - First Baptist Church of Strongsville - with “Building Reconstruction” in the memo line. We also have it up as an option on our online giving portal, Tithely, which is accessible from our website - fbcstrongsville.com. If there are any questions about the building reconstruction, please contact me.

Our Family:
At the end of may, we had the chance to go up to Canada and visit my parents. It was such a refreshing time for us all! We are so thankful that currently the area they are in, in Manitoba has not been affected by the wildfires. There have been some suspicious fires that have started in their community but thankfully those have been able to be taken care of before any damaged was caused. We are praying for their continued safety, and also all those in Canada that are being affected by the wildfires.  

Our oldest son, Hudson, almost as soon as we got back from Canada, headed out to Skyview Ranch to work on the grounds crew for the summer. His summer out there just ended this past weekend. He loved it and we praise the Lord for how He worked in Hudson’s life through that experience. He is sure that he wants to be back out there next summer. Kinslee and Sawyer have had great summers as well but have interestingly both said they are looking forward to school starting here in a few weeks.

Our family minus Hudson had the chance to be out at Camp Patmos towards the end of June as I was speaking there for the week. It was so encouraging to see 5 students receive Christ and several other students move towards being serious about their faith. Sawyer attended camp that week and Kinlee volunteered out there that week. It was certainly a highlight of our summer!

One of the things we shared in the past was our vehicle situation. We praise the Lord that our van and car continue to function! The internal engine issue with our van has not gotten any worse and I have done some work to try to mitigate the rust issues with our car. The cost to fix the issue with our van is $3000 and right now it is not worth much more than that so we are trying to be wise with what we do there. We are excited that God used a gentleman at Skyview Ranch to bless Hudson with a well cared for 2011 Chevy Impala for a great price! Hudson is so excited to have his own vehicle!

Overall we are just grateful for what God is doing in our family!

Thank you again for your continued prayer and financial support! If you know of others that may want to support us in prayer or financially, please pass on the contact information below or let me know and I would love to get in contact with them and add them to our regular email update list.

Grace and peace,
Steve Lytle

First Baptist Church of Strongsville
17444 Drake Rd, Strongsville, OH 44136
Mission | Enjoy God and make the name of Jesus famous for all the right reasons.
Website | fbcstrongsville.com