Dear Friends of Whole Heart,

Greetings in Christ! Thank you for sharing a few minutes of your day with us in this busy season of Advent and Christmas. You are stepping momentarily into our family history as we prepare to celebrate in 2024 a milestone for us and for Whole Heart Ministries: THIRTY YEARS!!! We have invested a trinity of decades of our lives in this ministry! No matter how many of those years you’ve known us, we are grateful you are with us now on this journey.

Last year in this letter we glanced back at the road that we stepped onto in 1994 with God as we began this ministry. There is so much we could reminisce about now—small beginnings, workshops, books, catalogs, conventions, conferences, intensives, online ministries, and so much more—but you can read that story on our website (https://wholeheart.org/ourstory). We’ll take some time to look back at those pavement stones on the road of our ministry in the months to come, but right now as we turn a corner of life, we still want to look at what’s ahead.

A song I (Clay) have written captures a bit of how we feel every December as we prepare to step over the threshold of another new year. It is always a “New, New Year” and in the spirit of Isaiah we tune our hearts to anticipate what God might do: “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?” Every year for the past three decades we have heeded that admonition to look ahead: “The God who can do something new, will make a new way of hope for you, a river of life in a desert of care, it’s a new, new year.”

But in the words of another of my songs, we also agree with Solomon’s wisdom: “What goes around, comes around again. There’s nothing new beneath the sun that hasn’t already been.” The “something new” we are trying to see is not something that has never been, but just a new iteration of “that which has been done” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Whatever is new is born out of all that has come before on our journey. We are so grateful, after all our years of ministry, that God’s love still compels us to share the same messages of help and hope for families that started us on our wholehearted journey of Christian parenting ministry thirty years ago. Thank you for joining us, and staying with us, on that journey.

Our WholeHearted Journey in 2023 – What Has Been

After losing our beloved Oxford, England rental home of two years, we settled into a new flat in September 2022. Life went on as Sally cultivated and grew her new ministry in 2023 as a Lay Mentor to women and doctoral students at Pusey House, a historic Anglican Study Center not far from our flat. Her ministry was the first to women there since its founding in 1884 as part of the Oxford Movement. She led two regular weekly evening Bible studies and met individually with women throughout the week. In April she launched Teatime Discipleship: Sharing Faith One Cup at a Time, and then we prepared for a “transitional” summer—taking part in a variety of our progenies’ passages and projects in Scotland and England in June and July before returning to the states to host children and grandchildren here at home in Monument, Colorado. When we returned to Oxford in September, we had already decided it was time for us to return to the states. After launching Teatime Discipleship for Mother’s & Daughters, we were able by God’s grace to vacate our flat and be released from the lease. We packed up five years of stuff in eight boxes and six suitcases to ship back to the US, and on November 1 the Oxford chapter of our lives came to an end. Now we are entering a new season of life and ministry back in Colorado. Onward!

Our WholeHearted Journey in 2024 – What Will Be

With the personal transitions behind us, now we are considering ministry transitions—ensuring that Whole Heart Ministries will continue to be a lifegiving outreach of help and hope for parents and their children around the world. Sally is still the heartbeat of Whole Heart—her At Home with Sally podcasts have been downloaded nearly 27 million times since Sep 2015; her last five books are all 5-star ratings with hundreds of reviews on Amazon; her Life with Sally online membership community continues to offer support and encouragement for Christian women and mothers. And Clay is expanding his roles as Director and as the Publisher of Whole Heart Press. So, looking ahead to the “New, New Year,” the ministry of Whole Heart will go on in 2024.

• Sally Clarkson Ministry — For thirty-something years Sally has influenced countless Christian women and parents through her workshops, conferences, ministry intensives, books, blogs, community, videos, and podcasts. In this next season she will continue to minister online and in person wherever God leads. It will take some time, but we are planning a “makeover” of her websites so she can minister more effectively to more women in our “connected” age. She also has two new books releasing in the year ahead—Well Lived (about her life in Oxford), and a deluxe hardcover edition of her popular 2019 devotional, Mom Heart Moments.

• LifewithSally.com — Sally’s lifegiving membership community continues to grow as an online destination for Christian moms. We decided we could no longer support a mobile app this past year, but now we are planning sitewide changes and additions to make LifewithSally an even richer experience for members. LWS provides a uniquely personal engagement with Sally through Bible study, personal encouragement, spiritual resources, and much more.

• Whole Heart Press — From the beginning of Whole Heart Ministries in 1994, we envisioned writing and publishing new books as a “ministry in print” for families. Clay is now in the early stages of a makeover and expansion of Whole Heart Press as a respected Christian independent publisher. In the queue for 2024 are our first illustrated children’s storybooks for our Storyformed Books imprint; an Advent season creative fiction novel; a nonfiction release; and public domain reprints. Also on the digital drawing board is a standalone website just for Whole Heart Press. It’s about time! We will continue to “press on” with WH Press.

• Whole Heart Online — WholeHeart.org is our ministry website, focused on our six strategic ministry initiatives and other priorities. Since giving the site a major makeover three years ago, we have continued to add new features to offer wholehearted biblical help and hope to Christian families, such as more PDF resources as free digital downloads. You can find Amazon links for all our Clarkson family books, as well as faith-building resources for your family.

Will You Join Us on Our Journey of Ministry in 2024?

Whole Heart Ministries is a faith ministry. That simply means that we believe God will faithfully work with us as we walk by faith with him. As we continue on our wholehearted journey of ministry in the “new, new year” ahead, we still believe that God provides for our needs as we faithfully minister in Christ’s name. That’s where we hope that you can envision yourself—as faithful friends who will share our hearts for “keeping faith in the family” and who will join us on this journey of ministry with your prayerful and financial help.

When God provides friends on this journey who can help provide for the needs of this ministry, we consider it a partnership. It’s all about all of us working together as partners to leave behind a godly legacy for future generations—changed lives and life-changing books and resources that will continue to strengthen Christian parents, children, and families long beyond our own brief lifetimes (see Psalm 78). If God puts it on your heart to be a part of this ministry as a Whole Heart Partner, we want to make that easy and uncomplicated.

Your gift of any kind by December 31 will help us keep helping families in the U.S. and around the world in 2024. If you can partner with us financially, simply donate safely and securely on our online donation page (wholeheart.org/donate) or send a check to the address below. If sending a check, your envelope must be postmarked by December 31 to receive a donation receipt for the 2023 tax year. Your financial contribution to Whole Heart Ministries, a 501(c)(3) federally tax-exempt organization, is tax-deductible and will be acknowledged with a receipt.

Thank you for partnering with Whole Heart! As we faithfully continue our journey of ministry to faithful families, your generous gift will help to enable some strategic aspects of this ministry—staff to help expand and enrich core ministry initiatives; editorial and design assistance for writing and publishing new books and resources; funding for key employees and contract workers; funding to help update our online presence and international reach. Thank you for investing in Whole Heart and in Christian families! Grace and peace to you and your family.

Wholehearted blessings in Christ,

Clay and Sally Clarkson

Whole Heart Ministries
PO Box 3445 | Monument, CO 880132
admin@wholeheart.org