2025 Letter from the Director
To our faithful ACTS Holland community,
It has been quite a year for the VanHeest/Blom family. Many of you know (and many of you don’t) that my father Jim VanHeest, who is a vital part of our ministry, was diagnosed with cancer this January. Both our personal family and our ACTS family were massively impacted by the news and new battle. Many of you know Jim personally; for some of you that is how you found ACTS. Many of you know his work for us as he diligently prepares year-end tax statements and often writes financial updates or letters from the treasurer about fundraising opportunities to support our work. Because of this unexpected diagnosis, and our family’s focus on treatment, we have been rather quiet on social media and in publications this year.
But we want to encourage you that despite all the hardship and challenges ACTS had another wonderful year. We celebrated a few dozen birthdays, sometimes singing to a child for their first ACTS birthday and sometimes singing for a teen who has spent more than half of their birthdays with us. We watched a crew of guys graduate from high school who we knew as 3rd graders. We saw littlest ACTS besties become schoolmates as they entered kindergarten together this fall.
It was a good year.
It was a challenging year in many ways, for not only my family but many of our ACTS families.
But here is what we learned in the hard places: we have all been called to be LIGHT, to point to God even in the hardest of times, ESPECIALLY in the hardest of times, and to show up for one another with grace and compassion the way HE taught us to. Sometimes when things are really difficult and uncertain that's where a true certainty, an unexplainable faith, and an unshakable strength can be found.
And it's undeniable that THAT kind of faith, that hope-filled action was forged and refined in the hearts and lives of ACTS kids, teens, and staff this year.
This year taught us that quiet, humble, intentional ministry isn’t failure. That there is a lot of room for the Lord to move and work where there is a “less of me and more of HIM” posture. We spent another year loving one another well, celebrating, learning, creating, and sharing. We did it quietly and not always with or for crowds. And as I type this out it hits me how very much that is a “full circle” moment and feels like ACTS coming home to itself. For we have had hard years before. We have rallied around an ACTS loved one in the fight for their lives (cancer) before and let it shape our prayers and love. We have had years where the growth and the celebrations may seem small outwardly, but that is only because that's not how this kind of growth can be measured.
2025 was a year that the heart and resilience of this ACTS family and ministry were tested. It is exciting to see how the Lord brought us through, together, and onto what is next. We thank you all for the prayers said for ACTS and our family this year. We thank you for the gifts of support that made another year of ministry possible. And we want to thank you for all the many ways you will encourage and bless us in this coming year at ACTS.
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD Almighty.” Zechariah 4:6
Jaime Blom, Executive Director