We just got back from a day in Seattle!  Our family went up to visit an old friend, Jon Morauski and his family.  They run a quaint bed and breakfast up in North Bend.  It was a meeting of sorts that was not negotiable, so in the midst of a mountain of work, we had to leave.

We made the long drive with the two kids, which is normally a pain, but today it was just relaxing to all be together.  We laughed, played games, watched movies on the DVD player, and ate snacks all day long!

When we arrived the girls got to go out to the pasture to feed the goats and chickens.  They had baby goats that were just days old…too cute!  Our girls had the best time running in the mud of the farm.  Delaney was dressed in a velvet dress with sparkly shoes…she’s all girl!  Needless to say, she’s gonna need a new pair of shoes after that travesty!  Kennedy jumped right in to let the chickens eat right out of her hand and gave the goats a run for their money!

We ate a great lunch and then sat around the fire pit outside in the cool air.  I had a cup of hot coffee and nothing to do, which was a very odd sensation!  After the intense craziness in the last month, I could feel the knots of stress slip from my neck and back.  The air was crisp around me and the mountain peaks shot up above the yellowing trees.  I could hear the river rushing in the distance.  There is a reason that God commands us to take a rest and I’m thankful that God forced a break into my schedule.  I’m very good at working, but stepping out of the frontline is a challenge.

God is blessing North Creek and our family in literally every way that we need Him to.  Everytime I turn around, it is as if He is directing my path to the very thing that we needed most that day.  And today He directed our family all the way up to a farm in the middle of nowhere.  I didn’t know how much I needed those dumb goats, but I’m sure glad that He knew.

It’s been a while since I last wrote…too busy painting and scrubbing our new building to type! 🙂

I love this process.  All of the ups and downs are really exciting!  A problem seems to be just the opportunity to connect with the next miracle that God wants to do for us.  Don’t get me wrong…I’d rather not deal with any problems and just have the red carpet roll out with rose petals and violin music.  But in the real world, that’s never going to be the case.

Problems will arise and have daily.  But in all of those issues, I really feel the hand of God moving.  It’s as if He’s saying, “Walk through this.  The people you meet along the way are part of the destination.  I’ve got a plan.  I’ve got a purpose.  Just keep going.  Pay attention to the people, not the problem.”

Every problem is an opportunity for someone in our community to connect to North Creek on a personal level.  If it’s too big and too difficult for our church, then we have an opportunity to go outside of our church.  The community gets to know our name, they get to meet our people, and they get to experience a sense of who Jesus is.  A problem is a chance for God to touch someone at the paint store, an architect, a worker at Home Depot, a person selling something on Craigslist…

God is just using our “struggles” to be His hands and feet.  It’s not about the problem…it’s about the people.  What struggles are you having in your life?  Stop focusing on the issue and start wondering who God is about to touch through your life.

Our work parties have been nothing short of draining!  Early in the week I was beginning to feel the sluggishness and discouragment set in.  We would tear into a new job which would create five more jobs…very similar to house projects!

However, encouragement comes when you most need it!  God is faithful to bring moments of His miraculous love if we will block out all of the negative junk and listen.  Sometimes we are looking for a big miracle and can easily miss the many small ones that He gives us daily.

Yesterday ended up being very encouraging for me!  We started the morning with our staff meeting, but quickly turned into a work force.  A woman from our church, Veronica, took the time to get bark dust donated and delivered so that the outside of the building would look sharp and crisp.  Our staff and Veronica unloaded 6 yards of barkdust and spread it over the gardens surrounding the building.  It was just enough and beautiful!  The ragged old bushes that Ivan had painstakingly trimmed looked stunningly perfect nestled into their new russet colored home.

Veronica asked for a goal and attacked it with a vengence.  She is one of many determined people in our church.  I am grateful for each person who is unstoppable.  I love that spirit inside of some people that will accomplish a task at any cost. 

Veronica has only been to our church a few times, but clearly understands the bigger perspective of working for the kingdom of God.  She is generous, kind, and encouraging.  She did not have to buy into our vision or give of her time, but she did.  She grabbed a hold of a goal and made it happen.  She was our miracle of the day.

You would think that if you took 30-50 people (including a fleet of children), put them in the same building with cleaning supplies, plaster, paint, and power tools, you would destroy that building in about an hour.

In this process of fixing up the future church, I would have guessed that our work would have been much more haphazard than it is turning out.  Everything is being done with excellence, right down to having those busy kids scrap gum off of the floors by the hours!  It is really beginning to look clean, crisp, and feel much less like the night club that is was and more like a church that it will be.

We have taken on monumental tasks!  We have been painting a band of color around 7000 sq ft of mulitcolored walls in order to have a crisp edge.  It is literally being done with brushes by hand about 10 feet up on the wall!  We also put over 100 pounds of plaster on the women’s bathroom walls to make them trendy and fun rather than covered in musty, dirty wallpaper.  Yesterday two brave women scrubbed the commercial sized kitchen floor on their hands and knees.  We are replacing carpet that is so compacted with dirt, it’s difficult to tell it’s original color.  A toilet came out yesterday that was cracked, over-caulked, and filthy.  Cabinets and the dance floor (!) got sanded and refinished to look clean and sharp.  The overgrown mass of bushes out front were taken back to a manageable size and the pressure washing has begun.  We have yards of barkdust coming on Wednesday to add that boost of freshness to the edges.  Grease traps were scraped and sinks were scrubbed.  Loads of trash were hauled out and mops were in full swing.  The kids gathered round as the bolts that held the ATM machines down were sawed right off the floor with a great fountain of sparks. 

And it’s all excellent work done with gratefulness to God.  It’s as if each person does their chore for the glory of God, knowing full well they may never get earthly credit for their work.  It’s been fun to watch as the people come and go to do their part.  I can never thank each person enough for their work, but I know that God’s blessing is not only on our church, but on each of their lives as well.

What a day!  We had our first opportunity to work on our new building.  Lots of our church people came to help and we got so much accomplished!  We were scrubbing and painting and plastering and trashing…it was like a colony of ants, each with a task and a common goal.  Not one job was more or less important than the other.  Each person helped our church take a step towards excellence that I appreciate so much!

I am a firm believer that a church that works together stays out of a lot of trouble.  You would think that people scrubbing toilets and cleaning grease pits would have complaining spirits, but that’s not the case at all.  Our people were excited, determined, and filled with joy to work for God’s purpose.  Nobody focused inwardly, but kept going beyond the strength of their bodies and truly hated to leave when it was necessary.  I am fully aware of the rare demeanor that floods out of our church.  I am proud to be a part of a people group that is so excited to be a part of the mission of God that they would do ANYTHING. 

I may say it a lot, but… thank you, North Creek.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I needed to believe that a church could be unified, focused, and have a determination to succeed at our cause.  I needed to believe that an entire church could be friends…including all of our strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies.  That despite our abilities to say and do the wrong things, we could all love each other anyway.  It’s funny how everything I needed in a church was so evident today.  You may have just been cleaning toilets, but I saw Jesus in you.