Whew! I’ve been away from my computer for several days due to checking off things from my long overdue list. My mom came to visit today and we decided to use that event to motivate us to clean EVERYTHING! It’s been a wild last few days as we scrubbed, sorted, and threw away as much as we could. I have to tell you, it’s exhilarating! My house is clean, many of my cupboards are in order, the yardwork is caught up, the playhouse is done, all the mattresses have been flipped…I’m telling you, it’s like living in a new house!

I even tackled my desk of horror and found the bottom of the pile! It was embarrassing to see all of the things in the pile that I “was going to get to.” Ugh. Broken system…

A friend of mine last week said a quote that stuck with me…”No worthwhile task is ever easy.” While I’m sure that there are exceptions to this rule, it is usually the case. And so it was with my housework mountain in front of me. It wasn’t easy, but I’m so glad that it’s done!

We went to a lunch on Thursday with a combination of local pastors and the Department of Child and Family Services. It was an interesting marriage between the state and religious organizations!

Basically, what the state needs most from churches are foster parents. The Hazel Dell community, where our church is located, has the largest number of kids needing foster care in the Vancouver area. The problem is that they don’t have enough families for these kids, so they are forced to leave their friends and school district in order to be put into foster care in a neighboring community. On top of being taken out of their home and community, most of the time their siblings are also separated from them because it is difficult for many people to take mulitple kids at one time.

If you are interested in Foster Care, now might be the time to jump and go through the process of applying. It is a 2-3 month process, but the state pays for all of the foster kid’s medical and physical needs. They also pay for daycare for those of you who are working parents. On top of that, 83% of kids are able to go back to their original family within about 18 months after the state has worked with the family. It is a short term commitment that could change the future of a child.

If you need more information, you can contact Peggy Hays at the Department of Child and Family Services. Tell her you’re from the “coffee church” and want to partner with DCFS.

I’ve had a lot of conversations in the last couple of weeks about motivation. Isn’t motivation an interesting concept? We wait to “get motivated” to do something that we know we should do regardless of whether we feel like it or not.

Motivation is just a feeling…nothing more or less. And just like temptation, we need to avoid the pitfalls of motivation. We don’t just get to do what we FEEL like…especially as Christians. We need to do what is right. We need to do what is BEST for our growth, for our spouses, and our families. Deny the flesh! Prioritize! Turn off Facebook! DO what you need to DO. Take a sabbath and enjoy it, but don’t feel like you have earned the right to relax when you haven’t.

I am guilty as well in this area. Cleaning out the garage is always something that I am “going to do”. My disorganized desk screams at me daily, but I never scream back…at least not loud enough to get the piles of paperwork sorted. And the irony is that I wouldn’t have to do a lot at once. A little each day would get the job done fairly quickly and without a high cost to my busy schedule. And even more ironic…most of my sorting could be done in front of the television while my favorite shows are on.

I am really going to take a hard look at the things that I want done, but don’t do because I’m not in the mood. My plan is to write a list of ten things that I want to accomplish over the next three months of summer. What can I do each day to get towards making that goal?

My challenge is to make a list for yourselves as well. Let’s not wait until we “feel” like it! Let’s tell our flesh what we want it to do and then go for it!

There is a saying among people who live in Turkey: To drink one cup of coffee together guarantees forty years of friendship.

That really sums up why we went with the website of www.coffeechurch.com. We really wanted to portray the idea that we will sit down, have a cup of coffee together, and become friends with a common bond of the amazing love of Jesus Christ.

I’m thinking that Turkey is a great place to plant a Coffee Church…any takers? I hear they have incredible coffee…

Another week flew by! Sunday arrived with a vengenence! I literally had to keep reminding myself what day we were on, however, it turned out to be a great weekend at North Creek…as usual!

Highlights:

Two year old Jace sat in the front row of worship today to watch Marcus play the guitar. I watched him sit there and thought, “God starts birthing dreams in our hearts before we can even understand what he is doing!” I’m thinking that Jace is going to be leading worship before long.

Chris Harold preached yesterday. What an asset to our team! We are honored to have excellent leaders all around us and Chris is definitely one of them. He presented a challenge to our church to memorize Psalm 19 over the next two weeks. That breaks down to one verse a day. I’m so in. I love a challenge!

We went to Donna and Shawn’s open house yesterday. It’s a cool house that is really different in it’s architectural style. You almost feel like you’re going to fall off of the deck to your demise! If Mark wasn’t a pastor, he’d build houses. He absolutely loves checking out people’s houses and how they are made…

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

We had leadership training last night. Good stuff! Hard stuff! We talked about the work on it principle. Bottom line: we are accountable to follow through on what we are being taught through the Word of God. We must always be growing and if we refuse to do something that God asks of us, we stop growing.

Did I mention that we are memorizing Psalm 19? My prayer for you is that the words come easy for you and fall into place in your brain. Coffee before memorization works for me! 🙂

We went to Cassie’s birthday party yesterday. She’s 5 days younger than Kennedy. Cute girls!!!

Our kids in preschool and elementary school have been memorizing scripture for three years in their classes. Parents – grab the MAP book that kids bring home and memorize with them! They’ve got to see us putting the Word of God in our hearts. Have them memorize some of Psalm 19 with you as well!

We talked last night about ownership of responsibility in our church. You can help by coming to the church anytime and working with your family to pull weeds, clean up the parking lot, and pick up trash. Bring your own tools and a garbage bag. If we all do a little, it will help our community see that we care!

Also, if you are ever free on a Wednesday afternoon after 1:30 pm, come on by the church. You can clean, mop, dust, etc. We don’t spend money on janitors, so we rely solely on volunteers.

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”