The weather was a little rough this morning, which always makes for an interesting morning! We had several people come late, but we were glad to see them nonetheless.

Here’s my highlights:

We’ve had lots of guests and return guests lately. It’s a blessing to have people come and visit our church!

We got a great email when we got home:

I would just like to thank you for the influence that you and everyone at NCC have had on my life. My walk with God is becoming stronger with each passing day. The last 2 weeks of sermons have taught my what the power of prayer means in my life and has helped me with some inner turmoil that I have now have found peace with. I am forever grateful to all of you.

We got our first payment for summer camp and the missions trip today. The girl asked for no Christmas presents this year in order to be able to go to both. Pretty remarkable!

We’ve had a couple of different people who are being obedient in the area of giving and tithing for the first time. They have been sharing their journey of anxiety, fear, joy, faithfulness, etc. with us as they are experiencing it. It is fun to watch them live their faith out and have God meet them right where they are at. He is faithful and understands our struggles…it is His delight when we overcome those issues to do what is amazing!

We had a “biker dude” at church last week who said our church made him comfortable. He came back again this week. I wonder if it’s the corrugated metal or the duck tape on the floor that makes it feel like home…

Speaking of that, our church has a LOT of diversity lately. Rich and poor, young and getting older, blue collar and white collar, every color and size…it’s nice to see the balance and that we can all be a family.

Been reminiscing about the 39 people who started this church with us. Most of them still call North Creek their home. They are my personal heroes and will always hold a special place in my heart. It took a lot of hard work and faith on their part!

One of my neighbors was at church this morning. I thought they looked familiar…

Kennedy stayed with me during second service and was belting out worship songs at the top of her lungs! So sweet! Also, Delaney was so excited to go to church today to take her offering for missionaries. Hello. My child WANTS to go to church to GIVE. That’s such an awesome sentence for a parent. My parenting tip: Get your kids to church and don’t ask their opinion in the matter. (After all, you don’t ask your kids if they WANT to go to school!) As they make friends and get comfortable they will LOVE to be there. When they grumble, get them up and tell them how great their day will be. Also, volunteer every once in a while to see what’s going on in their classes.

Next Sunday is a “Don’t Miss Sunday!” See you there!

I loved this article from the Orange County Register, so I thought I would share the story with you. What a testimony of a quality teenager! Enjoy!

I’m sitting in the Laguna Beach home of Helen Kronberg on a Sunday evening.

Helen is under the covers, in bed with lung cancer at the age of 89. And nearby, serving her a gourmet Chinese meal is thoughtful, pleasant, well-spoken Caitlin Crommett, who just turned 16.

“Here’s your first course,” she tells Helen, smiling politely as she hands her a bowl. “I have soup for you.”

“It’s marvelous,” says Helen, propped up on pillows.

“You hear about all the bad things kids are doing and never the good things.”

•••

Caitlin got the idea last year, after watching the movie “Patch Adams.” In it, Robin Williams plays a doctor who is all about making his patients happy. After thinking about the movie for a few weeks, Caitlin told her parents she wanted to try and grant the wishes of elderly people in hospice care.

Twice a year Hospice Care of the West puts on a memorial service for the families of their patients in south Orange County who have died. Caitlin has been attending those services since middle school, singing a Vanessa Carlton song with the lyrics “I’d walk a thousand miles just to see you tonight” (reducing everyone in the room to tears).

But singing doesn’t cost anything. Granting wishes does.

Turns out Caitlin’s parents had socked away enough money to send her to a Catholic high school. The cost is about $12,000 a year. But Caitlin wanted to go to Tesoro High, where her friends were going.

Didn’t that mean there was an extra $48,000 lying around?

Her parents agreed to give her some of that money to grant wishes until she raises some funds on her own. Caitlin came up with a name: Dream Catchers. And then she came up with a make-a-wish-style form that she began handing out this summer to Hospice Care nurses, asking that they pass them on to patients and their families.

The first form she got back was from the wife of a man named Bernie Klein. He was in a wheelchair and could no longer speak, but he was aware of everything around him. Bernie had sailed his whole life, and his wife wrote that it would be so great to see him out sailing on the ocean one last time.

Caitlin chartered a schooner for $600. Bernie’s family insisted she come along. She made ham sandwiches for everyone and served them herself.

•••

“Well, the tea and the salad are ready,” Caitlin says, bringing Helen her second course (on her mother’s wedding china, which she brought along for the occasion).

“Goodness gracious, I won’t eat for a week,” Helen tells her.

Helen used to own a restaurant called The Village James. It was named after her husband, who died sometime back, and they sold it years ago. Now Helen has a lung cancer that can’t be cured.

It was her granddaughter who filled out a Dream Catchers form, saying Helen would love a gourmet meal. Caitlin called Helen and learned she was especially fond of Chinese.

She ordered the meal from Wan Fu, borrowing a tea pot from the restaurant and some of their paper lanterns to decorate Helen’s bedroom. She arrived at Helen’s wearing a traditional red kimono she got at a costume shop, her hair held in a bun by chopsticks.

“Is there anything else I can get for you?” she asks Helen between the second and third courses.

“No, thank you, sweetheart,” Helen says.

Caitlin sits in a chair near Helen’s bed. Helen talks about her restaurant. She talks about her paintings (always of the ocean). She talks about her kids. And she talks about how she passes the days.

“I get my driver’s license Wednesday,” Caitlin tells her. “I can even come visit you in my free time if you would like?”

After four courses, it was time for dessert. Caitlin brought out a pan of brownies she had baked herself.

Before going home, before gently pressing Helen’s hand to say goodbye, Caitlin presented her with a dream catcher. “So now you can hang it up and always have good dreams.”

We are gearing up for our Christmas service on Dec. 20. Invite someone! It’s called An Unexpected Christmas and it’s all about how God can use ANYTHING and ANYONE to bring about the change He wants to see in the world. It’s the perfect message for those who are far from God (and a good reminder for the rest of us, too!).

Our children (Kindergarten and up) will be joining us in the main service. We’re including some unique things just for them and we look forward to experiencing a “Family Christmas” together. It’s awesome for our children to see us worship, learn about God, and experience fellowship with us. We are modeling for them what a commitment to the body of Christ looks like!

I can’t wait to celebrate Christmas with North Creek Church! It’s a beautiful picture for me to celebrate Jesus’ birth and be surrounded by so many stories of changed lives. And then we’re off to a new year! 2009 will go down as one of my all time favorite years – not necessarily because of anything directly connected to my personal life, but because I saw so many lives impacted this year. It was story after story of God’s amazing power and I am grateful to have been a part of it.

Wow! What a morning!!!

We said goodbye to Jeff and Angela this morning with a video tribute and a beautiful cake from Helen. It was sad, but at the same time, I know that we will always be close. We have a bond from the last four years that is unbreakable!

We baptized two young men with some pretty intense pasts. Josh met Jesus in Juvenile Detention and Jake has had a difficult ten years since his mom left. Both are incredible testimonies of our God’s great redeeming heart. Jake gets an award for wearing his wet baptism clothes out in the cold after service. Must have been 25 degrees out there…

A young man named Jared was pretty broken up about having to say goodbye to Jeff. It was heartbreaking to see him, but at the same time, I am so thankful that we have incredible men in our church for him to look up to.

I had a lady in our church ask about providing Christmas for a family in our church that needs a little help this year. I love that generous spirit!

Mark preached a great sermon! I sure do love my husband’s heart for God’s Word. He knows the Bible so well and cherishes God’s commands.

On a negative side note: we had one of our most unprepared mornings in the last three years. We literally couldn’t start service until 9:05 because not everything was in the computer. I am SO thankful that is the exception to our rule! Most of the time we are very prepared and ready to go. Mornings like this remind me of how much I appreciate it!

We had over 160 people there this morning and many families gone. LOVING the growth I see at NC. Statistical fact of the day: we grew by about 5 people every month all year. It’s consistent and healthy!

I am emotionally fried. It’s gonna take me a little bit of time to recover from the weekend!!!

Some quotes from today:

Church touched me deeply today. From hearing what the young man being baptized had to say about what Jesus meant to him, to your eloquent words on communication with God, and then the heartfelt farewell to Jeff and Angela. You totally ruined my mascara! But thank you soooo much!

What an awesome service. I had to sneak out before I lost it. Pretty emotional morning.

I lost it…always do when I see how God uses people…and then sometimes he chooses to use them somewhere else..that is life…great service North Creek!

Tears where shed and memories will last a lifetime.

Looking forward to baptizing a couple more people tomorrow! They will mark nearly 30 people in our congregation that have been baptized this year at North Creek. The two teenagers that are getting baptized in the morning are both amazing stories of life change and I can’t wait to celebrate with them. YIPPPEEEEEEEE!