What a whirlwind of a week! Mark fell asleep on the couch with two little girls snuggled up with him this afternoon…the perfect end to a very full and blessed week.

On my list of weekend highlights is definitely yesterday’s work party to paint the church! What a blessing…about 40 people painting, planting, sweating, and breaking their backs to make our building bright and shiny. I loved it! Great attitudes, giving it their best shot to do a great job. I can’t wait to see the finished product. We’ve got a ways to go, but we’ll make it!

About 100 cars on Saturday honked as they drove past the church. I’m assuming that they were glad to see the corner getting some attention. It has a history and we intend to give it a new story!

LOTS of guests today! It was a juggling act to meet everyone. Missed a few, but tried really hard.

I asked my daughter, Kennedy, if she was still going to be a singer when she grows up. She said, “NO! I’m going to be a ROCKSTAR!” Go, Kenney, go! Just do it for Jesus!

Stood in the foyer talking with Mike, the biker, about how we can accomodate some more of his biker friends into our church. We’re going to work on some motorcycle parking in the front of the church in that “wasted” parking lot space. Cool idea, huh?

Mark preached a great message today. This series continues to be very pivotal in the life of our church. Can’t wait to see how God brings it all to completion.

We might be the only church around who had newspapers covering all of the windows, due to the painting project. Thanks for everyone’s patience! We’ll get there!

Pastor Kim is being superwoman. Due to some changes in her life she needed to get a full time job. She was in there rockin’ it with our kids this morning with her normal enthusiasm. We love you, Kim! We’re believing for God’s blessing in your life.

We had a guest comment on how great it was to have teenagers worshipping in the front row. That’s funny because I’m so used to teenagers being EVERYWHERE that I forget how unique that is. Very proud of how intergrated our church family is from the oldest to the youngest!

On Saturday, Darcy went and got a rototiller donated and churned up all of the dirt by the sign out front. I didn’t even know what she was doing half of the time, but next thing I knew she had planted periwinkle, got some plastic and rocks to make a path for pedestrians, and was loading up trash in her trailer! Thanks for your hard work…it looks awesome!

I hope you have a great week. Mine will be full of painting and projects, but I am excited!

Mark and I crammed two conferences into our crazy week. It sounds ridiculous to make the time to do that in the midst of painting and preaching and planning, but if you’re to busy to grow, you’re too busy. Larry Osbourne and Mark Batterson poured into our lives in truly humbling and astounding ways. We didn’t come home exhausted. We came home with even more enthusiasm than ever.

On that note, do you realize what we are doing tomorrow by painting this building? We are taking a landmark that was once a seedy nightclub with a violent and disgusting history and making it a clean and amazing gathering place in our community. We are reclaiming a corner of Vancouver and making it glorify God. I spoke with a police officer on Wednesday night who recalled numerous 911 calls to our property. It was known for it’s problems. We moved in and crime went down. Our very presence is redefining a piece of Vancouver.

Yes. It’s just a building. It’s just some cement and some rotten wood. But it’s also a symbol. It’s a symbol of a dream and prayer and an unstoppable God. It’s a symbol of a group of people who are changed by grace and want to show the world how great their God is. Tomorrow it’s paint and flowers, but that’s just the beginning.

Bring it on.

It’s been extremely busy over the last week as we decided to paint our monstrosity of a church building! When we moved in, we poured all of our resources and energy into the inside of the building in order to be functionable as a church. Our focus was to make the outside “good for now”. In that year and a half since we moved in to this building, things on the outside have only gotten worse. The moss seems to be overtaking the parking lot and the old, worn paint took a beating through yet another winter. The dirt that is kicked up from the freeway in front of us has settled into every pore and crack that we have and the dry rot that began a decade ago has come to completion.

It’s time for a little love on our exterior.

Once we decided to paint, the emails started pouring in for donations of supplies, help, and excitement to put a fresh face on our dingy building. It’s been very encouraging to see the ownership that we have over our building. It’s not fancy and not the best of anything, but it’s our home and we love it.

Ironically, I am thankful everyday that God did not give us “shiney and new”. There is NOTHING intimidating about our rickety, old winery-turned Mexican restaurant-turned bar-turned church. It’s an easy place to come to.

I look forward to watching it all take shape. There is a massive undertaking of trash pickup, trimming, pressure washing, repairing, planting, scrubbing, scraping, and spraying. But in a matter of days, old issues will be washed away and once again our church family will have come together to make a difference in our community. This time it’s just sprucing up a building, but it’s all part of a greater dream!