First weekend with three services! I have never attended a church with three services, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Here’s the recap:

Saturday night was really fun! Everyone was awake, energetic, and a little bit fiesty. We had a good turnout and I look forward to growing that service along with our other two.

Our Sunday morning went great as well! We shifted some people to Saturday nights and made room in the 10:30 service, which was part of our strategy. Now, let’s fill it back up!

Mark and I are WIPED out! I don’t think it was the schedule change, I think it was the emotional side of it all. Starting a service in July in pretty risky from a leadership viewpoint. It’s not the time that most churches aim to grow, but we’ve always seen summer as a great opportunity for guests to come. It’s relaxed and people have more free time. You just have to work around vacations!

I really feel challenged to focus on God’s heart right now in my life. It’s easy to focus on the details of this all, the numbers, and if everyone is happy. But through it all, I hear God’s whisper just to focus on Him. All of the rest will work itself out. It’s easier said than done, but it’s the only way to live.

For the next two months every week will be very important for us. It’s like a newborn…the first couple of months require a lot of extra TLC. You can help us by simply showing up. Having people in the building gives more energy and more enthusiasm. Support comes in many forms, but right now the best support is your presence!

Mike Lundervold and Carl Wilson stood around the coffee pot discussing the show “So You Think You Can Dance”. That was a pretty funny moment for me…

We have the world’s greatest volunteer base! I feel really blessed to work along side such loving, devoted, faithful, and talented people. From our worship team to our greeters, it’s so fun being a part of it all!

Our teenagers taught the Great Adventurer’s kids class yesterday! They are leaving for a missions trip today and needed a practice run through. They did a great job and learned A LOT about leadership.

Very much looking forward to our teenagers going on their missions trip. They are headed to the rural farm town of Arlington, Oregon. They will be leading worship, preaching, leading kid’s classes, and working in the community from morning until night. My hope for them: is that they realize what Arlington has to offer them rather than what they have to offer Arlington. Ministry is very much about learning from other people rather than just giving to them.

Thanks to everyone who went above and beyond the call of duty this weekend! Let’s do it again next weekend!

Tomorrow’s the day! We launch our third service, but this one is on a completely different day! I can’t wait to meet the new people that God is going to bring our way. If Saturday night sounds like a win for your family, join us tomorrow evening at 7:00 pm. Dress code is casual, so pull the kids out of the pool and come to church!

Oh, and two of our team members, Marcus Young and Lee Malone, might just happen to be having a birthday tomorrow as well! So many great reasons to celebrate!

In Mexico I had one of the weirdest moments of my life. Our dorm was a series of rooms that you had to walk through to ultimately get out of the building. On the first night I needed to use the restroom in the middle of the night. It was completely black except for a sliver of light three rooms away. I knew I needed to aim for the light to get to the bathroom.

The good news was that a small amount of light was all I needed to get there. However, when I headed back, it was PITCH black. I had some idea of what was in each room and where it was, so I started through the first room. I made it without so much as a stumble. However, the second room was a mystery to me. I made it across the room to the far wall, but couldn’t find the door. I felt the wall, the bunks, something that I couldn’t identify…I felt around for what felt like an eternity, but to no avail. I was stuck.

I decided my best bet was to head back towards the small sliver of light, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I got there. Without some light, I simply was not getting back to my bed. I was almost in tears when I got back to the room where the bathroom was located. I sat there for a moment dreaming of the flashlight that was next to my bed merely three rooms away. Mike had given it to me just hours earlier because he had extra. Why hadn’t I just grabbed it in case I needed it? What was my great plan now?

Isn’t life like that? We have been given all we need to live an abundant life in Jesus, but if we don’t carry it with us, we are lost in the dark. We have faith, power, patience, boldness, favor, grace, mercy, and a whole lot more. However, we seem to try to do it in our own strength rather than using God as a light unto our path.

You probably want to know what I did to get back to my bed? Well, I hesitate to tell you that I went through the men’s dorm room. Their side of the maze had windows and connected to my room. The moonlight streaming in was all I needed to arrive safely at my bunk.

The moral of the story: use what has been given to you.

Church on Sunday was at the park for Baptisms and Brunch! Here are my thoughts for the morning:

I went to my car and stopped to look around when I came back…what a diverse bunch of people all drawn together through the love of Christ. There were all sizes, colors and histories. We had those in dresses and pearls and the bikers with tattoos. We had young kids and people in their 90’s. We had singles, families, and those in between. We had everything on the map and I am so grateful to call each of them my friends. There are no lines in the family of Christ…or at least there shouldn’t be. What an awesome sight!

We baptized seven people yesterday! So proud of each story and each changed life! We serve a great God who is still at work in our world. Each person at our church gets to choose who baptizes them. We had godly dads, fiances, pastors, and friends in the water with people. It was an awesome look at the value of the body of Christ.

On that note, our “sister” church, Heritage Church in Vancouver, used our baptism tank while we were at the park yesterday. They baptized 16! Way to go!!!!

It was very surreal to be back after being in Mexico. I still feel like my feet haven’t hit the ground, yet. I’m trying to wrap my brain around all of the details of the church again, but I’m finding myself buried in it all still. Especially with a third service coming at us in 5 days. I’ll make it…I just need my brain to snap back into American mode!

Speaking of our third service, I changed the reader board yesterday…it’s official!

Also, in case you drive by the church on a Monday or a Friday and wonder what’s going on…we are letting an AA group use our building twice a week. They are a great group of people that meets at 7:00 pm. If you know of someone who has an addiction issue, this is an awesome resource for you to use! Such irony that a bar that was once a place of destruction in some of these people’s lives is now a place of hope. Sounds a lot like God to me…

It’s finally going to be a hot week. Three words…bring it on!

Our annual day at Klineline happens tomorrow morning! Don’t go to our regular church building! Grab a lawn chair and join us for baptisms, scones, fruit, and coffee. It starts at 9:30 am and you’ll need $3 per car for parking. See you there!