It was Mother’s Day! What a better time to set aside some moments and make hard working women feel loved and appreciated?!?! That is a job I look forward to!

We had seven women speak on Sunday! We also had Tiffany sing a special (and beautiful!) song. Now that is a lot to coordinate in one hour. I could not have been more impressed by our speakers, who all happen to be some of the women on our staff team! They each shared a story about mothers and knocked it out of the park. Such class, humility, and comradery. It’s hard to sum up the value of those relationships in my life. Strong, confident women who aren’t competitive with one another. We are all of the same team, we have the same goals, and we rejoice in each other’s strengths. They (and the rest of our team) are definitely a highlight of my life!

We brought in just shy of $17,000 for our 19 Cents of Faith project on Sunday! Just to give you an idea of how miraculous that is…our current monthly budget is just under $15,000. So, we brought in more in one day for our building than a typical month and we are still on track to make budget for May. God is amazing! And thank you to those of you who have given already. We are a part of something bigger than ourselves and I’m glad you are a piece of the story.

We gave each lady Dove chocolate yesterday. That makes for a lot of happy gals running around! I’m not sharing with anybody.

I got to take a nap and relax on Mom’s Day. Thanks to my hubby for watching the kids while I took a break!

The guys on our team want to outdo us for Father’s Day. They have some pretty funny ideas up their sleeves! It’s ironic that mom’s want to be appreciated and cry some happy tears on Mother’s Day and guys want to crack jokes and eat a hot dog on Father’s Day….we are different creatures, that’s for sure!

I said a prayer for those of you who are trying to get pregnant. I know that is a profoundly difficult issue and sometimes Mother’s Day is a painful reminder of what you feel like you don’t have. God knows your desires and He also has a plan. We are praying that most importantly He will be your source no matter what the outcome!

I hope that you have a really wonderful week with a little sunshine on top of it all! Please continue to pray for our church as we seek a miracle for a new building and community complex. The reality is that each person in our church has to do their part, but that’s not enough in this case. We also need a sovereign move of God in a way that we cannot plan for. I know that God is speaking to people’s hearts and I also know that when He moves, we will make it happen and change our community. Let’s roll!

Over the last few weeks, I can say that we have sat down with more people regarding the vision of North Creek than I can even count. It has been crazy and fun! When God began the journey of pointing us toward a new building with an idea far-outreaching just a Sunday service concept, the one thing that was abundanty clear on our hearts was to tell people. Tell rich people, tell poor people, tell friends, tell strangers, tell everyone. I think we felt that way because we believe God is going to do a miracle and we believe He is using us for His glory. He is setting people up to know that this is an idea too big for anyone but God.

We have learned a lot about our community, the programs in it, and the people of Hazel Dell on this journey. And we’ve had a great reception nearly everywhere we’ve gone. I think there is a misconception out there that people have a negative view towards churches. Of course there are some people who have that animousity towards them, but most people we tell about what we are doing are overjoyed that a church wants to drop themselves into an old building on Hwy 99.

I am also encouraged by how ferverently the people of North Creek have also been telling people! That’s imperatively valuable because hundreds of voices make this process much quicker than just the two of us. It’s also very encouraging to sense the excitement in the air! We look forward to watching God use this whole process for His glory in multiple ways!

Here’s some ways you can help us:

1. Tell people about what we are doing! We made more information tins, so you can have as many as you like. Use them to pass out to people in our community.
2. Give something now and continue to give. Don’t wait until you have one BIG gift! Give what is in your hand!
3. Pray….not just for money, but for people. The money is a tool, but the people are our agenda!

Thanks for all of your support! We are doing well and look forward to seeing how God uses us all over the next several months!

I can’t wait to honor the women of North Creek Church this Sunday! We have SEVEN different women from our staff team sharing a little bit about the reality of motherhood (one of them isn’t even a mom…yet!). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll sympathize…it’s going to be a great morning!

I’m very impressed by the women that call the Coffee Church home. I love the comradery and partnership that we have together! The women that I am surrounded by are beautiful, strong, competent, humble, and fierce about their love of Christ and their families.

As a woman, I am so thankful to be in a community where I can learn how to be a better wife, mom, and Jesus follower. I wouldn’t trade these friendships for anything!

So, join us. Not just for Sunday, but as a part of our family!

It’s the weekend dropped between Easter and Mother’s Day! What a unique calendar this year with a late Easter and an early Mother’s Day?!?!? It’s a roller coaster of celebrations!

It was the opening day of small groups registration and we have some FABULOUS groups! A couple I want to highlight today: Starting Point. If you are newer to a relationship with Jesus, this is an AWESOME place to start. I cannot recommend it more! Also, Josiah and Vanessa are leading a group for marriages, particularily people married under 5 years. We have a lot of new marriages in our church and it is our goal to keep them SOLID until death do us part! One way is to surround yourself with other marriages that are focused on Jesus and staying healthy.

We had several guests who read about us in the paper and wanted to come and check it out. I would want to check it out, too. Lots of good things going on right now!

We received a tin full of money from KFC on Sunday morning. They are located next to the new building and heard about what we want to do! Come on! I love when our community wants to be involved! They were robbed at gunpoint two weeks ago. Let’s change Hazel Dell!

Are you giving to 19 Cents of Faith? What is God telling you and how are you acting on it? It’s time to figure out what you are going to sacrifice to make it happen. We want you to be a part of the story that God is writing! It’s going to be an epic tale! I can’t wait to read the book!

I am thoroughly enjoying this process of listening to our community and finding out how we can best partner with Vancouver to make this a great place to live. Mark and I both feel that we’ve are on learning overload! It’s been fun!

Isn’t our worship team doing a fabulous job of helping us connect to Jesus through music? So impressed!

Did you know we have about 120 volunteers who serve our church every month? That’s very impressive as well. We are abundantly blessed with people who give a little bit of time that makes a big difference in our church and in our community.

See you on Mother’s Day!