What a great weekend!

Worship was exceptional! It was a great lineup of songs and it flowed so beautifully. I have loved what Matt and Andrea have brought to our team and am so grateful for the plethora of talented people that we have at North Creek. As Tiffany would say, “Mood: blessed!”

I love Jesus so much. If you want to love Jesus, pick up your Bible and find out something about Him. He’s intriguing!

My sister-in-law and niece were here visiting from North Dakota for the weekend. It was fun having them at the Coffee Church as well as see plenty of Mark’s family members over the last few days.

The youth ministry returned from their mission’s trip and they say they have MANY exciting stories to tell. On Labor Day weekend we will be sharing summer highlights, so don’t miss that!

We also announced that we are removing the bar to make room for more seats for the fall. No fear: we will always make room for coffee, so you’ll be just fine! We will also be putting in a new floor, painting the walls, and having a massive cleanup of the parking lot to get ready for our church’s FIFTH year anniversary! Unbelievable!

On the backburner: including our current church facility, the building behind us, and our basement, our current property has nearly the same square footage as the other building we’ve been looking at. We are currently weighing out the pros and cons to our situation to see if we can facilitate our vision in our current location with a MAJOR overhaul. The price of our current place is half of the price of the other option…huh. Would you pray with us for wisdom? And keep giving to 19 Cents of Faith! We need a chunk of change for the “change” we want to see in Hazel Dell!

On a strange note: our offerings are WAY down for August. We’ve made our budget of $14000 a month for a very long time (over a year) and to date we have about $4500 given so far this month (for the general budget). It is one of the most unusual situations we’ve seen. If you have the means, we would love some help!

On a stranger note: our attendance average for the month of August will probably be our highest average ever.

Mark preached on forgiveness yesterday. Yeah, that hit some nerves. Lots of tears around, but hopefully those are “Holy Spirit Tears” and symbolize that God is working.

Mark also mentioned hoarding items briefly as an illustration. Yeah, that hit A LOT of nerves. People get really nervous when you mess with their need for stuff…

I hope your week is full of forgiveness and freedom! Many blessings!

In April we set out to raise enough money to refurbish a building in Hazel Dell that incorporated both our regular church functions as well as several functioning businesses including a coffee shop with an area geared for parents with kids. Here’s my thoughts so far:

Sticking your neck out is a great thing to do. Sometimes you have to live life with a little uncertainty. It’s good for you and your prayer life.

The kids at our church are the driving force behind this dream. I think we are raising up a generation that speaks with open hearts and open hands. They keep handing me bags of coins that they are collecting. Their faith has been humbling for me. Gotta say…stingy hearts make me gag.

Speaking of giving, we gave up a month’s salary, which I thought would be devastatingly difficult. We haven’t even noticed it. There was a reality check for me! I thought that stretching any farther than we had been would break us, but it didn’t even create a panic.

Through this process God has opened up new doors that we didn’t see as possibilities. I think we are close to solving some key problems with our growth without sacrificing any of the vision. Sometimes faith is about the journey, not the destination. That is definitely what we are discovering.

I think we are blessed pastors! Our team, board, and church allows us to lead through the uncertainty without going hysterical when all the ducks aren’t in a row. I think this is the greatest gift.

We have met GREAT people on this journey and many of them are now a part of our church. Didn’t see that one coming when we set out to raise money!

I have a feeling that this fall will involve change. Change involves work. Work involves people. You are the people!

We need about another $200,000 for the first step, which will solve most of our immediate problems. Not too bad of a number, is it? Totally doable! Of course, any number is OK with God. He owns it all!

Thank you for your continued giving and personal support! We are currently in the middle of specific conversations that may launch us to the next level. We look forward to updating you very soon, but in the meantime, pray!

I was happily back at our church after a week being gone! Love my little bar…

Here are this week’s highlights:

Every church has problems. Ours happens to be that we have great attendance in August, which means we are feverishly planning for fall growth! I will gladly take this particular problem.

Jace Lundervold called me a “Little Hottie” today. So what if he’s four years old.

Indiana brought in a bag of money for our new building. Rock on! She’s in elementary school and I can’t wait to see that dream come true for her (and all of us!).

Mark spoke on offenses…yep, that cuts right to the heart of so many of our struggles! We need to live in peace and freedom at all costs. Sometimes that is easier said than done.

Alissa lead worship for us today! Great job to the whole team! You put Alissa, Matt, and Emily on microphones at the same time and I am blessed! What incredible voices!

Rachael, our Kid’s Chaos Organizational Genius, is out of town in Montana. She normally keeps Kid’s Checkin, the Little Adventurer’s and the nursery functioning. Whenever she’s gone and I do her job, I love her more. Dear Board, I will be asking you for a raise for this woman at our next meeting. It is well-deserved! She seems to calmly keep the whole world turning, while I am a distracted, sweaty mess. If you had the “pleasure” of trying to talk to me this morning, you know what I am talking about.

My friend’s little girl was born three years ago with a heart defect. I remember praying for that baby through the surgery and talking with my friend about it through tears. Since then they have started coming to church (and the heart defect is long healed)! I was holding up that little girl today to help her wash her hands over the sink and saw the scar on her chest in our reflection in the mirror. It was a reminder that God is faithful, He has a plan, and our job is to pray and believe for the people that God has put in our everyday lives for their most important needs. When I prayed those many years ago I had no idea how important that family would become in our lives! So grateful for how God orchestrates our relationships!

Would you join us in praying about our future? We have a great vision for a coffee shop geared for parents with kids, plenty of room for teenagers, and several other side ideas to best utilize our facility to impact Hazel Dell. We have been focusing on the 78th street car dealership, but recently we have had another opportunity that could work equally as well. Same vision, similar location, better financial situation…bottom line…wherever this journey of faith takes us is fine as long as God is driving! We definitely know WHAT we are called to do, so we will leave the WHERE up to Him! We just want wisdom and open doors.

In the meantime…if we had about another $200,000 in the bank, we could get moving toward our future immediately. Thank you to those who continue to give! Now is the time!

Jeff and Angela Welk, who helped launch this church, had a little baby girl named Avery this week. Congrats and we love you!!!!

Love our people, love our staff, love our God! We continue to enjoy ministry and pastoring this church. We are so blessed by your support through growth, lots of decision making, and a little chaos now and again. Have a great week!

Mark and I have recently gotten the “privilege” of cleaning out our church storage area. This created a chain reaction to clean out our own STUFF. What an eye opening experience! The amount of useless items or useful items that we don’t use has been shocking…to say the least.

We are purging our lives of just about everything, but it hasn’t been an easy process of letting go. It’s like my brain knows that I don’t need these things, but there is still that “ripping off the bandaid” effect with some of those items. The reality for all of us is that we easily let unimportant things become important in our lives and the end result is frustration and confusion.

It has been quite a burden to have this project looming over our lives, so although I am in misery at every step, I want it dealt with. And the good news is that it is getting easier with every toss! I am now addicted to letting go!

We all have something in our lives that is getting in the way. It may be a literal object like we are dealing with or it may be another addiction in your life. It could be an emotional connection to a person that you shouldn’t be with…whatever you have in your life that is useless needs to go! If it isn’t making your life the BEST it can be, it’s not worth it! What a lense shift for me!

We are working hard to accomplish our goal in the next week or so. And then we will move into maintenance mode where we never allow ourselves to go back to where we were! This is not a one-time job, but a whole new life choice that we are making.

So, get onboard! Lose the weight, let go of the offense, put down the bottle, take a trip to Goodwill…but do it now.

We’re back from a week off! Mark went to summer camp with our 3rd-6th graders and then camping with his brothers, while I headed with my girls to Montana to see my parents. We all had a great week, but it’s REALLY nice to be back together as a family! My girls were lacking their “Daddy Time” all week and now are following him around everywhere he goes. I think he’s enjoying the extra attention!

I wasn’t at our church yesterday, so my highlights are second hand info, but here goes:

Andrea and Matt Garner co-preached yesterday. I heard it was a great message and that Matt was hilarious! I read the message before hand and so it doesn’t surprise me that they delivered it well.

It is ridiculously hard for me to miss our church. I trust our team and don’t worry about them at all, but I WANT to be there! Good problems!

Thank you to Chrystal Arellano for being “me” yesterday and getting everything ready to go for the morning! Everyone who drinks coffee is very grateful for you!!!!

They switched up worship and did a song at the end. Lots of people said they enjoyed that!

Our attendance was surprisingly high. This weekend is marked over the last four years as one of our lowest attended. If our number from Sunday is our low for the year, we better get moving! Literally…moving.

Speaking of moving…I watched the TV show Hoarders on Netflix all week. Let’s just say that I am now motivated to sell everything I own. I never want stuff to have a hold on my life! In honor of Matt and Andrea’s message on Idols, I never want anything but Jesus to have a hold on my life.

Our students had a GREAT week at summer camp! Thank you to Kim Goodrich, Mark Newell, Sarah Sherland, and Alyson McCormick for giving up time this week to be cabin staff. Your role at camp is vital and we appreciate you for being a part of it!

So excited for our 5th Anniversary Celebration on Sept. 18….YAY!!! We are going to have so much fun giving God the glory for North Creek! I love where we are at and I love where we are going!

Amy will be sending out some information for the Women of Faith Conference in October via our email group (you can sign up for that at www.coffeechurch.com). It’s going to be some amazing GIRL TIME with God! I love the women at our church and so any excuse to hang out with them works for me!

Alrighty…off to go throw some things away and get my life organized for the fall! Enjoy your week and we’ll see you on Sunday for our new series, “Catch and Release”. It’s all about offenses and forgiveness!