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Monthly Archives: July 2014

July 20 Coffee Church Highlights

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July 22, 2014
Ministry
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Another summer Sunday has passed us by!  My brain is already shifting into gear to get the kids ready for back to school stuff!  Speaking of that…you can begin bringing school supplies and filling the crate in the foyer on any Sunday morning.  We love to help our local schools as well as needy families that call North Creek home.  If you need help this year, just email me at stacy@coffeechurch.com.

Our North Creek Kids finished up their week of summer camp on Friday.  Both of my daughters and my husband were there and had a wonderful time!  I am grateful for our leaders who spent a week of their time and energy investing into our kids.  Kim, Mark, and Meghan deserve a medal for toughing out five days in cabins full of children!

No mother should ever have to open three suitcases full of dirty, damp, smelly camp clothes.  Just sayin’…

Our friend, Russ and Rhonda, surprised us at Hazel Dell on Sunday and came to visit.  They are pastors as well who had a Sunday off.  It was awesome to see their faces and we LOVED having them with us!

Kris and Josiah both preached this weekend on their favorite page of the Bible.  I love what this series in bringing out from our speakers.  How about you?  What is your favorite page????  Trust me, it’s a CHALLENGE to narrow down, but when you do, you will likely find what makes your heart beat a little faster and gets your excited to get up in the morning.

Our deaf church has a bunch away at camp as well this week!  We covet your prayers for all of those at camp and we trust God to change hearts and lives.

Our baptism celebration is coming on August 17.  It’s going to be AMAZING!  We are have a festive, all-church event that will be awesome!  If you’d like to get baptized, fill out a form at www.coffeechurch.com.

We have lots of yardwork opportunities at our campuses.  If you’d like to help out with that, swing by anytime with garden tools or a blower!  We need weeds pulled, the parking lots blown off, and trimming all the time.  During the summer months everything seems to grow at mock speed…

We have such a great volunteer team.  Thank you to all of you who serve and give so faithfully!  We appreciate you very much!

It was my birthday last week!  Thank you for all of the well-wishes and love sent my way.  It’s a privilege to be a part of North Creek.

Be blessed this week!

 

What I Would Tell My 18 Year Old Self

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July 18, 2014
Family
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Yesterday was my 38th birthday, which is also marked my 20th year of adulthood.  I was thinking last night that I wish I could have known then what I know now.  If there was a time capsule, here are the things I’d tell myself about:

1.  You’ll end up happily married, so calm down.  When that other guy breaks your heart, do not do that ugly cry in front of him…he’s not the one.  You’ll wish you could forget that image of yourself. On that note, saving sex for marriage is one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.

2.  You should write a book in your 20’s, when you think you know everything.  In your 30’s you find out you don’t and it gets a lot harder to write about how little you know.

3.  Be kinder.  By the time you are 38, you will understand that the world is an awfully mean place.  Leave behind you a trail of encouragement.

4. Live every day as if something great is about to happen.  One of those days will be July 21, 1996 when you will meet three people who will change the course of your future….Your husband, your mentor, and your best friend.  It will be a day you look back on with great joy and amazement.

5.  Don’t put that semester of summer school on your credit card.  Don’t put anything on your credit card that you can’t pay off at the end of the month.

6.  Travel more when you are first married.  There will never be enough money or time, so make it a priority!

7.  You’re going to have amazing kids.  You won’t believe that in the middle of one of your youngest’s toddler tantrums.  She can throw a fit like no other, but that determination will pay off in her life.  And never raise your voice to your oldest child.  She has a sweet spirit that needs to be protected.  You’ll see it in her eyes when you lose your patience.

8.  Never, I repeat NEVER, turn on a blender with boiling liquid in it.  Not only will you get a severe burn, but you’ll be washing asparagus soup off of your ceiling for months.

9.  Laugh, laugh a lot.  You’ll have wrinkles around your eyes from doing it, but they will remind you of your dad’s smile for the rest of your life.

10.  You might want to get out of the house REALLY bad as an 18 year old, but you will never have it so good again.  You should call your mother every day and thank her for taking care of you.  You will understand the weight of motherhood in due time and you will be amazed at how much you took for granted.

And most importantly I would tell myself that living a life dedicated to Jesus is worth every moment!  Here’s to the next 38 years of my life!  I can’t see the future, but I am sure I have some funny and some tragic turns along the way.  Through it all I know I will be surrounded by family, friends, and the love of my Savior.

 

July 13 Coffee Church Highlights

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July 15, 2014
Inspiration, Ministry
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Well, I am writing from hearsay this week as I was at a gymnastics clinic with my youngest daughter on Sunday!  It was also the weekend my 20th High School reunion (that I wasn’t able to attend).  It’s impossible that I graduated 20 years ago….just impossible.  I’m ready to go to Heaven, but it sure seems that time makes that goal a little closer than necessary some days!  You blink and half your life is on the history side!

Sunday was great!  Kris Gray shared in Hazel Dell and Josiah Thalhofer shared in Battle Ground (hearing service).  Don’t we have some amazing communicators in our church???  We are blessed and only wish we could hear from them more often.  I enjoy the variety that multiple speakers give our church and I love that we all see different aspects of the Bible to bring out to other people.

Our kids are at camp RIGHT NOW!  My two daughters are there and I couldn’t be more excited for them!  I just know that God will do amazing things in their hearts and lives.  Kennedy has already visited the nurse from eating too much candy in the van.  I made the mistake of sending her with treats for the week….next time I’m sending broccoli.  Would you pray for these precious kids and our three leaders this week?  My life was changed at a kid’s camp in 1986, so I know the power this week can hold.

Speaking of camp…by sheer coincidence, my children are at the same camp this week where I met my husband 18 years ago this week.  He got to show them where we met, where he asked me out, and the tree he climbed to impress me…truly that is amazing!  I wish that someone could have just given me a glimpse of this 18 years ago!  And who knows, maybe my grandkids will meet with Jesus at that same camp 18 years from now????

God is not a God of coincidence, though, is He?  I’m sure He has a purpose and I can’t wait to see it all unfold.

Mark your calendars for August 17.  We are having our big Baptism Celebration morning and we want you to be a part!

I got to have coffee with one of my long-time friends, Jana, on Saturday.  It was a breath of fresh air to see her face and hear her amazing laugh!  I am so grateful for friends that have known me for 20 years and have seen it all.  There is nothing better than people who will stick with you through it all and love you on the other end.  I also got to meet her twin grandbabies!  SO adorable!

And it’s my birthday this week!  I’ll be 38 and I’m pretty excited about it!  I love my life, I love my family, I love my church.  Living in obedience to Jesus has brought me great joy and priceless treasures.  There are difficult times and dark seasons, but they are laced with His blessings and for that I am so deeply grateful.

I hope you are blessed this week as well!

July 6 Coffee Church Highlights

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July 9, 2014
Ministry
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I hope you had a great 4th of July weekend!  Ours was packed from one end to the other with friends, food, and fireworks.  Both my kids were practically walking around asleep yesterday after all of the excitement! Church was great on Sunday.

We are in the middle of our Pages series, where we have multiple preachers who pick the page of the Bible that has had significant impact on their personal story and they preach it.  We have been blessed with amazing speakers at our church since Day 1 and we love it!  We have 8 different preachers in five weeks between the two campuses, so don’t miss a Sunday!

I watched my oldest daughter, Delaney, teach the Sunday school lesson in KidCity.  In conjunction with what our adult service is doing, our kid’s church is letting different kids teach the Bible.  There is something incredible about watching a ten year old get up there and teach a lesson!  It helps them learn the Bible better by teaching it and it gives them ownership in their church.  LOVE it!

Summer is a wonderful time to visit a church if you are looking for one.  We have lots of guests in the summer and enjoy meeting those in town on vacations as well.

Our kids are one week away from Kid’s Camp!!!!!  I could not be more excited for these little hearts to have a week away at camp.  Please be praying for them over the next 10 days.

Are you ready to volunteer one Sunday a month?  Fill out an application at www.coffeechurch.com.  It is the best way to get to know people!

Mark your calendars for August 17 for our annual baptism celebration.  We bring all three churches together for one big morning of fun!  We can’t wait!  If you’d like to get baptized, fill out an application at www.coffeechurch.com.

Enjoy the sunshine and change someone’s world today!  Be blessed!

The Important Word

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July 4, 2014
Inspiration
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Happy Fourth of July!  I wanted to repost this because it’s important!  Live you life with freedom today!

 

Have you ever thought about what the most important word is in the English language?  What would you pick?

Maybe love…faith…hope?

Perhaps something a little more epic like freedom or perseverance.

Maybe you’d pull the Bible class answer and go with Jesus or God…after all, who can argue with that?  They are definitely the most precious words that you can utter with your tongue.

All of those words are important and meaningful, but my guess is that everything in the world hinges on a much less impressive word.  My guess is that the entire world could be changed, not by something substantial and ostentatious, but rather something so simple that most of us would read right past it without noticing.

My guess is that YOUR life is hinged on this very word as well.

We find it in 2 Chronicles 7:14 – If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

I’m pretty confident that the word is “If.”  Once you get past the “Ifs” in your life, there is power that shakes a nation.  Try it… “My people, who are called by my name, have humbled themselves and prayed.  They have sought my face, they have turned from their wicked ways, I have heard from heaven, and I have forgiven their sins.  I have healed their land.”

The sentence goes from a nice idea to a utopia of God’s provision and peace with the removal of just two letters.

My challenge for you, as you head into this new year, is to find the areas of your own life where you have two letters stopping you from all that God has planned for you.

Where are your “ifs”?

“If I would honor God with my purity…”

“If I would give Him my tithe…”

“If I would take the leap of faith…”

“If I would forgive that person…”

“If I wasn’t afraid…”

Get out the eraser of your life and change the sentences of your future.  God has abundant blessings and provisions for you, but it all hinges on us taking one small step of obedience.

Make this your year without “ifs”.