I’m a little late in the week, but we had a great Sunday and I wanted to be sure to highlight that!

Most excitedly we had a young man in our audience decide to make Jesus his Lord and Savior.  That’s why we do what we do!  To tell people about how awesome it is to walk hand and hand with Jesus through this turbulent life.

It’s CHRISTMAS season!  My hope for you is that you are able to be fully present with your family and friends this holiday.  Your kids will probably not remember the Christmas presents 30 years from now, but they will remember family dinners together, reading the Christmas story by the tree, and showing up to deliver gifts to needy families.

On Sunday we moved a semi full of flooring into our buildings.  THANK YOU to everybody who showed up and to Valentin for letting us use the semi.  When we realized that 20,000+ lbs of flooring were coming our way, we were a bit overwhelmed to say the least!  But our church stepped up and it was such a smooth and quick process, we now feel like we can accomplish anything!  Which is good because this building is an awesome task!!!

Many of you responded to my last blog about helping needy families.  So far we have been able to deliver blessings to five different families!  Jesus was generous and we truly reflect Him best when we are generous as well.

We will be sending out a link to a new Facebook page where we will be putting our building needs and work days.  We realize that we will have ALOT of needs over the next several months, so we wanted a page designed to allow us to alert you of both the BIG work days as well as “Hey, we’re working for a couple hours today, come on over if you can.”  Also, we can use donations like a washer and dryer, so those needs will go out in case you have extras in your garage that you would like to donate.  We’ll let you know when that Facebook is ready!

Our Christmas service will be on Sunday, December 24 at 10:00 am this year.  It will be a family service with some great things planned to make it special!  Childcare will be provided for the younger kids.  Invite a friend to celebrate with you!

Well, I can’t wait to see you on next weekend.  We love North Creek and it is a privilege to be your pastors!

Happy Thanksgiving week!  I am MOST thankful for Jesus who walks with us through thick and thin.  We serve a good God!

I’m jumping back into blogging because there are just too many great things happening at North Creek and this is an excellent way to keep you updated on daily life as well as our building progress.  It’s been a slow start on the building as it just takes time to work with architects, engineers, and the county to make sure the building plans are headed in the best direction.  The great news is that you will begin to see things happening any day as the back roof gets rebuilt.  Currently it is raining inside the building, so we are pretty excited about that!

For those of you jumping into the story, we are presently doing church at Prairie High School as we renovate one of the ugliest buildings in Vancouver into a really great venue for our church.  The building is just shy of 100 years old and has a few too many layers of previous renovations on it.  The bones of our building are excellent, so we are basically stripping back the layers and keeping it simple on the layout.  The two buildings together will provide 15,000 square feet of space that perfectly house our hearing service, our deaf service, the kids ministry and OFFICE SPACE!!!! We are very excited about office space as it’s always the thing we denied ourselves in order to accommodate kids.  We’ve got our priorities in line, however this time around we get BOTH!

We are working on a website right now that will house the plans, any updates, and a giving site where you can help us purchase items we will need for ministry inside the building.  We will also be letting you know how to be involved in everything from construction to painting to moving in!  We are making a play to be in by Easter 2018, which will be incredible!

In other news, our small groups are wrapping up for the year and have been finding ways to bless people.  If you are not in a small group, but would like to take groceries to people as a way to give back this holiday season, I always have a list of those who may need a boost right now.  Email me at stacy@coffeechurch.com and I’ll let you know who you can bless!  I almost always have a family that may be facing a crisis, so this offer applies throughout the year!

Interested in being on the worship team?  Matt would love to begin the process to get you in on the rotation, so go to coffeechurch.com and fill out the volunteer sign up to get started.

Thank you to all of you who volunteer!  We have the BEST people at North Creek who serve faithfully in so many areas.  I am constantly astounded at the heart of our volunteers.

Also, it’s not too late to sign up to go to Puerto Rico in July for a missions trip…but it’s almost too late, so email me asap to let me know you are thinking about it.  This will be a very important trip for a community that desperately needs help!

Mark and I are also going on a trip to Israel in January.  On this trip we will be learning how to facilitate and lead a group of our own, so begin planning now for an upcoming trip to the Holy Lands!  I have no doubt this will be life changing and I look forward to the possibility of taking a team in the future.

Well, I hope this week is filled with good food and good friends!  I am thankful for each of you in my life and the joy that being part of this church is to my family.  Happy Thanksgiving!

We are SO happy to announce that June 22, 2017 becomes the day that North Creek Church CLOSED on our new/old facility at 10311 NE Hwy 99.  It has been a crazy NINE year journey with this building and we are quite convinced that Jesus has a plan and purpose for our new home beyond our wildest dreams.  Congratulations to North Creek!

We will now begin a massive renovation to make this building something truly incredible.  Join us on Saturday from 9 am to Noon for the first phase of yardwork.  We need chainsaws and saws as we attack the overgrown bushes!  See you then!

This was a weekend to remember!  Let me catch you up….North Creek is about to purchase a building…but not just any building.  A building with profound roots and memories for us as a church….We are buying the first building we rented nine years ago, fondly called “The Bar”.  (Pause and read this story from 6 years ago if you’re not familiar: https://www.stacynewell.com/2011/08/31/standing-on-holy-ground/)  With it also comes the back building which will house our children’s ministry, office space, and the upper auditorium.  We will also be adding a foyer to connect the two buildings and doing a MASSIVE reno as it is in dire need (that may be an understatement).

We were previously there for about five years and now have been gone for four, but my memories of that place are all filled with joy…a joy that marks the best years of ministry for us and a joy I am happy to return to.

On Sunday night we hosted a worship and prayer dedication service in the building.  The weeds are overtaking the lot, the pavement is crumbling, the wooden awnings are all falling under years of rot, there was no fancy lighting, not even a trash can, but only the praise of our people spilling out of the open door and onto the desperate ears of those passing on Hwy 99.  It could not have been more perfect.

This is a full circle journey for us as the last four years away from the bar have been full of challenges and transitions.  We have endured one difficult story after the other, but now…now in the unexpecting story of a surprising Father, we find ourselves standing back at the point where we had been so long ago: full of hope, full of anticipation, full of direction.  In the musty air of a building that has been sitting empty, I could feel my lungs fill with the refreshing breath of God.

We are going home.

In American football, a quarterback kneel, also called taking a knee, genuflect offense, or victory formation occurs when the quarterback immediately kneels to the ground, ending the play on contact, after receiving the snap. It is primarily used to run the clock down, either at the end of the first half or the game itself, in order to preserve a lead or a win. Although it generally results in a loss of a yard and uses up a down, it minimizes the risk of a fumble, which would give the other team a chance at recovering the ball.

Eighteen months ago Satan came for our staff team with a vengeance.  Everywhere we turned it was as if the enemy was poised to destroy us with a fierceness I had never experienced or imagined.  We watched as he swallowed up loved ones with sin, and then we watched as that sin ricocheted through other lives like a bullet tearing through flesh.  He came after our children, he came after our family, he came after our friends, he came after our finances… I can vividly remember feeling like the punches were literal and not emotional.  It physically hurt to move, to breathe. Staff meetings were filled with tears.  There wasn’t one of us who didn’t weep in pain over the brokenness of lives and sin. It seemed like every phone call, every appointment was filled with pain.  The team that I love and protect with my all that I have were stripped naked, exposed, and vulnerable.  The war was fierce and the warriors were exhausted.

So we took a knee.  We ended the play.  We just stood still to run down the clock in order to preserve the lead.  The win.  The victory.  We lost some yards, but we did not allow ourselves to fumble in our weakness.  Through it all we knew who would eventually win the game, but in the heat of the battle we knelt to preserve the players.

True players hate stopping the game.  Warriors were made to charge into battle and when one is held back to rest…well, frustration mounts…  Someone who is trained to play the game would rather just play it out with all of the risks, but the best of us understand the value of taking a knee and letting the play end despite the desire to press on.

And in that time of waiting, the sweet, precious King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and VICTOR has been faithful.  As we knelt, He sang over us, met us in our weakness, anointed us with peace, eventually gladness, and hope.  He wiped the tears, waited patiently as we knelt.  It was as if He was unconcerned that the game was still roaring around us.  We were given leeway to wait.  His Word was a balm to the wounds.  His worship became the only soft spot to fall.

What we learned in kneeling became our greatest treasure.  He is our SOURCE, our STRENGTH, and no weapon formed against us will prosper.  NO WEAPON.

And now, after so many months of what seemed like an aching silence of despair, I hear a whisper in my spirit again…“Rise.”

It keeps getting louder and I know that the time is coming for a new season.  A season where the mighty players who took a knee will stand up to finish what was started.  To charge back into battle.  To declare victory.  To win.

Maybe you find yourself in a similar situation where you think that you need to take a knee….to end the play for a bit in order to eventually position yourself to win the game.  Can I tell you that it’s OK?  Not to quit, not to give up, but to posture yourself before the Lord in such a way that you demand His presence, His anointing, His infilling of the Holy Spirit in you.  Fighting to fight isn’t always the answer.  Stopping purposefully to lean into Him, to rely on Him, to allow the game to crash around you while you practice stillness before Him…that is where you will find the power to press on to victory.

Be still and know that HE is God!

Psalm 46