preparing to worship

This is such a busy week! We are going monthly, meaning we are starting regular, monthly worship services. We had hoped to have a site (not our home) for these services, but the one we hoped for ended up with a zoning issue. We are happy to have it here (we fit 60 people here for our Christmas service!), but our stuck between praying for more people and not wanting 20 folks standing without a chair!
Please pray for us as we begin our last Sunday of the month services. This Sunday, the 27th, will be a great learning experience for us and those dedicated to helping this church plant go. Pray attenders will come away with the peace of worshipping in community, a greater sense of God's work in them and around them, and maybe even thinking this may be their new church!

Lots of Good Things

Hi Friends. A lot of good things have been happening! The best place to find the latest news is through the Past Issues link on this page.

• A HUGE item is that the FHL Project is now officially Bridge Covenant Church and or Puente Covenant Church. We'll leave the translation to you, but you should know that the two will be used interchangeably. We are working on a new logo, and will soon be moving the information on our blog to an official website. We'll release that information soon, but we wanted to give you a heads up. We are very excited about the name of our new church. Puente fits beautifully with our Vision of "connecting & serving God & people."
• Next, did you read about our first worship service? We hosted a Christmas Service after our "Four Evenings of Advent" on the 23rd of December at our home. Sixty people attended! The worship was a rich time of song, participation, and communion. Thank you! It was a great service. Read about it! See the pictures!
• Finally, Salem hosted the 4th Annual Manuary Mustache Bache. Fifteen Mustaches attended. It was a ton of fun. People were connected to each other and to the people and vision of Bridge Covenant. Kids (and adults) decorated cupcakes with sweet Mustaches, we played "Pin the 'Stache on Selleck," and created hand-crafted Mustaches. Take a look at the fun!
• Slow but sure, but this church plant is growing. Thanks for supporting us. We are watching our prayers move into praises every week, and that's so encouraging.

Four Evenings of Advent

Advent. It means ‘coming,’ or ‘arrival.’ It’s a time of year when we purposefully anticipate the coming of Christ.

For many, this is what Christmas is all about: Mary & Joseph, donkeys & sheep, shepherds & angels, mangers & babies.

The reality of the coming of God’s chosen one is as real today as it was 2000 years ago. Christmas was the First Advent, and that’s worth celebrating. The Second Advent seems as far away for us as the First Advent was for Israel, and yet it could be as close as it was for those shepherds watching their fields by night.

Advent is a great time to purposefully focus on the past and the future. Christ has come! Christ is here. Christ will come again!

You are invited to our home for a time of reflection and prayer about Advent.

            •Wednesday, 1 Dec, from 7-8p.

            •Wednesday, 8 Dec, from 7-8p.

            •Wednesday, 15 Dec, from 7-8p.

            •Wednesday, 22 Dec, from 7-8p.

Cuatro Noches de Adviento

Adviento significa “la venida de” o “llegada". Es una época del año cuando nos anticipamos a propósito de la venida de Cristo. Para muchos, esto es lo que se trata la Navidad: María y José, burros y ovejas, los pastores y los ángeles, pesebres y los bebés.

La realidad es la expectativa de la llegada de un elegido de Dios es hoy tan real como lo era hace 2000 años. Navidad fue la primera venida, y que vale la pena celebrar. El Segundo Advenimiento parece tan lejano y sin embargo, podría ser tan estrecha como lo fue para los pastores que cuidaban sus campos por la noche.

El Adviento es un buen momento para concentrarse deliberadamente en el pasado y el futuro. Cristo ha venido! Cristo está aquí. Cristo vendrá otra vez!

Usted está invitado a nuestra casa por un tiempo de reflexión y oración sobre el Adviento.

• Miércoles, 01 de diciembre, a partir del 7-8p.

• Miércoles, 8 de diciembre, a partir del 7-8p.

• Miércoles, 15 de diciembre, a partir del 7-8p.

• Miércoles, 22 de diciembre, a partir del 7-8p.

Quick News

We have been remiss getting the latest news out. We have some very exciting news, and some less exciting (but still important news).
First—Trinity Covenant Church has officially voted as a congregation to partner with FHL! I'll send the details in our newsletter soon, but this is what we have been praying for! Yahoo!
Second—We found a house, and now its ours! It required about a month of lots of little things that have actually taken almost a month to complete. Thankfully we have been blessed by some amazing help with labor and moving. We are in (for 5 days now!) and so excited for the ministry potential there. In fact, we've already hosted a couple of FHL related dinners in the midst of our boxes and assorted moving chaos. This is our 'excuse' for not being on top of getting fresh info out to our supporters. Our apologies.
Third—Due to our consistently changing schedule (a good thing, as our CORE is developing and we need more time together) our Wednesday evening prayer time is moving to Wednesday at 6am (that's am, as in early).
Those are huge items (the first two anyway!) and we thank you so much for your consistent prayer for these items. We know God hears us, and we are excited about how he has responded. We are looking forward to accelerating our efforts as our moving process settles down, so look forward to better propaganda performance!

Exciting Times

This is a very exciting time for us. People are hearing about the vision of this church plant and responding. Our CORE has grown to 12 people! (We have people who want to be a part of the FHL Project. You might say these people are "ready to roll." Our CORE are the people committed to "get things rolling.") During prayer Wednesday I was so thankful for the people God has joined with us. It amazes me when I think of the experiences, skills, gifts, and maturity of this growing CORE. And there are some very exciting prospects seriously considering joining this plant as well.
This is the gathering time, the time when we get the word out and invite people to begin to shape this church plant. It is a time of building relationships and community, developing our CORE spiritually and as leaders, and conceiving events and activities which allow us to live into our vision and which invite others to come along.
Exciting times. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Something special happens when people pray together

Something special happens when people pray together. We decided that this summer we would have specific times set aside during the week to pray for the FHL Project. Since we believe prayer is essential in this task we were excited to be intentional about praying for the work ahead. What has surprised me (not sure why) is how encouraging these times have been for us as church planters and as a couple. People pray for things that have never even crossed our minds to pray about or dream about! Recently a person prayed that a Latino couple would befriend us, enabling the vision of our church plant to be lived out in our lives. This hadn’t even crossed my mind…I’m looking forward to God answering this request. We start our time together with a Psalm and end with our project text (II Corinthians 5:14-6:2) and I’m always amazed at how fast an hour goes by when God’s people join together in prayer. No wonder we are encouraged to “not give up meeting together … but [to continue] encouraging one another.” (Hebrews 10:25) Join us for some encouragement as we pray for the future of the FHL Project together.

The Gift of Going

I've been thinking what a gift it is to GO. There's been a lot of going for us over the last few years, but lately Carmen and I decided to go to Young Life's Washington Family Ranch to meet some of the NE Salem Vida Joven kids and to support their leader Ronald Cruz. I had never seen the camp in action (with kids) and Carmen knew I would be impressed. I was. We were. It was a gift to us to see how the staff and facility were glorifying God in serving over ±700 (every week!). And that's not mentioning the gift of going those 700 kids receive.
We also saw and received the gift of going to a congregational meeting the other nite, in which those who were able or chose to attend shared their questions, hearts, and wisdom in a manner clearly blessed by the Holy Spirit.
Whether we go "into our inner room", to a friend's home, to a stranger's territory, for help, or into the unknown, we exercise faith as God's people and we fulfill our call to go as ambassadors of reconciliation.
Its not a law, but God often blesses our going. And many times the going is not easy. It would be easier to stay home, it would be easier to stay with people we are comfortable with, it would be easier not to bother.

Our experiences right now, in the early stages of church planting, require a lot of going. Our schedule of going continues to grow, and we're seeing a pattern of blessings, relationships, learning opportunities, fun and more as gifts of going. We are in an exciting and uncomfortable place, what Carmen calls "both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time." It's a time to trust in the Lord, asking What's next? What do we do? Where do we go?
Thank you for going with us on the FHL Project journey. Your going with us is a gift to us, and we hope a gift for you as well.
And...we hope you have a chance this week to go.