Our First Monthly Service

One of the best things about our first service was the involvement of our CORE. One of our values is “shared ministry” which we hope to live out in all areas of ministry. In our monthly services this means that both women and men, young and old, english and spanish speakers are all involved in the service. This happened at our first monthly service last Sunday which was wonderful. Thanks team for your willingness to step out of your comfort zone and participate.

After our Christmas service (where we gathered 60 people) we were curious about the attendance on a rainy Sunday in February. We were encouraged that 38 adults and 10 children participated. We had a great representation of ages and also a good representation of the two communities we are hoping to bring together (latino & anglo).

Doing things bi-lingually is a challenge but we believe it’s important for our vision. We learned a few things we’ll do differently but overall we had a good response. We had a few people with very limited english. We had folks who are bi-lingual but their heart language is spanish. We had bilingual white folks and some white folks who aren't bilingual. We're hoping to hear more feedback regarding our bilingual format. One of my favorite moments was a women responding in Spanish to a question asked during the message.

Our connecting card has a place to respond to the service. Here’s a few responses from the section entitled "I'm inspired to:"

• live outside my comfort zone
• practice-learn Spanish
• ser como cristo (be like Christ)
• mentor someone to walk with God
• start each day new

God is moving and his Spirit is inspiring people to serve and connect.

We’re looking forward to our next monthly service on March 27th. These services are a great opportunity people to see the vision in action. Hope to see you there!

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.