By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC
As summer is closing out, join me in praising God for an exciting and fruitful season of ministry around the conference.
It’s been good to see what seems to be a larger number of people getting out. Headwaters (Helena) did an epic smoked foods competition! City of Rain (Kent) hosted their first-ever youth camp! Portland Cov and Access Cov did a joint retreat together with it being Portland’s first in 15 years! Lettered Streets is heading to their retreat in two weekends in B.C.!
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There were fun reports of gathering events for kids including Bethany (Mt. Vernon) hosting an outdoor movie night for the wider community! There have been exciting reports of wonderful VBS’s held like at Yakima Cov who had 76 kids after many years of not doing one! McMinnville held their Food Truck Party VBS with 85 kids and ended their week with 5 local food trucks! Love the creativity.
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Speaking of food trucks, some intentionally supported local business owners and community organizations like Creekside’s (Redmond) weekly invitation to have different food trucks on their campus for the neighborhood to enjoy! It’s also been fun to see Praise Tacoma and Garden City (Puyallup/Tacoma) working with the Chinese Reconciliation Park Foundation’s upcoming Moon Festival in Tacoma on 9/10! So many served in their communities like Lakebay helping build a tiny house for a Tacoma village! And Emerald City did summer enrichment camps for 60 students building holistically into their lives and 9 kids gave their lives to Jesus!
Bellingham continued to go all in with their partnership with World Relief as they hosted family literacy and school readiness programs and opened a back-to-school store for refugees! Renew hosted their community garden again and held different events there! Access (Portland) served a community orchard that turned a neglected neighborhood trouble spot into a space where neighbors gather organic produce for free! Harbor Cov dedicated a Sunday (CMJ Sunday) to fan out throughout their community to engage in different work projects!
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There were so many new decisions to follow Christ, recommitments, decisions to explore vocational ministry, many many baptisms, and intentional leadership development going on all summer. God moved powerfully at Unite West with 250 participants from 25 churches in our region. I’ve heard that there have been wonderful times of sharing about their experience after students returned including Eastridge (Clackamas) who had a large parking lot BBQ with bounce houses where students shared and many parents who do not know Jesus were there!
It was an eventful summer at Cascades Camp with campers, SALT, and staff growing in Christ and being stretched! It was so good to see the camp back in full swing with waiting lists all summer! Selah Cov restarted their intern program and just prayed over a recent high school grad last weekend who is pursuing ministry! Midway (Des Moines) held weekly outreach events and one troubled young man gave his life to Christ and wanted to be baptized immediately. They piled in a car and went down to Des Moines Beach and baptized him!
Monroe did a sermon series called Agents of God’s Reign in Scripture and History and explored obscure biblical characters to look at how God can work through all of us. Each service highlighted one congregant asking about their lives and how they saw God using them in their work at home, work, etc, and then commissioned them! Discipleship and leadership development at work! And Esperanza Viva sent leaders to ELEVE a large worship and training event in California. It was an amazing blessing and a time of bonding and learning for them!
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There’s nothing more beautiful than the outdoors during our summers here and many churches did outreaches like Cannon Beach Community’s monthly outreach beach bonfires. When you’re blessed with Cannon Beach as a church asset you use it! Seattle Chinese gathered Chinese students and professionals to go on hikes and excursions. They baptized 5 people last Sunday!
I wish I could share more from every church. There have been so many wonderful touches and movements of the Spirit among us this summer. Please share more of what’s happened at your church!
May God be glorified. May we continue to lean into his calling to grow deeper in Christ and go further in mission – together!
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of [Weeping], they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion.
Psalm 84:5-7