Share from your week; where have you seen God at work?:
Pastor Brett – I had several God Sightings being on vacation this week in southern & northern California. My favorite one was - we were taking the boys, 6 year old & 1 year old, to the spot where we got married in Santa Barbara. We had about 30 minutes before we needed to leave for the Bay Area, to drive back up there. So, we thought – Hey, let’s walk down to where we got married. And as we were walking down pushing a stroller, my 6 year old and I were crossing the street. Across the street comes someone who I’ve known since I was 2 years old. We went to Valley Presbyterian as infants, we were in the same childhood classes, we went to the same elementary school and high school. I followed him to Westmont College in Santa Barbara after he had been there a year. We graduated together. He’d been in San Diego for 8 years as a lawyer. He works from home and just happened to be coming the other way with his lunch, walking back home with his lunch sack. He came up to me and said – Brett! And I said – Brian! Oh my gosh! He and I were able to take a picture outside of where Janelle and I got married; he was able to take a picture of our whole family with the setting of where Janelle & I got married 12 years ago. We both looked at each other and said – Wow, God reuniting us together, what are the odds that would happen in the city that we shared? So, that’s my God Sighting and I’m sure there are others.
Stephanie – Good morning, hello everybody. So, I had the honor of volunteering with our Portland to Coast Westside Team; my shift was on Friday morning. Of course, there are hundreds of people at these exchange points and so, I was standing, directing traffic and had been at the post for over 2 hours and hadn’t moved. All of a sudden, this woman walks by me; all of a sudden it was like my heart leapt! I was like – that’s Jane! Well, except for the fact that Jane lives in Wisconsin and the only time I’ve ever met her was in the Dominican Republic on our missions trip. So, how could this possibly be, right? So, this woman walks by with a hat, glasses and a mask but, for whatever reason my heart just leapt and it felt like this just had to be her. She walked a couple more steps and she stopped; I kept looking at her. She stopped, turned around and looked at me. I said – Jane? And she said – Stephanie? And it was her! I could not believe it! She’s Wendy Fedderly’s mother-in-law and that’s how I had met her. But, like I said, I haven’t seen her since the Dominican Republic. During that time we had this special kinship for the week; she was my travel buddy. I just burst into tears; it was just the coolest thing, just to be able to stand there and catch up for like a half an hour. But, like I said, even with our masks and our glasses and everything, there was just something in that moment, God was in that moment and brought us together and it was just the epitome of my volunteering in that moment. So, very cool thing for me for this weekend. So, that’s my God Sighting.
Pastor Brett – Amen, thank you, Stephanie.
Gayellyn – Hi, Stephanie was 1 of our 3 volunteers for The Portland to Coast. We had a 1:05 start time in the morning, the first start time was 1:00 am. We were the second wave, 5-8 teams started each time. We opened every exchange; especially by the time we got to the coast range, lots of times there wasn’t even anybody there. The volunteers weren’t there, no chute was set up, nothing; we were just on our own. Not even lights sometimes. We got to one exchange and I watched a guy try to put together all the recycle boxes and he couldn’t figure it out; it took everything in me not to jump out and help him. But, we just had a phenomenal time. We were neck and neck with another team that was a mixed corporate team that was much younger, 12 member team; there were 9 men and 3 women. They were booking it, and we were out ahead for so long… It was our third leg and their second leg because we were an 8 person team. We had a lot of back and forth with them. They got a lot of…people weren’t as kind to them because they are really fast; the one guy really looks like he’s running. We’re not positive, but we gave them a ton of grace. While we were on one of our runs, we found all these blackberries and we were eating them. The guy walked by and said – Oh my gosh, you found blackberries. So, I ran after him and gave him blackberries and we shared our water and stuff with them because, they had come with almost nothing. I don’t know what they were thinking, they had no snacks; they were out of water. We shared stuff with them and they were really appreciative because, not everyone had been very kind to them that day. We still don’t have our medals because, nothing was open at the coast. The official came and found us to say – We will be there, someone will be there to announce you. But, you can’t hear anything because, you can’t have the speakers on at 4 in the morning. We came across and we didn’t have our medals or anything but, I’ve seen the medals and they’re really nice and we have to go pick them up. Anyway, it was truly an amazing time, we had a great time and God was with us the whole time.
Pastor Brett – Amen, thanks, Gayellyn. Awesome. How many teams did we have from Westside? 3 teams, that’s awesome, that’s amazing. Nice, placed 11th overall, wow.
Martha – On Friday and Saturday our community had a garage sale. A neighborhood garage sale at each of our places. One of the items I sold was a music box that played Great is Thy Faithfulness. We went almost 2 full days without anybody kind of taking a look at it and then towards the end of the garage sale a woman came up with a girl maybe in the 4th or 5th grade, probably her daughter. She said – Oh, we’re looking for toys. And I said – I really don’t have any toys but, I have this jewelry box and I opened it up and the little girl immediately said – I want it! So, I don’t know whether she knew that hymn or not but, it just gave me a good feeling to give it to her and have her walk away. And think - I’m hoping that somehow maybe she knows that hymn, but if she doesn’t, there’s still that hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, for that little girl.
Pastor Brett – Amen. Martha, thank you.
Michele – My God Sighting this week was – I’m in Michigan and I’m here helping my sister with my brother-in-law. I think my biggest God Sighting is actually seeing the friends that are doing the best they can to help my sister. And to see the effort that my sister is putting into taking care of him. There has to be a lot of love and a lot of warmth in a home for that kind of care to be taken. I’m just really sure that God is very strongly here and helping my sister; helping us to get through this very difficult time. Plus, God got me here safely!
Pastor Brett – Amen. We continue to lift up your sister, Jan, and Peter, your brother-in-law; the aftermath of a stroke in Michigan. Amen, Michele, so glad to hear that. It takes so many people to care for one another. Awesome.