Share from your week; where have you seen God at work?:
Martha – This past week and for the past month, the Forest Grove, Cedar Hill & Beaverton Kiwanis have been prepping to take part in an program called CAST which is Cast A Special Thrill, where children with disabilities go out to Hagg Lake. It would have been the 12th of September this year. They fish and then the Kiwanis come in and feed them a BBQ lunch. Well, because of the Covid & vaccination situation, Washington County decided to shut down events like this for children or adults. So, I have been in charge for the last 7-8 years of getting all the food donated from different vendors; this year I got $100 in Costco Cards. This past week I had to cancel all the vendors, but Costco just said to keep the four $25 cards. I talked to the other Kiwanis members and I thought about Bonnie’s request to have clothes for children of mothers who are in a shelter. So, yesterday I took Ada, my 4 ¾ year old granddaughter, for a little empathy lesson. We went to Costco and we shopped for clothes for these kids with these Costco Cards. Now, albeit, I had to buy her a couple of things but, it was still a beginning lesson of doing some community service and God’s work in this world. It was really fun… and God handed me that $100 for a reason, it wasn’t for the original reason but, it came out great.
Gavin – Good morning! I had the rare opportunity to fly to Kansas City to see my sister, Karen, who’s not in that great of shape and live in their world for 3-4 days. One thing that stood out was the insects that were kind of a cross between a moth and a grasshopper, called a Cicada. They live in the ground and every 15 years they come up for air and hang out in the trees. The sound they made in mass was a cross between screeching metal and a jet airplane! They were enormously loud; I was thinking – everything in its cycle, our time frame is not God’s time frame or Cicada’s time frame. I thought that was really unusual. And Midwest humidity is really something to deal with; I wasn’t used to that. While flying, I had a window seat for each flight and connection; watching all the landscapes and everything change as you go. Coming into Oregon from Nevada, where the rocky crags kind of stop and the trees start, there’s no more beautiful place on the planet in my opinion and there’s no place like home…
Michele M. – I’d like to say that last week we heard Gavin’s song and Gavin wasn’t there. He needs to know, and I’m sure we all felt the same way, that song was definitely a gift from God; to really thank Gavin for an awesome song that was just wonderful!
Pastor Brett – Thank you, Michele and thank you, Gavin. We have such talented people in our congregation, across the board. My God Sighting, I’m surprised nobody has jumped in but, there’s a 20’ by 40’ tent on our front lawn! We had 20-25 people here yesterday afternoon helping to construct this tent. Many of you who are here this morning and many I see online, as well. I want to thank everyone for participating! I didn’t know how it would go but, Rich took the lead and he watched the videos and I think skimmed the instructions well enough where we could build this thing. So, we are very excited and we will probably be here for a while and we’ll see how things go. It’s nice to have options inside and out.
Bonnie – This week was our third week of the year to do Family Promise of Beaverton. There were no families in the day house, itself. The family that has been there is at the hotel and is on the list to get an apartment. So, they deep cleaned the day house and the ones that were signed up to do a meal, that didn’t happen. But, I was able to go to the Hillsboro hotel where the families are staying for the Washington County Family Promise. Stephanie & I served spaghetti dinner to the families that are there and Family Promise did games & crafts and things with the kids. These kids have been in the hotel for the majority of the summer; not with their friends because, none of the parents have cars. So, they tried their best to get the kids together to do something fun; not just sitting in the hotel room… What amazed me, was how appreciative the people were just for a plain old spaghetti dinner. Of course, you know I make a lot of food… I was able to package up the rest of it and give it to them so they could have it the next day. I think that those of you that help with Family Promise on a regular basis, just know that the people are always so thankful for what we do! I’ve never really experienced someone who wasn’t that way. And we might not be able to preach to them about Jesus or whatever but, I believe that they know in their hearts that we are the hands and feet of Jesus for them. Family Promise is an organization that hosts families that are homeless; they have case workers that find them housing and help them find jobs and do family teaching if it’s a person that has children and needs that kind of resources. It’s a national organization and we have been working with them since 2018. We were the first church to host the Family Promise of Beaverton; it’s a wonderful organization. I also want to thank all of the folks who have given money this month because, on Tuesday I get to go and spend that money on food, nonperishable foods & fruits and vegetables, for the 10 families that are in the Beaverton hotel; I love spending other people’s money!
Pastor Brett – Thanks Bonnie! Family Promise is a big part of our ministry here at Westside; Bonnie is a big part of it, as well.
Martha – I think that I’ve never met anybody quite like Bonnie, you know, if there’s people in need somewhere, God directs Bonnie to those people everywhere. And I think that we should say a prayer of thanksgiving because, she is a representation of God in our church; God touching people’s lives! Thank you Bonnie, so, so much!
Pastor Brett – Martha, thank you for volunteering to pray over Bonnie. You want to say a quick prayer over her?
Martha – Yes. Dear Lord, Thank you for Bonnie Becker, a member of the Westside United Methodist Church. Thank you for her enormous heart that You have given her to reach out to people of all ages, all genders and all nationalities in love; her contributions to those peoples. She not only represents the people of our church, Lord, but, she represents You in their lives, I know. We just thank her every day for what she does. Amen.
Pastor Brett – Thank you, Martha, Amen. We like to keep things a little spontaneous around here, love it! Thank you Martha & Bonnie. We give glory to God through your work.