Our group of 11 who traveled to the Dominican Republic in July will be sharing their adventures during the 10:00 am service on August 18.
Please plan to attend and have your heart blessed!
We joined Christ UMC in worship on Sunday morning, to celebrate the conclusion of our joint VBS, Camp Iwannabe.
Here is the question of the week, based on our study of Esther, for you to reflect upon: When have you waited for just the right moment to speak?
Please add your answer as a comment if you would like.
A reminder that Pastor Brian is working from home this week. He and Pastor Karen are loving on their grandkids, pictured here (not shown: Theo (Spiderman) who is reportedly swinging on a web.)
Please be aware that there may be lags in response times. When possible, please save your question/comment for next week. Time with children is precious and fleeting. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Dear Family,
How are you doing?
Change is always tough and so very good for all of us, but still hard. We are anticipating a change when I will no longer be your pastor here. It means that we will be bidding one another farewell, which is the tough part and unimaginable! But it also means turning to welcome a new part of life. The thing about any transition is that there are three parts to it. I wrote about these on 7/12. It is published here.
The key is to stay in community in this time. We sometimes play games emotionally. The hard emotions we tend to numb. We eat the chocolate muffin, we open a beer, we get out the chips, we turn on the TV. We think we are just numbing the negative emotions, but forget in the process that actually we cannot choose what we are numbing. And as we numb the negative feelings, the sadness, the fears, the grief, we are also numbing joy, love, peace, and the sense of God’s presence. All the positives go away as we seek to numb the negatives. This is no way to go.
So, could we make a deal?
When you want to numb, you call someone you know in the church or outside of it, and just say: “I’m hurting.” A friend needs no other information in order to say, “Hey, tell me about it.” And then listens.
If you do this, I promise, this year will produce what God intends: a people who have grown closer to one another and to God.
You don’t know who to call?
Call Virginia at the office 503.643.8070 and she will be happy to connect you to someone who will be there for you.
If you believe you would be willing to receive such calls from your brothers or sisters in the congregation, could you let Virginia know in the office? Thanks.
We are in this together!
Brian
Don’t forget!
This Sunday, August 4, our second service will be at Christ UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood St in Portland. We will be celebrating our collaborative VBS, Camp Iwannabe. You may attend at either 9:00 or 10:30 am and hear both Pastor Brian and Pastor Ric.
There will still be an 8:15 am service at Westside.
This week has been our Joint Camp Iwannabe hosted at Christ UMC’s location. We have been ministering to a bunch of kids from the area inviting them to become effective vessels of compassion. So, if you are normally someone who attends 2nd service, there are two to choose from at Christ: the 9 am or the 10:30 am. Pastor Ric and I will be preaching at both of these services.
Our regular 8:15 am service at Westside will be focusing on chapter 7 of our journey with Esther and Mordecai. Finally the wicked scheme exposed, Haman is judged, for when you are wicked or acting in wickedness often the things you do will come back to haunt you. Haman had built a means to destroy Mordecai, and instead has built his own means of destruction. Haman has been told by his family that since he is dealing with Jews, he is doomed, and their words proved prophetic!
We can see that this turnaround happened at the last possible moment. Sometimes in our lives, we don’t see how hope will arrive into the darkness we are experiencing. We cannot see around the corner or over the hill. All we can see is the present circumstance, the dark, the hopeless feelings. This might have been what Esther was feeling at this second banquet.
Remember Esther did not know that God was on the move. She did not know that the king could not sleep the night before, nor that he had been reminded about the saving deed of Mordecai. She did not know any of this, only that she had invited the king to two banquets and had not yet told him why she had done so. And he would be asking. What would she tell him? How would she tell him? What could she say? This must have been going through her mind.
But Harbona, the servant of the king, knew more than Esther did. He knew about the plan to execute her cousin Mordecai. He knew about the gallows Haman had built. He knew that the king had not slept. He knew and without being asked offers just what the king needed to hear then. It’s a great surprise that he speaks -- a servant with a word of wisdom. He doesn’t make judgment he just provides the information that no one knew but him: more wickedness exposed and Haman is undone.
In our lives, in all these days, we experience all kinds of days and all kinds of feelings. In the middle we might not believe Jesus even knows what is happening. We might believe that we are alone or that our prayers are not heard. We might feel like Esther -- uncertain what we will say. God has the answer, the direction, the hope. And perhaps will bring a word of deliverance through an unlikely source.
This story is continually about a God who is working behind the scenes all the time and loves us immensely. No matter the circumstance we are facing, no matter if it is wickedness, God is at work. We can be caught by this very fact and encouraged to simply do one thing: trust.
The ice cream fundraiser at the Washington County Fair last Sunday night was a great success.
Over $95 was raised in tips, in addition to the 15% of the sales from Dairy Maid.
Many thanks to Dairy Maid for this opportunity, and to Paige Flanagan and the seven other Westsiders who dipped tirelessly for over six hours.
Pastor Brian will be working from home next week, August 4 after worship through August 10. He and Pastor Karen will be caring for their visiting grandchildren.
Please be aware that there may be lags in response times (no texting while bathing babies!) and when possible, save your question/comment for the following week. Time with children is precious and fleeting. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Interested in helping put together a gift basket for Family Promise?
Each Family Promise host church is providing a gift basket for the silent auction at the upcoming Drive In Sleep Out fundraiser.
Family Promise offers hope and housing to families going through tough times. The Drive In Sleep Out is their largest fundraiser of the year. Learn more about the event at https://www.familypromiseofbeaverton.org/events
Here’s your opportunity to use your creativity for a great cause! Contact Bonnie Becker for more information about how you can help.
Family Promise of Beaverton is hosting their 3rd Annual Drive-In Sleep Out event at Beaverton City Park, 12500 SW 4th St, Beaverton, on Saturday, August 24 & Sunday, August 25. Join the team from Family Promise, as we try to pack 200 parking spots with ‘car-camping adventurers’ who want to raise funds and awareness about child and family homelessness in Beaverton.
Saturday & Sunday festivities include
* Live music * Guest speakers * Food Trucks * Movie in the park * Hot breakfast
To find out more about the 3rd Annual Drive-In Sleep Out, come to church on Sunday, August 11, and visit https://www.familypromiseofbeaverton.org/events
Question: When has a seemingly insignificant action resulted in a significant outcome?
Answers:
Filling in at a different children’s dental office, telling my boss, and then getting a raise.
Hiring a young man to wash dishes at my father’s restaurant. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary yesterday.
Don’t forget!
This Sunday, August 4, our second service will be at Christ UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood St in Portland. We will be celebrating our collaborative effort, Camp IWannaBe, at 10:30 am.
There will still be an 8:15 am service at Westside.
Dear Friends,
Last week I published the first part of an article my wife, Karen, had written for Canby UMC. In that article she tells how she has been living into the idea of practicing positive affirmations in her own life. Then she continues, that God had directed her thoughts “toward positive words of affirmation about our life together as a community of faith.” As a result Karen began praying affirmations for their congregation.
I’ve written some that I am praying over our congregation as well. Karen’s were very similar to these.
· We are a lighthouse of love, healing and hope.
· We value authenticity: sharing life-- laughing, weeping, learning, and praying together.
· We practice real communication.
· We share Jesus with our lives, words and acts of service.
· We are a place of love, hope and joy.
· We follow the prompts of God’s Holy Spirit.
· We welcome those who hunger for God and spiritual substance.
· We are seeing homeless teens housed.
· We openly invite others to join our community of faith.
· We meet together regularly in unlikely places.
· The world sees God at work in our lives.
· We make space for questions and are open to answers from the wisdom of God’s word and the life journeys of others who follow Christ.
· We experience God’s presence in our lives.
As Pastor Karen at Canby UMC has been living into similar affirmations for Canby and praying daily, God began to answer. One of her affirmations was about how “we welcome those who hunger for God.” And on Monday, this week, God brought a miracle. A man came to the door with his cousin. The man was seeking to baptized. Today. Karen wrote: “I heard a bit of his story and then I put on my robe and stole. We lit candles and Marilyn, (her admin), was the congregation. I baptized him. He’s been longing for this for 50 years. What a glorious gift to be part of God’s work in the world and in his life.”
Who knows who God wants to reach or touch through us?
Would you begin to pray these affirmations or write others that connect for you?
Let’s join in this adventure of living in the present and being willing to share what God reveals to you through it!
Thanks for being adventurers in this journey!
Brian
The book of Esther reads like a good story: a protagonist, an antagonist/evil villain, and a conflict. A plot of destruction and revenge. A hero emerges in a young woman seemingly with no power. But who is the real hero here? And how can we apply this to our own stories?
Are we aware of God’s movement even when it’s small and seemingly insignificant? Do we discount or overlook God’s part in the process because it seems so small or goes unnoticed? Do we believe that God can do great things in our everyday lives? Do we believe that God is moving behind the scenes?
Beaverton First UMC will be hosting a school supplies giveaway on Thursday, August 22 from 2pm to 4pm. They will also be hosting the Free Food Market (with Oregon Food Bank) on that Thursday from 3pm to 5pm.
Any and all donations to the school supplies giveaway gladly accepted!
Backpacks
No. 2 pencils
Pocket folders
Binder paper – college rule & wide rule
1” binders
Spiral notebooks – college rule & wide rule
Colored pencils
Rulers
Blue and red pens
Glue sticks
Plain copy paper
Please contact Pastor Jefferson (jchao@beavertonumc.org) or office@beavertonumc.org with any questions. Thank you!
Camp IWannaBe (a collaborative effort of Westside, Christ, and West Portland UMCs) begins in less than one week!
Here are three ways you can help:
Invite children in preschool through fifth grade to attend. Enroll them here.
Donate items for “welcome boxes” and the meal that’s being served to homeless youth. Here’s a list.
Volunteer to help during camp, especially preparing lunches on Thursday and Friday.
More information will be available at church this Sunday.
Please email iwannabe@cedarmillchristumc.org with questions or to help.
Here’s a photo taken this week, of our Westsiders with their new friends in the Dominican Republic.
And the accompanying message from Pastor Brian:
We are having this amazing time. Building rich relationships with one another and the people of Rio Grande.
Please continue to hold them in your prayers until they return home.
Please continue to be in prayer for the eleven missionaries working in the Dominican Republic this week. Pray for their health, their strength, and the renewal of their spirits as they worship together with the children and adults they serve.
Christ United Methodist Church will be showing the animated movie, “Brave” (Pixar, 2012, rated PG), this Friday, July 26. Free popcorn will be served starting at 7:30, followed by the movie at 8:00 pm.
Bring a blanket or lawn chairs and settle in for an evening of family fun!
Christ UMC is located at 12755 NW Dogwood St in Portland.