Look for our worship bulletins every Sunday on our website under “Sunday Worship.” Follow along for the lyrics to the songs, and read all the week’s announcements.
Sharing for September 5
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.
Worship Video for September 5
If you were unable to attend our online or in-person worship on Sunday, view it here:
See You Saturday!
Come join us tomorrow, Sep 4, at 3:00 pm to raise our new tent on the lawn! Not only will you receive the satisfaction of making outdoor worship possible in inclement weather, but you will also be treated to an entrée prepared by our own Sandy H!
Dinner will be around 5:00 pm. Please RSVP to Sandy at sandy@tasteofexcellencepdx.com if you can attend, and let her know if you can help with any of the following:
I can help raise the tent
I can help set up tables for dinner
I can bring a side dish, appetizer, dessert or beverage (including beer and wine)
We hope you can attend! All that is required of you is an appetite for fellowship, food, and fun!
Children's Clothing Needed
Bonnie B is assisting a domestic violence organization in gathering new or gently used clothing for children.
They need boy’s clothing in sizes 2T and 3T and girl’s clothing in size 5T.
You may bring the items to the church with Bonnie’s name on them, or contact her for other arrangements.
Big Tent Raising!
Come join us this Saturday, Sep 4, at 3:00 pm to raise our new tent on the lawn! Not only will you receive the satisfaction of making outdoor worship possible in inclement weather, but you will also be treated to an entrée prepared by our own Sandy H!
Dinner will be around 5:00 pm. Please RSVP to Sandy at sandy@tasteofexcellencepdx.com if you can attend, and let her know if you can help with any of the following:
I can help raise the tent
I can help set up tables for dinner
I can bring a side dish, appetizer, dessert or beverage (including beer and wine)
We hope you can attend! All that is required of you is an appetite for fellowship, food, and fun!
Sharing for August 29
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.
Worship Video for August 29
If you were unable to attend our online or in-person worship on Sunday, view it here:
RAoK for September
For September, our Random Acts of Kindness is for My Father’s House.
My Father’s House is a non-profit shelter ministry that opened to meet the needs of homeless families. Many of these families have no idea of how to obtain or keep a job. Some need professional counseling. All of them need HOPE.
Sally S provided us with a very specific list of current needs. You can find it here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050B4BABAF22AB9-september As always, you may choose to donate cash if that’s easier for you. Mail a check to the church or donate through the giving link on our website. Be sure to indicate that it’s for RAoK or My Father’s House.
Items may be dropped off at church anytime in September. Thank you!
Family Promise
Our ‘hosting’ week begins this Sunday, Aug 29. We will be delivering meals, groceries, and restaurant gift cards to those being housed in the Family Promise Day House and in emergency shelter. There’s still time for you to donate through our website. Thank you to Bonnie B for organizing and shopping!
Sharing for August 22
Share from your week; where have you seen God at work?:
Martha – God gave me a wonderful gift 46 years ago when I met Ken. Last weekend we celebrated our 45th Wedding Anniversary and his 71st Birthday! He has always been my special gift and I guess I’ve been his. For a person who could never find a date in high school and college, I was pretty lucky to find him. So, it was a nice weekend and I thank God for him every day.
Pastor Brett – Amen. We rejoice with you for Ken. Martha, thank you for sharing that.
Michele M. – Once again, I will talk about my sister and brother-in-law; it’s been a very big week. My sister decided to bring him home for home hospice, he just got there. I think the real blessing especially, and God working in this whole situation is that she went into this with the help of one friend. And she’s had just any number of friends call now and offer their help and their time. Which is just amazing. I’m going there next week to help and I’ll be there for 10 days. But the main thing is that she’s getting him home and he’s going to be really happy to be there. He doesn’t really know what’s going on, but the main thing is that she’s had a lot of people step forward to help her and that’s definitely a gift from God.
Pastor Brett – Amen, thank you, Michele. We will continue to lift up your brother-in-law, Peter, and your sister.
I had one, actually more than a week ago, so maybe out of bounds, but I’ll still share it anyway. On last Friday, 9 days ago, I was at the church and on my to-do list was to figure out where this commercial-sized tent that we had ordered was. So, I contacted Sandy who was part of the purchasing process and it just so happened that this shipping company had called Sandy about 5 minutes earlier. So, Sandy & I were able to get in sync with the shipping company and they brought this enormous 600 pound pallet with the poles on it. They were able to deliver it in the window that I needed to be there at church before I had to go home and take care of my sons that day. So, that was interesting timing and I was able to call Sandy and work that out. The second piece of that is I didn’t know what to do with a 600 pound pallet and I didn’t want to embarrass anyone by showing off how muscular I am and how much I can lift. So, I figured I probably shouldn’t do this by myself. So, I called Pastor Rafael who shares our Lighthouse space with us on Sunday afternoons for his congregation, which is a Spanish speaking congregation. I called him, and he’s helped around the church a lot over the years and I said – Okay, I’ll meet you around 4:15 after I’m done watching the kids. So, I get there at 4:15 in the afternoon and the pallet which had been dropped in the parking lot was in the church, in the entryway. I looked at him and said – You moved this without me! He’s like – Yes. He was all sweating and of course it’s like 105 on that day. And I had told him repeatedly when I called him – I don’t want you to get hurt and I don’t want to get hurt. If this is too much, we will ask other people to come in and help us. But, he had figured out how to use a car jack to jack up one side of this huge pallet and slide a rolling cart underneath it; then jack up the other side and get the other piece under. And he had been able to roll it into the entryway without getting hurt with just a little bit of sweat in the heat. So, very grateful for Pastor Rafael who was able to get that huge apparatus into our church. So, Praise God for him!
Kari – Good morning! I’m at Stephanie’s. The Prayer Team knows about this but, I just wanted to share it with everyone that yesterday my good friend called in the morning saying that her mom had had a brain bleed and stroke and was rushed to the hospital. And God was already at work in preparing a surgeon to be there and getting a bed because I'm sure you've all heard how crowded the hospitals are. So God was already working in that situation. So, my friend's mom is 71. Anyway, so after I had sent out to the Prayer Team to pray for her and I texted some other friends and family; my friend Kristen, like within an hour or so, texted me saying that her mom had been able to squeeze their hands and stuff on command and wiggle all her toes and the prayers are working! So I was so excited so I just wanted to share about that power of prayer. I checked in with her again last night and she said that there have not been really any other big changes except for that the doctors were happy with the progress that she had made in 24 hours and so that was really encouraging. And I just ask for continued prayers for her mom, Linda, and her family, please.
Pastor Brett – Amen. We will do that, Kari. So glad to hear that, power of prayer – yeah Jesus!
Merry – We had a wonderful event last night at the Western Farm Workers Anniversary Dinner. We were joined by the Fedderly family. We thank God for Wendy’s recovery.
Pastor Brett - Another God Sighting this week is Wendy continues to recover. We will continue to pray for her as well. She had another procedure for her heart this week and she's doing well and recovering so we continue to lift her up to the Lord.
Bonnie – My God Sighting was in Wisconsin. When Portland was having 100 degree days, I experienced a beautiful rainstorm. Haven’t seen rain in so long, it was a beautiful sight. Thankful for the experience.
Reminder: School Supplies Drive
Western Farm Workers are collecting school supplies for this Fall semester. We will be assembling each students' required items and delivering them on September 4th. This same-day sort and distribution is an efficient and fair system. There will be no clothing in this years' event. If you would like to donate school supplies or backpacks, please bring them to the church with WFWA or Merry Goldthorpe written on it. You can also call the WFWA office at 503-681-9399 and make arrangements to drop it off there. A very heartfelt thank you to Paige, who has already donated generously.
It has been a difficult summer for the migrant workers and those families that take on extra work for the season. The extreme heat is dangerous for the health of the workers, and the crops can be damaged, causing less fruit to be harvested. WFWA brought fans, clothing, drinking water, and food out to the larger migrant camps. We worked with the Washington County Health Dept. to get supplies and vaccines to the community. If you are interested in volunteering with us, please call us.
This Sunday
This Sunday’s worship service will be held in the Lighthouse instead of on the lawn. Pastor Brett will be ‘beaming in’ from another location!
When inside, we will follow all CDC guidelines. This means you must wear a mask to attend in person. The service will also be online as usual.
Thanks and see you Sunday!
Sharing for August 15
Share from your week; where have you seen God at work?:
Kari – Good morning everybody. Unfortunately, I watched the news the other night and I don’t do that very often but, once in a while, I feel I need to see what’s going on in the world. It was of course very discouraging, there was the rising of the Covid cases, the Taliban and all the political stuff; the heat wave…. So, I had received this booklet from some friends of mine who had been missionaries in South Africa; they got stuck here and now they have become missionaries down in New Mexico working with the indigenous peoples down there. Anyway, they had sent me this through their missionary support group – What We Can Learn From Tree Stumps. So, I thought - I’m going to start doing this, I kind of need a new thing. It just really spoke to me. One of the things it talked about was persevering prayer. It says – Persevering prayer for people, places and cultures can most certainly be used by the Lord. It brings the scent of water into a situation that appears to be a totally dead stump, resulting in unexpected and surprising new growth. So, that really spoke to me and encouraged me; I just really thought God was talking to me.
Pastor Brett – Amen. Thank you, Kari.
Fred – I had a little medical procedure and I haven’t gone through many of these where they actually knock you out. I was freaking out a little bit about it. And when they wheeled me into the room, right before they were going to put me out, the doctor reached over and said – Do you mind if we say a little prayer before I start? And I was like – Oh yes, that felt so good! I was so excited, just the thing I needed at that moment; letting me know that God was with me right at that moment.
Pastor Brett – Yes, oh my goodness, that’s amazing! Awesome, and everything went well… So, Praise God!
Wendy F. – My God Sightings are medical-related, as well. About a week ago, I had to go into the ER. I had some heart issues and they got pretty out of control and I had a heart rate of 170 bpm for about 4 hours; they had to shock me out of it to get me back to normal. So, my first God Sighting is that God let me live right through that. Because bodies are amazing and they can endure a whole lot more than I realized they could. Then my second God Sighting is – with that came up a wonderful workup to try to diagnose me; it looks like I have the most benign version of heart issues. Which is an incredible God Sighting to be blessed, if you have heart issues, to have something that is unlikely to kill you just sounds glorious. So, I’m just full of gratitude this week.
Wendy. So glad it was not something more serious, oh my goodness. Praise God! Wendy Pursinger says - Your work is not done! You are not called home!
Mimi – I have a plant of Wendy’s that I water every morning. From the crook of the plant that holds it up, I was watering and there’s this tiny little spider; I’ve never seen a spider so small. He has spun a web that is just beautiful and I would be careful to water around him. Every day the wind would come and blow his web apart and he would be back the next day building it again. I saw that day after day after day. And I thought – What a commitment to himself and God who made him. That if we could be blown away every day, would we have the courage and the belief in God that he will help us if we just keep on building our web, instead of going down in defeat? And I thought – How wonderful that God makes His creatures and allows us to benefit from their experience down to the tiniest one. And I thank God for all the creatures on the earth.
Pastor Brett – Amen. Thank you, Mimi. That was so beautiful, wow. Yes, I get so discouraged when my web gets blown over; takes me a while to get back up. Thank you for the lesson from the spider, Amen.
Help Needed on Sundays
Got 15-20 extra minutes? Help Pastor Brett set up for Sunday worship at 9:40 am, and/or stay after the service to help put things away.
A little help goes a long way!
WFWA Anniversary Dinner
Merry Goldthorpe is organizing a Westside UMC table for the Western Farm Workers anniversary dinner. It's at Calvary Lutheran church in Hillsboro, outdoors, on August 21, 6:00 to 8:00 pm. RSVP to Merry Goldthorpe directly via text (503-840-7410) if you have questions or would like to come celebrate.
School Supplies Drive
Western Farm Workers are collecting school supplies for this Fall semester. We will be assembling each students' required items and delivering them on September 4th. This same-day sort and distribution is an efficient and fair system. There will be no clothing in this years' event. If you would like to donate school supplies or backpacks, please bring them to the church with WFWA or Merry Goldthorpe written on it. You can also call the WFWA office at 503-681-9399 and make arrangements to drop it off there. A very heartfelt thank you to Paige, who has already donated generously.
It has been a difficult summer for the migrant workers and those families that take on extra work for the season. The extreme heat is dangerous for the health of the workers, and the crops can be damaged, causing less fruit to be harvested. WFWA brought fans, clothing, drinking water, and food out to the larger migrant camps. We worked with the Washington County Health Dept. to get supplies and vaccines to the community. If you are interested in volunteering with us, please call us.
Passing It On...
Two years ago this month, Westsiders made their first loans through Kiva.
As the loans were repaid, the money was re-applied to other small businesses.
Today, 23 loans later, Westsiders contributed $25 (matched!) to Rabboni Group Limited, a cooperative that supports over 600 Ugandan farmers. We joined over 2400 other lenders (so far) on this particular loan.
Maize is the most highly cultivated crop in Uganda, grown by over 3.6 million agricultural households. More than 80% of maize farmers lack access to adequate storage facilities for grain. Trade is largely informal and unregulated. Prices offered to farmers at harvest are barely enough to break even, locking farmers in a vicious cycle of poverty.
Rabboni Group Limited bridges the market gap between large maize off-takers and smallholder farmers in Uganda, adding value to the maize supply chain through efficient aggregation and processing services. With the loan, Rabboni will be able to buy 611 metric tons of grain from over 600 farmers and satisfy unmet customer demand. Rabboni will also purchase 19 metric tons of improved seed for 950 farmers.
Thanks to your support, Kiva is making a difference all over the world.
Sharing for August 8
Share from your week; where have you seen God at work?:
Jan – I just want to share something that the Word had come alive for me, for this particular verse – 2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are charged into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” And when I thought of the fact, when we look into the living Word which is Jesus, we are changed literally. And if we go to the Word, we can be encouraged. I was so discouraged yesterday, they had put Wayne on hospice and I believe he’s really not ready for hospice, but anyway I just went with it. So, they brought the hospital bed yesterday and left it; that seemed to make it so final or something…. Then, I went to this verse and it just shot out that when we go to the Word, He just shoots us up with encouragement. I thought to myself, that’s right, when I look into the Word of God; it may not always be the first verse you look at, but it was this time for me… It will give us encouragement, peace and joy, it’s in the Word of God! If we go to the Bible, He will encourage us! Then, it was so neat because then the neighbor called and asked – Is there anything I can do for you? She’s about the same age as my daughter and she’s just lovely and always wanting to help…. I thought to myself - yes, I’ll let her come over. She was so good with Wayne, I couldn’t believe it. He got up out of the chair and into the new bed. He didn’t want any part of the new bed; wouldn’t even go near the bed….. Anyway, it was so miraculous the way that Word just shifted me off of the negative and I could see the positive. And then if she doesn’t call me and say that she can come over. You know, sometimes if you’re working with someone and you are the caregiver for that person, and it’s been months and they get a little nasty sometimes; I get a little nasty sometimes. But, when there’s a fresh face that comes into the picture, it makes all the difference. It was just like I had seen the face of God when that woman came in and she started working with Wayne. God is so good, we are changed by the Word; and you don’t have to read sometimes several chapters, sometimes it’s the first one you come to. I have to leave early and go to Wayne’s church and tell them what’s happening. You know there are 2 churches praying for Wayne and there is no way the devil is going to take him out with all those people praying. So, we’re going to trust answers, answers are coming.
Pastor Brett – Amen. Perseverance through prayer. Yes, awesome.
Bryan – I had a revelation. You can never make a deal with the devil, because he has to make a performance according to the contract. Therefore, if he has no truth in him, how can he make a contract…(inaudible)….there is no truth, so the contract is broken as soon as he makes it. My computer is acting up.
Pastor Brett – I had a blessing this week, you might have heard we had a Covid scare…. I had several God Sightings this week, and they were all Covid negative tests. Also, getting a negative test allowed me to do a wedding on Friday. I haven’t done a wedding for about three years and it was awesome to be able to be with people on their big day and for them to come before God, family and friends, it’s a really special moment. So, glad I was able to participate in that. I’m actually going to meet another couple down in Santa Barbara and I am going to do their wedding next year. That just so happens to coincide with a retreat that I have down at my Alma Mater this next week. So, weddings are in the air for me which are a huge blessing. Luckily, none of us tested positive. That would have really impacted my plans; all of our plans.
Rich – So, for about the past year and a half, I’ve been feeling less and less motivated in my job. Amotivation at work is not productive, as you can imagine. About a month ago I was informed of an opportunity within the company for a leadership position in another organization. So, I applied. It wasn’t quite on a whim, I hadn’t thought it out ahead of time. But spontaneously, I thought I should apply for this job, and so I did. And I received an offer. So, I have a new job at the same company, different organization; I am so enthused and energized again. I am no longer amotivated and I am very excited about this future, right! I’m not ready to retire anymore!
Pastor Brett – That’s amazing, Rich! Amen. That’s awesome, congratulations!
Worship Video for August 8
If you were unable to attend our online or in-person worship on Sunday, view it here: