Oh, baby! What a week! Most of you know that we have three of our leadership team’s babies due in the same week in July, so this is the week of babies!

I am proud to announce that Skyler Dean was born on 7/7/12 at 6:18 pm to parents Nate and Emily Pust!

I am also proud to announce that Cora Brielle was born on 7/7/12 at 7:26 pm to parents Roy and Alissa Fisher!

I am also excited to say that Vanessa and Josiah will have their baby at any moment as they are 5 days overdue already!

We are SO blessed! You also might not know that we have another NC baby coming on July 20 to parents Mike and Sarah Moench. They were at the Hazel Dell Campus, but transferred to Battle Ground in the merge. So, we’ll have four July babies to love!

On another note, Mark took our team to get snow cones for staff yesterday. That’s quite a line at the snow cone shop. Would have been worse, but half our team is busy having babies.

We started a new series yesterday called Amazing Stories. Every July we pick some of our team to share a great Bible story with our church! It’s an awesome way to relive some of the great stories that you might not have heard since Sunday School as a kid (or never!). It’s also a great way to hear from some of our very talented speakers. Chris and Mark started off with Samson and Samuel. Awesome beginning to one of my favorite series!

On Saturday we had our first practice for our Dominican Republic Missions Trip that is happening on July 20. We nailed out skits, some of the training we need to do, and communicated all of the 1000’s of details. It’s going to be a VERY fun trip and we are looking forward to working with our missionaries, Jamie and Berly Bello. Next Sunday we’ll be taking an offering to help them with some supplies and equipment, so think about how you can give to this amazing couple. They spend their lives working with youth leaders all over their country in order to impact teenagers!

If you haven’t liked our North Creek Facebook page, jump on over to HERE and click LIKE. It’s a great way to stay updated on stuff and connect to people at North Creek as well.

Enjoy this week in the sunshine! You know it’s summer in the Northwest when the complaints change from “It’s too rainy!” to “It’s too hot!”

On Sunday, Chris and Gina Harold’s cousin, Mandy Lathim, was in a rollover accident on a trip in California. Mandy is an 18 year old 2012 grad, in love with Jesus, and has a bright future ahead of her. She wasn’t expected to survive the crash, but it’s Tuesday and she’s still fighting. After multiple surgeries over the last two days, they have now tested her brain and it is responding.

Although I don’t know Mandy, I’ve known the Lathim family for 10+ years. I know there are a lot of praying people in that family, but I’m asking that all of us pray with them in asking God for a miracle.

If you are on twitter, you can follow the hashtag #prayingformandy to get updates or leave a message/prayer.

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. morning at Klineline Park for our annual Baptisms and Brunch! So fun to watch 21 people be baptized. So awesome, so humbling, so God. My face hurts from smiling. Here are some specific highlights that are super awesome:

The Boyd family got baptized this morning. Father, mother, adult son, and teenage daughter. On top of that, they left right away to rush to Jacob’s WEDDING…how cool is that? This is a GREAT family that I love! I got to baptize Mylissa, the mother, and my foot slipped on the sand under the water. It’s a miracle of God that both of us didn’t get re-baptized!!!

Kris Gray, our youth pastor, LOST it when assisting in a baptism of a teenager. I think she loves them… Also, the person that Allison, the teen, asked to baptize her, was Kaylyn, another teen. Special moment for those two young ladies.

Heather and Zach, mother and son, got baptized together, right after Chris, Devon, and Payton, a dad and two sons, got baptized. Not a dry eye in the place on these family dunkings!

We also had four of our staff kids go under today, all baptized by one or both parents. Congrats to Gabe, Lexi, Gracie, and Ashleigh! Ashleigh also now holds the title of the 100th person baptized at North Creek Church, as well as the 5th person in her family baptized at our church. Gabe is lucky #101 and he’s wearing that number proudly!!!

Our deaf church was with us as well yesterday and had two baptisms. Congrats to Brenda and Quinn! The most powerful moments of the day were watching Pastor Jim sign, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” It just goes to show you that Jesus goes after ALL hearts of every language and has a plan and a purpose for the world.

Jacob was baptized by his dad, and Jessica was baptized by her dad, Mike, who we baptized a couple of years ago. She also had a friend, Austin, who got baptized. He attends another church, but literally didn’t want to wait another day to obey God, so we baptized him. It’s not about a church, it’s about dedicating your life to Christ!

Kelley was baptized yesterday because it’s something she has never done, even though she has loved Jesus a long time. That might be you! Let Kelley be your inspiration to get the job done!

Thank you to Alvina, Charlene, Jenny, LeeAnn, and Cheryl…hope I’m not missing anyone…who made 450 scones for our event. They were yummy!!! It was also Cheryl and her family’s one year anniversary with our church, so that’s special!

Our team was amazing yesterday to orchestrate all of that! Amy Day gets everyone in and out of the water, Chris MC’s, and a small production crew makes sure we have sound and video. Meanwhile we have photographers EVERYWHERE! It seems a little silly, but baptisms are important to us and capturing them forever is top priority!

Thanks to our set up team as well! Will, Sarah, Ron, and Cathy…you are wonderful!

I’ll be sure to post pictures soon! It was a special day to remember!!!!