Sunday morning my daughter came up to me at the Giving Box at our church. “Mom, can you go out to the car and get my purse? I want to give my money to God.”

“Yes, honey, let’s go.” I quickly scurried out, so proud that my daughter would sift through her coins and give a portion to Jesus. I patted myself on the back for raising a brilliant six year old.

When we came back in she grabbed an offering envelope and sat at the table with me. “OK, sweetie, how much of your money would you like to give God?” I was prepared to teach her about giving 10% of her money to Jesus. Her brown eyes looked at me in a combination of disbelief and confusion. “I want to give Him everything.”

I watched as her small hands dumped the entirety of her purse out on the table. She printed her name on the appropriate line and the word “cents” on the line indicating how much money she would give. She carefully put each coin in the envelope until they were loaded in all safe and sound. She licked the envelope, walked it over to the Box, and dropped it in with a hint of joy in her step. She never hesitated, never asked what else she could buy with her treasure, and never questioned her gift. She gave Him everything with a purity that stopped me in my tracks.

And then, not realizing the depth of her wisdom, she grinned at me with her newly toothless smile and skipped off. Sweet child. Innocent angel. Wise teacher. Yes, my little girl, I want to give Him everything, too.

Here’s the highlights from this weekend:

It was our last Saturday night through the next season at North Creek. There are parts of the Saturday night that I will miss, but I am definitely looking forward to a lighter load on the weekends for the summer months! Those nights will probably end up filled with fence painting, mowing the lawn, and other household chores, but that’s OK!

It’s spring break for our Vancouver students! Enjoy the extra sleep and fun!

Our Easter services are three weeks away! We will have a Good Friday Worship Service at 7:00 pm. We will have three Sunday services at 9:00 am, 10:15 am, and 11:30 am. Note the service time changes for this one day!!!!

Worship was great again! We ended up with a “fill-in” team due to some schedule changes and sickness. Thanks to those of you who jumped in and did a fabulous job.

I should be keeping a list of the major decsions that Mark and I have been weighing out lately…goodness…huge ramifications and lots of exciting things! I am looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!

Pastor Kris took 12 students to a student leader’s conference and had a wonderful time watching a generation rise up! Never underestimate a teenager…or a youth pastor! Fearless people!

I love coffee.

One of Mark and I’s favorite things is walking around our services and meeting people. We work hard to get your name, pray for you throughout the week, and call you by your name the next week when you walk in the door. Try us. We’re pretty good!

I absolutely love our volunteers! They take their jobs seriously! They show up, work hard, and do it all with a smile. Thank you all for doing a great job every week and making church an awesome place to be.

I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything. I love what we do! Chase a dream this week…you never know where you’ll end up!

Mark and I have been on a very interesting journey lately and I’ll let you in on some of it. Long story short, our current building is too small for our vision (although it might be the coolest place on the planet!). And the reality is that moving to a new location is a long term event and we are not going to fit where were at for much longer. We’ve got to get going on this problem now.

So, we are. We found a building we want, we’ve prayed, we’ve fasted, our team has fasted (that was funny!), and we’re blazing forward with faith and determination. The twist (because isn’t there always one at the coffeechurch?) is that we don’t just want a church building. As we dreamed and talked, it because apparent to us that church buildings are often the largest buildings on the block, but also the least accessible to the general public. I pass by dozens of churches every week and I’m not going in. I have no reason to. But…what if there was a coffee shop especially designed for moms with kids? What if there was a place designed for teenagers? How about a sound studio for all you musical types? What about office space and meeting rooms that people can “rent” (for free) when they need a place to go or a study room for college students? Everything that we need for church literally doubles for public use with very little issues.

So, we’ll be rolling out the plan over the next couple of weeks, but please pray. We need a financial miracle and we believe with everything in us that we’re about to see one. We believe that walls that we’ve had in our minds about our limitations are going to disappear before our very eyes. We believe that our impact on our community is about to be multiplied exponentially. Don’t miss a moment.

I just finished my third year working at the Winter Housing Overflow, which is a shelter than runs from November through March. Working with the homeless population has taught me a lot, so I thought I would share some lessons I’ve learned:

There is a definite connection between drugs and homelessness. I wish that teenagers could see the ramifications of choices that they are making right now. After three years of interviewing hundreds of people, I can say that only a handful did not have a drug and alcohol issues in their past. Obviously not everyone who does drugs ends up homeless, but I guarantee that all of my clients with drug histories wish that they had not gone down that path.

Motivated people get farther in life. At this point, I can probably tell you during the first interview who is going to use the shelter to better their situation and give them a foundation to housing. It is the people who are out there pounding the pavement, filling out applications, willing to take any job to get started, and who are respectful, humble, and grateful to those people who are trying to assist them. They may have a rough season, but they will get back on their feet. They are using our system appropriately and not abusing the resources provided to them.

Full time social workers deserve an award. It’s a HARD job. It’s emotional, frustrating, sometimes depressing, and overwhelming to meet the needs of people with enormous challenges in front of them. It is very difficult to stay focused amidst the devastation that is just a reality in this field. Hats off to all of you who serve in that capacity!

Being in a homeless shelter doesn’t just happen to people. It’s almost never about bad luck, it’s about choices. The simple fact is that if you make good, godly choices consistently in your life, the chances of you ending up with so few options in your life is extremely improbable. Regardless of intelligence, education, and position, obedience to God’s principles from youth until the end does impact your life in drastic ways.

Volunteering makes a difference. Our shelter is very dependent on people giving up their time to get towels, play with kids, make lunches, and get the beds set up. I encourage you to find a place to serve…in a hospital, in a church, in a shelter. It doesn’t matter where, but it does matter.

There’s a lot more that I’ve gleaned in three years, but it’s hard to sum it all up. Moral of the story: Don’t do drugs, stay in school, don’t burn bridges to people in your life, do the responsible thing everytime, don’t commit felonies, work hard, and if you do end up in a shelter after all that…believe in your ability to get your life back. We still live in America and we’re blessed beyond measure!

There’s a lot to say this weekend!!!

First of all, we have officially put the Saturday night service on hold for a while. There are multiple reasons, but next weekend (April 2) will be our last one for a while. As we looked at the upcoming calendar with Spring Break, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, and August vacation month, it was a lot of challenges for that service. We also stepped back and evaluated how many of our people came out of necessity and who came out of just picking it as an option for that weekend. The large majority could just have easily come on a Sunday morning. Also, when we adjusted the Sunday morning service times, it opened up room in the 11:00 am service as some people went to the 9:30. So, for now, we’ll pour all of our energy and resources back into Sunday.

I love the people at our church! We are blessed with the best!

Yes, Mark also announced that we are looking at a building. I promise I’ll blog about that in detail from here on out. Let me start by saying…this is a move of faith on our part. We need God to help us with a miracle or two to make this happen. Miracles come from people being obedient to God! We don’t wait around for money to fall from the sky, rather we proactively give and get our community involved. Who do you know that wants to help us reach our goal?

Worship was great this week! Thanks to Matt, Alissa, Scott, Lee, and Chris for nailing it! It’s all about Jesus and you kept the focus where it needed to be.

I had a 7 year old come and say, “Stacy, where exactly do I put my tithe?” She had just gotten allowance and wanted to honor God. What a lesson!

I know that God is up to something good for North Creek Church.

Mark spoke a great message on healing. I highly recommend catching it online at www.coffeechurch.com if you missed it. God still does miracles!

We could use some prayer this week as we march ahead into some big dreams and plans for our church. It’s a little overwhelming, but something inside of me tells me that there’s a really cool story that God is writing for us right now. I can’t wait to see what it is and tell it to my grandkids someday!!!!

As always…have a wonderful week! And ask someone for a million dollars while you’re at it… 🙂