Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Church Gathering in an old Antique Mall

We meet in the Antique Mall with the red signs at right.
Photo courtesy of artfultouch.info
We have been quite busy lately with the church. Two Sundays ago, the 16th, we began weekly gatherings so things have definitely picked up the pace. On top of that, we found out the week before that we would no longer be able to meet in the space that we had planned to be in till April. So by an act of God's faithfulness, we landed in a historic underground space that Giulian said looked like a giant bathroom. Thankfully we have many talented artists who were able to turn the "giant bathroom" into a fantastic worship space. However, I must confess that I was horrified by the potential kids ministry room. It honestly looked like a dungeon and the running joke is that we could quite effectively teach on the apostle Paul's imprisonment for Christ. But after some carpet was laid and curtains, tissue paper flowers, and colorful decorations were hung it was transformed in to a joyful room to worship Jesus! And that is exactly what we have done. We received numerous positive marks from adults who could hear our kids group singing last Sunday, so I suppose for now we can't challenge the kids to sing as loud as they can anymore. :-D

We are praising God that in our few short weeks at this building the kids ministry has just about outgrown its space! So we ask that you pray with us about moving in to a larger room in the building in the coming weeks. It's quite a task to prepare a historic building for kids because there are many boundaries in the architecture, noise control, and building material that we must address. But we trust that the Lord is in control and pray that He is writing His truths on the hearts of all the little people that walk through our door.

-Christy

Monday, January 24, 2011

Giulian in Florida for a Conference

They're making sure Giulian's eating his veggies at the airport.
He's gonna hate that I posted this picture but it's too cute!
Giulian and three other guys from DCC, Pastor Adam, David, and Brad, are currently on their way to Orlando, FL to participate in a Global Church Advancement Church Planting Conference. It is a four-day conference where they'll be receiving coaching on how to "start, grow and multiply healthy, gospel-centered churches that result in the spiritual, social and cultural transformation of entire cities and regions." (GCA website) The guys are really excited for this opportunity to bond and to gain a fresh vision for what God wants to do through our church body in its formation years. Fortunately, we made many wonderful friends from Orlando while they came to do short-term mission trips in Brazil, so the guys are being hosted and lent a car by our kind brothers and sisters in Christ there. Praise God and thank you guys for your generosity!


Please pray for their safety and for the Spirit to really move in their hearts giving them a renewed purpose and fresh vision for Downtown Cornerstone in Seattle. Thank you!

-Christy

Friday, January 21, 2011

Opportunity to help the church in Poland

White means there are NO churches there.

A very dear friend of mine that I met while doing missions in L'viv, Ukraine with CCCC recently moved to a town in Poland called Rabka to be a vocational missionary. One of the means of evangelism they are trying to employ is teaching English. You can help the citizens of this town learn English and Lord willing, know Jesus, by sending my friend any textbooks and reading materials that you can scrounge up! Poland is one of the European countries that truly needs workers to preach the Good News of life in Christ. As you can see in the map at left, very few counties even have an evangelical church!!

(The remainder of this post has been deleted for safety purposes.)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY BLOG!!!

Today marks one year of blogging for the Giusti family, and boy has it been a ride. In short, God has provided over and over and over again throughout this year and we are SO glad that you were able to share in this journey with us. From Texas to Brazil to Texas again then to Seattle where we reside now, God has been faithful. Over 1,700 visitors from 45 countries viewed our blog in 16 different languages with a combined total of 4,930 visits!! We are humbled that God would use us sinners redeemed only by His grace to play a part in His global story of redemption, and we ask that you continue in this journey with us in the coming year. God is doing a mighty work in Seattle, just as He did and is doing in Brazil, and we would love for you to "sit with us" as well tell you all the things that we witness.

The whole idea behind this blog, if you remember from the beginning, was so that "we can "sit together" and share stories of God's relentless love in our lives." And throughout the past year we have shared countless stories about God's Great Story. Below were some of the favorites.

Monday, January 10, 2011

John Piper: Striving for the Faith of the Gospel
September 27, 1987

Have you ever wondered what tales will be told in the age to come?...We will tell tales of the grace of God in the history of redemption. We will tell stories about God's power and mercy in the lives of his people—especially the people who dreamed and planned and labored and struggled and fought and suffered for the advancement of the gospel. We will talk with sweet tears in our eyes (I think it's only the painful tears that the Lord will wipe away) about the times when we were fearful and gave no witness to Christ, the times when we planned our dream vacations thoroughly but dreamed no dreams about attempting anything great or small for the gospel. And they will be sweet tears because we will remember how the patience of God did not forsake us in those days the way it could have at any moment, but instead little by little, now and then, more and more his patience made us love Jesus Christ so much that we began to strive for the faith of the gospel.

What we will be speaking about in eternity is of chief importance in our lives today. The most minuscule working of God on earth will be amplified in Heaven. Let us pray that God will change our hearts to understand the true depths of His grace in our lives now so that we can begin "to strive for the faith of the gospel" today.

-G

Friday, January 7, 2011

Jumping for joy!!


This was a time lapse shot.

Giulian and I got the hugest laugh out of taking these pictures during our 2nd anniversary vacation in Victoria, Canada. We were down by the harbor across from the legislature building, which was lit up beautifully! The weekend was so beautiful and we're so thankful to the Lord that He gave us good conversation and great laughs!!

Hooray for two years of marriage!

Flying manikin alert!!
We're thinking about joining the circus.