Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year just passed and we enjoyed all the festivities that come along with living near Chinatown. We love living in the International District here in downtown Seattle... because we're just blocks away from all the delicious, cheap food! But we have also really enjoyed learning more about this culture that was sort of a mystery to us. Recently we received a new neighbor who's originally from China and just moved here to take a job from Missouri where he was studying for his PhD for four years. It's been very interesting learning about the contrast of his life growing up in China to our lives here in the U.S. The other day we took him to our favorite bubble tea spot to teach him Settlers of Catan. He learned it in like five seconds and loved it! So needless to say, we're very pleased. :) Check out our videos below to learn more!

-Christy

Most talented street performer

I have no doubt in my mind that Seattle boasts some of the world's most talented street performers (quite literally, as there are performers from around the world), and this guy is definitely among the top. He can be found in the midst of a large crowd at Pike Place Market.

Urban Kids Ministry Space

As I mentioned before, our church is currently gathering in an underground former antique mall. The kids ministry space was less than adequate whenever we first saw it. However, by the grace of God it has now become a joyful, colorful place where kids come to worship God and learn His truth. See pictures below.

BEFORE

GCA Conference Recap

As you saw here, I recently had the opportunity to go to the Global Church Advancement Conference in Orlando, Florida. We spent four days there learning from the GCA crowd. I went through the track that they call "Foundations" to learn about the basics and beginning steps to church planting. Topics such as vision, prayer, launching, models and contextualization were all taught and worked through with the planters. I was encouraged by the other planters that were there and hearing their passion for their gospel work.

If I were to summarize the theme of the conference it would be the following: That God would be Glorified by his kingdom coming through the church with the gospel. That was the vision and desire of almost every speaker and every workbook. I enjoyed hearing from seasoned practitioners as well as pastors who are 15 plus years into planting who love Jesus and seek the joy of their people. I would highly recommend this conference to anyone seeking to start a church or within the first few years of planting. It had heaps of practical advice and biblical principles to be applied directly to gospel work - in your heart and the hearts of others.
 

After getting hit with a ton of information at the conference every day, I really enjoyed my time with the guys from our church that went. We had lots of laughs,encouragement and discussions on applying many of the things we were learning to our context.

A special thanks Jimmy for hosting us!

-G

Here are some random snapshots from the trip: