Thank you for being a part of this year’s Start Out Right backpack event. It was a huge community partnership success!
As you know we have a passion to reach out directly to our Casino Road neighbors and make sure these kids have what they need to start the school year out right. Well over 3,000 people showed up on that sunny Saturday morning. (It is good to know that word of mouth and personal invites still work!) As we shook hands and looked into their eyes it was obvious that our target audience was being reached.
In total, we gave out over 1,700 bags and supplies to families that were in need. In total for this event we spent $16,182.87 plus in kind donation. Of the 1,388 students we got accurate information from 842 of them attend the schools we were partnering with. Overall, less than 100 students lived outside of Everett.
This of course all happened because our community decided to partner together to make a difference. You can be very proud to know that all entities of our neighborhood were represented. Individuals, businesses, apartment complexes, civic groups, churches, government agencies, and most importantly our school leaders who set aside time, resources and enthusiasm to see that this event was successful.
Two statistics we cannot count are the endless volunteer hours given this past year. Hundreds of people rallied together, some for the day of the event and others throughout the year. How smoothly it ran on Saturday morning was proof of their diligent work.
The other statistic we cannot quantify is the impact you made on each individual family. The last backpacks we gave out were to a Ukrainian mother of nine. We originally told her we were sorry that we were out of packs. She stood at her car for at least ten minutes, as we were cleaning up, shaking her head in disbelief that she had missed the opportunity to get backpacks for her children. And then we realized that that we had ten backpacks buried in a car right next to hers.
And then we had one left, and as it is with most things in life, it always comes back to the one. The one little girl that walks away with a smile on her face. The one very grateful father that has a trail of kids behind him like a flock of ducks. The one school principal that gets to greet over half of her students before school is even in session. The one dollar given by a young boy so that others could get school supplies.
Thanks again for partnering with us as we serve the community.
Summer is in full swing and I pray that each of you get some time to relax and reflect on this last year. For some of us we sit back and wonder how we got through it all and still others wonder if the craziness will ever stop. One thing is for certain, God continues to walk with us and He is faithful to guide and direct our steps.
I still cannot believe that Christy and I have been at South Everett Foursquare for two years. For those of you with long steady history in the same location I completely realize that this is not too much of a feat. For me this is a big thing. I have known nothing but change for the previous 15 years and this is a new rhythm of life that I am getting adjusted too.
But no matter what, change still happens.
We have added space in our building and have given some back. A wall here and there has gotten knocked down and most walls painted. Some awesome new people have started to call our church home and others have been led on to other great places. We have had families move, both near and far. Great community events have taken place as well as some key partnerships established. We have had resources and we have been lacking.
We have experienced a lot together and we are about to experience another change that I want to let you in on. The lease on our current location expires Sept 30th. We are currently in negotiations with the Children’s Village to possibly rent one of the buildings they own. The Children’s Village is just down Casino Road, west a couple hundred yards and on the left. It currently houses the Little Red School House and the local Head Start offices. The space we would rent is the east building D.
This is a great facility that is well maintained and set up to accommodate kids. This whole complex is set up to help and assist the family and they are excited to potential partner with a local church to further build up the family. We would be renting 2500 square feet of kid’s space and an office. We would then be sharing the commercial kitchen, playground, courtyard and weekend meeting space with the other tenants for free.
We currently spend about $4600 per month on our lease and utilities. This has been a great space that has afforded us some awesome opportunity for ministry. Most of you have spent lots of time remodeling and up keeping this building and we are so grateful. However, the cost and quality of the facility has necessitated us to look at other locations.
This new location will be just under $3000 per month. This is a huge cost savings that will come with a little less flexibility. Since our weekend space is shared we will have weekly setup. We will also have considerable less storage and will need to go minimalistic on all non children’s related supplies.
We have had all of our partner ministries as well as our finance and advisory councils look at this space and we have decided unanimously that this is a good direction to pursue. The pros significantly outweighed the cons. Both from a financial and a ministry standpoint we feel good about this potential move. If all goes as planned we will make the move in September and at the latest it will be October.
So what do we need from you in this move?
Number one thing we need is a flexible servant hearted attitude. This will not be an easy transition, but I look forward in seeing each of us step out in our gifting as we move forward. Things will need to be moved, thrown and sold. We will need to figure out how to do church being partially mobile. Church might look a little different.
We also need everyone to participate financially. So many of you give sacrificially and my gratitude cannot be expressed. If you have not yet experienced the joy of given a tithe to the church this is a great time to start. I want to challenge all of us to tithe faithfully for the next three months. I know when we give faithfully we will experience God’s blessings (and those are not necessarily financial) both for you and the church.
For the last year our monthly income has not covered our monthly expenses. We have been using our savings that we built up two years ago to cover this negative income and that savings is close to zero. Even though our finances do not look good on the spreadsheet, I am confident if we all align our giving we have more than enough resources within our body to continue to move forward.
All in all much has happened in our last two years and 14 year history as a local body of believers. Many of you have seen this before and are not caught off guard by the moving of Holy Spirit and direction of the Father. We look forward to experiencing much more in the coming years.
If you have any questions please ask myself or any of our council members. Let’s continue to be in constant communication during this transition time.
Just a reminder that this Sunday we are not having a service at the church building on July 5. We are going to be the church at the Bluff Apartment complex. Just down the road from the church on the left is the entrance and we will be meeting near building H. We going to be guests of Brian and Michelle McMahon and going to hang out with our neighbors. Bring a folding chair and any yard games you would like to play. See you there at 10:30 and we will start the hotdogs at 11:00.
One Prayer website is up. www.oneprayer.com is a great site to check out for the month of June as we look at God Is… Want to know who is speaking at southeverett.org go to our OnePrayer schedule.
I am totally stoked for this next month! After we finish the Sinai Code this Sunday we are going to start One Prayer: God is. A simple idea — what if the church started to answer the prayer of Jesus when He prayed “make them one”? One Prayer is an opportunity to see what can be accomplished when the Church works together.
Last June, we were part of thousands of churches as we formed unprecedented partnerships across cities, denominations, and cultures. More than two million believers stood together to learn, pray, fast, and love others. This year, we will be joining in again with others around the globe during One Prayer 2009.
This year’s theme is God is (fill in the blank). I have selected some outstanding messages that I know will speak to our family. There are so many great options that we will be doing this series both Wednesday night and Sunday morning. Here is the line up!
Wednesday, May 20: God is Encouraging : Rick Bezet (this message rocks!)
Sunday, May 24: God is Love : Craig Groeschel (God loves you..but can you say that to yourself?)
Wednesday, May 27: God is More : Chris Hodges (why say God is?…when he is so much more)
Sunday, May 31: God is My Transformer : Don Cain (Don is one of my personal mentors)
Wednesday, June 3: God is Creative : Tim Harris (Some outstanding Baptist preaching)
Sunday, June 7: God is Strength : Francis Chan (Get ready for this one!)
Wednesday, June 10 : God is for You : John Burke (So many believe he is against us)
Sunday, June 14: God is Father: Craig Groeschel
Wednesday, June 17 : God is Here and Anything Can Happen : Dino Rizzo (the guy lives the life)
Sunday, June 21: God is Good : Chris Nixon (We all love Chris and look forward to hearing her heart)
Wednesday, June 24 :
Sunday, June 28: God is not Uncertain: Andy Stanley (I sit at the feet of this man on a regular basis)
