Rebecka Finds Fiona

As we were driving through Sequim, WA today, Rebecka saw an old tall farm building downtown and said, "there's Fiona and Shrek!" It was really cute, so we took a picture of her with it in the background.

The Weekend

Well, my parents had a garage sale this weekend and it was actually fun. My dad and mom do a good job at being friendly and talking with the people. The garage sales that I've been to, no one talks to you.

On Sunday we went to Hosana Asamblea in Bellevue, Washington with Pastor Rafael Gradilla. We had a great time! The church is thriving, worship was moving, and the people are very friendly. We shared about the ministry in Cofradia and prayed for people at the end. A family from Cofradia came to the service which was really neat to be able to have them share a little as well. Everardo and Rosa who are the Restaurant owners just down the street from the mission base brought their whole family with them; Dan and Nadia with Jane and Daniela, Heidy with Stephanie, and Manuel, Jr. It was so good to see them again. We went out to Heidy's house in Shoreline afterwards to have some Pozole (a mexican soup made out of pig head), and hung out for a while.

Everardo, Rosa, Jane, Rosa Daniela, Nadia, Stephanie, Heidy, and Omar (Heidy's husband). Not pictured were Dan and Manuel who had to leave before we took the picture.

The Youth Worship Band in Cofradia/Arrayanes

I just received an email from Amber, one of our staff members in Cofradia, (click here to see her blog) of a report on how the youth are doing. There was a youth event at a church that we have relationship with in a town just north of Cofradia and Arrayanes. They invited OUR youth to do worship and I'm sooooo proud of them!

Here's the email...

Hey Steve and Gena...I thought you might enjoy this picture. We took the youth to a youth event in Rosa Morada last weekend. They had asked our worship band to lead worship for the event. This pic is from the initial worship service that started off the event. It was the Cofradia band, plus Mili on vocals with Chupa. They did SUCH a stellar job. The coolest thing was at the end, the speaker was "brining it home" and asked if someone could come up and play guitar just softly in the background, etc. So, Julio went up. You could see in his face that he wasn't really sure what to do, but he started playing one of the songs we had sung during worship and it was great. Well as the speaker was finishing her "bringing it home" and beginning the altar call/prayer time, Chupa led the rest of the band up there to join in with Julio. They played really well in the background, with Chupa singing softly, for 30-45 minutes. It was so neat to see that. They were just following the Spirit's leading and it was awesome! I thought you might like to hear that story seeing as how I know you have been working really hard with these kids in these bands to instill leadership, etc...well the Lord has been working even harder, and it's showing!

Emma and Rebecka

Fabian

Rebecka loved playing with Fabian

Lunch at the Olive Garden Family

We had our friend Fabian Gomez and his father Fabian Gomez over to visit on Sunday. Fabian is a pilot for United Airlines and we met just six years ago. He is a really neat guy and is a lot of fun to visit with. Thanks, Fabian for coming out and bringing your dad.

The Smiths

We had Jeff and Beth Smith and their children over for lunch and then we went to watch the Viking Fest Parade in Poulsbo. We had a nice time visiting with them. Thank you for coming out guys!

Police Chase

On our way up to Sequim last Friday, we saw a police chase end. There was a road block set up and we waited for maybe 10 minutes for everything to end. We don't know what happened, but we're glad we weren't involved. You can see the black line on the edge of the road to the right, that's the spikes the policemen were waiting to use if necessary. Fun stuff! The guy being chased slowed down and pulled over once he saw the road block. Nothing spectacular, but you don't see this every day around here!

Dad's Birthday

Friday we went to the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, Washington for Dad's birthday to take Rebecka. The Game Farm is like a Drive-Thru Zoo. You go through the pastures of the animals and you can give them bread. They'll eat it right out of your hand. We even had a Buffalo try to get in the window of the suburban on dad's side. It was a lot of fun. Especially with the Bears. I found out that you can tell them to wave, and they'll wave. You can tell them to stand and they'll stand. Rebecka loved it.

The Elk were pretty non-responsive. They didn't get any bread.

A Buffalo with bad breath tried to get in...this was exciting!

Hungry Buffalo approaches

I told the bear to stand, he only sat up. Still, pretty impressive!

Rebecka with the Bear waving in the background.

Trisha's Birthday

On Monday, the 15th, Trisha turned 19 years old. Trisha, Gena, and Rebecka painted ceramics at the Dancing Brush downtown Poulsbo.

Men's Roundtable

The Men's Roundtable is a men's meeting that meets at Christ Memorial in Poulsbo on Saturday mornings at 7:30am. It's been going on for quite some time now and has played a major part in many men's lives brining them back into fellowship with God. This morning we had a breakfast for the men and guest speaker, Pastor Greg Asimakoupoulos. It was a great time and Pastor Greg had a great challenging and encouraging message. One of the questions he asked was, "Who is your hero?" in reference to Hebrews 11 and 12:1-3. Just like having heros of the faith back then, we have heros of the faith now. The people that encourage us and cheer us on to finish the race set out before us. Find your heros and listen and learn from them. Then, be a hero to someone else. Good stuff.

Life

We've been keeping pretty busy visiting friends, doing administrative things, helping in the yard, etc.

Last week we put together an updated prayer card with Emma on it and new information about our ministry. We're going to try to hand out as many as we can so we don't have as many to send out in the mail. If you don't have one yet, ask us for one.

Friday evening we went to some friend's house (the Bittner's) for a Cinco de Mayo get together. We had a lot of fun hanging out, visiting with friends (the Bittners, Suttons, and Lindquists), meeting new friends (Jim's family), eating s'more's (sp?) around a fire, sharing about Cofradia, and worshipping at the end. That was pretty refreshing.

(Rebecka with her S'more)

Saturday afternoon there was a combined baby shower for Gena and my sister, Sheri. That was nice to see some family again.

Sunday night we went to Living Waters Fellowship in Bremerton to share about Alternative Missions Cofradia and it was a really nice time. There is a lot of friendly people there.

Gingerbread Cookie!

Someone gave her the Gingerbread man book and she's been excited about making a Gingerbread cookie ever since. Yesterday was her day and she had lots of fun! Unfortunately it stayed in the oven a little too long:).