NYC: Water Fire Wind

In less than a month 10,000 high school students from across the USA and Canada will be part of a once-in-a-lifetime experience in St. Louis, Missouri.

What will they encounter?  For some, those who are from St. Louis, it will be an invasion!  But for most, including our teens, Tim, Jenny, Sam and Hana, it will be a new culture, a "mission field" in their own country.  They will be exposed to learning and worship and work and play with people they have never known.  They will have the chance to touch lives for Christ by participating in a massive food distribution.  And most of all, they will each have the chance to see the love they have for God challenged in a dark world and see how much of a difference they can make if they don't hide "under a bushel basket", but let it SHINE!

We as a church must support them with prayers as they get ready for this adventure.  As the Lord leads, we can contribute food items for them to take for the "Feeding of the 5000" project, and we can remind them that we care about all aspects of what they have experienced by listening to their stories upon their return.  The count down is on; those putting this all together need prayer also.  May this summer's Nazarene Youth Conference water the thirsty, bring new fire to the cold of heart, and may the wind of God's Spirit sweep powerfully over the lives of everyone involved.

Denise Tweed

Church of the Undignified -

When God decides to clean and create a new canvas it can leave one speechless, but it is awesome to be a part of the cleaning and creating!

It was laid on the heart of Abby Rhodes to have a place for "baby" Christians to go after they have been in rehab, and come to know our Lord.  Hence, "Hope House" is founded.  Hope House (properly named) is a three story 1905-built home in the Capital Hill area of Seattle.

After a great amount of preorganization of volunteers, word was sent to the WAPAC District, and a  Work and Witness Day was set for March 31, 2007!

God blessed all of us that day with sunshine, safe traveling mercies and with all the people only he could have brought together.  Once we had signed in and assigned to our area of "speciality", we were off.  Some were sent to the back yard to help clean and pull nails.  Others were hauling dirt and gravel to the basement area to fill in and level 18+ inches.  Curtain measurements were taken, sheetrock removed, flooring pulled up, and old kitchen cupboards removed along with the old sink.

After a wonderful meal and fellowship, back we went to wherever we were needed.  Painting was done throughout the house, sheetrock replaced and mudded, and trees and shrubs removed from the fonrt yard,   Two pick-up loads of yard debris were taken to the dump.  Many hands make work easy!  By the time we left (early evening), a lot of cleaning, creating and remodeling had been done.

A couple of weeks later, Terry and I headed back to Hope House to place all the kitchen cabinets, sink, dishwasher, and to make two countertops.  Quite a bit of progress had been made...upstairs rooms painted, cleaned and ready for occupancy, back yard totally done, more flooring removed and quite a bit of other painting was done.   Unfortunately, the laminate for the countertops hadn't come in, so we made a third trip to build the countertops to height, laminate a bright red and securely fasten them to the cabinets.  Except for the sink drain needing some pipe work done by a plumber, HAPPY DAY the kitchen is done!

Everyone worked hard together and in doing so, friendships were formed. 

Benji and Abbey Rhodes asked us to pass on to everyone their thanks and appreciation for all the prayers, love, donations, and willing hearts and hands to help make this heart-felt vision from God a reality.

Thank you Heavenly Father for allowing us to be a part of your awesome work of creating rainbows, a/k/a "Hope House"!

Penny West

Love and Logic

Deanna and I attended the Love and Logic seminar in Portland on April 26th.  I'd like to share a little about it.  I've heard it said that love is spelled T-I-M-E.  If this is the case, the Love and Logic system is a demonstration of love.  Time: we only have so much of it.  How are we going to invest it?  Being a person who delights in crossing items off a list, it is easier for me to focus on the task at hand rather than on the people at hand.  Yet, I've been entrusted with certain people in my life in which to invest my time - the ones with whom I have direct influence - my children.  As I write this, I speak to myself.

Knowing I have only so much time makes me think of the importance of setting priorities.  I must be wise in how I appropriate my time.  My kids are important.  They need my time.  They don't grow up into productive adults all by themselves.  The Bible calls us to teach truths to our children when we are at home, when we're out and about, when we go to sleep and when we wake up (Deut. 6:6).  It is to be a continuous activity.  This takes time and planning.  Love and Logic is based upon the understanding that the time we spend now on our children will reap future benefits for both parents and children.  The children will learn to accept the word, "No", to make choices, and to experience consequences (either natural or engineered) resulting from their choices.  Jim Fay has discovered a system to raise kids who ultimately don't need their parents (to fulfill their needs, that is).

An important concept from Love and Logic regarding time is delayed consequences for unproductive behavior.  Delayed consequences provides for 1) time for parent(s) to calm down, 2) time for the child to think about what they have done, and 3) time to think up a planned response.  This is an opportunity to blend empathy (+) and consequences (-).

The title of the seminar was, A Day with Jim Fay, Discipline and Achievement.  His premise is:  If you don't have discipline, you won't have achievement.  This seminar was an overview of the Love and Logic techniques for helping parents teach their children to discipline themselves.  These techniques give parents tools to go beyond their own unproductive yellling, ranting and reminding behaviors.  It's about helping our children press on to maturity by handing the problem back to the child.  Making choices and learning to say "no" embodies discipline.

What does this have to do with achievement?  There are four basic drives of human brains that must be reconciled if children are to mature.  They are Pleasure vs. Pain, Approval Seeking vs. Disapproval, Right vs. Wrong (guilt) and Empathy.  It is the job of humans to integrate these four drives and figure them out.  Limits we place on our children provide them with physical and emotional security as they grow.

Here are some examples of Love and Logic techniques:

Make "I Will" (enforceable) rather than "you will" (unenforceable) statements.

Neutralize arguing by deflecting manipulation:

     "It's not fair".  Respond with, "I know".

     "You don't love me".  Respond with, "Nice try" or "So what did I say?"

     "I'm leaving".  Respond with, "I'll love you wherever you live."

     "You're mean".  Respond with, "What did I say?"

Never let them see you sweat; remain calm.

This is a program of learning mutual respect.  It was certainly well worth my time!

Julie Andrewski

Wilderness Wedding

Jonee (Tweed) and Dani had a million guests at their wedding, which took place in Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada.  Unfortunately, 99,910 were mosquitoes.  No deer or elk, mountain goats or cayotes, woodland caribou or moose, not even a bear wandered through during the service, even though we did see plenty of them elsewhere in the wild on our 18 hour trip.

The wedding was outside.  The weather was somewhat overcast, but the temperature was perfect.  The bride was beautiful; the groom was as handsome as ever (his mom's opinion), and Sean was impressive in his tux as Jonathan's best man.  But, the cute little ring bearer stole everyone's heart.  Amidst friends and family, under a flower-covered archway, the couple pledged their love and loyalty to each other and the Lord.

What a blessing to meet Dani's family and friends.  Her Ukranian grandfather publicly welcomed the opportunity to add the Tweeds to his extended family around the world and, more importantly, he was rejoicing in our bonds in Christ and members of the body of believers.

The couple's plans to visit Shelton had to be put on hold, but I am hoping that someday you will all get to meet Jonathan's wife, Dani, and that the Lord will allow them to use their musical gifts to bless our church. 

At the wedding, we were encouraged to pray and communicate with the newlyweds and I hope to have photos along with their current address posted in the fellowship hall soon to help us remember to do this.

The wedding memories fade; the "tingles" decrease, but the marriage adventure opens up before them.

Denise Tweed

Teaching Position at Mason County Christian School

Mason County Christian School (MCCS) in Shelton has full or part-time opportunities for the next school year at the Pre-Kindergarten and afternoon First Grade Levels.

MCCS is a thirty year old, state approved, pre-school through eighth grade Christian school.  A ministry of Shelton First Baptist Church to the entire Christian community, our 160 students come from almost thirty different churches.

These teaching roles might be of special interest to teachers who have recently retired, but would still like to teach in a small, positive, Christian setting, full-time or part-time.

For information please call Dave Roller at 426-7616. 

(masoncounty christianschool.org)

Blessing Quilt Ministry

I'm excited to report on the progress of this ministry to date. 

On June 19th a small group of ladies (Luann, Carla, Hana, Deanna and Mary) got together at my home to add the final touches to four new quilts!!!   My vision in starting this ministry was that the quilts would be given to individuals in our community (or even beyond) in need of comfort and that the Love of Jesus would be revealed in the giving.  After first praying for God's blessing over the quilts, our small group spent our time tying the layers together and hand-stitching the bindings.  (Picture if you will a quilt laid out on a long table with all of us gathered around,  fingers busy, hearts happy and stories being shared.) 

Each quilt will bear a label:

"Layers of warmth stitched together with our prayers and to say that...Jesus Loves You.  Presented by the ladies of the Nazarene Church, Shelton, Washington in the year 2007."

(Guess we'd better get these quilts to their new homes this year, huh?)

We enjoyed a special time of fellowship as we sat on the sun-warmed deck,  and partook of the wonderful lunch Luann prepared for us.  A feeling of peace and tranquility washed over us as we listened to the water cascading down the little waterfall in Charlie's Koi pond. 

This Sunday, we plan on sharing our finished quilts with the congregation.  After that, we will present them to the Women's Ministries for their prayerful distribution.

Each of us have received our own special blessing as we have put ourselves into the making of these quilts.  What a privilege and joy it is to serve our Lord and Savior!

Mary Nokes