Blaine Soft-Launch

•February 27, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Hey WBLer’s,

I wanted to keep you updated on something that has a lot of buzz around our offices, but odds are good you’ve heard very little about.

This Sunday (28th) Blaine will launch within the Spring Lake Park Campus on Sunday night.  From now till the “real” launch of Blaine – which is hopefully this fall – a team of staff and volunteers will be hosting services at 4:05 and 6:05 on Sunday nights at the SLP location.  The hope of these 2 services is to develop a great team of volunteers who prepare to launch the new Blaine location, develop some camaraderie among the attenders at the new site and create a place for current SLP attenders to move to so that more room can be made for the demands of growth going on at that site.

Keep this new initiative in your prayers as they begin something that has the potential to reach many more for His sake.

BTW – Bob will unpack more of this next weekend (I believe)…

Ash Wed – Thoughts and Photos

•February 25, 2010 • 2 Comments

Before we get too far away, I just wanted to send a couple reflections from our Ash Wed service last week.

What a great night!  I heard many comments from people saying how much they enjoyed the “homegrown” feel of such a service and that their lives were touched by Pat’s story, Katie’s song, the overall music or something in the concept of the “Dip.”  I also felt the energy in the room throughout our time together and watching families come forward to receive the ash and communion together is always incredibly powerful.  A definite memorable evening!

In order to help me continue to stay aware of this season of preparation for the death and resurrection of Christ (Lent) I’ve discovered a daily reading plan that continues to walk me through the life of Christ.  I’ve been trying to stay engaged with this plan on a regular basis.  Here’s the link of you’re looking to get a little more out of this lenten season.  http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/readingplans/lent.php

Thanks all for coming to our event.  Here’s some great photos that were taken that I just got a couple of days ago…

PS – I’ll be off this weekend – so show Alex some love as he steps in for the first time.

Nicaragua

•February 22, 2010 • 3 Comments

Hey WB folks – I drove away this weekend thinking how incredibly thankful I am for our church.  People who are committed to becoming people of compassion…to subjecting themselves to eating like the world’s poor, packing meals for those who are starving and for extended discussions about going to Nicaragua to love on orphans.  Amazing!

This last August – I was in Nicaragua and am headed back this June and I’m taking 30 people with me.  The video that was shot of Bob this weekend at church in Nicaragua ranks as one of my favorite video’s we’ve ever done.  So amazing.  This blog is a story of one of my experiences in Nicaragua that I had written this last September after I got back.  I thought I’d “re-surface” it so you could see the video I made at the bottom.  The places we will go this June are seen in the 2nd half of the video.  Here ya go…

PS – I wrote one other story if you want to scroll back in my blog to last September to find it…

Sept, 2009

Hello Friends of WB – If you don’t have time to read, skip down to the bottom for my Nic Video.  It’s taken awhile to get it edited and onto the web but I finally think I got it done.

I wish I had more time to pound out the many stories of Nicaragua.  I’d love to tell the story of how Tyler Gregory hit a small girl in the back of a head with a softball, tell stories of the sweat, moisture and digestive disturbance, and of course, the story about how Barb Knutson commented on beautiful someone’s “home” was before she realized she was actually located on a toxic pond of gu (quite the gift of positivity).  Anywho – In order to keep it readable, I’ll narrow it down to one more story.

On our last morning in Managua, we drove into a place that I will never forget.  We drove a bit to get out of the hustle of the city of Managua (which is a large metro area).  Slowly we made a turn onto a beat-up dirt road.  As we moved onto this road, our leaders clearly elevated their sense of concern as they told us to close all the windows (which had been open the whole trip) and then asked us to take off any jewelry and put it out of sight.  We drove along this winding road and began to see black smoke hovering this area while the stench of burning garbage quickly invaded our van.   We had entered an area called La Chureca.  Some refer to it as the city garbage dump and about 1500 refer to it as their home.  Most of those people comb the garbage to identify anything edible, to look for recyclable products that they can sell off and dig for any other “keepables.”  The guides we were with told us that what happens here is the worst kind of poverty in the whole world.  Even in terrible 3rd world countries, at least most communities know to separate the animals from the people.  In La Chureca there are cattle that roam and graze through the garbage, wild dogs that scavenge through the piles and people that are there trying to make it through another day.  Therefore, the combination of garbage, animals, people (including children) and water makes for an incredibly toxic and unhealthy environment.

About 5 minutes down the road, our van came to a stop.  We got out and in front of us was a large red rickety steel gate with triangle shaped shards of metal on top – to offer greater protection.  The door eventually opened and we walked into a mob of elementary kids.  These were kids who found their way to a Christian school that is offered free to the Chureca community.  As we walked in we got pummeled by kids grabbing on our legs, insisting to be carried and climbing on our backs.  After I spent some time hanging out with kids, I noticed that our team was talking with someone.  I made my way over to the team and found that in the middle of the circle stood a 22 year old white female American wearing her blue jeans and polo-type shirt.  She is the coordinator of this school.  Her presence was a total shock to me.  Here, in the middle of this awful poverty, surrounded with rabies infested dogs, endless garbage,   toxic conditions and dirty, desperate people stood this girl who looks like she could be a Bethel student. 

It was a great reminder to me about how bright a light can be in a dark place.  This place that we were in probably was one of the darkest environments I’ve ever been in…and here stood this woman, standing as a beacon of light. 

The rest of our time in the dump was spent meeting with people who actually host Bible Studies in their “homes” – go figure!  We also met with a couple who had earned a sewing machine through the risk of some micro-finance lender and stopped by a feeding center where one of the leaders said they feed about 100 kids every day and turn away about…100 kids every day. 

Here’s the challenge I took away and leave with you.  Are you a light?  When you walk into rooms, do people think…here come’s some light? When someone receives an email from you or gets off the phone with you, do they feel illuminated? And…are you operating at full wattage potential?  You don’t need to go to Nicaragua to find dark places to shine a light.  Find a way to shine your light where you are today.  (Matthew 5:14-16)

Blaine

•February 4, 2010 • Leave a Comment

We don’t get a chance to talk about all the details of our next steps as a church on the weekends, so I thought I’d send a quick note to let you know what’s happening with our hopes to start sites in Blaine and Woodbury.

This last weekend was a Business meeting in which the purchase and development of the Blaine project was approved by the church.  There was also agreement by the members to purchase some land in Woodbury.  These opportunities are of course only possible because of your commitment to the “Not Without You” campaign.  So…sites 4 and 5, here we come.

Activity for the Blaine project is already in an accelerated gear.  We have hired a Campus Pastor (which will be announced later) and other staff are starting to be assigned to this location.  The Blaine staff and volunteers are going to begin leading 2 temporary Sunday evening services at the SLP campus at 4:05 and 6:05 beginning on February 28. Those who wish to serve as Blaine volunteers must complete a serving interest form <http://www.eaglebrookchurch.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=61943>  and check the box marked “Blaine.”  The Sunday evening services will be available until the Blaine campus opens (which we anticipate to be sometime in the fall of 2010).  The Sunday evening services will be a full Eagle Brook weekend experience with live worship, Café 5000, Beyond Books, Kid-O-Deo, Club K-Rock, and the current weekend message (recorded earlier that day).

We’re asking those who plan to attend Blaine when it opens, as well as a few hundred people who already attend SLP and plan to continue staying there, to make a Sunday evening service their primary choice for weekend worship. This will make seats available for SLP guests in the regularly scheduled weekend services.  For those of you who have never gotten to SLP, you might want to know that they are experiencing tremendous growth there with over 600-650 people coming reguarly to the 11:00AM service.  The SLP Worship Center seats 540, so they moved to using a small building that’s on their property called the “Corner House” which seats about 100 comfortably as an overflow.  Sometimes the teaching Pastor will reference the Corner House in the beginning of their message.

Pretty exciting to see what’s happening around the church.  Continue to pray for Blaine, Woodbury and other next steps as we seek to reach many for His sake.

See you this weekend, 

PS – This weekend is communion weekend so come prepared to spend some time at the Lord’s Table at the end of our hour together.

Some PCD pix for you

•February 2, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Every once in awhile we have a photographer stroll through our site and capture some images of life at WBL.  Here’s some shots from our Parent-Child Dedication services (primarily from the 9:05 service) taken a couple of weeks ago.  Enjoy!

Opportunities Abound @ WBL

•January 28, 2010 • 1 Comment

Hey all,

I can’t believe how quickly our 10,000+ volunteer spots filled to pack meals for FMSC.  We’ve added many more spots to help make opportunities for everyone to get in on this.  I just looked at this link http://needs.eaglebrookchurch.com/february/the68project.php and there are still spots open at Lino and SLP.  I won’t mention the fact the WBL had twice as many spots to fill at this point :)   but we are jammed at our campus.  You guys are amazing!

However, there are numerous other volunteer spots that we could still use help that are not on the web.  For example on Feb 18 at 11:00 AM we need about 12 more people to help set this whole thing up.  Then on Feb 28th at 7:00 PM we need another 15 people to tear it down.  Also, every shift we have teams packing food requires many other volunteers to run the warehouse, greet people and usher people.  For many of our packing shifts we have 7 openings still available.  If you’d like to sign up for one of these, send an email to Dawn Hines at dawn.hines@eaglebrookchurch.com and she’ll get you set up.

Along with FMSC, we are also looking for some people to help us set-up and tear-down grouplink.  We need a team of people to help move all the chairs out of the worship center immediately after the 11:00 service this Sunday and we’ll need another team to help set it all back up on Monday night around 9:00pm.  Sue Lennartson assures me there will be pizza on Sunday and desserts for the volunteers on Monday. 

So…If you (and your small group) are still looking for a serving opportunity, please jump in.  Lots of great things happening this month.  As we all pull together we have the chance to meet each other and make a great difference to the many people taking next steps in their faith.  Way to go!

PS – I’m off this weekend to celebrate my mom’s 70th Bday.  Kenny will hold down the fort.  He really likes hugs so make sure to give him a big one for me when you see him. 

See you next week!

Haiti

•January 15, 2010 • 1 Comment

Hello all,

What a difficult week of watching the stories unfold from the tragedy of Haiti.  I’m watching this evening’s frustrating updates as I type.  Together, we stand by watching with a great sense of helplessness yet knowing that we desire and need to do something.

I really want to encourage you to make your way to church this weekend.  We have a full agenda, but part of our time will be spent praying for and talking about ways that we as a church can respond.

In the meantime, here’s just a few of our great partners that you should know about.

1. Healing Haiti – www.healinghaiti.org is a great organization that is started by and led by our faithful WB attenders.  You can send support through a link on their site

2. Worldwide Village - http://www.worldwidevillage.org/ is also an organization started by one of our EBC attenders.

3. Feed My Starving Children – www.fmsc.org is an organization that we are partnering with to pack 2 million meals in February.  I found out yesterday that the number one place that FMSC sends meals is to Haiti.  What great news.  Sign up to pack meals at http://needs.eaglebrookchurch.com/february/the68project.php.  A video you can learn more about the food-packing project is right here.  http://vimeo.com/8677815

4. World Vision – http://www.worldvision.org/ - is yet another partner that has been in Haiti for 30 years with 800 staff present.

Go to any of these sites to learn more about how you can help and stay updated on the latest news.

Again, we’ll talk about this more this weekend about what our plan is as a church.

Let’s stay faithful in our prayers for Haiti, for it’s leaders, for relief efforts, and for those in great crisis.

See you this weekend,

 
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