Here’s the latest message from our friends, The Revetts, currently serving as missionaries in Paraguay:
Greetings from Way-Down-South!
By visiting www.tmrevett.blogspot.com you'll read about some cool events like the first-ever Mother’s Day at the Nevenga Renda Ava-Mbya Guarani community, Paraguayan youth making "prayer blankets" for cold children, and Ana's 2nd grade graduation.
We hope that you and your loved ones enjoyed the Father’s Day weekend, and look forward to hearing from you.
After the worship service this Sunday, we will be celebrating and offering up traveling mercies to our friends, Jan Shoemaker and the Wells family, as they continue their journeys in other places.
For this Fourth Sunday Feast, please bring a salad or a side. Hamburgers and hotdogs will be provided.
Last Saturday, a large group of Westsiders joined Christ UMC in framing 45 walls for a Habitat for Humanity family.
In less than two hours, interior and exterior walls were nailed together (square and flush!) and loaded for shipment to the build site.
The family purchasing this home was present - a mom and her four children. It was a joy to work together to provide affordable housing.
This Thursday, you are invited to come and pray with others. Communal prayer is a powerful thing. Pray for yourself, your church, your family, friends, community, country, and world.
We will gather in the Family Room at 6:30 pm.
They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus. —Acts 1:14 (NLT)
Don’t forget that we are gathering at Christ UMC this Sunday to celebrate the completion of the Help Build Hope day.
Christ UMC is located at 12755 NW Dogwood St in Portland. The service will begin at 10:30 am.
We will still have an 8:15 service at Westside. If you’re unable to attend at 10:30, please come walk this journey of faith with us at the earlier service.
Remember -- 2nd Service this Sunday is happening at CHRIST UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood St in Portland, at 10:30 am. There will be no 10:00 am service at Westside. We are meeting at Christ UMC as the joint worship opportunity after the Help Build Hope day on Saturday June 15th.
We will have the 8:15 service at our building so if you cannot make second service, come to first service. Come worship. Come connect with God in community. We need these times of connection. They are good for our hearts and provide necessary nourishment for our souls as we walk this walk of faith.
And it is just that walk that we are looking at this Sunday, both Father’s Day and Trinity Sunday. For Jesus invited us all to “follow.” This entails movement. Sometimes we are tempted to stop moving, stop walking, and just stand, point and be critical of others. But that is not the movement into which Jesus has called us. We are to stir up the flame within us, be filled by the Spirit and walk. Specifically in Colossians 3, Paul has very specific instructions for the believers in that city, and for us, on how to keep walking. Using powerful word pictures Paul tells it like it is. If you cannot make the 10:30 service at Christ UMC, come to Westside at 8:15 as we look at this incredible passage and “walk” together.
Walk. Be filled. Move. Keep in step. Stir up the fire. Take action with Jesus.
If you know of someone looking for a home to rent, please forward this information to them:
House for Rent: 970 SW Tropicana Ave, Beaverton 97005
One-story home, approx 1800 sf, with large fenced-in backyard and two-car garage. Quiet neighborhood near Hwy 26 and Murray Blvd, close to Nike. 4 BR, 2 BA, 2 living areas. Fireplace, dishwasher, washer/dryer hookups. One year lease, one month rent deposit, $250 deposit per pet. $1950 per month. Contact Virginia at office@westsidejourney.org or 503.643.8070 for more info.
After the worship service on June 23, we will be loving on and offering up traveling mercies to our friends, Jan Shoemaker and the Wells family, as they continue their journeys in other places.
For our Fourth Sunday Feast, please bring a salad or a side. Hamburgers and hotdogs will be provided.
Mark your calendars now to join us.
The Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District has free, family-friendly, community-wide events coming up this summer that could use some more volunteers. These events are fun, unique, and meaningful ways to connect to the community.
These three events are the biggest ones all year, and have the greatest need for volunteers:
Party in the Park at the HM Terpenning Recreation Complex on July 27
Big Truck Day at the Conestoga Recreation and Aquatic Center on August 3
Fiesta en el Parque at Evelyn Schiffler Park on August 18
There are many, many other events, located all over Beaverton, including track meets, concerts, and more. Click here to see the full list of events that need volunteers, and click here to see all the shifts and sign up. Most shifts are just 3 hours, and each volunteer's help makes a big difference to our community! Students as young as 14 can volunteer, or younger kids can help alongside their guardian.
Thank you for your service to our community.
Question: Where in your life do you most need to hear from God?
Answers:
In service to the church.
To make sure that the school year ends on a positive note.
How to help people in the best way.
Where am I supposed to work?
In church service.
We will celebrate our Help Build Hope collaboration by attending second service at Christ UMC. The 8:15 Morning Watch will still be at Westside.
Last chance to sign up at https://helpbuildhope.com/cumc!
Our annual service at Hagg Lake, at the Sain Pavilion, is July 21. This will be the only service that day. Worship, music, and the joy of baptism. Potluck lunch to follow; bring a dish.
Pentecost. It was a day unlike all others. The promise made by Jesus to the disciples was fulfilled where the Spirit that had been “with them” by being in Him, now was “within them,” outpoured. The disciples had waited and God had come -- like a wind, like fire, and they had been filled, spoke in other languages, and witnessed boldly to Jesus. The result of Peter’s first sermon was 3000 added to the church that day. Imagine what that was like. And then, having been filled, they were filled again and again, and the boldness showed up time and again.
What began on the Day of Pentecost, continues today. God isn’t done moving dynamically. Sometimes people experience a personal pentecost, a new experience of the Holy Spirit moving upon their lives. This can be as simple as hearing God speak or as profound as a time of being immersed in God’s Holy Spirit. Other times whole areas or a whole country experiences such a move of the Spirit, followed by many conversions and awakenings. There have been many, many of these ongoing movements throughout history. One in 1972 involved a chapel service at a college in Kentucky that rather than lasting one hour lasted 186 hours and led to student teams leaving every weekend for months after that and going across the country to share at other college campuses and the Holy Spirit showed up in a similar way at each.
God is still moving. God is still alive. And God still moves in ways that are surprising and can be earthshaking. This Sunday we will revisit that first Pentecost, hear stories of other awakenings and look at how God might be asking us to position ourselves for such a move today.
How open are you to the move of God’s Holy Spirit? In what ways are you positioning yourself to experience Pentecost in your life?
Everyone experiences stress. How we think about it determines how it affects us physically.
Take a short break and watch this TED talk, “How to make stress your friend,” by psychologist Kelly McGonigal. Here’s a transcript version.
It not only could save your life, it could make you a more caring, empathetic person.
Wracking your brain for a unique gift for Father’s Day? How about some quality time together?
Spend the morning on Saturday, June 15, making a difference for another family in our community. Join the Help Build Hope crew to hammer together all the walls needed for a new home.
Meet at Christ United Methodist Church, 12755 NW Dogwood St, at 8:00 am. By lunchtime, a family will be that much closer to having a home.
Register you and your dad today at helpbuildhope.com/cumc! Ages five and up, and all ability levels welcome.
And don’t forget that we’re celebrating this event at Christ UMC during the 10:30 worship hour on Sunday the 16th.
Tomorrow, Saturday, June 8, at 9:30 am, we’ll gather to plan all facets of worship for the next few months.. Everyone is invited. We should be done by 11:00. Please make this a priority!
The online Gifts and Talents Workshop begins on Monday, June 10. The first set of worksheets will be emailed this Friday. If you want to be a part of this journey of discovery into your God-given gifts, sign up by Thursday, June 6, at signups.wumc.me.
Consider inviting your out-of-town friends or family (mind the time zone!) It’s only $10 for the entire six-week course, which meets every Monday from 7:00 - 9:00 pm, June 10 through July 15. Don’t forget that you’ll need a camera and a microphone on your computer.
For the best use of Pastor Brian’s time and energy, the workshop will be cancelled unless two more people sign up.
Question: When has a point of suffering turned into a place of blessing in your life?
Answers:
My medical problems have brought my parents and I closer. Brought me back to the church family.
Jesus turned abuse into a catalyst to create an opportunity for empathy and to see lives impacted by His love.
My marriage is ending. I am still grieving, but I feel that being alone has brought me closer to my Savior. Hallelujah!
My addiction taught me that Jesus always meets us where we are. He loves us, even when we can’t love ourselves. He forgives us, even when we can’t forgive ourselves.
Living through my dad’s alcohol addiction led to swearing off alcohol for life.
When my father passed suddenly which freed me to help my daughter’s family move and then I could move to be with them as well.
Brain tumor - gave me a new purpose in life that has allowed me to aid others.
When I was at the beginning of the loss of my marriage and God led me back to church for support and love.
Only being able to have one child has made the experiences with Aurelia more precious.
Inviting anyone interested in helping craft worship at Westside!
We will celebrate our Help Build Hope collaboration by attending second service at Christ UMC. The 8:15 Morning Watch will still be at Westside.
An online version on Monday evenings - same great group conversations and enlightening exercises. Requires a camera and mic on your computer. Sign up at signups.wumc.me.
Time’s running out to sign up at https://helpbuildhope.com/cumc!
Our annual service at Hagg Lake, at the Sain Pavilion, is July 21. This will be the only service that day but it will be worth the drive! Worship, music, and the joy of baptism.
Saul’s conversion, described in Acts 9, after which he is called Paul, and his life of ministry described throughout the rest of that book and alluded to in his 13 letters, is filled with suffering, suffering for the sake of Jesus, which Jesus promised would be the case at his conversion. It is interesting that Paul never asked about this when he was prayed over, received his sight, told he would suffer, and began to do so. Paul never complained about suffering for the sake of Jesus. Indeed, Paul embraced whatever came his way. He considered all suffering as something that filled up what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Put that into your pipe and smoke it!
Imagine that -- the suffering of a mom caring for young children, and denying a call to do some other work, to the suffering of a man persecuted for his faith, to the suffering of someone dealing with cancer, to the suffering of a child on the playground. Filling up what was lacking-- whatever that may mean.
The long and short is that there is nothing we walk through that is not something God will use. And there is nothing that is not and cannot be an expression of God’s grace into our lives. His grace looked like Saul getting slammed to the ground off his horse outside Damascus, and like him shipwrecked at sea, and like him in many instances of suffering. In these times, God showed up, strength came, hope birthed, and the promise was fulfilled in his life that he would suffer for the sake of Jesus. But more than that, God’s grace came through him to reach so many, many others for that same Gospel.
This Sunday we are looking at this grace in Paul’s life, and more than that, at how grace is what God works in our lives as well, no matter the hardship or difficulty. In life every experience can make us bitter or better. God’s grace can move us to better, if we welcome it.