Brian's Blog: Because of You

Dear Friends,

What a year!

“Could I stay here with Brian instead of going to church,” the 17-year-old Family Promise guest asked his dad.  Later he told me, “He never says yes to that request.”  So, instead of church that night, this young man and I talked about scripture, about the story from Daniel of the three Hebrews in the furnace, about faith and about life. Then, he taught Abby Hawkins, the other evening host, and I how to play a video game using his setup.  We also got to hold another guest’s infant.  Had you walked in, you would have found us simply caught up in joy, crying with the laughter.  Later this young man said, “I’m going to ask my mom if you could come pray through our house to bless it after we get one.”  I was staggered. 

It is because of how you give that such ministry opportunities happen here.     

Jamie, at 71, was referred to me for counseling this year and after a couple initial times we have met monthly.  Together we have seen Jesus work miracles through deep healing, so that she is set free in so many areas of heart and life.  She has begun to live again.  Jesus loves to heal.

And you all are part of that healing, because of your generosity.

Tim Gibson, the team leader of the 2019 missions’ trip to the Dominican Republic told us that money brings aid but relationships bring hope.  The community of Rio Grande has been transformed by the relationships built with teams over the past eight years so that child prostitution has ended and those children now have a vision for a future as doctors, teachers and forensic scientists.  The workers who staff the projects that the teams join, have met Jesus and had their lives changed.  All this happened because of your willingness to create a place where missions matter and relationships matter both here and there. 

Your giving makes such mission possible. 

Because of your overwhelming generosity…  we have hosted Family Promise four weeks, started monthly HomePlate meals, participated in reaching 40 kids with Jesus’ love at Camp Iwannabe; continued food distribution through the Free Food Tents to around 1000 people a week both at the site and through local pantries; experienced the Holy Spirit moving at the women’s retreat; built all the interior walls of a house with Help Build Hope and our friends at Christ UMC; took weekly, hot meals out to the Migrant Camp and built ongoing relationships there; participated in the WFWA outreaches; distributed Christmas Food boxes; gathered weekly to praise and worship God, hear the Good News, advance the Kingdom, and experience the transformation that occurs as we follow Jesus by being part of a community.  

All that and more because of you! 

Then we reached December and almost as if to say, “Well, that’s not quite enough,” you stepped up to the plate, accepted the challenge and gave in an overwhelming way so that we had a Christmas Offering that totaled $37,605.46!  Seriously! 

So, because of you, we have been able to give:

$3940.55 to Family Promise of Beaverton

$6000 to help us build two homes June 20th with Help Build Hope and Christ UMC

$1000 to assist one delegate from the Alaskan Missionary Conference to come to this year’s joint Annual Conference

-AND-

$26,664.91 to pay down the principal on one of our mortgages!  This will shave a full three years off those payments! 

This is all because of you…  Relationships do bring hope.

I have such deep hope because of all of you.  Thank you for changing my life, too, these nearly 11 years.  You are an incredible congregation.  I am richly blessed to have served here and am so excited to see whom God will bring for the next season of Westside Journey’s life in ministry for I know God has GREAT PLANS for you and through you. 

Thank you again for giving and changing so many people’s lives!

We are rejoicing to join you in serving Jesus Christ –

Pastor Brian and the Stewardship and Finance Teams 

Condolences

Westside just got word that John Shaw passed away on January 7.  It was sudden and quick, “like he wanted,” his daughter said.  Prayers for Ann, his wife, and his entire family.  John and Ann were members of WUMC for many years but, due to health concerns, moved to California to be closer to family. 

Are You on the Run?

We are journeying in the Whale of a Tale -- the best fish story ever, and one that changed the course of history for a lost people. As we do so we find that Jonah hit the “bottom” and turned around.

Sometimes it takes this very thing in our lives for us to make a turn around as well. We have to come to the end of our own efforts to save ourselves, our own efforts at impressing God, in order to surrender to God fully. In Jonah’s prayer in the second chapter, we encounter a prophet willing to let God be God and yet also declaring his confidence that he will yet live and praise God anew. This turn around is sufficient. Jonah is spat back onto the shore.

It seems incredible that this prophet really intended to thwart God’s call by fleeing, but God would not be thwarted. What might we learn about the character of God from this account of someone’s attempt to RUN only to find God ran faster than he could? What might this tell us about our own attempts to run from the identity and calling upon our own lives? What might we learn from this story about confession? What does it look like to Jonah and therefore to us? We are deep in the belly of the whale. This is our three-day visit to the tomb. It was to this very place that Jesus compared his own encounter with death. “Just as Jonah…” “so the Son of Man” Jesus said. This is that time period. Let’s not miss what God might like to do with the darkest moments of our lives. Let’s not lose touch with how God is at work. God won’t waste anything. And God plans to use everything.

Rock Voices

This Sunday, January 12, you have the opportunity to hear a community rock chorus with a professional backup band. Rock Voices has groups across the country that perform to raise awareness and donations for charitable organizations.

Your attendance will benefit the nonprofit Youth Music Project, which provides outstanding music education to thousands of low-income kids in Oregon. Ticket prices range from $8 to $15 and may be purchased at https://portlandjan12.bpt.me/

The 4:00 pm concert will be held at Lake Oswego High School, 2501 Country Club Rd in Lake Oswego.

To learn more about Rock Voices, visit www.rockvoices.com.

HomePlate Open House

HomePlate Youth Services is celebrating their latest drop-in center at Aloha Church of God and you’re invited!

Join them from 4:00 - 5:30 pm on Wednesday, January 15 (which just happens to be the same day that Westside serves dinner there!) There will be a short tour, light refreshments, and ribbon-cutting.

RSVP here. Aloha Church of God is located at 18380 SW Kinnaman Rd in Aloha.

Join the Journey, 1.5.20

Question: When have you said no to God, and regretted it?

Answers:

1. Most of my life. I am happy to be back.

2. Every time!

Brian's Blog: Seeing is Acting

2020.

We want 20/20 vision. 

We speak of “360 evaluations” in which we have a full circle review of an employee— so we see them in the fullest light, or can see them with 20/20 vision!  

We say that hindsight is 20/20 — that we see God clearest when looking back at past events. 

Vision and Seeing matter.  We want to see clearly in life, so that when we have trouble with our eyesight we get prescription lenses.  We buy TVs that help us see more clearly. There’s always an upgrade in technology. 

Seeing while driving is important, so we replace wiper blades. 

When sight is mentioned in the Bible - like a blind man getting his sight restored, in the healing is intimated also a spiritual kind of seeing.  Certainly, the person once had no physical sight and now does, but also, the person gets to see and in seeing, sees Jesus. In that is spiritual sight -- often seeing then is accompanied by worship -- as in John 9 where once the blind, now seeing, man meets and recognizes Jesus as the one who healed him, begins to worship.  

As we launch into the year 2020 -- can you imagine we are at that year? There was a time when 1984 was far, far in the future.  When George Orwell wrote his futuristic novel, it was some 40 years in the future. But now that “future place” is three decades ago.  

But as we step into this new year and the beginning of a new decade, what steps might you take so that you step with all the “Seeing” you can muster?  

Often people will set resolutions -- about weight, exercise, eating, drinking, etc, resolutions that often are not accompanied by enough accountability to make them stick. 

This year -- what if instead you chose three actions that were not about a long term goal, but about how you want to be.  An action is like something visible -- it could be caught on camera. What if you chose three necessary actions that you want to begin to characterize your life; actions that might influence your life.

Here are some actions I’ve encountered with others: 

“Read the Bible daily”  “Pray 15 minutes daily” “Greet strangers” “Buy coffee one time each week for the person behind me” “Give away $10 weekly” “Invite others to join me” “Join an exercise class” “Read a book a week” “Skip coffee once a week and give the money away” “Write down three things I’ve thankful for in the last 24 hours into my journal daily” “Tithe 10% of my income to church”  

Like goals or resolutions, critical actions like these will take others knowing about them, and holding you accountable to them, to make them happen.  So, don’t just decide without telling others. But choose. Take action. Let 2020 not only be the year of transition, but the year of critical actions that bring change to how you view your life and this world.    

Jonah Tells Our Story

Jonah.  The greatest and largest fish story ever -- indeed, a whale of a tale! Yet, a real story of a real live prophet who lived in a real time and place and really did preach to the people of Nineveh.  Yes, I know, many would like to disbelieve this story, but what is so far-fetched about it -- can God not rescue through some huge sea creature? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Rather than argue about veracity, let’s listen for what we might learn of God and ourselves through the plight of this prophet. You don’t have to read very far into the words of this story before encountering yourself, your own heart, your own tendency to flee from God when faced with things that scare, or worry, or hinder you in your own life. 

From the first line we recognize that this prophet heard from God and believed God to be good. You with me? Do you believe God is a good God?  You and Jonah already have lots in common. The issue for Jonah is he didn’t want to reach out to the people God wanted him to reach out to. He then demonstrated something else he believed, that he was trickier than God, that if he ran, God wouldn’t or couldn’t find him.  Ever think that way? “God can’t come in here.” Where are the places you are convinced God isn’t? Surprise, Jonah found out that God even works in the dice (the lots) of godless sailors. Talk about where you don’t expect God to show up. 

So, this story, this prophet tells our story in a way -- our own desire to flee from what we don’t like in order to find our own way.  And to flee as far as we can from the calling God may have placed upon us. The interesting thing is that every action of Jonah has consequences in the lives of others, indeed, nearly leads to their deaths.  

Do you remember the foolhardy beliefs of the captain and crew of another big ship who ignored warnings from multiple sources because the captain wanted a winning time across the Atlantic for his retirement voyage?  The iceberg the Titanic hit sank that ship and the impact was that 1517 people died because of the sin of a few.  The collateral damage of sin is immense.  

“No one sees. No one knows. It isn’t hurting anyone.” These thoughts are always false, for our lives are intricately connected to many, many other lives, and those things done in secret, in the dark, do immense damage upon others.  

This story takes us along such pathways and on this Sunday into a movie theater with a 14-year-old boy who believed that God couldn’t go to the movies and certainly not into an R-rated movie. But, just like Jonah, this boy was wrong.  And what God did in that boy’s life in that theater has rocked many lives. 

Don’t miss Jonah and don’t miss reflecting upon your own life through the life of the only prophet who is directly connected to Jesus, who said more than once, “Just as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the fish, so much the Son of Man be in the belly of the earth three days and nights.”  This story -- relates to Jesus and let me tell you, I have found, it relates to you and me too.  

Come to worship -- defeat loneliness and isolation by entering this Jesus community. 

All Church Gathering

On the weekend of January 18 and 19, come for any or all of these:

• Saturday at 7:00 pm - games in the Lighthouse. Bring a snack and beverage to share

• A movie in the sanctuary following the games

• Sleepover! Bring your sleeping bag, pillow, blankie - whatever will make you comfortable

• Breakfast from 7:30 - 9:30 am on Sunday. All are welcome, even if you were unable to attend the previous evening. Sign up to bring breakfast items in the church lobby

You’re encouraged to bring your friends to this family-friendly extravaganza of fun!

Please RSVP at signups.wumc.me, especially if you’re coming for breakfast.

Join the Journey, 12.29.19

Question: In one word, what one characteristic are you going to live into this new year?

Answers:

1. God, peace

2. Bloom

3. Hope & helpful

4. Abide

5. Rest

6. Faithful

7. Service

8. Serenity

9. Patience

10. Love

11. Generosity

12. Gather

13. Faith

14. Peace

15. Vision - God’s perfect 20/20 vision for me!

16. Gratitude

Your Giving Hearts

Thank you so much for your generosity this season!

On Saturday, December 21, eight families were provided with Christmas dinner and enough food for a week, all through your donations! Thank you to all who donated, packed, and delivered these blessings.

Western Farm Workers Association delivered food to 75 families for Christmas. Each delivery contained staples such as dried pinto beans, rice, oil, a turkey, fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, and more. A total of 94 people volunteered to sort and deliver the Christmas food boxes.   At the Christmas party, dinner was served to 400 people.

WFWA food distribution

Warm clothing for children continues to be a need of the WFWA. Donations are appreciated at any time. Contact Merry Goldthorpe for more information.

Brian's Blog: Listen

The man in the men’s group walked up to the leader, Jamie Winship, and said, “I don’t believe in all this God speaking garbage.  I don’t believe it for a second. The very notion that God speaks.” You might have expected him to end this with a resolute “BAH! HUMBUG!” but he didn’t.

Jamie was nonplussed.  He said, “Well, how about you and I and this other man here (a young guy whom Jamie was training up), go into that room there for some privacy and ask God to speak to you and see what happens.” 

The man was flustered, “I don’t think you heard me. I said I don’t believe in all this God speaking nonsense.”  

“Oh I heard you,” responded Jamie, “but what I am saying is God does speak and does so with or without you believing it. So, what you believe or disbelieve does not matter a bit.  If you want, let’s put your question to God for Him to show up to you in a way that you cannot deny.” 

The guy agreed so Jamie, he and the other younger man went into the side room.  Once there, Jamie said, “Ok. I am just going to open with a simple prayer to silence the voices in your head that you are listening to all the time. The negative self talk. The mean words. I am just going to ask Jesus to silence that, and then I will ask Him to show up to you and you can tell me what you hear.  God is going to talk to you, not to us.” 

The man was still a bit miffed that Jamie still seemed to believe God would show up.  

So Jamie prayed, everyone with eyes open, the man who was confronting Jamie looked intensely into Jamie’s eyes.  Jamie said, “Jesus, I just ask you to silence the voices this friend is listening to all the time for now and let him be open to hearing from you. Now, Jesus what would you like to speak to him?” 

And they waited.  

Jamie asked, “Are you seeing or hearing anything?” The man said, “Well, it’s just stupid.” 

Jamie said, “What is it? Say it.” The man said, reluctantly, “I see a door. Just a door and I cannot go through it.” 

Jamie and the other young man were so excited. A door? They were thinking how Jesus said He himself was the door (and the gate of the sheep). They were also thinking of Revelations 3:22 in which Jesus says, “I stand at the door and knock and if anyone opens the door I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.”  But they didn’t say any of these things for this was about Jesus speaking not them speaking.  

Jamie said, “Lord, what else would you like this man to see?” 

The man said, “My feet. They are stuck. I cannot get to the door. I cannot move.” “Ok,” said Jamie.  He and the other young man again exchanged glances thinking they knew who was holding this man back from movement.  

Jamie prayed, again, eyes open: “Jesus, please show our friend why his feet are stuck.”

And, at this, something happened. Suddenly the man became afraid, and closed his eyes, and knelt on the floor and cried out, “It’s Satan. It’s Satan. He is holding my feet.” And this man who was so certain God didn’t speak, was kneeling, eyes closed and crying.  

And Jamie and the other guy, got down with him, on each side of the man, hands resting on his back.  Jamie said, “It’s ok man. Jesus is speaking to you. You are hearing him. Say it; whatever you need to say.” 

And the man was sobbing, “We killed them. We killed two babies. We wanted to keep our careers going. But it was my decision. I wanted them out of the way. And I have felt guilty about it for these 27 years since we did it.” 

Two abortions and this man, now in his 60s still feeling such intense, gripping guilt over it.  And he is sobbing and sobbing having confessed, “we did this.” 

Jamie said, “Just get it out of you.”  The man, yelling it, shouting it, sobbing it continued. And they were with him. Then suddenly the man said, “Wait, wait the door is opening! The door is opening! And Jesus is standing there and He, He, He…” he was sobbing again.  “He is holding two babies. He has our babies. He is holding them! He has always had them.” 

Yelling, shouting, and transformed, this man gave himself to the same Lord who was holding his children. He entered through the door. 

This account told by Jamie Winship is a marvelous reminder of the fact that we serve the God who speaks and speaks and speaks. The God who needn’t be carried like mute idols but who is alive (see Isaiah 46).  This is the kind of God who makes the lame walk and the blind see and the dead rise. This is the kind of God who is REAL. What a God to serve into this new year. Just do it! Give yourself to him. Happy New Year!  

God Carries Us

I worked the Men’s Walk to Emmaus in October and therein watched and experienced Ed Duffield as the Lay Director of that walk. He served as second in command next to Jesus Himself.  It was cool to watch Ed, see his willingness to lead, and enjoy as he led the guys in this weekend. When I heard him give the final talk of the weekend, I said, “Ed, I want you to give that to the church.”  It was such a great testimony of his own life, struggle and journey to trust Jesus. I knew it would be a great way to look at this new year as well as a means by which to look back at what God has done in our own lives.  As he will tell you, “For some reason, I said yes.” Indeed, he did!  

So on this last Sunday of 2019 we will be looking at the theme passage from his Walk, Isaiah 46:4. This whole chapter is incredible as God lays out before his people the fact that the gods of the nation of Babylon are nothing in comparison with Himself.  The people of Judah at this time were losing hold of this fact. Isaiah challenges them with the Word of God saying, “Look! I am the God you need not carry - as they did idols - but who actually carries you.” It takes a real God to intervene in life and change it.  Transformation can only occur through interaction with a real God. Ed shares such transformation. 

As we come to this last Sunday of the year, we will share in the John Wesley Covenant Prayer and share together how God is leading us to reconnect with Him and serve Him.  Come and worship!

Gifts and Talents Workshop

Pastor Brian is offering his last Gifts and Talents Workshop next month.

Beginning on January 6, this online version will meet every Monday evening from 7:00 - 8:30 pm until February 10.

You will need a camera and microphone to participate in this group-centric workshop where you will explore your past, present, and future passions to discover your God-given talents.

Worksheets and readings will be emailed to you for completion before the session. Please contact the church office at office@westsidejourney.org to register by Jan 2. Free.

HomePlate Open House

HomePlate Youth Services is celebrating their latest drop-in center at Aloha Church of God and you’re invited!

Join them from 4:00 - 5:30 pm on Wednesday, January 15 (which just happens to be the same day that Westside serves dinner there!) There will be a short tour, light refreshments, and ribbon-cutting.

RSVP here. Aloha Church of God is located at 18380 SW Kinnaman Rd in Aloha.

A Note from Principal Erwin

Friends,

On behalf of the Beaverton High School community, thank you for all of your support so far this year.  We are truly blessed to be surrounded by such a kind, compassionate, hard-working, and loving group of partners.  Our winter break food distribution effort is one of the finest examples of the strength of this partnership.  This year you provided food for 130 families (6 bags per family).  Tuesday through Thursday we had a steady stream of families in to pick up their packages.  A BHS staff member met each family and helped them take the bags to their car.  That personal interaction is an essential part of this effort and gives us a chance to connect with each family.  On Friday there was a handful of families who needed the food delivered and by 12:30 the last deliveries went out to families.  Thank you so much. 

Have a joyous holiday season!!

Anne S. Erwin Ed.D.
Principal

Join the Journey, 12.22.19

Question: What do you want for Christmas?

Answers:

1. A happy and healthy family.

2. Light wherever there is darkness.

3. Acceptance and hope and a pizza pan.

4. Stackable washer and dryer.

5. Peace on earth.

6. Strength and understanding and peace. At least strength and peace.

Brian's Blog: Christmas Memories

At a breakfast gathering for BIC (Brothers in Christ) on December 11th, I sat in a room with some 60 other guys and listened as each introduced himself with his name, family connections and favorite Christmas memory.  It was a fascinating time of sharing.  

As each one shared, his stories prompted my memories of my own. 

• The year when I snuck around seeking the secret hiding places of the gifts my mom had purchased and hidden. She walked in on me as I was digging into her and dad’s closet, behind shoes and dresses, discovering the longed-for game Mousetrap!  She was not amused at my tactics, but she did let me play with it that day and throughout the days up until Christmas.  Like most games of that ilk, it broke quickly! 

• The year Anna, age 2, danced and danced around the living room in awe of the tree’s beauty. The year we first celebrated Christmas with Perseverance Chapel and had a room filled with gifts from that excited congregation.  

• The year Karen and I walked, arm in arm, through a magical Kentucky, snow-laden village, her wrapped in our prized $3 wool, plaid coat from Goodwill.  So many memories of laughter, of gifts, of those hopes and dreams sung of in the carols.  

• The first year here, experiencing Christmas with all the kids dressed as animals moo-ing, and baa-ing and bleat-ing around the sanctuary.  You had to be there! Maybe you were.  

That morning the stories ranged from the dad who set booby-traps to keep his kids from sneaking downstairs early -- these increased in severity as the kids aged, until as teens, they included broken glass in the carpet!?!  Yikes. To the guy who remembered Christmas in London at Holy Trinity Brompton Church.  

With all those memories, I know that Christmas is fraught with both good and hard times. Karen and I used to say “It hasn’t been Christmas until somebody cried!”  Well, that may sound bleak, but for us it was a realism that the expectations of Christmas seemed to always lead to some level of disappointment.  

But here’s the thing -- with all this, one of the best Christmas gifts in my life has been YOU.  You have been and are the best congregation I have ever served. There has been more of me available to experience the blessing, for certain.  And I am blessed and privileged to be among you. So, receive my thanks for being YOU. Thanks for bringing such magic to my life and my Christmases celebrated among you.  

Also, I would love to say one thing to you today:  

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!  

I am praying for each of you to experience a rich and blessed experience with family and friends.  Remember: You are loved. God has plans for you that are immense. Keep the faith. Keep walking in the fullness of life day by day.  

“...for unto YOU is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.” 

Blessings upon you this season! 

Brian 

Jesus Came for You

A Monk of the Eastern Church writes:

What needs to be clearly understood is that the ancestors of Jesus were not all just and holy men. Amongst them are also sinners; those who have committed incest, adultery, murder; an alien woman, the names of Judas, of Thamar, of David and Ruth are filled with spiritual significance. Jesus wanted, humanly, to be linked with ‘all that’ and to ‘all those.’ He wanted to clear a way for himself through the sins and crimes of men. And so it is the history of each one of us that he takes upon himself and overcomes. For each one of us has some of the features of those of Jesus’s ancestors who are the furthest from holiness. (https://www.goarch.org/-/christ-s-family-our-family)

What this means for you and me is there is in Christ One to whom we can connect. He came not just for the somebodies out there who are special, but for the nobodies, the forgotten, the one known as a sinner and as a saint. These are those for whom He came and has come. These are the ones we are connected with in Him. This is remarkable. You are therefore the one who has caught the Lord’s eye. The plight of your life, your need, your hurt, your desires, your hopes and dreams. This is why we have focused all season upon embracing the miracle -- for indeed, the One who came, came for you. Like Martha who “opened her door to Him,” and Zacchaeus who was told “today, I must stay at your house,” we too need Jesus in our house, in our hearts. Like Scrooge who awoke to life because of Jesus, we too, need Jesus to enlighten our lives, to move us from the life lived out of our own strength, into the life lived by receiving Him and letting Him live through us. As you come this week, let’s ponder how Jesus’ genealogy is the first place to discover Good News.

Christmas Eve Service at 5:00 pm

Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to enter into Christmas, to enter the day, to experience the Savior anew, to meet with one another, with candles, with music, with Scripture story, and around a table.   Don’t miss Christmas Eve. This is one of those rare, unique, special, precious times of worship. Come to experience Hope. Experience Home. Experience the Wonder of this season. Embrace the Miracle. It is an opportunity.