Well, summer is in full swing here in the Pacific Northwest, and there is SO much going on!  We made it through an incredibly busy April and May, through which I was out of town every other weekend on ministry related trips, and the weekends where I was home we had events happening.  I’m thankful for God’s abundant provision of strength through this busy season!  Thank you for praying for this!

Answers to prayer

• Through April and May, as Jason (LOWPC Director) has come back from his sabbatical, we are continuing to refine vision and focus for this season.  I am encouraged as we continue to move forward together into the plans the Lord has for LOWPC and beyond.   As we have compared notes, I’m thankful that we are very much on the same page as a leadership team.  I find great joy in seeing strategy and plans move forward into action and results.
• The past month and a half especially has had times of rest and times of input for me, for which I am thankful!  I have gotten to spend more time riding than I have in years in preparation for a long weekend trip into the North Cascades (Winthrop/Twisp, WA) with horses and new horsey friends (a HUGE answer to prayer!), and am reminded how riding my horse regularly helps me stay sane.  “Breeze” (my horse) is such a gift, in every possible sense of the word!  Check out pictures of the weekend here.
• We saw the Lord move powerfully over Easter weekend, with almost 300 first time salvation decisions reported from just one of the large churches in town.  On Good Friday, one church prepared for 900 to attend (previous year’s attendance was about 800), but over 1200 show up – standing room only with the overflow room and lobby all full!  Now the team who had prepared communion had measured exactly how much they would need to serve 900 people, and knew that there wouldn’t be enough for everyone who came.  In faith and with fervent prayer, they sent it out anyway.  The one in charge then paced the hallway waiting for the report that they had run out, but it never came.  When the service was done, they gathered up the communion and found that instead of running out, they had 12 baskets full of bread and 12 pitchers of juice left!!  Praise the Lord!
• Over Pentecost weekend, 9 churches from around Bellingham gathered for a single service at the Mount Baker Theater downtown.  I had the honor of helping lead worship on that Sunday with two others from LOWPC and a blended team from a couple of other churches.  It was an amazing display of unity and honor as the Church in Bellingham gathered together, laying down denominational differences, for the sake of Christ and the Gospel.  We’re hoping and praying that next year there will be so many churches who gather that we will have to move from Mount Baker Theater to Civic Field!!

Fire on the Altar 2015

We’ve been praying and planning since January, and Fire on the Altar 2015 is here!  The lay of the land and our capacity is very different this year than last year (see below), and so we are doing a condensed two week program instead of 7 weeks like last year (June 29th through July 10th).  We have about 12 committed students, and wouldn’t be surprised if more show up on Monday morning.  Bellingham is a very last minute culture, which has made the planning process somewhat difficult this year.  God is faithful, and he has great plans for these two weeks!!

• Please pray for health, strength, joy, and encouragement for Shannon and myself as we press forward into these two weeks.  We want to be used by the Lord to pour into the lives of each student!!  Two weeks is so much shorter than seven, but our Lord does exceedingly abundantly beyond what we can ask or imagine!
• Please pray specifically for protection over our health these two weeks – His strength is made perfect in our weakness, and the joy of the Lord is our strength!
• Pray for each student to come hungry and expectant, and that the Lord would carry each of them through these two weeks and meet each one in profound ways!!
  

  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings…!

We have SO many weddings to celebrate this summer!!  Four members of LOWPC staff are getting married this summer!  This is a blessed and exciting time, but also a time of great busy-ness and transition for each of the individuals entering into marriage.  Please be praying for us as we walk through this season as a big family!!  Pray for grace and strength for each of the couples preparing for marriage, with all of the planning and details on top of their regular responsibilities.  Pray for those of us who are supporting them and cheering them on!  This is a unique season as we all adjust to new family dynamics over the next few months.  God is good!

• It’s always been a desire of my heart to be married.  I invite you to join me in prayer for my husband!!  As I rejoice with my friends, I also wait in hopeful expectation that my turn is coming (soon?)!!  I am trusting in the Lord’s good leadership in my life and in his perfect timing, but I also really hope to meet my husband soon!!  In my circle of close friends, there are 6 of us 30+ single ladies who are waiting and praying for husbands!!  They are somewhere, and the Lord only knows.  It’s kind of fun, though, cause we all are hoping for something different in our love stories.  Whether this is realistic or not, I really want my husband to just walk in the door one day.  However he comes, if you’re so inclined, I would welcome your prayers.

For the rest of the summer…

Thank you for continuing to journey with me!!  I’m excited to share more details about volunteering with Promise 23 Ranch Ministries (within the next week or two)!  I’m in awe of God’s goodness and faithfulness and creativity.  Also, after FOTA2015 wraps up, I’ll be digging into some new projects at LOWPC that I’m very excited about.  More on that in the next update.

Thank you for supporting me in friendship, in prayer, and in finances and in countless other ways!  God writes really good stories, and I’m thrilled to get to actually walk this story out day by day!  A couple of final requests for now:

• Please pray for me and the LOWPC team to have great wisdom as we continually seek to walk in step with God’s doing here in Bellingham!
• Please join me in prayer for 4 additional monthly supporters.  Find out how to support me here.

And this is my prayer for you today:

Ephesians 3:14-21 – For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

–vanessa