Thanksgiving

We are getting pretty excited for Thanksgiving this year! Of course, those who know me (Rebekah) know that the fall is my FAVORITE time of year, so Thanksgiving coinciding with that just makes it even more fun. For the first time in four years, I am not in charge of the turkey, so I'm taking it as a welcome break! We are headed to Fulsom, near Sacramento, to spend Thanksgiving weekend with some great friends from church and their family. We're planning on eating a lot of course (all P90x approved of course!), playing a lot of Wii, I'm sure some football watching will go on, taking walks in the woods around their house, and on Friday we're headed to a cool place up their named Apple Hill. It's an apple orchard where you can pick/buy apples and apple juice/cider. I've never been but heard it's beautiful, especially this time of year with the leaves changing. As we head home on Friday, we are also stopping in Modesto to see some great friends who recently moved back to Charleston, but are visiting for the holiday. I can't WAIT to see them! South Bay is hosting a Thanksgiving event of their own this year at one of the clubhouses here. We invited everyone who wants to come and celebrate Thanksgiving together. A lot of the staff families will be there, and I have to say I'm a little sad we will be missing out on that part, and being with our new church family. Man what a difference a year makes. Last year this time, it was just the 6 staff families, and we didn't hardly know a soul. We had just had our first preview service for the church, and we celebrated in a very small mostly Southern way :). This year, we're renting out a clubhouse, having tons of people come to eat together, and it will definitely be multi-cultural. Everyone will be bringing food to eat that is from their own country. Here is a picture of last Thanksgiving. We'll be sure to post some after this Thanksgiving.





What are your Thanksgiving plans?

It's about time...So,

I received a friendly reminder that we haven't updated in a while... If you notice the last time we updated, it was in May - the beginning of summer. The beginning of PURE craziness! I know it's like this for almost everyone, longer days, working more, vacations, visitors/guests, weekends packed to the brim - but for some reason, starting a church fitting in the middle of all that makes it seem busier! :) If you couldn't already tell, life has been very hectic. We have had an absolute blast this summer. Here are just a few things that have been going on -

1. We've had about 8 different people come and visit. What a blast! We have become expert tour guides in San Francisco and surrounding areas, and really have felt like we're getting somewhere in tackling how to get around in this giant place. There are still more places we want to see, but we'll get to it eventually. We've felt so blessed to have everyone come, and so many people have been a huge part of our support. It's been awesome for all of them to see South Bay first hand, experience what it's like on Sunday morning (or a typical weekend for that matter), set up church with us, and meet some of our new friends! Here are a few pictures!





2. We went on vacation home to South Carolina. Man was it hot! That's all I could say all week!! The humidity was almost more than I could take - I could feel it as soon as I walked off the plane. You wouldn't have thought I grew up there. :) But it is funny how easily you forget what it really feels like. We've been so spoiled by this amazing weather out here. We had a great time visiting family and friends, jam packing every second of every day with something. We had a fun time out on the water with Rebekah's parent's new jet skis and visiting some of our favorite Charleston haunts. We definitely hit up the REAL barbecue at Sticky Fingers, had some sweet tea, cupcakes at Sugar Bakeshop, and a lot more that we probably shouldn't have! :) we had such a great time seeing our friends, and meeting new ones. It was like we never left!






3. For the past five weeks, South Bay Church has been having it's services outside! The school we meet in was doing some pretty hefty cleaning over the summer and using the gym (where we meet) as it's storage facility. It's the only place in the country that we can get away with this in the middle of the summer, and still be ok. We set up a very large tent, toned down our music to acoustic style, and just worshiped together in the great outdoors! It has been an incredible time of challenge and growth for our church, and we are so excited about the fall! Last week was our last week meeting outside, and we had 217 people attend!! Lots of new guests. We feel so blessed. We have talked about possibly doing a few outside services every summer because it has been so much fun.

We hope you are all doing well! We want to hear from you! What has been the most exciting part of your summer?

Beyond Words

I'm speechless today as I write this. Today was South Bay's first baptism service. What an incredible thing to witness. We had people sign up for a few weeks before the service stating their interest to be baptized, and had 9 people signed up. During the service, Andy spoke about the importance of baptism, the reason we do it, and the things that hold us back from taking the step. At the end, he challenged everyone to take the amazing first step in their walk with Christ to become baptized. We had 18 people come forward to be baptized today!!! It was amazing. The excitement in the place was overwhelming. People were clapping, hooting and hollering like a true celebration! We were in awe as some of the people who we have been praying for came forward to get baptized. Four people from our small group decided to take the step of faith, and we were in tears as all 18 of them were baptized. It's amazing to hear the stories, the different walks of life that each person has come from. Anything from growing up Catholic and now choosing to become baptized as a Christian, those who were once Buddhists and only in the last few weeks have made decisions for Christ, to a child of a Hindu priest and their son who will now no longer be considered part of the family because they were baptized as Christians. What an amazing thing to witness. Archie and I feel so blessed to be a part of this church and to be in service to our Jesus! We'll have some pictures soon, but for now, here's a video that Archie put together for today with some of the amazing stories of a few of the people who were baptized today!

Baptism 09 from South Bay Church on Vimeo.

Please be in prayer for those who were baptized today. Pray for protection and continued commitment! Thank you all for your prayers, support and encouragement!

Hey Blog fans.  I know its been a little while but we wanted to catch you up on what's been going on with us out here in California.  For the past couple months we have been making California more our home.  We have had a lot of visitors from back home to help us out during big weekends for the church.  We even had a visit from Bekah's parents last month which was great.  The church has been going really well.  This past weekend for easter we hosted an easter egg hunt for our community and had 2000 people attend!!  It was incredible!  We had some mission teams come in and help us stuff 6000 plastic eggs by hand with candy.  We even did a few Willy Wonka style golden tickets that kids could turn in for really cool prizes.  Things like tickets to a Giants game, build a bear gift cards and various other fun toys.  It was a blast to be able to show our community the love of Christ and ask nothing in return.  We had all walks of people there- Hindu's, Muslims, all receiving a touch of kindness from Christ.  We had planned this for months but it worked out to be good timing because the week prior that same community experienced a major blow. 5 people, including 2 children had been shot in this community of million+ dollar homes.  Things like this just don''t happen here.  So it was nice to get people back out of their homes to laugh and enjoy the sun and of course, get some candy. :) Here are some pics: 


Our church is now about 10 weeks old and we have been running about 130-170 every sunday.  We have been so blessed by all the volunteers and people willing to give of their time to make South Bay Church happen.  We held 2 Easter services this past sunday and had 285 people!  We had 9 first time decisions for Christ, and 35 first time guests!  It was an incredible weekend for us as a team!  

Coming up this next week, our pastoral team will be heading to LA for the first time since we've been here to attend a Christian Leadership Conference called Catalyst http://www.catalystwestcoast.com/  We are really excited to get out of town for a bit and get inspired and renewed.  I will try to post some pics from my phone this week, it should be pretty incredible.  

On a personal level, Bekah is still enjoying her job and traveling around to homes to work with kids birth to 3yrs old.  It takes a special person to do what she does.  I joke with her that I'm going to have to live in her mansion in heaven (because she's such a good person).  Right now she has a new OT shadowing her as she's driving around and will soon be in a new office space during the week.  I have been continuing to take guitar lesson from a friend and improving my skills.  I have been playing more lead guitar on Sunday mornings which has been a goal of mine, instead of playing acoustic.  Also, we needed to buy a car because Bekah uses ours for work and I have been borrowing a car from our Pastor, Andy since Sept.  We recently got church offices and I now have a need for my own transportation since we are no longer working out of our homes.  We have been saving since Sept to buy a second car in cash.  So this past week I found a car that I have always wanted and it was at a great price and since I only drive around town... I got it.  A 67 Ford Mustang.  I've only had it a few days but already have met many people who want to talk about the car.  Rebekah and I were praying yesterday and we were saying that Jesus wants to use anything we will give Him to reach people, including a Mustang.  Already it has been a great in-roads to build relationships with people.  

Thanks so much for all your prayers.  We are excited about what God is doing here among us.  We are seeing many people come to Christ and lives being radically changed for His sake.  We are so thankful to be giving our lives to His calling.  

South Bay Launch!

We are so excited to share with you about the launch of South Bay Church! First of all, I have to apologize that it's the Saturday after the launch and we are just now updating, but we really do have a valid excuse! :) Besides the fact that our life will now be crazy since we are starting weekly services, my parent's, Cal and Tina were in town for the week, so we have been spending time with them. It was so great to have them here in order to witness this amazing event with us and celebrate the launch of South Bay!

So, our launch started at 7am Pacific time. The launch team arrived to help unload the truck as well as the two mission's teams we had in town to help (one from Lake Point church in Texas and another from Pleasant Valley church in Kansas City, MO). Everyone helped unload the truck, which we have already gotten down to a science. We are now able to unload the entire thing in only 20 minutes. Everyone is assigned a specific job, and knows exactly what they are supposed to do. Things are pushed and moved all around the room in what appears to be chaos, but really everyone knows their exact purpose! We joke about literally working while stepping on top of each other! By about 8:20, all the instruments and stage, chairs, and most of the room was completely set up. The lighting and stage design stuff was finished a little later. At 8:30 we started practicing with the band, and we were able to practice for about an hour! This is a blessing, because in the preview services, we have felt rushed and haven't had enough time to practice. We ran tech rehearsals in order to make sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing and video's were started on time! All the volunteers were amazing, knowing exactly what needed to be done and doing it as well as stepping up and filling in any position they could!




Archie opening the truck - it's still dark!






the team arriving!

People began arriving around 10, and the place started to fill up. We had a lot of new people, and all of the team was able to talk to a bunch of new faces and help them feel welcome. It was a very exciting service, and the crowd could feel the excitement too, often times clapping and shouting with us in the celebration of starting this new church!

-All in all we had 279 people in attendance last Sunday morning, including over 30 children!
-We had over 65 first time guests, and a lot of returning visitors from our preview services.
-There were 17 people who recommitted their life to Christ as well as 9 people who made first time commitments to Christ.
-There were 20 people who indicated they wanted to be a part of a volunteer team
-and 40 people who indicated wanting to be a part of a small group!

We are so excited for this opportunity! And what a blessing it was to have my parents here for this event! They were here for over a week, and we loved every minute of it! We were able to spend some downtime just at the house, they went and visited a few placed while we had to work, and then on Thursday and Friday, Archie and I took off work and traveled with them around the area some. We really enjoyed them being able to visit out here, see where we live, and allow them to meet some of our new friends. It's hard to believe it had been 6 months since we had seen them. They left this morning, and we miss them already!

So, tomorrow is Sunday again, and we have church again! We are definitely looking forward to it, but already tired thinking about it - but a good tired! Please pray for us as we begin this weekly adventure. All of this is possible only with the grace and blessing of God on us and our church! We greatly appreciate your support, encouragement and prayers.

As a last request, We could really use some prayers for band members. Because we are so new, we don't have a band really. Right now, we are just using a lot of band members from neighboring churches who are willing to help us out occasionally. We are so blessed to have them help, but we really need something more permanent, and something we can rely on every week. Please be in prayer with us, that God would send people to our church with musical abilities to help us out in this area! Thanks so much!

We love all of you, and look forward to updating you on the progress of our church!

Prayer

If you have time, we would love if you would consider partnering with us in prayer for our GRAND OPENING!!! South Bay Church is having it's official launch service this Sunday, February 8th. We are once again participating in 48 hours of prayer leading up to the event and would love it if you could be a part of this. Here are the directions:

Enter our google calendar here: https://www.google.com/calendar/render
Login with: southbayprayer
Password: prayforsouthbay
Find a 30-minute slot that is not taken and write your name and location in it.

Just remember if you are in South Carolina or not on the West Coast, the time listed is Pacific time, so if you sign up at 6:30, you would actually be praying at 9:30.

Here are some of the things we are in need of prayer for:

1. That the mailers we have sent out would be received with open hearts and that people would respond - we have already been getting a lot of phone calls and emails in response to these mailers.

2. That the staff of South Bay Church would be able to accomplish what God has called us here to do. This is such a critical time, and the enemy is here to steal, kill, and destroy! Please keep us in your prayers!

3. The attacks of the enemy would not be able to harm what we are doing this weekend. In the past, at preview services, we have had people sick, printers and computers jam/crash, and all sorts of attacks. Already this week, one of the members on our launch team was playing basketball with the group and tore his ACL, and they just lost their insurance due to a job loss! Please keep all of our launch team families in your prayers as well as that nothing would get in the way of God's Word being spread to His people.

4. We have 2 mission's teams and several visitors in from all over the country that will be arriving for the launch. Pray for their safety in traveling, as well as while they are here.

5. Pray for the hearts of the people at the launch. We desire to see God's hand move in a mighty way! We are so excited about the number of people who will be in attendance who may have never heard the Gospel of Christ!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement! We love each of you guys and can't wait to share what God is going to do this weekend!!!

The Crazy Cat Lady

Just wanted to let you all know that we had an amazing service this past Sunday! Thank you for your time, dedication, prayers, and support. We could not be taking this amazing step of faith without you guys. We had 188 people attend the service, 1 person make a commitment to Christ and 10 people recommit their lives to Christ. What exciting and amazing news to see how God is moving mightily in this area. Everything went smoothly, and we really did a lot of hard work! We can't believe that the launch of South Bay church is only one month away.... where did time go??? :) We are so excited, but already tired thinking about going to weekly services. It will be so amazing. We have been super busy here in the prep and working. Again, thank you for all your support.

On a side note, just wanted to let you know that we have officially become the crazy cat lady! On our back porch about 3 weeks ago, we noticed this:

Archie put out the blanket that you see because he felt bad for him. We have never fed him though. but he kept coming back.... then a week later, we now have this one and a black cat taking up residence on our back porch.... cats, cats, go away, before you bring ten more!!! ;)