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!!! ;)

Pray for South Bay

Hey everyone, we're doing a 48 hour prayer chain again leading up to our 3rd and FINAL preview service. If you want to sign up, follow the directions below on how to sign up for a time. We really covet all your prayers for this weekend, and we are waiting in expectation of good things from God! If you are on the East Coast, when you sign up on the calendar, be aware that the time is West Coast time - 3 hours behind. So, for example - if you sign up for the 3am time slot - it's really 6am your time!!! So that would help us out alot :) ....

Go to: www.google.com/calendar/render

Sign in: southbayprayer@gmail.com
Password: prayforsouthbay

Thanks guys, and we'll update soon

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Sunny California! :) It's been awhile since our last post, so I'll try to give a quick and simple update that you won't still be reading till the new year! :)

2nd Preview:
The second preview was amazing! Everything went so much smoother this time around. Our set up was quicker, our volunteers were on top of it! We could not ask to be more blessed with such amazing volunteers and launch team! And we had a wonderful missions team from Pleasant Valley church in Kansas City, MO. They were amazing as well! What a wonderful team of people with such great servants hearts willing to jump in and do whatever needed to be done. We made some great friends that weekend! Overall, we had 154 people attend the service and 2 people make commitments to follow Christ. I feel like I have to explain the attendance numbers a little! :) Last preview we had 175 people come, but about 40 of those people were volunteers from a local supporting church of ours. This time, that church was hosting their own annual Christmas production, so most of those people were involved up there. So, we had less overall numbers, but a greater number of people from the community and the city of Santa Clara! Praise God! Here is a picture from the morning (sorry it's not very good)
Anniversary - On December 14th, (the same day as our second preview, ha) we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! we could not think of a better way to celebrate than to be serving the Lord together! We made this decision together to follow Christ and move to the Silicon Valley, so it was the perfect way to spend the day - serving Christ and living out His calling on our life! We did decide we were going to go to dinner as well, but haven't been able to do so yet! :)

Christmas - well, this is our first Christmas away from our parents, and to think it's completely on the opposite side of the coast as them. We went to a church about 30 minutes away for Christmas eve service with Andy and Stacie and then went to dinner. On Christmas morning, we celebrated with each other, doing our normal traditions of reading the story together, eating orange danish rolls, and opening gifts. It was quite different this year, because on top of opening our gifts to each other, we opened gifts from friends and family all right then. It felt weird, but we still had a really special Christmas morning. We spent the rest of the day with the Wood family, eating meals together, playing Wii, and just really enjoying each other's company and making wonderful memories of our first Christmas in California. Of course we miss our family and friends this time of year, but it truly was a very special Christmas. Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and a few of Capo (cause we haven't put him on here in a while! :) )

Christmas Eve - all dressed up

The church we went to for Christmas Eve - Westgate church
Archie showing off his yoga moves on the Wii fit
Believe it or not, it's been cold in California the last week or so, so we decided to bundle Capo up!
He looks thrilled!

Merry Christmas everyone. We pray blessings on you all, and miss you dearly!

Christmas is here (and the second preview!)

Christmas, quite possibly one of my favorite times of year, is here again! Of course, this year it's quite different since we are in California. This will be my first Christmas away from my family. I've never not been with my parents, sister, and her family on Christmas - or the week after. We normally go on a vacation the week after to the beach. So, I'll definitely be missing it this year, but we are also excited about starting some new family traditions here, and continuing with some of our old ones that we have always done - just in a new state! :) We went and got our first Californian Noble Fir Christmas tree. It smells incredible, and I quite like it! Now, decorating the tree has always been a huge family tradition on the Woods side - eggnog, Christmas music, appetizers, the whole family, turn off the lights accept for the Christmas tree lights, maybe have a movie on in the background. I always remember it as such a fun time growing up - I especially liked to dance to the Christmas music! :) Archie and I have continued this tradition, and always made it a really fun event. Even though we just go to Lowe's to pick out the tree (we went to a tree farm with a real horse drawn carriage in the snow in Omaha growing up), it is still so much fun!!! This year was no exception - We went, picked out the tree, took pictures, decorated, sang and danced to Christmas music (I recommend Christmas remixed: Holiday classics re-grooved for something fun to dance to, and Frank Sinatra: A Jolly Christmas - Great stuff) The two workers at Lowe's asked us if this was our first Christmas - HA! I said, no, we'll actually be celebrating FIVE in a few weeks.... Archie said, I hope they'll always say that!

We celebrated Thanksgiving here, and Archie just celebrated his 31st b-day on December 1st. We celebrated by all of us and some new friends going to Cheesecake Factory for his birthday, and all of the families cooked and we went to the Santos' house for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun, and overall had a great day! Speaking of celebrations, we will be celebrating our FIVE year anniversary on December 14th! I can't believe we've been married for five years already. It is amazing, and we were saying the other day how each of us have changed so much since we got married, but it is so much a result of the other. I feel so blessed to have married such an amazing man! And to know that we are following in God's direction together makes me feel so great!
Thanksgiving at the Santos'
The yummy cheesecake - they even put his name on the plate
Archie Blowing out the candle
We found the perfect one! :)
The Lowe's man cutting off the end
Christmas tree - sorry it's a little blurry!
Christmas table decorations!


So, our second preview is this coming Sunday, December 14th. We are so excited! We want to encourage you guys to really help us in this effort and pray for the meeting this Sunday! We need your help in as many prayers as we can get! We are hosting another 48 hours of prayer leading up to this event. We have a team of people here, hoping to have a lot of you, and other people throughout the nation sign up in increments of 30 minutes for the 48 hours preceding our service, to cover the service in prayer. Here is what our pastor, Andy, had to say about it:

"Won't it be awesome this Sunday to realize that there are some people whose eternal destiny will change and we get to be a part of that! There is nothing like it! I look forward to watching this vision continue to unfold as we serve together as a team. Please join me in believing God for incredible things this weekend. He is capable of so much more than we can imagine. I can see that so many of you have already signed up for 30 minutes slots on the prayer chain. If you have yet to do so please find a slot and pray for 30 minutes between Friday morning and Sunday morning. I will be praying for you as you invite your friends and get the word out about Sunday. I believe we are going to continue to build momentum and see God do even greater things in our midst."

You can be a part of this vision also, by helping us pray... here's what you do:

• Go to http://www.google.com/calendar
• Sign in- username: southbayprayer password: prayforsouthbay
• Click on calendar link at the top of the screen.
• Find one of the 30 minute time slots and put your name there! (remember that all times are pst)

Love you guys and can't wait to share the amazing things God has done here this weekend! We'll update with any other news this week also!