What a busy month(s)

Well hello! I know, it's been a long time. I can't believe this month marks our 5th month in Tualatin. God has been very good to us here. Every week HE seems to reveal His will and reminds us that HE alone is in Control.

November went by quickly. We were planning on and looking forward to a very special Thanksgiving Eve Service -- which went very well. We had a candlelight service -- singing praises and thanksgiving to our Great God, as well as spending time in His Word, and giving testimonies of His great love and care for us. And of course, afterwards we enjoyed pumpkin pie and cookies. God blessed us with a couple visitors that evening as well.














Speaking of Thanksgiving -- God has been very good to us with providing for our rent every month.

We started a couple activities and ministries in November: Our ladies enjoy going out every month for a ladies luncheon, our men have been meeting every month for a prayer breakfast, and we have been enjoying other activities outside of church as well: we've gone out for dinner, went to a Christmas Concert, and tonight we will be going Christmas Caroling.

December has proved to be a very exciting month. God just keeps blessing us. I don't know if it's because of the season, but everyone seems to be excited in church these days.

Among other things, God has blessed us with a functioning nursery, an almost functioning S. S. class room, doors to separate the two rooms, room dividers, tables for fellowship after church, a proper and inexpensive way to heat the auditorium, a new family of four, the restoring of a marriage, and so much more. Wow! When you put it all out there like that, God has done a lot for us.



And this is what happens when you decide to bring your coffee into the Auditorium for services -- and then spill it:


Pastor Zike giving Scott his gift
from the church family...











Scott now gets to use a sippy cup to put his coffee in. :-)






We are now off to go Christmas Caroling...a chance that we were given to reach out to a 55 and older community (behind our church) that does not allow anyone to come in and go door to door....but they have allowed us to come in and reach them through song. So please pray that we use this opportunity for God's glory tonight.

Thank you for your prayers. Keep praying. God is doing a work here. People are growing spiritually, and God is blessing their faithfulness.

Praise God!

Pastor Dan Zike

Moving forward

God often puts us in circumstances that force us to step out on faith and trust HIM!
We have been renting one side of a two sided storefront since we began in August. The landlord has been gracious enough to allow us to use a small portion of the other side for a nursery and S.S. class. He approached us, letting us know that someone was interested in the other side, so we had to make a decision. We made the decision to move forward. We need the extra space for the kids, and we hope to move the sanctuary to that bigger side as we grow. With that, are rent will double starting in February. We are excited to see how God is going to show Himself real to us during the next couple months.

We have been in Tualatin now for 3 months. We have gained a couple more folks, and have about 16 people for our Sunday services. It seems we have someone call every week asking about our church. We keep waiting for God to bring them all at once. :-)


We were blessed to have our first Guest Speaker a couple weeks ago. Kevin Marshall, Pastor of Rocklick Hollow Baptist Church in PA, came to visit family and was willing to preach for us. It was a wonderful time of fellowship with a good friend and godly pastor.

Our folks have remained strong, encouraging, and very supportive. They are excited about being apart of the ministry of church planting.

We were in need of a set of "french doors" for our church, estimating about $450.00. I made the announcement that we were taking a special offering on Nov. 1st for doors when one of our new folks told me to stop by his house the next day and he would hand me a check for the total amount. Praise GOD! It has been experiences like this that keep us excited and looking forward to moving forward.

Keep praying for us.

So many new and exciting things happening

What a week it has been!!!
Last Friday, we went out and passed out 80 fliers and had a very good response. The next Sunday, 6 visitors came, 3 adults and 3 kids. The adults were younger folks, and their children were all under the age of four....and a nursery was suddenly born! Praise the Lord!
After church we had an activity planned. We all went to our house for lunch and then out for some miniature golf. One of our visitors went with us, and then his whole family came back to our house for dessert. We had a really good time of fellowship.
Wednesday night, we had another exciting time...we had one more visitor, an older gentleman who is a retired minister of 50 years. Also, I had asked Scott if he would handle the song leading on Wednesday nights. Last Wednesday night was his first time. He really did well. It also freed me up to deal with other issues.

It is wonderful watching God do so many things, and we are looking forward to see what He wants to do next.

I see it's been a while sense I have written. Sorry about that.
Tonight was our visitation night. Two of us went out, not sure how it would turn out, but it was one of our most exciting nights out. We had several people express interest in coming to church and trying us out. A number of them said that they have recently moved and were looking for a church home. And some were elderly ladies who like going to church but have no way of getting there.
Which bring us to our next prayer request: we may have to start our first "bus ministry"! :-) We already have one elderly woman who needs a ride when it rains (which happens a lot here), and if these others come, it will make Sundays interesting. Oh well. The Lord knows, and if He wants them there, He will figure out a way to get them there.
We are rejoicing over what God is doing. He is working in each individual's lives, changing all of us. Some are breaking out of their shell, others are getting more involved with service, and others are getting into their Bible a whole lot more.
Our motto is, "We just want to be a blessing", and we are learning that the best way to be a blessing is to have a personal relationship with Christ.

We have our new chairs, and the folks just love them. It makes the sanctuary seem like a sanctuary.
We have gained one person sense we started. She is 89 and spent 34 years as a missionary in South America. She is a wonderful Christian woman, who keeps us all on our toes. We love her dearly and thank God daily for sending her to us.
We have our first church activity this Sunday. We are having a potluck at the Pastor's house and then going out to play miniature golf. We hope for nice weather and good fellowship.

Thank you all for your prayers. Keep praying that we will be able to reach every home and apartment around us and find those who need Christ as their Savior.

An Exciting Day

It has been really exciting watching God work through some of our folks. They have been obedient to God, and He has blessed them with answered prayers, and showing Himself in their lives.
This was our fourth Sunday. We had 14 people today; three of which were visitors. Our services were good. We had good outcomes, and people were making decisions.
Today was really exciting, and a service that we needed.
A note of praise: we received the money needed to purchase new chairs!!! We will have them before next Sunday! You have no idea how much this means to us! We all are thanking and praising God for this.

Just trying to please HIM,

Pastor Dan Zike

Visitation

We went out for visitation tonight. We had better turnout than most churches: all but one showed up. :-)
We knocked on over 100 doors, had a good reception at almost every door, and a couple folks who said that they would be in church on Sunday. Only the Lord knows their hearts, and all we have to do is remain faithful in going out and spreading the Gospel.
Thanks to all those who came and offered their support...keep going strong.

Let's not forget to be praying for Sunday's services.

Tomorrow night is our Beaver's Baseball game outing...
our Annual Church Camp out is coming up, over Labor Day Weekend...
and lets not forget that we will be having our first Special Guest Speaker on the last Sunday in September...Pastor Kevin Marshall will be here. I'm looking forward to hearing him preach from God's Word.

We'll see you on Saturday, when we are going out again to finish the doors we missed.

May the Lord bless you,
Pastor Dan Zike

Pushing Forward

I can't believe it's been so long since I have written. I would like to say that a lot has been happening, and we have been having visitors every week, and have had people at the altar getting saved. But, God has it all under control...we just have to remain faithful and sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading, and HE will accomplish what He wants done.

We have had a regular visitor on Wednesday nights. His name is Ed. He usually brings his wife, but she was ill last time. Both he and his wife have been playing the piano since they we children. They are a blessing to have apart of our Bible study and Prayer service.

Our Outreach at the Annual Crawfish Festival went very well. We were able to hand out over 100 fliers, with a personal invitation for each. We prayed that God would bless and convict every person that received one.
We are losing one of our members (which is not good when you only have 9 to begin with) on Tuesday. Josh is headed for Florida for 5 months. He will be greatly missed.


We do have one major prayer request: we need comfortable chairs. Right now we are using medal folding chairs. They are a hindrance from getting people to come back. So please pray that we get replace them soon.

To our own folks: don't forget your challenge for Wednesday night - to find in Scripture how God relates to us as our heavenly Father. Also, don't forget to come prepared to give a testimony as well. We look forward to listening to what God is doing in your lives this past week.

Tomorrow: in Sunday School, we will be dealing with God's Command to Follow Him. And in the Morning Service, we will be back in Nehemiah, chapter three: Simple lessons from Simple people.

I look forward to seeing everyone there. May God bless you.

Pastor Dan Zike

More Visitors

Praise the Lord! We had a great Wednesday night service. The Lord even blessed us with a new couple who may start coming on Wed. nights because their church does not have a mid-week service. I think we are going to find a lot of that in our area.

Delbert, Scott and myself hung our big sign out front on Tuesday! We are not able to be seen from 99W, Pacific Hwy. So, 1000's of cars a day will be passing right by our building and can now see a sign.

We are going to Tualatin's Crawfish Festival this weekend to participate in their festivities, but more importantly to pass out church fliers and do some witnessing. We pray that the Lord will bless our efforts with souls saved and with more visitors on Sunday. Now if we could just get our visitors to return.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Our First Service

WOW! What a rushed week it has been! God had provided for us a store front that we could start using on the first of August (our first service was August 2nd), but we only had one week to get everything together. One week to turn a completely empty 600 sq/foot room into a functional church building. We worked hard. The basic rule of thumb was, if Noah came home with black feet, it wasn't clean yet. Twice over with the vacuum, twice over with the mop, and after 5 "swifter sweeper" pads, the floors finally came clean.

The week that we started to clean and prepare, it was the hottest it has been in decades in Portland, OR. We're talking 106 and 107 degrees. On our first day of cleaning, the A/C broke! The Lord has provided us with generous folks who have donated the funds to replace that A/C (Praise the Lord). Also, someone donated the funds to have a sign built.

Our first service was on August 2nd. We had 10 people for Sunday School, and 6 more showed up for our morning service. The song service was great: our folks sang loud. So loud that the used car salesman down the way said he could hear us. Which he loved because he had to miss church that day. There was really a good spirit throughout the whole day.

My wife and I decided we needed to have a celebration for our first service, so we bought an ice cream cake and had a good time of fellowship afterwards...praising God for what He has started and for what He is going to accomplish through His ministry here.

We praise the Lord for His goodness in getting His work started. It has been a blessing and an encouragement to be a part of it. We ask for your prayers. We need God's guidance, strength, love, and patience.

Thanks to all who have been praying for us already: may the Lord bless you.