On the road for the Holidays...

I hope everybody has had an incredible Thanksgiving. I have been in the south for a week now visiting family. I just wanted to give a heads up to my blog readers that I will return updating this blog when I get back to Seattle on Dec. 7th. Thank you for your support and prayers. - cham



-- Post From Cham's Phone

Monday Night Football is a blessing.

It has been incredibly cool seeing how Monday Night Football can do some much greatness in a guy's life. What do you mean? About a month or so ago, we (leadership) decided that we wanted to get all the men of the church connected to each other. So we figured the best way to do it is through something that speaks to men...(lightbulb) NFL Football. NFL is a big deal here. We have the Seahawks that play in Seattle, so it makes sense.

The idea is to gather all the guys by meeting at somebody's house each Monday night to watch football. There guys can talk, eat, cheer, and laugh around the game of football. For weeks, it grew into a success, then we starting thinking. Why not go a step further? Why not have a Bible study before we get started. With the incredible discovery of DVR (aka Tivo), we had the ability catch up with the the game when the study time is over. Tim (pastor) suggested going through "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge. So we began.

Over the course of 5 weeks now, I have seen a group of men develop into a Band of Brothers. In past two weeks, I have seen our men really open up, challenge one another, encourage each other, and realize that we are all in this together when it comes to being a man of Christ. I think the interesting thing now is that our discussions are getting longer, deeper, and more important to the point that we almost forget about the game. It is just amazing seeing all of the men grow. It is exciting to see male leadership in our church begin to develop. Who knew that MNF (Monday Night Football) could be such a tool.

-Cham

The area that I live in...

I bold/italicized the part that describe the culture I am in.

Article from christianpost.com:

The top ten most religious states in America are all located in the south or southern Midwest, according to a new Gallup report.All ten states are part of the so-called “Bible Belt,” or the area in the United States with a heavy socially conservative evangelical Protestant population. They are, starting with the most religious: Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Kentucky and Texas, which are tied.

The Gallup report ranked each state’s religiousness by asking respondents if religion is an important part of their daily life.

Overall, analysis shows that a solid majority of Americans said religion is important in their daily lives. A full 65 percent of Americans across the entire U.S. population gave this response.

On the other hand, about one in three American adults said religion is not important in their lives, while one percent either responded they don’t know or refused to answer.

Breaking down the data by states, 60 to 70 percent of the population in 23 states said religion is important.

Religion seems to be less important to those living in the New England area and the far West.

The top ten least religious states, starting from the least religious are: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Rhode Island, Nevada, and Connecticut.

The results are based on telephone interviews with 355,334 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted in 2008 as part of the Gallup Poll Daily tracking. The report is the second of a four-part series on the “State of the States.”

Commons Ladies Retreat

(Phone Pic from the retreat center)

Keep The Commons Ladies in your prayers this weekend. Yesterday, 20+ ladies headed for the mountains for an overnight retreat with speaking, worship, and "gal" time. The ladies will be suffering in a winter wonderland as you can see from the blackberry picture taken from one of them. This is an exciting time for The Commons because of all the new ladies joining in on the retreat as well as just 1st time visitors. Please be praying for the God will really impact this retreat with Himself, impact the ladies' lives, and to provide safe travels home tonight. Every year this event brings back some awesome "God stories". So we are definitely excited.

-cham

A fan page

I have recently created a fan page on Facebook to help all of my FB friends/supporters get the info that is posted on here. Sometimes blogs can be forgotten, so I am taking the God stories to the social networks. So if you have a Facebook account, then look me up. The address is:

http://tinyurl.com/FBCHAMFAN

The idea is to get more and more people involved with the ministry that is taking place up here.

-cham

November's E-Letter

Below are two forms of the November E-Letter that I have sent out. I am still trying to figure out how to capture the full html (pictures/color/etc) of the email and put it in to PDF form. So I am experimenting a little. One file below is the PDF version with no pics or color. The other file is an actually apple email that I saved off line (maybe it will work) that has everything on it.

Plain PDF -----> Cham's Nov. E-letter

Actually E-mail ----- Cham's Nov. E-letter

**This file may or may not work. Any feedback on this file, if it does or

does not would be appreciated.

Please keep me in your prayers. I am financially to a point where I have to make a hard decision. I have to either raise a substantial amount of money to continue to serve full time or pursue a full time job which could possibly limit my time to minister.

If you would like to support me financially, then check out in the upper right corner of this blog or e-mail at cham.i.am@gmail.com. Thank you for taking the time to check out what God is doing in the Pacific Northwest. I also want to thank you for all of your prayers, support, and contributions.

-cham

And the growth continues...

We had 113 people today (including adults & children/preschool). Incredible!!!

We keep growing and growing in Pioneer. Our move alone has increased students participating in worship and serving. We have had more and more new families visit and connect. It's amazing how God keeps using The Commons.

-- Post From Cham's Phone

Commons Students: 1st Annual Girls Sleepover

Tonight will be the first of many Commons Students: Annual Girls Sleepover. Prayerfully about 15-20 girls will head over to Amy Corbins house for a night of laughs, fun, & most of all COMMUNITY. My prayer is that this event will be one of many that draw the girls in the student ministry closer together. Wednesdays and Sundays are hard to get students connected because of all the hustle and bustle, so lets be intentional. Keep Amy & a few other ladies in your prayers as they endure an all nighter tonight. Thank you for all your prayers and suppport! We are in this together.

-Cham

Ministry is eveywhere...

Ministry Monday morning. Serving at large established churches over the past 10 years, I am very familiar with Mondays being staff meeting days. At The Commons, we take the Monday mornings to reach out and serve. We have a women's bible study every Monday morning. As you know with a majority of women, they usually have a few children. That provides an opportunity for serving in the area of childcare. For the last couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to help with childcare so that the moms can spend an uninterrupted 2 hours of connecting to God and other ladies. It's just a cool time to help with a bigger picture.

"everybody wants a revolution but nobody wants to do the dishes." - Claiborne



-- Post From Cham's Phone

Great Turn Out!!!

Even with a lot of people out due to the flu, we still had an awesome turn out on our first day in Pioneer Elem.



-- Post From Cham's Phone