Among the busyness...

We have a ton going on at The Commons. We are scurrying around getting the weekly things accomplished, building and investing in relationships, and getting Sports Camp together. God has really been blessing the church and the ministries that we are doing. As mentioned in my last blog, I had the privilege of leading 8 middle school students to Christ. Completely incredible!!!

I type this blog asking you to keep us all in your prayers. As a church plant, we are funded through those who financially partner with us. Due to the economy, many church plants are taking a hit in funding. A few of us on couple of us on staff (including me) have sought after part time and full time positions to make ends meet so we can continue doing ministry.

I recently took a part time job at Best Buy to help with low funds. I love the job and people, but it still doesn't provide enough financially to help with the low funds.

I mention all this to ask you to pray for me, our staff, church, and other churches here in the PNW. It is an exciting and scary time. We get tread through the unknown, but at the same time we get to see the provisions of God first hand.

Bottom line, we are willing to do what is ever necessary to continue ministering here in the PNW. Our desire is to connect people outside of this area (in different ways) to the ministry going on here. Some of those ways are: prayer, financial support, mission trips, or even moving out here. However God leads someone to help reach the PNW is our desire because it becomes a blessing to all.

If you would like to help in any way or get your church involved, then please contact me at cham@discoverthecommons.com

Thank you for following, praying, and supporting me.

Because of your sacrifices and support, we are able to continue

experiencing fruit in the lives of people here.

Cham

"So why did God give up Jesus?"

The title of this blog was the very question that a middle school girl asked me during the bible study and it was a question that impacted many.

The night started off with energy, spaghetti, and a whole lot of new kids. As you may or may not know, I decided to split the middle school and high school up on two separate nights. Last week, I had a total of 4 middle school students. I challenged them to bring friends and they came through. I had 12 students tonight! That was huge, but not as big as what was to come.

I started off interacting with the students as normal. I do my dumb cham stuff that breaks the ice and helps connect others with laughing and what not. Soon after, I begin the bible study. Of course, I started with a object lesson..."Name that baby food". Who knew what was about to happen?

After the object lesson, I began to run over Matthew 5:13-16(msg). Quite to my surprise, we didn't stay on that long. I had a young girl raise her hand in the middle of the lesson with a baffled look. I pointed to her and said, "do you have a question?" She said, "So why did God five up Jesus?" I heard a bunch of "yeahs" very low under other's breathes. I responded, "great question..let's look find out."

So at that point, I walked through John 3:16 & Romans 3:23. I explained to them why Christ had to die and came to die for the world. I went through why we fell short and how Jesus can fix that. The girl then followed up by asking, "So how do you come into a relationship with Jesus?" I grinned and I took the group through Romans 10:9-10. I explained to them about asking Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. I explained my testimony quickly and what Christ did for me.

At that point, I asked the entire group to bow there heads. I simply said, "If you would like to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior then just make eye contact with me." 8 students looked at me and I about lost it. I walked them through a how to get saved.

Can I say that TOTALLY ROCKED MY WORLD!!! Everything, the ups and downs of church planting and sacrificing, totally paid off. I got to experience God moving first hand. It is still surreal to me. I plan to follow up these next weeks with them. God rocks my world!

Please keep these students, me, the student ministry, and The Commons in your prayers. God is doing some incredible things here. Come be apart of it in some way.

-Cham

PS. I didn't edit check this content b/c I'm worn out. Please forgive any mistakes or type-os.

Crawlin' with a purpose...

One of the cool things I get to experience is watching people jump on the mission that Christ has called us to. I have had the privilege to hang out with some incredible guys that are passion about "muddin'/crawling" and also their relationship with Christ.

Recently the group's name and mission, "Crawlers 4 Christ", was birthed out of these two passions. It consist of a few guys from The Commons and from a few other churches. Their desire is to reach out to people with the love of Christ and to build community around one of their favorite hobbies. It's totally legit with cards to hand out and everything. It has just been pretty cool just watching it form through all the talk and rides that I have been own with these guys.

The other day as the group was leaving the trails, we met a guy who was needing help with his 4x4 truck. The guys spent and additional 2 hours in the dark trying to fix the truck so that he could get home. They met his physical needs and also talked to him about Christ as well. The guy was super thankful because most people wouldn't have stopped and taken the time due to fear of being tricked or robbed (the trails can be a shady place). As mentioned earlier, it is just a cool privilege to be around guys from The Commons and other churches that have a passion for Christ and to help others. God is doing great things here in Arlington, WA.

-cham