Hope Northwest Church started meeting on February 19, 2023. We have officially hit our one year mark. Wow. Tear. This is the whole reason we moved to the Pacific Northwest and here we are a year later still in awe of the Lord. In celebration of meeting together for a year, Nick made Gumbo for our congregation to enjoy after service. Everyone loves to stay and hangout after church. We are so thankful that church is not just an in and out experience but a special time to gather together to worship the Lord in many different ways which includes breaking bread and fellowshipping together at the end!
“O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?”
Psalm 89:8
Here’s what’s going on at Hope Northwest!
We have grown to 25 people including the babies! We recently lost 3 but gained 4 plus 3 kids. We are almost at capacity in our living room and might have to start setting up chairs in rows like pews instead of a U-shape. Whatever happens, we will adjust and make it work because we never want to turn anyone away or make people feel uncomfortable. We also believe that the Lord will provide a bigger space at the right time.
A few months ago, Olive’s sleep schedule started lining up with church so I was able to sit and listen to the sermon while Zion watched a show in his room (thank you technology for baby monitors). At times I felt like a bad mom for just sticking my son in a room staring at a screen but I just had such a desire to sit and hear Nick’s sermons. And isn’t that like God, once we get comfortable things change again. As of two weeks ago, I now have 5 kids at service and no longer get to sit in for the sermon. The first week they came we didn’t know they were coming. Nick thought when he saw the car that they were going to visit neighbors and then we saw them walking to our home! We excitedly ran to get more chairs. I quickly realized….oh! I’m the children’s church teacher, I better figure that out! Thankfully, Olive naps for most of the time but after worship I take all the kids back to Zion’s room to play. I am still trying to navigate how to structure those 40 minutes with them but right now it’s more just trying to keep the baby happy and distracted while managing the others not to fight over toys. My desire is to implement some type of Bible story or coloring but with limited space and just me back there, I am taking it week by week. I am just excited they are there and keep coming back! Zion is still getting used to having new kids in his room playing with all his toys but I know he will warm up to it as he gets to know them more.
The men and women in our church are growing closer to the Lord as well as with each other. They have really begun to open up more, are still committed and thankful for the church, and we can see the fruit in their lives through their outward expressions of joy. So many great testimonies of how this church came into their life at the perfect time. One member expressed that despite this year being filled with a lot of sudden difficulty, this has been the best year for her and she attributes a lot of that to our church. Another member lost his job but is a living example of rejoicing under trials and is growing closer to the Lord and trusting in His perfect will as he looks for a new job. Many of the members of our women’s study have shared how thankful they are to do life with other godly women. Two of the men have teamed up to volunteer their time to film and edit Nick’s sermons so we can start posting them online soon. Hope Northwest has provided a community better yet a family for so many and we are more excited than we were before to see what God will do in this next year.
An update on our neighbors. If you have no idea what I’m referring to, take a look at the post titled Adversity from December 1st. This past month we received an email from the City of Vancouver Community Department stating that there have been multiple members in our neighborhood who have expressed some concerns about our bible study causing an increase in traffic and parking surrounding our home. The city worker was simply gathering information before she spoke to some of the community members. Nick replied with a wonderfully heartfelt and honest email which included an aerial map showing where everyone parks, gave them all the details of our service, expressed that we are more than willing to do or talk to whoever we need to to sort this all out, and even invited the city worker to join us on a Sunday or drive by to see for herself. The last thing she expressed to us was that she was going to ask our neighbors to speak with us. We have not heard anything since that last email and assume our neighbors will never address their issues with us. We are not sure who made the complaint and can only speculate but we will keep praying, being kind to all our neighbors, and making ourselves available if they ever want to talk with us. So we continue to pray for all our neighbors that they would have a change of heart.
With that being said, Nick and I have not been out to walk the neighborhood and invite neighbors to our church. We still have the intention to but one thing after another has not allowed that to happen. And I’ll be honest, at this point I don’t really want to, but I will support Nick and walk with him when he feels the timing is right. But once again, despite our efforts the Lord builds his church not us. In my last church update I expressed that we were planning to start up evening prayer nights, but unfortunately we could not make those work due to our children and how our schedules have worked out. We are so thankful to be able to host church on Sundays and Bible Study on Wednesday evenings, but at this time hosting another evening gathering would bring difficulty to our family. We understand that planting a church takes sacrifices but we also know that our family is still our first ministry and we need to prayerfully make decisions about the church that personally affect our family.
Nick has been invited to a few different quarterly pastoral meetings with other local pastors, has met with local youth pastors to encourage and give advice from his experiences, and is staying up to date on the spiritual needs of this area through a few godly men he meets up with. His main focus is to study and preach the word every Sunday as well as lead the men’s group on Saturdays. He has personal relationships with all the men at our church and is doing a great job discipling them. He spends time brushing up on Greek and has now begun to learn Hebrew to expand his knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Back in December, Nick finished his Doctorate and is officially done with school, but of course never done learning. He has applied to many adjunct teaching jobs but has not received an interview yet. At times we get discouraged as we have always felt that Nick should be semi bi-vocational so he never has to take a large salary from the church to provide for our family. However, God has not opened the door for this to happen so we are trusting him. We are also extremely grateful to Hope Chapel Hermosa Beach for their continued support through prayer but especially financially. We are never worried about money as we know God will always provide for us but we also are not ignorant as to who the people are that the Lord is using to bless, support, and protect us as we take this leap of faith. To those we say thank you!
We are so grateful that God called us up here. I recently shared with the ladies at bible study that I am so thankful they are here. Thankful that they are patient with our family and our children as we know they can be loud and disruptive sometimes. I also expressed that them being here is such an answer to prayer and confirms that we made the right choice to move up here. We needed them as much as they needed us. I am so incredibly thankful for our church family as it has brought comfort, community, laughter, and joy to my life and has given me a place to grow as a ministry leader and woman of God. The best part about Hope Northwest Church, besides all that the Lord has accomplished this past year, are the people in the church.
Thank you Lord for an amazing year full of ups and downs, so much growth and maturity, and lots and lots of joy. Our hearts are full. May your Word go forth humbly and truthfully. Please use us as we continue to walk in Your will to reach the hearts of Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest. Praise be to God. Amen!
Jess T.
Prayer Requests
Grow our church
Change the hearts of our neighbors
Give Nick wisdom as he shephard's the men, Stephanie wisdom as she leads the women and me wisdom as I watch over the kiddos
Protection against spiritual warfare
Comments