what's going on

the news of the past week:

n has decided to return to her high school for the next year. she had been considering leaving for bellevue community college via the running start program. it's been a tough year at kentridge high and for a while, it looked like she could go either way. in an encouraging bit of news, n reports that she believes that God is leading her to return to kr, and that he will make things better. to which i respond, amen!

b is playing out the string at bcc and making preparations for heading to columbia in the late summer. tomorrow night, she'll be going to a kent rotary-sponsored dinner to honor the top 25 students at kr -- slightly ironic, since b has never actually taken a class there (she's formally enrolled there, but takes all of her courses at bcc).

m has been playing host to many family visitors -- her mother, her sister l and nieces l and s. it's fun (and slightly exhausting) to have the pitter-patter of little feet around the house again! the visit is the harbinger of things to come, as all of those folks, plus twice as many again will be in town for b's graduation in mid-june. m is also extraordinarily busy with church activities, as she heads up the ministries to children and youth, as well as the prayer ministry. she still makes time to have a date with me every week, usually on thursdays.

the bridge had a big open house day this past sunday, playing host to our mother church, lighthouse christian church. what a joy it was to worship together yesterday and to share some of what God has been doing in our midst. as i tried to explain during the service, we are definitely a work in progress and have a number of significant challenges to tackle -- notably, workload distribution (too few people doing too many things) and overall church programming/structure (that's the too many things piece). i honestly don't think we do that many things yet; we're pretty basic as far as programming. but we have to find ways to allow more people to have a share in the work, and perhaps ways to streamline the structure even more so that we are not trying to do more than is wise, given our limited numbers. in a happy bit of news, our church office is now painted and should be carpeted sometime this week. i hope to make my transition from the lighthouse office, as soon as we get the office furnished and equipped.

in the midst of these many challenges, i have been up and down -- alternately encouraged by all God is doing and overwhelmed by things are are left undone or worse yet, that i'm not doing as well as i think i should. it certainly presses all of my personal issue buttons! among the other things that i'm figuring out is that i need to be clearer about my vision for the church and to articulate it more assertively; i believe this will free up people to embrace what God is doing among us and to work hard for him. i've tended to be too restrained (passive?) and collaborative at times, and it's led to some confusion. hopefully, we can get some things on a more solid footing in the next weeks. your prayers are appreciated!