Our Blog Has Moved!

New Life Church has a new website! It integrates a blog into the whole website. And, actually, it looks quite nice. So our blog has moved and we are going to begin to use it differently.

This one, frankly, has fallen into disuse and for that I apologize. But, we won't need the new blog for news and announcements and can use it more for a blog. It will feature resources, lessons learned, opinions...like a normal blog.

I hope you have fun with it. Good bye, Blogger!

Today's River Baptism has moved

On account of the rain we are moving the baptism to New Life Church Riverfalls. It will still be at 4:00. It will include awesome testimonies. It will still even have a cookout at the end. You won't, however, need your lawn chairs! Hope to see you there.

Rome & Moldova Report

Taylor and I returned from Moldova at 1:00 on Sunday morning after 22 1/2 hours of traveling! Thank you for your prayers; we had a rich and full couple weeks. We will give a full report Tuesday night, September 27th at 7:00 in the Fireside Room at New Life Church River Falls.

I apologize for not posting some pictures earlier, but had some technical difficulties and were extremely pressed for time. So, I couldn't figure out the technical problems.

We were privileged to see Dan & Alice Simmons and to be with their church three times. We heard of the impact of Dale & Cris Austen's visit there earlier this year. One of the reasons Dale & Cris had the impact they did was because Michele Gandolfo had such serious health problems while they were there that changed not only their trip, but the church as well.

As you may have heard, I lost my passport in Rome. That provided a little more excitement than we anticipated. Taylor left Rome by himself to start the class. He taught three days by himself before I got there.

Our students loved the Lord and loved the class. Our definition of worship was:

Worship is our God-glorifying, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered, Word-saturated, delightful response to the person and work of God which results in adoration and action.

We'll share more on Tuesday. I do want to thank you for your prayers. We needed them.

Pastor Bill was a Swearing Sailor who finds Salvation

Pastor Bill Kramer is featured in the Multnomah University Newsletter. He attended there and they wrote a nice article about his salvation, life and ministry. Congratulations Pastor Bill, we're proud of you, too!

Annual Budget and Elections Meeting

Sunday, November 21, 2010 we held our annual budget and elections meeting at New Life Church Robinwood. Anna Alcutt, Mike & Sherri Hellweg, John & Sylvia Pigott, Lauren Reavely, Phil & Marcia Reis, Donna Silva, Caitlyn Stone, and Jim & Cathy Tuttle were introduced as new members.

The church approved the budget and ratified Scott Haugen and Lee Bennett as elder for the next term.

And we approved changes to our bylaws. You can get a copy of the bylaws by asking the church office. Among the changes were:

• An upgrade to the church covenant.
• Dropping the word "pre-millenial" from our doctrinal statement.
• Requiring only one business meeting per year.
• Wording that presses us to search for a senior pastor from inside New Life Church before we go outside, reflecting our value of leadership development.
  

Thank you for helping with Thanksgiving Baskets

Another great year was just completed. Thanks so much to everyone who made phone calls, printed maps, donated food, packed food, and delivered boxes. There were 29 boxes filled this year. The high school Ignite team was a wonderful help in moving the food from the storage cupboard onto the tables where it was packed. God is blessed and so is everyone involved in this outreach ministry!

From Dianne Froode

10/10/10 -- A Great Sunday at New Life Church

I have been a pastor at our church, as of last week, for 22 years! In that time, I can probably count on one hand the number of Sundays that I would say were really great, days where I wouldn't really change anything. God has done such a good work in our church, but He has done it through a series of gradual changes and good, but not spectacular Sundays.

Last Sunday, however, was one of those days that I would say was really great. For starters, the Robinwood congregation had their highest non-Easter attendance of the year and started a new class called Gospel Armor with 22 adults attending. The Riverfalls congregation enjoyed four baptisms (Audrey Lazar, Rachel Polley, David Hellweg, and Sam Cochran). Three fathers baptized their children. The service was full, but not as full as it would have been had we not sent a team to go do the service at Tanner Springs. Then we shared dinner together and the child safety training was packed. Eighty people were reminded of the importance of keeping kids safe. Add to that the 20 or so from a previous training and there are already 100 volunteers trained and ready to serve! That would have been good enough, but then 50 or so young people hit the I-205 off-ramps in Clackamas County to raise money for homeless people on World Homeless Day. Then, ReGeneration had a large crowd who were challenged to choose the path of wisdom from Psalm 1:1-6. If that weren't enough, one young man came up to me then and told me how he'd submitted his life to Christ after we talked last week!

I fell into bed exhausted, but happy for God's work at New Life Church. And . . . I hope it encourages you, too.

New Life Church Outdoor Baptism 2010

We had a great Sunday at Haugen's last week. In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus says to "make disciples, baptizing them..." On August 29th, seven people followed Jesus in baptism, four of them from the Robinwood congregation!

You can see more pictures here of the whole afternoon and of Angela Burns, Leslie Gertner, Maddie Salo, Miles Nelson, Maddie Lausche, Dustin Hannifan, and Sandra Roberts as they gave their testimonies and got all wet!

A couple unique things about this baptism: Four people were involved doing the baptizing. Pastor Nathan, me, Mark Hannifan baptized Dustin and Sandra's Son, Jeffrey who works for the Luis Palau association baptized her. This was also the first time we've used the pool at the Haugens. It was very nice to have a second venue. Thank you, Scott and Gay!

Juneau Mission Team Day 3

Yesterday, we went on a “3/4 of a mile” hike. The hike represented way more than a journey. It represented, at least I know, my walk with Christ, and I am sure more people also. Our team got lost countless times, and there were times I lead us into an immediate dead end. You could say that we were lost if you meant that; we didn’t know where north was, or we didn’t know the long./lat. But we just put our trust into the trails that we found, just like we put trust in God when we don’t know where He’s taking us. We found our destination after taking many detours and falling down many times. The hike turned out to be 2.5 miles. All in all I believe that the team grew closer those two hours. We overcame obstacles to help other people the entire trip, and we grew close in our love for one another. After the hike we rode a tram down, then watched a parade. It was nice to have a little down time. Right after that we went to the huge Independence Day Parade, we had a Mega Sports Camp booth, and we helped serve a church in the Douglas community.

There were a few moments that stood out while in downtown Juneau, A ton of the people that we talked to about sports camp had already heard 2 or even 3 times either through Crossroads Church or through our previous canvassing. The team thought that was awesome!!! Also the team did not only serve the community, but we served the Douglas Methodist Church. Thomas had a great conversation with one of the members of their congregation. That was a nice reminder of how we need to preach the gospel to our brothers and sisters in Christ just as much as the lost. I know that I learned many things and I am sure others did also.

When we returned many of us were attacked by the evil one, temptations arose, either to break down in fear or confusion or to be slowed by sickness. Being fully realized of our brokenness, the team grew once again closer, our brokenness gave God opportunity to show his greatness. On a side note, I used to ask God for opportunities to have him work in my life and others, I realized this week that God has placed opportunities all over the place, all I need to do is trust him and hold on for the ride. All in all I cannot wait to see how we grow and how God will work through us in the following days. Thank you for your prayers, they are helping.

Andrew M.

PS Just for fun... A Picture of a Juneau Bear (Don't worry, the teenagers are safe!)

Alaska Team Prepares to Depart

Hello New Life Church and other friends! This blog is a first in a series of posts to keep you up to date about the Juneau Mission Team. Our team of 17 High School Students and 8 adults (not pictured- TJ Elliott) begins our ministry here in West Linn this Monday with the start of Sports Camp. Sports Camp is an action packed week of sports and gospel messages designed to be a ton of fun and tell kids about Jesus at the same time. Then, on Friday afternoon at 5 PM we will fly out to Juneau, Alaska to lead another sports camp, work with kids in housing projects, do some light construction, and help a new church. You can meet us at the airport at 3:15 on Friday if you would like to send us off.

Please check back each day to get updates about how the team is doing and ideas about how you can pray for us. Thanks so much for your care and support!

Israel Update

If you'd like to see some of our pictures you can see them in this public photo gallery on Facebook.

We're having a great time. And, despite the international incident in our neighborhood, we feel pretty safe.

Middle School Auction

Nearly 100 excited people packed the fellowship hall for the Annual New Life Middle School Auction and raised $2556 for their Dalit Children Missions Project!! This a new record and $500 MORE than last year!!

Each year the students donate their unused favorite toys and items and many members sacrificially give services like fishing trips or tea parties or baked goods or items like hand made jewelry and art, furniture and games. Then the New Life Middle School hosts a pizza dinner and crazy auction to let these items go to a new home with the highest bidder! You can check here for more pictures.

All the proceeds are used by the Middle School to support the Buhlers and their adopted middle school age Dalit Children in India.

The Middle School Students are learning to serve and be involved in work that spreads the Gospel and news of God's greatness from right where they are at 12 and 13 years old...

Thank you so much for making this a night of ministry to remember and for your generous donations and purchases. Praise God for His Word, the power of the Resurrection and the Holy Spirit for changing lives in Middle School and around the world!!

Celebrate Recovery Two Year Anniversary Tonight!!

Celebrate Recovery at New Life Church began 2 years ago this March 20th and has grown and developed over time to what it is today--an amazing group of dedicated volunteers and a growing group of participants in the program. Here are a few things that have happened since we began:

• We have heard testimonies of God's dramatic work in people's lives.
• We have sent volunteers to Saddleback Church in CA. to the annual meeting.
• We have seen growth in our own church body.
• We have seen people come to Christ and be baptized.
• We have seen a closeness that continues to develop among those that attend the Friday night event at New Life.

There is a connected faithful core group and an ever-changing attendance of people with "hurts and hangups" that are consistently fed by the word and by the teachings of Celebrate Recovery. This Friday night, Mar.26th we will meet as always at 6:30pm for dinner, music and teaching that has been one of the most successful outreaches in the history of our church. Come and see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone is Welcome.

(Thanks to Dianne Froode for this report).

2009 at New Life Church: AWANA

Another highlight of 2009 was the beginning of AWANA. Last summer Sara Pylate began to think and pray about leading an AWANA club for New Life Church. Her children had gone to another church for the club and she thought it would be a great way to minister to other kids as well as her own, if we would offer it.

When she presented it to me, she wanted to go full scale, doing club for two-year-olds through sixth grade. I talked her down to two clubs to start with. Puggles and Cubbies started October 14th. After having more Puggles and Cubbies than we prayed for, we are expanding in January to include Sparkies and TNT clubs. If you would like to register a child you may do it online here.

Thank you to all you who make AWANA possible. Please continue to pray for them.

2009 At New Life Church

New Life Church had a great year in 2009. This series of posts will summarize a few of the highlights.

Several ministries that began in previous years had significant years for which we are thankful.

• Celebrate Recovery had near 100 people at Thanksgiving dinner. CR has a core of committed workers who have ministered to literally hundreds of people over the year. CR is the launch pad for several key initiatives that began in 2009.
  
• Coffee Cart, which is in its 15 years, is serving 43% more students every day than they did last year. God has supplied a new coordinator, Mike Wright. We are truly enjoying the new environment created by the remodel.
  
• H2O which began at New Life Church a couple years ago now has 27 active cities throughout the country that are giving away bags. H2O was the 2009 CB Women’s camp project and recently received a $1750 check. Thank you! In addition, Leslie and Lauren Reavely were honored by Dr. Lynn Smith in Lake Oswego in a "Do a Good Deed Contest" earlier in the year. They spoke at Mission Connexion to encourage kids to do hard things and will speak there again this year.
  

First Monthly International Student Conversation Dinner

I was out of town on Friday and missed this. If you missed it, too, here's a video. . . and you may not want to miss next month!

New Life Church River Baptism

I hope you enjoy this video of our baptism last week.Please pray for Mel, Nate, James, Lisa and Sydney as they follow Jesus.

Middle School Retreat Update

Here are some pictures of the Middle School Retreat last weekend. Below is Scott Haugen's email to parents about the retreat.

Clearly we had a great time, but more importantly we were changed by God's word.

Commitments were made by students to live sold out for Christ, to choose now a direction and path for their life that will honor and serve God, to take specific action steps to build character qualities, and there are two student who desire Christ as Savior and who are praying about that important decision.

Thanks for your support and prayers and for trusting New Life with your children.

--
Scott Haugen

Alaska Team Video

If you missed the report on Sunday night. . . or enjoyed it so much you'd like to see the ministry video again, here it is:

Bocce Begins

Competition was fierce this last Thursday as the Bocce ball summer league began. Team Grayson/Rachel displayed the precision of surgeons as they dominated the field, finishing the night with a perfect record. Team Crystal/Jessica also finished the evening with a perfect record… ending the night with zero wins. Overall everyone had a ton of fun, and lots of laughs. Bocce ball play will continue at 6 p.m. this Thursday night at Hammerle Park. All are welcome to come and play. Bring your set if you have one and spectators are definitely encouraged. If you think you have what it takes to withstand the intense pressure and fierce competition of the Bocce ball summer league get a partner and join us for a really fun time.