25 years ago I watched my little baby sister go through a three year journey with cancer which ended with her death. I knew at the moment of her death that she was in a much better place. She no longer was in pain, but the emotional pain I went through knowing I would never see her again, until the day when Jesus takes me to heaven was indescribable.

When my sister died, I had just had my second child, Kristi and all I could think is I never want to see my children go through anything like this. I was 23 years old at the time and this was the first time I had experienced this kind of pain. I remember being fearful that my children would get sick. I prayed often for God to spare them from this. God answered that prayer. While they had the usual colds, and child hood illnesses, really they were pretty healthy children. I have thanked God often for answering this prayer.

Fast forward to the last 4 years … we have been blessed with 4 beautiful grand daughters. Brooklyn and Malia are 4 and 2 years old and again, other than some allergies, and Asthma issues they have been healthy beautiful girls. Our next two were born this last spring.

The first, baby Kinsley was born in March. She was precious. I had the privilege of being in the room as she was born. She was beautiful and healthy. As we were looking at her while the nurses were cleaning her up and checking all her stats … we realized that her left foot only had 4 toes.  We just thought it was cute. She is perfect in every way, even with only 4 toes. It made her unique. We have found out since then that there could be some pretty serious complications with this and we are just praying that her leg grows in proportion with her other leg. Again, though, with all this we just felt so blessed. She is a miracle from God and a gift to our family. 5 weeks later, baby Jazlyn was born. I was in the waiting room. Our son Jaron was texting with his sister (Kinsley’s mom). Jaron has always been a joker so when he texted that baby Jazlyn stole one of Kinsley’s digits …. Well, we just assumed he was joking. He was joking in a way, but not about the fact that Jazlyn had an extra finger on her left hand. The Hospital removed it and you can’t even see where the finger was.

We had some good laughs about this … still feeling so blessed to have now 4 healthy grand daughters.

We have had the privilege of having baby Jazlyn in our home for a good portion of her little life. Her Mom has suffered with some pretty severe Post Pardom issues. Because of that we have taken care of Jazlyn at our house most of the time, until recently when Anna, was doing well enough to take her sweet baby home and take care of her. A few months ago we noticed that she did not seem to track correctly with her eyes. In fact she rarely looked at us and did not notice toys, or bottles when placed in front of her. Jaron and Anna took her to her doctor where it was confirmed that there did seem to be a problem. We soon found out that her optic nerve never developed correctly. Her Optic Nerve is one sixth the size it should be. Jazlyn is legally blind. We don’t know the extent of her vision loss until she is old enough to communicate with the doctors. What we do know is from spending time with her, is that she sees very little. When we talk with her, she turns her head away from you. We realized that she is focusing on the sound of our voice and she really is not turning her eyes away from us, but turning her ears towards us. She does not make eye contact like most babies, she makes “eye contact” with her ears. She also touches everything in a way that I have never seen before. She feels everything. One of the most precious things she does, is cuddle her face next to ours and wrap her hand around your neck so she can feel the vibration of our voice. She also loves to feel what our mouth is doing as we talk. She is learning to see in a new way. We pray every day that God will heal her eyes. I know that God has the power to do it and I would love nothing more than to see baby Jazz see the beauty that God has created.

I was thinking about these two babies and how they both have what many would say were “defects” but to me they are perfect. You see, God created them just the way he wanted them to be. Will he heal them? I don’t know. I know that he can and if it is his will. But whether they are healed or not, they are perfect.

When I look at baby Kinsley and her little four toed foot, I see a happy well adjusted beautiful little girl who is learning to enjoy everything around her. She does not know that if her leg does not grow she could be facing some very painful surgeries that could require her to move away for 5 months while she goes through the surgery. She does not worry about her future. She is happy and knows that when she is hungry, she is fed. When she is in need of a diaper change, she is changed, When she just wants to be held and loved, she is cuddled and has more love than she knows what to do with.

When Tim and I are in public with baby Jazz, people always want to see the baby. There is something that is magnetic about a cute baby. Strangers will come and see a cute baby and we as grandparents eat that up. They will talk to her and talk about how happy she is. Sometimes they notice the eyes are wandering or turning away and make a comment about it. We tell them that she is legally blind and they always reply with a sadness. The funny thing is, that we are not sad. We do want her to see, but little Jazz, does not know that she is blind. She is happy and has learned to see. She recognizes her family by sound and touch. She loves to stand and jump and she loves music. She is a happy well adjusted baby who knows that she is loved and is not concerned about her future and if she will ever see.

That is how we should be. Sometimes we can worry so much about the future. I see people concerned about their jobs, investments, whether to buy stocks or buy gold. But the truth is, God wants us to trust Him. It is wise to make good investments with our lives and finances. It is good to work hard and find a job that supports us, but when we cross over from being responsible to being worried, I think we have forgotten that God is there to watch over us. We don’t need to worry about tomorrow any more than our sweet babies do. They are content and at peace with their lives. I can learn from my little babies … I don’t need to worry. I have a God who takes care of me. I have a roof over my head, I have food to eat, I have family and friends who love me and a God who cares about every part of who I am. Thank you God for loving me and teaching me to see through the eyes of a blind baby.

I have an announcement to make.  On July 31st Living Word will be starting a church in Surprise Az. It will be a house church using our live broadcast of the services here at Living Word.  It will be hosted by Jeff and Tammy Beck.  Jeff used to be a board member at Living Word and felt like God was calling him to move to Arizona.  We now know the full picture.  They are planting a Living Word Church in Surprise Az.  Stay tuned for more details...

 We had a great weekend as we talked about the church and it's mission.  This is a big week for Living Word.  On Tuesday night at 7pm we are having an informational meeting about an opportunity we have in Port Orchard.  We have the opportunity to "adopt" CrossPoint church.  We are looking at being a multi-site church, one church that meets in multiple locations.  If you can't make the meeting, you can watch it on the from page of lwcc.net.  Then on the following Sunday night at 6pm we will have our membership vote on whether we will do the project or not.  Stay tuned!

Here at Living Word we talk about the importance of doing the mission of God.  We have three weekend services and have really maximized what we can do in our current location.  If we are going to continue to do God's mission, we have to look at our options...

1.  We could build a new building.  Sounds good, but it would take millions of dollars to build even a modest building. 

2.  We could continue to add more gathering times as needed.  But we are still running out of space for parking and our space for ministering to our children is greatly limited.  I don't even have to talk about how limited our bathrooms are....

2.  We could become a "multi-site" church.  You might ask...what is a multi-site church?  Here is some information that I found on Wikipedia.

A multi-site church is one church that meets at multiple locations. Churches began to use the multi-site church model in the mid 1980s. Today's approach ranges from transmitting a sermon by satellite to multiple locations, to creating a number of worship opportunities within the same congregation at multiple times and sites.

According to Todd Rhoades of Monday Morning Insight, an October 2005 US multi-site church conference released statistics regarding growth in the number of churches in the United States operating as multi-site:

• In 1990, there were 10 multi-site churches.
• In 1998, that number had expanded to about 100.
• In late 2005, there were more than 1,500 multi-site churches in the United States.
• In mid-2008, there are an estimated 2,000 multi-site churches across the US. Multi-site church pioneer Jim Tomberlin of Multi-site Solutions predicts that every major city and large community in America will have many multi-campus churches by 2010.

Will it work for Living Word?  I think it will.  We are currently looking at our options and scouting out some very interesting locations.  We are currently looking at a building that would help us expand in the very near future.  So pray for God to open the door.

Tim

I have never regretted our decision in any way. Church has not always been perfect, but then again … what is. I have had jobs that I was mistreated in, had teachers who did not treat me fairly, played sports where I was wronged, been treated unfairly while shopping, I could go on.   I never stopped going to any of those places because of it. Church is just a place where people go to worship God together and learn more about God’s ways. Did you catch that? A place where “people” go. Where ever there are people there will be mistakes made. That includes church.

On the other hand, I have met some amazing people through church, who have had a huge impact on my life. I learned to care for others in a way that I don’t think I would have anywhere else. I have watched as my kids grew up learning to serve God.  Now they are raising their families to do the same. I have experienced some amazing times with God. I know that I have had some great times with God away from church too, but there is something powerful about enjoying God with others who are doing the same.

As I have spent a lot of time contemplating this subject in the last few weeks. I thought of all the typical scriptures that talk about the importance of gathering together with God’s people, worshiping together, & references to the church being the bride of Christ. I have heard those same scriptures all my life and I believe them, but yet I have heard so many times Christians say that they don’t need church on a regular basis or in some cases at all.  This makes me sad … why?  I mean, going to church is a decision that works for me and my family. If you can be a Christian and not go to church on a regular basis, why should it make me sad? I know as a pastor’s wife I should want people to come to church. Duh … but really, I have felt this way long before my husband ever went into the ministry. So it has nothing to do with that. 

I have read a couple things recently that just struck me …. One of my friends wrote something about church and how God compares Church to family. I have read that my whole life too, but it never really struck me the way it did this time. You see, God compares us to family because He values family … in fact he values family so much that he sent His Son Jesus to earth to die a horrific death and be raised from the dead three days later. What does that have to do with family? Well, when He did that he made a way for me to be adopted into his family through accepting what Jesus did on the cross. When I accepted Jesus I became God’s child. I am his family. If God values family that much, then so should we. You see God gave us earthly families that we are related to through blood. These families we will be tied to through out our entire lives. But He also gave us spiritual families that we are connected to through blood. Not the blood that runs through our veins, but through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. These families will be connected throughout eternity. Our churches may not be perfect, in fact I will say that they absolutely are not perfect … but they are family.  I would never have thought of keeping my children apart from each other when they were young. In fact my husband and I worked hard to find ways to encourage them to enjoy each other on a regular basis. We also taught them that they are family and even when they are mad at each other, they are still family. We taught them that having a disagreement has nothing to do with love. We should still love each other, even when we are mad at each other. This principle should be the same with our spiritual families that God gave us. Just like it would have been wrong for me to keep my children away from each other, it would have been wrong to keep them or us from our spiritual brothers and sisters. God intended for us to spend time together. We need each other just like family needs each other. We will get frustrated with each other occasionally, just like our earthly families frustrate us sometimes, but we are still family and we need to spend time together.

I said earlier that I have been in church since I was a baby. I have had the opportunity to meet and see a lot of people come to the church. I have seen families slowly quit going to church thinking that they can serve God on their own. While they do continue to believe in God and live for him, they often begin to compromise their values. It becomes easier and easier to slip away and spend less time with God. There is a difference between believing in God and Serving him. The Bible tells us to serve him. The Bible also says that even the demons believe in God (James 2:19). Believing in God is not enough. We need to choose to “serve” Him (Luke 4:8) The Scriptures say, “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him). There are so few people that really are able to continue to “serve” him without the church (a group of believers to encourage them and serve with them).  It saddens me because I can’t think of anyone who did this (backed away from church), who’s children continued to follow Christ. Being a kid is hard. They face so much pressure at school to do things that are so harmful to them. Kids need church to help them. When I was a teen ager and trying to decide what kind of a life I wanted, my church friends had a huge roll in my decision to continue to follow Christ. I did not want to disappoint them. Without them I know I would have taken a path that would have brought so much destruction my way. I am thankful for the church in my life. It may be imperfect but it is one of the biggest reasons that I serve God today.

A few weeks ago when Tim was preaching he read a passage out of Luke. Part of the passage talked about Jesus going to the synagogue “church”.  Luke 4: 16  When He came to the village of Nazareth, His boyhood home, He went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath …….  Did you catch that? This was a regular “thing” for Jesus. It said He went as usual. If being a Christian is about being a Christ follower and patterning our lives after Him. And if going to church was a regular part of Jesus’ life, then shouldn’t it be a regular part of ours? I believe it should. For those who have been hurt by church, I am so sorry. That was and is not God’s intent. I feel bad that the church has hurt so many people and I wish I could say that the church will never hurt anyone again, or that I will never hurt anyone. Unfortunately … the church is filled with imperfect people. We do make mistakes. We need to work hard to not hurt each other, but when it happens, it is important to remember that the church is still God’s plan. This is what God has set up. It has not changed. God still wants his people to be apart of His church.

If you have been away from church for any reason, weather it is because your life has been busy, or you have been focusing on spending time with family, or maybe because you were hurt by someone in church, I want to encourage you to make a new commitment to spend time with God and His people at His church, and to do what you can to make church a place that is good for all who come. 

                                                                                                     Julie Skolrud

One of the questions we had was, "What does the Bible say about women Pastors?"

This is a good question and sometimes a controversial question. This is a question that has been addressed many times in different denominations. The Assembly of God has done a good job researching and studying this subject. I want to share with you the official statement that was adopted in 1990 by the General Presbytery of the Assemblies of God.

Women in Ministry