To start off with, we just finished up our week at Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is a week of briefing and prep work for all of the teams serving with Generation Link in their summer program (Summer LINK). Generation Link has eight teams total with six serving in the United States, one in Honduras, and one in India. The week was so incredible in the fact that we got to actually have some seminary classes over evangelism, various religions, and how our own walk should be being developed in a time where we will be stretched thin. I think it was a great way to prepare our hearts and minds for what we would face as well as great bonding time with not only our team, but also with the other teams and hearing their incredible stories.
Anyways, we are settled into our home at the Purple Door, a former fraternity house at the University of Washington that is now a home and ministry base for church planters and interns. About 20 other people engaged in ministry live in the Purple Door with us. It is awesome to be in community with them and hear about their ministries. Several have already had a huge impact on me. Our two RA's - Hyuntae (for the guys) and Marie (for the girls) are both incredibly sweet and are so easy to talk to. On a side note, Hyuntae has been helping me with a strum pattern on a song I've been writing while up here. Esther, a sweet Asian girl, is definitely one of my favorites. She is so sweet and funny. She has blessed me by singing a couple of her own songs and gosh they are incredible. Plus, so many of the people living here are so into music, it truly is infectious and I hope to come home being a much better guitar player and hopefully having learned to play the piano. There are several others to mention, but those have been some of the main ones thus far and I'll add more later.
We live right beside the UW’s campus, which, along with the Seattle area in general, is so beautiful! I went running one morning around some of the paths and it's amazing. The weather is chilly but oh so refreshing and clear. There are still a lot of students here and there are parties going on around us until the early hours of the morning. So interesting is a great word needless to say. We keep the windows open at night for lack of air conditioning and I find myself waking up just trying to get warmer - a far cry from Texas... lol.
Anyways, our primary role is to serve as interns at Essential Church, a recent church plant in Bellevue, WA (a city in the Eastside area of Seattle). Last week, we worked with Essential’s pastor, Warren Mainard, to prepare for several outreach events over the next few weeks. We will be engaging with the community through block parties, a soccer camp, an after school program for middle schoolers, and helping families in need with the Heart and Home Thrift Store. Jesse (One of my team members from North Carolina) and I are the point people for the block parties meaning we are the ones who take care of making sure we have everything, people have jobs, and that everything runs smoothly at those events. It was different being on that side of administration but it makes me appreciate all that's been done similarly on my behalf in the past.
In the evenings, we’ve had our first Men’s/Women’s Bible study, group Bible study, and reflection night. These consisted of getting to know each other better through letting one another know how we tick spiritually. Also, it's been a great learning curve to see how different personalities approach various topics. I have contributed when I have a question or comment but as a whole I am soaking in everything they say and taking it back to the scripture. I already feel my walk growing exponentially and I am so thankful to be around people who literally give me headaches with their knowledge of scripture or seminary classes or simply their intriguing arguments. It has truly been a blessing thus far.
A few nights ago, we ventured to downtown Seattle to view the area from Columbia Tower (76 floors high!) and had dinner by the Puget Sound waterfront. Honestly, a night where I felt God move within some of my team because of a conversation that started with an interaction between a guy on our team and a homeless guy. We had such a deep conversation which allowed us (five of our team who were within hearing distance at dinner) to be vulnerable with one another and start establishing that personal bond in depth.
Thursday was the fourth and that was an amazing day as well. I got a chance to bond with Jesse, Parker, and Robbie as we walked the Ave - which is a street lined with various shops and restaurants and such. I feel like I got to know them so much better one on one and am impressed by the Godly young men that they are and consistently strive to be. But the cool part about that day was that night when we went to Bellevue for the fireworks show, we ate our picnic dinner on a grassy slope that happened to be by some people who were apart of Jubilee (An organization focused on giving back to community/ non-profit, etc.). Well the cool part comes bc as we started to play with their kids, other kids joined in which opened the door for us to share the gospel with their family who was from Ethiopia initially but moved to America ten or so years ago. One of the girls on our team, Alyssa, actually went to Ethiopia last summer on a mission trip. And it was a blessing on that family bc she was able to communicate a little in their language and also share with the mom about her trip and exchanged contact info to hopefully continue pouring into her. Such a God thing.
On Friday, Pastor Warren took us hiking on Tiger Mountain. I don’t think the beauty around this city could ever get old and the weather has been perfect! The outdoors were the most incredible views I have ever seen. The mountain overlooked the Sammamish Lake, and a few of the surrounding towns. Plus we were blessed to watch several Para-gliders jump and slowly make their descent. More than that, we got to hear more of Pastor Warren's story and how he came to Seattle which I thoroughly enjoyed since I had only heard bits and pieces beforehand.
Also, throughout the summer, several one-week missions teams will be coming to serve at Essential, and we will help coordinate their ministry efforts. This past Saturday, a team from Gainesville, Georgia flew in consisting of two leaders, a sophomore, junior, senior, and college freshman - all guys (Ages 15-18). I have gotten a chance to know them a little bit and they are all pretty funny and sociable which is nice. Also, fun fact, one of their leaders grew up in Granbury and went to high school there. He actually won the Golden Gloves while living there and has his picture in the Will Rodgers (I think that's the name) Coliseum in Ft. Worth. So cool, right? But anyways, they are here until Saturday, and I am excited to see how God moves in them.
We had our first Sunday service at Essential yesterday and it's amazing to see how God already has his hand on everything. Worship led by Robbie, Leah (Warren's wife) and Connor (A younger brother of a woman on the Essential staff) was incredible. God spoke through them and through Warren and it was overall a great morning of time in Him.
Today we had our first true day of serving in the soccer camps and at Odle Middle School. I got the chance to interact with several people, but the one I spent the most time with was a guy named Dariell (Probably spelled wrong...) who is in a wheelchair. He is nineteen years old, has recently come to Christ, and was a soccer coach for some of the middle school guys this past year. His testimony was incredible and I hope to attend his baptism this Saturday! We finished the day with a barbecue and some worship. Warren's two kids shared some times when they had shared the gospel with their unbelieving friends and how the Lord had blessed them and their friends came to Christ. It's always incredible for me to witness the faith of a child as they are simply fearless and have full dependence on what the Lord will do - such a witness!
Well I believe that wraps everything up mainly! This reflects our first week and I will hopefully try to blog here in the next couple days on our second week. Keep praying for not only my heart in everything but that the Lord is preparing the hearts of all those we will come in contact with.
Blair Cowden
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