4th of July: Free Sunscreen!

Happy 4th of July! Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday. I did but I do wish our country could be more patriotic year round. I enjoy seeing flags flying and love for America. In my opinion, so much time is spent down playing our heritage in order to not offend someone that we have lost sight of the principles America was founded on.  At least the Olympics are coming up and that is something positive since election years are always so negative. Anyways... enough of my soap box. Instead of being consumed of worldly matters, I should be looking at how Independence Day could be a metaphor for the Gospel. Freedom from my sins all because of Jesus' sacrifice and restoration.

festive little girl thanks to Mimi

always on the phone saying hi or hey these days (thinks she is 13 years old instead of 13 months)

So for the 4th I worked the early shift, 5am - 130pm, which was nice and laid back. Then the family went to Gas Works Park to meet others from the Hallows Church. Every year at Gas Works on July 4th there are day activities (booths, food trucks, concerts, games, etc) and a huge firework display at night. Hallows set up a booth and we decided to distribute free packets of sunscreen and have bubbles for kids. We had the sunscreen donated and thought this would be a good way to serve the community and also to connect with people. I have to say it was a success. Many, many people needed sunscreen (fortunate for us it was clear blue skies and 75 degrees) and several people took informational cards/handouts about the church or had conversations with people. We had a lot of fun fellowshipping with our friends as well. Pictures from the day....

Booth

Lady liberty blow up and flag on top of Gas Work hill

view of other side of park... approximately 40,000 people come 

view of downtown/needle and Lake Union from top of hill; tons of boats out today

Russell and Henry holding down a great spot to watch the fireworks

Free sunscreen! 

never an inappropriate time to read a book, right?

snack time

bubble station

If you regularly pray for the Hallows Church, thank you. We appreciate prayer partners so much. And if you dont and would like to commit, please let me know so you can receive specific request from Andrew via email. For me, I would like to ask that you guys please pray for the members of the church. Being involved in a church plant can be very time consuming and you have to wear many hats. It is definitely a commitment. I am so thankful for the community of friends we have here. They are such awesome workers with servant hearts who truly love Christ . I just ask that you continue to pray for their endurance even when it gets hard because it is very easy to decide this is just too much or get burnt out. Please pray that we will all stay focus on the goal of making disciples and that the things that seem hard or time consuming with not be burdens but a part of our everyday life. In addition to the members, Andrew and Kim would also appreciate prayer for wisdom, discernment, strength and guidance as they continue to lead us.
Thanks again for praying!