I recently had the opportunity to participate in the mid-year meeting for our region. It was a good time of vision casting for our future together. As we talked together about who we wanted to be the focus on Christ and His mission of redemption for our world was at the forefront. We are a people that thirst for God’s righteousness and are creating a vision together of how we can live that out over the next 10 years. This is a hopeful vision of a vibrant community of believers working together to fulfill the great commission in our region and throughout the world. I am excited to see what it is that God does in our lives over the coming years as we seek to fulfill the vision we have been given.

Here is the report from the Clerks on our time together:

“Northwest Yearly Meeting's Vision Day was held Saturday, January 27th at Sherwood Friends Church with over 200 people in attendance!!  All eight areas and 33 of the 44 churches remaining in NWYM were represented.  A lot of brainstorming, sharing, and visioning was done throughout the day.  Planning Day followed on January 28th when the Task Force met on the George Fox University Campus.  This all-day meeting summarized vision statements from the previous day to draft a vision statement of NWYM.  Based on the vision, the Task Force began discerning priorities for NWYM in the upcoming months and years.

Within the next week, the clerks will send a more detailed report on the areas of priority that emerged during Vision Day.”

Brad Holton, Presiding Clerk

Debbie Harrison, Assistant Presiding Clerk

New Beginnings. A fresh start. A clean slate. These are what we long for in a new year. 2017 is over. 2018 is just beginning and has that New Year sense of hope. We hope that this year will be better than the last one. That we won’t face as much trial or struggle. We hope for something new.

            As Christians we are offered this not just one day a year but every day. Christ offers us new life each morning. Scripture tells us “‎Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17) The offering of Christ is Newness. We come to Him with an old and battered life, hard used and worn, and He gives us a new life bursting with opportunity and love. I hope that this New Year you accept Christ’s New Life for you each day.

From September 19^th through 30^th I had the opportunity to join Esther Mae Hinshaw (Newberg Emerging) and Tracy Wilson (Silverton) on a trip to visit Johan and Judy Maurer in Russia. This was a wonderful experience full of amazing moments. We spent time in Moscow orienting ourselves to some of the Russian history and culture by visiting some popular sites and museums. After a few days there we traveled to Elektrostal and got the chance to stay with one of the Maurer’s students, Sergei, in his home.

This was the highlight of the trip for me. We got to play a lot of games together and learn about Sergei and his fellow students. We were immersed in the culture of Russia and got to have some wonderful conversations until the wee small hours of the morning.  We also visited the institute that Johan and Judy taught at and helped one of the other teachers with some of his classes for high school students. These times of speaking with and learning from the students about their country and how they see the world were so enlightening and I am very grateful that we had the chance to join Johan and Judy there for a short time and see their home and the lives they had built there.

We finished our trip in Saint Petersburg. We visited the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood and other historical sites, we went to the Winter Palace which is home to a beautiful collection of paintings and artifacts that span the last 4-500 years. This time also gave us a chance to reflect on some of the things we had experienced and to hear about some of the tragic history of the city and country.

As much as we enjoyed traveling all over the country and spending time with students one of the most memorable things was joining our Russian Friends for worship. We sat in silence together sharing the Spirit’s peace together and had a lovely time of fellowship. To me this was a beautiful preview of our future together with the Lord.

 As I am preparing for my upcoming trip to Russia I am thinking about the opportunity I will have to experience God’s presence in another culture. I am looking forward to all that I will learn from our Russian friends and their experiences with Jesus in their daily lives. I wonder what wonders I will experience in that place and with the people that God has planned for me to be with during my time there. I am also thinking of my family. They are worried that I am going to a potentially dangerous area at a volatile time. They think I am a little crazy for going to Russia when tensions between our nations are so high. They question the wisdom of such actions and I am tempted to agree with them. They have always been good about looking out for me and their care for me in this instance is shown by their worry.

Sometimes God asks us to do things that don’t make sense to the world. Things which are exciting and scary and life changing. Things that push us and pull us into being the people that God created us to be. We are asked to imagine a world where God is going before us and with us and after us no matter the situation we face. We are tasked with having a faith beyond reason. Writing about the opportunity that God has given me has to start with recognizing that He is already doing things to make this trip something that honors Him. In spite of the potential for this situation to go wrong I am trusting that God will use whatever happens for His purposes and plans. I may not understand why this thing or that thing happens on this earth but I trust that God is working in and through them for His purposes and one day I will look back at what has happened and recognize that the faith I place in my Savior is not beyond reason at all.