January 2007

Dear Friends....

In 2006, our focus at the River was the Lord's Prayer. This year at the River, we'll plan to focus on the Beattitudes as a theme. This will begin later this year as we'll introduce several months of teaching on Propetic Worship: Learning to Listen. Although a bit longer than usual for an Update, I'd like to share something the Lord has placed on our hearts.

I hate puzzles. They are tedious and methodical. They require concentration and patience, qualities not naturally part of my character. And after a puzzle is completed, it's dismantled and thrown back in the box. What are they good for anyway? Maybe it has something to do with the process rather than the product; the journey rather than the arrival.

Our life and history in the Lord is like a multi-dimensional interconnected puzzle, woven together with color, beauty, wonder and mystery. David writes:


"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth…" Ps 139:13-15 NIV


God has individual and corporate dreamworks in progress. I believe God is continually revealing the wonder of our frame. But maybe you are puzzled at the puzzle. We are still a work in progress, and pieces remain, yet to be assembled. We are like living stones, and "are being built (fitted, woven together) into a spiritual house." 1 Peter 2:4-5

So we are still puzzle works in progress, both individually and corporately. I want to share a few Pacificministries Puzzle Pieces:

PUZZLE PIECE 1
Carlene and I have always been "drawn" to the area near Lewis and Clark State Park and the Sandy River. Lewis and Clark's Discovery Corps of 1804 named the River "the Quicksand" and the Corps voted to return to this same area the following year because of abundant fish and game. We taught our children to swim there, and with inner tubes, drifted down the gentle current during hot and hazy Oregon summers….

PUZZLE PIECE 2
Over three years ago, we began a once a month gathering to worship. We were attracted to the Troutdale Community Center near the Sandy River, a building often used for informal community-type meetings. The humble surroundings at the Park Building (hard metal chairs, concrete floors, and noisy fans) have not hindered and don't bother the Holy Spirit. I have thought of the structure as sort of a wilderness tabernacle. Several times during warm summer evening meetings, we gathered on a blanket of green grass under the huge Douglas fir trees, and experienced worship as if the land itself resonated with praise....

PUZZLE PIECE 3
During last month's Christmas Celebration, Beth Cherry, one of the regulars at the River, wrote in her journal:


12/10/06
There is a sound it is reverberating around the earth. The ground wakens with the sound and mourns with anticipation for the coming Lamb. It won't be long, hunger for Him. Thirst for His righteousness. Allow His goodness to enter your courts even now....I know you're hungry to learn, only listen for a while for I have much to say…..there is a time to learn and grow, ... my goodness shall prevail....it's not to late to hear and obey for my love flows freely in the hearts of the obedient.....


PUZZLE PIECE 4
Recently, I finished H.A. Baker's autobiography UNDER HIS WINGS. He is the grandfather of Rolland and Heidi Baker and more widely known for the book VISIONS BEHIND THE VEIL, a story of the Holy Spirit's revelatory work in 1920 among Chinese children, mostly street beggars and orphans. These children experienced an incredible out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. The same God who revealed Himself to these rejected and orphaned children in China, He is once again doing through Rolland and Heidi in Mozambique with their work with orphanages and church planting.....

SOME OF THE PIECES COME TOGETHER

It has been our honor to develop a rich friendship with Marjorie Baker, Rolland's mother, who recently moved to Carlene's hometown, Port Townsend, Washington.

When Marjorie began to share with us her family's history, she told of her family returning from China to the Portland area in the late 1920's. She described their hunger for God, and their exposure to the work of the Holy Spirit through John G. Lake and others who had experienced the power of God. They experienced a wonderful renewal and refreshing in the Holy Spirit. Before they could find housing in Portland, they stayed at a Christian camp, located near the Sandy River. Marjorie distinctly remembers some of the young people climbing a high bluff and singing back and forth with another group of children at the camp on the other side of the River.

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007, Carlene drove Marjorie and her sister Beth, 83 and 89 respectively, back to the building the city of Troutdale purchased from a Christian camp many years ago….where some 70 years earlier they sang…the very same humble tabernacle where we gather monthly to worship the One Who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. No wonder the land itself reverberates with praise….

I believe the Lord has a wonderful sense of humor…and history. Some question why all these pieces are worth recounting, and see them at best coincidental, at worst mere conjecture. Is there someone in your family...Grandparents, or Great-Grandparents, who faithfully prayed for generations to follow? The Lord is loves to reveal the mysteries of His plan for all of us… our history is, His-Story.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment-to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. Ephesians 1:7-10

We welcome you to worship this Sunday @ 6pm...at the River. And...bring the pieces of your puzzle as we honor the Holy Spirit and worship a God who loves to reveal mysteries!


Darrell and Carlene



Pacificministries@gmail.com

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Upcoming Events



21 Day Fast For the past 5 years, every January Pacificminstries has participated in a fast. We welcome you to join us. We believe a fast allows us to hear "deeply" and we all want to improve our hearing.


Releasing the Power of God Conference with Ron and Johanna Kussmaul - January 19th to 21st at St. Luke's, Seattle I'll be leading worship during this event hosted by St. Lukes
For information: The Rev'd. Dr. John Roddam, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 5710 - 22nd Avenue Northwest, Seattle, WA 98107. http://www.stlukesseattle.org