Post Zoo Lights

On a rainy Tuesday night, we set out for Portland Zoolights with 8 Burmese girls and 4 American girls - ready for an adventure! God blessed us by holding back the rain until the night was nearly over. However, it was quite cold and damp and not all the Burmese girls were wearing the proper attire for the Northwest weather. So as we walked along, we huddled together to stay warm.

After the many headcounts and ensuring we actually had a ticket for each girl, we boarded the zoo train. We were able to see many of the light exhibits from the train, and the backside of an elephant (one of two live animals we saw). Next we took photos with an life-sized otter and Frosty. One of the Burmese girls had a camera and took a photo of nearly every lighted thing she saw! It was fun to watch her excitement.

On our way out of the zoo we saw the second live animal - a mountain goat. The girls enjoyed watching him eat and taking photos of him. The final highlight of the night was exiting the zoo through the turnstile; it's the little things in life that bring the most pleasure!

Please join us for the Christmas Eve Services to hear more about our experiences and see the photos. We look forward to seeing you there!

It's taken long enough but after much prayer and planning we have figured out what the Youth girls will be doing. Hooray! Our life group, one of the three middle school and high school girl groups, were given $100 to spend in our community. We were very excited to be able to give that money away someone in our community!

It was hard to get things nailed down since we only meet once a week and to get 5 teenage girls to show up every week at the same time can be a challenge, to say the least :) We started out with each of the girls coming up with ideas of what they would like to spend the money on. They were all great ideas but as we prayed about them no one really stuck out. We decided spend the next week thinking and praying about the different ideas that were presented and to make a decision the following week. Within that week, I found out about an amazing opportunity that really spoke to my heart. I told the girls about it and they all agreed.

The opportunity you ask? There have been several families from Burma that have migrated to the United States in the last few months. They moved here with few belongings and speak very little english. All of the families have children of various ages and they are enrolled in the public school system. There is also a group of middle and high school aged kids amongst the families. In total there are 7 middle and high school girls, which is who we choose to spend our $100 on. I talked with a member of our church, she is interning with the organization that is helping these families get settled, and asked what their greatest needs are. She explained that they have received some coats, shoes, pants ect. but what's needed even more is to learn english and make friends. So as a life group we decided to take them to zoo lights and make an evening out of it. We will be taking photos and videos our trip so we can share it with the church.

These girls are the same age as the Compass Youth girls and no matter what country you're from, a teenage girl is a teen age girl :) We have had the chance to hangout with the girls on two different occasions, our Worship Gathering and Turkey Bowl. Both times the girls from Burma were excited and willing to be involved in the activities despite the language barrier. We're all really excited about having the money to take them to something they wouldn't otherwise get to experience. And more importantly be able to share Christ's love with them and make some great memories!!

Once we have some of the photos from our outing uploaded we'll post them here so you can get a taste of what we've been doing :)

let the shopping begin!

So we have been working with the Children's Justice Center to find a family to bless, and the woman we've been working with has picked a family from her case files that she thinks would benefit the most from Compass' gift. It is a family of four; Mom and Dad, and two kids. There is a seven year old girl and a five year old boy. As I talked with DeeDee (our CJC helper) she knew we could give the gift in cash or in gifts or food or whatever was needed specifically by the family. She let us know that they need help paying some basic bills and the children need clothes. Of course we want to meet their needs so we will be giving the gift of cash this year.

This project has made us think about our giving... Nate and I have been tithers since we got married. Never a question about it, God always gets our first fruits. There have been some tight times where we had to borrow money from family to pay bills when our oldest was born and we had to move to another city, and I wasn't working. But we have been blessed over and over again in the finance department. It has been an adventure to see what God can do with money. This project has led me (at least) to see a need and an ability to reach out into our community and touch peoples lives in a tangible way for Christ. It can really show them the love of a loving and caring Father, which many of us can't even comprehend.

We are stewards of the church's gift, but I can not help myself; I have to add to it. So I am going to take the kids shopping for the kids in the family so they can participate too, and add to the church's gift. Thank you for reading my blabber and we will keep you updated on when we give the gift and what fun things we find for the kids!

In Him,

Nate and Alicia

We just got an e-mail from friends who have sent in $'s for Clean Water for Haiti. They also are giving the CWH info to a young man on his way to an island in the Philippines. This excites us as we know first hand the lack of and accessibility to pure water. Pray with us that others will give as a Thanksgiving gift or Christmas gift. Also pray for Haiti as life there is so difficult and people out of fear, anger and hopelessness react in anger. Pray for peace and righteousness.

A decision has been made...

So after lots of prayer and reflection, we think we know what God had planned for us to do with the money...

At the beginning of this process, we spent a lot time thinking about what we could do. Tiffany and I are both teachers and we face students and families in need every day. But, we saw this as an obvious opportunity and knew that we still needed to wait and pray about it.

One opportunity that we thought about early on was sponsoring families at our school during the holiday season. I teach a Leadership class at Gaiser Middle School and so we thought this would be a great opportunity to have them help me put together a Thanksgiving dinner package for families in need. Again, we put this on the back burner because we didn't know if this was our will or God's. A few weeks goes by and out of nowhere my principal sends an email out to the staff asking if there are any teachers who would be willing to sponsor Gaiser families during the holiday season. We couldn't help but instantly feel that this was the opportunity that God had planned. We continued to pray before committing and finally agreed that sponsoring families at Gaiser Middle School would be a great use of the benevolence fund. God has given us the ability to work and connect with kids and so it only made sense that he would use this avenue as way for us to make our relationships reflect his grace.

We’re excited to share how it goes! Keep you posted...

Filly + Tiffany

We Know What To Do!

After brainstorming as a Life Group and seeking God's guidance for almost a month, we have arrived at a decision. God has given us a sense of peace about this opportunity, and we are so thankful for that. We know of two families who have been having a tough time providing for their daily needs. One of those families is still going through the grieving process after one of their children took her own life. Times have continued to be tough, and this family has several tangible needs...and a big one is keeping the people in their home fed at the dinner table. We decided to give them a $50 gift card to a grocery store, in the hopes that they will be able to buy the staples needed to keep their home running smoothly. The other person we are able to bless is a single mother who has taken steps to go back to school to further her degree. She is working hard to provide for her family, and could really benefit from the sweet surprise of a $50 gift card to a grocery store.

We are so thankful to be able to disperse this money! It's been fun to anticipate their reactions to the anonymous gift. We plan to attach a note which says something like, "We care about you, and hope you feel blessed by this free gift!" We truly hope that they realize that the God of the universe deeply cares about each of them, and provides for them, even when they least expect it.

Thank you for the opportunity!

Hi our wonderful Compass family :)

Nate and I have also been blessed to be a part of the $100 gift opportunity at Compass to contribute to someone or some family or something... You will have to forgive me as Nate is much more eloquent when writing than I am.

We have been tossing around ideas since leaving our chat with Brian and have no real sparks fly. We have been keeping it in prayer and keeping our eyes open for ideas or needs in Eli's school and random places we go and were really stumped. We had no idea what to do. Nate thought it would be a good idea if we looked down by my work for needs since there are always needy folks down there. But as I prayed about it and looked in that area, there didn't seem to be any place that it felt right to give. There is a large homeless and low income population downtown, but they are really blessed by all the resources available to them, and it just didn't click. Then I was talking to a customer that works in the children's justice center and they have a great need. They have a constant flow of abused women and children that only come to them through injury. This made my heart heavy. What a better blessing for us than to give either money or gifts/needs to children in such a situation! I am still learning what and who the gift will go to so we will keep you all posted, but I think our door has been opened :)

Please keep in prayer that our gift will bless the right people and hopefully send a message of Love from a truly Loving Father :)