What a great FIRST SUNDAY of 2011! It was awesome to see all of you in the house this past weekend. We are beyond thrilled for this month of celebrations at Relate Church as we celebrate our 25th Anniversary as a church! What a way to kick off the new year!

SPECIAL THANKS to all of you who went above and beyond this Christmas season… from those of you who helped with our hampers, to those who donated to our gifts for the inmates at Fraser Valley, to those who baked yummy treats for our Christmas Open House service…. we love seeing people come together to make an impact on those all around us.

Get excited for this month ahead- this weekend we’ll be celebrating the TEAM at Relate East and we CAN’T WAIT to do so!

Have a blessed week everyone. Please remember that if you have any prayer requests/praise reports, please let us know by emailing Jenna at jliesch@relatechurch.ca and we’ll get our prayer team praying!

See you Sunday!

 Merry Christmas to you all! What a season this is shaping up to be. I am SO excited about all the endeavours that we as a campus have been able to be a part of. This is a BIG week for East Campus! 

We’d like to invite you to join us this THURSDAY NIGHT, December 16^th @ 6:00pm (Time Change!), at the Garage (2808 Garden Street) for our Christmas Hamper Assembly PARTY! These hampers are going specifically to people in OUR community…. How awesome is that?!!! We will begin by assembling the hampers, and then we’ll have some time for coffee and treats and just to hang out together as a team. We hope you can make it- please RSVP to jliesch@relatechurch.ca to let us know if you’re coming!

An update on our Community Care Project… This year as a campus, we got to raise funds to buy gifts for the women who are in prison at the Fraser Valley Correctional Institution (in our very own backyard). The gifts have been purchased and will be delivered this week, and each inmate will be receiving a beautiful little gift bag (each beautifully wrapped bag contains a journal, a gel pen, a candy cane, purdy’s chocolates, and some Christmasey popcorn!) the day before Christmas. How awesome is it that we’ve been able to bless SEVENTY FIVE women in prison with a little bit of love this Christmas?!!! Thank GOD for opening the doors of opportunity in these women’s lives!

 THIS SUNDAY… As many of you know, we have sent out invites to over 2500 homes in the immediate area surrounding Abbotsford Christian School (a.k.a Relate Church!!) this week, inviting our community to our special ‘Christmas Open House Service’ this Sunday (December 19^th).  If you are part of the team at Relate, we’re asking you to come at 9:30am to be ready to greet our visitors with fresh coffee and Christmas baking. LADIES: We’re asking you to bring some of your yummy Christmas cookies/baking along to the service. Please let me know if you can bring any!  

Can you believe its the LAST SUNDAY before Christmas??!!! How time flies! Hope you’ve all been SIMPLIFYING this Christmas and are ready for the best one yet. This weekend will be over the top- see you there!

Jenna

The clouds have parted and the sun is shining on this lovely December 10th!

This weekend will be another amazing service at Relate East… we will continue with our Christmas series entitled LOVE CAME DOWN  and this weekend we will be focusing on CLARIFYing Christmas- what its REALLY about.

***** IMPORTANT REMINDER*****

Please remember to bring some non-perishable food items for our hampers that we are putting together next week. There’s lots of requests coming in, so you can see the recommended food list below (previous post), and take part in this amazing project. We will have an area in the foyer to drop off your food!

See you all on Sunday,

Jenna (& baby J)

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS! Its officially December, so we thought we would roll out out Christmas Projects for you so they are right in front of you and easy to understand. As a church, we are so excited to be getting into our community in a loving and helpful way this Christmas. Our theme this month is ‘LOVE CAME DOWN’. What Jesus did for us, we CAN now do for others…. time to get excited East Campus!

Here’s just a few of the endeavors we will be continuing to present. Please read carefully and feel free to contact the names listed below:

1- CHRISTMAS FOOD HAMPERS: We will be blessing some families with food hampers in our community. What we will be needing: 1) Non-perishable food items that include Tea, Hot Chocolate Mix, Soup, Crackers, Powdered Milk, Canned Fish/Meat (eg. Tuna, Ham, Chicken), Peanut Butter, Jam, Rice, Mac & Cheese, Pastas (wholegrain preferred), Healthy Cereal (hot/cold), Canned Fruit, Canned Veggies, Meals in a Tin (Stews, Pork n’ Beans), Boxed Scalloped Potatoes, Oatmeal, Mayonaise, Pasta Sauce; 2) Purchase a $25 Gift Tag from the tree in the foyer this weekend at church. Your donation will go towards these hampers, as well as the other Community Care Initiatives this Christmas; 3) Volunteers for assembling the hampers on Thursday, December 16th (7pm at the Garage- 2808 Garden Street); 4) Volunteers for Delivery of the Hampers on Friday, December 17th (9am meeting at the garage- 2808 Garden Street).  Contact Jenna by email at jliesch@relatechurch.ca to get involved!

2- GIFT BAGS FOR THE FRASER VALLEY CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE INMATES: As a Campus, we will be providing 75 female inmates with Christmas presents, as well as 13 of their children. To donate, 1) Purchase a $25 Gift Tag from the tree in the foyer this weekend at church.

3- CLOTHES ON WHEELS CHRISTMAS EVENTS: As a church we are blessed to be able to have adopted 10 schools within the inner-city Surrey School Board. Clothes On Wheels is an event that provides free clothing, jackets, shoes and accessories to vulnerable adults, children and babies. There are 2 events we as a campus can volunteer with (setting up, greeting families as they arrive, registration and check in, helping families ‘shop’ for clothes, checking out and re-bagging clothes, clean up, etc): 1) Monday, December 6th @ Lena Shaw Elementary School (14250 100A Avenue, Surrey) from 7:30am-1:00pm; 2) Friday, December 10th @ Hjorth Road Elementary School (14781 104th Avenue, Surrey) from 7:30am-1:00pm. These events are a great opportunity for us as an extention campus to gain vision for what we can do in our own community! To volunteer, please contact Pastor Helen Balzer by email at hbalzer@relatechurch.ca

4- Open House Christmas Service: During the week of December 13th, we will be blitzing the neighbourhood surrounding Abbotsford Christian School with invites to our special Christmas Open House Service, Sunday December 19th @ 9:30am.  Yes, you read it right… SERVICE BEGINS AT 9:30AM that day! We will have an hour of meet and greet time before the program begins. All teams are required ‘on deck’ by 9:30am, and we also need some ladies to bake some Christmas goodies. Contact Jenna at jliesch@relatechurch.ca if you can help out.

5- Dinner of Hope @ CLCC (Christian Life Community Church): We love supporting the body of Christ as a whole, and what better way to do it, then to partner with a church in our very own community, who is planning a spectacular event for families in need, right in the Abbotsford area.  Dinner of Hope is being planned for Saturday evening, December 18th and will consist of a served, sit down dinner for these families, as well as a time for fun and gift giving. We as a church would love to help them out by volunteering for the parking and security end of things (guys- this is a great opportunity for you!!!). You can see more info at www.clcc.ca or contact Maria Martin at 604-807-2010 or maria-jp@shaw.ca .

As you can see, its never a dull moment at Relate! Let’s get involved this Christmas- BE the hands and feet of Jesus to those in need right in our own backyards.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I’m excited for what’s coming up at church this weekend… snow, Pastor John, hugs, Lui Passaglia, laughter, etc…. how great is all of that!!!

We hope you’re planning on bringing a friend this weekend as we continue with our GAME PLAN series. Speaking of a GAME PLAN, its always good for us as a campus to take a moment and think about OUR game plan…. every single one of us has a part to play so close your eyes and see…. what does Relate East Campus look like TO YOU in 3 months… 6 months… next year… in 5 years??? Like Pastor Helen said last week,

1) SEE THE BIG PICTURE

What do you see for Relate East Campus? I believe we have a community (Abbotsford and beyond) that needs us. A community of people that need to meet Jesus, and need to connect with people who know Him! Its bigger than we know. Let’s keep that in front of us- take OWNERSHIP of the big picture.

2) SEE THE NEXT STEP

Break it down into bite-sized steps… maybe reaching our community TO YOU means inviting that annoying co-worker of yours to church with you on Sunday cause you know they’d love it, or even inviting your neighbour over for dinner, etc. This takes prayer- ask God what YOUR role is and what YOUR next step is!

3) DO THE WORK

Ask yourself- what do YOU need to do? It’s not Pastor John’s church, its not Koby’s church, its MY church. Its YOUR church. What do you need to do to see your part played out? EVERY TEAM MEMBER is valuable, makes a difference, and counts towards the big picture goal. That’s YOU. Yes YOU- reading this right now. Jesus said HE will build His church. We GET TO help in that. WE. Its not about the numbers of bodies in the seats each week, its about the lives, the hearts, the generations we get to impact with the love of Christ. But it starts with YOU.

I for one am so excited to see what will take place in and through Relate East Campus. Afterall, with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! Come on folks… we serve an AWESOME GOD!

Stay warm this week and make a snowman or two- its good for the heart! Drive safely, and come early Sunday morning… We’ll have some Hot Chocolate and Apple Cider brewing, so pack your car with your entire neighbourhood… you can do it… and we’ll see you there!

Jenna

PS… for those of you who haven’t yet heard the news, Koby and I found out on Monday that we are the proud parents of a baby BOY! The little buddy growing in me in definitely a boy and mama and daddie are so very excited Here’s a pic of our boy below for you to see!

Coming THIS WEEKEND, we’re so excited to introduce our new series- THE GAME PLAN. Pastor Helen will be with us this weekend and will be sharing insights and wisdom of healthy, strong teams, and will also be highlighting a few clips from Pastor John’s interview with LUI PASSAGLIA- you don’t want to miss what this CHAMPION has to share with us!

Remember- Jesus said HE WILL BUILD HIS CHURCH- now lets be His hands and feet and get INVITING for this weekend! Lets see some new faces get impacted by Him this Sunday.

Hello Relate Family!

I hope you are enjoying this wonderful day and are preparing your heart for a miraculous Shaping our Destinyweekend in Church.  Helen and I are believing for supernatural miracles and increase and are aligning our hearts and prayers with the prayer that Jabez prayed in 1 Chronicles 4:10, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

Shaping our Destiny is all about PREPARING our ASK and BRINGING our FAITH to God. God told us that ‘we have not because we ask not’ and that ‘without faith it is impossible to please God’. So this weekend is a time where we come as individuals, as families and as a community of faith with expectant and generous hearts to believe for and build what God has asked us to do.

Here are a few thoughts that I think may help you to focus as you prepare:

1. Pray and listen to God... ‘God will give you the desires of your heart.’

• Pay attention to what you crave…what are the dreams and desires that He has put into your heart to ask Him for?
• If this was your last month, week, or day on earth…what would your ASK be? Where is He asking you to increase your heart?
• GOD MUST BUILD INCREASE IN US BEFORE IT WILL COME TO US

2.  Put pen to paper and write out your ‘ASK’

• Heb 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for”
• What is the specific things that you have faith and need a miracle for?
• If you do not have a Shaping our Destiny card… We have attached a file which you may want to use.

3.  Prepare to sow a seed...’For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

• You lead with your treasure:
• Our heart follows our treasure – where we put our treasure establishes our heart
• When God puts a desire in our heart (to win our neighborhood for Jesus) He then expects us to invest our life to bring it forth
• What leaves our hand enters our future = The substance we give toward the desires in our heart give the desires in our heart Substance

4. Position yourself in the House of God this weekend! Let’s build the House of God and believe for miracles together.

• We are believing for miracles, signs and wonders as we read about in  Acts 2:43-47

Helen and I have deep desires that we are bringing to God…. We are preparing our offering for Shaping our Destiny and are excited to pray with you this weekend.

We love and value you and are so grateful to have the privilege of doing life together with you.

Pastor John

…..to turn your clocks BACK one hour on Saturday night.  Enjoy an extra hour of sleep.  Then come on out on Sunday morning.  Pastor John will be back with us from his trip down under to share a message “Supernatural confidence for your financial future.” 

See you soon!