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Hey guys,

Its been a long time coming but we are in business and its time to update the world on what’s going on here in Lakewood.  Quick overview: Expectations build, soft launch, Christmas, services, off weeks, and travel.

As the launch week of our services approached we really had no idea what to expect.  I for one was back and forth between despairing that no one was going to come and expecting like 85 people to show up.  I went back and forth so many times that I just gave up trying to figure it all out.  We had planned for like 50 people but we really had no idea.  So we got everything ready including pancakes, Christmas gifts, flyers, visitor information cards, our banner, and my guitar and headed off to the Library!

So December 23rd arrived.  Cam’s Aunt and Uncle and their two girls showed up to help us get all set up and surprisingly almost everything went off without a hitch.  Except that we blew the circuits by using two griddles more than once. Ha ha! So the question is how many people showed up.  Well excluding all of us that were there to help, 4 people showed up for a grand total of 14 people.  This was great and we all had pancakes and enjoyed songs and Cam’s Christmas message.  Then afterwards cam took the lady outside to our cars and she got a bunch of gifts for her kids as well as some for another mom that she knew needed them.  So they were blessed, we stopped holding our breath and all was good.

After that we took a couple days just to relax and enjoy Christmas.  It was just the Barbers and I.  We had a lot of fun and it took a while to pen presents because every present that was opened had to be played with for at least 10 minutes before another could be opened.  Parents of all young kids should understand that one.   We had Christmas dinner at Cam’s uncle’s house, and it was an overall great first Christmas in WA.  Oh and instead of a white Christmas, it was a rainy Christmas, which was awesome as well.

Since then we have been having services every other week.  So we have had a grand total of one more service,  which also went really well.  We had 11 show up for that week so it was just us and our loyal Bible study partner Mary.  But we all had a great time and things went very well again, without the circuits popping this time.

So now you are wondering, what do we do on the weeks that we are not having service?  And the answer is… Service.  What I mean by that is on our off weeks we will be going out to people, specifically the homeless, and serving them in any way we can, starting with food.  So we went and made big snack bags for whoever we found and went out to find people.  We had a really hard time finding them but we did manage to bless a couple people with the bags.  Then when we got back to the library, we found a guy names Jason who was sleeping under the shelter of the library roof.  We gave him a bag and he was grateful so we asked if we could do anything else for him.  He said that a warmer blanket would be nice, so Cam left to go find one.  Kenzie then suggested that we go to target and Cam thought of a sleeping bag.  So we got one that was good down to 30 degrees even though it hadn’t gotten that cold yet.  We brought it back to Jason and he was very very grateful.  He climbed right in and we realized the blanket he has was nothing more than a bed sheet and that night ended up being the first time that it froze here.  Talk about being there in the nick of time for God to bless him.  So cool.

I just recently got to go home for second Christmas with my family and visit my fiance for a couple days.  That was a great trip albeit, way to short.  We did a lot regarding wedding plans and all seems to be coming together well.   I am also in the process of possibly getting a job with Dunbar, the same job that Cam has, so please pray that everything works out and I finally get a job.

Our next service is this coming Sunday, January 20th, so please keep that in your prayers and pray that more people would come and be fed and hear the Gospel.  Thanks so much for all your continued support.  God is moving here, we are being used to bless people in need, and we are very much looking forward to what God is going to do in the future.

In Him,

Landon

Launch

A new year and a new beginning.  For all you who don't know, Calvary South Sound launched on Sunday nights in Lakewood Wa!  God has been so faithful throughout the whole process so far, and we are looking forward to seeing what He will do in the future.  I thought that I would describe a little bit about what the church looks like and how we operate.  We have been meeting on Thursday nights in a coffee shop for several months now, and are continuing to study through the book of John.  Sunday nights are really fun and interesting.  Since we only have the room twice a month, the "off" weeks, we meet and go out to serve food, coats, and whatever else we can to the large homeless population in our city.

I just started a job at Dunbar Armored.  God is faithful and provided a job for me a few weeks ago.  I drive and armored truck.  I love that I get to spend all day with one guy, no radio, no distraction, just conversation.  I have the privilege of telling guys about Jesus on a daily basis at work, it's really cool.  After I finish my probation I will be the one getting out of the truck and going into businesses, again, another opportunity to make connections and share Jesus with our city.

We are so grateful for all the prayer, and financial support that we have received.  Your support makes the whole operation go 'round.  I hope you know that people are being fed, receiving warm blankets and sleeping bags, and hearing about Jesus, because of the support.  God is truly using all of you to bless this city.

In Him,

Cam

Crazy Faith tm

Yes, we are trying to trademark that! So for all of you who were praying for our launch on the 9th, I have some good news, it didn't happen! Now how can that be good news? The reason it didn't happen was because the school didn't find someone to open the door and monitor us on Sunday morning. Now we were kinda bummed about it, but we began to think about it, and we honestly weren't ready. We were biting off more than we could chew. The school rental plus the church insurance was really too expensive for us, especially on a weekly basis so this made us stand back and rethink what we were doing.

So we have a better plan and we're really excited about it. We are going to open the Lakewood Library's doors on Sunday, December 23rd, for our first church service which will be held in the evening. Yes, we will still have pancakes, as Stan Simmonds put it, "Pancakes were never intended as only a breakfast food."  We are also going to be buying a bunch of Christmas gifts for people who cannot afford gifts for their kids to take home with them.  Now meeting at the Library is a huge blessing because its free. We can only meet twice a week, but that's a good start, and it will make a more obvious transition as we grow and we start holding weekly Sunday services in the morning sometime in the future.

Crazy faith, in other words, Stupid faith or Reckless faith. This is what we have been experiencing in the last couple weeks. This is when you give up everything that is comfortable and do something that is beyond your means just because God asked you to and He has promised that He will provide. This is a story of what God did to show His great provision for us.

MEAT!

I have been looking for a job since I got here and I've been looking everywhere. I found an add that said they were hiring drivers, so on a Friday I interviewed with them and they said they would contact me by Monday if they wanted me. I didn't get a call so I moved on, but about 1 1/2 weeks later, I got the call. They said they were going to take me on a 2 day ride along to see the job first hand. I hopped in the car with the manager of the branch, Jerry, and realized very quickly this was a door-to-door sales job, not really delivery. So I knew right away this was not my thing but I was there and so I prayed that God would use it.

The first thing this guy tells me is that he is an ex pastor/prison chaplain. Say WHAT?! Okay so he tells me his whole life story and asks me some questions and its totally laid back. We get the the place we are going to work and I watch and observe, praying almost the whole time. Now the product we are selling is meat, variety packs of tasty choice beef steaks and premium marinated chicken. So around 4:00 we sit down at McDonalds to take a break and he brings up a study he wrote while in ministry about Grace and the Law. It was really fascinating and we talked about it for about 45 minutes. I left with some really good insight.

We finished our route and headed home. We discussed it and decided it wouldn't be good for me to continue, but he gave me a small box of the steaks, the least valued ones and the some deer meat we acquired from a hunter on our route and I was very appreciative. Then He asked me how the financial situation was with the pastor and his family. I told him that things were super tight, but we were hangin in there. Then he told me that the Lord had been prompting him to do something all day and he asked whether I wanted a full box of chicken or steaks to take home. I was completely blown away, this is not cheap stuff. So I said chicken because we have kids, so he said he was going to give me both because he knows how hard starting a church can be.

After selling this stuff all day, I knew this was huge, and this was the reason God sent me there. I drove away laughing because I had no words to thank God. I want to put this into context for you. What we got was 13 gallon size ziplock bags full of choice beef steak and premium chicken. If you were to order these two boxes online, it would cost you about $800, we were selling both for $388. Each box costs the driver $132, so if he sells both for $388, that's $124 profit. So by giving us that, its a cost of $388 to him because its $264 out of pocket and a miss of $124 profit. So he donated $388 worth of meat to us. Now as poor church planters, meat is something we have missed out on for a while, so this was the biggest blessing ever. You should have seen the jaws hit the floor when I showed Cam and Britt what I had brought home.

All the meats

This is our chest freezer

Das good Steak

Then through a program called WIC, which helps children under 5 eat better, we have been provided with food free of cost till March! And the lady that interviewed Cam and Britt is a Christian and wants to tithe to our church because hers is big and doesn't really need the money.

Mind Blown!

Also Cam might be getting a good security job this week and I still don't have a job so keep praying that I find one soon. One thing we are learning, Life is hard, but God is good, and Heaven is real. God provides to those living on Crazy Faith. This is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but we know that God holds true to his promises. All the time. To Him be the glory! Amen.

In Him,
Landon

On the edge...

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to let all of you know what is going on up here in Lakewood.  It has been a while since we have written.  We have been meeting on Thursday nights in our local Barns & Noble coffee shop.  It has proven to be fruitful.  We have a couple of people coming regularly to learn about the Jesus, every week.  What is truly amazing is that we are finding people that did not go to church, wanting to launch church with us.

On December 9th we are planing to hold our first service, we are calling this our "soft launch", simply to see what God will do to bless this city.  We will be serving pancakes to the general public, we have a very large homeless population.  There need is so great, we are expecting many to partake in this opportunity to feed their family for free.  Since church is usually called a "service", we thought we should serve!  

When we left Los Alamos, we had planned to pay our rent for at least six months to buy the time to be able to find a job that will pay the rent.  Unfortunately we have not been able to land a job.  I have been working at Walgreen's part time, and am still actively looking for a job.  To be completely honest, we are coming up short for the new year.  I do not like to ask for support, but at this point we need to. 

There is an easy way to give to the cause.  You can give online at http://calvarysouthsound.org/support/.  We have set up an e-giving account to make this as easy as possible.  Using this service will enable you to give with a one time, or monthly giving plan.  Please consider supporting us.

In Him,

Cameron

Who Said Walking by Faith Was Supposed to be Easy

Hey guys! Sorry you haven’t heard from us in a long time, but we have some great news to share.  First off, we have a launch date!  On December 9th, we will hold a Sunday service in Park Lodge Elementary School, right across from the Lakewood Towne Center.  We will be serving free pancakes to anyone who is willing to come get them.  We’re really excited that this is going to happen and we are praying that it will be a great outreach to the community.  We also now have two lady’s that are consistently coming to our Thursday night Bible study.  They are excited to help us with our launch and we can tell that we are making a difference in their lives already.  So praise Jesus for those awesome things.

What is the cost of picking up your cross every day and following Jesus?  To some it looks like 5 minutes in the morning praying, Sunday morning and maybe Wednesday night.  But is that all He asks for?  Just a little time from us each week?  Cam and I have been realizing more and more this is not the case.  We read in the Bible that when Jesus tells people to follow him or when someone comes to Jesus and asks to follow Him, His response is always the same.  The cost of following Jesus is, well its everything.  You say, well I know that, but do you?  What is everything to you?  God has been teaching us this slowly while being up here.  We’ve had to fully rely on God’s provision for lots of the things that we could take care of ourselves before we came here. 

This has been really prevalent for me because I have been looking for a job since I got up here.  That’s a total of 3 months that I have been submitting resumes and applications, and even though I am in the process with two companies, nothing is for certain yet.  I’ve been wondering for a while know why I haven’t seen God provide like I thought he was going to and recently it even developed into an anger towards Him.  Like with how many people are praying and how hard I’ve been working, how could you not answer me yet?  I realized yet again that I was trying to control many things and getting mad that things were not going my way.  Well here’s the deal guys.  God’s ways are not our ways, and I have once again had to bow before the throne and give everything back to Him.  His promises are true.  If you are feeling this way at all go read Psalm 6:2-4, 27:14, Matt. 6:25-34, 7:7-11.  These are promises that we can hold on to in times when we think that God is not near or that things are not turning out the way they should.

These things are hard and we don’t always seen why they happen but the important thing is to trust in His promises and have faith, no matter what.  And when we run out of faith, just obey.  So we are continuing the church plant in faith, trusting that God will provide for us, lots of love, hurting people, and the ability to carry out His will here in Lakewood.

Here are some prayer requests you can be lifting up for us.

• Cam and I are still looking for Jobs so we can stay up here and not be a burden on the church.
• Our first Sunday service is coming up very soon and there is a HUGE list of things we have to do before that can happen, so we need prayer that we can actually get everything done that we need to.

In Him,
Landon

A manual

We have been about this work of church planting for a few months now.  I wanted to share one of the things that God has been teaching me, us, through this new work.  Let me get everyone up to speed on what is going on.  First, we have been intentionally getting out on Thursday nights to meet people, teach, and discuss who Jesus is.  During the planning phase of the church plant, we, and by that I mean me, decided that I knew about the culture enough to engage in a structured and decisive way to win people to Christ.  Apparently I did not.  Now I am not going to give up on our Thursday nights, but I see now that every culture is different, and needs to be engaged within its cultural context.  I also see that I did not truly understand the cultural context that I am now living, and ministering in.

Second, I am quickly learning that the book of Acts especially chapters 13 through 28, are God's way of showing us not only how to, but what to expect from church planting.  I was reading the book of Acts this morning, and was startled by the parallels of the first church planting movement, and my own experiences of church planting today.  The first thing that popped up on my, "it happened to me" radar was that people will let you down.  When we hit ground zero, I commonly refer to our city as ground zero, I started to get out and share the Gospel.  What I found was a city underbelly that was starving for Jesus.  Just the fact that I wear Van's shoes and talk about Jesus attracts people to Jesus.  So in my own mind I saw who I thought were going to be the transformed leaders on this new work.  What I found was that God was leading me through loving people, no matter what their response to the church plant is.  Paul went through this with John Mark when he departed, or rather deserted Paul on the church planting road.

Third, is change.  Change is not comfortable, it is not easy, and takes faith in the context of church planting.  In my tribe, Calvary Chapel, we are used to starting a home study, watching it grow, and after a time starting a Sunday service.  Now, I know that God moves in that method of church planting.  But, at the cost of sounding like the young guy that I am, He does move through new wine skins.  I can remember reading, and listening to Pastor Chuck over and over again speak on the topic of letting the Spirit move through new ways, or new wine skins.  I still go back to what Chuck said and let those words sink in, and teach me on the moving of the Holy Spirit, from sermons from the 1970's and 1980's.  They are still true today.  One of the things in Acts that should be noted by any church planter is Paul's willingness to change.  In Ephesus Paul gets kicked out of the synagogue, but he does not let that stop the church plant in Ephesus, he then rents out a school and raises up a body of believers.  There are times when our models and methods of church planting, are not going to work.  Even our ideas about exactly where to do things are not going to work.  Remember when Paul wants to preach the Gospel in Asia, and the Holy Spirit forbids him.  This does not deter Paul, he goes on to get a dream about a man in Macedonia, and goes there to plant another church.  Here is the connection.  If the Spirit is not working in something, find out where He is moving and working, and do that.  In our culture, if someone is going to go to church, they want to go to an actual church on Sunday morning.  This is not true of all cultures, but it is in mine.  So because of this, we are going to launch on a Sunday morning.  No momentum building, just do it, so to say.  Thursday nights are not what I thought them to be, but I have had many Gospel conversations, and will continue to do so on Thursday nights.  How is this change?  It is change because I no longer look to our Thursday night study to be the start of the church plant, to be the things that brings people, and other leaders to the church plant.  We now go out with no specific expectations, just that the Holy Spirit to move and work.  Now if we will look at the book of Acts as not only a historical and theological text, but a how to, and what to expect in church planting.  We can be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in planting the church.  

In Calvary Chapel, there is a book that I believe really defines us.  It is Harvest.  The starting of the movement is amazing.  Read about how Applegate started, and baptizing naked people.  Starting a church in a Karate studio, and a young dude that came late to a baptism and preached the Gospel to other hippies and baptized them, with no formal training.  I am of course speaking of Jon Courson, Raul Ries, and Greg Laurie.  Not the methods, but the heart of them.  To bring Jesus to new cultures, requires us to leave behind our presuppositions, and some sensitivities of that culture.  If Pastor Chuck has taught us anything, it is that all matter to Christ.  Reaching out to our "hippies" is what we are about.  I love what Peyton Jones says about this, "To reach the ones that no one else is, we have to do the things that no one else is willing to do, and go to places that no one else is willing to go."

There is a measure of faith that we are asking for in this new endeavor.  Please pray for us while we go through time.

In Him,

Cam

Tossing Tables...

Normally I hold myself to a strict no politics policy in Calvary South Sound, neither endorsing or condemning either party or candidate.  I watched the debate last night, saw some more debate on facebook this morning, and watched the twitter shouting match pop up on the bottom of my screen.  Let me first say that I live and minister in one of the most liberal places in the country, the northwest.  I see many, many political signs that I would never have dreamed of seeing in New Mexico.  It has led me to one conclusion, this is not a spiritual debate, but it has been made into one.  Confused?  Let me explain.  The presidential debate has polarized our country.  Both sides calling the other names, and thinking evil thoughts.  I have heard things like,"I don't believe that you can be a follower of Jesus and a democrat!"  I have heard that Christians/Conservatives have no compassion on the lower class in our country.  I have heard one angry outburst, and ridiculous accusation after another.  So here is what I believe the Word is telling us.

In Ephesians chapter two Paul addresses two groups in the city that are at each others throats.  The Jews and Gentiles of Ephesus had been arguing and arguing about one issue after another and causing such unrest that the Gentiles had been kicked out of the synagogue.  Now on the streets they are calling each other names like little children on the playground.  Ephesians 2:11 says, "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-"  Literally meaning foreskin and cut-around.  What they were doing was deliberately dehumanizing the others.  Sound familiar to anyone?

Back to today.  As we lob verbal grenades to the other side, both are throwing them, we are thickening the veil over our eyes to what is truly important.  It was said that the greatest trick the Devil ever did was convincing the world that he does not exist.  I believe he us up to a new trick.  One that is just as dangerous.  By convincing us that evil is the form of a Donkey or Elephant, we are blinded to true evil.  We are missing the fact that we are sons and daughters of Christ, and the ones that we make inhuman, are also loved by Christ.  He gave His blood for them.

We know that Jesus got angry on earth when He came into the Temple and saw that the Pharisees had turned it into their own personal extortion ring.  But, at the heart of the account of Jesus' anger, is that the Pharisees were keeping people from God.  By extorting the poor, and the widows out of what little they had, they misrepresented the love of God.  So, Jesus went tossing tables.

Today, by dehumanizing the other side we are misrepresenting the love of Christ, and dividing people instead of uniting those who look and think economically different that you.  Paul concludes this matter in Ephesians 2:13-18; " But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, [that is], the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man [from] the two, [thus] making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."  Do we not see?  That we are made one, by the blood.

Just some things to ponder as you go out into the world this week.

In Him,

Cam