What impact did “Serve the City ’08” have in West Seattle?
By Erik Henrikson

On Saturday July 26th MHC | West Seattle scattered throughout the greater Seattle area to Serve the City. Over 16 community groups and service teams organized a service project in their neighborhood. Over 200 people labored together on July 26th participating in over 19 projects. It’s estimated that over 500 people in the West Seattle were impacted or served in some way. When Campus Pastor Adam Sinnett was asked why we are serving he remarked, “We are commanded to love our neighbor as our self (Mt 22:39). If we’re all honest, it is a confronting commandment because it quickly reveals the condition of our heart and should move us to action.”
Thanks to the response and labor of over 200 people there were many opportunities to love our neighbors on July 26th. Here is a snapshot of three of the projects. The Arbor Heights Community group visited the Elderly Kenney home in WS where meaningful conversations brightened the day of several residents. The Highpoint Community group beautified the Highpoint neighborhood by cleaning streets and picking up trash while meeting neighbors along the way. Another West Seattle Community group served at the Providence Regina House, (a food and clothing bank located in South Park), where it’s estimated that over 200 people are served each week. Still other teams cleaned up the Long-fellow creek, served at the UGM shelter, visited the Life-Care Center, remodeled a neighbor’s house, helped neighbors with yard work, and the list goes on………
Over 100 people met back at the campus for a BBQ sharing stories about the day and how God was moving. Scott Ryan a local West Seattle neighbor remarked, “I am amazed that so many of you would come together to help me remodel my house. Thank you, I am extremely grateful.” Scott is not affiliated with Mars Hill and simply needed some help. Truly loving our neighbor goes beyond just one day and I pray we consider with Jesus how to continue to fulfill his commandment to love our neighbor. Thanks to everyone who prayed and invested their time to “Serve the City” to the glory of Jesus.

Above ( left): Neighbor Scott Ryan identifies a window where rain leakage has caused rot. Volunteers replaced the window and contributed over 40 man hours to his remodel project. Above (right) Charles Stoddard ( just returned from Iraq) and Julie (visiting from West Virginia) worked on remodeling a neighbors house to “serve the city”.

Here’s the scoop on Vacation Bible School ‘08
By Shan Applin

The 1st annual Mars Hill West Seattle VBS was held last week at E.C. Hughes Park in West Seattle and praise the Lord the weather held out.
Averaging around 55 children per day, the children enjoyed a teaching time, snack shack, worship time, sports station, fun craft, and some field activities each day as they had fun and learned about Jesus. It was a great time for everyone including the 20 plus volunteers who gave of their time and talents throughout the week. VBS would not have been possible without their hard work and dedication.
The theme this year was “Outrigger Island” which culminated in an exciting treasure hunt which took the children all around the very large park. Several neighborhood children were in attendance who never attended church before. One boy exclaimed after hearing a bible story in the park, Why did Jesus die? I didn’t think gods could die. The teacher responded by sharing the gospel with him and many more conversations like this took place throughout the week.
We learned a lot this year and we are looking forward to applying it all to next year’s 2nd annual Mars Hill West Seattle VBS”! Lastly, the kids had a blast !

Chasing down Vacation Bible School “Islanders” isn’t as easy as you think especially when you have killer whales in the park.

What can be said about the summer kick off BBQ that was hosted by Mars Hill Church West Seattle Campus?
by Alan Andersen
Whether you were there or not, there was so much going on that you would have been unable to take it all in at once so here is just a little taste of what went down! There were over 250 people that came out to enjoy some great eats and beats. The eats provided by MHC|WS and Ryan Plaschs’ C.G. in addition to some amazing desserts provided by Tim Van Liews’ C.G. and the beats were provided by DJ Sandman. He was able to keep it chill enough for just about everyone to have some great conversations, many of which took place with people who had never been to the church before and yet the DJ kept the beats bumpin’ enough that it made you want to do a little dancing! Amongst other events, there was the ever so popular dunk tank with dunkees including Pastors’ Adam Sinnett, Bill Simmonds and Cliff Low, all the deacons and even a few youth. There was so much to see and do that almost forgot to mention the Halo tournament, the RockBand concert (on the Wii, of course), the kids balloon toss, which ultimately turned into mob Shan with as many water balloons as possible and finally, arguably the most popular activity of the evening karaoke!
As one can easily see, whether you were there or not, the barbeque was an action packed evening. The tone was definitely set for how MHC|WS “gets down” and how great next Tuesday’s Party in the Park will be. I sincerely encourage all of you to make it out to Party in the Park, this should be equally enjoyable and you can’t beat having an opportunity to have great community fellowship in a beautiful place. Word is that there will be a softball game 9am versus 11:15am service. I have heard from some of the young adults that there is no way they are losing to all the “old” people that get up super early (as if 8am is super early!) to go to the early service. You definitely won’t want to miss next Tuesday!