Praise be to God for another God glorifying and successful Tuesday night in August! The numbers for this Tuesday’s California Dinner and a Movie event were outstanding!

The evening began as the body of Mars Hill West Seattle descended as a great cloud of witnesses onto the restaurants around the Admiral Theater. We had people representing the body of Christ at almost every restaurant on California Ave from Alaska St to Walker St! Hope you all tipped well so that our servers experienced the love of Christ via your outward expression of gratitude.

After dinner, the body reassembled as one man at the Admiral Theater to watch “Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” The total attendance was about 310 people. Approximately 50 of those people were not Mars Hill attendees and about 20 were walk-ins who came to see the hulk and were persuaded to stay for Narnia when they realized the Hulk was canceled. Outstanding!

To celebrate our many blessing in Christ, some people also went out to dessert and drinks afterwards at more of the local eating and drinking establishments.

Thanks everyone who attended. See you all next week at Alki for the beach baptism and BBQ.

1. Thanking God for a wonderful Pastors conference in July. Our pastors and Bible students had new understanding in knowing how God prepares when He calls people to the ministry-it is done from the life of Abraham. We had some new planters attended from Hyderabad region and hoping to grow our Church planting network over that region.
2. We were able to support more widows now from July., and hopefully in God’s timing we will soon have a leader to further develop and lead this ministry. Pray for these widows and two of them Neelammma and veeramma are not in good health and also have
3. Clinic work is to begin this month and we do not know exact date yet because we could not find a doctor. We had one committed to work but decided she could not join at the last hour. We feel God has a different plan to send a Christian doctor instead. We are talking with a Christian doctors family and said they will make their decision next week. We request your prayers because God answers to our needs and challenges.
4. Pray for Jessica who is coming from the Dallas to work in medical clinic for 3weeks from Aug 18th. This will be a good beginning of the clinic.
5. All the women of 4 VN Churches in Vizag are meeting together on Sat 16th for a day’s retreat on “Beauty of Esther.” It is first time all these women are getting together like this for a meeting. Pray that this will be a blessing for our Churches.
6. We are greatly in need of a School bus for transporting kids to School. We have smaller van which is going 3 times to the same place to bring kids. We are in need of a bus of 41 seater for transporting about 200 kids. We appreciate your prayers and support towards this.
7. We are in need of a Maths teacher to our School. Please pray we will have one soon this month.

In the ministry that counts,
Arjuna & Raji Chiguluri
Vision Nationals August Prayer Requests

This week we had between 16 men gather together to seek the Lord Jesus. Pastor Cliff led us this week, and began by talking about some of the things we can expect during this prayer time in the future, including splitting up in smaller prayer groups, and even walking throughout the building and neighborhoods praying for our church and the homes in the surrounding community. We then opened it up for a time of sharing of the opportunities God had orchestrated in the past week to meet and invite unbelievers to our church (e.g., Tuesday’s Mars Hill BBQ and neighborhood block parties were great opportunities) and/or share the good news of Jesus Christ with them through word or deed. We then continued to walk through the book of Colossians, and this week we meditated on chapter 1, verses 9-14 (below):

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Reflections on this passage included that we should be exceedingly thankful that God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness” and has removed the veil over our hearts (see 2 Corinthians 3:16). Our resulting desire should be to prayerfully intercede for others, as Paul did, to change our communities for his glory as people turn to Jesus and bear fruit by the power of the Holy Spirit (Galations 5:22-23). If we find it difficult to pray for our communities as Paul did here for the Colossian church, we can start by asking God to change our hearts to do so. We were also encouraged to have a vision through prayer for each of us to experience knowledge, good fruit, endurance, patience and most of all joy in Jesus.

We then moved into our time of prayer by getting our hearts right with God through silent and vocal confession, and then focusing outward through intercession for our church and surrounding communities of West Seattle.

Prayers this week:

• Pray that all of West Seattle would know that Mars Hill exists in this part of the city. Pray that God will bring many unbelievers to our church on Sundays, into our community groups during the week, and to our summer gathering events as they are planned. Pray that each person would hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray against Satan, his tricks, and divisive attempts to hamper the mission of Mars Hill and lead people astray from the truth.
• Pray for the pastors that will be preaching the upcoming sermon series on the book of Jonah. Pray that God will use them to boldly make known the mystery of the gospel (Eph 6:18-20).
• Pray that God will bring people before each Sunday service to pray and intercede for those that will be coming to church and hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray that he will grant the wisdom of Heaven to the prayer team that prays for people during communion, and that he will bring more men to the prayer gathering on Wednesday mornings.
• Pray for the launch of the 5pm service – that God would grant wisdom to the launch team on how to prepare, and will continue to rise up volunteers to help with the logistics. Pray that God will bring many people to the service that could otherwise not attend on Sunday mornings.
• Pray for the Mars Hill elders – that there would be a spirit of love, unity and humility among them as they pursue the will of Jesus Christ in their own lives, the lives of their families, and the life of our church.
• Pray that God would instill a heart of mission in everyone attending Mars Hill. Pray for our community group leaders to have strength and perseverance as they continue to shepherd and encourage their groups to be on mission by reaching out to unbelievers in their lives, and by embracing parts of their communities through constant prayer and service.
• Pray for the specific neighborhood in which God has sovereignly placed you (Acts 17:26,27), and the specific individuals that you have met in those places.
• Pray that the hearts of the believers at Mars Hill would be focused on Jesus such that it becomes a joy to faithfully and sacrificially give of their time, talents, and treasure to the mission of Jesus Christ at Mars Hill (2 Corinthians 9:7).

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!

This week we had between 15-20 men gather together to seek the Lord Jesus. We again opened our time sharing the opportunities God had orchestrated in the past week to share the good news of Jesus Christ with unbelievers in our lives through word or deed. We then continued to walk through the book of Colossians, and this week Erik Henrikson led us in meditating on chapter 1, verses 3-8 (below).

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

Reflections on this passage included that Paul, though he had only heard of the faith of these Christians, gave thanks for their faith and partnership in the gospel. He also commended their love for each other “in the Spirit,” which is from God and is distinguishable from mere human affection. We reflected on how this is encouragement to us to continually pray for our fellow brothers and sisters around the city, nation, and world that are partnering in the mission of reaching all nations with the good news of Jesus Christ.

We then moved into our time of prayer by getting our hearts right with God through silent and vocal confession, and then focusing outward through intercession for our church and surrounding communities of West Seattle.

Prayers this week:

• Offer prayers of thankfulness to God for a successful “Serve the City” day last Saturday. Pray that the communities in which Mars Hill served would continue to reflect on the love of Christ that was shown in word and in deed that day by those who served. Pray that God would cause any seeds of faith that were planted and watered to grow (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).
• Pray that the children, aged 3-10, that attend vacation bible school this week would hear and understand the gospel of Jesus and make a commitment in their hearts to follow him. Pray for those that will serve as leaders – that God will give them divine wisdom to know how to correctly handle every situation that presents itself and every question that the children will ask. Pray that God would grant divine wisdom to the parents to raise their children according to the ways of the Lord (Prov 22:6).
• Pray that God would use the “Pray Like Jesus” series to move the hearts of the those in our church to want to pray more and more. Pray that we would better understand that we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Pray that our church would be steadfast in prayer (Col 4:2), and that God would continue to draw people into deeper prayer individually, in small communities/groups, and within the corporate church body. Pray that God will bring more men on Wednesday mornings to pray.
• Pray that more people would seek to receive prayer during communion on Sundays. Pray that God will give the wisdom of Heaven to the prayer team that prays for people.
• Pray that God would instill a heart of mission in everyone attending Mars Hill. Pray for our community group leaders to have strength and perseverance as they continue to shepherd and encourage their groups to be on mission by reaching out to unbelievers in their lives, and by embracing parts of their communities through constant prayer and service.
• Pray for the specific neighborhood in which God has sovereignly placed you (Acts 17:26,27), and the specific individuals that you have met in those places.
• Pray that those attending Mars Hill will embrace the armor that God offers us (see Ephesians 6) and advance forward for the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
• Pray that the hearts of the believers at Mars Hill would be focused on Jesus such that it becomes a joy to faithfully and sacrificially give of their time, talents, and treasure to the mission of Jesus Christ at Mars Hill (2 Corinthians 9:7).
• Pray against Satan, his tricks, and divisive attempts to hamper the mission of Mars Hill and lead people astray from the truth.

Dear Pastors and Friends at the Mars Hill West Seattle Campus,

“Is the Church open?” a young girl standing on the corner asked me excitedly. The group of a half dozen or so children who had been hanging around on the corner were suddenly all ears. “I think they’re pray…” before I had a chance to finish “praying” the entire group of children rushed to the basement doors shouting excitedly.

It was fifth Sunday, and Epiphany was running an outreach to the neighborhood children called “Worshipping the Son.” A group of children and adults from Epiphany canvassed the block earlier that weekend inviting children to come, and the turnout was amazing! Forty-four children attended and all were told about Jesus and the need to worship him. Please pray for these children as we follow up with them in the expectation that the Holy Spirit will work, and continue to work, in their hearts.

God continues to use the Epiphany community here in Philadelphia for the work of His kingdom. There were a number of exciting events this past June including:

• Epiphany purchased the building by the grace of God!!
• A revamped 31:30 meeting (our women’s fellowship) which included food, fellowship and bible study
• A Man2Man (men’s Fellowship) trip to Great Adventure theme park
• The children’s outreach
• This continuation of First Friday Fundamentals (an outreach of Epiphany Fellowship)

Your continued financial and prayerful support of Epiphany Fellowship is an encouragement to us. Thank you for your willingness to partner with us as we seek to effectively minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ locally and globally. Please keep us in your prayers.
Grace and Peace,

Ruth Burke

Administrator
Epiphany Fellowship Church

To keep everyone updated on who we serve, we have created a page on our website dedicated to keeping you informed.  You can find it up and to the right along with other information about the West Seattle Campus.  As the groups we support send updates, we will post them on the blog and keep all the updates on our page.  Here’s an example from The Well in Augusta, GA:  The Well Summer Newsletter 2008.

The page is under development, as are most things in Mars Hill, so expect to see constant changes when you visit.

Last Wednesday we had 10 men gather to pray in Jesus’ name at 6:30am. We opened up our time by sharing what was on our hearts, and learning how we could specifically pray for each other. There was definitely a sense of hunger by many to see God intervene in the lives of our families, neighbors, and communities. Erik Henrikson then led us through a devotion on Ephesians 6:10-20 (below).

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

We spent time reflecting and discussing the reality of the spiritual battle we face every day, and the abundant armor that God provides for us in the midst of that battle. Note that the only offensive weapon in the list is the sword of the Spirit – the word of God. God stresses to us the importance of allowing his word to penetrate our hearts and minds in such a way that the scriptures guide the way we engage in each battle we face in life.

Prayers this week:

• Pray that those attending Mars Hill will embrace the armor that God offers us (see Ephesians 6 above) and advance forward for the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
• Pray that God will stir the hearts of the community groups to serve with hearts of gladness during the “Serve the City” day on July 26th. Pray that all who can attend will attend, and that God will sovereignly orchestrate circumstances and conversations such that many in our communities witness and hear the gospel through the words and deeds of those in our church. Pray that no one serving would be ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16), even in the face of opposition.
• Pray that God would instill a missional heart in everyone attending Mars Hill. Pray for our community group leaders to have strength and perseverance as they continue to shepherd and encourage their groups to be on mission by embracing parts of their communities through constant prayer and service.
• Pray for the specific neighborhood in which God has sovereignly placed you (Acts 17:26,27).
• Pray that the hearts of the believers at Mars Hill would be focused on Jesus such that it becomes a joy to faithfully and sacrificially give of their time, talents, and treasure to the mission of Jesus Christ at Mars Hill (2 Corinthians 9:7).
• Pray against Satan, his tricks, and divisive attempts to hamper the mission of Mars Hill and lead people astray from the truth.
• Pray that believers in our church would be steadfast in prayer (Col 4:2), and that God would continue to bring more men on Wednesday mornings to pray.

Occasionally we receive updates from the ministries that the West Seattle Campus supports and want to share them with you.  For more information on all the ministries Mars Hill | West Seattle Campus supports, check out our Who We Support page. 

9 July 2008 Prayer Requests

1. Praise God

• We praise God for many answered prayers and His faithfulness.
• We praise God for the new children home began in Kathmandu, Nepal in June.
• All 12 Students (11 from our children home) who had appeared in high school exams passed in I class. Praise God.
• All *Joel and Sue Garrisons are in Kathmandu, Nepal and indeed it was an answer to prayer.
• A new temporary building is built for the extension of the school recently. In spite of some land difficulties over there God had helped us to complete the building.

2. The School had become a challenge now with about 150 new admissions this year which total the strength of the School to 350 kids. We had built a temporary new class rooms place. We also had started an English medium. Pray for God’s hand in the life of these kids and God to bless further so it will bring additional support to the ministry.

• Pray for all teachers and especially new teachers.
• We are in need of a school bus.

3. The new children home had began in Kathmandu from June this year- Please pray for the kids and all our needs there.
4. Pray for the 20 new kids that have joined in Vizag children home.
5. There will be a Pastors Conference this month from 21-25. Pray that the conference will be a great encouragement to all Pastors and leaders. Some are planting new Churches; a few of them have been constructing Church buildings and some of them are going through difficult times.
6. We have some new faculty for the Bible College and new teachers and new staff. Pray for a wonderful unity and ministry together.

In the ministry that counts,
Arjuna & Raji Chiguluri.