MCKENZIES ON MISSION

February 2013

JOURNEY CHURCH GOES PUBLIC

This past Sunday was an awesome day! We had our rst public service at Lynn Fripps Elementary School. Although it was important, we tried to keep it low pressure as it was just a preview service. For those of you that arent familiar with church planting, generally a church will have a series of preview services before ofcially launching. A preview service is live dress rehearsal of sorts. A chance for the core group to get familiar with the set-up, take down and timing of a full scale worship service. For this preview Journey people were asked to invite close friends and family to come check it out. Before going fully public its nice to have a chance to get familiar with our Sunday roles and expectations and to hear some feedback from some trusted sources. We had about 40 people show up. It was a great encouragement to us and they all had wonderful words of support that give us energy moving forward. Were planning to have our second preview on March 10 after which we will begin weekly gatherings starting on March 31, Easter Sunday. The highlight of the day for the McKenzies was watching a family that we had invited from Gemmas school walk through the doors. According to the wife they had never been to church but decided that they wanted to expose their kids to it. It was a bit nerve wracking wondering how they would see things but on the way out the husband congratulated Lindsay and said they would denitely be back. Such an answer to prayer; God showed up in a big way! I was on stage welcoming people, doing the announcements and leading the offering. It was so great to be up there again, I was [1]

After six months of prep work & meeting in Pastor Lindsays house Journey Church had its first public service
rusty but in my element. Nevada led the kids ministry and did a great job. This is special for us as our kids represent 2/3 of the starting core in our kids department. Were looking forward to our next Sunday service and most importantly to seeing more neighbors walk through the doors & into a new life with Jesus!

IN CLASS...

Adding More Tools To My Pastoral Tool Box

In the last couple of years at the Pearl I found myself increasingly feeling like I didnt

Cubing the Text & Context, Context, Context. Cubing the text is about taking a look at each passage with six sides in mind: Setting, Structure, Syntax, Semantics,

know how to move the church forward. I also Summation & Signicance. Without getting into detail, lets just say that this type of tool encountered some situations that I didnt know how to handle. It was frustrating to say is one that has been missing for me. I think the least. It was then that it became clear to its great that our rst seminar tackled me that I was missing some tools. Although I had a decent amount of experience in ministry and was able to draw on that in leadership moments there were a few areas that I lacked the proper training to handle. I knew that in order to develop some

Biblical study as I believe the Word of God is what should direct all we do in ministry & life in general. Its already opened my eyes to a new level of the Bibles richness. As I look to the next few years in my program its both scary and exciting. I know

of these areas of my leadership I would need that it will take hard work to learn and apply to commit to a time of formal education. So all of this new information, but its exciting here I am, taking some time to learn and improve. A couple weekends ago I participated in my rst academic seminar, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. For those of you that know your stuff, it was essentially a hermeneutics class. In two jammed packed days Dr. Rapske marched us through some basics in hermeneutics. We learned how to approach the Bible and look deeper into the meaning of each passage. Some of the things that Ive committed to memory are because I can already see how my leadership will improve with these new tools. Please pray that I can stay focused and on task with my studies. Since I am in a work/study type environment my attention often lies with the ministry that Im involved in. I tend to place most of my attention into the people I am ministering to and nd it hard to balance that out with the time and effort that I need to put into my studies. I need Gods guidance in striking that balance.

T!"#$% #& !'' #$

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FAMILY TIME

THIS LIFE ON MISSION IS SOMETHING WE DO AS A FAMILY. As For Me And My House We Will Serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15
GUINNESS
Guinness is enrolled in his rst class; All Sorts of Sports. He

NEVADA

Although Id love to start substitute teaching, my part time job

gets to learn a new sport every week under the patient tutelage of Coach Marlene. He has also learned to play computer games this winter, and while we don't love that our son loves video games so much, it is good to know his currency. Knowing he could lose his computer privileges for the day has been good motivation for him to control his temper and be a quick listener. Oh, and the best part of Guinness' video games? He is learning his numbers 11-20 by beating those levels! "Mommy, what number is 1 and 7? Is it seventeen?

at Once Upon A Child is going really well. Hanging up really cute kids clothes, teaching grandparents how to use pack n plays, and discussing the evolution of excersaucers is not a bad way to spend two days a week! Weve also been hanging out with some of our new friends; going for walks at different regional parks, getting together for Amazing Race, cooking pizza together. Its great to have friends! Ive also enjoyed putting together the Journey Kids program at church. I cant wait for the place to be full of neighbourhood kids jumping around & doing actions to kids praise music!

GEMMA

We are thankful that Gemma has a friendly class and an

encouraging place to learn. The girls in her class are quite sweet and play with each other well. Some moms have even hosted all the girls in the class for playdates, which has been fun for both us. She would tell you the most exciting thing thats been happening lately is loosing another tooth, and learning to skate by herself. Were hoping to get her involved in a Chinese school program, most likely in the summer. She seems keen to get back on track with Chinese. Yay!

FAMILY DATES

Being new here means that there are so many adventures of

exploration to be had. When Chris has time off we like to get in the van and just go. Some highlights so far: Christmas Skating in Robson Square (Vancouver), Shopping in Bellingham, WA, and Chinese New Years celebration with bubble tea & soup dumplings at Aberdeen Mall in Richmond, BC. We hope to go on a bigger scale family adventure soon to Port Angeles, WA to visit our dear friend Annabelle who is expecting her rst baby.

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BAPTISMS !!!
in the life a young church that a baptism. Journey churched was blessed to see two young men take a giant step in their faith lives. Both young men grew up in the church but had never been baptized. In some sense they were

I dont know if theres a more exciting event

Tim

Bryan

waiting for that right moment when they fully embraced Jesus for themselves and not just out of church roots or family allegiance. Were so excited for Tim & Bryan and have already seen their commitment to Jesus in action with Journey Church. Please celebrate with us and pray that these men would continue to thrive in their own journeys.

PRAYER REQUESTS
JOURNEY CHURCH
1) That God would continue to grow our core group. We need a bigger base of people to help this thing get off the ground. 2)That we would be able to add value to our community. That we could show our love for them in practical ways. And that they would respond by engaging us in relationship or just stepping in on Sunday to check us out.

HOUSING
Weve been living in a basement suite that is proving to be too small. Weve looked a few places but weve been rejected. Please pray that well nd something we can afford and that well be shown favor by the owner.

OUR KIDS
Life continues to be a tough adjustment for them. They both have moments of breakdown when they miss Taiwan. Pray for Gemma who has struggled with her academics at school, especially reading. And pray for Guinness. We havent found any little boy buddies yet so he is very lonely.

NEVADA
Nevada has been working hard to get her teaching credentials in order. We praise God that she has nally been licensed to teach. Now comes the struggle of job hunting. Please pray for open doors and opportunities for her to work in her vocation. Also, pray for her selfcondence & self-esteem in this daunting process.

FINANCES
We continue to seek out nancial partnership. Canada is so expensive & until our church grows and becomes self sustaining there will be a need to offset my salary. Pray that we will see Gods provision through the people who love us & support our call to ministry.

Mailing Address: Chris & Nevada McKenzie 20613 66A Ave Langley, BC V2Y 2Y4 CANADA

KEEP IN TOUCH...

Phone: 1 (604) 866-4632 Email: Chris- chestermckenzie@gmail.com Nevada- nevadamckenzie@gmail.com