Campus For the Community

In December, Westside lived out our vision to be "A Campus for the Community". Not only did we feed hundreds of hungry people at our campus on several weekends, we also came together as a church to "share Christmas" with some hurting families in our community who would have otherwise gone without. On Saturday, December 20th our campus was buzzing with well over 100 volunteers braving the worst snow storm in decades in order to succeed with our plans. In the end, we delivered food boxes, Christmas dinner (complete with all the trimmings), and gifts to around 130 very grateful people. Great Job Westsiders!

August Rush!

August was a very full month! As we continue to prepare our campus for the community, a lot of things have been accomplished:
-The parking lot was torn out and repaved.
-The new curbs went in.
-The parking lot lights were mounted and painted.
-The play stucture area was cleared, leveled and the play structure was built.
-The audio system in the Worship Center continues to be improved upon.
-The brush on the back side of the new property was cleared.
-The new and old portions of the parking lot were seal coated.
-And finally, the biggest day of August, our lumberjack work day took place on Sunday, the 17th. What an awesome day and an awesome turn out! It was estimated the 75 of you showed up for the work day. Here is a list of some of the things that were accomplished during the work party:

1)Numerous trees came down including the apple orchard.
2)The islands and other planter areas were groomed.
3.)4 - 40 cubic yard dumpsters were filled and hauled off.
4.)The new property was cleared of overgrown bushes and debris
5.)4 units of barkdust were spread.
6.)9 units of cedar chips were spread
7.)new sod was layed
8.)A new retaining wall was built between the Worship Center and the
Children's Center.
9.)20 - 18" pizzas were inhaled!
10.)180 Arborvitaes were trimmed
11.)200 bottles of water and 120 cans of pop were gulped up!
12.)The house on the new property was gutted to prepare for renovations.

And that's not even listing everything that happened that day. Here are some pictures of the lumberjack party for you to check out.















August was a huge success but we're not finished yet! Here is a list of some of the things still to come before our big BBQ day on September 14th:

1)Striping of parking lines.
2)2 - new paver paths installed
3)New toddler play structure to be installed
4)Final removal of debris
5)Final spreading of bark dust
6)Campus signage installed.

We are excited about what God is doing through Westside! We hope you are too! Be sure to invite someone you know to attend the September 14th BBQ. This will be a chance for us to open our campus up to the community and to share with them how their lives can be radically changed by the love of Christ. This is what Imagine is all about!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Pardon our dust! If you've driven by or been to the church in the past few days, you've definitely noticed the mess:) Our first big project - the Parking Lot repaving - has begun, and progress is underway.

Bones Construction is doing a fantastic job, preparing the ground, running electricity & irrigation lines, setting bases for our new light poles, and lots of behind-the-scenes work to get ready for the new pavement.

We had only minor delays this week. The machine that was scheduled to come in and "grind up" the pavement malfunctioned! Thankfully our contractors were able to shift gears and work ahead in other areas.

Our current timeline will have us paving during the week from July 28-August 2. If all goes according to schedule the paving, curbs, new islands, and light poles will be done by mid-August. Then in September we'll seal the entire parking lot & restripe the parking lines. Hopefully just in time for us to see more guests coming in from the community this fall.

PRAY WITH US!
Let's keep in mind that our goal in all we're doing is not the parking lot - it's people! We are passionate about helping people find & follow Jesus. Pray that the project will be completed on-time and on-budget, so we'll be ready to receive more & more friends from the community.

IT'S OFFICIAL!

Yep - that's right...it's official! We signed our lives away yesterday for our $1.5M loan and the purchase of our new property on the corner!

God has been so good to us as a church. So many of the obstacles that could have slowed us down or stopped us didn't - thanks to God's grace & power.

I'm so thankful to the amazing Imagine Team for their leadership, encouragement, support, prayer, and friendship. This whole thing has been a team effort. Thanks everybody!

In addition to that, our Trustee Team really went above & beyond in helping us scout out opportunities, meet requirements, think through issues, and ultimately succeed. Thanks to Dan, Garrett, Mike, Pat, Nate, and Brian.

God also sent us an incredible Broker, Stan Ames, who worked for a small fraction of what he deserved. His generosity and commitment to excellence have helped us get this part of our Imagine Journey accomplished. Thanks Stan!

Now we get to jump into the next exciting phase of Imagine - making use of our new space. While we're not going to be developing the property right away, we will be making some changes to help improve the church's visibility on the corner and to maximize the space for community use. Stay tuned for our next steps on that!

PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray with me as we continue on in our Journey:

1. Pray that God will continue to help us succeed. Let's rely on God's power to bring us the right opportunities, contractors, and His provision to get it all done.

2. Pray for each of us to experience God's financial blessings so we can continue to give generously. Because we each asked God for His leading on our financial involvement in Imagine, we can be confident that He has the plan to make it all work out! Whether you're experiencing hardship or abundance in your life right now, God knows and He will be faithful.

3. Pray that God will give us His heart for our community. I'm convinced that our biggest job is seeing our world and our community like God does, and acting on that vision. Ask God to show us as a church how we can best minister to the community as we begin our Imagine Journey, and how we can use what He's given us for His glory.

Thanks for praying!

Gabe

Watch Malcom and Ruth McInnis tell the story of how they came to offer the corner property to Westside

GOD IS GOOD!

Where do I start telling the good news about what God is doing through Imagine? It seems like every time I turn around there's another answer to prayer, another amazing circumstance, another miracle. What a great God we serve! I'm reminded of one of my favorite passages from the Bible - "With every bone in my body I will praise Him!" (Psalm 35:10).

It's been just over a month since we celebrated the beginning of our Imagine Journey on May 4th. On that day our church pledged $1.23M over the next 3 years toward Imagine. Since then, so much has happened! Let me share some of it with you:

OUR BANK LOAN WAS APPROVED!
On Friday, May 16th our request for a $1.5M loan was approved by Columbia Community Bank. The really good news is that the terms for the loan beat our best expectations! We are getting a great rate, great terms, and no prepayment penalties!

OUR FIRSTFRUITS OFFERING WAS HUGE!
On Sunday, May 18th, Westsiders partnered with God to bring in a total of $47k for our first Imagine offering. That was unbelievable! This first offering helps us get off to a strong start on our 3-year journey together.

OUR COMMITMENT IS GROWING!
Our new 3-year commitment total for the Imagine Journey is up to $1.33M! This is truly a miracle - especially because the projections were around $750,000. God has proven that His power isn't limited by our projections:)

PEOPLE ARE STEPPING UP!
One after another, people are stepping up to help above & beyond what we expected. Whether it be new commitments, extra prayer, exciting ideas, or free labor, God is doing His work through His people. Thanks for being so available to Him.

WE ARE REACHING MORE PEOPLE!
Just in the past 2 weekends, 8 more new friends have come to know Jesus as their Savior @ Westside. Plus, on June 1st we were pleasantly surprised with 17 new believers being baptized! That's what Imagine is all about - Helping People Find & Follow Jesus.

CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS HAVE BEGUN!
You'll notice some new shingles at Westside. That's because we just had the roof replaced on our Community Center. The original roof (28 years old) was showing serious signs of wear, and needed to be replaced badly. What's so cool is that we only had to pay for the shingles, and even that price was discounted. That means we only paid a total of $6,800 for a brand-new roof on our Community Center. Thanks to God for the generosity of Rufus Aylwin & Aylwin Construction, who donated the labor for this great project. As a bonus, the Worship Center roof was replaced for no charge (apparently there were some defective shingles & Rufus is a stickler for quality!). Check out the time-lapse video to see this project in action.



Stay tuned for what's next - God is good!

Gabe

That Was Some Celebration!

I hope you had as much fun as I did last weekend at our Imagine Celebration Sunday breakfast & service. The t-shirt launch was one of my favorite parts! That was definitely a day to remember. What's cool is that we had guests come & really enjoy it as well.

And what a victory we had! In case you haven't heard yet, our 3-year pledge toward Imagine is now at $1.23M!!! That is amazing! God really came through - and so did you! I know there are people still deciding what their part will be, so that number will only climb from here.

God is so good. He is proving His power & faithfulness already through our Imagine Journey. As we wait on the right source for our $1.5M loan, He is constantly reassuring me of His ability to lead us successfully into our future.

This journey is just beginning. Let's keep asking God for those good surprises & doing our part.

Gabe

The GOOD Kind of Tension

Tonight I'm sitting in my living room thinking about the whole Imagine Journey and all the milestones that have been accomplished so far. Pretty amazing - the property offer, the faith-filled response of Westside, the remarkable volunteers on the Imagine Team that have taken an idea and an opportunity and helped shape it into a movement - some seriously exciting stuff has happened so far. And the best part of our Imagine Journey has been the continued growth & life change we've been seeing as a church.

And with all that, there's still the unknowns of the future. In fact, I have a second meeting with a couple guys from a local bank tomorrow that could be very good. Knowing that our time frame is short and our resources are limited, but that our God is so BIG - that's the tension I believe God wants us to live in. Resting on His promises and waiting on His provision. We're all growing in this area of faith. My prayer right now is that each of us will be so in-tune with the Spirit of God that we'll hear His voice clearly and follow Him closely. That's the Journey of Expansion we've been waiting for!

Gabe


****UPDATE****

The meeting I had on Tuesday morning went VERY well! We don't have a commitment from the bank yet, but their proposal beat my best expectations. We'll be continuing to look at a couple options before we make a commitment, but I'm excited that God is opening doors for us. Keep praying for His perfect provision.