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Longview
God has been blessing the ministry in Longview this past year. A ministry
has begun for those in treatment and recovery from drug and alcohol
addiction. A new strategic plan for the future of the church was developed
this past year that is guiding the church into expanded ministry opportunities.
This past year as also seen 16 people baptized, 8 conversions, 7 new
small groups developed and a 40% increase in worship attendance. God
has certainly blessed! The attached picture is of those who are attending
church from the Drug Abuse Prevention Center. They are in a 180 day
treatment program for drug abuse.
Toward
Wholeness
Marysville
These are exciting and busy months at Marysville Free Methodist Church.
In January we started a preschool ministry with about 40 children
attending. We are enlarging our campus by purchasing a couple of adjacent
lots with houses for future expansion. In addition, we are converting
the parsonage into an annex building for a youth and meeting center.
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Associate
pastor Greg Kanehen is starting as a volunteer police chaplain and also
exploring setting up a Support Officer Ministry in the area. We hosted
a regional seminar for Families Northwest and a city-wide workshop for
developing a "marriage covenant." A team is planning a VISA
mission trip. Teens are preparing to minister in Seattle during spring
break and to go to IYC. People are visiting our church, coming to Christ,
and growing in faith. We are planning several outreach events and a
new leadership development ministry in 2003. We thank God for his goodness
as we continue to build people and minister to our city.
Sunnyside
We have felt for a while that God was going to do something special
and we are finally seeing signs that He is touching people's lives.
One young man testified in a discipleship class that he feels like
he is "just now waking up after 27 years" as the Bible is
becoming real to him. The mother of a single woman who has attended
for over a year and at first was adamantly opposed to our church now
attends regularly and stood up to publicly thank God that her daughter
found Christ in our church and she now wants all of her children to
come to church "with her." Associate Pastor Horacio and
Laura Ahumada are counseling new people almost every week who are
referred by the mental health clinic and other agencies that are not
equipped to help marriage problems. Horacio gives a weekly news
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