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Our Leadership
blog
One of the things that we highly value is listening to one another's stories. In particular, we love to hear about how people are encountering Jesus in their day-to-day lives. This might be in big ways...but it also happens most often in smaller ways (sometimes in ways that are really easy to miss.)
On this page you will find a treasure trove of such stories! May your own walk with Jesus be deeply encouraged and nourished by what you read here.
If you are interested in sharing some of your story here, please email us to let us know!
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A Memorable Summer Recalled
The summer of 2001 was memorable for many reasons for our family. Our oldest daughter graduated from high school. Both my folks and my wife’s folks celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries. Those celebrations included family reunions in both Wenatchee (my hometown) and Seaside, Oregon (where my in-laws had honeymooned in 1951). It was the summer my brother and I traveled to Norway to visit the birthplace of our immigrant grandfather who left home with his four brothers t
Greg Asimakoupoulos
1 day ago3 min read
Mom's Ashes
Mom passed into the arms of Jesus on February 10, 2022. On August 17, 2026, I knew what to do with her ashes. Since February 2022, her ashes have been sitting in a cardboard box, enclosed in a green velvet bag. They weigh five and a half pounds. I scattered my dad’s ashes on Tiger Mountain in 2020, on the Bus Trail, a wheel chair accessible trail that loops around to Tradition Lake and features an ancient abandoned school bus. Although I had permission to scatter the ashes
Jani James
Sep 33 min read
Celebrating A Remarkable Life
Canada, Mexico and the United States hosted this year’s FIFA World Cup. Those same three nations hosted a most remarkable life over the course of ninety-five years. She was my wife’s mother and she died last month. Norma Steven was born and raised in British Columbia. She served as a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Mexico City and spent the last six decades of her adult life in Southern California. Her life, like the soccer tournament that highlighted our summer
Greg Asimakoupoulos
Aug 273 min read
Assumptions
“Bob,” the voice on the phone says, “we have a problem…with a breaker in our electrical panel at church. It keeps tripping. It won’t hold.” Never a good scenario. My mind kicks into overdrive reviewing all the different possibilities and what may be the cause. “It's the breaker that feeds our server and computer cabinet. I think it might be a bad breaker,” Kent (the voice on the phone) clarifies. Okay, good. More information. At least now I have an idea of what it fe
Bob Witty
Aug 203 min read
All's Well
This pastoral search has been an absolute delight. Not one day have I known what I was doing. As our Leadership Team put together the Pastoral Search Team (PST), I found my arm volunteering to chair the team before my mind caught up. My heart was fertile ground for God’s move. I told the Lord, “We are not going anywhere that You are not leading, and we won’t move until you say.” Our time this winter and spring was spent praying, studying our Covenant missional markers (remem
Beth Soderlund
Aug 132 min read
It's a Wonderful Memory
I met Karolyn Grimes, best known for her portrayal of Zuzu, George Bailey’s youngest daughter in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” shortly after our family moved back to Washington State from the Midwest in 2005. As the new pastor of the Covenant church in our community, I invited Karolyn to share her faith journey with our congregation. She graciously agreed. In the course of that interview, I realized her life (unlike the title of her movie) has not been all that wonderful. Karolyn
Greg Asimakoupoulos
Jul 314 min read
Sagrada Familia
Our big to-do for the summer was getting our immediate family together for a vacation in July; daughters, husbands, grandkids. It ended up being a vacation in a little town about an hour north of Barcelona. We would stay in a 14 bedroom mansion with a large swimming pool, tennis court and a short walk to the beach. We began planning this a year in advance and, to our amazement, everyone said they would come. We didn’t pre-plan a lot of activities, but I did try to get guid
Bob Witty
Jul 303 min read
Twilight
I was awake at 5:30am, even though the cloud cover muted the eastern sun, usually so bright at that hour. I puttered around, making tea until Greta woke up. Kent and I were staying in a house on the beach on Whidbey Island. Our job for the week was Grandma and Grandpa Camp with our grandsons, no hard task with the beach at hand and two World Cup games to watch. As the first one up in the morning, my task was to make sure Greta could get outside right away when she woke up.
Jani James
Jul 243 min read
Celebrating God's Global Family
OK! I admit it! I am a proud American. I don’t just listen to the National Anthem when it is sung at sporting events, I sing along, I religiously fly the Stars and Stripes on every national holiday. In addition, my closet has an array of patriotic apparel for such occasions. What a blast it has been dressing up to cheer on our team in the World Cup and to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday. Seeing others wearing their flag sweaters and USA jerseys prompted the realization
Greg Asimakoupoulos
Jul 153 min read
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