House Church

Nate and I lead a House Church on Wednesday nights. These are small groups designed to build community not just with you group but with one or two others. We have two girls groups and a guys at a family of the churches house. We eat a meal together (which different people bring: last week I made pasta, this week someone's mom brought sloppy joes!!) then we do announcements, worship, and talk about anything else that is important.

Each house church picks a country that they want to impact this year. Our students picked Asia. A girl in the church was there first semester on a missions trip so they collected money to send her a care package. Now were working with Gospel for Asia. A missions organizations. Are students bring money each week and are trying to buy GFA-missionaries a bicycle. I think its such a cool thing that these students are thinking not only outside themselves, their schools, church, home but also their country.

Knott's Berry Farm

World's Largest Thermometer. Big deal.

This is Kyle the intern we like him.

Our day at the park was fun. Full of lots of middle school students.
Nate still isn't feeling great but he survived and drove in a church van.
Sunday morning we went to RockHarbor Church in California.
It was very trendy, very Cali. We enjoyed it.
We also saw the most beautiful rainbow it followed us for at least an hour!

Monte Carlos Fire

Since Nate and I hardly left the house today
(he gets Friday's off) we didn't see any of the action.
Were off to Knott's Berry Farm this weekend.
Be praying for Nate he isn't feeling good!

This Weekend!

Nate and I hiked on Friday.
We also went to the caucus but it was a little more boring than I had hoped.
Plus Hillary won.

I love the Bellagio conservatory.
It changes seasonally right now its the Chinese New Years!

My dad came to visit!
Nate is out of town Monday-Wednesday or a staff retreat!
Its nice to have him here!

Upstairs

This is our "bonus" room upstairs. I love it!

Not great lighting but its really cute.
Our bathroom is great but really narrow so the picture was bad!

These prints are in my guest bathroom. I adore them!
Our guest room for all you that will come!!

My lovely down stairs...upstair to come!

This is when you walk in the front door.
You can see my cute new chair and new prints on the wall!!We got to hang our beautiful wedding prints! MMP.
You would go up the stair here !Our 1st Kitchen table!
I love the kitchen!

Nevada Caucus Satruday!

Nate and I stood in line for over an hour with 7,000 other people to see Senator Obama speak.
Only 2,500 people made it in the door (a friend took the picture)
We however made it to a courtyard and got to see/hear him for 10 minutes.

Everything went good today.
Praise the Lord!
Thought I should post a picture... my Rebel card! hehe

Update

Be praying for my advising appointment at UNLV tomorrow. That my credits transfer and my schedule isn't horrible!
Also I am going to memorize Colossians- anyone want to join me?

January Newsletter

GOOD INTENTIONS *Listen on podcast or watch on the website
By Shane Phillip, Senior Pastor

It is the beginning of a new year. It is going to take me three months to remember to write down “2008” instead of “2007”. I love this time of year. I think it is because I start to dream again about what I want my life to really look like. Probably the same is true for you. You are probably determined that this year is going to look different than last year and the year before that. Maybe you want to lose some weight, or to stop smoking, or to spend more time with your family. It is usually this time of year we start to look at the balance in our bank account (or the lack there-of). So we decide, we are going to get out of debt. We are going to use that raise to help out some people or to be more generous. We decide that we are going to use our time to really make a difference. We all have really good intentions.

What if your good intentions could really become reality? What if your money seemed to go further and have more purpose? What if your time were spent on the things that really left a lasting impact? It is possible. With that in mind, we just started a NEW SERIES we are calling, “Beyond Good Intentions,” and we added the tagline, “living the generous life”. We really believe that when you use your time and money for all that God intended, you will feel more purpose and fulfillment than ever before. We are going to spend the first few weeks of the year looking at how we view our money and our time.

Let me challenge you to start the new year with more than good intentions. Why don’t you commit to discovering how God can make a bigger impact than you ever imagined? You will be glad you did.

Blessings,
Shane

Red Rock Canyon

Celeste made her first trip to Vegas.
We had a good time on the strip with her best friend from college and her husband.
They were in town from San Diego.
We also went hiking at Red Rock Canyon
Its beautiful and only 20 minutes from us!

Our Trip

This is Nate and my favorite thing on US 60 leaving Versailles.
Its a horse racing track you can see from the road.

Out of Kentucky into Indiana

The Arch in St. Louis

Bush Stadium

We stayed in Joplin for the first night.

Windmills are crazy.

My Texas state sign isn't the best...

We stayed in Albuquerque and below is the tram I posted about.

It was really cool to drive through Indian reservations.

We will have to go back during the day but the Dam is really amazing.

Before you even get to the Dam you can see the glow of the city from over an hour away.
Its really amazing, we were most exhausted at this point and it felt so unreal to be actually here. All it all we had a great trip more of my first week of life here later! Love to all.

We are here!

We arrived safely Thursday night signed our lease to our cute home Friday morning. Our stuff didn't arrive till late that night so we got a lot of stuff done (like new cells if you need my number!). Some people from the church came by this morning to help us unload and were about 1/2 way unpacked. A couple from the church had us over for dinner and let us shower b/c we have NO GAS which means no heat or hot water!! Its coming on Monday.

Lots of post to come about our road trip and our new home! Below was just a stop on our way.

Sandia Peak Tramway
in Albuquerque, New Mexico