Christmas Eve Highlights

From the Green fam:

Dear beloved family and friends,

Only God knows where we would be without you. Thank you for the difference you have made in our lives, (for most of you, over many good years). Blessed Christmas on this blessed eve.

Some 2009 Green Family Highlights:

Ariel

• Finished her first semester of study at Gonzaga University. Hard to believe she has left us as Empty Nesters!
• Wants to pursue studies and skills in computer graphics, art, and gaming
• Is a Crafter par-excellence (ISTP). Just send her the parts and she'll build you a jet.
• Still loves chocolate as much as her Dad (thank God)

Stephen

• Almost done with his junior year at Washington University-St. Louis. Majoring in Political Science and Chinese
• Gave up college football this year, but the legacy of "31" lives on...
• Continues to produce rap & hip hop tracks--his stuff is terrific
• Makes a buck or two at college ref'ing intramural basketball games--money for being an authority!

Lynne

• Continues her strategic leadership of Womens' Ministries for the Seattle church.
• As a three-year cancer survivor, continues to servea and advocate locally, particularly with her therapy dogs at Children's Hospital
• Serves as a board member of the international charity HOPE worldwide
• Loves working with border collies in sheepherding
• Has started a distance Masters program in Communication and Leadership

Scott

• Continues to serve as Senior Minister of the Seattle church of Christ, focusing on strategic building and staff development
• Is nearly finished with his Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy (June!), with an emphasis in Narrative work
• Won an academic award for his paper "For Healing's Sake: Letters to Christian and Narrative Therapy"
• LOVES swing dancing with his wife; we will take our second class this winter
• Harbors a secret desire to make wine someday

Travel: We were blessed with trips this year to Hong Kong, to Geneva for the EBS, and to Berlin. We are heading to Whistler on the 26th for a snowy family vacation. Scott and Lynne are now working with Valdur & Irene Koha, and Chrisitian and Sabine Herbst in a coaching relationship with the Berlin church of Christ--so more travel is heading our way in 2010. Hope to see you all along the way!

The photo's a bit old, but remembers New Birth...

THANK YOU for supporting the Adoption Assistance Program!

For the last several years, Karla and I have had the pleasure of overseeing the Adoption Assistance Program, a joint effort by the Seattle and South Sound Churches. The goal? Help families adopt orphans, which is often cost-prohibitive. The result? Our church is full of kids who have found a loving, Christian home! Many are growing up in the church, some families have moved on to other congregations. All of them have a chance at family and faith that didn't exist prior to their adoption.

Currently, we are helping one couple adopt a baby internationally. After that, our fund will again be depleted (a good thing!). As a staff, we will discuss how to collect more funds sometime in 2010. Until then, please pray for the millions of fatherless children in the world today. And thank you for all of your prayers and support for this program! It truly is changing lives.

Enjoy the video highlights of our program:

To see special adoption video click here!

The two brothers greeting the Seattle church at Christmastime are Normen Rhode and Andreas Webber. Both serve in lay leadership in the Berlin church, a congregation of about 150 Christians. This resilient, visionary congregation is about to enter a season in which no one will be serving in the full time ministry, a fact the lay leaders hope will be short-lived. Many tremendous ministers have served in the history of the Berlin church, including, among others, Dean and Kim Farmer, Christian Herbst, Mirko Russo, and Mathis Wosegien.

Because of this new season, the lay leaders of the church have asked Christian Herbst (now in Zurich, Switzerland), Valdur Koha (Boston) and me—AND our wives—to serve as “coaches” for their church. This first trip for Lynne and me (thank you, Ron and Linda for accompanying us and for teaching the families in Berlin on parenting!) helped us build relationships with the lay leaders, gave us time with them individually to understand their leadership experiences and hopes, and allowed us to attend various meetings with other leaders to attend them on their new journey.

Berlin is a wonderful city, but there simply wasn’t time on this trip to show much more than this clip from the Weinmarkt Christmas market, not far from Humboldt University and the Brandenburg Gate of Frederick the Great. It seemed to us that no one decorates for Christmas quite like the Germans.

On Sunday I was able to share a Christmas-tinged lesson that emphasized Memory, Awareness, and Calling for the disciples. Lynne and I were able to share in abundance about all of you in the Seattle church; our Berlin brothers and sisters were keenly interested in all of you, and in how we’ve navigated maturity issues in our church. I also had opportunity to share on Sunday how poignant it was for me, the son of a US military officer, to be where the Berlin Wall once was—a symbol of conflict, confusion, and longing. The wall is finally gone, but not theses spiritual themes, which still, 20 years later, find their fulfillment no where else as they do in the kingdom of God.

Scott

Greens and Brumleys are in Berlin!

December 5, 2009: On our way to Berlin, via NYC

The Greens and Brumleys are journeying to Berlin this weekend to help “coach” the church to new levels of faith and opportunity—PLEASE pray for us.

This all began shortly after the Greens summer trip to teach at the European Bible School in Geneva, Switzerland. We are approached by the Berlin church, whose leadership was seeking three “coaching couples” to help them move the church forward (Berlin will soon have no full time leadership and will be relying on a lay leadership group + “coaches”). Berlin asked for a three year commitment, which we agreed to after consulting with our staff and board. Christian and Sabine Herbst (Zurich) and Valdur & Irene Koha (Boston) will be the other coaches. Each couple will go to Berlin once every three months.

And so this is our first trip, and just on the heels of Berlin’s 20^th anniversary of the Berlin wall’s fall.

We first flew with Ron and Linda to Newark from Seattle, with a fine pre-landing view of New York City. Watching New York’s skyline, I realized anew what greatness that city has seen. Though the twin towers were nowhere to be seen (a shockingly concrete reminder that evil remains in this world), the Empire State Building stood tall like the art deco rocket it is. The statue of liberty watched Manhattan Island offshore, tiny but vigilant, watching the harbor, and watching for more of the “tired refuse” that made America hum in the early 20^th century. Thanks to the movies, it’s hard for my generation not to feel connected to New York, even if you’ve never lived there.

More to come…