Sunday: Day 6

It was important for us to spend a Sunday in worship with Essential Church. What a labor-intensive task it is for them to set up to make each Sunday service happen. At 8 pm the team meets at the South Bellevue Community Center to begin setting up in an aerobics room.

On this particular Sunday, the plan was to have a taco lunch after church. This means that extra set-up was required for food preparation.

The guys continued to set up the room in preparation for the 10:45 worship service while the band rehearsed.

The service began with a great crowd of interns, mission teams, regular attenders, and visitors.

Warren Mainard, the pastor of Essential, wrapped up a 16-week series on Loving Bellevue, WA. After eating tacos and helping them tear down the equipment (they do this every week!), we said our good-byes and headed back to the hotel.

Before we came, Warren had warned us that Seattle was a place of great lostness. However, the first few days dazzled us because of the area's picturesque beauty. The crisp, mild summer and spectacular views of snow-covered mountains in summer made us wish we lived here. Even the city is relatively clean and green.

Our second trip into downtown Seattle last night tore the blinders off of our eyes. This beautiful place is filled with people who have been deceived. Last November, Washington legalized gay marriage and recreational use of marijuana. We saw sad people wasting their lives away on drug trips. We saw coarseness in discarded people and heard stories of abuse and neglect. In the end, people everywhere need Jesus, and they are lost without him.

I was proud of our team this week as they made themselves available to minister. Whether it was serving food at block parties or knocking on doors of people who spoke another language or encouraging college interns, our team represented Christ and Southside well. Each member of the team took a day to make a report on this blog. You will hear more from them and see more pictures when we give a full report to the church on Sunday, July 28.

We are so thankful for this experience and are glad that Southside has partnered with Essential Church - only the second Southern Baptist Church in Bellevue, a city of 132,000 people.

-Schuyler