Student Ministry Newsletter- Mar ‘09

There have been several highlights from our student ministry at Aloha Church of God this past month. Here are a few:

• Our students volunteered at the Oregon Food Bank warehouse: We partnered with other volunteers to process 7560 pounds of oats. That comes out to 22,680 meals/ bowls of oatmeal for Portland's needy, or 311 meals per volunteer!
  
• We finished our teaching series on the growth and maturity of the New Testament church.
  
• Garth resumed his high school campus lunch visitations with students.
  
  
• Schools have to make up for missed snow days, so we made up for our church's December weather cancellations with a "make-up" Christmas week.
  
  
  
  On Wednesday night, we decorated faces with shaving cream Santa beards.
  
  

 

Warner Pacific College admission counselor Alyssa Draper was on hand to judge the quality of each carefully shaped shaving cream beard.

 

After we cleaned up, Alyssa enthusiastically shared about Warner Pacific with our students.

 

• Garth and Kathy's place was the place to be that Saturday night. Our make-up Christmas party wrapped up a week of better-late-than-never Christmas joy.
  

 

• Of course, we threw a Super Bowl party at Garth and Kathy's the next day.
  

 

 

• A couple weeks after Alyssa's visit, Garth took Aloha High School students Alissa, Kenny, and Kevin to Portland for a WPC campus tour.
  

Thank you for continuing to pray for the growth of our student ministry (and for Garth's dad during his recovery from melanoma surgery!).

In Christ,
Youth Pastors Garth and Kathy Hamilton

 

As always, here some bonus pics:

We pray hard, but we also play hard

 

Will prepares to flash the applause sign for a sermon illustration

 

Stacking our trays with delicious food, compliments of Warner Pacific College

 

Striking a pose during Christian family bowling night at Park Lanes

A Slightly Snowy Update

Kathy and I were praying for March snow, and it arrived just in time for our hike last Saturday. The snowfall was short lived, so most of it melted away almost as quickly as it had accumulated.


Gail’s Creek Trail was badly damaged from the previous winter storm. Fallen trees and branches were strewn across the trail, and the path was washed out in a few places. We hiked in as far as we could before turning back at the trail closure signs.



I helped Kathy navigate most of the rougher spots, but I backed off for a moment to photograph her climbing over some frozen branches. What a trooper! I plan to upload more photos from this hike in the future.




We actually got a tiny bit of snow accumulation at home on Sunday and Monday. It wasn’t much, but I always welcome an occasional break from our typically mild Northwest climate. Clicking on this photo should enlarge it enough to see the falling snowflakes. This pic was taken from our back porch.



Finally, here is a photo that didn’t make the cut for my last “Arctic Blast” retro blog post.

My dad took this shot of Kathy and I at his house on Christmas morning. I wanted to post it here because Kathy looks so beautiful, as always.

Let It Snow... In March?

Note: Photos were added here on 3/8/09. Additional winter storm pics can be found on my January 2 post.


The forecast calls for more snow this weekend in the Portland metro area. I hope it starts falling in time for Kathy’s and my hike on Saturday! Either way, I am happy with the snow levels that have hit the Portland metro area this winter.



Last Thursday’s snow accumulation wasn’t too impressive, but waking up to a view of white trees prompted me to make an early Americano run around the corner to Black Rock coffee bar (pictured above, from this winter’s second snow event in January). Whether or not our snow storm earned the news media’s “Arctic Blast” moniker, this has been the best winter weather I’ve seen in my life.


The snow started falling on Friday, December 12. I caught my first glimpse of it while driving home from a class reunion at Warner Pacific College.


On Sunday morning, the snow started to accumulate while we worshipped at church.


On Thursday night, December 18, we met my family at a yacht club on the Columbia River for a tour of the annual Christmas ships parade.

My parents, Kathy, Summer, and I boarded a friend's yacht and gazed out the windows as the other brightly lit ships bobbed past us.

We even ventured outside to the deck, breathing in the chilly air as we weaved through the display of floating Christmas imagery.


By Saturday, ODOT had issued a warning for motorists to curtail any unnecessary driving. Of course, I used every excuse I could think of to drive my Jeep all over town.

The icy ruts were the cause of several accidents, many of them worse than the pile up in this photo.


Sharing the road with only a few other brave souls allowed me to rescue stranded drivers at will, glide through sparsely populated stores, and, most importantly, replenish our depleted supply of Peet’s coffee beans.

Running out of coffee qualifies as a household emergency, right?


Other fond memories of the 2008 “Arctic Blast” include:


Our neighbors building a sharply dressed snowman…






Kathy contemplating life, falling snowflakes, and the future of the Dallas Cowboys…




Our snow covered cars (yes, there is a blue Camry buried below)…






…And spending Christmas Day at our parents’ house in Vancouver.