High school students… Join us for the most unforgettable week of your summer! Lost Canyon is a place where you can connect with God in a new way, meet some new friends and laugh a lot! For more info search “HSM ” or click here to register.

HSM SUMMER CAMP 2016
Mon, Aug 8 – Fri, Aug 12
Registration required

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
– HAGGAI 2:6-7

I’m really excited to be back this week. I have missed you all and am looking forward to reconnecting with our church family. As my family was away on some much needed vacation, stepping away from phones, technology, and familiarity, we rediscovered each other… and sunburns, too much junk food, arguing over what shapes the clouds make, repeatedly answering the question: “how much longer ‘til we get there?,” and staying up too late (all good things on a vacation). I came back this week to find one of the great joys of my time here at Mariners MV: Summer Fun Nights (VBS). In walking around and experiencing what God is doing in our community and on our church campus, I am as energized for ministry as I ever have been.

I don’t know how to express my joy and gratitude enough for what is happening this week at our church. Every night, hundreds of volunteers come to joyfully corral kids in and through the various experiences of our Summer Fun Nights kids’ program, shaping young lives one meaningful conversation, clever Bible story, humor-laden skit, colorful craft, and creative activity at a time. The response by both kids and their parents alike has been amazing.  When God says, “I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land,” I’m pretty certain he was talking about the volume, the enthusiasm, and the dance-moves of our kids this week at Mariners MV.

We believe followers of Jesus come in all sizes — especially, kid-sized. It takes patient volunteer leaders to usher kids into God’s presence in a meaningful and fun way. This Sunday, we’ll cover some of the highlights from this week. There is so much that God is doing in our midst, through the dedication of great volunteers and our gifted, hard-working children’s ministry team.

Additionally, I have a few big announcements I can’t wait to let you in on. Don’t miss this Sunday as we continue in our JAMES series and cover some of things God is up to in our church community.

See you soon,

Jeff

God is a good Father and He teaches us life lessons in our everyday experiences. Join us as we read the Book of James and learn how to tap into the pure joy that God has prepared for us. Search “Bible Study” or click here.

MEN’S SUMMER BIBLE STUDY
James: Transformative Life Lessons
Thursdays through Sep 1
7-8:30a or 7-9p, Upper Room

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:26

As I am preparing for Summer Fun Nights VBS that begins this Monday, I am finding myself reading and rereading this verse which is our Theme Verse for VBS week. How is God speaking to me through this verse? Do I really believe it’s true or have I been trying to use my own strength? I have been praying through the things in my life that are impossible for me but are completely possible with God. Every time I get overwhelmed with life or start to feel weary or tired, I am reminded that WITH God ALL things are POSSIBLE! I cannot do anything without Him…or outside of Him. He gives me strength and courage. I simply just need to lean on Him. Sometimes, I forget this truth and try to do things on my own. This verse is such a great reminder to us as adults and what I love is that during VBS, children will be encouraged to lean on God for strength. They will learn that in their own lives, WITH God ALL things are POSSIBLE. They will hear about true heroes of the faith from God’s Word and how they too leaned into God. They allowed His power to help them do the impossible. What an incredible truth these children get to learn about at such an early age. We can all be continually reminded of God’s love for us and how we can seek Him to do the impossible in our lives.

I am prepared for God to amaze me during Summer Fun Nights VBS! He will bring those children who have never heard of Him into a relationship with Him. He will provide friendships and community as they get to know more kids from their schools and neighborhoods. And to those who have grown up in the church, He will speak to them in new ways as they continue to learn more about Him. Children will learn what it looks like to serve in their communities and in the world and to put others’ needs first. I believe God will show His power to both student and adult volunteers as they serve during Summer Fun Nights VBS. Prepare to Be Amazed because God is going to show up!

As I am reminded of God’s great truth in my own life, I wonder… where do you need God to do the impossible in your life? Only He has the power to change, heal and redeem. Let’s commit today to lean into God as He transforms our lives by doing the impossible. Let’s stop doing things out of our own strength. There is freedom and peace when we allow God to work.

I can’t wait to see all that God will do during the week of VBS! Please join me this Sunday, July 17, as we commission, pray over and bless all the VBS volunteers at our services. If you are volunteering during VBS, you will want to be there! We will be asking God to show up the week of VBS in a mighty way as He changes lives like only He can!

Susan Hulse
Children’s Ministry Pastor

Kids entering K-5th grade are invited to this SUPER POWered adventure hosted on our MV campus for the first time where they will experience Bible stories, games, drama, crafts, dinner and opportunities to serve kids and families in need around the world and in our community! Click here to register or search “VBS” on our website.

SUMMER FUN NIGHTS: VBS 2016
Mon, Jul 18-Fri, Jul 22, 5:30-8:30p, $60/child, MV Campus

We offer childcare and a preschool program for volunteers who serve during the entire VBS week. Contact Susan for details, shulse@marinerschurch.org

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 COR 2:9

Over the past two weeks, I had the honor to vacation with my wonderful husband. It’s a rare occurrence that I would leave all my responsibilities behind to focus on rest, and it was a welcomed opportunity. As I toiled beforehand to prepare everything for my volunteer staff (who handled everything like the pros they are), I forgot to prepare myself for rest. It’s a funny thing, the necessity to prepare for rest. Isn’t rest supposed to be natural? Don’t we “fall into it”? I sure don’t.

As we spent time with family and friends in our native mitten-shaped state of Michigan, I was good. I was “on”. I was connecting with people like the pro connector I am! Productivity! Purpose! Connection! YEAH! Except I was not resting.

Later on, we built in some time for just the two of us. It was glorious. WE LIKE EACH OTHER, you guys. I forget that sometimes. Suddenly I was faced with the fact that I do not know how to rest. I just don’t. I wasn’t prepared to turn “off”. Here I was with my husband of seven years with no responsibilities other than to enjoy each other and our time, and I couldn’t do it.

As part of our travels, we went to a state park to explore the coast. There were rocky shorelines, cliffs, waterfalls and flowers. It stopped me. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and awe. It was so overt. “Okay, now I’m starting to rest. I’m good. Take it all in.” TRY. I was still trying to achieve a goal. I was not resting. I was checking off the “rest” box.

We stopped at some tide pools. Boring. There is nothing happening in these tide pools. I see specks and lumps and a shiny surface. What a waste of time. Next, please! Then I saw movement: a crab. A cute little sideways-walking buddy. Some shells started moving and I stopped in my tracks. The closer I looked, the more I saw. I saw colorful rocks, little tiny baby-sized mussels, and fish – so many intricate details. There was no purpose, only taking in the awe of what I could have missed if I kept trying to “achieve” rest. I almost missed this! My husband had to come over and ask me if I was okay because I stayed so long at that tide pool. I was okay – I was more than okay. I was resting. I was reminded in that moment that we have such clear expectations of what we SEE, what we HEAR, and what we KNOW. That tide pool was “boring”. There was “nothing there to see”. Yet in that moment, I started to experience true rest in God’s glory and in His creation. Don’t we have so many proverbial tide pools in our lives? Things we are so sure of as we glance by, trying to achieve something else?

The church verse always pops into my head in those moments. No one has seen, heard or even imagined what God has in store for us. We assume. We rush. We strive. But we have no clue how or when He will reveal what He is doing. Moments of grief become richer, joy becomes multi-faceted, and people’s stories become more valuable when we remember this. There is so much more beneath the surface of our assumptions, and sometimes we get precious moments where we are faced with it and God reveals his goodness. I’m so thankful for my tide pool moment.

See you soon, and keep an eye out for your tide pools.

Hilary

Grab a friend, crazi-fy your hair, and get some air at Big Air Trampoline Park! Prize goes to the craziest of hair – bring it on! Register online to receive your mandatory permission slip or search: “big air” on our website.

WILD HAIR BIG AIR
Wed, Jul 13, 7-9p
Big Air Trampoline Park
23251 Avenida de la Carlota, Laguna Hills, CA 92653

We hit a milestone in our family yesterday. Amid all of the “talks” we are necessitated to walk into as our oldest stands at the threshold of his teen years, one of the most critical was neither the conversation about some of the new vocabulary words he’s picked up at the playground at school, nor the ongoing chat about the proverbial “birds and bees.” Last night as we sat around our dinner table we gave our son his first cell phone. It’s an old iPhone we no longer use. And, after I had combed the internet for ways to responsibly limit the awesome power of this newfound porthole to freedom, we turned and faced our son and then drawing from a backpack we presented to him and his giant longing eyes and outstretched hands…

A contract.

Before any other steps were taken, we’d read the contract together, line-by-line. In addition to finding tech help on the phone, I stumbled across a contract used by a New England mom that she gave to her son upon receipt of his phone. It was brilliant. I downloaded it and edited a bit, re-forming it in the first person voice and allowing blanks for his initials for each of the points detailed in our new agreement.

Each of the 17 points in the contract enabled us to initiate a conversation with our son, impressing upon him that we trusted him with this new and exciting burden and that there were new expectations that accompanied it. At some points we laughed a little. At other points we clarified what was intended in the writing. We expressed that we believe in him and in his ability to utilize the phone as an intelligent, conscientious member of society.  I am excited for my son. I do believe in him. Our intent was to set him up to win, not to catch him failing.

While we say all the time at Mariners Church that we “don’t have all the answers”, never is that more apparent than in the parenting of our own kids.  I’m grateful to be in “this” together with so many of you in our community.

See you soon,

Jeff

Interested in joining the worship team? Come audition for the following positions: drums, electric guitar, keys, bass. Sign up online or text MVWORSHIP to 949-267-3131.

Worship Auditions 
Thu, Jul 7,  6:30-8:30p

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Has the LORD redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.
– PSALM 107:1-2

Try to remember the last time you got really good news. Was it:
…A raise?
…A promotion?
…A check in the mail — a bigger tax return than you planned on?
…A marriage proposal?
…Did you find out you’re becoming a parent?
…Or, are you becoming a grandparent?
…That your meal got comp’d at Chipotle because the manager had seen you there so many days in row (that may or may not have happened to me)?
…That the team of doctors told someone you love that “it’s in remission”?
…That you got the “big envelope” from that school you were trying to get into?

More than likely, you told someone about it. You had to let someone know. This news, whatever it is is too good to keep a secret. Maybe, you announced it to the world on any number of social media platforms. Maybe, you called someone you care about. Maybe, you worked really hard at hinting in both verbal and in nonverbal kinesthetic cues so that someone else may beg you to tell them what’s happening. Perhaps, you waved a newly adorned ring finger unnecessarily, gesticulating with greater energy and emphasis than before, so that your left hand was waving a not-so-subtle banner that screams “I’m engaged now!” Maybe, you cleverly announced the news with a symbolic gift (i.e.: a picture frame that says “world’s best grandma” to someone who is not yet aware that they are about to spoil some unnamed child with too much ice cream, and trips to amusement parks, and late nights, and pancake breakfasts). You get the idea. Some things are so good, they can’t be contained.

The Bible tells the story of God releasing people from captivity of all kinds. He released people from slavery in Egypt. He overwhelms the powerful with his power. Jesus conquered the oppression of physical illness with a compassionate healing touch. Those in the grip of  localized evil, harassed by demonic forces find themselves unshackled from the mysterious darkness that held them down. And, in most every instance, even when Jesus told people NOT to tell the story of what God had done, they couldn’t help it.

Last Friday, at our ROOTED experience graduation, I was reminded of the ongoing story of God-at-work in our midst. Some of the attendees gave voice to that personal narrative by publicly putting it on display in baptism. Others told their stories in succinct “before and afters” on the two sides of a piece of cardboard, spelled out in big block letters. On one side were the implicit words: “I once was…” And the other side, was the unspoken: “But, now I’m…” Something had clearly happened between the two sides of that cardboard. God had stepped powerfully into their lives, reversing the irreversible, and re-imagining their futures that up until that moment, felt like fate. Those kinds of stories need to be told. They can’t be kept secret. They’re just too good.

We get “weirded out” trying to put words to the story of God’s miraculous work in our lives. Sometimes we’re longing for a bigger miracle than the one we got (or didn’t get at all). Sometimes, we’re so deeply overwhelmed by the circumstances of our present situation that we can’t see God at all. The Psalms repeatedly remind me of that reality — that the most faithful people cry out to God: “where have you gone?” But, occasionally, without too much over-explaining there is a story too good not to be told — a story not fully completed for people like you and me. It’s a story of God bringing us from “there” to “here” and perhaps beyond. That story ought to be told… Because all stories of redemption are good stories.

See you soon,

Jeff