In Community:

September 2021 Newsletter

Bodybuilding

By Pastor Kohei Takeda

On August 22, 2021, it was such a blessing to gather in-person at the all-church picnic with over 80% of the FBC congregation. I still remember that we started our online services on March 15, 2020, with a handful of people and staff. It’s been 525 days since we last met in person with this proportion of the church.  

Obviously, I couldn’t help but get excited, even though my body clock was still 3 in the morning, after flying back from Japan within 24hrs. We saw people meeting face-to-face, eye-to-eye, and sharing love with one another. Many new people were joining us. We know that the pandemic is not over. But, after feeling like we’re walking in a dark tunnel in 2020, we wholeheartedly praised God for His grace and faithfulness that He gave us a glimpse of what the church should look like.  

I understand that for various reasons, there are still lots of people whom we could not meet on that specific day, or on Sundays. We miss you. No matter who you are, or where you are, FBC cannot be FBC without you because we as a church are all essential parts of Christ’s body. We hope and pray that God will bring us all together soon.   

One of the most-frequently discussed topics among the church leaders around the world these days is about rebuilding the church during and after the pandemic. What should the church look like in ‘the new normal’? More fundamentally, what is the Church? When it comes to our context, what should FBC focus on?  

Trying to see things in God’s perspective, perhaps God is calling us to ASK Him what is to build up the church during this difficult season. As we enter a new stage of church life, we hope to learn from God’s Word through a new sermon series called “What is the Church?” We will explore and learn together the heart of the church from the New Testament, which is a relational, united, and missional community. 

We hope not only to gain knowledge, but also actually practice building up the church. This fall, we as the church leadership are praying and planning on creating various opportunities where ANYONE can connect with God, God’s people, and God’s purposes to build up His body. Here, the keys are “connectedness” and “what we are connected to.” No worries, in order to build the body of Christ, you don’t need to become spiritual macho-like Christian gurus or renowned evangelists, but simply connect.  

The original language for church is “ekklesia,” and it literally means “an assembly of called out ones” — like you and me. We may feel like we are ordinary believers, but we are all called out by God for His purposes, who saved us through His extraordinary love. Even though we still struggle with the situation with covid, I am excited to see how God blesses FBC to love Him and our neighbors more and more, by building up His body this coming season.  

2021-22 Fall Ministry Plans

By Pastor Mike Kurtz

It seems as though every plan we make during the pandemic gets thwarted a month later. We as leadership love your willingness to “go with the flow” with such understanding. A month ago we were full steam ahead opening up our ministries for in-person gatherings. Our hope was to provide in-person Sunday classes for our children through adults. The most difficult challenge was trying to staff up two hours of Children’s ministry – the 9:30am hour and the 11am hour. As leadership, we decided that continuing to provide Sunday School was a priority while childcare during the worship services would be sufficient requiring a smaller staff. As we were gearing up for in-person classes, plans took a turn with the elevated Covid cases in late July when our survey of parents revealed that 90% of parents would not be bringing their kids to in-person classes and preferred online classes as we did last year. Consequently, we have had to regroup and replan for the fall, creating a late start date for us. At this time (and of course all of this is subject to change!), here is what we are planning:  

• Sundays, 9:30am 
  • Childcare: space will be available for children. Parents will need to provide own childcare at this time.  
  • Adult Classes: 
    • Marty Dong:  start date TBD, details to come. 
    • John Tsuji: Gospel Journey, begins Sept. 19, English Library. This class will be held both in-person and online simultaneously. Details will be sent out once plans are firmed up.  
  • CYC (Career/Young Adult) Class: begins Sept. 12 in the Fellowship Hall 
  • Youth Classes: 
    • High School:  in the skybridge classroom, begins Sept. 12 
    • Middle School:  in the Japanese library, begins Sept. 12, may try to do simultaneous in-person and online.  
  • Children’s Classes:  PreK-K, 1st-3rd, 4th-5th, start date TBD (still staffing), classes will be held online only. 

• Sundays, 11am 
  • Childcare for parents attending English & joint worship services 

As you can see, there are many gaps in the plan. As details become clearer, we will be communicating updates with you via the Sunday morning worship services and email. Our prayer is that we will be fully running by October. If you are interested in helping out in teaching or assisting in childcare, please contact Pastor Mike.  

All-Church Picnic

By Amy Li

Let me just preface this by saying that I am a little rusty when it comes to writing these grapevine articles, but with it being almost a year and a half since our church was gathered all together, I could not miss out on the opportunity to recount our wonderful all-church picnic on Sunday, August 22nd. For those of you who were able to attend, thank you for blessing us with your presence. For those who were not able to attend, we missed you, and hope that when you feel safe and comfortable, you will be able to join us again.

To recount the event, I could just write about what we did on the day of the picnic. We took our usual after-church fellowship to Wilburton Hill Park in Bellevue where we enjoyed (Vietnamese) banh mi sandwiches from Pho Ever and other foods and drinks. We spread out around the spacious picnic spot, prepared beautifully by a group of generous helpers who came early, to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. We played games like Spikeball and cornhole, and participated in a balloon toss and a relay race that involved eating spicy noodles and stretching a stocking with a tennis ball at the end over your head to knock over some water bottles… Those are some of the things we did… but since this is my grapevine article, I can write what I want, so hear me out on some of my post-picnic thoughts and reflections.

I think as humans, we can be quite forgetful. And in a year and a half, it’s even easier to forget things. Sometimes, all we need are some simple reminders. Here are some that I came away with after that day:

A reminder of why God intended for Christ followers to be in community, and why we were never meant to live out our faith alone. There is just some deep, unexplainable joy that comes from being a part of a family with fellow believers where you are accepted and loved as you are, find support and encouragement for the hard seasons of faith (like living in a pandemic, anyone?), and can experience the overflowing love of Christ together.

A reminder of the importance of relationships, and the importance of proximity in relationships. There really is nothing quite like hearing lively chatter, side conversations, and sweet laughter, engaging in face-to-face conversations, being enveloped in long hugs, breaking a sweat over games, and sharing a meal with one another. Zoom is no substitute for these things.

A reminder of how beautiful our Faith Bible Ohana is. Honestly, my favorite part of the whole day was handing out the banh mi sandwiches. I really did not need to do it, since the sandwiches were already safely wrapped individually, but it gave me the chance to see each person passing through the line. Each one, reflecting the beauty and image of God, but all together making up our diverse, multi-generational, from-all-walks-of-life kind of church body.

And finally, a reminder that despite our best human efforts, God is the ultimate event planner. Many thanks to Pastor Kohei, who had the creative vision for the church picnic, and the joyful enthusiasm to lead and energize the organizing committee, all while communicating from the other side of the world, to bring a plan into form. Thanks also to the rest of the committee and many helpers who poured their hearts into prayer and preparation to bring the plan into action. But really, all of the praise and thanks be to our wonderful God, the One who orchestrates all things, who brought the plan to life. When God is behind something, it’s a showstopper, no matter what. So, I thank God for the perfect weather, bringing over 150 people in attendance (including newcomers who started attending Faith Bible while church services were online… amazing), providing us with an ideal picnic location close to church, and safety in the middle of a pandemic. The list goes on and on.

So, church family, let’s continue to remind ourselves and each other of God’s goodness and His promises! Much love to each of you!

All-Church Work Day

2021.07.17
Thank you to everyone who came out to Work Day!
God blessed us with great weather, hard workers, good food and fantastic fellowship!

Beacon Hill Elementary Service Project

By Pastor Mike Kurtz

Yes, the schools are opening in a week or two. Kids will be returning to a slightly different environment, new teachers, new classrooms, and a new administration for BHIS. This will be a challenging time for everyone involved (including parents). As they prepare to return, it was important that they know that we were still behind them – that Jesus still cared for the school. So last week, a group of volunteers from FBC came together to help the teachers and staff set up their classroom and clean up the building in preparation for the new school year.

But first, let me introduce you to the new Principal, Sahnica Washington (right) and Vice-Principal, Keyunda Wilson (left).

Sahnica Washington shared in a recent school newsletter:

I am passionate about education and children.  During my career in education, I was a paraprofessional, a teacher, a consulting teacher, a principal, and most recently an assistant principal at West Seattle Elementary.  I am elated and honored to have this opportunity to serve as your principal and I look forward to immersing myself completely in our school and our community. -Sahnica

From Keyunda:

I began my career in Seattle Public Schools 16 years ago and have held a variety of positions, including Head Start Teacher, Instructional Assistant, 1st/2nd grade teacher, Early Learning Coach, and Consulting teacher. Being a parent myself, I am passionate about family engagement, teaching and learning, and cultivating each student’s strengths and talents. I am looking forward to bringing these experiences and beliefs to the BHIS community to advance the work that has been initiated. -Keyunda

We welcome them as partners and pray we can continue to shine the light of Jesus on their work.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, roughly 20 volunteers gathered to clean, organize, and set up classrooms, the library, the gym, and other areas of the building. Here are a few pictures that capture the morning! Thank you to all of those came out to support the work and for the prayers that went before us.

ROCK Graduation Party 2021

By Kenji Kumai

The ROCK group (High School Youth Ministry) had our annual graduation party at the Kumai’s house on June 30^th, 2021.  It was a Wednesday night!  The only day we could have all three of our graduates there.  But despite a mid-weeknight, what a joy it was to have such a great turnout of the rest of the ROCK group to support these guys!  There were about 17 of us there and we enjoyed a nice BBQ (steak and chicken) with Auntie Sheila Chan’s famous garlic pasta to go with it!  What a treat it was!  And celebrated with some Hawaiian Guava Cake and Dochis!  We had some ice breaker games prepared but the students just wanted to hang out and talk and catch up since we had not met in person for a ROCK event in over a year.  What a sweet time of fellowship.  This was the last time that this ROCK group could get together before letting our Seniors move on to college.  Our three graduates were:  Nathan Crawford, Kulani Chan and Kieran Vu.

We celebrated our three grads that night, but I was really encouraged to see how much love and close relationships are being built between our students and our leaders.  We had each of our leaders share something personal and encouraging about one of the graduates.  Amy Li shared about Nathan, El Iseri shared about Kieran and Drew Fukuda shared about Kulani.  We all felt the love and even got emotional with each of the sharing times.  Jeanne and I are now in the background supporting our leaders and we are so blessed to see all the hard work and effort these guys put into this ministry to lead our High School students.  Chris Jo prepared the traditional bag of gifts and letters that he prepares for each graduate each year.  Even the nice gift bag is a laundry bag that they will definitely need!   All of the bags were filled with things that they would use and need once they start college life.

We ended the program time with our leaders praying for each of the graduates.  It is always a bittersweet event.  We get to celebrate their great accomplishments of graduating but at the same time we realize that we have to let them go and move on in life.  And it is always sad to see our seniors leave our group as there are a lot of great relationships that are formed over four years of High School.

We thank the Lord for blessing us at FBC with great families and for the students He sends to us, that we get to see each of them grow spiritually and in so many ways as they go through High School.  We wish our three graduates the best and God’s blessing and guidance on them as they move on to their next steps.

Kenji for the ROCK leadership team

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