True Life Fellowship, Beaverton, Palm Sunday - March 28

K sez -
if you blink you will drive right past the church, well, they don't even call it a church, they call it a "fellowship." I guess that is why there is no cross outside. And it is in an office building.

Lovin' the free Christian mochas for visitors - Catholic churches take note! how much do espresso machines cost anyway? There has to be some wonderful energetic volunteer minded person who wants to be the barista for their parish...I know that Resurrection Catholic Church in Tualatin has one - they made me a mean sugar free vanilla double tall latte once - Hallelujah!

This church had free bread too - you know, like Jesus says "I am the bread of life, those who come to me shall not hunger." Well, it works! Now, for the Catholic side, you can get TONS of free bread every Sunday at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Aloha. Yeah, K gets around to a lot of churches, doesn't she? That is why T picked me for this blog job.

K was a little freaked out with way too many people coming up to shake her hand and say welcome - she prefers the "Catholic Welcome" - total indifference... Very good ethnic mix at this church - lots of Asians (in fact they have a special service just for Asian Americans...) the two pastors leading the service were Black (one had an amazing voice, the other was very good looking...and possibly single).

Very un-churchy exterior and interior - purple walls, NO photos, flowers, nothing except some ficus plants and a simple cross, over to the side, out of the way. The pastors don't wear anything special, so when we saw one of them fixing the bathroom door we were surprised to see him up in front of church praying during the service. A big trend I am noticing among non-Catholic Christians is a great love for all things audio-visual-technical. This church actually had a whole tech station- like you would find at the Rose Garden for coordinating all the video, sound, mic feeds.

We got presents for being first time visitors (Father John at St. Joseph the Worker welcomes visitors and the one who came the greatest distance gets a candy bar...) They took a collection - very surprised to see hardly any money at all in the basket. They called Easter "Resurrection Sunday," that was new.

The "Living Last Supper" was pretty interesting - a lot of focus on Jesus' miracles, Jesus himself was pretty hot - awesome flowing hair. they totally skipped over the passion though, that was a let down. but they made it up with the end - where each disciple introduced himself and told the story of how he died. My boys would have enjoyed that. Was glad to hear them say the words we hear at Mass every single day of the week, when Jesus says "This is my body, given up for you - take this and eat it in memory of me" but strangely...the audience was not invited to get any bread.
Score one for the Catholics - we get Jesus at every single Mass and we can go to Mass every day of the week - what a luxury that is!!

As they went through their performance I found myself missing Father John and the extreme reverence he shows for the cross during Holy Week - he brings in a HUGE rough wooden cross, carries it in on his back, then lies down completely on his face in front of it for a long time, then afterwards we are invited to touch the cross and pray. It is very powerful. K likes CONCRETE TANGIBLE ways to practice faith.K also misses Stations of the Cross, practised by Catholics every Friday before Easter - they really make a BIG DEAL about every single detail of Jesus' time on earth. OK I am supposed to be talking about True Life Fellowship - sorry...

K submitted a prayer to their prayer team on their website - that is a cool thing. All churches should offer a way for people to submit their prayer needs via internet.
They would all be hearing from K! She has a lot of things to pray about these days.

K was also happy to hear a familiar song played at the end - Holy, Holy, Holy. That reminds us that whether we are Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, whatever - we are all united in our love for Jesus and we are all brothers and sisters in God's family. That is a wonderful feeling!

but for celebrations about the Last Supper, washing feet, and getting nails on Good Friday, you'll have to go to a Catholic Church.

EASTER Sunday we will be at St. John the Apostle in Oregon City. T says Catholic can't sing but she hasn't heard Krisi Christensen - she has a beautiful voice and an even more beautiful personality. Very much looking forward to being "home" for Easter. bye for now!