Our New Addition

Well folks, they say a picture paints a thousand words. I'm not sure this one does unless you have 12 years of training, but you get the idea. Yes, this little shadowy gray picture is our next child! How cool is that?

Jenn is due on October 19th and we're very excited. We'd appreciate your prayers for the health of the baby and for Jenn.

This ultrasound was taken at 9 weeks and they're not supposed to be able to determine the gender yet...but...the tech mentioned that it looked a lot like a boy. *yahooo!* We're not totally counting on that because apparently things are too early in the developmental process to tell, but, from what I can gather from this picture...well...judge for yourself. I'm thinking David might be a good name.

My New Ride

For the past few weeks we've been down to one car while we tried to figure out if we were goign to buy something else, or try to make it work with one car. One car wasn't really happening for us so last night I became the proud owner of a '94 Nissan Maxima. It runs and drives great and is a nice upgrade from the '87 Bonneville.

In a side-by-side comparison, I think I like the Maxima.

The best $5.38 i ever spent

I placed an order from a major online music retailer a couple weeks ago. I purchased a few odds and ends including strings. They were discounted because they were blemished, but I figured I'd save a couple bucks and take my chances. How "blemmed" can steel strings be.
When the package came Micah, our Lead Pastor, asked what I ordered. I hadn't seen the box, yet and just ran down the list of cable, and strings that I had purchased. He had a curious look on his face and mentioned that the box was so big that he thought I bought a new guitar. Being a little confused myself, we went down to check it out. Sure enough, the box was huge, and we started unpacking. We pulled out all of the stuff that I ordered except for the blemished strings and there was one box left just slightly smaller then the shipping box. On the end it had a barcode that matched the strings that I had purchased, but the box was covered with "Fender" logos. I was in complete disbelief when I opened the box and pulled out this:

It's the the Fender Sonoran SCE. The "SCE" means it has a cutaway and electronics to plug into a sound system. I called the retailer and told them about the mixup, but they told me that because it was there mistake I was welcome to keep the guitar. So that's the story of how I got super lucky and got a $300 guitar for $5.38.

I've been picking up a few other guitars lately and thought I'd post them for you're viewing enjoyment. I'm becoming quite the shredder these days.

On the left is a Fender Strat, made in Mexico, but with upgraded pickups. It plays and sounds great. On the right is a Slammer by Hamer. Basically a Les Paul clone. It plays pretty well, and it stays in tune. It will probably be a project guitar to do a little "hot-rodding" to. Craigslist is amazing!

Easter at Compass

Easter was great this year. It's always a busy and exciting time at any church because you know there will be more people there than on the average Sunday. This year we saw a lot of people contribute in some unique ways to make the services unique. On Good Friday we set up a somber and dark atmosphere where we remembered the suffering and death of Jesus. It was a captivating experience visually, musically, and emotionally.

I was really excited about the musical direction that we went. One of the worship team members produces electronica and we used his skills to create backbeats that we play acoustic instruments over the top of. We had acoustic guitars, a mandolin, and a violin. It was a great combination and a really cool vibe.

Another really cool contribution to Easter was the cross the someone made. It was by far the best cross I've seen any volunteer make. Here's a picture that I took with my phone. It doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.The base is going be painted like a rock. It didn't quite get finished for this year, but I'm excited to see what it looks like when it's done.

We had a couple on our staff do some dramatic scripture readings that were really powerful, and helped people really connect with the depth of sin that caused Christ to go through this suffering and pain on our behalf.

To end to the Good Friday service we sent people to the back of the room to take communion and quietly leave. It was a very powerful night for everyone there.

Easter Sunday was a great time of celebration. We saw over 400 people in our three services! Micah gave a great talk and the gospel was preached in a powerful and engaging way. We invited our community with this postcard that was mailed to 15,000 people.
This art was created by one of they guys on our leadership team here at Compass. He's an incredibly talented tattoo artist and had given us a couple of amazing pieces to work with for special services this year.

It's great to be a part of a church that's growing and having an impact on the community. Please continue to pray for more opportunities to connect with the people of Downtown Vancouver and reach them with the truth and grace of Jesus.

February Update

It's been a busy couple of months for the Ross Fam. In addition to the challenge of getting connected in a new ministry, we also faced a few challenges with our home.

It's actually a lot of work to get to know people. I never really thought of it as work, but it's true. It's a challenge trying to understand how people think, what motivates them, and how I can best lead them, especially when it's like 40 all at once. It's been a really fun challenge, though, and I have a great worship team and staff to work with.

Another challenge that I'm facing right now is the number of new songs that I'm learning. Compass does a lot of different songs than what I did at Gateway so I'm finding myself learning up to 4 songs to lead on Sunday. It's another one of those fun challenges.

As far as the house goes...well, it's old. When you get a house from the 20's there's bound to be little things coming up here and there. This winter we went for three weeks with no furnace. Granted, the furnace was installed in the 40's and lived a good long life, we felt that it's demise could have been timed a little better. Thankfully when we purchased this home we also got a home warranty that covered about half of the cost of upgrading to a nice new gas furnace.

With challenges God brings blessings, though. I think the greatest blessing he's given us is the strength to do what he's called us to do. He's provided for all of our needs physically, spiritually, and financially in an amazing and miraculous way in his perfect timing.

Jenn and I are so thankful for those of you that have been praying for us through this transition. Please continue to pray for our transition. If I had to guess, I'd say we have another three months until we really feel completely transitioned.

Take me down the the Paradise City

We packed our bags for Florida and my brother-in-law, James, told us to only pack shorts.  It was a little hard to believe, but we figured he knew what he was talking about.  We landed at the Fort Myers Airport at 11:30 and it was about 75 degrees. That's a bit of a shock considering there were snow flurries in Portland, and it was about 12 degrees when we stopped over in Denver.  It's been over 80 every day.  The picture above was from our table at the Naples Beach Club where we ate dinner a couple nights ago.  We enjoyed a great meal while watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico.

It's been a fabulous week, but I think we're all ready to head home.  Today is graduation day for my sister-in-law, Marty.  We'll be partying with family all day at James and Marty's place.  We started roasting a whole pig last night and it should be done in a couple of hours.  (I'll post pics of that when I get a chance...totally disgusting).  We head home tomorrow. I'll plan on wearing my jeans.

My First Week

It's been a little while since my last entry. I decided to take a couple of weeks off between Gateway and Compass in order to recharge, and rest a little. It was nice to get some extended time with my family. We're actually heading to Florida tomorrow for a week, so once I get back I'll be getting into full swing at Compass.

This was my official first week at Compass, though, and it was great to get going at a fairly reasonable pace. Especially considering the season. (I should be going crazy right now...instead I'm going to Florida.)

I got my office setup, and purchased a laptop (a MacBook Pro, totally awesome!), and worked on some graphic design stuff as well. I think most of my week has been spent in meetings.  I've gotten to know the staff and am getting a feel for how the church operates.  I think for a first week I was pretty productive. 

My favorite project right off the bat was working on promotions for our Christmas Eve Service.  We've got an amazing tattoo artist, named Mav, that created the front of our Christmas Eve Invite.  We're doing a mass mailer to our surrounding community, and made a 6'x6' banner that will hang in front of the church.  Check it out...
Another part of my first week at Compass was continuing to work on my fundraising.  We've had a couple of amazing one-time gifts, but most of the support has come in $35-$100 monthly commitments.  Right now we're at 81% of our support! Praise God, and thanks to those of you that have made a financial commitment to our ministry.  We're still in need of about $260 per month in order to reach our goal of $1500 per month.  If you're reading this blog, you're supporters.  Call, give, pray, think about us often, and if you know people that are curious about Jesus that live in West Vancouver, send them our way.