Chehalem Valley Presbyterian Church

Our sister congregation, Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Salem hosts the Grassroots Music Festival featuring local bluegrass bands. A concert is scheduled every Friday night in April at 7:00 p.m. at the church site at 905 Cottage Street NE in Salem, Oregon. Drive down to Salem, make the concert a hot date and support our sister congregation’s outreach to the community. 

Nathan E. Lewis has been preaching through Paul’s First Epistle to the Church at Corinth. His six sermons from I Corinthians 15 focus on resurrection. Read them. Or you may listen to them. [Read more →]

Jeff Hockema and Chase Hansen are preparing and serving dinner at the Roy home on Saturday, March 29, to raise funds to equip the dental office of Magda, our dentist working at the Eirene Center in Santa Ana Tepetitlan in Guadalajara. Both Chase and Jeff have been on location and desire to return to serve Christ in this vital mission. Instead of raising funds for their return trip, they have decided to raise funds to outfit the dental office and to provide Magda with what she desperately needs to continue and to expand her care of the poor residents of Santa Ana. Magda’s office is adjacent to our church, Cristo Cambia la Vida (Christ Changes Lives) and our school. The more clients she serves, the more people are exposed to the love of Christ in our Church and mission to care for this poorest of pueblos in Guadalajara. Of course, the side benefits are fellowship around a gourmet meal (Jeff is a skilled cook!) At CVPC our teens are an integral part of our mission serving at the center of our church life and outreach. They are growing into adulthood, not marginalized but empowered to serve Christ. Come out and support them and the larger work God has called us to complete.

RSVP by contacting Jeff (503.341.6752) and/or Chase (503.734.7696).  The cost for the event is $50.00.

 Magda’s beautiful smile when her mask is off!

On Sunday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m. we will be ordaining and installing additional ruling elders and deacons to serve our congregation. Our ruling elder candidates are Keith Hansen, David Hansen, and Peter MacIver. Our deacon candidates are Daniel Wilson and David McGuire. We will be meeting at Scholls Community Church, a beautiful location half-way between our two worship sites. Nathan Lewis is the presiding minister. Stephen Lewis is preaching the sermon. Ruling Elder Stephen Bicker is delivering the charge to the new officers. The elders, along with any ordained ministers of the Gospel present, will pray while performing the tradition of the laying on of hands and the extending of the right hand of fellowship. We will collect an offering to give to our host church, Scholls Community, as an expression of our gratitude and our union in Christ Jesus, the head of the Church.

Go to Nathan’s blog for information on one very good reason why you should drive over the hill, navigate 99 through Tigard and descend into downtown Portland! Tim’s book has risen to #7 on the New York Times Bestseller list this week!

Chehalem celebrates Seder, the Passover Feast, tracing its fulfillment in Christ, preserving the Jewish traditions rich with hints of Christ. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the midst of the feast as Christ instituted it in the presence of his disciples. If you have never celebrated Seder with us in the past, take a few minutes to look at this slideshow of photos taken by Tim Dugan in 2005 at Evergreen to get a better idea of what happens. This year we are using Evergreen’s building in Beaverton. 

Early in the morning we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Directly following worship we are sharing an Easter Brunch and you are invited to join us!
“The Resurrection of Christ” El Greco

Kingsley is the second entrepreneur in Malawi to win a micro loan from Fresh Start, a group of approximately nine members of Evergreen Presbyterian Church. This past month, two members of Chehalem Valley Presbyterian Church have joined the work helping to raise funds. Fresh Start cuts a loan of about $200.00 or less to an entrepreneur in an emerging economy, who has some connection and thus accountability to one of our church’s missionaries or ministers. Kingsley worships with Jay and Laura Stoms in Lilongwe, Malawi. He applied to Fresh Start for a loan to open a grocery kiosk. He now has several of these kiosks and is able to support his young family. Fresh Start requires the repayment of its loans in two years. Kingsley makes payments face to face with Jay, our onsite representative. Juston, the first entrepreneur to secure a loan from Fresh Start lives in Bolero, Malawi, several hours to the north of Kingsley and the Stoms. He is a bean merchant, driving a truck over the Zambia border to purchase beans, then returning to sell them in his draught-ridden region. He is now able to support his family. He makes payments to the Reverend Samson Mereka, who is the Malawi director for Good Samaritan Counseling Ministries, headquartered in Beaverton less than a mile from Evergreen’s site. Samson has visited with members of Fresh Start in Beaverton and has used his former experience as a businessman to help arrange the terms and features of the loans we offer in Malawi. (This is where you begin singing “It’s a Small World After All,” as you read the rest of this article.) This past year, Juston made his first loan payment to Samson. The following Sunday, he brought his first tithe from selling beans to the church worship meeting. The impoverished church erupted in praise and thanksgiving to God for this monetary tithe. It just so happened that Evergreen member, Jeff Boden’s sister, Jill and her daughter, from Beaverton, were in the throng of worshippers, visiting with a team from Good Samaritan Ministries. Samson Mereka told his congregation that the guests were from Beaverton, Oregon. Juston assumed that the guests were from Evergreen and so he approached Jill, wringing her hand and begging her to thank her fellow church members for cutting the loan, saving his family. Jill had no knowledge of Fresh Start. She returned to Oregon and told Bettie Mitchell, the international director of Good Samaritan Ministries about Juston. Bettie said, “Oh, that would be Evergreen Presbyterian Church up the hill. They have a group working with Samson to offer micro loans….” (You may stop singing now.) [Read more →]

Chehalem Valley supports the work of Jay and Holly Eastman, members of the Mission to the World team in Berlin. Jay is on a recruiting trip, looking for a married couple to teach English in Berlin. If you are interested or have any leads please contact Frank LeClerg.

On January 6, Pastor Nathan E. Lewis preached “The Way of Escape,” from I Corinthians 10: 6-22. You can listen to this sermon and others online. listen to these sermons online. Nathan also posts his sermon scripts at his blog, www.nathanlewis.org. The following link takes you directly to his sermon script archive. Nathan is preaching through the Apostle Paul’s First Epistle to the Church at Corinth, culminating with several sermons about the resurrection of Jesus at Easter 2008. He will then preach several sermons on the ascension of Jesus. Throughout late spring and summer he will preach a selection of the Psalms.