New Life Family Sunday - November 23, 2008

On Family Sunday, the New Life Kids took over! The children's ministry led the entire service, from announcements through praise and prayer and they gave the message as well (thank you pastor Joel!). It was a lively and wonderful service that all enjoyed. The kids had a great time teaching the adults about God's love, and the adults were truly blessed by the kids' efforts.

Check out our album at:

Family Sunday - November 2008

New Life Creative Arts Ministry - November 2, 2008

New Life's brand new Creative Arts Ministry debuted this Sunday with a vignette that incorporated drama, painting and music into the worship experience. Jamie Chacon and Gina Bluhm are heading up this new ministry and would love to have others join them as they seek creative ways to incorporate the arts into the worship life of the congregation.

Creative Arts Worship - November 2008

AIDS Walk Silicon Valley - October 19

On Sunday, October 19, New Life participated with Team Beautiful Day in the 19th AIDS Walk Silicon Valley. This was our second year participating with this team, which is made up of churches from around the valley. This year, Team Beautiful Day set a goal of having 200 walkers and raising $20,000. With more than 800 walkers raising over $31,000, Team Beautiful Day was the largest team in the walk!

New Life helped the team meet this goal with 12 walkers raising over $1,600! Five New Lifer's raised over $100 each, so New Life helped them reach their goal with a match of $100. Congratulations to Jeremy, Joel and Justin Hyland, Haven Lee and Jeffra Bussmann!

All of the funds raised in this walk will provide education and support for those living with HIV/AIDS here in Silicon Valley. Why would churches participate? Because today, in an age of divisiveness, it is critical for Chritians to remember to show compassion for those in need. The AIDS Walk helps the churches to show that support in our community.

The Walk for AIDS sent out the following description of Team Beautiful Day to all of their walkers:

Team Beautiful Day was inspirational with over 820 members whose donations are currently over $30,000 making them the largest team ever with the most raised by any team in our records! With a theme of “The Church Has Left the Building” four churches closed for that day and invited their congregations to “get out of the pews and into the streets” to support the effort.

Many many thanks to everyone who walked and who supported our walkers.

Photo Album of New Life Beach Day - September 13, 2008

On Saturday, September 13, New Life hosted a Beach Day Gathering Event for the congregation and the core group of Reliance Covenant church. along with the church members and friends, we we were joined by 22 recently-arrived refugees from Bhutan, Burma and Iraq.

This was the first time that any of the refugees had seen the Pacific Ocean, and the very first time many of them had seen any ocean at all.

Gathering such disparate groups together at a Northern California beach is always risky. The weather is notoriously unpredictable, with days of 80 degrees and sunny in San Jose turning out to be 50 degrees and windy at the beach. Further, what if no one talked to each other? What if the refugees hated the ocean? What if no one wanted to share food together?

But God was in this from the beginning. The day was perfect, not too hot or too cold, everyone arrived in good spirits, the refugees were ready to try anything, even boogie boarding! And the New Life and Reliance folks were lovely and wonderful and open to meeting and interacting with our new friends.

Bonds were formed, new friendships sprouted, and we all got a chance to learn from one another in a way that most would never have had a chance to do without an event like this.

Many thanks to everyone who came, we hope to do more events like this in the future.

Enjoy the pictures!

Beach Day

New Life Beach Day with Reliance Covenant - September 13

We will be gathering at Rio Del Mar beach from 10am-4pm on Saturday the 13th for a joint gathering event with Reliance Covenant Church.

This is a great opportunity to invite friends and family who may be looking for a church to learn more about both Covenant communities. In addition, we will be bringing a number of our Bhutanese and Iraqi friends to experience their very first look at the Pacific ocean!

Thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help with transportation for our new refugee friends. Andrea will be in contact with you all on Sept. 8 to provide the addresses and names for pick up.

Where is Rio del Mar?
Take HWY 17 South to HWY 1 South. Exit at the Rio del Mar Blvd exit and turn Right onto Rio del Mar Blvd. Stay on Rio del Mar Blvd all the way to where the road ends at the state beach parking lot. Make a U-turn at the lot onto Beach Drive. Stay on Beach Drive until it ends in a parking lot. This is a pay lot, so bring dollars!

Still confused? Try the Google map to Beach Drive. Be sure to go all the way to the end of the road!

View Larger Map

Last Summer Sunday in the Park - August 31

Sunday, August 31 at 10am.

We had so much fun on Memorial Day and the 4th of July weekends at Bramhall Park, we decided to have another get together during the last Summer holiday, Labor Day weekend.

So, please join us at Bramhall Park (corner of Willow Street and Camino Ramon) for a light brunch, a few songs, and some time in the Word together.

Check the links below for directions to the park and a map of the park itself to find us on Sunday!
View Map for Directions to the Park

View Map of Bramhall Park

New Life Baptism - August 17, 2008

On Sunday, August 17, New Life Covenant Church came together to celebrate four baptisms:

• Deborah Munns
• Caitlin Dickey
• Lucas Dickey
• Suzannah Ashley

These individuals chose to take a public step to recognize what God had already done in their lives. Through baptism, they demonstrated how they had died to sin and to the law and how God had raised them to live a new life (Romans 6:1-14).

This was a celebration, which meant inviting friends and family to share in the occasion and of course, to come together for good food and great fellowship!

We've uploaded the photos to an online album and scrapbook so everyone can share in this special day:

New Life Baptism - Aug 2008

Online scrapbook created by Jamie Foote. Click the "Play" arrow to view.