New Life Kids Concert - December 21, 2008

The New Life Kids treated the congregation to a special concert complete with chimes, a recorder solo, and a special song by Jaliel!

After the concert, we said goodbye and best wishes to Mike and Bethany, who have been caring for the littlest members of the New Life family for the past three years. While we will miss them, we wish them well with their own new baby and all the love and adventure to come!

New Life Kids Concert - Dec 2008

New Life Christmas Party - December 17, 2008

New Life held its annual Christmas celebration at the Transition House this year! This meant sharing Christmas cheer with the congregation, some of the staff of Catholic Charities, and most of the refugees who have lived in the house since it opened in July.

What a wonderful event! Hightlights included Christmas carols in English, French and Burmese; sweet and savory treats from America, India and Iraq; Arabic lessons for Pator Kevin - all he wanted to say was "delicious"! - and much laughter and joy at the end of a year filled with change, challenges and special blessings.

New Life began its partnership with Catholic Charities and its ministry with refugees only seven months ago. During that time, lives have been touched and hearts changed forever by the friendships and understandings that God has given to this congregation through the special new friends who have endured so much to come here to San Jose to rebuild their lives. Every day, we are thanked for the small things we do for these friends. What the party brought to light is how thankful we are as a body to have been given the opportunity to serve, in small ways, the needs of people who have such great needs and yet such abounding spirits.

Merry Christmas!

New Life Christmas Party 2008

New Life Kids Nativity - December 14, 2008

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

On Sunday, December 14th, the New Life Kids treated the congregation to a wonderful presentation of the Nativity, complete with angels, shepherds, and possibly the cutest kings to ever present the story of Christ's birth.

We hope you were able to join us for this special event. If not, we hope you can join us next year.

Please enjoy the photo album of this special day:

New Life Kids Nativity Presentation

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