RIDGE Youth had an awesome time at the RIDGE Retreat this past weekend!! Students met and stayed at the church for a couple days, made meals together and had meals made for them by some amazing SunRidgers, went to see the film “Jesus Revolution”, had devotions around campfires, embarked on a cotton-candy tasting (spicy dill pickle!?), drew self portraits with pudding, celebrated eeeeevery moment with kazoos, and spent most of Saturday building a new campfire space next to the basketball court! There was a lot of laughter and a lot of meaningful times together and... a lot of great sleeps through the night (ha not). HUGE thank you SunRidge for supporting the youth group through this event! Be sure to check out the new campfire space, jump on the swing, and high-five a student for doing such a great job building it! We pray this space will facilitate many meaningful and encouraging times ahead :)

Basketball with a soccer ball addition, campfires, hot chocolate, gummies in the hot chocolate, s'mores, camp worship songs, the lighthouse song obvs, caring questions, church community, passionate debate about dragons, everyone gets sung happy birthday as they leave. Good times at RIDGE Youth. :)

One of our small groups recently had the opportunity to help out recently with the FACT Program through the Boys & Girls Club, serving a meal to families in our community - many hands make light work! Thank You Lord for the chance to be a blessing and to be blessed at the same time.

The Money Matters course kicked off this past Wed night. Over the next number of weeks, Magnus will be leading this group through this course as they discuss handling money, conquering debt and saving for the future. Such timely teaching - Thank you Magnus and Thank You Lord for providing such an amazing equipper!

Family "Soup" Sunday! This past Sunday we were blessed as a congregation by our Chinese small group as they prepared a Chinese New Year feast for us instead of our regular soup lunch on Family Sunday. It was awesome - pretty sure there were no leftovers! Thank You Lord for the blessing of this amazing food and those who prepared it!

We had another great evening this past Wednesday enjoying a fantastic dinner together before learning and practicing prayer! Huge thanks to the many volunteers who make these beautiful evenings happen! It is such a win when God's people come together and pray and we always have something great to learn about how can further prayer in our life.

This week we were reminded that prayer is work. And the work of prayer begins by REMEMBERING the call to pray. That very first reaction to…everything! Then to work at WATCHING for Jesus with our eyes and ears. What is His Spirit saying as we pray, what is His Word telling us. See how He is moving or how He wants you to move. And then the work of TRUSTING — be in that place where you acknowledge He is able. It is all Him. We are only tagging along with God, waiting on Him, and responding obediently when He asks us to “do” something.

Thanks to everyone who served and joined in on Christmas Eve! We had such a good evening celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ! After songs and speaking we finished the evening by all lighting candles as a symbol of Jesus being the light of the world. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I love being a “Ridge Roadie” - a practical, behind-the-scenes support for our Ridge Student Ministries Leaders. This past week I had the fun assignment of picking out a ton of candy for their upcoming Christmas party challenge! I can hardly wait to hear how it goes!

At 54 I’m not the one to be on deck for youth nights, but I get so much joy prepping for evenings and then hearing about what’s going on week to week: the crazy activities make me laugh , the hilarious moments (more laughing), the meaningful connections encourage me, the places of need make me pray.

If you have some time to run around, gather stuff, make some calls, do some photocopying - any of these behind the scenes practical things - you too could be a part of the youth team as a Ridge Roadie (and don’t forget the Ridge swag!) If your heart beats to invest in the next generation and you aren’t serving elsewhere - this may be a fit! Email me at teresa@sunridge.org for the details.

On December 2, the Ladies Friday Morning Devotions Group had breakfast together at the church and took the time to “send" one of our beloved sisters on to a new assignment. Lisa has been a devoted part of this group for many years and her presence, personal words, and prayers will be so missed! The ladies brought verses and words of encouragement and affirmation, and we prayed over her! We also put together a gift “bin” so that Lisa has a gift to open every day from December 5 all the way to December 31 — to remind her of all of us at SunRidge who love her and are praying for her as she moves into a new season!!

The Call & The Send
Last Sunday was Shawn & Lisa Klassen's last Sunday with SunRidge before they go on to be a part of Kelowna Gospel Fellowship. Shawn has accepted as position as their lead pastor and will start there in the New Year! It was so good to hear from both Shawn and Lisa, about their time with the SunRidge church family for the past 8 years, and their calling to walk with another church family. We had a time of prayer for them, for KGF, and for SunRidge. While it is always sad to say "goodbye" it is so joyful to look back at our good memories together and to join in the joy of, as a church family, sending people to go and do the Lord's work! May God so bless Shawn, Lisa, and Mackenzie as they now go to serve our brothers and sisters at KGF!

Last Saturday, Emmanuel Church hosted Parenting in a Digital World. It was a collaboration between Westside Churches and their respective Family Ministry Pastors and was 5 months in the making. Cole Hubscher was the keynote speaker. Though attendance was less than anticipated, the response was enormous. Many parents came out of the session feeling more aware and equipped to take action at home. Thank you Cole, and all the local experts who contributed their knowledge and wisdom to this event! We are already looking forward to the next Parenting Lifeboat Session: Healthy Relationships, with Darlene Unrau.

A few weeks ago we finished BLESS. What a great series that was for adults and kids alike. Looking back, there were some cool lessons from Sunland that we enjoyed learning about. Here, the kids are learning what it was to Serve others the way Jesus did it: washing feet. Mind you, our feet aren't as dirty as people's feet used to be, so we had to make them dirty first :)

After our church gathering on Oct 30 we took time to celebrate SunRidge's 25th Anniversary! We enjoyed lunch and dessert together while listening to people share stories about how God has walked with them through church family at SunRidge. Such a huge thanks to everyone who made this gathering happen! Alsoooo... that time that Steve got us all clapping in anticipation of him rapping his story?!?!? So good 😂 God has been good to us these past 25 years, through the joyful, unsure, hilarious, difficult, and good times.

Praise the Lord!
I will thank the Lord with all my heart
as I meet with his godly people.
2 How amazing are the deeds of the Lord!
All who delight in him should ponder them.
3 Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty.
His righteousness never fails.
4 He causes us to remember his wonderful works.
How gracious and merciful is our Lord!

Psalms 111:1-4

SunRidge Family

We have been praying about God’s will to be done in regards to a candidating process Shawn and Lisa Klassen have been walking through with Kelowna Gospel Fellowship. We have prayed for God’s best for KGF, for the Klassen’s and for SunRidge. KGF has extended an offer to Shawn for the Lead Pastor Position and he has accepted. As a staff and leadership we are 100% behind Shawn & Lisa, blessing our dear friends to pursue the calling God has placed in front of them. Shawn and Lisa will begin their new position in January. Please pray for them, for KGF and for our church as well. The head of the Church is Christ and 1 Corinthians 12 says God has in the past and continues to place "the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”

On behalf of the Leadership Team
Pastor Mike

Last week at youth we did devotions around a campfire! Devotions are reading the bible then writing about what it means and how it applies to our life. It’s so important to do this everyday to be connected in relationship with God!

We journal after reading using the acronym S.O.A.P.

Scripture: what bible verse stood out to you?

Observation: what is that verse actually saying?

Application: how does that verse apply to our lives?

Prayer: ask God to help you apply the scripture to your life

Sunridge Date Night! Once a month! Pizza, Movie, and Fun games!!! Drop off your kids, you and your love ones enjoy a date, dinner, reconnect… it’s our privilege to be here to support and care!!!

Isn't it amazing that we have a God who creates for us this gift called sabbath. Sabbath is a day of rest and delight in the Lord. It's a time to plan laughter and play! Every so often at youth we carve out a night just for this; play and delight! This past Wednesday we walked to Hudson to play grounders, a playground classic, and then walked to Hudson to get slushies. It's simple and joyful and we're so grateful to God for giving us the time and resources which allowed for us to hangout in this way :)