Cameron Garcia » Uncategorized

Rethink Coffee

Cameron — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:00:30 +0000

I’ve added a new local link to the website, Rethink Coffee. Some friends of ours started it and they have a great business model. 20% of the money goes straight back to the farmers and 8% goes to the church or non-profit of your choice.

Plus they ship it straight to you and the shipping is included in the price of the coffee.

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A Coarse Correction

Cameron — Sat, 08 May 2010 04:52:03 +0000

I was reminded this week of being on my father’s boat one summer and having the opportunity (sarcastically, as it meant less sleep) to take wheel watch at night while we were traveling. This was usually a 2-4 hour shift that everyone capable had to do, just part of the job. It also meant that the captain could get a little sleep and as you can all imagine a well rested captain is a happy captain…

Anyway, one of the perks of this duty is you get to learn how the boat’s navigation system works (all electronic/digital). Basically the computer screen would show a line that we were supposed to travel and periodically we would need to adjust a little knob that would turn the boat. Why you ask? After all it was a straight line…

Well, mainly it is this: The water is always moving. The wind is almost always blowing (This was Alaska after all). Both the tides and the winds move the boat, little by little, until at some point a course correction is needed. So I would turn the little knob and the boat would turn accordingly, just enough to get us back on the line we needed to be.

The past couple of weeks have been challenging.

It has been my experience that sometimes we tend to get comfortable or we get complacent, as a result we begin to drift off the line. Usually it is little by little, unnoticed until at some point we look down at the screen and see that we are off the line. Maybe by a little. Maybe by a lot.

The last couple of weeks stress, anxiety, and fear were building up. I didn’t notice it at first, everything seemed as it should be. As it built up I began to feel it…like a weight dragging behind me where ever I went. Over the last week or so I have been asking God why I am feeling these things and oddly enough He gave me the answer in a devotion this week:

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace…” -Colossians 3:15

The Lord gave me a little course correction, one that was sorely needed. I had begun to allow fear, anxiety, and stress camp out in my heart, slowly pushing something else out. The PEACE of Christ. In Jesus we have peace. A peace that trumps anything we will experience on this side of Heaven. But, we have to be diligent that the things of this world don’t try and push it out. Because they can and they will.

Thoughts?

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Hello 2010

Cameron — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 07:22:25 +0000

Well…over the course of the last week I have been reflecting on 2009 and praying about 2010.

2009.

2009 for me was a year filled with very high highs and some pretty low lows. We began the year with Northwest Community Church making a go of things in the Birchwood Neighborhood. Then February was marked with the death of my Grandma, very hard as she was the Matriarch of our family. She had always been a constant in my life and I treasure the time we were able to spend together.

In March, my wife and I welcomed the birth of our little Isaac. While he gets less little every day he has been an absolute blessing. He is so much fun!

April brought the closing of Northwest Community Church. This was a terribly difficult experience for us…but God was with us through it all and the truth is, I have grown tremendously. It is rare that we go through challenging times and get blessed with the vision for how God used that moment to grow you.

2010.

2010 promises to be, if nothing else, interesting. Big changes are coming in our home church, Roosevelt Community Church, and we don’t yet know what that will look like… Pastor Baron is leaving and after having what I call Moses Moments I decided to ask to be considered. As of now there are three of us who have expressed interest and the process will probably last into March or so.

In the mean time, new opportunities have been presented by the Big Guy in terms of my ministry here in the Birchwood Neighborhood. No matter what, it will be exciting.

As for New Years Resolutions, I’m not a big fan. However, I would like 2010 to be a year of better health, more time for the family, and more time spent listening.

So…goodbye 2009…I’m off to bed.

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Been Awhile…

Cameron — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:34:39 +0000

From Isaac 6-9 Months

Well I fell off the blogging bandwagon for awhile…sorry folks. Kept it low key after the Community Toy Store and then our first Christmas with Isaac! It was great and we got to spend some time with lots of family. Isaac got massively overstimulated and took hours to get down for his naps…but it was all worth it.

How was your Christmas?

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Updated 2009 Community Toy Store Video

Cameron — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:44:10 +0000

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Holmgren to the Browns

Cameron — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:14:18 +0000

WHAT?! I was checking my fantasy football this morning and after rejoicing that I made the playoffs (YES!) I saw a link to an article that says Mike Holmgren has been meeting with the leadership of the Cleveland Browns. My first thought was “Mike Holmgren is great…but is he that great? Can he do something with the Browns? ”

My second thought was “Come back Mike!” After our first year without Mike Holmgren has ended in dismal failure…I think the good people of the Hawks Nest would like to see Holmgren come back to Seattle to fill the recently vacated position that Tim Ruskell held. Holmgren has always wanted to have his hands on more of a management role, so…BRING HIM TO SEATTLE!

He is familiar with our system, our team, and knows our strengths and weaknesses inside and out. Give us another chance Mike!

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The Story of the 2009 Community Toy Store

Cameron — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:41:14 +0000

Before I begin…a huge shout out to all the folks that made this happen. Without the close working relationship of Rebound and Roosevelt Community Church an event of this magnitude would be impossible to pull off. A special shout out to Rebound’s Vista Volunteer (In this instance volunteer means you get paid so little it’s really a volunteer position…except it’s not) Jessica Baumer. Jessica put in countless hours doing the nitty gritty details of the Community Toy Store….so if you ever meet her, give her a big hug or a thank you or a tip.

Well, another year has come and gone for the Community Toy Store. There were four of us who got together starting in September to begin the planning of this year’s event. Two folks from Rebound and two of us from Roosevelt Community Church.

We talked about our expectations of this year’s Community Toy Store effort, we talked about how many families we might be able to serve, and we talked about who was going to do what. I think it is safe to say that we had no idea of how crazy or successful this year would be.

September came and went, followed by October. We were all making phone calls and bringing on board Partners from last year and quite a few new Partners…

November came and then it hit me, we were on the home stretch. About mid November is when the thoughts of…”boy can we pull this off?” With the right Help, we could…we thought…

Every year the Community Toy Store has doubled in the number of families served. So we were hoping/expecting about 160 families, based on last years data, to attend the Community Toy Store of 2009. We had over 270 volunteers sign up to help!

Friday night, December 11th, has arrived. We had 20+ volunteers show up the day before to help with pricing of the toys at CBF. We had over 50 volunteers show up to help move the toys over to Birchwood Elementary and get the Community Toy Store all setup!

By about 5:30, 1 hour before the Community Toy Store was supposed to open, we had a dozen or more people lined up at the entrance to the school.

At 6:15, we had amassed enough volunteers to open the doors and get the 2009 Community Toy Store rolling. At this time there was at least 100 people in line…

At 6:45pm we had at least 200+ people in line. It was cold and most of them were outside. We started having volunteers bring small kids to the front of the line and bring out hot coffee to the folks in the cold. Maybe some cookies too. Like 3 or 4 platters full of yummy Christmas cookies.

By 7:30, we had a line all the way to the stop sign at the intersection of Birchwood and Pinewood. We had had a run in with a disgruntled individual who did not like the model of the Community Toy Store. However, we had about 150 friends that DID like the model of the Community Toy Store and so the disgruntled individual promptly departed…

The truth is that at 7:30pm we were not sure if we were going to have enough toys for everyone. Typically the first night we get a big rush at the opening and then it trickles off. Not this year. This year it was like the waves of a tsunami, they just keep getting bigger and bigger until they get to where they wanted to go from the beginning. We had officially “un-set aside” toys for Saturday as we realized this was going to be it. We were going to go through all of our toys tonight. No reason to make someone who has been standing outside for an hour come back in the morning…there were too many people in line for that.

By 8:00pm, we knew for sure that everything would be gone that night. New shoppers had stopped arriving and it was beginning to look like we were going to run out of toys before we could serve them all.

By 8:30 we were completely out of toys and giftcards. We had managed to serve every single family that showed up. No one left empty handed.

In just a little over two hours we served 233 families, representing 779 children. We sold almost $19,000 in donations. The average family spent just $18 to provide Christmas for their family.

By all accounts, this year was a tremendous success. Our only lament is that we did not have toys for a Saturday store and had to turn away about 50 cars on Saturday morning.

We nearly tripled our number of families served from last year!