Family Fun Day

Epic Church had the privilege last Saturday to coordinate Family Fun Day for Bessie Carmichael Elementary/Middle School. It was a GREAT day!!!

One of our desires and goals at Epic is to love and serve the city well. Shortly after we moved to San Francisco, Ben Pilgreen and I had a meeting with the principal at Bessie to see what their greatest needs were and how we could partner with them. The principal then invited me to join a monthly breakfast meeting with other community leaders who are investing in Bessie. Some people have asked...how did you choose to partner with this particular school?

• Bessie Carmichael is the only public school we found in the SOMA neighborhood where we live and meet as a church.
• They are extremely under resourced and in great need
• The principal was willing to partner with us

We have been able to purchase office supplies for them and help them sort through and organize storage closets and supply rooms. Earlier this year we were excited to participate in Family Fun Day by offering to run two game booths. In one of our monthly meetings I was extremely disappointed when the principal said Family Fun Day was going to be postponed and ultimately canceled. He said too much was going on at the time and they didn't have the resources, volunteers or time to plan it.

After talking with Ben, we decided that we would ask if Epic could coordinate, staff and resource the entire event so that school families wouldn't have to miss out of this fun day together. The principal gratefully agreed and we began the planning. It "just so happened" to work out where we would have a team from The Well UA in the city helping us that week.

It was a really great day! About 200 students/families came out for fun, games and food. It was a great opportunity for our church to interact with the school and to provide an event that would have been canceled otherwise. Here are some pictures taken by one of our volunteers from that day:

I am so grateful for all of volunteers from Epic and The Well UA who helped make this event happen. I am especially thankful for Principal Burgos who allows us to be a part of the Bessie community.

For the good of the city...

Blogging Overload...Celebrate New Life

I had hoped that this would not be my trend as a blogger but it seems to be...at least for now.

I post, I post, I post.....then nothing for weeks at a time...then...blog apology and I post again :)

We will skip the blog apology and get straight to posting!

List of things to catch up on:

Easter, Mission Teams, Baby Shower, Small Groups, Family Fun Day and Recent Events but for tonight....

Celebrate New Life

Epic Church had it's first Baptism Celebration this past Sunday night! Three girls were baptized and it was one BIG party. Here are some pictures and a video from the big night!

*Hey Rim

*Jennifer

*Christine is also a part of our small group

*And here is a video of the whole thing :)

More to come...

Lindsey

Will you pray with us?

As Easter approaches we are asking our church, family and friends to pray together for the next 21 days. Will you join us?

Click here to download or view the prayer guide.

Thanks for joining us as we continue to ask God to work in our lives and in SF-

Lindsey :)

Southern Comfort

So I took a trip to Gainesville, FL a couple of weeks ago. I was representing Epic at a conference at Westside Baptist Church, one of our partner churches. It was a great chance for me to share the vision of Epic Church and stories of what's been happpening since we launched on February 13th. I stayed with a gracious family that took hospitality to a whole new level! While I was in the south, I soaked up the sun and Chick Fil A every chance I got :) Here are some pictures from the week!

*My first stop in the ATL airport during my layover :)

*Opening Celebration for all the Missionary Partners

*Welcome basket in my room - my host home knew me well!

*My set-up at the Expo

*Afternoon snack :)

*I did spend some time on the UF Campus

*Bat Houses - At dusk they all fly out...and one peed on my head - gross!

*Cracker Barrel for my last night

*I had a tight connection in ATL on my way back but somehow found time for this :)

I am grateful I got the chance to represent Epic and share our story with many people - I was also thrilled to have some my favorite foods along the way!

Mardi Gras in San Fran

So last minute Ben and I decided we should have a Mardi Gras party at our apartment! I was born and raised in New Orleans and Fat Tuesday has always been a day of celebration!

Ben cooked gumbo and Adrien made an AMAZING king cake from scratch. Friends came over and it turned into such a fun night! Here are the pics...

King Cake

Fun masks and decorations

Some how we ended up playing Call of Duty: Black Ops - you had to wear a mask to play :)

Here's the group

I am already looking forward to planning something for next year!