With great joy, the Seattle church has announced the imminent arrival of new full-time leadership for the Bellingham church of Christ: Ben and Jess Sanders. The Sanders are northwest disciples through and through, and veterans of Chinese missions.
Just three years ago, at the conclusion of the “Shine” Northwest Christian Conference in Seattle, northwest churches collaborated with Seattle to send Landon and Gina Rawson, along with 11 other vocational missionaries, to the northern Washington outpost of Bellingham—home of beautiful vistas, Mt. Baker skiing, and Western Washington University. Though leading with courage and creativity, Landon and Gina—raised up by the Whitakers and trained in the UW ministry—were themselves immersed in full-time vocations, and this proved too encumbering for the church to grow in the ways the team dreamed. Managing a new church building and other budget constraints, the SCC was unable to hire them full time.
Times change and doors open—our God sees to it. This past January, Landon and Gina accepted an internship in Copenhagen. At the same time, we streamlined and trimmed the full time ministry staff, enabling us to refocus our vision for a missions contribution to turn the Bellingham tide. But we needed not only a clear mission, but also a leadership couple we believed could be capable of leading the charge. God put it on the Seattle leadership’s collective heart to approach the Sanders, who were serving as teachers in China. We had no idea at the time they were thinking about their stage of life and that it might be the right time to return to America. Several weeks ago, they accepted this opportunity and challenge.
Ben became a Christian at UW in the summer of 1999, graduating the following year and taking a job in consulting, then working as a Seattle ministry intern under Jay Kelly for more than a year. For the next five years, Ben worked in sales, marketing and non-profit management, and completed his Masters degree in Public Policy (UW).
Jess became a Christian in 2003, in the Spokane campus ministry led by Mark & Annie McCune. She served as a campus/singles intern for the Vancouver church in the summer of 2006, then graduate with her Masters in Psychology from Eastern Washington University.
Ben and Jess were married in June, 2007. Earlier short-term mission trips to Chengdu and Shanghai fueled a calling to do longer-term work in China, and in August of 2008, Ben and Jess quit their careers, put their belongings in storage, and moved to south China with other foreign disciples to start a new church and campus ministry.
Only the arrival of Josiah Colton Sanders could top the China adventure: he was born about a year ago!
All three Sanders arrive back to the US later this month. Seattle disciples will have a chance to meet them at all three services July 31st, so expect to be recruited to Bellingham that day(!) After taking some extended time to reconnect to their families, the Sanders will be moving up to Bellingham in late August/early September—beginning an exciting new chapter for God and His church in this special city.
For God’s glory,
The Elders and Ministers of the Seattle church
www.seattlechurchofchrist.org
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10th ANNIV!
