Children's Spotlight

Many of you know that my oldest daughter is spending the year in Finland. A few days ago, she sent me this photo of a stunning snowflake, and it instantly took me back to a moment from over a decade ago—when she first learned that no two snowflakes are the same. That realization is kind of amazing, isn’t it? Every single snowflake is different. Each one is shaped by its own journey—by the temperature, the wind, and the time it takes to form.

Watching kids discover this for the first time never gets old for me. It’s one of those small moments that carries a really big truth. Snowflakes may fall quietly, but they point us to a God who cares deeply about detail and uniqueness.

In Children’s Ministry, I see “snowflakes” every single week. Kids who learn in all kinds of ways. Kids who talk nonstop. Kids who quietly take everything in. Kids who show up bursting with energy—and kids who arrive carrying heavy things for such young hearts. Scripture tells us that God knit each of us together on purpose, and when I look around our classrooms, I believe that with everything I’ve got. God didn’t mass-produce our kids. He made each one carefully and intentionally.

Families are a lot like snowstorms—made up of many unique pieces moving together. No two families look exactly the same, and honestly, that’s a gift. Some families are in a calm season, others feel like life is swirling all around them. Some are brand new, and some have been here for generations. All belong. Just like snowflakes settle together to blanket the ground, God gathers families into community, surrounding us with grace when life feels cold or uncertain.

One of the most fascinating things about snowflakes is how delicate they are on their own—and how powerful they are together. One snowflake melts in your hand, but thousands can completely change a landscape. That’s how God designed the church, too. Kids need families. Families need community. And all of us need Jesus at the center, holding it all together.

Jesus often pointed to children as examples of faith—not because they had everything figured out, but because they trusted so fully. Snowflakes don’t decide their shape or their path; they simply fall where they’re sent. In the same way, when kids learn that God loves them exactly as they are, it frees them to trust, grow, and reflect God’s beauty in their own unique ways.

As a children’s pastor, it’s a joy and a privilege to help kids discover that they are known, loved, and created with purpose—never by accident. My prayer for our families is that we would slow down enough to notice the “snowflakes” around us: the small moments, the quiet questions, the everyday wonder. When we do, we start to see God everywhere—gently at work in our lives, reminding us that we are wonderfully made, and even more beautiful when we belong together.

Community Spotlight

Finding Community Together

What a gift it is to be part of a church family that leans into the truth that formation happens in circles, not just in pews. At Hood River Alliance, that value shows up in many different ways — and all of them are beautiful expressions of people choosing to grow in Jesus together.

There are so many opportunities to connect in this season. This Saturday from 2–4 pm, women of all ages are invited to our Galentines gathering — a fun and encouraging afternoon of fellowship and friendship. Men gather weekly for Man Coffee every Tuesday morning from 6:30–7:30 am in the café, and they are currently walking through a study on community. Women’s Bible study meets both Monday evenings and Thursday mornings, creating flexible options to plug in. Throughout the week, community groups meet in homes across our area, sharing meals, prayer, Scripture, and life together. If you’ve been wanting to join a group, several currently have open space and we would love to help connect you.

Celebrate Recovery is another powerful place to experience authentic community while pursuing healing. CR is for anyone working through hurts, habits, and hangups — not just struggles with drugs or alcohol. Many people come to address challenges like fear, anxiety, food, sexual brokenness, achievement pressure, or people-pleasing. Celebrate Recovery offers a step-by-step pathway toward the freedom and abundant life Jesus promises, grounded in honesty, surrender, and grace-filled support. If you’d like more information, email recovery@hralliance.org or simply come on a Thursday night. Dinner is served at 5:45 pm and the program begins at 6:30 pm. CR is open to anyone 18 and older.

We believe life with Jesus is meant to be lived together — and there is a place for you here.

Youth Spotlight

Youth Ministry Update- a peek at Middle School!

On a typical Monday night at Middle School Youth Group, there’s plenty of laughter, Italian sodas, and whipped cream added to foods it probably doesn’t belong on — simply because middle schoolers think that’s hilarious. We talk about fishing (the 7th grade boys are very committed to this hobby), play games — especially anything involving PE scooters — and gather upstairs for worship and teaching.

Our lessons are intentionally conversational. Some weeks students are calm and reflective; other weeks they are energetic and eager to talk. This past week was definitely the latter, and while it can feel chaotic, I’m always grateful for students who want to engage rather than check out. Most weeks look pretty similar, and sometimes the details blur together — but that’s part of the beauty of it.

What we are doing week after week is building foundations.

Each youth group night is another brick being laid. Recently, we talked about God as our Father — perfect, loving, and unchanging — whose love isn’t earned and can’t be lost. That brick rests on earlier conversations about God’s plan to redeem a broken world through Jesus. Next week, we’ll continue by talking about God the Son — our Savior and King.

Brick by brick, students are forming their worldview — learning how to understand God, themselves, and the world around them. Some of those bricks come from youth group, many come from families, school, friendships, and community. As a church, you are part of this foundation too, through prayer, care, and presence in the lives of our students! Thank you for loving our young people, and a special thank you to Connie Betts and Scott Piatt for showing up every week to serve our middle school students so faithfully!

Upcoming Youth Events- to pray and to invite :)

Cold-Case Christianity- High School & Young Adults- Starts Feb 8th.
An 8-week class exploring faith through evidence, reason, and honest questions. Sundays after church in the Cafe. Lunch provided.

Youth Sewing Class- Starts this wednesday 2/4
All youth, all skill levels. a creative, hands-on space for students to learn and connect.

Middle School Retreat- Feb 20-22, Washington Family Ranch
A weekend focused on community, fun, and faith.

High School Retreat- Feb 27-March 1, Camp Ghormly, WA.
Time away for deeper conversations and spiritual growth with our greater alliance youth family. 

Ireland Trip (High School Students)
An upcoming international experience focused on learning, faith, missions, and fun! Pray for Abby, Charlotte, Ruthie, Travis, Sam and Charis as they work hard to prepare their hearts and fundraise! 

Missions Spotlight

1. Thank You for a Joy-Filled Kenya Fundraiser

What a beautiful Sunday we shared together at the Rice Bowl Lunch! Thank you, church family, for your generosity and genuine interest in the upcoming Kenya mission trip. It was a joy to hear conversations around the tables and to see so many of you flipping through the team booklet, learning about our partnership with Remember Nhu and the Spiritual Formation Pathway for the children in their care that we are getting to take part in.

Our team feels incredibly blessed to join in this important work—and even more blessed to know that we are not going alone. Though 13 of us will board the plane, all of HRAC is going with us through your prayers, encouragement, and financial support. What a gift to participate in what God is doing on the other side of the world. We expect to be forever changed by Him.

If you would still like to give in support of this mission, you can do so here

If you would like to follow along with our team’s journey, check out this page

2. How Is God Inviting Us to Bring Good News to Our Neighbors?

We continue to prayerfully ask, “How is God inviting us to bring good news to our neighbors?” To lean more fully into this question, we would like to form a small team within the Missions Department committed to seeking God together and responding to His leading.

If you sense a stirring to be part of this conversation and discernment, we would love to hear from you. Please email missions@hralliance.org to learn more.

3. Gratitude for Our Shelter Meals Team

We also want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped with the Sunday Shelter Meals. So many of you have given generously of your time—preparing food, sharing tables, and offering warm hospitality. Because of this faithful service, a few consistent friends from the shelter have begun attending church and joining us for meals after the service. It has been a gift to connect, get to know one another, and even pray together.

February is wide open for volunteers, and we would love to see community groups, families, or friends sign up to serve together. Find out more on how you can help here.

4. Journey House Update

Journey House would like to thank you for your ongoing kindness and generosity toward this ministry. We recently completed our six-month debrief and are excited about the ways God is leading us to expand and deepen this work.

One important next step is the formation of a Journey House Board to help shoulder the responsibility and guide new initiatives. If you have a heart for this ministry and would be interested in hearing more about serving in this way, please email Journeyhouse@hralliance.org. We would love to talk with you! If you would like to give a financial gift to Journey House, you can do that here.

5. Living Out Our 2026 Mission Objective

On Sunday we introduced our 2026 M.O.’s, and the Missions Department is especially encouraged by M.O. #4:

We will resolve to be people who use our gifts to serve in our church, in our neighborhoods, and in the nations.

As you gather with community groups, families, and friends, we encourage you to begin conversations—maybe even many conversations—about how your unique gifts might meet the needs around you. Where do the needs of the church, our neighbors, and the nations intersect with the passions and abilities God has placed in you?

What might God be inviting you into, and what could it look like to say “yes” to that invitation?

Thank you, HRAC, for being a church that loves generously, serves faithfully, and listens for the voice of God together. We are grateful to be on mission with you.

Children's Spotlight

Giving Tree 2025 was a huge success—because of you! Your incredible generosity and faithful support made a lasting impact this Christmas season. This year, our church family joyfully distributed 253 gifts to The Next Door, Oregon Department of Human Services, Hope Medical, and several families connected directly to our own HRAC community. That brings the total number of gifts given through HRAC to more than 3,800 since 1999—what an amazing testimony of God’s love in action!

These gifts are more than presents; they are tangible reminders to children and families that they are seen, known, and deeply loved. I’m continually encouraged by the care and intentionality you show—whether thoughtfully selecting a tag, shopping with a specific child in mind, or praying over the gift before it’s placed under the tree. Thank you to every volunteer who helped organize, shop, sort, and distribute gifts. The Giving Tree truly would not be possible without you.

How fun was last week’s kids’ sign-along?! The joy on their faces was unforgettable! If you weren’t able to attend—or if you’d love to experience it again—you can watch the kids below! A huge thank-you to Tatum Picha for sharing her gifts with our Children’s Ministry and patiently teaching the kids sign language over the past three weeks. What a beautiful way to worship together!

If you’re still looking for last-minute gift ideas for a child in your life, here are a few of my favorite Christmas books that I’ve loved reading with my girls:

• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (also shared by Pastor Keith at the start of Advent)

• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

• The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot

• The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg

• The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

• Spunky’s First Christmas by Janette Oke

This Sunday in Children’s Ministry, we’ll be sharing the greatest story ever told—celebrating how Jesus came to earth for each and every one of us. We can’t wait! 

Operations Spotlight

A Year Marked by Generosity:

Reflecting on the Faithfulness of our Community

As we enter the final month of the year, I find myself looking back with deep gratitude. This year has been marked by faithful, sacrificial, and joyful generosity from you, our church family. Your giving has allowed ministry to flourish, lives to be touched, and the hope of Jesus to be shared in countless ways.

Year-to-Date Giving: A Testament to Faithfulness

I need to start with a very heartfelt “WOW!” and “Thank You”. As of November 30th, the total of all giving received to all funds in 2025 was $703,012. 

However, when I look at our year-to-date giving, I don’t just see numbers, I see stories. I see children learning about God’s love, students finding belonging, adults growing in discipleship, and our community being served through practical acts of compassion. Your financial faithfulness has made that possible.

This year, your steadfast support of the General Fund has helped provide for:

• A growing youth group that met weekly, had multiple trips removing kids from their normal environment, allowing them to reflect on God outside their day to day rhythms, and is planning a missions trip to Ireland in the coming year.

• A children’s ministry that has class rooms bursting at the seams, where our children learn more about Jesus, and provides parents resources on how together as a family  they can become more like Jesus.

• Support to our Benevolence Fund (soon to be known as our Generosity Fund). This empowers staff and Key Leaders to see with Kingdom Eyes those who are both inside and outside our church community, providing them with resources to meet their most basic needs. This practice of regularly looking at the community around us also helps to identify when there might be a bigger lift that we can invite you to share in.

• And last, but certainly not least there are the everyday needs of our church, keeping the lights on, the doors open, providing a safe place for our ministries to call home.
  

In 2025, you as a community have also graciously giving above and beyond the General Fund in the following ways:

• An incredibly successful missions trip to Guatemala

• Jumpstarting Journey House, a sober home that was identified as a critical component, previously unavailable in our community for those seeking independence from alcohol and chemical dependency.

• Providing for Youth Camp Scholarships as our teens raised funds to travel to the LIFE conference in Indianapolis.

• Unhesitantly giving to our Benevolence Fund as we worked to bridge the gap as many in our community faced the fear of not being able put food on the table as the SNAP benefits were delayed due to the prolonged Government shutdown.

Thank you for partnering with HRAC as you choose to include us in your faithful giving towards Kingdom work.

Planning for Next Year’s Budget: Preparing for What God Has Ahead

This season also includes the preparing of next year’s budget, a process we approach with both stewardship and expectation. As we look at the needs of our ministries, the vision God is giving us, and the opportunities ahead, we rely on the generosity of our church family to fuel that mission.

Your consistent giving throughout the year helps us build a thoughtful, responsible budget that supports:

• Growing ministries

• Needed facility maintenance and improvements

• Staff support

• Outreach and missions

• New initiatives God may be calling us to pursue
  

Thank you for being part of God’s provision as we prayerfully plan for the coming year.

End-of-Year Giving: An Invitation to Invest in What God Is Doing

As we approach the end of the year, many in our church family begin considering year-end gifts. These contributions make a significant impact, helping us finish the year strong and step into the new year prepared for all God has in store.

If you are prayerfully considering a year-end gift, please know how deeply it matters. And if you are trying to discern the kingdom needs are where God might be calling you to give, please reach out to Keith or Anders, and we would love to sit down and have a conversation about where your generosity might be able to bless the current or future ministries of our church.

Looking Ahead With Thankfulness, Joy, and Expectation

I am continually humbled by the way our church shows up, not only financially, but with time, prayer, encouragement, and service. I am so thankful for how our community is growing in our actions to Be more like Jesus every day. 

With the close of the year approaching, I look forward with hope. God has been faithful in every season, and I believe He will continue to guide and provide as we follow Him together.

Thank you church family, for being such a beautiful expression of generosity.
Thank you for giving.
Thank you for trusting.
Thank you for partnering in the work of the Kingdom.

Here’s to finishing the year strong and stepping into a new one with joy and expectation.

Youth Spotlight

Hello Church Family, and Happy Thanksgiving!
This week, instead of sharing a typical ministry update, I wanted to give you something special: a glimpse into the hearts and minds of our students. I asked them a series of questions about life, faith, and gratitude — and their responses are honest, thoughtful, and deeply encouraging.

Enjoy this window into their world!

1) “What is one moment from this year so far that has stuck with you?”

Malia Bennett – 9th
A moment that has stuck with me from this year is getting to experience 6,000 people worshipping together. (LIFE Conference in Indianapolis.)

Lydia Sietstra – 7th
One moment that has stuck with me this year is probably the middle school retreat in October. It felt pretty cool to be able to gather with other churches and talk and grow in our faith together.

Kase Sietstra – 9th
I would say it’s not one specific moment but bringing friends to youth group and building great relationships with them.

Josie Paitt – 8th
From youth group I would say the “healing” lesson because I really needed that.

2) “What’s a song you’ve had on repeat — and why do you love it?”

Evie Betts – 10th
We didn't start the fire, by Fall Out Boy, cus it’s about all the crazy events that happen in our lives, and that we can’t avoid stuff, we just have to be strong when bad things happen.

Makenna Bennett – 11th
Blue Ridge Runs by Hunter Metts because it reminds me of the US and how lucky we are to live in a place so beautiful.

3) “What’s something you’re learning about God right now?”

Luke Imes – 9th
Something I'm learning about God is that, "God loves all".

Tarik Larvick – 11th
Right now I'm learning to love myself in the way that God made me, there's always ways I can change myself to be better for myself and the people around me. I'm looking for things in little ways that connect me to him and trying to reflect more on the ways God has blessed me and my life rather than the negatives that pull me further from him.

Austin Champion – 10th
Something im learning about God is that everything that happens to me has its reasons and that even if I don’t want it to happen and I may see it as bad, it’s just one of the many ways God is sculpting me for the future- building onto what's already there. Sometimes you need to break something down to make it stronger.

Hudson Douglas – 11th
Right now I’m learning that God still loves me even though I sin a lot. It’s something we learn and a lot of people know about, but to fully understand that there’s nothing we can do that will make him stop loving us is powerful.

4) “If you could tell the adults in our church or in your life one thing about what it’s like to follow Jesus as a teenager today, what would you say?”

Josie Robidoux – 10th
I’ve learned that the ability to show the love of God is a blessing that we shouldn’t take for granted. At school and times when we’re surrounded by people who don’t have the same beliefs, we should not look at it as a curse, but as a blessing.

Emmi Wimmers – 8th
I’m learning more, and if I learn something fast or slowly I’m still learning. It might just take me a minute to process.

Addi Van Metre – 11th
If I could tell the adults in my life one thing about what it’s like to follow Jesus as a teenager today, I would say that he is my comfort, and most teenagers seek Jesus more than you know. Kids just need a safe place to ask questions without feeling wrong.

5) “If you could give a thank-you shout out to one person for something they’ve done, who would it be and why?”

Tyven Wimmers – 10th
Hudson Nathaniel Douglas, he’s been a great friend, teammate, fellow believer, brother and it’s been awesome to be a part of his life and to walk through it with him so I’m very grateful for him.

Travis Betts – 8th
I would love to give a shout out to Pagie for everything she does for the children's ministry. She always looks out for the teachers and helpers, but she also does so much for the kids.

Kellen Olsen – 11th
My mom and my dad and my grandma and friends, because through life we need a support group and I've been blessed with two great parents and a grandma who really care about me and who I can talk to and then a friend group that has been really helpful in having people who are there to help me, because two are better than one. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.

Church family — these are your students.
You may not know all their names, but you’ve seen them in our halls, serving your kids in children’s ministry, stacking chairs, or even serving donuts last week.

This week, take a moment to notice them. Smile at them. Encourage them. Let them know that you are glad they are part of our church family.

Grateful for you all,
Melissa

Worship Spotlight

Hello Church Family,

As always, I am beyond grateful for the privilege of leading and serving in our worship ministry. It truly is a gift from God every single day. I am constantly encouraged by how boldly and joyfully our church sings on Sunday mornings. What a blessing to be part of a family that loves to worship Jesus together!

I also want to give a huge shout-out to our Worship Team and our Media Team. The amount of time, preparation, and heart they pour into rehearsals and Sunday mornings is remarkable and deeply appreciated. As a church family, I want to ask two simple things of you:

1. Please continue praying for our worship and media teams.

2. When you see them on a Sunday morning, take a moment to thank them for their hard work and dedication.

I also want to extend an open invitation—if you have any interest in joining the worship or media team, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. We are always looking for people who are willing to use their gifts to serve. And remember, you don’t need to be the most skilled; we’re more than happy to train and walk with you.

Now for something fun… Christmas season is almost here! I’m not sure if you're a “no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving” person (that’s definitely me), but I wanted to share a couple of Christmas worship recommendations. There’s a band with a funny name—Future of Forestry—that has a few Christmas worship albums I absolutely love. For King & Country also has some incredible takes on Christmas songs.

I’ll be honest: leading Christmas songs isn’t always my favorite—not because I don’t love them, but because they can be hard! But finding fresh arrangements always makes them more fun to sing. So if you have any favorite Christmas albums or artists, feel free to send them my way!

Our Worship Team will begin incorporating a Christmas song or two after Thanksgiving, and I can’t wait to sing with you all as we enter this beautiful season.

With love and gratitude,

Brett