Furtak Kids Sing in Church's Christmas Musical

In our on-going promise to get involved quickly here in Washington, we got the kids involved with the children's Christmas musical at our church. They performed the Miracle on Main Street by the Dove award winning composer/writers Clydesdale and Clydesdale.

Madisynne was even blessed by playing the Mother Mary.

December 9th - Performance at Kent Station

On December 9th the kids performed two sets at Kent Station a newly renovated part of the City of Kent. Prior to the event the pastor asked us to pray for good weather. I'll leave it up to you to make inferences but when the kids started at 2:00 p.m. the skies parted and the sun came out and when the last note was sung and the kids stepped off the stage the clouds closed up and it began to rain. Interestingly enough, a Baptist choir group was up next and the music leader said, and try not to laugh, "we prefer it this way". That would explain the two performance tents they had setup prior to the engagement.

On Saturday, December 16th, the kids performed for the Seniors from the various retirement homes in our area. I'm not sure if the kids or the seniors got more out of this engagement but either way they were both blessed.

On Sunday, December 17th, the kids performed at both Sunday services for our church. They did a great job and the congregation was moved enough by the performance to give the children a standing ovation. The Furtak kids made a lot of friends during this engagement and we look forward to future activities at the church.

In addition to the older girls performing this Sunday, Joshua's age group also performed two songs while dressed like lambs. The emotions ran the gamut from joyful cries to laughter over their cute performance.

See the pictures of the performances at:

• Joshua's Sheep
• Children's Muscial
• Main Photo Album

Updates on Furtak.Net: Random Musings

This is a reminder that Furtak.Net has three different blogs and many of the blog updates have occured on Furtak.Net: Random Musings this month.

We also have book reviews at Furtak.Net: Book Reviews .

Instead of book marking these blogs directly, please consider only book marking the Home Page of Furtak.net since this is the location that all new updates will be made either via the blogs, photo albums or other updates as seen from the front page of Furtak.net .

Gabrielle's School Christmas Recital

Gabriel had a Christmas recital the other night for her school. I was both pleased and impressed with the fact that they sang Christian based Christmas songs. I was curious to see what songs they were going to sing since this is a public school. It comforts my heart to know that they did not compromise on the message and sang songs fitting of the Christian Christmas tradition.

Photos of Gabrielle's Recital can be see at: http://www.furtak.net/PhotoGallery2006/folderview.asp?folder=Christmas+Recital

Did you say Seattle? (Furtak's move to Renton, Washington)

What is that I hear that you are in Seattle?

Some of you maybe surprised to hear that the Furtak Family now lives in the Seattle, Washington area (Renton, Washington to be more exact). Jason accepted a promotion to work as an onsite technical engineer for the contract that his company has with The Boeing Company. As a result of this, the Furtak Family moved to Renton, Washington (20 minutes outside of Seattle) from their home in Sacramento, California. We live in Renton right on the border of Renton and Issaquah. We're actually more on the Issaquah side then Renton but our address says Renton. The kids go to school in the Issaquah School District. We live in an area called the Highlands.

Off to a Running Start in Seattle

We have had a great time since being in Seattle. One of the first things we discovered was a local salmon hachery in Issaquah. Salmon are big here in Washington and various locations have hatcheries. The one here in Issaquah has a nice park and once year becomes the central location for a large festival called Salmon Days. We attended Salmon Days which had hundreds artisans and entertainment.

We were so determined to get a running start we have spent every weekend exploring the local Seattle area and have even made it out to the city a few times. We got a yearly membership to the Pacific Science Center , which is next to the iconic Seattle symbol, The Space Needle . The church we attend (more below) reserved a private showing of the Dead Sea Scrolls out at the PSC, which was both inspiring and faith building. This Christmas season we got out to downtown Seattle for the nutcraker march , which allowed us to explore the city and take in the fascinating sites. Read more about our nutcracker adventures at blog entry: Furtak's Find Nutcrackers in Seattle .

The kids got free tickets from their school to attend a football game at the University of Washington (15 minutes from our house). We had a blast at the Husky's game and look forward to our next trip out to the campus. We're also hoping to get out to see some professional sports which Seattle has a ton ( Go Seahawks! )

Finally, I wanted to mention our new church family but before doing so I wanted to give a shout out to those church families that have welcomed us as their own over the last few years. The Lord has blessed us with finding great church families as we move from place to place. Oddly enough, we feel at home in each location and look forward to regular fellowship. In Maryland, we were truly blessed by the friends we made at Cornerstone Chapel who supported us when we were having difficulties and welcomed us with open arms in every area of the church. In California, we found a warm and inviting Baptist church called, First Baptist Church of Elk Grove, with people and leadership with a heart after God.

Upon arriving in the Seattle area we quickly found a church family in a town called Kent where we attend Calvary Chapel South. Since we seem to move alot and regret not getting involved at our previous church in California, we jumped right in and began participating in various activities in church. The kids attend Calvary Kids Club on Wednesdays, Debra and I attend fellowship and worship on Wednesday and Sunday's and coming up the kids have a Christmas Musical they are performing in with engagements in Kent and two services on Sunday. I'll post future blogs on the outcome of our musical performances.

We've been in the Seattle area for only three months and so far the city and our town have done a great job welcoming us here. Oddly enough, it feels like home and we look forward to the coming year(s) as we continue to take in all that Washington has to offer.

As always, keep up to date with the latest activities of the Furtak family at: http://www.furtak.net .

Please come back and visit us regularly.

Snow, Jason's Trip to San Jose and The Nativity Story

Let it Snow!

When arriving in Seattle we thought asking how much it snows seemed like a natural question. We were told by various people that it rarely snows and when it does you can count the snow flakes on one hand. Jokingly we said, "Well the snow seems to follow us. They said the same thing when we lived in Frederick, Maryland and the first year and each year there after we had unpresidented snow fall." Here we are again, a new northern region, a new light snow predication and last week we had unprecendented snow fall for this region. We got between 4 to 6 inches and the Seattle Seahawks game looked like a Green Bay game in the middle of winter. The kids were out of school for 4 days during the week and my flight to San Jose was delay.

Jason Visit's San Jose

Last week I was sent by my company to San Jose to join Boeing for a presales event to show case our newest device technologies. The presentations were well done and I enjoyed visiting and working with my colleagues in San Jose. While there I got to visit with my best friend and his family, the Moody's. Rob's wife prepared a great dinner and dessert, I was entertained with an after dinner magic performance by Rachel, and of course my spirits were lift by the sweet and playful Savannah. It's always great to see my friends and I look forward to our next visit. The Furtak kids say thank you to Savannah and Rachel for the gifts they sent.

The Nativity Story at the Movies

Our church rented a local movie theater and we went as a family to see a show of the new movie The Nativity Story. The movie was well done and a great way to get us on the right frame of mind for this Christmas season. The movie did a great job addressing many of the background issues of the culture and what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph going through this divine appointment. The had a few scenes of comic relief and we even found out the age old question, "who was the wisest of three wise men."

Furtak's Find Nutcrackers in Seattle

This weekend we went to Seattle in search of Nutcrackers. The Nutcracker March is hosted by the Pacific Northwest Ballet and features 60 life size nutcrackers which have been declorated by local area artists and organizations.
We have also uploaded photos of the nutcrackers we found at: http://www.furtak.net/PhotoGallery2006 . We hope you enjoy viewing these photos as much as we enjoyed finding the nutcrackers.

Furtak.Net - Blog - Begins

Well, I thought I would try to build a blog as a way to update family and friends on a regular basis rather than building the blog from the front page of our website. I'll link to this blog from the Furtak.net website and it will be much easier to update on a regular basis. As a result, I think I'm going to redesign Furtak.net to remove the blog type feature on the front page in-leu of linking here. Only time will tell whether this will work out or not.

Regards,

~Jason Furtak~