November 2013

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to read. I am so excited to FINALLY share an update with you all. God has been doing so much in our city.

Baptisms
A few weeks ago, Trevor had the opportunity to baptize a couple that has been a part of our Bible study. He met the couple while working at Peets and built a relationship with them. The couple attends a church in Lake Oswego and the church was having a baptism. The couple really wanted to be baptized at their church but wanted Trevor to baptize them. Coincidentally (or not), Trevor had already met the pastor of their church and shared what we are doing in NE Portland. The pastor invited Trevor to baptize the couple at our church and wanted to pray over us and our ministry in front of the congregation. What a blessing! It is so refreshing and exciting to see churches come together and unite for the Gospel. Trevor was able to baptize the couple and the pastor prayed for what we are doing in NE and that God would bless our ministry. 

Thanksgiving

As the holidays approach, we knew we wanted to do something to bless people in our community and reach out to them. We decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner at our home for both of our Bible studies. The encouragement to our friends was to bring someone outside of our Bible study groups. Our apartment is VERY small (as you will see in the pictures below). We had NO clue how we would fit everyone or provide enough food and we had no clue if our friends would even bring anyone! Well, God definitely did a work that night. We fit 26 adults and 5 kids in our living room! Several people brought friends and new relationships were built. We somehow had enough food and even though it was a bit crammed, there's something so good about being cozy and close to people. One of the gals who came with a friend shared that she had never felt so much love and felt so comfortable among people she didn't even know. She said she didn't know what we "had" but she wanted it. 

Please pray for the relationships built that night and that God would continue to work in the lives of the people who came. 

It was also a blessing because there were people from our "east" side Bible study (in NE Portland) who had never met people from our "west" side Bible study (in Lake Oswego). It was a great opportunity for everyone to meet and come together as one church.

Sunday Church

We are excited to begin Sunday services January 12th! We will have Sunday services once per month with a meal beforehand. We are still deciding on a location. Please pray for provision and clarity for where this service should be held. 

Community Groups

As I mentioned above, we have titled the Bible studies our east and west side studies. Trevor is currently teaching both of those. A new group just started in November which is a Bible study for atheists. A young man in our group had the idea from Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together." He invited 5 atheist friends over and they discuss the Bible. We are so excited to see what God does in their lives.

Prayer Requests

-A location to meet on Sundays

-Relationships being built

-That God would continue to work and use us in NE Portland and Lake Oswego

-Praise for the unity of the Church and for all He is doing!

Thanks for reading, love to all!

Julianne 

The next few months

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. We are so excited about what God is doing here.

Prayer Update
A few months ago (2 to be exact) we shared that we were praying about the location of our Bible studies. We have one study at our home in Northeast Portland and one study in Lake Oswego - about 15-20 minutes from us and from downtown Portland. We asked that you would pray and ask God to reveal what area we should be in. We weren't sure if Lake Oswego was where we should be and if we should move to that area or if we should stay in NE Portland where we originally felt called to and truly have a heart for.

Since beginning to pray, we have seen our Tuesday night study grow. Through prayer and discussion with our leaders and Bible study groups, we feel NE Portland is where we should be. We came to that decision and realization almost exactly 2 months from the date we originally asked for prayer which is the timeline we were hoping to have a decision by. God is so good!

The Game Plan
Our plan is to continue building the Bible studies we have currently - at our house and in Lake O - and from those studies, start 2-3 new studies by January. We also plan to begin meeting once per month in January as a whole group - everyone from each Bible study together- and possibly do a meal together. With this in mind, we have a lot to do in the next few months! Please pray God would continue to develop leaders within our group and open up doors that we could never open on our own. We will need a location to meet for our Sunday meetings and leaders and locations for new studies.
Feel free to take a look at our full vision which is the post prior to this one.

What's Happening Now
Currently, we meet with our Tuesday night group and have dinner with them before Bible study. We also have Sunday dinners at one of the family's homes in our Bible study. Meals definitely bring us all together and it has been such a blessing to begin to build relationships with the people in our studies. We have great friends up here and are so thankful for the community and fellowship with them.

Prayer Requests
Please continue to pray for God to work and provide a place for us to meet and for leaders to be raised up and developed. Pray God would open us more doors for us to meet people and that we would love the people in our neighborhood. We love Portland so much and are excited for what God is doing.

Our New Girl!
Lastly, we welcomed our dear baby girl, Ali Michelle, into the world on October 15. She is so perfect and we couldn't be more excited to be parents. The support we have received from our friends up here has been a huge blessing.

Thanks for taking the time to read! Below is our vision for Nexus Portland. For more information about how to support the ministry here, please contact Trevor at trevor@nexusportland.org. 

Nexus Portland

Glorifying Jesus, Loving People, Making Disciples

We are living in a remarkable time in history. Our nation and specifically Portland is in need of the gospel in an incredibly deep way. We all have yet to fully see our deep need for Jesus and His gospel and we are passionate about seeing Jesus’ Kingdom come in Portland. We believe the biblical way for this to happen is through Jesus’ church. Church is not a building- it’s the people of God. The Church is a people whose identity is found in Jesus and are sent out to glorify Him by loving people and making disciples. Jesus is alive! He has invited us to be a part of the greatest redemption story of all time!

Our vision for Portland is to keep planting a church that lives to see lives changed by preaching through the scriptures, authentic gospel-centered community, serving our city well, and having a balanced view of the Holy Spirit/gifts. For this to happen we believe that God is calling us over the next year to take exhilaratingly fearful leaps of faith to see the vision become a reality. It is an incredible time to be a Christian! The need is vast, but our God is greater.

I. What is the vision?

1. Launch a one time per month Sunday night gathering by January 2014 with 20-35 people: We believe that beginning to gather collectively on weekends will help establish our identity as a church, create more opportunities to reach people, and gain momentum.

2. Multiply community groups: We want our neighborhoods throughout Portland being saturated with gospel witnesses: Christians living on mission and intentionally serving people with the prayer that Jesus would save more. Our desire is to see an additional 2-3 community groups [CG’s] started by January.

3. Expand to gathering two times per month by June 2014: By God’s grace as we continue to grow in our influence, the next step is gathering more frequently with the hope of solidifying ourselves as a people and a church for our city.

4. Officially launch Nexus Portland by September of 2014: Jesus is moving, the need and opportunities are great and God has called us to be a church deeply imbedded into our community. Our desire is to be a fully sustainable church by a people committed to God’s mission.

5. Plant another church out of Nexus Portland by 2016:  We’re passionate about seeing the gospel multiplied in our city; therefore, we’re committed to training, sending, and supporting new churches all throughout Portland.

II. What we are asking God for:

1. Raise up and develop disciple-leaders: For the church to thrive, we will invest in developing disciple-leaders to take responsibility of the church and ministry.

2. Raise up 2 community group leaders and host homes by January 2014

3. Provide a meeting space for our Sunday night gatherings

4. Expand our influence within the community by “seeing the need and being the remedy”: We are passionate about reaching: single moms, sex trafficking victims, and orphans.

5. Establish ministries and leaders within the church to help love and serve the body by March 2014: We believe in order to care for more people effectively we need leaders and ministries such as women’s, men’s, children’s, counseling, worship, administration, and community outreach.

Our BBQ and God's subtle reminders

Hello hello-

Every time I update this blog, I feel like time flies by! I can't believe it's already been two weeks since I last updated it. Just a good reminder of how thankful we are to be in Portland- we truly love it here.

Last week, we had a BBQ in Lake Oswego with our Bible study group. We challenged everyone to bring someone. Lake Oswego is a beautiful Lake- we got access to a private park right on the water. It was stunning. Some people who came to our BBQ said even though they live in Lake O, they aren't allowed in that park because you have to live in a certain area. Lake O is a different world! Which is why we are truly praying if that is the area we are supposed to be in.

Besides some trouble with figuring out how to use charcoal for the first time and burning our food, it was a great turn out. A new couple came as well as a man Trevor had met at a coffee shop the week before. We had a lot of fun hanging out and building relationships. We are thankful for the small community in Lake O who meets with us regularly. It has been a blessing to grow with them. After the BBQ, we all went to get ice cream at Salt and Straw- a famous place in Portland with very different flavors (Oprah's favorite from here is Olive Oil Ice cream!). We have been blessed with friends and it's exciting to build relationships with people and meet people who are just as starving for community and relationships as we are. There is something special that happens when believers come together- it's an unseen bond.

This week, Trevor got a call from a couple who somehow got our information and wanted to come to the Bible study on Tuesday at our house in NE. We have no idea how they got our info but said they were going to come. Another man who had not yet come to our study was planning to come too. We were very excited for new people! We invited a couple friends over for dinner before the study too. Last minute, Trevor got a call from all 3 people saying they weren't going to be able to make it. We were a little disappointed. But we knew God was still working and even though it was a bummer. That night, while we were eating dinner with our friends, someone knocked on our door. Everyone just looked up and stared with inquisitive looks. We live in an apartment complex- you need a key to get in and in the 6 months we have been here, no one has ever knocked on our door. Plus, we didn't know of anyone else who was supposed to be coming that night. We opened the door to find a young man who goes to college in Portland. Art (an original member of our core team when we moved up here) had invited him. Long story short- he is from Camarillo and I went to high school with him! Small small world! It was just another reminder of how God is working.

It reminds me of the Christians who were praying for Peter to be set free from prison. They were all in one house praying for Peter's freedom. There's a knock on the door and it's Peter. But the people are too busy praying to go let him in. Here they are praying for something and when it actually happens, they don't even realize it or believe it could happen. It's a good reminder to have an expectation of God answering our prayers. 

When things don't pan out the way we we expect, it can be easy to get discouraged or ask God why our efforts seem to be failing. We can blame ourselves or God for a lack of fruit or disappointment. Instead, I believe God us teaching us to trust Him with our actions. To trust that we don't know what the outcome will be even though we think we do. We think if we do A, B and C, then D, E and F will happen. That isn't always the case. Sometimes we don't see the fruit of what God is calling us to do and sometimes we harvest the fruit from someone else's sowing. We simply need to be obedient to what He calls us to do and trust He will do the rest. While we should pray with an expectation of Him working, we have to trust that He ultimately knows what is best. 

Please continue to pray for clarity as to what area we are to be in. 

Pray for our baby as she is coming in 6 weeks! We are so excited.

Please pray God opens doors for us to meet people here and share the love of Christ with them.

Thank you!

Julie

What's Happenin' in Portland and Lake O

Hello all!

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. We truly appreciate it and are very excited to share what God is doing in our city.

August is the 6th full month we have been in Portland- time has sure flown by! Our lease is up in September and we are planning to renew for another year. Baby is coming soon - only 8 more weeks! We are so excited to meet our baby girl, Ali Michelle.

We began in Portland with Bible study on Tuesday nights at our home. We live in Northeast Portland - about 5 minutes east of down town. We love our area and have felt a heart for the people here. We have just begun to understand our area and are trying to reach our apartment complex and the people around us.

When we first moved here, Trevor worked at Peet's coffee in Lake Oswego. Lake O is about 15-20 minutes from our house and about 15 minutes south of down town Portland. He began to share Jesus with his co workers and began building relationships with regular customers. We also know a couple who lives in Lake O who used to go to Calvary Nexus in Camarillo. They opened their home up for Bible study on Thursday nights since a lot of the people Trevor was reaching out to and sharing with were from there anyways. In addition to Tuesdays at our house, we now meet at their house on Thursdays and have 10-15 people there each week.

We need your prayers for the next 2 months. We want to commit to one area instead of spreading ourselves over two. We are praying God would reveal to us if we should commit to Lake O and pursue that area as our main focus. This would mean moving out there and building relationships with the people there instead of just commuting out there once a week. The other option is staying where we are in Northeast Portland. We know there is a need here and it is an evident one. It is a difficult place to reach. We don't want to jump the gun, so to speak, and just move to Lake O because something is happening there already. We want to be patient and trust God to guide us. Please pray it would be clear in the next two months which area God would have us minister in.

God is already doing SO much here. It is amazing to be a part of the work He is doing. Next week we are having a BBQ in the park and asked everyone in our Bible study to invite someone. We are praying for a great turn out and more relationships to be built. Another family from Camarillo also moved up here in the last month- we are so blessed to have friends here. They have also opened their home for Sunday night BBQs for anyone who wants to come.

God is so good. People in Portland need Jesus. Please pray they are reached.

One last story. Since we arrived in Portland, the support we have received from surrounding churches has been amazing. No one is concerned with us "stealing" people from their church or planting our flag next door to them. They all want to see more people reached for Jesus. When we first moved here, Trevor met with a guy from the suburbs who had helped plant 5 churches in Portland. He was in touch which a church outside of the city but who owned a church building about 5 minutes from us. The church has been empty for many years and they have been looking for a church to make use of the building-preferably a church planter. We are in the early stages and definitely wouldn't be able to make use of it for some time. Their goal was just to get someone in the building so more people are reached for Jesus. A couple weeks ago, we visited a church called Door of Hope in SE Portland. While we were there, the pastor shared a prayer request- that their lease was up soon in their current building and they were out growing it. They were looking for a new building soon or some new door to open for them to meet somewhere else. After the service, Trevor went up to the pastor and passed on the information regarding the vacant church building. A week later, we found out that Door of Hope will be using the empty church come September!!! How awesome is our God?

Since we moved here, we have been networking with the pastors who are already in the area to see where the needs are. There is great unity here among churches and pastors and we are excited to learn from them and be a part of what is happening. While it may sound like another church getting a building isn't necessarily exciting for us, we can see God's fingerprints all over this city. The connection between the church and the new building was made because of the relationships Trevor has been pursuing with pastors. We have learned to focus more on the gospel and helping people meet Jesus than just our "church."

Please continue to pray for the things mentioned above- we appreciate it and love you all!.


Julie Gavin

What Has God Been Up To??

This 4th of July was our first in Portland. We have been here now a little over four months! At times it feels as though we’ve been here for years; other times we feel like it has only been days. The transition from life in Camarillo to life in a young, urban city has been filled with challenges, fears, doubts, excitement and almost every other emotion that you could think of. For almost a decade now, I have felt the call of God on my life to plant a church. Through the years of praying, learning, and growing I have had a variety of different thoughts and dreams about how our church plant would go. To be honest, the way things have played out these past four months have been far different than the way I really thought they would. In that, God has shown me and reminded that the church belongs to Him. He is going to expand His Kingdom in the way that will bring most glory to Himself. The experience thus far has been challenging, yet I don’t think anyone of us would change it!

In light of being here for four months, I wanted to take this blog to share evidences of God’s grace in what He has done, is doing, and Lord willing will continue to do in the future. My reasoning behind this, is, in large part to say THANK YOU to all those who are praying for us, and have supported the work here. The team and I have been overwhelmed with the amount of love and support from our church home in Camarillo. The stories that I share are all fruit to your account! Thank you for being a part of the mission of God in restoring all things for His glory!

The first story that comes to mind is about my friend Max. When we moved up here, I transferred from Peets Coffee in Thousand Oaks to a Peets Coffee in Oregon. The only open store for me was about 20 minutes outside of where we live in a suburb of Portland called Lake Oswego. I met and connected with one of my coworkers immediately - a guy named Max. Max is twenty nine years old and has his masters degree in philosophy. He is a brilliant, brilliant guy. One of my favorite qualities of Max is his provocatively deep questions that he asks. When we first met he wasn’t a christian. He is by all accounts a good person. He does good, and always wants to do good for people. During my time at Peets, Max and I would spend most shifts going back and forth re the the bible, God’s love, God’s justice, eternity, and the exclusivity of Jesus among the other major religions. Like I previously said, Max is one of the best question askers I have ever met. More often then not he would ask me a question re the whys of christianity and Jesus that would stop me in my tracks and make me think for a second or two. However, the one thing I vowed to do was let the scriptures speak and let them bear weight on his soul. For me, Max has been one of the greatest gifts from the Lord to help grow and shape me as a better pastor and more effective Christian. To be honest, I never thought that a “non christian” could have such a profound affect on my life toward godliness. Over the months, Max and I have grown to what I would consider to be good friends. Our conversation started to go from authorial theological questions to more personal, “how does this effect my life questions.” During this time, the team and I would constantly pray for Max- believing that God wanted and would save him.

A few weeks ago, while we were talking, I could see a different spark in Max’s eye. I thought at first, it could be the amount of coffee he had that day, but felt the Spirit prompting in a different way. I boldly asked him if He became a christian. Despite his hostility towards the idea, by all accounts Max admitted that God had gotten a hold of his heart and was doing a saving work. Salvation is a one time decision, but sanctification is a life long process. Even before Max affirmed some type of faith in Jesus, he had and does attend our community bible study each Tuesday. It has been such a joy and has stretched me in so many ways having him in the room with us! I’m so thankful to Jesus for what He has and is doing in His life and can’t wait to see what will happen! Through my friendship with Max, God has reminded me that it isn’t merely telling someone about Jesus and expecting to get a response right away. Rather, our jobs as christians is to love and invest in relationships with people. To sacrifice for them, and do our best to represent Jesus well to them, living lives that demand a gospel explanation.

Secondly, it is hard to put into words at time how discouraging it can be to live in a city that is so spiritually dark. I was reading in Relevant Magazine that Portland came in last on the chart of “most christian” cities in America. At times we feel very alone in this city. Thus far we’ve had the opportunity to meet some incredible people to begin building relationships with them. After about four weeks, we started a community gathering. Meeting every Tuesday to work through the book of Titus. That time has been such a joy for us. It has been an opportunity for the team and I to come together and call out to Jesus and pray and beg Him to do in this city what we can’t do. Along the way we have been praying for God to continue to give us more chances to minister in and around the city. Just two weeks ago we started our second bible study. Now we meet every Tuesday and Thursday. Friends of ours who moved up here from Calvary in Camarillo asked us what we thought about starting a bible study out in Lake Oswego with them. It is a beautiful and quaint suburb. To be honest, it wasn’t anywhere on my radar to strategically think about trying to start something in Lake O. Yet, it seems like God has something different in store than what I expected. One of the church planting books that I read not to long ago said something very simple and profound that has stuck with me. The author simply encouraged planters to “go where God is already moving.” In other words, look and see what and where God already seems to doing something, and go there! In essence, that is what we’ve done and are trying to do. I believe that Jesus will continue to use us in Lake O. Our hope and prayer is just to be faithful servants of wherever He calls us. Since starting two weeks ago we have have seen about 10-12 new people show up. We know and believe that it isn’t about number per say, but we are thankful that Jesus is advancing His kingdom in Portland and giving us the opportunity to play a part in it.

Third, if I had to ball park a number of people we have talked to and shared the gospel with I would suspect it would be very close to if not more than 75 people thus far. It is humbling and exciting to see the situations that God has placed us in to be used. For me, I have been privileged talk with atheists, agnostics, buddhists, spiritualists, a few people who have literally never heard the gospel before, those that claimed to be christians at one point, and because of bad experiences they’ve had with pastors or church have walked away from the Lord, I’ve shared conversation with practicing homosexuals who offer a great insight re their view of how christians have been handling the issue of late, and list goes on.

As hard as people are to the gospel here, one fact remains true. People are people. By and large, if you treat someone with genuine respect, love and desire to actually listen and learn from people, I have found that more often then not they are going to be willing to listen to you. For us, we have taken seriously the approach of doing everything we can to love and serve the people of our city. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 says there are three types of processes. Planters, waterers, and those that reap the harvest. In all of that, God is the one who blesses each part. However, when I take a look around at the spiritual climate of Portland, I now believe more than ever that the ground here needs to be lovingly tilled and cultivated. More often than not as christians we are looking to see quick and obvious “fruit” that comes from our endeavors. I’m guilty of this too. I’ve been wrestling with a question for the last couple weeks now that has been challenging to work through. The question being, “what if God called us to spend our whole lives lovingly tilling the ground so that the next group of pastors can come in and reap a harvest? Would I be okay with that?” In the recent weeks and months though God has been showing me specifically the need to be an enduring farmer. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul encourages Timothy to pastor and lead in this way. Our prayer is that God would give us at least 40 years in Portland to faithfully advance the gospel here. Which means we want to invest every part of our lives in this city to impact as many people we can for Jesus.

There is so much more that I could share! Jesus continues to blow each of us away by what He is doing in this city through our movement and the other churches around us! We have a ton of hope that as dark as the city is, the gospel is far more powerful! Thank you to everyone is who has and is praying for us. We appreciate your support and continue to ask for you to pray for the work that God is doing here!

-Trevor

Ministry in Portland and Missing Home

Hello!

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. It has been a busy last few months. As of this weekend, we will have been in Portland for 3 months. It does not seem like we have been here that long but at the same time it already feels like home. We started our Bible study in our home several weeks ago and are continuing through the book of Titus. We started with our core team and have had a few visitors over the past few weeks. Trevor has been sharing the gospel with several of his co-workers at Peet's and some of them have visited our study. It has been amazing to see the fruit of his labor and see God work here in Portland.
Before we moved to Portland, we knew church and ministry as a whole would be very different. We didn't know how different or what it would entail. We just knew that it would be different than Camarillo. We love our home church, Calvary Nexus. It has been our home for so long and the people there are like family. We are so grateful for all the love and support we have received from them. In Camarillo, we were used to events such as Church at the Park and outreach concerts in the Energy Lounge. Calvary puts on amazing events that reach out to the community. People would come and enjoy and get saved. In Portland, it is very different. The majority of people here don't go to church and have no desire to be a part of if. Many have a negative view of the church especially because Portland has one of the highest gay and lesbian populations. We have learned that reaching these people here will be far different than we thought. We can't just throw an event in a park and expect people to come. Nothing is wrong with that in Camarillo- it works! People come! But here in Portland, we have realized our ministry will be more focused on building relationships with people we see everyday and engaging in deep conversations to get to the root of people's Vendetta's against the church. Everyone here has a cause. Last week there was a HUGE protest in a park across from our house protesting GMO and promoting peace. People all fight for something here in Portland. It will take time to engage them and serve them and love them just to warm them up to the idea of Jesus. The good thing about Portland is that people need Jesus. There is an evident spiritual darkness and heaviness here that we haven't experience before. We are excited and are also bracing ourselves to really dive in headfirst and love people and learn how to serve them.
Last month we had the opportunity to visit home for a few days. Our dear friends just had a baby and we wanted to do a quick visit. It was refreshing to be met by so many loving people at church- I wish we had had more time to visit and see everyone! But we were so overwhelmed with blessing by everyone we talked to. We are so thankful for your support and love and encouragement and even interest in what God is doing here in Portland. It refreshed us.
While I was home, after seeing some friends and family, I began just considering why we left. It was so good to be home. It felt like nothing had changed in some ways. While I was sitting alone in my car, I began to cry. Why did we have to leave? We love our family and friends so much. It would have been easier to just stay in Camarillo for the rest of our lives. Why did other people get to stay? Why did our best friends get to raise their kids with one another and we had to leave and go somewhere where we don't know anyone and try to build a community? It just didn't seem fair. As I prayed, I asked God all of these questions. I simply heard him ask me, "Is the Gospel worth it?" I began to consider Jesus and what He has done for us. I considered all the lost people in Portland and what our lives are really about. Are our lives about comfort and being around those we love? Is that really what our lives should be focused on? I realized that the importance of the Gospel and helping reach the lost far surpasses any comfort or pleasure we can have in this world. While comfort and family and being around loved ones are all good things, they fall in comparison to the importance of people receiving salvation. That is really why we are here: to share God's love with others and further the kingdom of God. So while I was upset and missed family and longed to be home again, I knew that we were doing what we were supposed to do. We were in God's will which is always the best place to be. I knew it was better to be in God's will than to be in a comfortable spot with loved ones but out of God's will. I knew that true peace and ultimate fulfillment would come from obeying and following God's call on our lives. So as we made the journey back to Portland, while I was sad and upset, I knew we were going to where we needed to be. And that gave me peace.

Our First Study

Our First Study

Last Tuesday, we had our first Bible study in our home. It was so crazy to think that Trevor and I have been praying and preparing for that study for so many years. As I explained in our very first post, we have both had a calling and longing to church plant since age 16/17. It was very surreal to be in Portland at our first Bible study. We know we have a long road ahead, which will by no means be easy. But we know we are where we are supposed to be. God has been reminding me daily to depend on Him and His direction. I like to make to do lists and check things off- part of my type A personality. I wish there was some check list of "how to start a church" that I could go off of every day. But there isn't. There is no "right" way or "blue print" for starting the perfect church. Ultimately, it can only happen by God's grace and direction. It has been impressed so much on my heart lately how important it is to be people of prayer - to pray for the city, to pray for the people, to pray for my husband. We need to be people of prayer. Prayer gives us clarity and direction. Prayer changes US. It conforms our wills to God's will. That is our true desire. It is only by God's provision and planning that we are here in Portland. We are excited for what is in store and know we will only see lives changed by Christ if we continue in prayer and continue in relationship with Him. Daily I am reminded that it is not in our strength that lives will be changed or people will be saved. We are completely dependent on Him and what He is doing. It is exciting to be a part of His work.

We had our Easter egg hunt for our complex on Easter Sunday. We had a great turn out! We got to meet some people in our apartment complex and saw the need to have more events for the kids in our community. We have a lot of open space and common rooms for activities and we are going to continue to plan events to reach out to the families here. It was a great opportunity to "test the waters" so to speak. Our complex was so supportive of us doing something for the kids here that they are going to write an article on the Easter Egg hunt in their next newsletter! We are so excited! God is doing great things already. We didn't know if we would face resistance from the apartment managers but they were so supportive and gave us more ideas for reaching the kids here. We are excited to plan more events.

Please pray that God would continue to direct our paths and give us hearts for the people here. Pray for ways to serve and love people in our community. Praise for all He is doing here already and for his constant provision and presence.

Thanks for reading!!!

Julie

Easter is coming

Hello hello!

I can't believe we have been in Portland almost a month! It's pretty crazy how quickly this month has flown by. For me, it's been a month of exhaustion and sickness in my first trimester of pregnancy. I have felt so tired that it has been difficult to get anything done, let alone just get out of the house! I am so grateful for my job and being able to work from home because I just can't imagine having to leave the house some days. I didn't know pregnancy would be this tiring! Hopefully it will change soon as I am 12 weeks today and almost to the second trimester where they say your energy picks up and the nausea stops...I can only hope! While I have felt helpless and useless at times, God has been teaching me to support the ministry in other ways including prayer and simply supporting my husband. If you know me at all you know I'm a "do-er." I get things done. I pack my schedule to the max. I am busy all the time and I like it that way. So for me to be stuck on the couch with zero energy to do anything has been challenging to say the least! But God is faithful and has been using this season to increase my dependence on Him. It has been a constant reminder that everything I have is through Him and not myself and that without Him we can do nothing...literally...I feel like I can't do anything at times. It has been a good season of rest and relaxation and constant reminders to wait on the Lord and allow Him to do the work.

Trevor has been meeting people everyday. We are beginning our Bible study next week on Tuesday. We are SO excited. Art will be moved up here this weekend and our entire core team will be here! We are excited to have people here to support what God is doing. This Sunday we have our first outreach. We are putting on an Easter egg hunt in the complex. We are hoping to attract families and have the opportunity to meet people and invite them to our Bible study. Please pray for good opportunity to serve the people in our complex. Please pray God continues to orchestrate the people we come in contact with and that we can share Jesus with them.

Thanks for reading!

Julie

Trying to be an introvert in downtown Portland

For those of you who know me, I really like to read books and have 'just me and the Lord' time. The last couple of weeks have been exceedingly busy and hectic, to say the least!  I spent most of the morning working at Peet's on the various church plant things that have to be done.  After doing that for some hours, I wanted to explore downtown a bit more.  There is a beautiful park type of area that runs along the Columbia River with great views and peaceful benches.  The weather was beautiful out today!  No rain, not to cold, and a comfortable breeze; seemed like a great chance to take a book, pen, and my journal and spend some time reading and reflecting next to the river.

However, God had a different plan…  After spending some time chatting with someone from home, I began walking back to my car.  While I was walking I saw a great look out spot to take a picture of one of the many bridges in Portland.  During my walk over to the spot, I saw a young gal who was dressed in a sort of 'grunge' type of outfit, and she had green hair.  Sensing the Spirit tugging on my heart to talk to her, I walked over and introduced myself.  Came to find out that, she, for a lack of better terms is a Buddhist.  We had a great conversation about the realities of God and the absolute truth of the scriptures, as well as God's passionate love for us!  So much so that He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins to provide forgiveness and guarantee of eternal life with Him!  To be sure, this was the first time she had ever heard the gospel clearly presented to her!  The conversation ended with me telling her that i'd be praying for her, and that I was sure God wanted to save her and be in relationship her with!  She was gracious and said thank you!  Seemed like the Spirit was moving in her.

As I was walking back to my car, I was praying and thanking God for bringing me there and giving me the opportunity to witness to her.  

Then, as i was 20 feet from my car, I heard a commotion!  Two middle aged guys, yelling, cussing, and getting ready to get into a UFC fist fight.  No body seemed to really care what was going on; must be common in downtown Portland.  I walked across the street and began walking towards them.  After watching this unfold for a few seconds, I saw a women trying to get in between them to break it up.  I walked over to help and break up the fight.  Turned out the women was 8 months pregnant and the wife of one of the men who was in the altercation.  The wife, myself, and the other guy walked down the street together.  I had the opportunity to talk with both of them, sharing that I am a pastor and wanted to help.  After everyone calmed down, we prayed, the man left, and I spent some time speaking with gal.  

Her and her husband had just moved to Portland.  Life had unfortunately hit them very hard. Since they've been in Portland, they have been living on the streets.  As she spoke about being 8 months pregnant and homeless, my heart broke for them!  We spoke for a bit longer and i did my best to encourage her and tell her that I would do whatever I could to help. 

All that to say, my 'plan' was to be alone and spend time reading and writing.  However, none of that happened!  Portland is a spiritually dark city and in desperate need of the gospel!  In hindsight, i'm so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to be the church to the several people in Portland today.  I strongly believe that God is and will continue do a work here to draw people to Himself; for His glory!!

Trevor

Home, sweet home

Well we are here! I apologize that it has been a month since our previous post - obviously we have been very busy saying goodbye to friends and family, moving our lives up north, and moving into our new home! The last month has been a whirlwind. God has done so much in the past few weeks.

We are so grateful to our friends and family who put together some amazing goodbye get togethers and helped us pack our home. We couldn't have made it through the last month without you! I truly mean that. My mom helped me pack our home- nothing would have gotten done without her. Thank you to all our friends who blessed us with their amazing gifts and with the time we were able to spend with them. Needless to say, we were completely blown away - I am tearing up just thinking about how much we are blessed with you all.

In my last post, I shared that we had found an apartment. We were so thankful to have found it and we love living here. It is just blocks from a mall, coffee shops, and tons of other great stores. We only have one car so it works out well that we can walk pretty much anywhere we would need to go. Everyone walks everywhere so it's a fun new experience to have since in Camarillo we didn't walk anywhere!

Trevor was able to transfer to Peets coffee up here which is a HUGE blessing since we have our health benefits through them - especially now that we are expecting our first child in OCTOBER!! We couldn't be more excited. God's timing is truly amazing.

I began working from home for two companies and it has been a blessing to have flexible hours since my "morning sickness" has been "all the time sickness" and I have been completely exhausted everyday. I hope this goes away soon as I enter my second trimester. It has been hard to unpack and decorate our new home being tired all the time but it has also been fun to get furniture and find creative ways to save space as we don't have a ton of storage here. Trevor has been so considerate of my exhaustion and sickness- I couldn't ask for a better husband.

Our dear, dear friends Adam and Jen made the trip up with us to help us move in and they were a huge blessing. Jen and I drove our car while Trevor and Adam drove the moving truck. We were able to stop and see my family in San Jose on our way up which was a huge blessing as well. It was a longggggg drive! I am so thankful to have had wonderful friends to enjoy it with, laugh with, and have twinkie fights with on the freeway while we were stopped in traffic (oops.). Once we arrived in Portland, the boys unloaded the truck in a mere 30 minutes! It was unbelievable! Jen is an expert organizer which helped a clutterer like me a ton! Within a day, we had new furniture set up and the basics all put away. Jacklyn, Travis and Lucy happened to be in Portland for a few days as well so we spent some time shopping while the boys got some golf time in. It is so beautiful up here. We have been here over a week and it has only rained one day! Come on Portland!

The best part about our neighborhood is everyone is very friendly and it is easy to meet people. We plan to start our home Bible study in the next 2 weeks once a few other people arrive up here to help us start the church. Lord willing it will be easy to meet and invite people and share Jesus with them.

Please pray for open hearts for the people of Portland and for God to continue to provide as he always has. Please pray for energy for me and health for baby Gavin.

Thanks for reading!

Here we are in front of the "welcome to Oregon" sign!

A home.

Hello hello!

I have been wanting to post this sooner but we have been so exhausted and have been recuperating from our trip. We got home late Sunday/early Monday morning. Overall, our trip was a huge blessing and very productive. God did and is continuing to do some amazing things which leaves us more in awe of Him.

We arrived to Portland Friday morning. It's a quick 2 hour flight and we headed straight to my first job interview. I had two that day and they both went well. Hoping something will work out soon! Please continue to pray for an opening. After my interviews we had dinner with Trevor's sister and her family- her husband and our 3 nephews and 1 niece. They live about 20-30 minutes from where we will be located. We have been praying about the NE area which is just NE of downtown. There is no church in that area and unanimously the pastors that Trevor met with last month said they need a church there. So this was the primary area we were looking at.

We had several houses lined up to see- none of which were in the exact area we were hoping. Ideally, we wanted to be 5-10 minutes from downtown and in the heart of NE Portland. We saw one house and realized it was just too far from where we wanted to be. I had been house hunting for over a month and it was SO difficult to find anything in the neighborhood we felt we needed to be in. I had seen an apartment complex online and thought if we had time we would check it out. Originally we were against an apartment because usually parking is bad and it can be hard for people to find and moving onto the 2nd or higher level is hard. So we had decided against it from the get go but thought we might just check out one complex. The complex I found online was the only place in the area we wanted to be. We actually stumbled upon a Peets coffee and the complex was right down the street. Trevor is working on transferring to Peets up there so please pray that works out! After stopping at Peets, we called the complex and immediately got in to see a unit. It was a bottom floor, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, newly remodeled unit. It was easy access to the street and there was street parking (ultimately parking is horrible almost everywhere in Portland anyways, so this parking wasn't great but it also wasn't horrible because people walk everywhere in this neighborhood). We also wanted at least a 2 bathroom so that when we host a bible study, people could use the extra bathroom. And lastly we wanted a big living room to seat a lot of people. Oh and a washer and dryer would be nice.

This apartment had it all. It had everything we were looking for and was in our price range. As soon as we saw it, Trevor and I had an immediate peace and knew it would be our home. We left and prayed about it and ended up putting a deposit down that day, cancelling our other appointments. One huge thing we had traveled to Portland for was already done! praise God! It was a huge relief.
After finding our apartment, we had dinner with a pastor from Calvary Vancouver and his wife. It was such a blessing to meet people our age and make friends. The next day we visited Calvary Chapel Portland which is about 15-20 minutes West of downtown. We met some more people who welcomed us to the area which again made it feel more like home. We visited downtown Portland after church and stopped at Voodoo Donuts which is AMAZING!! If you ever go to Portland you need to go there.

We brought the donuts over to our new friends house and hung out with them and grabbed dinner at a German pub before we headed to the airport.

We truly had a great trip and are so excited for the next few weeks. In less than 3 weeks we will be in Portland! That blows my mind. Please continue to pray for the people of Portland and the lost and pray God continues to open doors for us.

Pray for Portland

Here's a link to the acorn article if you missed it: http://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/news/2013-01-18/Faith/Couple_takes_a_journey_of_faith.html


Update from Trevor:

the time to leave and plant is rapidly approaching us. our plan is to move on march 1. however before we move, there are some things that we’re hoping to get lined up before we officially leave. thankfully Jesus has been so faithful to us and His church thus far, so we have no reason to worry or stress that He will not continue to provide for us now. 

with that said, i wanted to share a few prayer requests and updates as well as let you know about our prayer meeting that we are starting this upcoming sunday. 

I. prayer requests: 

julie and i are heading back to portland february 8-10 for Lord willing one final trip before we move in march. here are three of our prayer requests:

1. we are praying that God would lead us to the neighborhood He would have us start the church. our plan is to start the church in our house. we want to be intentional about reaching out into our community and neighborhood to serve and minister to the people. we are praying that God would provide us a house that would accommodate room for a bible study, room to grow, and parking. we want to be strategic re our location so that we can be most effective to the people God would have us serve.

2. while we are on our trip, we will be having interviews with prospective jobs. both julie and i plan on working jobs outside of starting the church. our prayer is that God would provide us with jobs that will be flexible enough for us to spend enough time investing in the church plant. 

3. portland is a great city, and is in desperate need for the gospel. currently, oregon is the least religious state in the country, with portland as the main collection of the diversity and differences in religion. we are praying and trusting that Jesus has called us to make a difference in the lives of people for His glory. we’re praying as well that God would help us to be faithful to what He’s called us to do despite it being hard. we have a huge burden for the people of portland, specifically those who are young and searching for something more then themselves. 

II. prayer meeting: 

we are convinced that the best thing we can do to affect change for Jesus is to pray. we are going to have a prayer meeting every sunday night during february. the prayer meeting will be at the lewis campus from 6pm-630 in the energy lounge. we welcome anyone to come out and plead to God on behalf of the people of portland to do a great work for His glory.  we will be transitioning to our nexus @ night service after the prayer meeting. the service is a bit different then a normal sunday am service. there is extended times of worship and prayer, along with studying the scriptures.