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!