Sweater Weather / scarf, coat, boots, socks, thermal weather

Hey there!

Where did Summer and Fall go? I have no idea! What a whirlwind! It's cold here now - 30s or so and rainy! Loving it so much. But it is COLD!

As I dropped off a friend tonight, I had a moment of awe where I realized that I was driving without needing to use a GPS and that this city is my amazing home. I love our city. It sounds simple but it was just a reminder of God's presence and hand in our lives - the fact that we are in Portland is pretty incredible.

Sunday Meetings
Since January we have been meeting on Sundays at Tabor Space and since June we had been meeting there every week. We have been praying for months about our location -if it's the right one, the right area, long term, etc. In Sept/Oct we had a few scheduling issues and were looking for other potential locations. We had 2 other places that became available and were praying about the right one. In the mean time, Trevor met with the pastor at Tabor Space to discuss our vision and their vision and see if we were going in the same direction and if our partnership could continue. We left the 2 other potential locations hanging until this meeting happened because he had a feeling this meeting would be very telling.

He met with the pastor of Tabor about 3 weeks ago and during that meeting it became clear we needed a new space. We were moving in two different directions and Trevor knew we had to give our notice. That meeting was on a Tuesday and we had service scheduled for Sunday. As Trevor and I discussed our options, we realized that based on his conversation with the pastor, the other locations also wouldn't work for us. That left us at square one. The easy thing to do would've been to stay at Tabor until something else became available. Smart right? Why put all our eggs in one basket (God's basket)? Let's just wait it out...But we knew God was closing the door at Tabor space and that deciding to leave there was an act of obedience - not choice. Would we obey God and leave that location when we had no other place to meet? Trevor felt sure that this was what we needed to do - and he also felt sure God wouldn't reveal a new location until we had cut our ties with the old one. We all believed obeying Him would give Him an even greater opportunity to work.

So Trevor announced on Sunday that it would be our last week at Tabor. As he said this to our church on Sunday evening at service, he followed by saying that we also don't know where we would be the following week. We needed God to provide some place for us to meet and when He did, we would let them know.

Needless to say, that week was a trying one. Lots of faith, lots of prayers. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Nothing. Ok God... this is your church. Where are we going to go?

Thursday afternoon, Trevor stopped into a coffee shop by his work that he frequents regularly. He talks to the owner a lot and she happened to ask about our church at which point Trevor said something along the lines of 'funny you would ask because we're homeless.' After a short conversation, the owner said she and her husband had been wanting to open their shop up to the community for events. She said she would talk to him. Seemed like a long shot and on top of that the owners aren't Christians. And we needed the space on Sunday. In 3 days. Trevor gave her his card and said to contact him if they want to talk about it. She text him that night and they set up a meeting for Friday morning.

Friday morning Trevor met with the owners and shared our vision, our needs, our budget, everything. They were so supportive and open. They were completely on board and said they would open their shop to us for our services to try it out for a few weeks- they wouldn't even charge us! We had a location!

A few things about this are incredible. The owners aren't Christians. They aren't charging us rent (at least for now) and since we have been there they have had more profitable Sunday nights than they have ever had. God provided a location for us in a mere 5 days. God strengthened our faith and reminded us of His sovereignty and goodness. The shop stays open until 7pm and our service is at 5 so we have people coming in and out of our church service - people sit and listen as they come in for their coffee/kombucha/tea. So many things God is doing!

I am so excited to share this and all God has done. He is so good. We have been meeting at the shop for 3 weeks now and plan to for the near future until God leads us elsewhere.

Our Wonderful Leaders
Lastly, another huge blessing is that Trevor, Ali and I were able to take our first family vacation last week. It was incredible to be able to leave our church and know they would be well taken care of by our leaders. Trevor has done an amazing job raising up leaders- he has poured into so many people. God has truly gifted him in this area and we have had a great example in this from our pastor in California. Since we arrived in Portland almost 2 years ago now (WHAT!!), we have been going going going without much rest. We are so grateful we were able to get away for a week as a family and recharge. It was much needed.



Prayer Requests: 
-Location -long term solution/short term? direction
-Nov 23 we have our 2nd annual thanksgiving feast - where we gather as a church and invite people outside the church to join us. Last year we saw incredible fruit and many who came to the dinner are now a part of our church. Pray God would do amazing things


Thanks for reading! God bless.

Summer Update

Hey Readers!

Thanks for taking the time to read- I apologize it’s been MONTHS since my last post. #blogfail. Will try to be better about posting updates. Lots has happened since our last post and I’m excited to fill you all in!

Sunday Services

We are now meeting every Sunday night - we meet once or twice at a rented space - Tabor Space - and the other nights we meet at a home. We just began doing this and so far the transition has gone smoothly. Definitely more to do and more to prepare for but it’s exciting to meeting regularly and feel like a “church.” There’s something special about meeting in a home - cramming in as many people as possible and sitting closely to each other. We have enjoyed it. We plan to continue meeting like this on Sundays through the summer and then reassess locations. 

Community Groups

We are taking a break from community groups for the month of July. We can’t believe that we have been doing these groups for a solid year now! Going going going and July brings a much needed rest for Trev and I as we have group at our house on Tuesdays with dinner beforehand. This seemed like the perfect time to break as many are on vacation and we just started meeting regularly on Sundays. We will reconvene in August. 

What’s been happenin?

We have had a few events - including a picnic dinner and meeting for dinner at a local grocery store that BBQs during the summer. We are hoping to pack a few more events in before this hot hot summer ends - it’s supposed to be in the 100s this week.. ughhh. I thought we left California because it was too hot??!! Hopefully it cools down soon. But it is a nice break from the rain - and Portland summers are beautiful. It stays light out until 930/10pm which is just unreal. 

Prayer requests:

-Direction on a meeting space- as we grow we will need a bigger space and its hard to know the best area since our church is scattered around Portland. Pray for wisdom and guidance to find the right place

-Sabbath - Trev and I needed a month off from community groups and are praying to be refreshed and refueled to start up in August

-Leaders- God has raised up many leaders in our church - we want to see God use them more and more. Pray for opportunities for our leadership to step up and be used.

Thanks so much for reading and thank you for the prayers! We appreciate it very much!

We've been here a year already???

Hello Again!

So much has happened since our last update - I’m excited to share it all! March 2 was our 1 year anniversary of moving to Portland. It is incredible to look back on all God has done and continue to look forward to all He is going to do. This year has been amazing, overwhelming, exciting, tiring, but mostly fulfilling.

Second Sunday Meeting

Our original second meeting was scheduled for the 2nd weekend of February. However, we encountered a snow-pocalypse which basically shut down the whole city! It was incredible. We were basically stuck in our house with cabin fever for a few days. We got to get out and play in the snow which was so fun. Amazing to think that this is our home and we actually have a winter! This did push our meeting back 2 weeks which was fine. We had a great turnout with about 20 people and 1 gal got saved! Praise Jesus! She originally came to our Thanksgiving meal and came to Bible study the week before. At Bible study, she mentioned she did not have a Bible. Another man in our study came over and asked if he could buy her a Bible because someone had bought him one years back. She was in awe and was grateful. At our Sunday service, Trev talked about Glorifying Jesus, Loving People and Making Disciples (Matt 22:34-40, Matt 28:16-20) which is the theme verse and mission of Nexus Portland. He encouraged anyone who wanted to accept Jesus to receive communion as a first step of faith. This gal came forward and received Jesus that night. The following Tuesday, we had everyone sign her Bible and gave it to her at the beginning of study. She teared up and was speechless. It was amazing to see God work through the people in our group. He is good. 

Leaders Meeting

We had our first Nexus Portland leaders meeting last week where we gathered together at our house for dinner. There were 9 of us total (including Trev and I). This was surreal! To think that there are 9 leaders in our church is incredible. This also occurred a day shy of our 1 year anniversary in Portland. We were able to talk about the vision and begin to determine the roles of each of our leaders. 

Community Group

I mentioned a while back that we had an atheist Bible study. This study currently has about 6-8 atheist/agnostic men who meet together every few weeks. They are currently going through Trevor’s doctrine series which he started going through at our East and West side studies a few weeks ago. A few topics include Creation, the Fall, Incarnation, the Cross, and Resurrection. The leader of this group mentioned they didn’t even have Bible’s so we quickly fixed that and purchased Bibles for the group. We are excited to see the fruit of this study. 

Highlights

This year a lot has happened. I wanted to share a few of the most exciting things. Even the fact that we have been in Portland a year is a miracle. God has provided for us in incredible ways from our job transfers, our support from our home church, having a core team, wonderful friends who moved us up here, dependable friends being brought into our lives, the list goes on and on. He has done great things for us. The most exciting things that have happened are definitely seeing people get saved and seeing people return to Jesus. That makes it all worth it - the move, the sadness of leaving our family and friends - everything. It is always fulfilling to see the fruit of your labor. And it is only by God’s grace that He has moved in such amazing ways. Obviously the birth of our baby girl Ali Michelle was the greatest part of our year  - she blesses us daily and we are so incredibly grateful for her. We are grateful that she is a Portland native and Lord willing Portland is all she will ever know. It is exciting to raise our daughter here. Our first service was also a highlight- seeing our momentum continue and seeing the people we have poured into for the past several months be a part of God’s work. 

What’s ahead?

We will continue our once per month Sunday services where we have a meal beforehand, celebrate in worship and communion and hear the Word preached. We are moving toward having regular Sunday services in the fall and starting more community groups. The main thing I have learned in the past year is that it isn’t about the end goal. This is not about having regular sunday services or 50 community groups or a church of 1000 people. It is all too easy to focus on the milestones and forget that ultimately, it’s about seeing people come to Jesus. All we want is to see people meet Jesus and enter into relationship with him. Of course we want to grow and have Sunday services because that's important for spiritual growth. But when we focus on that and the numbers and the milestones we often overlook the most important thing - the people. So we don’t have our hearts set on growing by X amount each year or meeting our goals at all costs. We just want people to meet Jesus. That’s it. If we keep that our focus, we know God will do the rest and lead us in the way we should go. 

Prayer Requests:

-Atheist/Agnostic Study - men to get saved, wisdom and guidance for the leader of the group 

-Leaders- that God would continue to raise up and develop leaders

-Wisdom and Provision in the next year- the direction we should go and where we should continue to meet

Thanks for reading!

www.nexusportland.org

Hello!

Lots to update about and I apologize it has been too long since our last update.

Trev and I had a great visit home before Christmas. We had our pastor dedicate Ali at our home church which was a huge blessing. It was very sweet to visit California but we always feel like Portland is home. We love our city. Ali is doing great and we are loving parenthood. She is a sweet girl and we are blessed to be her parents. She is so loved by so many people  - we are grateful!

Sunday Night Service

Sunday Jan 12, Trev and I both woke up and immediately knew we were getting sick. With the long day ahead, we knew we needed to depend on the Lord for strength and energy. A few minutes later, my family let me know my Grandpa had passed away that morning. Tears and prayers followed. I knew it would be easy and comfortable to slip into a negative state, questioning what had happened and asking God 'why today?' I had every reason to feel that way, right? Instead I prayed and committed the day to Jesus asking Him to be my strength and vision and guide. I already knew we couldn't do this - this Portland thing- this church plant- this church service - without Him. But now it was even more evident. What was previously a need I knew was now a need I felt. It was real. This was all real now. Fighting our way to get up, Trev and I headed to a local church we attend. Our friends prayed over us and the pastor prayed over us at the beginning of the service. After arriving home, exhausted, our friend came over to help prepare the meal. We were making chili and it was his friends recipe so she came over as well. Luckily she took over and cooked the meal. We had a million things to bring: bowls, silverware, bread, butter, snacks for the kids, kids curriculum, ladles, napkins, my guitar, drinks, communion supplies. Oh ya, and song lyrics, which I left sitting on our printer. We made it over to the location slowly;  traveling with giant containers of chili is dangerous, especially with me since I'm the one who once spilled baked potato soup all over the front seat and floor of my brand new car. We made it to the location and after several trips back and forth to the car, we got everything unloaded and set up. People started to arrive and we shared a wonderful meal together. It was nice, a little chaotic, but it felt good. It felt like home. With a few last minute changes like Trev changing his entire message a few minutes beforehand and me changing my songs quickly since I had forgotten the song lyrics, we began our service. Nicole took the kiddos and jumped in like a champ. Trev preached and I played a few songs. We took communion as a family together. It felt surreal- our first service. We had a great turn out and everyone seemed very excited for our next one which will be February 9.

Community Groups
We still have our community groups going - our east side study which is at our house on Tuesdays, our west side study in Lake O on Thursdays, and our atheist Bible study which meets on Wednesdays. Our studies have been growing and it has been encouraging to see some new faces. We always have a meal together before study on Tuesdays and now our host home on Thursdays has begun doing the same. There is something special about breaking bread together.

Prayer Requests
-Our next Sunday night service
-Wisdom in next steps and new community groups
-Opportunity to reach more people in our city
-Developing more leaders so the church can continue to grow

Thank you for taking the time to read. We truly appreciate your prayers and support. love to you all.

Julz