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
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