One of those Sundays

It's 12:07am on Monday morning and yet here I am wide awake, penning (typing) this out. That should be some indication of how the weekend has been. Lately I've been feeling, as Bilbo Baggins would say, like butter scraped over too much bread. I feel stretched thin - in my time, attention and energy. I should be clinging to His grace being sufficient but it has been hard.

This past summer was a trying one. It seemed to be one spiritual attack after another - from possible demonic visitors to our website being hacked, the trials seemed to never end. The summer is also a hard time because so many people are out of town which leaves roles to be filled and church seats empty. It was a stretching season but God graciously strengthened us in each trial.

Fall is here - a new season! That means some Portland rain (it was a hot summer), cooler weather, our daughter turns 2, Thanksgiving, and California weddings galore (you people need to stop getting married and having babies, seriously.) I am excited for Fall.

However, I know it will be a busy and trying season - though hopefully in a different way than Summer was.

Anyways, yesterday was just one of those Sundays where everything goes wrong. And that's why I can't fall asleep. The past few weeks have been hard and this weekend seemed to be the crescendo. When you already feel tired, having a weekend that is exhausting is not helpful. It all started Saturday morning when Trevor woke up feeling sick. Saturday is Trevor's study day (for Sunday)- however, he also began Seminary this month, so he had a paper due by midnight too. Oh, and the wonderful person who sets up our Sunday morning sound system, chairs etc (he really is great- I'm not being sarcastic here), let us know he wouldn't be there. This meant Trevor and I needed to set it all up. And the only time we could do it was Saturday night.

As I begrudgingly made the trek with our little family to our church building which, thankfully is right next door to our apartment, I felt a little bitter. Trevor was exhausted and sick. It was almost Ali's bedtime. Why are we doing this? We began to set up. And after a spider scared me half to death and I sliced my hand on a table I assembled, I again began to feel a little bitter. I wanted to text a few people who lived nearby to help us set up. It shouldn't be us. Others need to help and serve too, right? As I pondered these things in my head, I began to realize the error in my thoughts. Do I believe I am above this? Was it really that bad to have to set up one time when we have a faithful servant who has been doing it for us for months now? As I prayed through my emotions, I confessed my sin - 'Lord, help me never feel above anything. I am not. Lord, help me be grateful for the 99 times our church is set up by someone else, not upset about the 1 time we need to do it. Forgive my heart, Lord'

I was reminded of why were are here. We are here to serve. While our leadership team is amazing and they do so much, I never want to depend on them to do the "hard" work. I want to do the hard work and I am called to do the hard work. That's why we moved here. And while it was difficult and tiring and probably didn't help my husband's sickness, we did it. And I am grateful.

That night, neither one of us slept well. I could tell Trevor wasn't feeling better and after I threw some Mucinex at him at 2:30am, I began to dream about church the next day and that Trevor wasn't able to teach and everything was a mess. After that restless night, we headed over to church in the morning. Sound check went great. I was excited about doing a new song. A woman in our church brought delicious bagels (she's even gluten free- how thoughtful).

Service began and our small group joined in singing. At the second song, the new song, the projector went out. No lyrics. That's ok - it happens. As my sick husband got up to preach, I sat down with a nice cup of tea to warm me up in our chilly church. A few minutes in, one of the kids in kids ministry was brought back in as he was having a hard time in class. His mom recently got saved (woo!) and had brought her unsaved fiancee to church with her which we were excited about. Unfortunately, they were both in and out of service to tend to her son. Then, the kids came upstairs to use the restroom at which point Ali started to fuss. I helped calm her down and somehow got her to go back to class. As I excitedly sat back down (it's been ages since I could sit in service and actually listen), I managed to spill my warm cup of tea all over my pants. Everyone laughed. It was actually quite hilarious. Just another thing. It was almost as if everyone was aware of something happening. Satan's sad and sorry attempt at attacking us. We finished up worship and communion and chatted for a bit as we began tear down.

After arriving home and getting our nap-deprived child fed and asleep, I took a moment to text the woman who brought the bagels to thank her for serving our church. Her response struck me. She said what a "classic" Sunday today was - that she was praying so fervently the whole time that there were points where she couldn't even hear the teaching. She listed the things that "went wrong" today. But she ended with "the gates of Hell cannot prevail against what Jesus is doing through Nexus! What an awesome morning."

At that point, I hadn't even stopped to reflect on the morning. Looking back, it was crazy. So many things "went wrong" and things could've been better in a lot of ways. However, we aren't promised an easy road. In fact, we are told quite the opposite- we will face trials and tribulations. I remember in jr. high one of my youth pastors saying "where God is moving, Satan is opposing." I believe God is moving here - we have seen so much evidence of that, from salvation to provision, I could go on and on. God is doing a work here. Satan is opposing - but the gates of hell shall not prevail.

As tired and exhausted as I feel right now, I am grateful to be a part of what God is doing. I know I must cling to His grace, which is sufficient. It is. And in my weakness, He is made strong in me.

Spring Updates!

Well it's been a while! We've been in our new home for almost 4 months and in our new church building for 5! Time flies. We LOVE Sellwood. For those who don't know Portland, it is laid out in a grid system - there's NE, NW, SE and SW. The confusing part is that a lot of streets go all the way through from SE to SW. I mean this can be confusing because when we first moved here my friend visited and she said I'm at the corner of X and Y streets. I said great! I left my house to meet her and arrived shortly where she was no where to be found. Turns out she was at the corner of SW X and Y streets and I was on the corner of the same streets in SE. Same streets - different corners. Anyways, our old apartment was in NE Portland, about 5 minutes from down town. We are now in SE Portland in a neighborhood called Sellwood which is about 10-15 minutes from down town. Sellwood is an up and coming popular area. We live on the main street where there are a plethora of restaurants, stores and antique shops (literally there's at least 5 on our street). We are about a 10 minute walk to the Willamette River which is gorgeous. 

Church Building and CommunityOur church is also next door to our apartment and it's on the main street as well. Sunday mornings people are usually out and about (if it's not pouring), walking to breakfast or to the coffee shop right across the street from us. Many people walk by as we have church - they peek in to see what's going on. Last week a couple who lives a few blocks away came to church for the first time - they said they just saw us there one Sunday and wanted to check it out. It's a great location - easily seen. We are beginning to get to know the people in our building and in our neighborhood. Trevor knows every barista at the coffee shop by name, we check out with the same grocers each time if possible, and we frequent the same restaurants. It's such a good feeling to get to know our community and learn how to serve them.

Easter

This year we had Good Friday and Easter Sunday Services. We had about 35 people on Sunday. This past March also marked 2 years in Portland. On Easter Sunday I sat in the back of our church with Ali and just kind of stared in awe. I had a flashback of sitting in the back room of our home church in California about 18 years ago when it was about 50 people. How did we get here? Here I am sitting in our church in Portland with my 18 month old daughter. Time doesn't slow down. It was encouraging and emotional to look back on the past 18 years, and specifically the past 5 or so that led us here. God has clearly led us each step of the way and brought us to this point in time.

Florida

Last week Trevor had the opportunity to go to a pastor's conference in Florida. We decided he would go alone because it would just be too much for all of us to travel. This conference is HUGE - about 6,000 people attended and it included speakers like Tim Keller and John Piper. Before the trip, I really prayed that God would somehow bring Trevor into contact with people he knew so he could build some friendships with other pastors. We only knew of 1 other person going so this prayer seemed far fetched. As soon as Trevor arrived at the conference, he ran into a pastor he had met once or twice from Lake Oswego - which is 10 minutes from our house. This pastor had brought a group of 5 or 6 guys with him. They ended up "adopting" Trevor and he spent a lot of time with them. 

One of the nights, Trevor went to a cigar shop and sat down at a table near a middle-aged couple. The TV was on and the Blazer game happened to come on. Trevor noticed the couple reacted to the Blazers getting blocked on a shot so he asked them if they were Blazer fans and they said yes. Trevor told him he was from Portland. To his surprise, the couple said they lived in Beaverton - which is about 20 minutes from us! They continued talking and the husband shared that he is an atheist. This led to a long conversation about God and theology. The wife asked for Trevor's card and told him they would come to our church when they got back in town. This story gives me goosebumps! Our God is so big - He can literally move and connect and lead us in any way He wants. 

Prayer Requests:

1. Continued leading in our community groups- growth and expansion

2. Atheist Agnostic Bible Study - salvation for the people attending and for Max as he leads the group

3. Opportunity for Filipino Bible study to be led by a Filipino man in our church (more on this next time)

Thank you for your prayers and support - we appreciate them!

New Year, New Location, New Home

Happy New Year!

We can't believe it is 2015 and March will mark 2 years here! Wow. So much has happened since our last update - I can't wait to share.

Rust Coffee

As of November, we were meeting in a coffee shop in NE Portland. We met there for a little over a month. We knew that location was temporary - it was a small shop and there was no place for kids ministry. However it was just what we needed at just the right time. We truly loved that shop. It was small and intimate. Our services were at 5pm and the shop stayed open until 7pm. That meant people would be coming in the shop while church was happening. I've never experienced that before. People would sit and listen or come in during the middle of service. One night, there was a young man talking on the phone near the front where Trevor would be speaking. We politely let him know that we were about to start a church service and he was welcome to stay but we wanted to let him know. He said oh k thanks. Then continued his phone conversation and said, "Oh the coffee shop I'm at has a church service starting in a minute. That's Portland for ya!" So true. Church in a coffee shop was SO Portland. He ended up staying the entire time and afterwards came up and thanked me for leading worship. 

We were grateful for the opportunity to do church in a space like that -where on any given night we knew there would be 5-10 non Christians coming into OUR church. Incredible. We continued to pray about a long term location and asked God to direct us. 

Thanksgiving Meal

We planned our 2nd annual Thanksgiving meal to be at a place called the SMILE station in SE Portland - in a neighborhood called Sellwood. A few people in our church live in Sellwood and it is kind of in the middle of where everyone in our church is spread. We had about 35-40 people join us for the dinner and it was a GREAT turn out. This is a tradition we hope to continue on as we have seen much fruit from it. The SMILE station is an old firehouse. It has a kitchen and a room for the kiddos. We had considered it for a church location before but it was only available for morning services and we didn't know if Sellwood was the neighborhood we should be in. However, after having our Thanksgiving dinner here, all of our leaders felt a unanimous feeling of home  - like this was a building in which we could and should have church. We talked to our leaders and prayed about it and decided to move forward - make the switch to Sunday morning services and move our church to Sellwood. 

The SMILE Station

We have been having services here for a little over a month and we LOVE it. We signed a year lease and the rent price is perfect for what we need. Sellwood is a great neighborhood and there's not a lot of church going on out here. We all felt our church really needed some stability - a set time and location. A place where people knew they could come each week and we would be there. A lot of our leaders have stepped up to take on refreshments and worship - it's been incredible to see. God is doing incredible things. After deciding to do church at the SMILE station, Trevor and I really wanted to move out to Sellwood. We moved to Portland to be a part of the community we wanted to reach. Our apartment was about 15-20 minutes away from Sellwood and we definitely weren't "in" the community. We did some looking and found an amazing apartment RIGHT next door to our church building. And I mean RIGHT next door. 

We actually got in a tiff on our way out to view the apartment because I knew our lease wasn't up until September and it would cost about $2400 to break it. $2400 we did not have. I said why are we going out there when we aren't moving - it's not possible right now. But nonetheless - my husband, the dreamer and man of amazing faith, convinced me to go and see it because if God wanted to He could move us there. It wasn't beyond Him right? So in the beginning of December we viewed an apartment - loved it. But there were some obstacles. 

1. Our lease would be $2400 to break. 

2. The complex wanted 3 months rent - 1st, last and one month security. Which we didn't have. 

3. The rent was a little higher than could fit our budget. 

Moving is also expensive and while I didn't pray about this aspect, it was in the back of my mind. 

We decided to pray about it and just ask God to do what He wanted. We wanted to move but honestly I saw this as impossible. We couldn't do any of those 3 things. We didn't really share this with anyone -just a few leaders. 

I began praying and just said OK Lord. This is on You. We didn't force anything, try to get out of our apartment - we just prayed and waited. About 3 weeks passed. Then Friday December 26 someone in our church contacted us and said they inherited some money and wanted to tithe $2400 to us to break our lease. WHAT??? Wow. Trevor and I were both shocked. Pretty amazing. So number 1 was checked off. However, we had seen the apartment 3 weeks prior and didn't even know if it was still available. So Saturday morning I called the lady at the complex and asked if it was available. It was! I explained our situation saying we had to pay to break our lease and just said we couldn't afford to pay 3 months rent. She said no problem she could waive one of them. Number 2 - check. I then asked about the price - it was on a special so it was $100 off the normal price. We thought it was for the whole year but she explained it was only for the first 6 months. Trevor and I talked about it and decided that was too much for our budget. So I called her back and said I'm sorry - we will have to pass - we just can't afford that. She said no problem - we'll keep it that price for the year and after a year it will go up by the normal rent raise percentage. Number 3- done. There was NO haggling. No arguing. It was the easiest thing I've ever experienced. 

Every single obstacle that we brought to the Lord He overcame. And we did NOTHING. Well - not nothing. We prayed. He worked. On Monday December 29 we signed our lease and planned to move that week. We have a friend up here who has a moving company. Great Christian family and we wanted to support them. We explained our situation and he said because we were a church they could move us FOR FREE! And not just move, but also provide boxes, tape, and pack and move us. And they could do it on December 31. 

Ephesians 3:20 immediately came to mind 

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

God did EXCEEDINGLY more than I could think or ask. Far above. Not only that, but He also took this offering of $2400 and multiplied it. One of my favorite songs is called Multiplied by NeedtoBreathe. They sing, "God of mercy sweet love of mine

I have surrendered to Your design
May this offering stretch across the skies
And these Hallelujahs be multiplied"

When we give, God multiplies. 

So by January 1st and in less than a weeks time, God moved us right next door to our new church building. He is SO good. We are excited to live in the community we want to reach. 

Thank you for taking the time to read ALL of this! I know it was so much but I had to share all God has been doing here. Much more to share in our next post - will share soon!

Prayer Requests:

1. More opportunities to serve our community 

2. Atheist/Agnostic Bible study - continued growth and fruit

3. Praise Him for His work in Sellwood and all He has done