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!
