Time has flown us by.

So sorry that it has been a small eternity since we have last updated. I am trying to be better about blogging, so now this has been added to my calendar! Which is quickly filling up these days!

Jeff and I are working now, which is a huge deal in this job market! Jeff has a full time job in the plumbing department at Lowes, thanks to his experience growing up with a plumbing father:) He is really enjoying working a "real" job, since this is his first non-church job! Ha! I transferred to a Starbucks in downtown Portland, one of the 200 Starbucks in this city! It has been great to meet people and feel like we are part of a community again.

Things with the church are going really quickly as well. We went to a Church Planter's Bootcamp last month, which was a great time of planning and vision casting. Our directional leadership team came home energized to get things done, and the momentum has continued! We are now a 501C-3 organization, which means we can get a bank account and PO Box, all mundane things, but it is so motivating to see things get accomplished.

We have finalized the name of our church...Portico Church...Portico is an Italian word that when translated means porch. It has reference first of all to scripture - when Solomon built the temple in the Old Testament he built a section known as Solomon's Portico. This was the place that the King held trials and placed their judgments. However, as we progress to Acts Solomon's porch is where the second revival happens and thousands give their lives to Christ. So instead of judgment came salvation. Our prayer is instead of judgment people would find salvation. The second reference that porch has is the Hollywood district is known in the past as the porch district. Within this district is many front porches and people used to sit out on them and ultimately form community.

The process of finding a building to meet in is in full swing. We have several places that we are checking out. That will hopefully be found by June, so we will be ready for our September launch!

If you pray with us to find the building that we should be in, and for the lives of the people we are meeting. That they would be blessed, and find hope through our relationships.

We live in Portland!!

Well, after 3 weeks of furious activity the dust has finally settled and around us we see the city of Portland. Can't believe we are actually here. Mark asked us how we felt yesterday, and Jeff and I looked at each other and realized that it doesn't feel real. It is an odd sensation knowing that we are finally in the city that has been in our hearts for the last 6 months.

The journey out here was great, no problems at all. The only snow we hit was through the beautiful state of Idaho (which we will be back to visit!) We made it in 2 days and arrived here on Saturday night. Since then we have just been seeing the city, and building relationships with the team that is already in town.

The city is gorgeous! It feels much more mountainous that we thought, and has many beautiful secluded parts. But it also has a great diversity of neighborhoods to find everything from high end shopping to fun eclectic vintage stores and of course too many coffee shops to count!

For the rest of this month we are looking forward to both the team from Arizona and Wisconsin both visiting and arriving to stay! By the end of the month we will all be assembled together here. It really feels like part of God's plan is being revealed more and more each day, which makes it easy to trust that we will be taken care of.

So for now we just ask for your continued prayers. Pray that the launch team has safe and quick travels this month, that God will give us wisdom in this time of decision making for the church, and of course that our house will sell quickly. Thanks to all of the people who helped to get us out here, we couldn't have done it without you.

Beautiful mess

Life is messy.

No matter how much we try to sort it into nicely labeled bins of organization, it always pops back into our face like a snake in a can.

We have been learning this about life lately. Back in mid-September we quit our full time Associate Pastor position at Christian Assembly, thinking that we would sell our house and move by October 7th. That was our nicely labeled date. Our organized move. Everything was in place for our scheduled plan, and we prayed and fasted incessantly for God to make our plan come to pass.

And the days ticked off the calendar, and October 7th passed us by. After that the days, then weeks slid by, and we watched them blur past and wondered in frustration what was happening. What were we doing wrong. Did we not pray or fast enough. Did we need to ask forgiveness for something. Fix a relationship, give up more of ourselves. We struggled with the question on if we should get jobs in Wausau, or wait in faith that God would provide.

It has been three months since our last day a Christian Assembly, and as we arrive at the end of our time in Wausau we realize like a new revelation each day, that life is messy, but is a beautiful mess. Gorgeous really. This journey of faith has changed us. And it’s not even close to being over. We are moving to Portland, without our house selling. We are starting a church with some amazing people that that want us involved so much that they have offered their home to us while we wait for home to sell. It is beautiful people like this that are part of our mess. And we wouldn’t have the chance to see this kind of beauty if we had lived within the organization.

And so the end of this chapter in the journey is soon coming to the end. The calling is crying out within us to be in Portland, surrounded by the people that we already love but have yet to meet. We can’t wait to be there.

So on we go with this beautiful mess, this journey to the brokenness that God can so use in all His servants. As we move on from here sometime in the first week of the new year, we crave your prayers. We need a safe journey to Portland, for our home to sell, and for the hearts of the people of Portland. That God would already be creating moments where they feel His presence, and then we would be able to be that divine nobody in their lives to lead them to the love that will never let them go.

The beginning

It is official the Lord has called us to move to portland and plant a church with Mark and Tracy Seger. We are so excited to step out in faith and obedience to what God has called us to. This site will be the place where we update the progress of this adventure. We are excited to have you a long for the journey.