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.
