You Snow What?

Well, not exactly snow but we had a rad hail storm today and our house looked like a winter wonderland... 2 days from May =) Here are a few pictures, enjoy!

Week 3, Church, Photography, and some fun times

Well it has been a week so now I need to post again. Lots of stuff has gone on in the past week. As I mentioned in my last post, I did go and register my car, get Oregon License Plates and A license. The license actually came in the mail so it is nice having that. Friday afternoon I went out and did some photography in Tualatin at this one creek/bird habitat place. I didn't really get and good shots of birds, but did see and Osprey which was pretty wicked. Here are a few pictures I took that day, that place was gorgeous.It was great for my to get out and just do some photography! Later that night we had a birthday party for one girl from the church, Amanda, and had a bunch of people come over to our house to play games. That was a lot of fun! It was nice to just hang out with a bunch of people.

So now on saturday, we Finally got some BEAUTIFUL weather. It has been overcast/rainy for quite a while so it was very nice to get some beautiful weather to spice things up a little bit. The three guys in my house: Nick, Paul and me decided to take our shotguns and Nick's handgun and go off into Oregon country to shoot clays and just do some man stuff. We had an amazing time, here are a few pictures to show.
The middle is Paul and the Right is Nick

Men and a bunch of guns work well together! It was a lot of fun! As you can see, we were actually right up by snow too, which was awesome!

Ok, now to the 3rd church meeting of Colossae! This week was really good and I am just continually stoked on where God is leading this church and what it is going to look like. This week Chuck taught out of Matthew Chapter 22, talking about when the Saducees ask Jesus what the greatest commandment is and he tells them "Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind" In this passage Chuck was really showing the importance of drawing near to the Lord and making God your primary focus. Before we can serve and be "Jesus" to the world, we need to be in constant commune with God. Though we want to serve the Lord through doing things, we need to first be filled with the Lord and we will naturally live for Him through that. We had about 25 people again this week and I am just continually blessed! After another hard week on the Job search, being able to worship the Lord together has been great. This week we sang Oh Praise Him by David Crowder and Lord You Have My Heart.

If you can, pray for my job situation, because I hear you need a job to survive in the real world?!?!

...And now they're retired...

So today I feel like I am officially an Oregonian, since I not only got an Oregon license but my car no longer has California license plates.
So as you can see, my car no longer bares the burdens of a californian... ok I don't really know what that means,but Oregon plates are pretty sweet. (I put on my Cal Poly Alumni license plate holder just to show that I still have some california pride!) Not much else to say except that I am still Jobless..... so if you have a job you want to give me, awesome!

First week in Portland and Second church service

So I've made it through a whole week in this new state that I now call home. The week was a little more of a challenge than I initially anticipated but God is good and I have still been enjoying my time. Though i know that there was a possibility that me not knowing anyone up here except for a few people would lead to loneliness and possibly be a little bummed out, I honestly thought that I could completely handle it and that it truly wouldn't affect me. Well, it wasn't horrible but there were definite nights where I was just like "this sorta sucks, i really have no one to hang out with and this is just a complete social change". Luckily I am already beginning to become acclimated to my new home and am starting to make some friends. Ok, quick picture break before I add more words.
Though it does rain a lot, we still get some pretty sweet sunsets! The body of believers that we have right now at the church is great and it has been a blessing to start to develop relationships with some of them! I went to a concert with my new friends Kyle and Mary (a married couple about my age, I am noticing a certain marriage trend these days....) They have been great to hang out with. We also had our first poker night with the guys and that was awesome, always a good way to have some fun and really get to know people quick!

Well today was week 2 of COLOSSAE! It was a really neat service which had the theme of Christianity being personal and understanding the importance of our one on one with Christ. Chuck spoke out of the passage in Mark chapter 7 where Jesus stepped aside with a deaf and mute man, and healed him. Showing more importance of his interpersonal relationship with this man over the impact it had on those who saw the miracle. We had about 20 people this week (some sick and some out of town) but it was great. The worship songs were Only You by David Crowder Band and Everything by Tim Hughes. After that we all went over to Geoff and Stacy Leatherman's house and cooked up some Papa Murphy's pizzas and watched the Laker game/ socialized. I am already being blessed through having an intimated church atmosphere where people are really engaged in the meeting! There is probably much more to say, but I will save some for later.

Colossae, Our First Church Meeting (4/13/08)

So today was our first church service for Colossae (the cornerstone church plant in Tigard, Oregon) and I was quite encouraged this morning! We had our meeting at Chris and Sharron Newman's house and it was just a rad experience. There was almost 25 people there for the meeting, which was amazing! I led two songs of worship to start the morning which included: Marvelous Light and Everlasting God. We put powerpoint on the big screen tv and just worshiped together which was both organic and awesome! After that Chuck began to speak on the end of chapter 6 through chapter 7 of Romans. He conveyed the importance of understanding our Identity, specifically our spiritual identity. Though the sin in our body is still prone to break The Law, we are no longer defined by that since we died to it. This is encouraging as we can often times become consumed by our failures rather than rejoicing in God's reign over failure and sin. I am excited to see how God begins to move in us as leaders and the things he starts to do in the Portland area. Overall this was a very encouraging service!

A few pictures of my new house/room

I don't really have too much to write about, just pictures. Oh, and don't judge me for my canary yellow room, it is very spring (and I didn't paint it).The Flower is for my dad, he loves his flowers!

Oregon is now Home!?!

So as of last night at about 9pm I officially made it to my new home in Tigard, Oregon. For those of you who don't know where that it, it is about 8 miles south of Portland so often times i reference my new location as Portland. The drive wasn't that bad, I spent time in San Luis Obispo and Pleasanton before the final 10 hour drive yesterday. It was nice because my buddies Tyler and Nick caravaned with me up to Portland, which made the drive a bit easier. Once you pass Redding California, the drive is absolutely gorgeous. If I weren't driving the whole time I would have some sweet pictures to post. I don't think I have any good pictures to post for this roadtrip but only ones that I will paint with words (cheesy I know). I already have my room set up and now I am just getting ready for this new life. Last night as I was unpacking and setting up my room I had somewhat of a Mental Freak Out as everything sort of hit me at once. I think I was just exhausted and realized how big of a change this is but I am much better today after I got some good sleep. I honestly have now clue what this journey is going to look like yet but I am excited to see the opportunities.

Today I went to run some errands, one was starting a new bank account with Washington Mutual since there are no Union Banks of California around. My question is, if Washington mutual is in Oregon, why can't UBOC be? Prejudice.... oh well, I will deal with it. The lady I set up my account with was the first person I have talked to besides the people I already know since I got up here. She was very nice and is actually interested in checking out our church once we get it going. She wants to find a place that her children would like to go. So that was encouraging in itself. God is blessing me already with this housing arrangement and I am just excited to see how things begin to fall in line. God is faithful and I have peace in this. I think I should have more to say, but at the moment, i really don't.... So I will post more later.

This Is Where The Rubber Meets The Road

So today I completely loaded my car with the "essentials" to survive for a few months in Portland before I do my big U-haul furniture move. To some people, they may thing that I am silly because the essentials... what takes up most of my car is music equipment, but I really don't think i could survive without it. Above is a picture of my loaded car (luckily thanks to tinted windows and a big blanket covering everything in the back, you can't see it!) And my new addition to the car, the X-CARGO rooftoop carrying system!!! I was trying to make that more dramatic than it really is, but truly, this is going to make my trip so that I can actually bring all of my clothes. I've heard that nude ministry isn't really accepted in most states, so this is a huge plus!

Yesterday was my last day at my temp job at Creative Benefits being a Claims Processor. I know a lot of you are intrigued by this title (when i say a lot of you, i mean my mom, dad and maybe sister who are all the people who read this blog haha). But ya, i can definitely say that I was ready to finish this transition job, though it did bless me with enough funds to be able to move to Portland before I have a job lined up. It was harder to leave than I thought it would be though because I didn't expect to make friends there. But alas, I must move forward. Last night we had the Tiltons, the Blands and the Williams over for one last family hoorah (which Flanksteak Sandwiches are a must!) This was a great time and a blessing to be able to hang out with family and close friends but once again did remind me how I am going to miss everyone tremendously. It doesn't make things easier when everyone is trying to convince you to stay in California, but I am doing what I feel led to do. Well this week is going to be a lot of fun because I am making a roadtrip out of it. I will be stopping in Santa Barbara and SLO tomorrow and will stay in SLO until wednesday. Then I will go up to Pleasanton for a day and finally drive the 10 hour stretch to Portland. My goal is to take a ton of pictures and to make some fun posts but at the end of the week... my new home... PORTLAND, OREGON!