The Land Of The Sun

So I went and visited my family in San Diego for the last week of march. It was quite a nice trip, to be able to go get a little sun and see the fam. It had been 5 months since the last time I saw everyone and lets just say, especially in the case of my nephew matthew, it was long overdue. My nephew has grown so much from 1 year old to 17 months. It was crazy. He can run around, he can say some words now as well. It is so stinking cute. For instance, he can say "no no no", "on" which comes out more like "non". He likes to say "doggy" and a bunch of other things. This was a great week though, that wasn't exactly too relaxing but a lot of fun hanging out with family and friends non-stop. Of course, to my demise, the last day of my venture I got sick. This made the plane ride home today not too fun. Luckily i didn't have to use one of those fun little bags in the seat compartment ahead of me, but I did pray continually that God would keep that from happening because I definitely felt like i could have.As you can see, matthew is still a majorly cute kid. I got to hang out with him every day. I had a great time with the family and over all it was just an amazing time!

It has been over a month since i have written on here, so there is probably a lot more than just my trip to San Diego. We have been in the new church building for a little while now and are getting acclimated to being there. I am starting to get all the technical things figured out and it has been amazing. This sunday was my first sunday away from the church in 10 months and I think that was a blessing in a way because I can look and see how I missed it and the people in the body. God is continually moving and I think we are in a spot that can be tough. That is, we have been here for almost exactly a year and it is easy to get in a rut and just become complacent or just be used to routine, so now I especially need to focus on continually growing and progressing with the body. To continually come back to this idea of "embracing the hope that I say that I have in Christ".

Life is good, sometimes a little tricky and confusing. But God is continually sovereign and is the source of true joy.

Colossae Has A Building!

This is the room in front of the sanctuary where we gather, hang out and on this day eat food.





Another picture of the gathering space and the kitchenette


A picture from the sound booth of our sanctuary

Another picture of the sanctuary
The front of our building

Comfortably Cold

I am officially used to living in a place where 30 degree weather doesn't send your body into a shock but simply enjoys the crisp embrace. Talking no longer carries weight without the steam of your breath. Most nights get below freezing, so this becomes a frost laden land but the last few days have actually gotten up to 58-60 degrees, which yes I realize this doesn't seem like much to all those southern californians but truly it was wonderful to sit outside in a t-shirt and enjoy the golden sun rays. But I still believe nights were meant to be cold. There is a comfort that I don't think you can get when it is hot. Being able to burrow within a down comforter and blankets and sleep so comfortably is amazing. I unlike a lot of people have the tendency of being naturally hotter than a lot of people (temperature wise of course) which makes sleeping in the summer time miserable. But I definitely love sleeping when I am actually cold enough to enjoy blankets.

Portland Trailblazers vs Cleveland Cavaliers
Just a few weeks ago I was awarded to tickets to the Blazers game which was simply AMAZING! My work has season tickets so they were great seats and not only was it fun to be going to my first live NBA game ever, but I also got to see Lebron James, one of the best players in basketball, play in person. He definitely didn't dissappoint. I took one of my bud's from church and just enjoyed a great game

Colossae's New Building
We have officially moved into our new building for Colossae and that is so exciting! I got to do all the audio video install work and just help get it ready within the 2 day window we had before our first service in it. I put in a nice 13 hour day of work but it turned out great! God has truly blessed us and given us an amazing place to meet and use for His glory. We are still seeking ways we can tactfully use this building to bring joy to God and to live out our call to serve the poor, hungry, cold, etc.... Some pictures to come soon.

Sun Within A Cloudy Land

So this morning I was thinking about it, and I realized it had been quite sometime since I have written a blog entry. So I went on just to see, and tomorrow will make it a month... so I apologize to anyone who has been waiting for something to come up. Well something crazy has happened over the last week.

We have had 7 days in a row of CLEAR SUNNY DAYS!

This may not come across as strange to you but we had 10 days straight of rain before that so this has been a refreshing little break. Still winter though, staying in the 30's and 40's. Thankfully the snow has been gone for about 3 weeks now and we are back to pseudo normal weather.

Well I bet there is probably a lot that has gone on since the last time I updated this... Lets see, we I had my first holiday season completely away from my family. That was definitely a new experience! One that was definitely a little difficult but I think very building as well. It was unique and truly didn't feel like i really had christmas but we did have snow on christmas here, so that was nice!

One thing that is really exciting is that Colossae is going to be moving into our new building at the end of the month! This is really exciting because I think it is going to truly bless our body to be in this more "permanent" location and this building will much better suite the kids ministries. But what this also means is that next week is going to be a solid week of work during nights and mornings to get the building ready for service the following week. I am officially the Colossae Tech Guy as well now and will be doing all the audio/video install work. This is just an exciting time. It definitely gives me stuff to look forward to and allows me to utilize my gifts a little more and some of my college knowledge. There is probably a lot more but there is the update for now. For visual stimulation, look below. This is a picture i took on a beautiful evening at Hoyt Arboretum at the end of the snow.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Trent in the snow

Trent in the sky

My table on the deck behind my house





My Crazy Winterland Backyard




Snow Angel





My House!












These are just some pictures of our crazy winter weather

Guess What?!? IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!

So, I heard the potential for it this weekend, but WOW! We got about 4 inches of snow today and it was ridiculous. This is going to be mainly photos, especially from snow football today!!!! So amazing
Look! It is snowing where I live!!!!


A picture of the winning team!! Ryan, Eric, And Me!!! We won 6-5! Very Close Game
Well this was me tackling coty while face planting myself in the snow. I also gave myself a dead leg in the process!

I Cut Down My Own Christmas Tree!!!!!!

So I am so stoked! Today I got to go cut my own christmas tree. It is something that I have seen in movies and have always thought would be a cool thing to do. My roommate Trent and I went out into the hills of Wilsonville to this tree farm. Since it was out in the boonies, we looked around to make sure that we weren't going to get shot by some hick, but it was actually quite legit. We set out on our quest for a Douglas Fir Christmas tree. (You may be wondering, why specifically douglas fir? Well we could get and size doug fir for 20 dollars) Here, I am going to throw some pictures in here to help tell the story.
So of course, I thought that it was only appropriate that I would go cut down a christmas tree in a plaid shirt and work boots. Here I am as we began to look for the perfect tree. Oh ya, that is the saw of death! (at least for our tree)
We first began to look at some smaller trees, more like 5 foot or maybe 6 foot... well, when you can get any height tree for the same price, and you have a competitive man with two saws, sometimes you go a little overboard.
We found the perfect tree, just under 9 footer! Though the only way to cut it down was to lay on the ground.
Here is Trent my roommate. He finished the cutting of the tree and then held both the blade and the tree in victory. Then it was time for me to prove my manhood.
Only one caption fits this picture... "Seasons Greetings"!
Finally, the highlander was put into action and the tree was taken to our lovely home. What a beautiful story right?!?! It will be even better if it actually snows this weekend! hope you all enjoy that little picture story