Starting Life in Portland

Well, we made it! We arrived in Portland on Saturday, January 10 and met the moving company at the house we had rented sight unseen. (Our teammates, the Revards had checked it out for us when we found it on Craig's List.) Our moving truck driver was a jolly Argentinian man named Cesar. He beat us to the house by a few minutes and called Josh to tell him enthusiastically how great the house was (in his wonderful Argentinian accent of course). "Joesh! It's fanTAStic! You will love it. It's a beaUTiful house!" We thought so too, even though approaching it and trying to think of it as "home" was totally surreal.

Our new friend, Cesar!

Our House!

Our first night in the house was strange, as we grappled with the idea that this would be home, when it felt like we were just staying in another hotel along the way. But, we've come a long way in 2 weeks, and it's starting to feel comfortable at least.

A few days after we arrived, we went to Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast with our teammates to a retreat where we met some other church planters and pastors. The coast in beautiful! We stayed in a place right on the beach in front of the famous Haystack Rock (which apparently appears in the movie The Goonies if you know your 80's history). Highlights of this short trip were some great seafood, a whale sighting, and meeting some really great, passionate people.

Us on the beach in front of Haystack

Haystack Rock at sunset

Our teammates, Duke and Caroline

Upon our return from Cannon Beach, our moms came to visit and help us unpack! They were a huge help. While they were here, our house was transformed from a nest of boxes into the beginnings of a cozy home. (Cozy is a bit of an understatement when we realized how much stuff we had! Ugh!)We didn't make em work the whole time, though. We explored Portland, ate at some of the many unique restaurants and even spent one day snow skiing on the slopes of Mt. Hood! They weather was unusually sunny for all the days they were here, which was awesome.

Since they left to go home, we have continued to work on organizing our house and our life here (Lowe's, Ikea, changing banks, insurance, etc.) and learning about the city of Portland. It is a great place with so many cool things to do, and all kinds of neat people. We are embracing the process of making it home, but it still feels like a long vacation at this point. We've had our twinges of home-sickness as we realize we are here for the long haul. We feel totally up for the challenge, but are realizing that the challenges will be real and require faith and strength.

We've loved the Lodgepole gatherings and getting to know the core-group members. Duke wanted to start this semester by having everyone share their life story/spiritual journey. As we have listened to each one, it's so crazy to see how differently God has worked in each person's life and how "random" it is that we have all found ourselves in the same living room, pursuing Him together (and by "random" I mean not random at all, but mysterious in the purposes of God!). He is doing something, and it's exciting to think about what all it might be. He's pretty cool.

coming next....a virtual tour of our house.