I cannot believe it is December. I mean, really. In 12 days, Christian and I will be home for Christmas. What?! No way! Seriously! You bet. I keep having to tell myself that it really is December.

November flew by. We had some of our best friends come to visit, Thanksgiving, a board meeting, and adventures left and right. I didn't even have time to think about potentially sitting down to update this blog.

We have officially entered into the "we love it here but feel the weight of missing home" stage of moving. Maybe it is just that we are so close to walking through airport security to head that way, that it heightens that feeling - or maybe it is just been long enough that we truly feel how much we miss everyone back home. All that to say, we can't wait to see all of you Okies we will get to hug over Christmas!

We have been meeting people like crazy which has been so fun. From our apartment complex, grocery store, city police, other pastors, to business owners - we are meeting so many people. We love it!


Here are some pictures from the last month!

Katie and Jordyn came to explore our city and to see us! They were such an encouragement to us and we had a great time together. We loved having them here and wished they would stay forever!

Jason and Ashley Kennedy also came to visit - they taught in DTS and on Sunday morning. But, most importantly, we went with them to shop for a few things Ash wanted and they taught Christian how to swaddle a baby. I'm thinking that could come in pretty handy some day!

Toward the end of November, Christian and I decided to go hike at Forest Park on our day off. We had not been there before but had heard it is pretty cool. It is basically this huge forest just on the outskirts of Portland. We did "Hike Two" and loved it. We could have spent the whole day there except that it was drizzly and cold and I didn't bring snacks. ; ). We will definitely be going there again!

This is just ONE of the cool bridges in Portland. We are constantly in awe of the bridges here. For one - they are just cool. And two - the view from the bridges is incredible! I wish we could just pull over and stare at the city from the bridges but that would be a traffic violation and we can't have that.

Traveling Around - Our Day Off

Every week we have Friday and Saturday off unless there is an outreach or event scheduled. But, for the most part - we have it off.  Christian surprised me a couple of Fridays ago with a "traveling date" to drive West on Interstate-84. It was beautiful. I kept thinking, "God, am I really living here? Have you really brought me to a place of mountains, rivers, incredible beauty? Seriously?" For as long as I can remember, I have told people that I want to live in mountains, in a place full of trees and beauty and here I am. God KNOWS us. Here are some pictures from our drive...

 Yellow Leaves

 Old Highway along I-84

Remnants of Flowers

 Tree Canopy

 Train on Old Highway

 Multnomah Falls

 Multnomah Falls

 Trees Reflecting in Water

The Gorge

Around the House

Many of you have wondered what Portland looks like, or at least, what we see every day. Here are a few pics from "around the house."

        Make-shift Pantry                             Kitchen Table

A View of the Apartment Complex

Our Door Mat

Some Plants on the Balcony

The Beginnings of Rain... 

Food Carts.

A Quick Look at the City from the Car Window.

Discipleship Training School Started

I feel like maybe we should just all face the fact that, well, I'm not much of a blogger. So, for those of you reading, feel so loved because I'm posting for you all! I really do want to stay connected and want everyone to know what's going on, have a picture of where we live, etc.! It is sooooo important!

October marked the start of the Discipleship Training School. We have seven committed and super fun students. Tomorrow, we announce where we are taking them on their overseas outreach ; ). 

This is the class:

This is where we meet. It is the semi-finished basement of our office building. And guess what, we get to use it for free! And, we don't have to set up and tear down every week!

This is me of course... Christian was testing camera options.

The DTS retreat was at a mountain-ish cabin on Sandy River. It was beautiful. Here is the class eating dinner.

Here are a few pictures from around the cabin. Just to make you a tad jeali...

Well, it has now been... a month... I know, I know... since our last post. What was I thinking when I told myself I would keep everyone up to date via a blog? A blog - that requires uploading photos to the computer first, sitting down at the computer and looking at a screen - something I've never done pre-Portland? Hmmm. I'm not sure exactly. I did add it to my fall 2012 goals though so we'll see if I keep up.

The last month, the last few weeks really, have been busy.

We did another outreach at Barberry Apartment Complex:

Christian, Blake and I went to Costco and purchased 150 hot dogs, buns, chips and water bottles. We also tasted a smoothie, apple cider, and ice-cream made in a BlendTech blender. If BlendTech blenders weren't so expensive, I would have bought it right then and there. It will make soup, peanut butter, flour, smoothies, ice cream, cider, and so much more. We were thoroughly amazed.

The outreach involved food and fixing bikes. Needless to say, my role at the outreach was to play with kids and help facilitate food as I have no clue how to fix a bike.

We served hot dog after hot dog. Justin, lead pastor of The Door is on the far left in this photo.

Christian cooked the hotdogs on the grill - how he fit so many on there and got them all hot without burning them quickly enough to feed everyone - who knows. He is a grilling stud. That's for sure.

At one point, Christian and I looked behind us to find that his truck had become the kids' playground! They were playing all kinds of games, climbing on the cab, and seeing how hard they could rock the truck. Of course, we snapped a picture. ; )

The Sunday evening after the outreach, I needed alone time so Christian went to watch a movie with the Dorrohs and I stayed home to read. I ended up reading "Changing the World through Discipleship" by Robert Herber in one sitting. It was fabulous.

This is just a glimpse of what mornings look like for me. I don't always read and journal but more often than not, I am sitting at this table (Craigslist find) with my coffee. 

I walk almost every day down a street near our apartment. It is a quieter street compared to my other options and I like to look at everyone's gardens along the way. Even though people don't have large yards, they maximize the yard space they have to plant fruits and vegetables. I have a lot to learn but our little balcony garden is going strong! Here are pics from my walking path...

This is spinach from our balcony garden. We actually didn't eat it because it wilted so quickly (does anyone know why it wilts so fast?) but I enjoyed picking it. 

This is a pic from when we watched the Dorroh girls the other night. This little world changer gave Christian a hair do and could not have been more proud of herself. 

After Christian had his hair done, we decided to have a hair styling train. So fun!

This morning, Christian and I went on a breakfast date to Jam on Hawthorne. It is quickly becoming our favorite place to eat breakfast here. The food is great but even more than that, we love the servers. They are fun and make us laugh every time we come in. Christian got french toast and I had oatmeal chia blueberry pancakes. They were amazing.

A Couple of weeks ago, we were part of an outreach to Barberry Apartment Complex in Outer Southeast PDX. We, along with 13 others from The Door spent three days together on this outreach. During the mornings we would worship, pray and have practical teachings. In the afternoon, we went to the apartment complex to love on kids, share the gospel, and meet practical needs in the community. There, Christian and I connected with several influential families in the neighborhood. Their kiddos are in the pictures below. We were mainly looking for people of peace, people who were open to spiritual things, the gospel and to relationship with us. Our goal was to find these people, establish relationship and in the future move toward developing small groups in the neighborhood. We definitely found people of peace and have been blessed by the new relationships. In light of them, we are now learning conversational words in Swahili, Arabic, Spanish (obviously Christian doesn't have to learn Spanish), and French. I personally, could not be more excited. Here is a picture of me with the kiddos.

Here is one of Christian too...

This week we will mainly be unpacking remaining boxes, getting a little more settled in and working on some more practical life things like passing the Oregon drivers test, getting new license plates, changing over voter registration, and getting caught up on connecting with everyone!

Two weeks ago we arrived in Portland - our new home! Portland even threw us an "Okie Welcome" by hosting record high temps in the high 90's the two days we moved in before lowering back into the 60's and 70's. We were honored, of course. However, without air conditioning (most people don't have it up here), it got a little toasty in our apartment.

When we first arrived, there had been a miscommunication amongst our apartment managers and they were surprised (to say the least) by our arrival. We were hurried out of the office with keys in hand to go find our apartment. We opened the door to building 0 - 109 to find that the apartment itself wasn't prepared for our arrival either. I won't go into details, but just understand - it was dirty. Christian went back to the office to find out what could be done... ten minutes later he came back with keys to our recently updated apartment with more windows and space than the previous one. God gave us an upgrade and we aren't paying a penny more than the initial apartment! Yay!

Our boxes are semi-mostly unpacked at this point, we found a couch and table on CraigsList and are feeling more "at home" in our new place, though I do keep going to the wrong drawer for silverware and haven't figured out where in the world to put my purse when I get home. It always seems to be those small things that you have to think about after moving that take a while to get used to - and remind you that you aren't in Norman anymore.

We have jumped into things at The Door but are still taking it slow as we get to know the city. We just went to a training by City Team (organization in Portland) in how to do Discovery Bible Studies that was incredible. We loved it and are hoping to utilize DBS's  here. Yesterday, Christian and I shared our story about getting to Portland during service. That was fun and good to feel a little more known by the Church here.

This week we will be going to Barberry Apartments to do an outreach with several of our leaders. We will be praying for healing, playing with kids, and meeting practical needs of the community. Please agree with us for salvations, miracles, and new relationships. We are believing for a long-term discipleship movement to come from these apartments.

Keep in contact!
D