Archive for category Family News

Shipping out?

Entering Seattle after our 4th Anniversary on San Juan Island

Some of you might be wondering what our departure status is, and right now the best we can say is that we are in a holding pattern. We’re feeling lead by God to take care of some things on the home front here prior to leaving. There is a lot to address before we depart, everything from fund raising, storage, medical things, employment, visas, language learning (hard to do in the midsts of everyday life), and many other fine details.

We are prayerfully looking at each step, and will keep on knocking, we know God’s promise of REACHing Poland is true, and we look forward to the day we land and start the next book of our lives.

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Fund Raiser update!

NoneToday! Sunday 7/18 – We still have lots of items to give away with your donation! Come by and give a donation to receive a gift in that category! Our house is full of items that we need to get rid of, so please come by and see what you might get!  - All gifts are tax deductible and go towards our deployment fund. Thanks!

Our house address is: 2546, NW 3rd Terrace, Gresham, OR97030

Items for a suggested donation of $3
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It’s time! We’re moving away

Friends! Pass this along….

We’re auctioning off (almost) everything!

Save the dates! We will be auctioning nearly everything in our home on Sat/Sun July 17/18 and 24/25! All proceeds will go towards our deployment costs. Our goal is to raise three months worth of our living and ministry budgets – $17,000, our emergency reserves. All winnings/gifts are tax deductible. Pass it on, let others know!

Details can be found on the events page.

We’re leaving Portland, for a little while

On July 31st we will start off on a three month journey, to do an intensive internship with C.A.R.E. in Baldwin, Michigan. C.A.R.E. is a ministry for survivors of traumatic abuse, usually resulting in memory loss from early childhood trauma. God has lead us this direction to equip us with the tools to address survivors in Poland and to equip ministers throughout Poland in addressing the needs of traumatic abuse victims and survivors. Through intensive prayer therapy and unconditionally loving survivors through the memories of their trauma C.A.R.E. directs God’s truth and love to the deepest wounds imaginable.

Learn more about C.A.R.E

Have our plans changed?

Nope! We still plan on leaving for Poland (pending all our deployment funds are raised!) sometime in November, we will return to Portland in November, and if our deployment funds are good to go, we’ll be leaving on a jet plain, not knowing when we’ll be back again. If fund raising still needs to happen, we’ll remain in Portland to continue fund raising. We see this internship with C.A.R.E. as the icing on the cake in our training and equipping.

From our two year associate degrees from the Oregon College of Ministry, our years of serving and leading the young adults group at East Hill Church and cultivating our home group, we feel God’s hand in each part. It’s been many years, much learning, a lot of heart ache, always an amazing encounter with God and although unplanned, we know C.A.R.E. will be a cornerstone in building the DNA we wish to impart to Polish leaders and new church families across Poland.

Let us tell you why in under 3 min!

Watch this quick clip and let us explain our heart for Poland. More to come soon, this is just the beginning! See it here.

House for sale

Our land lord is selling this wonderful house we have called home for nearly 4 years. He hopes to have it sold by the time we vacate. Click here for more info and pictures of items going on auction!

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The next trip!

All of us in Krakow OCT 08

We have been fairly low key about some plans which have been brewing for a little while… a trip to Poland in January! It will be from January 11th to the 28th, God has provided essentially all of the funds already, so no fund-raising!  We are excited and at the same time in a lot of prayer, we will be meeting with friends and leaders learning about many of the details it will take for us to make the big move.  We ask for you to intercede with us now, as we know there will be many details and more obstacles which can seem overwhelming.

The goal of this trip is two fold.  First, take as much opportunity to observe ministry, with our friends in Kraków and in Wrocław (we’ll be there too, more on that in a minute).  We’ll be attending every event we can, having coffee with every person we can, and praying a lot.  We need to begin making these appointments now – which can be difficult, so please be praying that people’s schedules allow us to be used by God.

Second, we will be meeting with other Foursquare friends, leaders, and missionaries in Wrocław (about 3 hours west of Kraków).  They are the leaders of The Rock church and we are excited to share with them what God has laid on our hearts, to learn from them, and simply fellowship and glean what God is doing through them.

We covet your prayers and look forward to what God is doing!  If you’re Polish and reading this, let’s schedule some time for coffee!  :)

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Video Recorded!

So last night we were able to do the video. Lets just say that Travis was made for this and me…not so much. I think I prefer the stage. One good thing is that there will be bloopers at the end of the video so make sure to wait for it. It will be 95% me and the rest maybe Emma. (Yes, she is on the video and did fabulous. Here are some pictures of our adventure last night. Enjoy.

Travis and Emma in the lime light

Nathaneal- the mastermind that will make all my mistakes look good. Bless him...

Emma loves visitors to our house, and ones that bring toys?! Even better. My little producer

Trav looking so comfortable infront of a video camera.

I really loved all the lights

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Trip to Seattle

Recently we were in Seattle for about two weeks, catching up with friends and family.  One of the things we did was meet with Jeff Roper the Foursquare Missions area missionary for Europe, pretty much he’ll be our “boss” once we leave next fall for Poland to live there!

We took the oppurtunity on our way to Alexis’ cousin’s wedding on Bainbridge Island to take a family picture on a ferry.

On the ferry to Bainbridge Island

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An update! Finally!

The radio silience of this blog has certainly been an indicator of our real life, but finally we have taken the time to make a newsletter.  Check it out.  Hopefully some more action will take place around here.

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The heart of our missions family…

I finally took the time today to check out some videos that our missions organization (Foursquare Missions International) has posted on Facebook and my heart and soul were filled with joy at the great things God is doing through our church “family”.  There are a lot of amazing organizations out there, and we plan on working with all of the Church and Foursquare is just a small piece of what God is doing – we’re just excited to be a part of something has held onto the importance of relationship over structure.

Check out all the videos here.  My favorite and most exciting one for me is this one.

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Moving forward

Another quick update, we are in the process of finalizing with Foursquare what our ministry in Poland will look like.  We are excited and looking forward to the months ahead.  We have a lot of faith steps to take, however we are so thankful for our church family, our friends, and all of the support we have received to date.

Many days we feel stuck in some kind of no-mans land, we know life will be dramatically changing and we know God is preparing our hearts for this.  Some days are so full of excitement for the future and other days we dwell on our friendships and relationships here that we won’t be in day to day contact with, in many senses the grieving process is beginning.

Continue to pray for us as we walk both in the now, and into the future.

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April Missions Training

In April we will be going to Los Angeles to Foursquare Headquarters for a missionary training intensive. It is 10 straight days of all-day instruction, much like a college intensive.  We have a number of reading materials to get through, such as:

  • Ministering Cross-Culturally by Sherwood Lingenfelter and Marvin Mayers.  Please take tests on pages 29 -35 prior to training and bring these with you to Orlando.
  • Doing What Jesus Did by John and Sonja Decker
  • Cross-Cultural Conflict by Duane Elmer
  • Disciples of All Nations: Continual Mission Until He Comes by John Amstutz with workbook by Gary Matsdorf     Please complete workbook responses prior to training.
  • Re-Entry by Peter Jordan
  • Culture Shock Poland

Some of it is required before the training and other parts are before we are deployed.  Eitherway it’s a lot to get in for a fully invovled family.  We are also scrambling to find someone to come with us (airfare & expenses paid, thanks to our Church) to baby-sit Emma while we are away during the days.  We’ve had a few people be interested but it just hasn’t worked out for anyone.

So that’s a quick update on what’s going on with our missions work.

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Emma’s dedication

Emma was dedicated last night, see pictures and read more about it on Travis’ blog.

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