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| Lots of love for and from Oregon |
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| Sunday Night, July 20 was opening night for the 2014 Summer Celebration; the above panorama was taken early in the service, and the auditorium was nearly filled by the end. |
We knew that there were several strong churches in Oregon, but we had only visited a few of them prior to our departure in January 2012. We have nine congregations supporting us at a high level from this region, so it was a priority for us to get to them during this home assignment. We were honored to be asked to share at the Summer Celebration; we were humbled and blessed by how much they asked us to share. I began the week as the keynote speaker for the Summer Celebration on Sunday evening. In a great move by the planning committee, they attempted to have only speakers under the age of 40 for the week--so, I was the "senior speaker" coming in at 41 years--something my daughter loved to repeat :) I began the message with appreciation for the opportunity to share with the gathering, and I asked members of our supporting churches to stand--about 3/4 of the auditorium stood to their feet, which just blew us away!
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| sleep-preaching? |
On Wednesday morning, we shared a conference on the various children's ministries in Egypt and Lebanon; and that morning ended with a prayer of blessing and commissioning for our family, led by Area Administrator Rev. David Shrout.
On Wednesday evening, I was asked to lead the ordination prayer for two women who were being ordained by the state ministries during the worship service; and then we led the children out of the worship service to lead their evening program.
On Thursday morning, I shared the final message of the week, teaching the youth in their closing session. There were at least 150 youth on the campus for the Summer Celebration. Our kids were all able to participate in morning conferences and activities throughout the week.
Beyond the scheduled sharing, we were also sharing privately and personally with so many wonderful people who had questions, similar experiences, or just wanted to get to know us better. We were so honored by so many seniors like Mark, pictured here, who is 97-years old and who attempted to be at every one of our sessions! Another 95-year old saint remembered me preaching at her congregation 2.5 years ago; when she heard that I was the speaker at the Sunday night service, she was so disappointed that she missed and had friends bring her the rest of the week, and then we saw her again as we shared at her congregation this past Sunday night! All across Washington and Oregon, senior after senior have blessed and encouraged us with prayers and sincere interest in the work in the Middle East.
We cannot highlight the Summer Celebration without talking about the Missions Commission. The regional ministries of the Church of God in Oregon and SW Washington have a group of leaders from different congregations who help highlight and promote the outreach ministries and missional involvement of each of the congregations in the area. Chaired by Jack Hansen of the Vancouver 1st ChoG, and including members like (forgive me if I miss anyone): Terry Shrout (Oak Park ChoG, Salem, OR), Danelle Sokolov (Lynchwood ChoG, Portland, OR), Nancy Kernut (Rainier Community Church, Rainier, OR), Leslie Marchant (Mt. Scott ChoG, Portland, OR), J Brown (Springfield ChoG), and Donna Johnson (Holladay Park ChoG, Portland, OR). These work together with the various mission committees to provide events, resources, information and inspiration to keep the missionary activity of the Church going. It's an impressive team with sincere hearts for this work; they are interested in sharing ideas with other state or area ministries on creating & improving collaborative networks like this.
Now that you know a bit about the Missions Commission, let me highlight what they have done for us. They created and asked for the opportunities in which we shared during the Summer Celebration. They provided meal tickets for our family (including Alexis) during the week. They secured lodging for the girls near the campus so they could come and go more independently, and they secured a lodging for the rest of us at the Hillside House for the week so we wouldn't be living out of a suitcase. Now, that might sound like your ordinary care, so let me take it to the extraordinary:
- Jack communicated with us regularly with emails and Skype for the last 6 months to keep up with our scheduling to help promote the various times and places in which we would be sharing during our entire trip to the Northwest, as well as asking questions about our various needs and desires to find out how they could best serve us; and,
- They collected funds for our rental van that we have used since our arrival on July 12 and will continue to use until we leave on August 11--and collected an additional $400 in gas money--(even though the first week of this rental, and several days next week, are spent visiting churches not in this association); and,
- They found and secured a second house for the week after Summer Celebration so that we could all be together as a family and have more of a "home" experience in the midst of all this traveling; and,
- They found out that Keli and I needed to see doctors for routine and possibly specific examinations and they arranged for appointments with a Christian medical practice in the Portland area; and,
- They are regularly updating our travels with pictures and reports from the various events and locations with whom we have been sharing.
All this and more is way beyond the "call of duty" - we have been blessed by the continuing prayers and support of this region, and doubly blessed by this care.
We have been able to begin to take in some of the sights here in Oregon. We went downtown on Saturday...
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| doing our part to "Keep Portland Weird" |
And we plan on seeing Multnomah Falls and climbing Beacon Rock out in the Columbia River Gorge tomorrow. One of our supporters, Mt. Scott :), have generously provided a 2-night holiday at a hotel in Seaside along the Pacific coast later this week--we re-watched "The Goonies" as we will pass near Astoria on the way :). We hope we will also get to take in the The Grotto overlooking the city, too. As you can see, we have been blessed in so many ways during this part of our journey--and there's more to come.
Thank you for your continuing interest, support and prayers...
