We're Moving to Portland, OR

I made the announcement this morning at church that we would be moving to Portland in a few months. We've had a great year in Tampa working with Journey and Impact and wouldn't have traded it for the world but we've known all along that this was a temporary stop along the way to something else. As most of you know we made a trip to the Northwest in March for vacation but really with the motive to see if that was the place that we wanted to be in the long term. Out of all the places we went Portland really stuck out to us as a phenomenal city with great potential and need for new churches and a place that we would love to live.

We're going to be leaving Tampa July 26th for Illinois where we will spend most of the month of August. Brad Prunty is getting married near Chicago, we're going to see our families and then fly out to do a wedding in Seattle and find a place to live in Portland and then once we're back in Illinois we'll start our drive out west. We've got all kinds of stops along the way. It will be a long but adventurous trip. We'll be...

-visiting Jerry, a friend of Kelli's in Leavenworth, KS.
-visiting with Mark Silvers, a friend in Cache, OK to talk about church planting.
-visiting with Doug, a new blog friend and his fiance in Fort Collins, CO.
-visiting all of the Mormons in Salt Lake City
-visiting Boise, ID for no apparent reason. Anyone know what's in Boise???
-Finally arriving in Portland on August 27th.

Why am I telling you all this? I have no idea. But I know there are some friends who still do not know this information and while we wish we could tell you all in person, it's a little difficult to arrange so I apologize for letting you know over the blog world.

So what are we doing in Portland?
-Kelli got the job as the business manager at the Salvation Army which is SWEET!
-I am going to Western Seminary
-we're going to be hanging out with The Evergreen Community to learn an organic way of planting a church and God willing will be planting a church in the coming years in Portland.

Needless to say, there are a lot of opportunities for us in Portland and this is the time in our lives to take off and start over so we jumped on the opportunity.

I can't say how faithful God has been in this whole thing. When Kelli was laid off from her job a few months ago we didn't even know how we would pay our bills not to mention the thousands of dollars it costs to move but God has provided every dime in very strange ways!

For all of those in Tampa, let me just say that I've had a blast in the last year with Impact and at Journey and with all the people I've met since I've been down here. Wouldn't have traded it for anything so thank you! We will miss you much.