It’s not hard to see why people fall in love with the Pacific Northwest. We just returned from a trip to Oregon and Washington and, if not for our call to Haiti (not to mention the frigid climate!), I might be ready to make the move myself.Of course, the Northwest’s draw on me may not have so much to do with the beauty of the surroundings as with the wonderful people we encountered there. Our trip was “double-duty” – with the opportunity to visit with family at my nephew’s wedding AND opportunities to share with friends and strangers about the Lord’s work in Haiti. (While our kids enjoyed the week in Indiana at Grandma’s, spending time with her and various local friends.)Our main hosts for the week were our good friends, Paul and Jen. They arranged the speaking engagements, got us to and from the Portland airport, fed us, housed us, made us laugh, and poured hospitality all over us. Their love for Haiti has brought them to the island on several trips now, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to visit them in their home neighborhood of Albany, Oregon, south of Portland.In the interest of keeping as current as possible (while wanting to share more pictures than should go into a single blog post), I am starting at the tail end of our trip – our side trip to Newport, Oregon and the ice cream social with the fine folks from the Dever Conner church.Our hosts in Newport were Jan and Chester (once little more than acquaintances, now dear friends!). Sunday evening, they fed us some wonderful Thai food and then introduced us to their congregation at South Beach Church for evening worship. SB Church meets in a nondescript warehouse …
Which, on the inside, looks kind of like an upscale bar. Melissa and I have never seen a church quite like it and we were so impressed with the spirit of the worship. Those gathered together were from clearly diverse backgrounds but they shared an obvious love for Jesus.
We only had five minutes to share with the entire congregation, but we were able to speak with a couple of folks after the service about possibly coming to Haiti themselves. I get excited about these sorts of conversations because you never know when you are participating in some sort of divine appointment. Time will tell!Before heading out, Jan gave us a couple of SB Church sweatshirts to help keep us warm along the coast.
Jan and Chester had offered to host us overnight before we headed back to Albany and we were so glad they had made the offer. It would have been a shame to leave Newport without stopping to admire the beauty of this special place.So, on our way to their house after worship, we stopped here …
To admire this …
The kids were certainly happy to see the donuts the next morning. The photo below is how they looked BEFORE I accidentally dropped the box at the Portland airport.
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