For the last 14 years that we have been married my wife and I have been living in the Philadelphia area. If you count the 4 years at college, we’ve been here for 18 years.
For 13 years we have been serving at The Well, our church here in Philly and its with a lot of bittersweet excitement that we are officially moving our family to Portland, OR. We’ll be living in a town called Clackamas, which in the Southeast side of the city – I guess you could say we are “taking our talents to Southeast Portland”. (See what I did there?)
We have loved, loved, loved our community at The Well. With both of us originally being from out of town this community has become family for us. I look back on the last 13 years in leadership at The Well and I am so proud to call myself part of what God did, has been doing and will do in this community. God has truly been gracious to us. I have worked alongside some amazing leaders, served with some amazing friends and honestly, I have few regrets. I say few regrets because even those (many) moments of failure, hardship and pain have served to make me who I am today. We are leaving behind a group of amazing leaders to lead the community into the future. I’m excited about how The Well will grow and evolve as my leadership there comes to a formal end. I look forward to staying engaged in what’s going on in the community and hope I’ll be able to occasionally lend a fresh set of eyes and ears, even if its from a distance.
As we begin this next season of our lives in Portland, I will continue my daily work as a web developer for Pure Charity. I love this company, our mission and the people I get to work alongside of everyday. Since the company’s home office is in Arkansas (no we didn’t think about moving there!) I get to take my work with me with very little transition needed.
I will also begin serving with Christian Associates International as part of their Regional Advancement Team in the Pacific Northwest. I’ll be working with other regional leaders to help train, coach and equip pastors, church planters and communities as they seek to live out their callings in their communities through church planting and discipleship. I’m really looking forward to both contributing my experience to the mission of CA as well as learning from a group of seasoned leaders in a whole now context.
Until then, we’re spending the next 30 or so days figuring out how to get a family of 6 across the country (we will be leaving Philadelphia in late July).
Thanks for all your prayers, friendship and support as we continue to follow God’s call in our lives.