Portland

I had a beautiful weekend in Portland! I fell in love with the city from the start and it was great to see my friend Abbey. I drove down Saturday morning and it took me just over 2 hours. Abbey had to work so I got there and walked around downtown and explored the city a bit. The weather was perfect. I went into a Buffalo Wild Wings downtown to watch the Illinois v Purdue game Saturday afternoon and literally ran into an Illinois alumni group that had gathered to watch the game. It was awesome! Except that Illinois lost...:( After Abbey got off work we went for a little run downtown...

Sunday morning Abbey had to work again so I went and checked out her church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship, and really enjoyed. Then I went and ate lunch at her restaurant and watch her in action. Lunch was good but let me tell you, watching Abbey run around in that little pink apron was even better. :) While she finished out her shift I went back downtown to the Riverfront to enjoy the weather. I strapped my rollerblades on and spent a couple hours roller blading around the water front path. It was great! The path goes across the bridge and makes a big loop. Below are some pictures from my roll...

Mt. Hood

Beautiful!

And to cap off our weekend we went to the Trail Blazers v Jazz game. I've got to admit that I never would have considered myself an NBA fan until the last couple years. Now being in a city without an NBA team (by the way, Seattle is still pretty touchy about that), I kind of miss it. The Jazz won the game in OT which made me one of the 10 happy Jazz fans in the stands. But it was a blast either way!

Deron Williams during warm ups-not his best game.

The Rose Garden

Abbey's friend Phil (far right) is on the Blazers stunt team.

All in all, great weekend. I can't wait to go back in a few weeks!

I live here.

I'm starting to get more comfortable here. I think there were a couple pieces of Memphis that I was holding on to. And God, in His graciousness, peeled my fingers off about 10 days ago allowing me to be fully here. Don't get me wrong, I still miss Memphis and in some ways the Northwest will never compare but I'm going to be ok.

I'm adjusting to an office that is about 50/50 women and men after coming from a place that is about 80% men. And I've enjoyed it. So while the boys took a trip to the Winter Olympics last weekend, we had a girls day and went shopping (of course!) and to one of the many casinos in the area. We had a great time! Below is a picture we took as we were heading home from the casino.

(l-r, Back-Me, Beth, Melissa (my roommate), Front-Mallory, Nici, & Melissa)

On a side note, I was hoping to get to make a trip to the Olympics myself but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. We've found it impossible to find somewhere to stay and while Vancouver is less than 3 hours away (yes, I'm really far up here), it could take almost 5 hours to get through customs so a day trip isn't likely. Tomorrow morning though I'm making a trip to Portland, OR to visit my friend Abbey so I'll recap that next week. Abbey and I cheered together when we both taught camps for Cheer Ltd. We haven't seen each other in about 5 years and are pretty excited to hang out.

I know that everyone else has seen lots of snow lately, I however have seen none. I noticed yesterday that the trees are starting to bud. As of Wednesday, we're in the middle of a string of 4-5 days of absolutely beautiful weather with abundant sunshine and temps in the mid to upper 50's. It does rain pretty frequently up here so I've tried to capture some of the beauty of the area when we do get some sun. Here are a few shots that I got this week.

Downtown Tacoma at sunset on Wed. I believe that's the Cascade Mtns in the background.

View of Mt. Rainier from my Control Booth at the ballpark.



Pretty little sunset this evening.

You were made for this.

In the fall of 2008 I began volunteering with Memphis Urban YoungLife. I had heard of YoungLife from a girl in my Bible study in college who was leading a small group so when I ended up in the same small group as the Memphis Urban YL Director I jumped right in. Soon I was the one piece of vanilla in a chocolate inner city youth group. My first week in Tacoma I was doing something with group sales at work and came across a YoungLife group that would be coming to the ballpark this season. I got the contact for that group who happens to be the Area Coor for YL, met with him, signed up to volunteer, and jumped right in.

Today I spent the day in Everett, WA at the Regional YoungLife Leaders Conference. I gave up the opportunity to watch Illinois beat Michigan State on national television to go to this conference. And I needed it. As I settle into Tacoma one of the things I've noticed the most is how disconnected I feel from the body. I guess that's normal when you move to a new area but every season of my life God has really blessed with me fellowship and accountability and I'm missing that right now. Even just a conversation with someone, face to face, that's deeper than the surface.

Tomorrow I'm going to church #4 in an effort to find a place to connect to. Each Saturday I get really excited for Sunday morning and each Sunday morning I wake up disappointed when I realize I don't get to go to my church. I'm starting to realize that I'm not going to find anything close to Fellowship out here but today at the conference was the best combination of worship and teaching I've found since I've been in Washington.

I don't know if there was a theme for the day or even if the speaker spoke on the same topic in all his sessions but I know the presence of the Lord was there and He met with me today. Over the past several months I feel like God has been working on me in two specific areas: 1. my selfishness and 2. the condition of my heart. So I think this conference is pretty well summed up for me in these song lyrics "love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all". In the first session the speaker talked about when Jesus was trying to get away from the crowd in Luke 5 and He got into Peter's boat. He then tells Peter to put his net deep in the water and Peter tells Him that they haven't caught anything all night but because Jesus said to he would. Of course, he net is overflowing when he tries to pull it back out of the water. Right then and there Peter leaves everything and follows Jesus. On the greatest day of his fishing career, things are looking up, Peter just up and leaves it. What does that say? It reminds me that nothing in this world will satisfy me like Jesus can.

In the last session of the day we sang Chris Tomlin's "The Wonderful Cross" from which the above lyric comes. As we sang that part it hit me. I'm here. I'm not going back. Jim Elliot once said, "Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." I am all in Tacoma and I am all the Lord's, wrecklessly abandoned to Jesus Christ. And this means I have no rights, I don't deserve anything. Everything I have is because the Lord chooses to pour out His grace and kindness toward me in Christ Jesus (Eph 4.7). I struggle a lot with the "older brother syndrome"--frustrated when the prodigal is shown grace b/c I think I deserve something better--and then I remember the height from which I have fallen and the richness of God's mercy that redeems me.

I am not my own. I am here b/c of God's grace and for His glory. I pray that I never forget the height from which I have fallen and that I continually lay down my rights, my wants, my desires, even my needs for the sake of knowing Him more.

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Luke 9:23

Another Week Down

I've now been to work for two full weeks and have almost lived here for three weeks. This is place is beginning to feel more normal and routine but it doesn't feel like home.

I like my job. It's different in atmosphere and some of the way things are run but I do think it's what I was looking for and hoping to find. I'm understanding more every day and am able to run with projects. The stadium is nothing compared to AutoZone Park in Memphis but no MiLB park does compare. I was spoiled in that sense. However, last week I made my first visit to Cheney Stadium and got to play with the brand new video board they installed last year and that made everything a bit easier to deal with. I'm going to have a lot of fun w that thing and everyone here has high expectations for me with it so we'll see how it goes. Not to mention the $30 million renovation that will begin soon and make Cheney Stadium almost brand new by the 2011 season. I've got a lot to look forward to.

Other than work, I'm really missing Memphis. I miss my friends and my church so much. The move here has a bit of a different feeling than when I first moved to Memphis. I don't regret my decision to move and I know the Lord will provide for me out here in His way at His time. But right now I just feel like my heart is a little less full. And that in itself is a blessing to know what I have. I've been to 3 different churches out here and none of them compare to Fellowship Memphis. Luckily Fellowship is very technologically advanced and I'm able to keep up as much as possible while living 2500 miles away. So, I'll keep looking out here.

While I was in Memphis I volunteered a little bit for Memphis Urban YoungLife. Within my first week here I was able to meet the Area Coordinator for YoungLife and tonight was my first night volunteering. I really enjoyed it. It felt natural and very few things feel natural right now. Mr. Pritchard (the area coor.) and his family have been especially welcoming to me and I'm very thankful for that as well.

My roommate finally made it into town yesterday so it's nice to have someone else in the apt with me. She came from Connecticut and is still on Eastern time a little bit. Other than that, not much exciting is going on. Hopefully now that Melissa is here we'll do some exploring and will have lots of fun pictures and stories to share soon! Happy Super Bowl week!