Happy Birthday Kelly Hogan!

Kelly has been one of my dearest friends over the past several years.  Also, she reads my blog, so I decided to give her a shout out!  I wish that I could be with her today to celebrate the awesome girl she is (I would have said woman, but I know she doesn't care too much for that word, and neither do I). Today is her  24th Birthday, so Happy Birthday Kel!  Love ya!

Hello Job!

That's right, I got a job!  So today I decided that I would stop in to Famous Dave's and fill out an application because I knew they were hiring.  I have never worked in the restaurant business before, so it was a bit of a gamble but I decided to go for it.  I talked to the managers a bit, told them that I have no experience, but told them I was confident that I had the right personality for the job and that I could learn to serve.  Well, the took me at my word and I am pretty excited to share that today I got a serving job at Famous Dave's BBQ!  I am pretty blown away by it considering I have never worked in a restaurant, but I am definitely looking forward to learning the business and think this is going to be a great fit for me.   Also, I can't lie, I really love BBQ, so this is exciting! 

Over the past few weeks that I've been in Oregon, I have been evaluating my hopes and expectations regarding my employment and what I was realizing was that I held some pretty off ideas.  I had begun to see how much of the reason I was chasing after office jobs was because I wanted a higher pay, just so I could afford to move out on my own, have nice things, maybe buy a new car... and I realized that I was pursuing things that were not going to fulfill me or satisfy me...it was all just stuff.  I also realized that I was trying to get an office admin job not so much because I love that type of work as much as I thought it was the most responsible thing to do.  After realizing these things, I decided to expand my search horizons and that's kind of what led me to apply for a serving position.  I see great potential for meeting some more people near my age and really being able to have an impact and ministry at work and I'm excited by that!

two weeks...time is flying by!

As you can observe from the title, I've now been in Tigard for two weeks which is hard to believe!  On the one hand, time seems to be flying by so quickly I hardly know what day it is, but on the other I already am developing a sense of familiarity and community that seems almost too established for having just been here a couple of weeks. 

I thought I'd share some highlights from the past couple of weeks so you know what I've been up to:

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm:  A week ago, my friend Greg and I took the drive down to Woodburn to see some spectacular tulip fields.  Even though it was a Monday morning, the place was full of people, mainly the elderly and mother's with small children, but never the less we persevered and saw some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen.   They have planted over 40 acres of tulips in so many beautiful colors and varieties.  Row after row of tulips, I continued to be amazed by these flowers...it just doesn't get old admiring God's handy work in creation!   Here are a few pictures I stole from Greg:

Rebuilding Center / Mississippi St:  Setting off on what was originally intended to be a coffee date, my new friend Amanda and I headed up to North Portland to Mississippi Street, an area that has recently experienced a bit of a rebirth.  One of the highlights of this little district was the Rebuilding Center, a massive warehouse-like store that sells everything from doors, to mantels, old floorboards, shutters, windows, tiles and cabinets...everything including the kitchen sink!  The charming thing about the Rebuiding Center is that everything in the store is donated from people who are gutting, demo-ing or remodeling their homes so the place is a wealth of vintage-y goodness all at really cheap prices.  I adore old things and I appreciate that all of this amazing stuff isn't just discarded to rot in a dump.  I will most definitely be visiting this place again once I get a job and have some more discretionary cash flow!  Amanda and I also perused some cute antique shops and boutiques in the area, ate some delish sushi and had a fantastic time.

Portland Waterfront:  On Thursday I met up with Melissa, an old friend from Cal Poly, and we walked the Portland Waterfront.  It was a beautiful, warm sunny day and we enjoyed the afternoon sitting on the grassy bank, catching up on each others lives and watching the boats drift by.  It was really fun to get to sit down with someone else from SLO and chat about the things we love about Portland but miss about our old college town.

So those are just a few of the highlights from this past week.  I feel like I have been pleasantly surprised by how busy I've been keeping so far.  It's been a tremendous blessing to see how caring, generous and encouraging this body of believers at Colossae is...I have felt so incredibly adopted into the community up here!  While it has certainly been fun to get to explore and hang out a lot, I am looking forward to and praying that I soon land a job and get a bit of a schedule going in my life.  But for now, I am enjoying, trusting, resting in the Lord and soaking this all in.

Until next time, 

Thoughts on reaching the one week mark...

So as of today, I have been in Oregon for one week!  It's a funny thing, but I feel like I have been here a whole lot longer, not in a bad way, like the days have been dragging by, but in a positive way!  I feel very much myself and very much at home here.  Normally, it takes me some time to acclimate, and test the waters before I feel like I can fully be myself, but I'm happy to say that I already feel well on my way.  It has been a pretty great week and I'm really excited to be here.  I have felt so refreshed by the new friendships, the sweet conversations and the extra time that being unemployed affords me to journal, and spend time in the Word and cook...all things that had honestly slipped to the wayside as of late.  All in all, I am so glad to be here...and not just here as in location but here as in my experiences, and my state of mind.  I feel very near to the Lord and I have a satisfaction that is only found in Him.  I feel Him near in this time of transition and I am so comforted by His steadfastness as all else changes.  It's been a good week with Jesus!

I feel like there should be a lot more to say here, but for now this will have to suffice.  Life is good, God is good.

As I type this blog I am sitting on my bed (praise Jesus!) in Tigard, OR!  That's right, I've made here safely and have set up my little room.  I must say, it's good to have a room and a bed again =)  My mom and I left early Thursday morning and made the 1,000 and some odd miles trip to Oregon over two days.  Although the drive was long, it offered some gorgeous sites and good times with my mom.  The last couple of days have been spent setting up my room, running errands, exploring Portland, hiking, walking, eating, shopping, going to church, meeting new people....it's been busy to say the least.  The weather this weekend was absolutely gorgeous; clear blue skies and temperatures in the high 70's to low 80's!  

This morning after dropping my mom off at the airport, I came home and had some time to sit and collect my thoughts and spend time with the Lord and... I am really glad to be here.  I spent some time reading some journal entries from about January onward and it was such a blessing to just see how the Lord slowly, steadily built faith and trust into my heart, how He guided and directed my desires and now how He has led me here.  It was so good to lock myself in my room for a bit and to just let my heart reflect on God's Sovereignty and goodness in my life before running off to apply for jobs, get groceries and get caught up in the minutia of my new life here in Oregon.  

I'll end this post with some encouraging verses I read this morning.  

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?       Matt 6:26

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.  But even the hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are more value than many sparrows.        Matt 10:29-31

Heading North...

This post is basically a letter I wrote to my friends and family about my upcoming move to Portland, OR!

I am writing to you to share some exciting news and to update you on my life. On April 16th I will be moving up to Tigard, OR, a little suburb outside of Portland. This may or may not come as a surprise to you, so I'd like to give you a little bit of the journey the Lord has had me on over the past few months, share with you my excitement and ask you for your much needed prayers during this time of transition.

Late November through about mid January was just a really tough time for me as I wrestled through some challenging things in my life and questioned a lot of things from the direction of my life to God's character and the purpose of these trials I was facing. What I learned in this time and am still learning is that the Lord is completely trustworthy and every blessing and even every suffering has a purpose and intent in our lives which is to bring about Christ-likeness within us. As hard as those couple months were, I am now thankful for them because the Lord really has healed my heart and I feel refocused and realigned to His purposes. It never really feels good to be under the chisel of the Master Artist, but the results are beautiful.

In the midst of all of this, in about mid-December, I got reconnected with Greg, a good friend of mine from college, who had moved up to Tigard to be a part of a church plant called Colossae. ( www.colossaechurch.org ) Talking to him about what the Lord was doing through this little church really sparked my interest and I began to look into the church, initially just out of curiosity. I started to recognize not too long after I started checking out the church and listening to some of their sermons, that my heart just felt drawn to this church and to the opportunity for ministry up in Tigard. I was also recognizing that I was not really thriving in Orange County, where I'd been living since August. I was not involved in a church or a ministry, I hadn't met many people and I was feeling pretty disconnected. Something else I realized is that no matter where I headed next, there was going to be a period of building and risk taking necessary for me to make a place feel like home for me.

In late February I took a couple days off and flew up to Portland to check out the area and the church with my friend Kelly and I had an amazing time. I loved the city and the culture and I felt like I could really see myself fitting in there. Visiting the church was really great too. Just being there for one Sunday morning it was so evident that this was a body of believers who love the Lord deeply and care deeply for others. There is just such a welcoming and caring community there. The visit to Portland really served to confirm my desires to head up there to be a part of this church community, so I began praying that the Lord would show me His direction within the month of March...and He certainly did. During the last month the Lord removed a couple of things from my life, my housing situation and my job, that had sort of become "comfort crutches" for me. These were the things that I was holding on to that were keeping me from stepping out in faith and following the Lord. A frequent thought was, "I want to go up to Portland, but I have this great job with good pay, benefits and a team of people I really love." So the Lord removed that obstacle by reducing my hours by 60%, leaving me only working two days a week. My job was no longer holding me back, and I had received the final nudge I needed to take the plunge and head North! So that brings you up to the present. I am currently living with my aunt and uncle, saving as much as I can and preparing to take this big step. The Lord has provided a sweet housing situation for me with some other folks from Colossae which I'm excited about. I don't have a job lined up, but I am trusting the Lord to provide for me every step of the way.

So that is the snapshot version of what the Lord has been doing in my life. Although I am really very excited about my move, it's obviously a tough and scary thing too. I know I am going to miss my family so much. I know that my faith is going to be stretched a ton. I know that the Lord is going to refine my character a lot, which is always trying. This is certainly one of the biggest steps of faith I've ever taken but I am trusting that with great risk comes great reward.
I hope this email helps you to know what is going on, and hopefully get excited with me about what the Lord is leading me towards. I would ask you to please keep me in your prayers, I need them! If you have any more questions, let me know because I'd love to talk to you more about this whole process. Oh and I am trying to be good about keeping my blog updated so that you all know what I'm up to and what I'm learning. You can check it out at http://thegieshgander.blogspot.com/ .


Much Love,Kristen (Giesh)

Chalk another one up for God's Sovereignty...

For the past several months I seem to have miraculously evaded the layoffs, pay cuts, and general drudgery that characterizes a nation in recession...until now. My hours were drastically cut and I'm now working two days a week.  Yikes!  Almost more scary to me than the whole finances deal is trying to figure out what the heck I will do with all this free time!?!

Thankfully, the Lord is Sovereign and He is always for His children!  Just a week prior to this reduction, I moved in with my aunt and uncle and am paying zero rent.  Initially I wasn't that stoked about this living situation, because let's face it, crashing on the couch at age 24 doesn't exactly scream success...but the Lord knew just what was around the corner for me, and not being locked into a lease right now is such a relief! Praise the Lord for His control.  

This loss of hours also has brought me perhaps the last nudge I needed to know that the Lord does not have me here in the OC for much longer.  I have been praying that the Lord would clearly lead me during the month of March to whatever is next in my life and this is just one of the ways I've seen Him lead and answer me.

It's honestly been a rough couple of months as the Lord has stripped away a lot of things that I clung to for security...relationships, job, housing.  But now, finally, I am beginning to see that He wants me in a place of total surrender and trust.   He has some plan, that I have yet to fully uncover, that requires me to be freed up from all of these things that I had grown comfortable in.   It's been an immense comfort to rest in and rely upon God's unchanging character.  I don't know quite what is around the corner right now, but I know the One who is holding my hand, and leading me into the unknown.