The Dazzling Weather, Some Friendly Faces, and a Couple of Fellow Oregonians

Yesterday was just gorgeous weather! I just love the sunny days in the fall with all the leaves. We took the kids outside for some leaf romping, and they had a blast. I got some great pictures... here are just a few. I went crazy with the camera yesterday; Savannah and Sawyer were just having so much fun and the colors were so pretty!


























I have many, many more pictures, and like I've promised before I will try really hard to get them uploaded to our albums soon.


We went to a new church yesterday. It was really nice because I think it's safe to say we talked to more people at this church yesterday than we have at all of the other churches we've been to combined. We had people coming up and introducing themselves and welcoming us right and left. We talked to the pastor and he introduced us to the guy who led worship because he and his wife lead the young couples group they have. It doesn't sound like they have small groups like the community groups we're looking for, but they do have groups divided up for kind of a bible study/Sunday school thing before the service on Sundays. And I was invited to join a moms group going out to breakfast this Thursday.
And get this- the pastor there went to Western Seminary in Portland, OR. His wife grew up there and he went to school there and pastored a church in Estacada (which is pretty much down the road from where Ryan's parents live) and then in LaGrande before moving here to Michigan. And yesterday was a special service kicking of this little missions workshop thing they're doing and so their pastor didn't actually give a sermon, they had a missions professor speak. And he was from Portland as well; he works at Western. So as he was speaking he was mentioning all these different spots in Portland and the surrounding areas and it was just so nice to not only know what he was talking about, but know it so well!
And the worship was even nice! They have a nice combination of traditional and contemporary worship. They sang a couple of hymns and had a choir, but they also had a worship band and sang some more contemporary songs. I actually had tears in my eyes for most of the worship because I hadn't realized how much I missed that. I mean, I have my share of christain music and I sing around the house and in the car, but to stand with a congregation and worship together... I didn't realize how much I needed that. It was awesome. I thought of you Teri, when you said the first time you visited that church across the street how you were practically crying all through the worship because you had that "inner conversation" going on but you thought people were going to think you were crazy or you had some major thing going on in your life or you were just realizing you were ready to accept Christ or something. I was trying so hard not to cry while we were singing because I was just so happy to be there in the moment, but I kept laughing too because I thought, what must people think of this newcomer over there crying?!
Anyway, we're looking forward to going back there for a regular Sunday service to hear their pastor speak and maybe go to the couple's sunday school and see what that's all about.