different

Another grey Portland winter day. It tried to snow a bit but didn't quite figure that one out, so it's back to rain.

The weather has been a bit different this year, with weeks of cold hovering on the brink of freezing, but not quite pulling it off. So it's been that bone-chilling damp that seems more fitting in London than in Portland.

This year will be different in more ways than just the weather. I have some things on the horizon that are really exciting, one of which is developing and overseeing a program with LivingStonesPDX (formerly known as the Downtown House of Prayer). Here's the official blip on the website:

PDX Internship
In the fall LivingStonespdx will begin our first ever internship program. Sheena Littlehale, who has been a part of the house of prayer since 2000, will be leading this program. The internship's focus will be “living out your faith in the world”. Staying together in the same house for a year, interns will be trained in the areas of prayer, justice and the arts through small groups, special guest speakers, and of course, plenty of hands on experience!

I'm super jazzed about this whole opportunity to be so hands-on in putting this together. This will be something similar to things I've looked at participating in elsewhere across the globe, but it's here in beautiful Portland! It's an interesting season in my life to be doing this, and it means I'll be moving to a neighborhood just outside of downtown when my lease is up this summer. I'm looking forward to lower living expenses and having laundry machines I don't have to share with an entire building of tennants.

I'll keep y'all posted as this develops more and more, and for now I would be grateful for any prayers that are squeaked out on behalf of myself and LivingStones. Work is crazy now, and will stay that way until around June, and while that is demanding much of me I still need to be able to keep up with my other committments (like Can We Help?)while prayerfully planning and working with people on developing this program, getting the practical details of housing and household laid out, reviewing and choosing applicants and generally getting the ball rolling.

Needless to say, this year is going to be a different one, but in a good way. Some adjustments, some transitions and whole lot of adventure. I think it's going to be good fun as well.