From Oregon to North Carolina

Graysen in the Portland airport, proud to be a Ducks' fan!


This past week, for my birthday, Graysen and I flew out to Portland, Oregon to see the #1 ranked Ducks' football team play UCLA in front of a nationally televised audience. My parents picked us up from the airport and drove us to Eugene, where I went to the game with my dad while Graysen stayed back with Grammy at their RV. It was just a quick overnight trip, but we packed it in with a lot of fun and had a great trip. Most importantly, the Ducks' won big and we were loving being at ground zero of Ducks' fever!

Now this week, I will be travelling to Asheville, North Carolina to attend the eMi Volunteer Conference and Disaster Relief (DR) training seminar. Attending the conference was a last minute decision but one I am excited about. I will be learning about water purification in a disaster relief context, as well as completing a course on structural assessment of buildings after an earthquake. Beyond that, it will be a chance to meet new prospective volunteers and staff.

As you may or may not know, eMi has been developing it's disaster relief program over the past couple of years, and I am excited to receive some training to help prepare me to become involved in this work. eMi has partnered with Samaritan's Purse and Food for the Hungry in past disasters, and we are expanding relationships with other ministries who all serve to form the front lines of helping people around the world after a natural disaster has occured.

Please pray for safe travels and for the conference to be a valuable opportunity for me to learn and connect with other eMi volunteers. You can also pray for Alisha and the boys who will once again be flying solo back home while I'm gone. This is somewhat of a new direction for me within eMi so I'm excited to see how God will use this training in the future.
A few more pictures from Graysen and my trip to Oregon...

On the shuttle at the airport - I'm not sure if you can tell or not but Graysen was kind of excited for this trip!

When we landed in Portland, we had just enough time to stop by Erinne and Travis's house to see them and cousin Traci as well!


Graysen had way too much fun with Grammy in the RV!


The top ranked Ducks doing their stuff! This is a rare picture because it actually shows them at the line of scrimmage - they snap the ball so quickly from one play to the next in their no-huddle, quick snap offense, it's hard to catch them when their still! As you can see, Mom & Dad's season tickets aren't too bad! :)

It was all smiles for Dad and I on this night, as Oregon cruised to a 60-13 pasting of UCLA.

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