Friends in Another Portland

2 weeks ago, Kim and I were in Portland, Oregon. (Scroll down global road for highlights).
Now we are visiting our team in Boston, so we came up early and met with our best friends from our days on staff in Philly, David and Robin, who now live in Portland, Maine. We had not seen them in 17 yrs, which is so sad for all of us. We all just got a little busy there for awhile, huh?. But we picked up like it was only yesterday, which is an amazing thing about frienship.
They gave us a taste of Maine with a lobster lunch and took us on a hike on a chilly but beautiful Sunday afternoon. They also have a genius dog, Max, who plays soccer.
There is more to be said on all this, but its 2 am and I really need to try to sleep. Its like I have jet lag for some reason.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Scraps from the kitchen table

For those of you who are new to the Global Road, "Scraps..." is the random thoughts, experiences, observations, keen insights (ha)- all usually unrelated to each other - that get chucked in to this blog every so often. Like the leftovers thrown off the table to our genius beagle. So tasty and bite size.

We were asked for input on our conference room at our headquarters, in order to make some improvements. Here was mine:

I like it that the table is so long, if I sit on an end, I can’t hear people on the other end. This allows me to do something else and not feel like its my fault, and I’m not multi-tasking then. This is why I’m disappointed if someone saves me a seat in the middle. Stop doing this. It is irritating me.

I have a feeling I will only get middle of the table seats from now on. A sort of meeting purgatory!

After getting home from our recent trip to Portland, I watched football off and on all day yesterday. My good friend Eric in Indiana is a Texas fan. He was doing something with his family and unable to watch his Longhorn's in the Red River Shootout. I knew this was hard for him, so I texted him updates throughout the day. He especially liked it when Texas won. I was glad I could be of help to him during family time.

I watched Mizzou get upset by Oklahoma State. This was disappointinng, but I was happy for my friend Dave Robinson, since his nephew is the QB for OSU. Dave was one of the founders of WSN, and worked with CCC in Eastern Europe for about 15 or 20 years, but is now a pastor in KC, Missouri. I was happy he got to see his nephew play so well. Sorry Mizzou fans, you were going up against Robinson mojo.

Today is a slow day on ESPN and FOX Sports Network. I flipped through the channels this afternoon, and saw in succession: Kids playing for the championship of Scrabble, Europe vs. US in Trickshot Pool, and Championship Darts. Sports?

I am very excited about what God is doing in Moscow CityFocus. I think you'll be encouraged. Check out the link for the story of Yana and Kristina at Humanitarian University.

Also got a few reports in the last week of 50 students at a retreat in an Asian country, trusting God for almost 600 decisions for Christ this year in their region of the country. This is awesome stuff. God is working all over the world.

Time to go, there may be professional hula hooping or marbles on TV now.

Portland

You must visit Multonomah Falls and have the world famous "A" take your picture. She's a talented 6 (maybe 7?) year old photographer and one of the stars of the Burning Heart Revolution.

Kim and I came out to meet with Matt and Krista Mikalatos. Matt gives leadership to WSN in the Greater NW region, and does a fantastic job. Some have called him a genius. Well, one person called him that yesterday, but I think it was used as sarcasm. We have been talking since he joined the WSN team about visiting him in Portland, and the past few days we've finally been able to take him up on the offer.

The regional team of leaders here is awesome, the Columbia River is beautiful, the falls are majestic, the food has been amazing - I had fresh salmon for dinner and once for breakfast -and the coffee is always good.

(More on salmon: I had the best salmon in my life, seriously, this is not hyperbole, grilled on Wayne and Elaine Wright's Weber on Monday night. The Wright's have blessed us for 28 years as ministry partners, but we haven't seen them since they moved from Kansas City 25 years ago. Great Reunion. And salmon has never tasted so good.)

I'm a convert, this is a great place to be. WSN moves its offices here next week.
They do need to work on the whole rain thing though.

Well, back to Orlando today. And I'm back on the Global Road.