Farewell, Portlandia

I love Portland. I always have; I always will. I'm pretty sure I'll love Kandern as well, but before I get there I have a few goodbyes to make. This past week has been full of farewells as I spend time making visits to people and places I love that I won't see for quite a while.

Last Sunday I started the week with a downtown adventure with two friends. I hopped on the MAX to visit Saturday Market, Stumptown, and Powells one more time.

I have Hillsboro to Gresham at my fingertips.
(Though who would go as far as Gresham?)

Enjoying my elephant ear at Saturday Market.

I'll miss the delicious Stumptown drinks.

I had such a hard time not buying more books!

After my Sunday adventure, I had a week filled with spending time with people I love. I had the chance to sit down and have lunch or coffee with several different good friends who I don't often see, and I got to spend a couple nights having dinner with Westport families who I will dearly miss. It's hard to pick a highlight from such an amazing week, but it wasn't over with just that. 

The two women most influential in forcing me to be open to the idea of teaching overseas kidnapped me for a night to spend some time away in Seaside before I launch on the adventure they jumpstarted. I got to spend two days with the most amazing women on the planet, and I got to ride a shark. It was awesome.

I am incredibly blessed, and I don't want to forget that for a minute. This last week, actually, most of this summer, has reminded me of how spoiled I am to be surrounded by such loving people who care about me as a person. Talking with friends at the Westport picnic today reminded me that I won't have that network of support so close to me when I move to Germany. As I say farewell to Portland and the friends here, I know that I'll still be in touch with them over the internet, but I'll need to develop new relationships with people who can go out to coffee with me, nerd out in giant bookstores, and laugh with me when I fall off mechanical sharks. 

That adventure will begin in just a week now. I'm at 90% of my monthly support, and I just need $200 a month more to reach 100%. My departure date is August 5th, and I can't wait to get to Kandern and share with you the next steps on my journey in Germany - the ones where I finally arrive!

Family Legacy

I love attending memorial services for family members on the Hewett side of my family; I'm dead serious.

Hear me out.

In my experience, the memorial service for a Hewett is a celebration of a life well lived in service for the Kingdom as well as a gathering of amazing people who are excited about great work God is doing across the world. My uncle's memorial service today was no exception.

I got to listen to stories for nearly an hour of how much Uncle Vance loved to help other people. One of the ways he helped people was through the second hand store he founded to support the families he met on the field in Peru. I even learned that his years of service in Peru have had such a lasting impact that he's been honored by the government. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my uncle when I was growing up, but I remember him inviting me to come with him on a trip to Peru when I was in junior high. Serving people in Peru was a huge part of his life.

Not only did I get to hear about the work my uncle started which is being continued by his family, but I got to see my great aunt who has spent years of her life serving in Uganda with Africa Village Ministries. Aunt Marie is one of the most inspirational people in my life. God has given her a job to do on this earth, and she will not rest until it is completed. She is so full of love and passion, and I hope that I am just like her when I reach my 70s.

My great aunt, my uncle, and I make three generations of missionaries in the Hewett family, but we're not done there. After the memorial service today, I had the joy of listening to my cousin's fifteen year old daughter, Ruth, share about her recent mission trip to the Philippines. She found out her grandpa passed away while she was on the trip and just arrived back in the states two days ago. Even though she wasn't able to come back and tell her grandpa about all that she did on her trip, she was still brimming with excitement about the deaf children she had fallen in love with and eagerly shared about to me.

As I sit in the middle of this generational legacy of missionaries, I think about the one relative that ties us all together and his love for missions. My grandpa Frank (Marie's brother, Vance's father, and Ruth's great-grandpa) wanted to go on the mission field, but MAF rejected him as missionary while accepting his friends Nate and Marj. Praise the Lord! Instead of being on the field with Nate, my grandpa faithfully financially supported him. In fact, I found this handwritten thank you note Nate sent my grandpa while serving in Ecuador. 

I'm blessed to be going to Germany, but I need a team of people faithfully praying for me and supporting me financially. I'm hoping to move in three weeks, but I still need to raise a little over 40% of my monthly support. With just five people stepping up to say, "I can give $100 a month;" five who say, "I can give $50 a month;" and ten who say, "I can give $25 a month" I would reach my monthly goal. 

While I'm on full disclosure here, the thank you notes I send you are not as likely to become as valuable as this one. The odds of my life becoming a movie or a book are very slim; the odds of my story being as remotely famous as Nate Saint's are even smaller. Full disclosure again - I'm not in it for the fame and glory. Earlier this week I got to spend some time with two of the Gaston English teachers that I worked with last year, and I was reminded how much I love education. I get excited about changing students lives through learning, and I want you to be a part of that as I teach the students at Black Forest Academy. You can be part of this legacy.