Day 1: On the road.

We hit the road with bread, meat, cheese and some fruit, along with $200 for gas/food/housing, and about $250 which we were given for ministry money (not to use for ourselves). I have heard so many great stories about these faith journeys, so I am excited to see how God will provide.

On the way to Boise there was a rock slide on one of the curves, so we were stuck in traffic. That’s where we ate the amazing peaches which Carrie bought at the farmer’s market. Yummy! We also met some nice Utahans who were in the car in front of us.

As we drove we prayed about where to stay the night, and felt we were not to call our friends or make anything happen.

We arrived in Portland around 10pm. We had heard “Stanly” earlier in the day. Duane looked it up on the iphone and found Stanly is a specific dot on the map of Portland. We got out of the van and prayed by a barbed wire fence in a rather ghetto area of the city. Still have no clue what exactly is Stanly?

As we prayed about where to spend the night, it felt like a wild goose chase. A guy named George? Maybe he is at Subway? Closed. Go left at the stop light – yep there’s a light. When we stopped for gas, we read the employ's name tags looking for George or Staley. We didn't find them, but we did get to pray for one of the guys who worked at the gas station.

We were getting increasingly tired and goofy, especially after adding some coffee and a dozen doughnuts to the mix.

At last we felt released to call Nelson’s friend…

but we didn’t have his phone number.

So we laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation and then we just showed up at Nelson’s friend’s apartment. He didn’t have room for eight of us.

So we found a rest stop and slept in the van…it was cozy...