First church service

Sunday. 22. 2010.


Church today was so lovely! Well, the service itself was decent—I just wanted to say lovely—but was ten times better just for being in English. You can imagine my delight to discover there is an English service directly across the street from me. An enormous building there called Global Ministries apparently has thousands of people come to multiple services they hold in several different languages.

And the craziest thing happened!! I met some people from DUNDEE, who it turns out I have a lot of connections with, even though I didn’t actually know them before meeting them here. I met them on the street actually, right before I went up to the church. They looked like lost North Americans, so I said “if you’re looking for the English church service, it’s up here.” They thanked me and I asked where they were from, and they said Oregon! So I said me too! Small town called Newberg. And then they said they are from Dundee!!!! What are the odds?!? Their names are Steve and Paula, and Steve’s sister was my boss at Chehalem Youth and Family Services.

ALSO, they were going to the same church I went to growing up (2nd St!) until just before they moved here!! Isn’t that crazy?! AND their daughter Lindsey married Andrew Moore, whose sister was one of my good friends in high school! I couldn’t believe it. They said I was “in” since I knew Ashley, and they treated me like family. They took me to their house for lunch, and made a wonderful American-style BBQ dinner (hamburgers) and told me I’m welcome there any time. I thought that was really cool.

I told them I was really struggling trying to find places to buy plates and silverware that didn’t have prices through the roof, and they said “Oh we know a great place, like the dollar store! We’ll take you!” And they took me to this obscure place I never would have found on my own, I loaded up with lots of good things and they dropped me back off at my apartment afterwards. They were super helpful in giving me tips on where to go, and soo nice... it seemed like more than a giant coincidence that I would run into them. I’ll probably be seeing them a lot this year. :)

Also, the free gift this church service gave newcomers was a phone card with 888 minutes on it. Yes, 888. This day was such a blessing. My phone card from Costco that I brought with me doesn't work on my cell, and I tested this one and it does work, so I can finally call home whenever I want to!! Too incredible...