January in Portland!

Yes, we spent the ENTIRE month of January in Portland, Oregon with these wonderful people!

 The training was entitled "Creating Understanding"...the goal was to learn how to understand ANOTHER culture, while better understanding OUR culture, so that we can communicate Biblical principles in a way that is culturally accepted, understood and makes a lasting impact.

We did this by spending ALOT of time in the classroom, as well as in smaller study/project groups...here's our group doing homework (recording our observations) late one night...

 We focused our studies on the Chinese culture in Portland and spent time in the community observing, interacting and learning!  Here's a short video of our time in a Chinese tea room...

 We have no pictures of the classroom where we spent MOST of our time, nor of the incredible foods we ate at the Worldview Center where we stayed...nor of all the amazing staff and residents who made our stay so enjoyable...but here's where Glenn and I slept and did homework...

 In between classes or on Saturdays (our day off!) we got outside as much as we could!  Because the Worldview Center is located at the base of Mt. Tabor, we often climbed it, and on a clear day we could see Mt. Hood!

 We even got to climb to the top of Multnomah Falls which looks out over the Columbia River in Oregon!

God blessed us with the chance to study with a long term friend from our home church and with many new friends and MANY new tools to use to communicate His Word clearly in Ecuador!  To Him be the glory!