God Will Provide

Today I want to share a story - the story of a boy coming home to his family when they least expected it. And how I was able to be part of it. 

Let's start with a little background information: There is this wonderful organization called God Will Provide that aims to spread the Gospel around the world and I am happy to see some of my friends being part of this team that encourages others in so many situations in their life. But helping comes with a lot of sacrifices, and for my friend Bryan this meant moving across the world from Portland to Vienna. As I am away from home myself (just the other way around, coming from Austria to the US) I understand how hard it is not to see your family for a while. But unlike his parents I knew that he was coming to visit them sooner than expected so I decided to fly to Portland as well in order to be there for his big surprise: coming into his parents house without them knowing - and oh, what a special moment it was! Faces in awe, tears and laughter - all the emotions mixed together. And, on top of that, being able to spend the weekend at the Annual Missionary Convention surrounded by lots of inspiring people, some of whom even helped me personally get back up many times. I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to spend a few days with people like this and while being there, I also got to see a lot of Portland. So here's the best pictures from my trip from a few weeks ago.

Started the day with a cup of coffee, but they wouldn't take me to DutchBros (my all-time favorite place on the West Coast), so I had to pretend to be happy with some Black Rock coffee. 

Crossed the bridge and with it, entered a different state: Washington.
​We each borrowed a bike at the "Beaches" Restaurant in Vancouver and rode along the beautiful river while enjoying the amazing fall weather (which I totally missed while being in Arizona for the last couple of months!).

In order to really feel like tourists, we went up to THE Twilight house, the real filming location that was portrayed as the house the Cullens lived in during the movie. And it looked even better in real life!

All 5 of us ready for the service to start (yes, the baby cat was raised well too, not just us).

To support the Vanuatu Mission (which is going on right now), the wonderful Anna Shabak made these canvases and sold them to raise funds for the trip - and I am happy to have gotten the one with "Love anchors the Soul", which hangs in my bathroom now and I can see it every day! 

And because there is no travel-post without a good restaurant recommendation, here is mine: 
Guys, those doughnuts for breakfast (or any other meal of the day) are amazing! 
We did go to a lot of other restaurants (including Little Big Burger, the infamous Voodoo Doughnuts and Noho's Hawaiian Cafe amongst others) - but Pip's Doughnuts was my favorite!

So in case you are in the mood to go to Portland now -
​just remember:
"Keep Portland weird."