Julie and I knew back in February of this year that our time in Cardiff, Wales was coming to an end and that we needed to move back to the US. In March of this year I came to Portland to decide if this was the city for us. It was, and we started planning towards the big move. I started searching for a job in earnest in May — and it has finally culminated in a new job as an Education Consultant with Ochin.

I start my new career on Monday, December 5th, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Matt and I were talking and I was putting money in the parking meter. Very suddenly, without any forewarning, I pooped my pants. That is the truth.

“Hey Matt, I gotta go. I just pooped my pants.”

I think I remember Matt saying OK.

★

My family and I moved to Portland 2.5 weeks ago. We have embraced the city and have fallen in love with her already. We live in the Sellwood neighborhood and are now expert antiquers. We have toured the city. We have eaten its’ food, and drank its’ coffee. I’m already shopping for a commuter bike. The boy already has a Portland Timbers jersey. We think we’re going to like it here.

And I have things I want to write about. For the first time in quite a while there I things I feel like saying. I don’t pretend to think that they will be profound, but it will be me…all me.

So stay tuned. And if you’re in Portland let me know. I’d love to meet you.

Cheers.

We’ve got more coming, and will update the list as we add things to Gumtree.

UPDATE

UPDATE 2

Chaucer said, in 1394, that “all things come to an end.” Sometime later someone added the word “good”. In either case, so it is with our time living in Cardiff, Wales. I have resigned my position as Director of CommunityOne and at the end of July we will be moving back to the US.

We’ve enjoyed our time here. It’s been a wonderful experience learning & attempting to understand a culture and a people that are not our own. We hope that our efforts to befriend those around us and show them Jesus has made an impact but only God knows for sure. We are confident in knowing that God has had us here for a season and yet are also confident in knowing that it is time to move on.

We have already started telling our friends here, and those I was helping through CommunityOne. And, we have started the process of selling the things we can’t bring back with us and prioritizing the things that will be crated up and shipped back to the States.

If you’re curious, we will be flying back to San Antonio to use Julie’s parents home as a base. But we will most likely be moving from Texas to Portland, Oregon in August. We feel it’s time for a new adventure and Portland is the setting for our next chapter. Currently I have the opportunity to do some contract work for an organization I have been a part of the past couple of years called the Upstream Collective. It’s a part-time position so I will looking for other opportunities as well.
…

With Love,
Brad, Julie, & the kids

I’ve enjoyed setting up and running CommunityOne. The charity itself and the services it provided will end in July. I am looking to turn Cardiff Connect over to someone that shares the vision of what it was attempting to do. If you’re interested get in touch. I’ll keep you updated with how that’s going.

And if you know of anyone in the Portland area that is hiring let me know. And send them to my HireMePortland site.

Cheers.

MAKING IDEAS HAPPEN {COMMUNALLY}

• Share Ideas Liberally
• Share Ownership of Ideas
• Seek Competition
• Fight Your Way to Breakthrough
• Don’t become burdened by consensus // find sacred extremes – compromise on rest
• Overcome the Stigma of Self Marketing. Make sure others know what you’re good at.

MAKING IDEAS HAPPEN {LEADERSHIP}

• Leaders talk last (silence the visionary)
• Develop Others through appreciation
• Reduce your amount of ‘Insecurity Work’
• Seek Restraint
• Judge based on Initiative (Not experience)
• Value Chemistry Over People
• Unique is Opportune. Defy the status-quo. Shunned before celebrated.

“Nothing Extraordinary is achieved through Ordinary Means.”

I thought I would share with you the books I’ve read. I recommend all of them, otherwise I probably wouldn’t share them with you. But obviously I recommend some more than others, so I’m including the official 128 Star (★) Rating. One ★ means you might not want to read it unless you’re just really bored. Five ★’s means “Don’t miss this. Go buy it right now.”

In no particular order:

• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years — Donald Miller. ★★★★
• Outliers: The Story of Success — Malcolm Gladwell. ★★★★★
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference — Malcolm Gladwell. ★★★
• Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit — Francis Chan. ★★★
• Counterfeit Gods — Tim Keller. ★★★★
• The Prodigal God — Tim Keller. ★★★
• Seeing God in the Ordinary — Michael Frost. ★★★
• HTML5 for Web Designers — Jeremy Keith. ★★★

Outliers is a game changer. It will cause you to look at the world around you very differently. The HTML5 book has a limited audience, but the others are suitable to anyone really and can be found on Amazon.