As some of you know, I went to East West College, a massage school, and graduated at the end of 2006. Afterwards, I earned my National Certification in California and practiced massage in Chiropractic offices for 3 and a half years and then in a day spa in Redding, California for over a year.

Our time in Redding (at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry) was financially very tight. Every day we learned to look at each struggle as an opportunity for God to work a miracle and do something amazing. He did just that. Although we were poor, we managed to live in a beautiful townhouse with amazing roommates, watch school be paid for, travel, have food always on the table and witness God doing something very foundational in our hearts.

 At the end of our time in Redding, my National Massage License was close to expiring. I was able to pay for some continuing education, but I was not able to pay for all of it, or my license renewal fee. Therefore, my license expired.

As we have been back in Oregon for over 2 years now (wow, time has flown!) I have been back and forth with the idea of getting my Oregon Massage License. But am at the place now, where it's looking more like it will be worth studying, and saving up for taking the tests and working towards getting Oregon licensed.

I am going to be honest with you guys... Jason and I have not been the best financial stewards over the course of our marriage. We have so desired to be in control of our money, but have never seemed to get in the groove with keeping a budget or saving money. This is something we have felt a lot of shame and disappointment in. 

While this new year was approaching, we felt more than ever a drive to change this. We don’t want to be dishonest by giving you the half-truth and saying “things are tight right now”, when truthfully, they have been unnecessarily “tight” for much too long. Right now, we are working to take baby steps toward financial freedom. We have lots of dreams, that we believe God will provide and make the way, but we feel Him calling us up to a higher standard of co-laboring with Him, and watch God work a miracle in and through us with finances as we pursue God's best for us.

No more of the far too often paycheck-to-paycheck living. It time to rise up, own our shortcomings, and DO something about it! It’s time to change and embrace the new us; the people that steward what the Lord gives us. To make an impact on our family, others around us and our future.

I wont say that this doesn’t scare me. It scares me to death. But one thing I am confident in – God’s faithfulness to take care of His kids and fulfill His promises.

~Cierra

Settling In

Hi friends!
Jason and I are now in our own home in the little downtown of Newberg, Oregon. It is a one bedroom apartment that couldn't have fit us better for this season. It is in a historic brick building and comes with all the bells and whistles such as hardwood flooring, 10 foot ceilings with beautiful molding and the original huge windows that let the fall light stream in like it's the summer! I love it. I am going through a  "nesting" phase which I guess comes with being pregnant... Yes, I'M PREGNANT!!! I know most of you have known that for some time, but there it is! I am making room in our cute apartment for our new baby girl as we become a new little family. It is refreshing to have our own place again since we have had roommates for the past 2 years! It's amazing that it has actually been that long. What a journey it's been! We have felt God's grace the past couple years to live with roommates, and have benefited from it greatly. You learn so much when you live with people. Some of what you learn is like warm summer memories, and others aren't so... warm. haha.

In our transition back to Oregon, Jason got a full-time job in Wilsonville, which he is really loving (There is a link to his work on the post below).  It's a small company in which he has the opportunity to grow as time progresses. We are in awe of God's faithful provision for us time and time again.

One of our favorite things about this transition back to Oregon is our involvement and new family at our church called New Horizons Church in McMinnville. We had been friends with a few people from the church before moving down to Redding, California, and ended up taking a ministry trip to the church with Kris Vallotton and Paul Manwaring in March of this year. We were very surprised to find ourselves at NHC after we had been praying just 2 weeks prior to the trip about where we were to plug into after graduating from BSSM. I love how God just sets us up. Next thing we know, we are having coffee with the pastors of the church and talking about our plans for the future.
     We are now serving in the youth ministry as youth pastors and feel more and more at home with this amazing church family that seems to have come out of no where! We love it.

Blessings, my friends on your journey, wherever life takes you.

Update!

Gosh, it has been WAY too long since we have used and posted on our blog! A sincere apology for our faithful followers who have been wondering if we had fallen off the face of the earth! I only wish that we had kept up with writing to let you all in on all the things that the Lord has done and is doing in our lives. Where do I start?

Brief Re-cap:

We finished our 2nd year at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in May of this year. What an incredible year. We have learned so much and have gained more than we could put into words. Jason and I highly recommend BSSM for anyone who is hungry for more of God and wants to be activated into demonstrating the Kingdom of God like Jesus did and growing in leadership skills. We met many amazing people and will deeply miss the close relationships and culture that we had at Bethel.

After Jason and I graduated, we took a road trip with our roommates and a few friends up north through Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver B.C. We had a lot of fun celebrating our time at Bethel and the opening of a new chapter in our lives.

After our road trip, we sent our Dutch roommates back to the Netherlands and looked to settle back into the Northwest.


Where in the world are we now?

Jason and I have been excited to make Oregon and the Portland region our permanent home! Our dear friends, the Nichols have opened up their home to us in Wilsonville, Oregon as a place of transition as we look for jobs and places to live.  Over the summer, Jason was offered a full time job at Tiffany Home Furnishings where he helps stage homes for sale, work in the furniture wear house, and sell furniture.  He is loving the people that he is working for and loves being in a creative environment.

There is LOTS more to update everyone on, but this is all I have time to write for now!

Blessings,
Cierra & Jason Wortman

Loves of Life

Today is beautiful.  I must say, I love winters in Redding.  Today its suppose to be almost 70 degrees...in December!

Merry Christmas!

There are a handful of things I like and love. Coffee, my wife, grace, dubstep music, early mornings, family, the Church, worship, wine, hearing God, beer, strategy games, listening, people, Holy Spirit, beat-boxing, Jesus, friends, design, color, supernatural school, sunrise, building, snuggling, hugs...

...and the list goes on.

What do you love? Do you know what you love?

God created me for glory and I bring Him glory through enjoying him and the way he has made me.

Merry Christmas from Cierra and I!  We love school and are on the biggest adventure of our lives...thanks for your love, thoughts and prayers.

A Day in Rest

We are already more than a month into school and yet it feels like we have been here for a year!  Our home is full, with two Dutch (Ton and Rianne), two cats, our selves and Holy Spirit.

Tuesdays:  We wake up to our cats...breaking down our bedroom door, pleading for their morning meal-pitifully I must say.  Next is breakfast: french press coffee, fresh bread from the bread machine and maybe an egg and O.J.  Cierra is on call for massage at the day spa she works at, so any given morning she may have a massage or two and sometimes nothing at all.  The rest of the morning we find our selves either on the couch with a book, on our patio with a book, or in the armchair with our computer, often times working on different assignments or filling ourselves with inspiration from music and visual art.  School starts at 12:30, which usually finds us rollin down the road with our car packed with housemates and others on our way to school, sometime after 12:00.  We then get to experience the presence of God in worship for about an hour followed by teaching from 1 or 2 people and then we all split off to different Bible classes for the last part of the day.  One of the best part of any given day is the evening meal, which we usually all eat together, enjoying some sort of fusion dutch/americana recipe contrived by our head chef Rianne.  Confession...we are such homebodies!  Evenings are a time to talk over a glass of wine and process the day or perhaps worship more, or pray, or just lay on the floor and enjoy whatever Holy Spirit wants to do.  Then, slob lecher (spelling??).  Goodnight in Dutch.

A somewhat deep thought: What saves us? Faith in Jesus? I used to think so.  Don't get me wrong, Jesus is the ONLY way to the Father and salvation is only through what He has done on the cross, however, there is something interesting to look at here.

Faith in Jesus does not save us.  It is the grace of God that saves us.

Eph 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Now, once you get past the anxiety of the statement I just made, let Holy Spirit draw you into the freedom that this will produce in your heart.  You don't have to work for your salvation.  Faith is simply the turning of our will in the vivid realization of what Christ has done for us on the cross.  We don't have to "work up" enough faith to get saved.  We simply let ourselves agree with what has been done for us.  Just know that you don't have to work to attain your salvation, and you certainly don't have to work to retain you.  Walking with Jesus should be characterized by rest.  Are you at rest?

We love you.

Jason and Cierra.      

The Church and the City

As I watched this interview, it brought so much hope and encouragement to me.  My heart is for Portland, and I am excited to witness God's move of love in it. Click here to watch.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams, City Commissioner Diane McKeel, Kevin Palau and Ken Weigel present a panel at the Q Ideas Portland Conference.

Summer Sun, Shine On..

     It's been about a month and a half since being back home, and time is flying by like we knew it would! On July 2nd, one of my close friends got married to the love of her life in the beautiful hills of Santa Barbara. I had the honor to be in their wedding party on that hot summer day.  I flew down in time for the bachelorette party and last minute wedding preparations. Jason was able to join me a couple days later and ended up being a huge help (as he always is) setting up for the day of the wedding. The wedding was beautiful, as was the gorgeous bride! It was wonderful celebrating their union and their new covenant between each other.  My parents and brother were at the wedding too, so Jason and I had a great time spending some time with them.

      After the wedding, it was officially vacation time! We headed out with my family to San Louis Obispo, about an hour north of Santa Barbara to stay with a relative on my mom's side of the family. We were there for the the 4th of July, and like anyone would on that night, went to a drive-in movie theatre! Well, I guess that's not exactly the tradition for our country, but we decided to change it up a bit. :) It was relaxing an lots of fun just hanging out with my family for a couple days. I miss being able to spend more time with them. I am hoping that they will move to Oregon someday to be closer to us!

      After a couple of days in SLO, my parents, Jason and I jumped in my dad's truck and headed north to Angels Camp, CA. There we met Jason's family at a resort where we stayed for 4 days. We had a ton of fun touring caves, exploring redwood and sequoia forests, swimming and tubing on the nearby lake and playing card games. Jason and I are SO blessed to have AMAZING families that actually get along, and by getting along, I mean love each other! We really enjoy being with each other and have a ton of fun together. We could have definitely spent more time with all of them, and are so thankful for the time that we were able to spend with all of them.

     So now it's back to remodel construction for Jason and for me, enjoying the Oregon sun (when it decides to shine it's face upon us), time to breath, rest, enjoy spending time with friends, farmers markets and setting new goals for myself.

     I hope all of you are enjoying this summer with your family and friends. I would love to hear what this summer entails for you! Feel free to comment, or send us an email!

Love,
The Wortmans

Recounting the steadfast love of the Lord

Isaiah 63:7

^"7I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD,

   the praises of the LORD,

according to all that the LORD has granted us,

   ^(B) and the great goodness to the house of Israel

that he has granted them according to his compassion,

   according to the abundance of his steadfast love. "

Wow, It has been a long time since we have updated the world on how we are doing and what we are up to! It has been a crazy whirlwind since our mission trip to San Francisco at the end of March. God is SO amazing and so GOOD! He has been molding us and changing us this year and we are still processing, even now all that He has done and is doing in us through this past year at Bethel! 


We graduated our first year in May and are now home in Oregon. It has been so good to be back home as we have been enjoying seeing and catching up with family and friends. 


Jason has a job for the summer doing remodel construction, and I am still wondering what this summer will look like for me. I have been settling into our summer home in Tualatin where some friends are letting us stay RENT FREE! God is so faithful. It is the perfect little studio apartment for Jason and I as we process the year together and get some time ALONE after spending 9 long months with 6 people, 2 cats and a dog. Wow. What an experience that was. We learned a lot about patience, kindness, honor, confrontation and love... And probably a bunch of other things I am still not aware of. ha. God is good :) I have learned that no matter what, I will always choose to stand on "God is good". Period.  Because He is. I am blown away by the kindness of God. 

As we head into the summer and beyond, Jason and I plan on doing one more year at BSSM starting this fall. We are excited to receive more vision for the ministry and call that is ahead of us when we come back to the Portland area after the next school year. 

So much ahead... We are all in, and running full force into what God is placing before us. 

Blessings, and more to come!

Cierra

San Francisco, here we come!

We will be off to San Francisco for our mission trip on Thursday morning! It is amazing how time is flying by! We have much to update you all and are excited to fill you in on our happenings. Thank-you for all of your prayers and support for our upcoming mission trip! We were able to pay for the trip in full! Thank-you Jesus!

Please be continuing to pray for us as we head out for our 5 day adventure to the beautiful bay city. Our team will be partnering with "The Promised Land" church and ministering to their staff and ministry school students with prophetic words, preaching, art and music. We will also be doing street ministry in the "tenderloin" section of the city.

Our leaders of our trip are Kristene Mueller-DiMarco and her husband, Jordan DiMarco! (Those of you who are familiar with the Jesus Culture artists will know who Kristene is... and if you don't, look up her music HERE !) :) We are so excited for this privilege and opportunity to share the love of Jesus and serve lots of different kinds of people.

Can't wait to tell you about the trip when we come back!

the art of being

"come and rest" mixed media by cierra

Jason painting

more to come from Jason :)

acylic art by cierra

photography and collages