After an early wakeup call, everyone headed to the Portland citywide Chess Tournament headed by Chess For Success at Floyd Light Middle School.  Robert and Phiona shared some inspiring words of believing in yourself and not giving up before they kicked off the tournament.  Phiona had the opportunity to play one of the girls at the tournament and after a 30 minute match, they shook hands and announced Phiona had won.  It was a great time! The children and families were so welcoming and kind, a few were even able to have their photo taken with Phiona and get a signed copy of The Queen Of Katwe!  We can’t wait until Monday when we will be able to see Julie and Jessica from Chess for Success again at the Game Changer Luncheon. 

Next we had a guided tour from SOIs own Don Brenneman and his wife April to the “falls,” a must see when you come to Portland.  Although we did have, as we were told, typical Portland weather, rain…sun…rain…sun, it was beautiful and so nice to enjoy the fresh air!  After the “falls” we went to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery, what a cool place.  We saw millions of baby Salmon, were able to feed the Rainbow Trout and got up close and personal with the Sturgeons.  Right next to the Fish Hatchery was the Bonneville Lock and Dam, beautiful is the only word to describe it.  The way all that works and the scenery that surrounded it was breathtaking.  Robert, being an architect,  really enjoyed how the mechanics of the Dam worked and seeing the “Fish Ladder” and how they count each and every fish that goes by and then catalog them by type.
          

At 4:00 we headed to Rolling Hills Community Church to watch the children’s Easter egg hunt, enjoy a taco dinner and speak at the 5:30 Easter Service.  Rolling Hills’ Pastor, Bill Towns interviewed Robert and Phiona during the service and shared their story and how hope in Christ can bring you through any hard time you are facing. In Phiona’s words,  before Jesus came, there was a gap between God and us here on earth, but when Jesus came, died on the cross for our sins and rose again, it bridged that Gap for us and gave us Hope that we can overcome anything. Robert and Phiona will be sharing again tomorrow, Sunday at the 9 and 11:15 services.  If you are not in the area or cannot make it to Rolling Hills it will be streamed live at 11:15 and then archived so that you can watch anytime.

Thank you for following our journey, it is just beginning but we cannot wait to share more over the coming weeks.  To see more photos of these events, visit our “Photos” page.