DS Tim Overton-Harris

Let Me Introduce Myself!

As we begin a new adventure together I wanted to tell you a bit about myself.  I am a native Oregonian, born at Lakeview.  My family moved to Portland when I was almost two and I lived there until I went off to college. I grew up in North East Portland and attended Benson High School, graduating in 1976. (Those who have done the math might have figured out I am 58 years old). I went to Willamette University, graduating with my degrees in Religious Studies and History. I then moved across the country to Boston where I completed my Masters of Divinity at Boston University School of Theology in 1983. I stayed on in Boston for a couple more years and worked for an organization based on the Gray Panther’s model doing housing work for poor and elderly folks. While in Boston I met and married Amy who hails from upstate New York – Binghamton to be exact.
 
We moved to Oregon in 1985, me to serve as the Associate Pastor at Oregon City UMC and Amy as pastor at Carus UMC. In 1987, I moved to serve the Estacada and Marquam UMCs (a 61-mile round trip!) While there we celebrated the birth of our first child, Elizabeth. In 1989, I moved to become the Associate Pastor at Morningside UMC in Salem (I was the first male associate for a female senior pastor – Kate Conolly – in our conference) and Amy moved to Keizer: Clear Lake UMC. While serving in these churches we had two more children – Petter and Nicholas. In 1994, we moved to La Grande, Oregon to job share that appointment and share household and parenting duties for our family. In 1999, we moved to our present home in Aloha, Oregon and served Christ UMC in Cedar Hills, again as a job-sharing situation. In 2003, Amy became pastor of the Tongan Fellowship in the Lents area of Portland and I became solo pastor at Christ UMC. In 2004, I moved to Vermont Hills UMC in the SW hills of Portland while Amy moved to Trinity UMC in SE Portland. In 2011 Amy moved to Tualatin UMC where she presently serves. I served at Vermont Hills UMC for 13 years and now have become your District Superintendent.
 
Our children (I am not as old as my children make me!) are all adults now. Elizabeth is married to Robert, they live in Hood River where Robert is on faculty at the Columbia Gorge Community College and they have two children. Petter just finished his second year at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific – Western University of Health Sciences located in Lebanon, Oregon and begins his rotations this summer. Nick is going to Willamette University Law School and begins his second year there in August.
 
Petter will be living at home this year as many of his rotation sites are in the Portland area. Also living with us are 5 dogs and 2 cats. In my free time I like to read, play video games, watch movies and TV. Amy and I love to get away to the coast. We relish time with our family. I love to cook – I am a cook not a chef as a chef creates unique meals while a cook follows a recipe – and Amy’s biggest complaint about my taking this appointment is that I won’t be able to cook dinner as often. Projects around the house and the routine things of life keep us busy.
 
I look forward to the opportunities that will come for me to get to know you and for you to get to know me better. Please pray for me as I move into this new phase of ministry and pray for our District as we move into a future filled with possibility, change and challenge.
 
If you have a concern, want to meet, or if I can be of help in any way, please be in touch. My email is tim@umoi.org and the district office phone number is 503-581-3969. May God bless you and may our work together bear much fruit.