Today officially marks 14 years with our current organization. However, our journey began much earlier than that. Over the weekend, Caryn and I had a chance to visit with some great friends we’ve known since 1999. And today, I had an opportunity to talk with some colleagues and reflect on the last 24 years, and I’m still amazed at God’s goodness to us on this adventure!
I know it goes back further, but usually for me I can trace the “launch” of this current trajectory to a call I got from a close friend (M2) in the fall of 2000. It went something like this:
M2: “Hey man, I’ve got a trip to Kenya with our church, and we just had a slot open up. Wanna go?”
Me: “What would we be doing? I’ve never been out of the country like this.”
M2: “We’d get dropped into the jungle and hike with guides from village to village telling people about Jesus. We’d have to cook our meals, carry our water, and rely on local warriors to get us where we’re going. We’d be pretty much out of contact with the outside world until they come get us.”
Me: “Sign me up!”
On that trip, as village after village heard the Good News and chose to be reconciled to Christ, God sparked something so unexpected and so amazing in me that I knew it would be a part of me for the rest of my life. I just didn’t know that it would become my life.
Fast forward to today and Caryn and I are pretty much still doing that same thing: going where Jesus is not being named and proclaiming His Good News to a broken and dying world, imploring them to reconnect to God through Christ. We get to equip and empower others for that same work, too. And, for the most part, we love every minute of it!
Of course, there’s been some really hard things along the way: saying “see you later” to so many close friends and especially to our parents, losing close friend to death while we are not there, launching our kids back to the USA to chase after Jesus (and to watch them struggle mightily to find Him in the midst of so many trials), putting my mom in a nursing home, trying to make the most of seeing our parents in NC every chance we can, and so on. You get the idea. At every turn and with every challenge, Jesus has proven Himself faithful. Over and over again, He has been there and seen us through every challenge. As crazy and as tough as it has been over the last 14 years, it has been amazing. People ask us often, “When are you coming home?” Maybe it’s my age (55), or maybe it’s just a longing to have us here. I don’t know. Our response is always, “When the Lord brings us back.” Honestly, though, when I think about that, I often relate to a scene from the Lord of the Rings movies, one of the last scenes in “Return of the King,” in which our adventuresome hobbits are back in the shire, finally having made it to the place they all longed for throughout the movies. They are sitting around a table at their favorite tavern, hoisting a tankard of their favorite drinks, when they share a look with one another; it’s a look that conveys a discontentment with the very thing they longed for: home. Their world grew much bigger. Their lives mattered towards something greater than themselves. And they participated in an epic tale of immense proportions. That scene resonates with me when I think of coming back to the US. I know it won’t always be like that, and eventually the Lord will bring us back. But to sum-up the journey of the last 24 years, it’s to say we’re not there yet, and we have quite the adventure still ahead of us.
Thank you, friends, for the way you have encouraged and supported us
I know it goes back further, but usually for me I can trace the “launch” of this current trajectory to a call I got from a close friend (M2) in the fall of 2000. It went something like this:
M2: “Hey man, I’ve got a trip to Kenya with our church, and we just had a slot open up. Wanna go?”
Me: “What would we be doing? I’ve never been out of the country like this.”
M2: “We’d get dropped into the jungle and hike with guides from village to village telling people about Jesus. We’d have to cook our meals, carry our water, and rely on local warriors to get us where we’re going. We’d be pretty much out of contact with the outside world until they come get us.”
Me: “Sign me up!”
On that trip, as village after village heard the Good News and chose to be reconciled to Christ, God sparked something so unexpected and so amazing in me that I knew it would be a part of me for the rest of my life. I just didn’t know that it would become my life.
Fast forward to today and Caryn and I are pretty much still doing that same thing: going where Jesus is not being named and proclaiming His Good News to a broken and dying world, imploring them to reconnect to God through Christ. We get to equip and empower others for that same work, too. And, for the most part, we love every minute of it!
Of course, there’s been some really hard things along the way: saying “see you later” to so many close friends and especially to our parents, losing close friend to death while we are not there, launching our kids back to the USA to chase after Jesus (and to watch them struggle mightily to find Him in the midst of so many trials), putting my mom in a nursing home, trying to make the most of seeing our parents in NC every chance we can, and so on. You get the idea. At every turn and with every challenge, Jesus has proven Himself faithful. Over and over again, He has been there and seen us through every challenge. As crazy and as tough as it has been over the last 14 years, it has been amazing. People ask us often, “When are you coming home?” Maybe it’s my age (55), or maybe it’s just a longing to have us here. I don’t know. Our response is always, “When the Lord brings us back.” Honestly, though, when I think about that, I often relate to a scene from the Lord of the Rings movies, one of the last scenes in “Return of the King,” in which our adventuresome hobbits are back in the shire, finally having made it to the place they all longed for throughout the movies. They are sitting around a table at their favorite tavern, hoisting a tankard of their favorite drinks, when they share a look with one another; it’s a look that conveys a discontentment with the very thing they longed for: home. Their world grew much bigger. Their lives mattered towards something greater than themselves. And they participated in an epic tale of immense proportions. That scene resonates with me when I think of coming back to the US. I know it won’t always be like that, and eventually the Lord will bring us back. But to sum-up the journey of the last 24 years, it’s to say we’re not there yet, and we have quite the adventure still ahead of us.
Thank you, friends, for the way you have encouraged and supported us