What a Long, Strange Trip - Out in the Rain

"Clearly, you've never been to Singapore." It sounded almost like a challenge. So I began to familiarize with Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia. I decided it wouldn't be a bad place to live. In elementary school I had kind of had a fascination with Chinese and Japanese culture, but it had long since waned. It was fun to pick it back up in a way. But I hadn’t mentioned anything to anyone at that point.

 I was still sending out résumés all over. My wife suggested that maybe we look at moving to Colorado Springs. I said it wasn’t far enough away.

Meanwhile, there is a pretty good Mongolian Barbecue in Twin Falls. Go figure. A couple of weeks after Jack Sparrow’s observation we went out as a family to eat there. Now, Asian food has never really been a favorite of my wife. When we got home she reminded me of that, but said that this time she had really enjoyed it. She said she had been thinking about the whole “not far enough away” thing. As she ate, she was thinking that she could eat Asian food every day. And then: “I could even love some place like Singapore.”

I had a couple of interviews set up, but none of them panned out. Then I went to fulfill my final obligation to the United Methodist Church. I went to be a one-day Camp Pastor for the Senior High camp at Sawtooth. I did not feel like going. It is a two-hour journey from Twin Falls to Sawtooth. The entire length of the trip, I was asking myself why I hadn’t found some way t get out of it. I was not in an emotional space to want to go. But I did.

When I arrived, I was greeted by many hugs. It was healing. Then they began the first activity of the morning. It was Rob Bell’s “Nooma” video, Rain. It tells the story of Rob out walking, with his one-year-old son in a backpack. As they are, walking it begins to rain. Hard. Thunder, lightning, the whole thing. Rob’s son begins crying, then screaming in terror. Rob just keeps on walking, oblivious; he wants to get home. But after a mile or so, Rob stops and takes his son out of the backpack, and just hugs him close. Trying to comfort him. It was an amazing moment for me.

It was at that moment that I felt like God had taken me out of the backpack. I was riding along on God’s back, with the rain and thunder and lightning all around me, and I felt like God was oblivious. But finally, God had stopped. He was holding me close, whispering that he knew the way home. Everything was going to be alright. And I believed it. I still do.

We had left a guaranteed job, following what we thought was God’s leading. Then, what we thought God was leading us into evaporated. We felt abandoned. We were in the middle of a storm. And we felt God wasn’t listening. Now, finally, we knew that God was listening after all.

"Bring me that horizon!"

When I was in Bible College, there were four "tracks" of study that you could take: Music Ministry, Youth Ministry, Pastoral Ministry, and Missions. For me, at the time, it was Youth Ministry or Music Ministry. I was okay with Pastoral Ministry. Missions: "I'm good, thanks." I had no overwhelming desire to leave my nice, comfortable, American life and go off to live in the bush, eating bugs and translating the Bible into obscure languages that I didn't even know. I had heard numerous horror stories about being a missionary; wearing second or third hand clothes sent from the states, getting all kinds of shots to avoid obscure diseases, receiving used and dried out tea bags sent in care packages by little old ladies, being killed. None of that was appealing to me.

My wife is an MK (Missionary Kid). A part of her has always wanted to go back overseas. Every once in awhile she would suggest that in some form like being houseparents at a mission school or a pastor to expats. I would usually graciously smile and ignore the whole conversation.

I never set out to be a Missionary. But when you finally decide to stop steering the boat yourself and just put up the sail and let the Wind take you where it's going to... it is amazing where the Holy Spirit will end up blowing you. For us, right now the boat seems to be heading on a course for Thailand.

At the end of Pirates... Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack says, "Bring me that horizon". Maybe he's running from something, maybe he's running to something. Maybe he just knows that he's supposed to be over there... wherever "there" is. The thing is; with the horizon, you don't always know what you'll find once you're there. Heading off to the horizon is an ultimate act of faith. But, perhaps more important; the horizon isn't a destination. It's always out there ahead of you. It's a never-ending journey. It's not a single step of faith, it's a life of faith.

Right now, faith has us in the boat heading for Thailand. There is lots to do in preparation. But, like Captain Jack Sparrow, we know that's where we're supposed to be.

Bring me that horizon!

What a Long, Strange Trip - the saga begins

In December of 2010, after much discussion and prayer, my wife and I decided that it was time to leave the pulpit of the United Methodist Church. I was a Licensed Local Pastor seeking ordination, but - for whatever reason - that wasn't happening. I had been in contact with the Department of Juvenile Corrections and the Twin Falls Juvenile Court, hoping to partner with them on a grant to facilitate and coordinate Restorative Justice conferences. I made the announcement in January of 2011, and began preparing for this transition. 

June of 2011 was my last official month in the UMC. As the first weeks of July came to an end, we sat down expectantly waiting for the latest news on the grant-writing process. It was revealed that the grant I had hoped for had gone to someone else. I was unemployed. I began plastering the country with my resume, sending out around twenty all across the United States. I had resumes in five time zones; every one but Alaska. And I heard nothing. 

The very same evening that I learned about the loss of the grant, the whole family was watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. At one point, Captain Jack Sparrow says, "Clearly, you've never been to Singapore". I thought to myself, "Heh, neither have I". And so, Southeast Asia entered my consciousness.

New adventure

My wife and I have recently been appointed to be missionaries to Thailand. We're beginning the preparation process. This blog is designed to be a running commentary on the milestones of this process, and the hand of God at work in spite of us.