blog is moving... even though i havent written here in a long, long time

so we are going to have a family blog of sorts.... so click here. It will have a more personal update this weekend.

Europe: ReReach... the short version

Four years ago my parents moved to Torino, Italy. Since that time I have not been the same. There has since been a nagging feeling in my heart and mind that has not gone away. Starting next week, after months of preparation and networking we, Lindsey and I, begin the journey. I say this because I am going on a Vision trip to 8 cities in 13 day to discern if and how our church should engaged an almost 'unreached' (the people are primarily non-practicing catholics and 3% protestant across the continent) people group. Within that time I am hoping to clarify the Vision, not only for our church, but also for our family. This summer, depending on the outcome of this trip, Lindsey and I will look to spend a month or so in one of these places that we are visiting. Already we have huge opportunities in Italy but we need "to date before we can marry a place" (thank you Mark Driscoll).

Anyway, I know that it has been a long time since I have last posted but if you read this please:
1. pray for wisdom and discernment for those of us on the trip.
2. safety
3. Clarification of calling
4. encouragement in the gospel for the people that we meet and have meetings with.
5. pray for people, maybe even yourself, to take proactive steps toward rereaching Europe with the gospel.
6. For our guide who labor tirelessly for the Kingdom there and the organization, the upstream collective, that he works for
7. the people of Europe. Natives, the huge amount of immigrants, the human trafficking and the extremely diverse religous population all need the gospel and redemption in Christ alone.

Lastly, even in the end, if this is not the place that God has called Lindsey and I to I am looking to start a non-prof called:

Again, this continent is now, on average 3% protestant, unreached is 2%. That is why I hope to call it ReReach, to reintroduce the gospel to a dark place that once shown brightly. Most people think of Europe as the cool and easy place to be missionaries but in reality most people do not even finish there first term because of the difficulties. This is a hard place, and an expensive place, which is the reason for the non-prof- to help financially support the church of Europe for training, evangelism, resourcing, etc...

All Feedback is helpful. I am trying to decide if I want to create another blog that is entirely about Europe under the name rereach and will be eventually turned into a non-prof and to document our progress in and on the road the Lord has marked out for us.

Thanks, it is in God's hands

wedding and bears

I am married now. Whoa, weird. Though it has only been a few days I am already finding it strange that I actually had our wedding on Saturday, not someone else’s but mine. Thank you to all who have given advice and helped out in the planning and idea giving. FYI: 1pm was the best choice for a ceremony time ever. Also, I am beyond thankful, and thank you again, for those that came to Austin to witness our marriage. I feel truly humbled and blessed, words cannot express my gratitude.
Bears-
We saw bears, not from the car but on the hiking trail… on the top of a mountain. We came around a bend, heard some rustling and down, and onto the trail flew this big black bear… whoa and awesome. I had said I wanted to see a bear, but at that moment had just told Lindsey that this would not be a good place to see a bear… of course it happened… it’s like I have espn or something. Maybe just a Holy Spirit tidbit of intuition… whatever. At this point Lindsey is like, “we should definitely go back down (or back the way we came).” My response, was a very manish “no-way, we have to finish this trail. We should just wait for a little while to see if they leave.” At this point we had looked to see if the bears had continued their meandering down the mountain, but this was not the case. In fact, there were 3 other little cubs, not like medium adult dog sized cubs but legit puppy sized cubs, they were mini…. with huge ears. A few times these little munchkin bears started to walk down the trail toward us but were soon, what sounded like, barked back toward momma. The first time, it looked like they jumped down the mountain but they actually came right back to the road and continued to look at us. After this, they moved back a little; and so our dance and observation with the bears continued. After about ten minutes, the rustling seemed to move to a position above us on the mountain… we were not ready to be “bear pounced.” Thus ended our hike and we retraced the steps that we had so strenuously climbed. Not exactly the outcome that I wanted but you have to fend for the wife at some point and some times that means walking away.

Hopefully, I will be able to find my camera cord so that I can put bear cub pictures up but we will see.

Random note: I hope that I can start to get Lindsey to write on this thing rather than just me.