Well I am home and life is well. I arrived about a month and a half ago and have been intending to write this letter but have been prevented by a succession of adventures. Currently I am sitting in my new home looking out the window at the snow in Northern Kentucky with my new wife Traci. From the second I stepped off the plane with the World Race it has been non-stop travel and reunions with those I know and those I don’t know so well from my new family.
I first want to thank everyone on this mailing because more than likely you supported me in some fashion this year, whether it was financial, prayer or just a quick email while I was overseas. When I started on this journey I was bullish that it would be quick and easy and I can say it was neither. A lot was learned this year and numerous people’s lives were touched because of your support. I tried to initially capture this in blogs, which then turned more into photography blogs. There is no way that I could communicate here what I learned this year and expect you to read it so let me summarize.
The world, the whole world is suffering and for the most part more than any of us. This is not a ploy to make you feel bad but to encourage to keep supporting efforts coming out of the States. I can safely say our image overseas is lacking and unfortunately that gets correlated with the image of Christianity. It has never been a numbers game for me in terms of getting people into Heaven, that’s not my job it’s our Lord’s. We are simple called to serve and the results are his.
So I was able to establish that people are suffering beyond what I see in our media, if nothing else it made it real for me. In fact until one leaves our country I would argue you haven’t seen true suffering. However, something else I learned is that there are Christians everywhere. This simple fact continues to boggle my mind. I think to a day back in April when a group of guys I was with traveled from a mountain village in Thailand about an hour north to an even more remote village right next to the Burma border. We literally drove up a creek complete with rice fields, grazing cows and jungle to emerge in a village that had no road. What did we find there? A Christian youth retreat with more than 150 students praising the Lord. I traveled to over 20 countries this year and every single one had a fellow Christian brother or sister waiting to receive us.
Thirdly, I learned this year the thing we call “Sin” is real and healthy in this world. We all suffer from it and the only way to combat it is through grace and mercy. I know we love to say these things as Christians but I am here to tell you that they make a difference when actually implemented. People listen and observe everything we do as Christians and all to many time this year I had to let my actions speak louder than any words I could say. Coupled with sin is the act of repentance, which I didn’t understand until this year. I believe this is often overlooked and underused in our culture but is a very powerful tool with your Father in heaven as well as the stranger.
Lastly this journey gave me an epiphany on the course of my life. I was able to see through numerous events that took place this last year that I control very little if any in my life. Sure I make choices but I came to a point where I asked myself do I believe my God is truly sovereign in all he does and therefore affect ALL aspects of my life or am I going to continue to believe I can some how dictate my future. This is something I have mulled over for years and struggled with but am confident he has ultimate authority. These are just a few of the lessons I learned this year.
So I have this new set of experiences and lessons God has taught me and now he is asking me to step forward. About a week before I got home I decided to not prolong my engagement to Traci and step out on faith with moving our wedding up. I landed at JFK on the 23rd of November where Traci picked me up and it was off to Cincinnati for our wedding, which took place 6 days later on the 29th. It was what I would have called a slightly stressful week with Thanksgiving thrown in there but Traci not prone to getting stressed helped me. It was a whirlwind of family and getting the wedding plans finalized.
Our wedding was better than I could have imagined and the pictures can be found on Facebook or here on flickr. After our wedding I flew out to Minnesota to make our custom wedding bands with my teammate Miles in his metal shop. From there I flew to PA to spend a few relaxing weeks with Traci and her family. Post Christmas we started the moving process, which involved moving both our possessions to Northern Kentucky during a blizzard. We chose to move there because we have a strong community base of believers. Our focus for this next year is building a solid foundation in our marriage so that our combined ministry in the future can be more effective. We secured a two family home with my long time friend Mark Treas. We look forward to hosting anyone passing through the area in the future. We have plans to have a worship night at our house every week. Currently we are in the process of find jobs so please be praying for us in that area. I will end by saying thank you again for your support and know you influenced my course. I have a strong feeling that God will take me overseas again at some point and your support may be need again so please keep that in your prayers. As always I am happy to talk if anyone has questions or wants to know more about this last year.
