Some Background Info

So as you know, Kelly and I were married almost 4 years ago and in our not quite 4 years of marriage we have lived in 4 very different rentals. One was a cute 530 square foot apartment over in Ballard overlooking the Locks. The next was an 1800 square foot house in Broadview that had a magnificent yard. After that we lived in a basement apartment conveniently located very near to the school that Kelly was attending. Finally, we've been living in a very charming large studio apartment in the University District that, although loud, has easily been our most favorite place of all. While some people think it is nuts that we have moved so much, we feel like we've really benefited from it in two very specific ways.

First of all, we have had great motivation for continually going through our belongings to make sure that we were only keeping that which we needed to keep. Of course, we often found that what we "needed" during one cleaning, would sit untouched until the next cleaning at which point we often realized we had no need whatsoever for that very important object.

The second, and most important thing that we learned is actually more of a byproduct from the paring down of stuff than it is from the moving itself. We learned that God was trying to get a hold of our hearts and minds to reveal to us that we didn't want to be comfortable in our lives anymore without thoughtfully considering what made us comfortable. That is, we began to see that God wanted us to make sure our priorities were in line with His work and Kingdom, not our comfort level and society's standards. We realized that God wanted us to begin seeking out experiences that would expand our Worldview and in doing so, would expand our Kingdom-view - experiences that He was willing to orchestrate so long as we stayed open to His leading. So what had begun as an effort to make sure our amount of possessions never exceeded our storage space, quickly turned into an opportunity for us to begin considering the fact that God may not have a "conventional" life in store for us.

Well, with our minds now opened to the desire to think creatively about God's opportunities for us, we began looking into options we had never before considered. I should mention at this point that while we were beginning to perceive God's voice, I watched the movie "Man on Fire" (which is one of my more favorite movies) and in it, Dakota Fanning plays a little girl named Lupita. I got it in my head that if we had a daughter in the future, I would like to name her Lupita. Kelly felt that giving an American girl a clearly Spanish name might cause some undo angst and teasing in her life. So (and here's the tie in) I thought that we should move to Spain to legitimize the name and to have a fun adventure. The idea came at the right time because we were open to creativity remember, and we began to really think about doing that. But, we soon realized that it felt a bit aimless and while it might have been fun, it wasn't a fit.

So, with moving to Spain to be bartenders and teachers out of the picture, we explored a rad group called Alongside Ministries International (www.alongside.org). Their organization places missionaries in churches in Western Europe to assist and encourage the church. The thing was though, that as we prayed about it, we really felt God calling us to a more distressed environment.

With the new realization of feeling called to a developing nation, we checked out the Peace Corps. Turns out, they are doing some fantastic work throughout the world that is changing communities and lives. Trouble for us was that in our interview, they made it clear that they did not want us to ever share our faith while we were on assignment with them. Not at dinner with friends that we made. Not in casual conversation in the grocery store. Not when others engaged us in conversations about faith. Never. While they helped us understand where they were coming from with that, it was a deal breaker for us.

Finally, we were introduced to Children of the Nations (COTN) through our church and my new brother-in-law (he married my older sister.) The more we talked with them, the more we felt God urging us to continue the dialog. And, through our process of finding out about their ministry, their background, then applying, interviewing and being accepted, we have continued to feel God's affirmation and call through our prayer, our community, our family and from COTN. We are so excited. God is up to something big and we are overjoyed to be a part of it. So join with us by praying for us and reading our updates and, if you feel led, donate some of your money toward the mission. Who knows, maybe God's trying to get your attention too...