The Greatest Adventure Ever.

We've been on the road 12 days. 22 to go. We've been from Minnesota to Chicago and across the plains to Colorado. We've met with more people and have become more exhausted than I thought possible. I'd have 4-5 meetings back to back. I'd get home and collapse unable to move.

At the beginning of last week, an old mentor challenged us to view our support-raising as a ministry rather than as a fund-raising tactic. So we cast our cares to the wind and decided that we would respectfully lay aside our fund-raising training (a couple tapes that told us how to guide a conversation to "the big ask") and start investing OUR resources into people instead.

So we started listening better to people's hearts. We did our best to encourage, bless, and pray for them. We drew out their vision for ministry and shared a bit of ours. We sought to develop partnerships for future ministry there. By the end, we had some financial supporters, but we had a lot more personal advocates, which in some ways is better because it opens the door for future relationship and ministry. We did walk away with a number of financial supporters including (hurray!!) our church community in Windsor, CO. But suddenly it matters less. In God's sense of humor, while WE sought to "raise a vision" for OUR work, God was raising OUR vision for HIS work.






Over the course of the week, I met with church leaders representing 5 churches in the area and was blown away by a common yearning for discipleship in each church. As we listened to each leader's heart we heard  a deep need for healing and maturing in the hearts of Northern Colorado Christians. We began to sense that God may have future plans for us in this town. I began to wonder if we could implement some emotional healing groups in the area or perhaps do some future training on discipleship. Either way, Windsor, CO is now a sending base for us. The door is now open for us to visit again and do meaningful work in the future. (By the way, if you didn't know, we lived in Windsor when we were first married and it was the hardest year of our lives together. To come back and feel we have a bright future here is profoundly redemptive for us: yet another loose thread that God is weaving into the tapestry of our lives together.)


Now we're off over the mountains. We'll hike and play for a day as we drive up to Grand Junction, CO. Then we're off to Las Vegas for a night. Haha. I know what you're thinking, but we're staying with a pastor's family. Though I haven't squandered the opportunity to tell supporters that we intend to "double our support" while we're there. ;)



This is the life I always dreamed of. This is the way I want to live.... not in an office, but out on the road, pouring into the lives and hearts of people. Like that pubescent mermaid, "I wanna be where the people are!" I want to "raise the vision" for building whole, mature, and missional disciples across this country. I want to leave a trail of people that itch for something deeper than church once a week. And I want to be able to give them the resources to dive headlong into the deep end of God's promises and dreams for their lives. That for me is the good life. And I can't believe God brought me here.