Traveling, Arriving and Preparing

Chelsea giving Dustin a tour of the camp.

The trip here was long and tedious, but we made it without a scratch. The only damage done was some leaked ginger oil and a torn bag of butterscotch chips – not too bad considering all the transfers we made. We spent countless hours waiting in Newark and Paris (possibly the least comfortable airport in the world), but now that we are here, our travel woes seem like a distant memory. We aren’t even jet-lagged! We were especially happy to see Dustin and Kelly (our fellow Epikosians) already at camp when we arrived. They had some trouble as well, but also made it without any harm done.

Being in crowded airports is always an overwhelming experience for me. Not only does my introversion make me anxious, but with so many people around me, my mind also wanders to our call in Christ to bring others to him. There are so many people in the world who need truth, and seeing them in mass is a humbling experience. We truly need to rely on God to change hearts, for the task is too big for us. I know that proselytizing while standing on an airport seat is not going to change lives, but I also know that the brief conversations I have in airports while waiting in lines can make small impacts on people’s lives. In Paris, we were blessed to meet two fellow travelers – a woman headed to Lyon for a photo workshop, and a man going to Lyon on business - and share our mission with them. I simply pray that our brief conversations represented Christ well, and hope that God does the rest.

Tomorrow is orientation and the rest of the volunteers will stream into camp throughout the day today. Chelsea and her team are just beginning preparations for their first meal, and then we are off and running. It has been an encouragement to see familiar faces, and I am confident God has something special prepared for this year’s English camp. Continue to pray for His Spirit to work powerfully in the hearts and minds of the campers, leaders, and volunteers.



God bless,
David

Saying Goodbye

After two full days of moving and one day of R&R, it has finally set in that we are in the Twin Cities for the long run. While this is where both Chelsea and I have always considered to be our true home and saw ourselves starting a family, saying goodbye to Epikos and the friends we had made in Milwaukee was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do together. While neither of us thought it to be possible, the people who God put into our lives in Milwaukee made us feel truly loved and at home. We were blessed to be able to see nearly everyone who made an impact on our lives over the past four years in this final week, and with every meeting, a new flood of happy Milwaukee memories came. Thank you all for loving us with the love of Christ and allowing God to work through you to grow our trust in His plans for us. I wouldn’t trade my time in Milwaukee for the world.

On my final day at work in Milwaukee, a sister in Christ reminded that no goodbye between fellow followers of Christ is truly a goodbye. We will indeed all see each other again whether it is in this life or in eternity with our God. This thought made moving away easier, as it reminded me that God will still be at work in the lives of my friends in Milwaukee, and Epikos will never be abandoned by our God until He brings us all to our true home with Him. I think many of us, and especially myself, become worried by change and become anxious with the thought of all the things that could go wrong without our help. Sinful pride is at the base of this anxiety, as it assumes we had anything to do with any success to begin with. Reminding myself that the same God who works in Chelsea and myself is working in all believers at Epikos is a humbling and encouraging thought. It would be foolish to doubt that I will continue to hear success stories from Milwaukee as the church continues to grow and bring new believers into God’s family. I pray that God will rise up new leaders equipped to fill needs and shepherd His flock. I know He will.

Pray that God would lead us in all aspects of our lives in Minnesota as we seek to follow Him and represent Him truly and faithfully. Pray that God would bring us to a church where our gifts, time, and money can be used to expand His Kingdom and glory. I am excited to see how God will answer our prayers and grow our trust in Him as the next period of our life begins.

One final note: thank you all for your amazing generosity in stewarding God’s resources to aid us in our call to France. We are just under our support-raising goal, and have been humbled once again by God’s work throughout this process. It is now time to start directing our hearts and minds to the campers in France, as we are only a week away from our trip. Know that God has answered prayer regarding the video workshop I will be heading up, and I will be working on fleshing out further story ideas today.

Thank you and God bless,
David (and Chelsea)

Answered Prayers

We are not usually prolific bloggers! But we had to share with you a fantastic answered prayer and an incredible weight lifted off our shoulders.

As we hinted at in the last blog, we were praying that our lease situation would work itself out. This was because our lease did not end until the August 31st, and we obviously could not afford to pay rent while we were in France. So we (and a handful of people here in Milwaukee) had been praying that someone would come along and rent our apartment.

Well, after a showing on Sunday, we felt really good about the guy who had seen it. He seemed nice and very interested. We had a lot of back in forth communication with him via text message about parking and other such things. We eventually worked something out, and he agreed to move in on Wednesday! (Telling us Tuesday afternoon). This leaves us free and clear from our lease and we get almost the entirety of our security deposit back! Praise God! We are so thankful for that and thankful for any and all prayers from you guys.

We are also so thankful that our good friends here, Jonathan and Katie, have graciously opened their home to us (and our cute-as-a-button cat, Lily) so that we are able to save money now to be able to pay down debt and be much better stewards of God's resources for us. We are incredibly grateful for their hospitality and we are having a great time with them - they are super laid back and easy to live with, another blessing.

It was amazing that Tuesday afternoon, the guy renting our place said, "Alright I applied", and within an hour we had 7 people at our apartment packing up with a uhaul and about 4 others waiting in the wings to help if we needed it. We were able to pack and move our entire apartment in just under five hours - incredible.

Additionally, although we had many many frequent flyer miles donated to us, the miles the trip was going to cost had jumped significantly last week, from 120,000 (for the both of us) to 160,000 to about 400,000! We had been praying a lot that the miles would come back down, and on Wednesday, they did! They went back down to 120,000 miles on Wednesday afternoon and we jumped on the tickets. There are long layovers everywhere we go, but we are just FINE with that! We can handle sitting in the airport a bit if we manage to get basically free flights!

Sometimes I doubt, but prayer truly works. As we have gotten on our knees these past few weeks, I am reminded by the grace of God and what a privilege it is to come and lay our petitions at His feet. He loves us so much.

God is truly blessing us. As we begin our final two weeks in Milwaukee tomorrow, we really reflect on this place as our home. Although we complain about it and get frustrated sometimes with things about this place, it has been our first place we called home as a couple, and it has meant so much to us. We love the people and the church so much, and it is finally starting to sadden us that we will be leaving. As people have rallied around us these past couple of weeks, we have realized how loved and blessed we are. Know that you all are loved right back. I am just gushing thinking of it all and again, how truly blessed we are.

We pray that you all would be equally blessed, and that the love of God would be revealed to you more fully than ever.