Class is in session

Classes start in the morning for me, and I thought now would be a good time to update you on what has been and seek your prayers for what, Lord willing, will be.

Two weeks ago today we set out from home for Louisville, Kentucky. There was a certain sense of sobriety mixed with fear and excitement. We said numerous times before taking this trip, "When God says 'GO', you must say, "Yes, Sir!'" Moving here was never about a need for a new exciting adventure. Bekah and I are not the most "adventurous" couple. The command of the Holy Spirit to leave what we know and to jump into what we do not know was what motivated us to leave and motivates us to stay.

We are still singing the praises of Leon, Kathi and Ike Hedberg for their great sacrifice in driving down with us and staying on several days to help us unpack and get settled in. Bekah and I nervously chuckled about how long it would have taken us to get as far as we are without their help. I'm not even trying to be funny when I guess that it would be the end of the semester before we would be able to get as far as we are at the beginning of this semester. Thank you dad, mom and brother for your great sacrifice! The time, money, emotion, thought and many other resources you poured into us and this move are stunning. I'm still having a hard time processing it all!

Stunned, shocked, and overwhelmed are good words to sum up these past two weeks (certainly more before and I'm almost certain of more to come). I've thought numerous times of the time I ran from a sauna and jumped into a freshly thawed lake up at Adventurous Christians Camp up on the Gunflint Trail. There's been work done to try and make ourselves actual citizens of Kentucky and Village Manor, but admittedly there's been a fair amount of staring at walls and boxes as we try and figure out what just happened. I remember thinking, "who moved all of my things into this strangers house!?". That gives you a feel for how we feel about "home", and partly how we feel about our entire lives here. There is so much to be thankful for and we are so grateful (though not as grateful as we know we should be) for the many evidences of God's grace to us. Yet I assume it will just take a little more time for us to adjust to this new place as home and not just another vacation spot.

As we move into the week ahead please pray that we would continue to adjust to our new home. Pray that we fight the temptation to fall into unhealthy and sinful patterns borne out of self-pity and faithless despair. Ella has been not sleeping as well lately and has been less responsive to correction and discipline. Bekah and I are both struggling to find which end is up and making progress in becoming fully here. Pray that the four of us would not be overwhelmed by the magnitude of all that is different. Pray that we would not lose hope and that we would persevere in obeying the Lord and working on the vast "to-do's". Pray that God would help me stay focused and excited for school. You know many of the personal struggles I've had and have in this particular part of this endeavor. Pray that I would continue to lean on the Lord for strength and confidence. Pray also for my family as I just now leave them home alone for an entire day. Weston is now eight weeks old and Bekah has had extra help at home every day since he was born. This is good but could be a tough adjustment for all of us! Lastly I ask that you would pray for us in the decision to join a church. We've been attending a great one the past two weekends, but we're facing what we think to be special spiritual warfare in committing. These are some particulars. Feel free to pray for obvious things I've left out.


We love you and miss you. We are so thankful for the hope we share in Christ and the promised future we have with Him and each other. Then we will know the blessed and eternal community we all long for!

Exodus 34:6-9
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the father on the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation." And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."