Coming home

It was great to see so many friends on our recent trip to the US. Josh re-connected with buddies in Missouri as he completed his One Shepherd leadership training, and Jack and I saw my side of the family (although we missed the birth of a new nephew by two days!) and visited both Grace and City Churches, giving a brief update on our new name and the Forge camps. Our Hope girl enjoyed our being away because she had less accountability on homework and got to have multiple sleepovers with friends.

We return to sweltering heat, but the humidity rising means the rains are coming soon. This month, there are two weddings that will be hosted on our base – one couple from the church in La Venta and one from the village where we live. They will be pretty simple affairs, outside, and focused on enjoying the guests and eating good food. That’s the Mexico that I love!

While I was away, I found myself missing always having the windows open, speaking Spanish, and aguas frescas. And, of course, missing Josh and Perita. Jack missed playing with his next-door cousins and has already had two sleepovers to make up for time away. It’s good to be home!

If you missed the presentations at the churches, here’s a link to the video that was shown, a teaser for the Forge program. Part of the impetus to create a new expression of “church” like this is to offer a discipleship program for people that aren’t looking for something safe, but for something hard. If there is only one culture in the church – a mainly passive, nice, “receive” culture – then the people who do not connect with that – which is a large swath of men and young adults – will be unlikely to ever consider themselves as part of the church. God is creative! In a world of increasingly niche sub-cultures, missionaries may be sent to reach them by creating new environments for sharing the eternal message.

We are still looking to develop our partnership team. If you would like to sow into our ministry with finances, prayer, or a visit here, we would love that! Check out the details here.