13 September, 2013

Summer Update

Last summer, we shared a couple of times how rough a time we had.  We’re happy to share that our experience this year was MUCH better.  Many of our UWM colleagues again went back to the States for furlough/home assignment/home ministry assignment/stateside/whatever you want to call it, but largely thanks to our community at Agóra we weren’t nearly as lonely.  Also, it makes a huge difference when you’re not pregnant, when you have air conditioning and the summer isn’t as hot! 

One positive event was the return of Dávid and his family from their year at Oxford University.  We were so happy to see them after so long a separation, and we three pastors greatly enjoyed the 6 weeks we had together.  Why only 6 weeks?  Well, at the beginning of August, Trey and his family returned to Texas for their furlough/home assignment/home ministry assignment/stateside/whatever you want to call it which will end just before New Year’s.  In the time the three of us had together, I was able to organize a retreat for us, our wives and a few of our kiddos. 

This was a wonderful time and I am so thankful that my two goals, rest for the wives and lots of quality time for the pastors, were accomplished!  I had us all take the DiSC Personality Assessment to help us understand ourselves better.  Megan and I found this to be hugely helpful when first we took it at CIT where we received our missionary training.  I wanted each of us to have a more clear foundation on which to work with and relate to one another.  From there, the three of us began to speak about different roles that exist within the church and under what labels we best fit.  The reasoning behind all this is that all three of us have been teaching/preaching on Sundays at Agóra, but I felt like we needed to explore ourselves more than that.  We’re very different men, and I know that we each have different things about which we are passionate and for which we are gifted.  I sought to cultivate that discussion and I believe that we’ve made a good start. 

Dávid and I have begun to meet weekly as Trey and I did and again, I am struck by how fortunate I am to work with these men.  Not only do we get along well personally, but we work well together.  With both of them now, I’ve experienced the thrill of coming up with something new about which the other had already been thinking.  This is not to communicate something like, “Oh I’m so un-original” but “Wow, perhaps this idea/plan is ordained because we’ve both been given this vision.”  This might be confusing, but for me it’s exciting!

For the last 9 months, Megan has been working from home providing administrative support for one of our UWM colleagues who works regionally here in Europe.  Primarily, she has been helping organize a conference that will take place later this month.  She had to learn how to use an online registration system and coordinate with several people who were acting as liaisons between her and the many people who wanted to attend this conference.  There have been frustrating times for her, but she really does enjoy bringing order to chaos (which is probably partly why she married me).

Grant. Is. Crawling.  For over a month he’s been doing something I call his “wounded warrior crawl” but just yesterday he really crawled for the first time (on hands and knees).  He’s already begun pulling himself up on us if we lay down on the ground or on other things low to the ground.  We’re going to IKEA tomorrow to finally buy what we need to child-proof the home as he’s now able to more fully investigate those interesting wall outlets.

I could go on, but I’ll wrap up for now and wish you a happy weekend.  BTHO BAMA!!!

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