For the first time since being hastily recalled from Lusaka, Zambia in March, I was able to make a trip for ministry purposes. And the wonderful additional blessing was that Holly was able to join me for part of it, for the first time in several years! Due to the healing God has done in her life, she joined me in Colorado while we met with a supporting church, preached in the service, and met with various leaders and another pastor from a nearby church. I’m hoping to equip these pastors and then have them join me in Africa in the future, training African pastors to handle God’s Word well. On a funny note, as I preached outdoors at the church (at nearly 9000 ft elevation), I was gasping for air while driving home my third point!

One afternoon, Holly and I were taken further into the mountains for a fun little hike. We have prayed for years that Holly would be able to join me on my trips, and this is the first sign that it might be possible. So we’ll keep praying!

After the weekend, Holly flew back to Seattle and I continued on to St. Louis for meetings with my Pathways team leadership and then our larger Global Equipping team. We were productive in reworking one of our workshops that my dissertation research exposed was in  need of change as well as addressing other issues such as beginning to develop online training for global pastors. I’m blessed to be a part of a great team of like-minded brothers.

Following our Pathways meetings, our larger Global Equipping team met for two days. This only happens every 2-3 years, so we spent quite a bit of time learning about the other teams (church planting, community development, leadership development, unreached people groups, and orality/cultural engagement).

As a surprise bonus, a good friend of mine from seminary days has joined our team. In those days at Trinity Divinity School, living in the dorms, we called Paul Kuivinen “Boss,” and the stories from TEDS days began to flow!

I was encouraged at many points through the week away, and although our entire team is eager to get back to our beloved global pastors, we are trusting God and doing what we can in the meantime to build God’s kingdom and disciple all nations.