Everything is changing, v. 3

I just stumbled upon a journal entry I wrote in April 2013, long before Josh and I first heard about ReachGlobal in Berlin. My faith felt frail at the time, and to make matters worse, I was incredibly frustrated with my job. 

My cubicle at my former job, cleaned out on my last day.

I still remember the Spirit clamoring on that April evening, pleading with me as I washed dishes at the sink. Sit. Be still. Talk to me. As I slammed the last dripping plate into the dishwasher, I gave up the fight. I wiped down the counter, retrieved my journal, and took a seat in the empty living room. Rain pattered on the skylights and a candle flickered on the coffee table. I began to write.

College is done. That once unlived adventure—lived. Mystery and anticipation—gone. Now I sit in a cubicle and answer phones. Prospective students, kind donors, rude fundamentalists and desperate radio listeners… I don’t know what to make of all these interactions, but I always come home exhausted.

What if Josh and I just went for it? We’ve been talking about traveling, about making videos and recording music, about meeting new people and just living. We don’t want a house with a picket fence in the suburbs, complete with 2.333 kids and enough money in the bank to become subtly damned consumers.  

What if this season, this time in Chicago, is a brief period that will launch us into real life, an adventure? What if we took steps into the dark and groped for your hands and giggled with excitement? Oh God, please lead us. We do not want to be safe or culturally confined.

I desire to empower people with your story. You are powerful. You reach into corpses and infuse life. You step into our history and fix your eyes on every moment—on every glimmer or hint or outright crime of murderous self-lordship—and you forgive. I want people to know that. I want to pour out myself so that others can look and live. 

– 10 April 2013

This is part of the prequel to Berlin. This is part of my story, my desire to go and do that seemed so stifled at the time. 

Potsdamer Platz, Berlin

About six months later, Josh and I were made aware of the opportunity to live and work in Germany. It seems that this ministry has been handed to us as a gift—an answer to a half-forgotten prayer on a rainy evening—and I am speechlessly grateful.

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We would love for you to follow our story as we prepare for ministry in Germany. If you'd like to receive a little update from us once in awhile, sign up for our newsletter here!

Everything is changing, v. 2

We returned from Berlin earlier this month! We spent an amazing week exploring the city, meeting the staff, and getting a feel for everyday life in Germany. ReachGlobal has finalized our placement with the Berlin team! We will spend the next twelve months developing ministry partners so that we can move to Berlin and jump into our new roles.



I fell so hard for Berlin. I wish that I could somehow fast-forward through the transitions on this side of the ocean, through the impending, foreboding, final goodbyes. I have put down deep roots in Chicago, and it feels like the spade is already hacking away and making me bleed.

On Tuesday night, we gathered with a few of our closest friends and ended up talking for hours and hours about transition and loss. We're all coping with varying degrees of uncertainty, and our parting embraces were bittersweet. I think we're realizing how quickly things are changing.  

A year from now, we'll all be gone.
 

Everything is changing, v. 1

In case you haven't heard, Josh and I are headed on quite the adventure to Berlin. (Insert ecstatic squeals and a mild panic attack here.) If all goes as planned, we will have raised our monthly support and be headed overseas by the end of next year. I am starting to grasp how soon that is, how little time we may have left in Chicago.

Our first three years of marriage have been beautifully interrupted by change after change within these city limits. We have grown. Our conceptions of community and love and hospitality and salvation have been reshaped by this bustling, transient culture, by the warmth of the people who call this city home. I don't want to forget these days.

There is a sense of peace and steadiness here, in our community. I am learning that hospitality is not an event, but a mindset. It is the daily re-opening of my eyes, heart, and home to others. It is Kingdom-building. It is a wild chase, one which is taking us to another corner of the world. New friends await us in Berlin, creative souls who may or may not have spoken to Jesus before. That excites us.

We will continue to grow. We will continue to learn how to give, and in a new city we will make our home.

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We would love for you to follow our story as we prepare for ministry in Germany. If you'd like to receive a little update from us once in awhile, sign up for our newsletter here!