The whirlwind continues as Dara and I have boarded a plane and are now off to Charlotte. We are having our third gathering (Friday night) of people who are interested in launching Hope Church with us in September.I love heading places with Dara. Anything we do without kids feels like a vacation, so this is going to be so much fun! Just getting away together is such a great experience!We get to have dinner tonight with some great friends (Justin and Melody Leedy) that already live in Charlotte. It's so great to already have a couple that we know and love in the same area as Hope Church 🙂 I...

We have officially launched our online giving tool that will allow people to support us via one time gifts or monthly support. If you look at the top right corner of this page you'll see the link.We can't do this on our own. We have to have the support of others as we pursue this dream. This is so very humbling for me. However, my distaste for asking for money pales in comparison to the passion that I feel for planting this church. For those who know me well (and if I have your address), you will be getting an 8-page magazine that we put together about our church plant and all that we are...

Jeff and I successfully caught a flight from Miami to Orlando later on Monday afternoon. It is so great sharing moments with people you actually love and enjoy being around. That could have been the recipe for a very bad, very long day. However, it ended up being really fun. You can make the best of EVERY situation...it's all about how you choose to live your life, I guess.Wrapping up the Costa Rica recap, we had a great day on Sunday. Most of the team went to Renacir (the local church we are working with). John, Dayne and Justin all spoke for breakout sessions. Dani and Kara ran the kids...

Of all of the curveballs that missions trips ALWAYS bring, I never could have imagined almost having a student deported. I now know ANYTHING can happen when you leave the country with 17 people.Jeff is a cool guy. It's just that he failed to get his student visa before he came to Master's Commission. So we were hustling to get through customs to make our connecting flight in Miami and I turn around and see that the customs agent was questioning Jeff. Next thing I knew they were escorting him away. 2 hours later, Jeff comes back out very relieved. They actually INTERROGATED him (5 people...

We got rained out at the school on Friday when we were painting the wall, so Saturday morning we headed back to finish the job. When we arrived, we noticed a large number of elementary aged students that were watching us intently. We assigned five people to finish the painting and the rest of us walked around the community and invited kids to an impromptu outreach right there in the middle of the street. We set up our puppet stage and did our program for the kids. I couldn't believe it...after the program started, I started counting and found that there were about 150 people gathered in the...

Ok...so trying to keep up a blog while on a missions trip isn't the easiest idea ever, but here is a three day update from Costa Rica...THURSDAYWe had the day of and went on a “canopy tour” of the mountains. This was so amazing. The day included zip-lining through the trees and mountains, repelling and jumping off of a tree and swinging through the jungle like Tarzan. Wow. What an experience! We ended that night by driving through some really rough mountains (in which I almost puked) to a hotel that was at the base of a volcano. They had natural hot springs that were heated by the volcano....

I got in my first international car crash today.Parker and I were sitting at a stop light and another car plowed into the back of us. Ouch. We were both ok, and Parker's Montero was ok...but the little tiny car that hit us was banged up pretty bad.Oh the memories.

We got off to an early start yesterday (3:20am) and took a 4 hour trip through the mountains to Tilaran. I'm beginning to believe that every missions trip I ever go on will include a terrifying drive on an unpaved road at speeds that are way too fast on a bus that wasn't designed for off road travel.Dani and Kara organized two elementary school assemblies that went amazing. Puppets, skits, sharing the message of salvation, and LOTS of hyper dancing for the kids. Let's just say that Sarah is one HECK of an impromptu choreographer for the kid dancing.We had another amazing lunch (the food is...

One thing you can always expect about missions trips is that things will always happen that you could never expect. Bank on it.Our Master's Commission team arrived, 17 strong, at the Orlando International Airport last night only to find out that our group sales agent made a mistake and had us flying out of MIAMI, not Orlando. I stood there in disbelief as she told us that the only option was to reschedule for the next day because there were NO flights out of Orlando for the rest of the day that could get us to Costa Rica. I told the team and everyone handled it really well. We went back...

I am heading to Costa Rica tomorrow with Master's Commission. Mixed emotions there...this is my last trip as the director at Calvary Orlando MC. So many great memories. I'm excited to be able to spend all day with the students. These trips are always great for discipleship. Being around the students all day every day gives me an opportunity to observe, listen, chat, encourage and have a lot of fun.I love being the director at this program!