Moving to Texas

Right after Christmas, we're moving from our home in Ambridge to my parents' home in Sunnyvale, TX -- the beautiful Ten Acres.

Originally we had planned to move before Christmas, but the schedule is too tight.  We've been focusing our energy on partner development -- writing proposals, visiting churches in the area (we've had good times with the folks at Trinity in Beaver and St. David's in Venetia), making phone calls, writing letters, and updating address lists.  We're also preparing for a week visiting the Diocese of South Carolina (December 5-14), strengthening our relationships with the churches already supporting us and seeking out other partnerships there.  In between, Leslie is beginning to pack up the house, we continue selling off what items we can through yard sales and Craig's List, I'm wrestling with doctors' offices and insurance companies to try and switch our health insurance, and the kids keep going forward with school, ballet, and gymnastics.

So we're moving to Texas right after Christmas.  Leslie and the girls will fly to TX, while my dad drives up in his pick-up to help Jesse and me finish putting things in storage and make the drive to Sunnyvale.  Once there, we'll get the kids settled into their new school, and then re-focus on partner development, spend time connecting with our teammates, the Morrow's, and hang out with family and friends in the area.

We plan to leave for Uganda as early as possible in 2010.  We still need to raise about 50% of our budget, so much prayer and work is ahead of us.  In the past several weeks, however, we've seen such encouraging signs of God's faithfulness and affirmation of our call that we're not discouraged.  We're often weary and sometimes overwhelmed, but our confidence continues to grow -- because we're confident in the One who has called us.

Happy Birthday to Me

Although I'm not thrilled about turning 39 (more on that later), I love daddy birthdays.  The days leading up to it are full of hushed voices and surreptitious card making and unintended hints and shouts of "Don't look in here!" and over-compensations ("Did you go into the basement?!  I mean, there's nothing down there, no surprise or anything, but did you go down there?  Did you see anything?!").

I was up first this morning.  Then Jesse came down for his morning tea, and immediately greeted me with a "Happy Birthday, Dad," followed by a sweet hug.  5 minutes later, Georgia came down with crazy  static hair and sleepy eyes and Paddington bear, and gave a "Happy Birthday, Daddy" and a hug.  Another 5 minutes, and then Lucy joined the growing crowd.  A quick whispered argument between the sisters ensued, then Lucy stood sullenly for a few minutes, and then out came a sweet "Happy Birthday, Daddy," and then she motioned me to come in close, and she gave me a kiss on my unshaven cheek.  That's a real gift from her -- she hates to kiss scruff, and I'm normally required to wait until later in the morning to give or receive kisses from her.  Leslie came down as I added two more tea bags, and gave me a hug as well.

The kids scattered, then came back with the cards.  Here's Georgia's:

 

The inside reads: "Happy Birthday.  Dad I love you and your a GREAT DaD love Georgia."

Here's Jesse's:

 

The outside reads: "For The Awsomest Dad Eaver."

The inside reads:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Once there was a dad. But he was no ordinary dad. He was the best and awsomeist dad ever!  His son thout he was cool, his daughters thout he was cool, and his wife thout he was cool. Why? HE WAS COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Dad, I do think you are cool, and it's true. Have a great birthday. From Jesse.

And Yoda is saying, "Have a good birthday you will."

And then Jesse gave me a present he had picked out himself.  Two brand new nerf swords so we could continue our evening duals.  (Our other swords are beginning to fall apart.)

After the older two left for school, Leslie, the younger two girls, and I slipped away to Cafe Des Amis in Sewickley for a birthday breakfast of yummy swiss & mushroom omelets, strawberry crepes, cappuccinos, and yogurt with fresh raspberries.

This evening we're off to a friends' house for dinner with a few friends.

I may not be thrilled about turning 39 today, but I do love doing so with my family around me.

A Part of the Whole

This past weekend was the 144th annual convention of my diocese.

(For those of you who aren't Anglican, once a year all the leadership of our diocese comes together to hear from our bishop and standing committee, and to make decisions about our life together.  The business can be as mundane as approving budgets or as exciting as welcoming new congregations into our community and hearing about who they are and what they're doing.)

So this past weekend was our 144th gathering, but it was my first time to attend.  All clergy come, as well as appointed lay people.  I was just barely recovering from several days of sickness, and in some ways barely present, self-consciously sneezing and wiping my nose off to the side, clutching my coffee for warmth.  I came both out of sense of duty to the diocese, and with the hope of making connections with folks for our mission.  I came ready to be bored.

I left realizing (and regretting) how much I've missed by skipping other diocesan events.  I will just share two reasons.

First, I need to remember and reenter the reality that my family is a part of something bigger -- bigger than just our family, bigger than just our congregation, bigger even than our mission to Uganda.  Being at the convention reawakened me to that reality.  All over the Pittsburgh area and beyond, there are individuals and communities loving God and his people in so many ways, and we're a part of that family.  Whatever we do in Ambridge or Africa is one part of a whole work that's being accomplished in and through a wonderful organism, an amazing body of Christians called the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.

That's one of the reasons we're Anglican -- we're not just part of a lonely parish struggling to make it on its own.  We're part of a larger, interdependent community that shares in the trials and joys of serving God.

Second, I need to remember and reengage with the wonderful people that make up this diocese.  I saw so many women and men there about whom I thought, "I wish I had more time to get to know that person, to be with those people."  These are people following the command of Jesus to love each other, even at the cost of laying down their lives.  You see it in both their weariness and their joy.  (For one example of this, see Father Scott Homer's recent post to his blog.)

I'm grateful my family is a part of this family.

Update on Our Progress

There is a great little book called Serving as Senders that walks communities through what it means to be called to support cross cultural missionaries.  It contains the following diagram (which I incorporated into another presentation):

See that little ziz-zag line in the C area?  That's where we are.  Some days excited and motivated, some days overwhelmed and dragging -- but always moving forward, and that by God's grace alone!  And weekly we receive varying kinds of confirmation that God is faithful to his call and promise to send us to Uganda.

I (Travis) work from home now, spending my mornings in particular writing emails, creating proposals for churches, calling folks and communities on the phone.  In the afternoon we're trying to switch, and I focus on home/kid care, and Leslie steps into Partner Development mode.  It's a new rhythm of life, and it is taking a while to catch the beat.

November and December will be a bit of traveling for us.  We're visiting several different churches on the weekends in November.  Early in December the whole family will be spending a week in South Carolina visiting churches that have joined with us, and inviting others to do so.  Then, within a week or two after that trip, God willing, we'll begin our move to Texas!  More on that in a future post.

It is a difficult season for inviting people into partnership.  Not only does the recession challenge folks, but so many of the churches in our Anglican network must take into consideration present and potential litigation.  We also are growing in communicating a call to authentic partnership.  We want so much more than just getting individuals, families, and communities to send checks so that we get sent to Africa.  We really want to find ways of being in genuine relationship with our partners, and ways of facilitating relationship between them and our future community in Kabale.

I've been spending a lot of time in the earlier chapters of Hebrews recently, and am reminded again and again of the promise of God's presence and provision -- especially in fulfilling the things he has promised!  So pray for us that we remain faithful, that we return to a place of believing in the presence and provision of the Trinity in every circumstance, resting in Jesus who is knows what it is like to struggle the way we do, and who promises mercy and grace to help in our time of need.

For Reflection on All Saints' Day (Part II)

(Image from http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/images/thumbnail1.php/8a9674e9.jpg)

"On All Saints' Day, it is not just the saints of the church that we should remember in our prayers, but all the foolish ones and wise ones, the shy ones and overbearing ones, the broken ones and whole ones, the despots and and tosspots and crackpots of our lives who, one way or another, have been our particular fathers and mothers and saints, and whom we loved without ever knowing we loved them and by whom we were helped to whatever little we may have, or ever hope to have, of some kind of seedy sainthood of our own." (Frederick Buechner)

The image above, by the way, is by the Ugandan artist Eria 'sane' Nsubuga.  I'm just discovering his work.  He graciously gave me permission to use this piece on my blog.  Here is what he writes about the above piece, titled "Colud of Witnesses iii":

"This picture is based on Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders..." Uganda is a very poor country whose people are spiritually tuned to God, because unlike the West where wealthy people long declared their independence of God, we need a spiritual tonic for our very mortal existence. After all, in the words of Henry Mujunga, Africans live their lives 'in the valley of the shadow of death'."

For Reflection on All Saints' Day (Part I)

I got the following quotation from my father-in-law (Robert Montgomery) who got it from Kendall Harmon who got it from Eugene Peterson in his book Subversive Spirituality:

Because an appetite for God is easily manipulated into a consumer activity, we need these wise, sane friends as guides and companions. There are entrepreneurs among us who see the widespread hunger for spirituality as a marketplace and are out there selling junk food. The gullibility of the unwary who bought relics from itinerant monks in the Middle Ages - splinters of wood from the true cross, finger bones from the saints, a few pieces of thread from Jesus’ seamless robe - is more than matched by North Americans in matters of spirituality.

We are trained from the cradle to be good consumers. It is understandable that we seek to satisfy our hunger for God along the lines in which we have been brought up. But it is not excusable, for we have clear counsel in the Gospels to steer away form this consumer world: “Blessed are the poor. … Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. … Love not the world nor the things that are in the world.” And our Lord’s counsel is confirmed and expanded in numerous ways by our wise evangelical ancestors in the faith.

Spirituality is not the latest fad but the oldest truth. Spirituality, the alert attention we give to a living God and the faithful response we make to him in community, is at the heart of our Scriptures and is on display throughout the centuries of Israel and the church. We have been at this a long time. We have nearly four millennia of experience to draw upon. When someone hands you a new book, reach for an old one. Isaiah has far more to teach us about spirituality than Carl Jung.