The Journey Without Maps Begins…

At 11:15 PM Central Standard Time, on April 10th, 2008, just four days shy of our first wedding anniversary, Leigh and I received several e-mails from the personnel office at Black Forest Academy, a private school located in the small town of Kandern, Germany in the shadow of the Alps, welcoming us as new staff members beginning in the 2008-2009 school year. Reading these e-mails, after having been waiting and wondering for almost two months, it felt like the starting gates at a horse race had suddenly been flung open. Our journey had, very suddenly and quite desperately, begun! Everything prior to our acceptance has felt like nervous prancing and pawing at the earth, an eagerness reigned in and restrained until the stretch of road was made ready and the starting bell struck.

We are expected to be in Kandern, Germany by August 1st of this year. Despite the fact that this date looms only three and a half months from now, we are now faced with what seems an impossible task – the raising of financial and prayer support, the former calculated to the sum of just under $60,000 a year ($5000 per month) to fulfill all living expenses, the latter being just as indispensable.

Indeed, the odds are against us even as we leap out of the gate. If we thought the application process was stressful, the preparation and fundraising process is absolutely befuddling. However, we are trusting in our mission-sending organization, Janz Team Ministries, and the wonderful people at Black Forest Academy who have already helped us so much, to make the weary task of preparation as manageable as possible. More than that, I am reminded continually today of the Bible verse I babbled on about last night during our church’s college-aged discussion group. As the disappointed young man, his shoulders hunched, slowly walks away from Jesus and his insistence that the man give up all his wealth to the poor and plunge into the uncertainty of following the Savior, the crowd that had been gathered to hear Jesus’ teaching ask incredulously, “Who, then, can be saved?” They know that while it may not be wealth, there is certainly something that is coming between them and full, reckless committment to the kingdom of God. Yet Jesus looks over them, and I can imagine his fiercely kind eyes meeting each of them as he says simply, “What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.”

Indeed.

And so begins a new journey – one of absurd and ruthless faith. A journey without maps, as Frederick Buechner writes. And as we leap out of the gate and build speed almost without even intending to do so, we invite you along on this journey, in both spirit and loyal support. This site has been created for the purpose of staying as up-to-date as possible with our endeavor into the mission field. In the coming weeks, you will find updates on our preparation, new pages that inform you of our prayer and financial needs (as well as ways to donate to our fundraising goal), and links to a variety of ministries and information relevant to the journey at hand.

We hope you will join with us, and with the same reckless trust, remember us and our needs when you come before the God of all peace.

May the Lord bless and keep you all, now and forever…

- Bo

~ by Bo on April 10, 2008.