5 June 2006

Road Trip & Furlough


The first of three Beyond Borders Road Trips (BBRT) has come to a close. A group of six young leaders came for a little more than a week to explore nieuCommunities as we took them through a microcosm of what a full, 42-week nC term looks like. They experienced our learning environments, our outreach to the west end of Glasgow, our involvment at the Glasgow City Mission and our weekly rhythm as a community here in Scotland.
The visitors (all from Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, CA) ranged in age from 22 to 39 so we had ourselves a pretty diverse group.
This particular BBRT comes just as we're preparing to leave Glasgow on furlough to California. Jasheen, Gabrielle and I leave tomorrow for London where we'll visit some dear friends for a couple of days before flying to L.A. on Wednesday.
We have an incredibly hectic schedule ahead of us and would appreciate your prayers. After arriving in SoCal on the 7th, I attend the Influencers men's retreat June 9-11 in Lake Arrowhead, CA. We then hit the CRM worldwide staff conference June 15-21 at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. After leaving the staff conference we head up to Hume Lake for another conference June 22-25.
Although we land in CA on the 7th, it won't feel like we're home until around the 26th.
Please pray for travel mercies (especially with Gabrielle), and for pockets of rest and recharging. This will also mark the first time that we leave Gabrielle for more than a couple of hours at a time. We will not be taking her to Hume Lake with us so please, please, please pray for us and her as our dear friends care for her while we're away.
Our time home will be a time of retreats/conferences, fundraising, catching up with people we haven't seen in two years, and spending much time with family and friends.
I'm actually curious as to how we're going to do being away from Glasgow for two months. Being with family and friends will be great, but being away from home for that long can be challenging.
Oh... and for those of you that are wondering, we're taking Cole with us. He has his own passport and everything. Not sure he's going to like the 10+ hour flight from London to LAX, but he'll have two months to decompress and enjoy the warm California sun.