I'm not sure what constitutes a "typical childhood," but I suppose mine was typical of a quiet, nerdy kid. Okay, so maybe I was a little weird. But I always knew that I was loved.

My family had instilled in me a passion for travel from a young age, hauling me around four different continents before I finished high school. It's one of the greatest gifts they ever gave me. Travel was a family value. It had a significant impact on my life in subsequent years.

As a teen-ager, I sensed God's call on my life to serve in full-time missions, and I attribute much of that to the value my family placed on experiencing and loving different corners of the world. As I entered adulthood, I began to make practical choices for how to get from "here" to "there." My calling became more refined, and was drawn to Latin America.

I graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 1989, and then from the Lutheran Bible Institute in Anaheim, California in 1991.

I began my missionary service with the Latin America Mission (now merged with Mesa Global) in Costa Rica in 1991. There I worked with an organization called Roblealto, which served children and youth at risk in the San José area of Costa Rica. I worked with the kids and also in administration, getting more and more involved in the communication side of things.

My interest in communications as an important component of mission work prompted me to return to the United States to obtain a master's degree in communications, and after this, I returned to Latin America Mission's headquarters in Miami, to work in the multimedia department. This gave me opportunities to travel around Latin America, visiting various missionaries and ministries to document and share their work.

But then a new ministry opportunity presented itself. In 2003 I was invited to move to Utah to help develop a multimedia ministry from the ground up. I became involved in many areas of media production--filmmaking, television, web design and written communication. I helped produce several documentary and evangelistic films addressing the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) community. This was quite an adventure. It also involved travel; there were times that rarely a month went by when I wasn't on a plane going somewhere. It even afforded me the opportunity to live and work in Jerusalem for a number of months. 

My time with Main Street Church in Utah was a rigorous education on many fronts--from the challenges of a culture based on works-based salvation, to stretching my production skills beyond what I would have dreamed, to walking through difficult and traumatic circumstances and upheaval.

Through it all I gained a better understanding of the unshakable trustworthiness of a good God.

In 2018, my "ministry" took a much different turn. Because of my parents' failing health, I moved back to my home town of Richland, Washington to accompany them in their remaining days. This was perhaps one of the most challenging and yet deeply rewarding ministries that the Lord had placed before me. I was grateful to be able to continue my work with Main Street Church remotely, at least on a part-time basis.

My father passed away in 2019, just before the COVID pandemic, and my mother passed away in 2021. Needless to say these were some difficult, grief-filled years for me.

In the aftermath of my parents' death, I found myself struggling with all the garden-variety existential questions: What now? Was God through with me? Had all the best juice already been squeezed out of me? I was in my mid-50s...not old enough to retire, but feeling too old to pivot in my career.

I became increasingly despondent. My parents had admonished me often in their later years, "travel while you can." But I doubted I would ever use my passport ever again. I found myself without any real hopeful vision for the future. I was living in a cave of sorts--it was dark and cold, but it was also familiar and safe, so I was resigned to just making the best of it.

So it was against my better judgment (which fortunately can't always be trusted) that I found myself on an extended trip through Europe in the summer of 2023. On some level I knew it would be "good for me" but I embarked on this trip reluctantly. It felt like a desperate "Hail Mary" pass to ignite some kind of vision for the future, but deep down I knew that it wouldn't really change anything. I wasn't going to Eat, Pray, Love my way to inner peace.

I was kind of wrong about that. That trip ended up being my undoing. Undoing things that needed undoing. It was beautiful and hard and I wrestled with angels and demons, and a lot of tears were shed. The last part of my journey took me to the Czech Republic. Immediately upon arrival, I had a powerful and inexplicable and completely unexpected sense that my relationship with this place would be long-term. And then a series of deeply moving encounters there shook me to my core. I returned home in great turmoil and confusion, but mixed in with that were these slivers of hope for the future that I hadn't felt in a long time. I didn't know what it all meant, but I had a sense that I'd crossed a line that couldn't be un-crossed.

So I now find myself in the "re-making" of life, and accepting God's invitation to join him on a new and unexpected journey--something that barely a year before would have seemed ludicrous and foolhardy, especially at this stage of life. (Maybe it is.) But now, after more than 30 years back in the United States, I am preparing for an overseas missionary calling, with Alongside Ministries to the Czech Republic, where I anticipate moving in May of 2025.

I'm not going with an end date in mind. James chapter 4 warns against putting too much stock in our plans--we don't even know what tomorrow holds. Only that we know Who holds tomorrow. So that's what I'm counting on.

So...if you'd like to follow this journey, I invite you to check out my newsletter. (I also unpack the last few years of this journey in more detail in this blog post.)