New Year- New Blog

              Good evening (or good morning/ afternoon; wherever you are 🙂 ). Since the last update, 2020 has changed into 2021- and I wanted to wish you a Happy New Year. 2020 was one of the most challenging years in recent history; but also one of the biggest opportunities to seek the Lord and allow Him to guide His church through what has taken place. Some look at 2020 and are excited to see the year go away and to turn the page for (hopefully) a better 2021. This is understandable. But as we dive deeper, what takeaways has God taught His church? While 2020 was much different than I could have expected at this point last year, this time of growth and preparation has been very fruitful for the upcoming Race. Times of pruning and waiting on the Lord build a crucial foundation for when the time of being sent out to the overseas mission field arrives.

              Here are some updates about what has taken place in December and January. Please pray as the Lord continues to guide this trip and other happenings in 2021:

              1. A number of mission trips are planning to take shape over this summer. This is terrific news, and more travelling will be possible as Covid-19 vaccines are distributed. In May, I will be serving in New York City with the Boone House Church and reaching out to internationals / immigrants alongside long-term Kingdom workers. Please pray for “persons of peace” and open hearts on this trip, and for unity / focus from the Boone team. In June, my family and I will be going to Guatemala with Matthew 24:40 to help families in need and serve alongside friends from my home church growing up. Though this trip was delayed from 2020 due to Covid-19, we are thankful that the Lord has allowed this door to open.

              2. In less than one week, I will be starting the spring semester at App State. Appalachian is going online for the foreseeable future due to Covid-19. Despite this, please pray for open doors in terms of ministry and Gospel outreach to students on campus. This is especially important as many freshmen are looking for Christian community / building connections on a (mostly) closed college campus. I will also be preparing to do outdoor involvement and hiking in Pisgah National Forest this semester; pray for the Lord to continue to move in the outdoor community.

              3. Asheville is a city that has been on my heart to help reach with the Gospel. Since being active in outreach though No Place Left there in 2019, it has been an eye opening experience. There is a significant amount of New Age / Wicca influence in the city; pray for Christians in the area to be bold and make Christ’s name known in Asheville. As plans for a possible prayer group to form for the city are implemented, God will ultimately guide this effort. Currently, I am in the process of getting to know a Christian missional community in the Asheville area and share stories about evangelism/ the No Place Left (disciplemaking) vision for the city. Pray for further open doors and that the light of Christ will shine and cast away the darkness throughout Asheville and beyond.

              4. The World Race squad has grown, and we are at ~17 members for the Expedition group. We have begun to meet on Zoom together and get to know each other virtually. Building these friendships and unity among the group is key as the trip gets closer. Meanwhile, I am beginning my final push to become fully funded before the trip. Please feel free to donate by clicking the orange button above (any financial support is very much appreciated during this time). Furthermore, I am in the process of establishing a prayer team for the trip. If you would like to be on the prayer team; please feel free to reach out. Thank you for lifting up this trip and missions in prayer.

              5. The No Place Left (NPL) movement is continuing to mature and grow in Boone. The House Church that I have been a part of has seen multiple opportunities open for discipleship over the fall. Please pray for us to pour into people and to make / equip disciples in the local community. Other campus ministries, such as Cru and Ratio Christi, are casting vision / praying over the semester as well. Please pray for churches to multiply and for the Gospel to spread in the Boone area. NPL has also been active in the USA and training people to make disciples in this nation and beyond. It has been terrific to build bridges with the No Place Left communities in the Memphis and Charlotte areas in 2020 and 2019; and I am also excited about house churches starting to be planted in the Winston-Salem / Greensboro (Triad) and Hendersonville areas as well.

              The New Year and preparing for this trip has caused me to re-examine my blog and how I write it. Since November 2019, I have mostly posted in-depth (at times lengthy) posts that talked extensively about trip updates and a central topic at hand. The blog would be updated around once a month with a new post. While this approach has been utilized throughout much of the uncertainty due to Covid-19 and finishing up my last year at Lenoir-Rhyne, it also takes a significant amount of mental thought to type one post. I would spend around 3 – 5 hours typing the post and then editing it to then post it onto the blog. This is a significant undertaking and something that requires a large amount of uninterrupted time to invest- time that I did not always have amid ministry, work, and academic involvements. After some thought into how I post leading up to and on the World Race, I am re-structuring my blog in the coming months as the trip gets closer.

              My goal is to post once a week on the WR blog; but post shorter (1 – 2 page) posts that can easily be typed up and thought out in an hour or two. Longer posts that require more thought will be split into multiple parts over multiple weeks. This will be important as I hope to increase engagement / connectivity on the blog and to continue connecting with prayer partners / donors that I have been able to cross paths with over the past few years. While some of these posts will focus on important topics / faith based discussions, I also hope to share stories from the mission field (both in the US and abroad) as well. A lot of neat ministry happenings took place over the fall semester and the past couple years; and I hope to post some of these things throughout the blog. I look forward to further connecting everyone with the blog posts and to keep people in touch about current events, Kingdom work, and prayer requests.

              Thank you very much for your prayers and support as I prepare for the Race and missions overseas. Please feel free to reach out, and I am continuing to lift up the current pandemic as we plan travel logistics and mission preparation for the summer and beyond…

              “’I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King’. This is what the Lord says- He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise’”.

Isaiah 43: 15 – 21