And...I'm a little nervous, truth be told. In late 2021, that "still small voice" started taking us into some new frontiers as far as our future plans went. "Pass off the leadership of your church, and step out into the unknown". That's it in a nutshell. I felt like Abraham when God said, "Leave the familiar for a place that I will (as in, at some future point) show you, and go now - don't wait!"
We're still there in many ways, even though it's a "twinkling of an eye" when we'll say goodbye to our security blankets (job, paycheck, routine, etc.) and venture into who-knows-what for the better part of 2023. We still don't have a full grasp of what the future looks like. Yes, there are ideas, leads, and "sixth senses", but beyond that, we're walking this one step at a time, day by day. What a stretch!
Here's what the immediate future will look like:
January. We'll be on the island where dear friends have graciously opened up their home to us. While there, we'll get to spend time with our son Levi and his wife Jen (epic!), and work on a few things that need our attention:
Planning an extensive ministry trip to Africa and Ukraine.
Over eight weeks we'll visit five countries (Feb - Apr 2023), working with pastors we've been mentoring for the last few years, hosting leadership roundtables, doing Set Free Retreats, and building a foundation for further ventures in the future. Some of the stops will have a danger component, so prayers are appreciated!
Exploring a partnership with Leading Influence, working on building and strengthening their national prayer network for provincial and federal branches of government.
It's been a crazy season walking through a pastoral succession with our son-in-law Jimmy (and daughter Tiana), and a breather to get our heads screwed on right is most definitely in order.
In February we'll return home (Fort St. John) to make preparations for being overseas for three months. We'll be packing as light as we can, making it easier to move around over there. We expect we'll be living out of our backpacking gear a large majority of the time, though Sara's slightly nervous about our tent being trampled by elephants (True story: one of the guys I mentor has had five people in his community mauled [?] by elephants in the last few months). Our time will begin in Zambia and end in Ukraine.
What's this trip all about? Glad you asked.
Who are we going with?
Just ourselves. It'll be Tony and Sara venturing from place to place, connecting with friends in those countries, people we've been mentoring over the last few years (with Church Renewal). Actually, we won't always be alone ☺️. Our son Luke and his wife Dana will join us in Zambia for 10 days (exciting!), and Vadim Yurchenko is tentatively planning to join us in Ukraine (also exciting!).
How does Evangel Downtown fit into all this?
What's your connection to countries like Zambia and Ukraine?
What's your itinerary?
How are you doing this financially?
Over the summer months, we will take a much-needed Sabbatical (our church has graciously provided this for us). Sara and I plan to tackle some writing projects. I'm working on a book I'll likely title Fixing Sexuality, a guide to returning sex to God's intended design by first getting it right in marriage. Sara is going to continue translating The Way (theway.app) into a children-friendly format. Of course, it won't be all work and no play - we're very anxious to engage in other sabbatical-type activities including R&R, backpacking, and maybe even bike-packing (our new idea for staying fit at 50).
Come the fall of 2023, we will soft-land back in Evangel and continue discovering what the Lord has in store for the future of Tony and Sara 😃. This will include a couple of things in addition to the continued engagement with Church Renewal in Africa and Ukraine, as well as working with the national prayer network of Leading Influence.
A new pastor-role at our church, Evangel in Fort St. John.
Nope, not coming back to be the Lead Pastor. But the plan is to come back in some kind of role, likely part-time to begin with. Both Sara and I envision an apostolic (trans-local) ministry. This is also where that big word "convergence" comes into play - we'll be focusing specifically on the things that we are passionate about and gifted for. Some ideas percolating already: 1) retreats, including marriage retreats, 2) discipling leaders and mentoring people, 3) continuing to preach as often as possible, 4) working with our city's vision for revitalization. My heart starts beating faster just thinking about this stuff!
Working with Boondock Churches in BC/Yukon.
And that gets you up to speed. We're going to do our darndest to keep current with social media (instagram, facebook, youtube, blogging, etc.) over the next year so you can come along with us on this fantastical journey.
If you've made it this far through this blog post, thanks for reading! I know you have tons going on in your world, and it means a lot that you'd take the time to catch up on our journey. And your support is greatly appreciated! Here's what that could look like:
First, pray for us.
Second, keep up-to-date on what's happening through SM. Like and share!
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