Many of you know we are taking our dog, Valentine, with us on the road trip.

This is both fun and challenging.

One thing I have learned is that although Lompoc has a dog park, many large cities actually don’t! I assumed there would be a dog park somewhere in El Paso, TX, but there isn’t.

This makes me think about the times I have already complained about our local dog park. Oops. God has ways of subtly reminding me to be grateful for what we have! It’s actually really awesome that a group of volunteers got us a dog park when a city of a few million doesn’t have one!

As the cross-country move looms ever closer me and Airen took the time to map out our road trip!

So now for the details:

• We leave in the morning on June 7th.
• Our first stop is in LA if our friend Rob & Tawni are free to visit.
• Then we leave to Phoenix. We are staying with Airen’s brother and visiting a few different people there.
• We leave Phoenix Friday morning and drive 12 hours to Big Spring, TX so that we can spend Saturday with Kris and Crystal.
• We then leave Sunday morning for Dallas, TX. If you’re a Dallas friend of mine, connect with me now so that I can plan to spend some time with you!
• Wednesday morning we leave on a 7 hours drive to Harrison, AR to visit my Grandparents. We are staying there until Sunday morning.
• Our next stop is St. Louis, MI to see the Arch and get lunch, then we drive to Indianapolis to sleep.
• From there we are debating one more stop for a night – or going straight to Pittsburgh. So we will be in Pittsburgh either on June 21st, 22nd, or possibly the 23rd.

Spent the weekend at Disneyland, got a two day park hopper and went with a group of old friends to say goodbye!

Was a great time. But, oh man did my feet hurt by the end! Also, we had no idea, but we got to see the very last California showing of the Main Street Electrical Parade.

Topped of with a dinner at Benehanas and a second night in the hotel so that we got to drive home rested I think it was my favorite trip in a long time. Awesome!

Airen and I are in the interesting process of deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. There are a few big things we know we are selling (like our old Honda Civic), but the little stuff is actually harder to make decisions about than the big stuff! Do I throw out this tee-shirt or my old lego sets? What about the cat box???

I was thinking that we are often the same way spiritually. The “big” issues in our lives we often can deal with, but the little ones stick with us because they are “not a big deal”.

Just like we have to get rid of a lot of little stuff so that moving would be not be overwhelmingly difficult, we need to deal with the little stuff that interferes with our relationship with Jesus. Don’t let little junk clutter up your spiritual life (I think this could apply to marriages too, just sayin.).

Get rid of it.

Airen and I were pretty sure we would get to be the ones leaving! But, life happens and we spent last night with a group of our friends because our good friends Kris and Crystal are leaving to Texas on Thursday.

God sends different people to different places.

However, I’m glad Kris is going to Texas and not me!

One thing that is true is that the value of good friends is incalculable. It hurts to leave them, it hurts when they leave you. That pain shows us the depth of love that we have for each other. The worst part is, I know more of that pain is coming when Airen and I leave in June.

But it’s a beautiful sort of pain, isn’t it?

From Wikipedia:

“The City of Pittsburgh is home to many colleges, universities and research facilities, the most well known of which are Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Also located in the city are Carlow University, Chatham University, Point Park University, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and a branch campus of suburban Robert Morris University as well as the Community College of Allegheny County, The Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, and the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. The greater Pittsburgh region boasts even more colleges and universities, including LaRoche College, Slippery Rock University, Westminster College and Grove City College north of the city, Robert Morris University and Geneva College west of the city, Washington & Jefferson College, California University of Pennsylvania and Waynesburg University to the south, and Seton Hill University, Saint Vincent College and Indiana University of Pennsylvania – the biggest state university – to the east.”

I’m especially excited about meeting students from the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science.

I love the huge amount of college students that are in the Pittsburgh area. One of my personal goals is to have a church that breaks through the statistics about young adult dropout.

That isn’t to say I want to church of just 20-somethings. I’m just saying I don’t want to be a church without 20-somethings.

Giving credit where it’s due, I stole these from here.

My favorite thing though, is that I get to live near Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.

• Pittsburgh was named in 1758, incorporated as a borough in 1794 and chartered as a city in 1816.
• Pittsburgh audiences enjoy the nation’s fifth oldest opera company.
• Pittsburgh ranked in the top five Most Livable Cities in the 1983, 1989 and 1985 editions of the “Places Rated Almanac.”
• The fountain at Point State Park, right at the tip of the golden triangle (downtown Pittsburgh) is fed by a glacial formation and sprays 6,000 gallons per minute.
• Pittsburgh is home to nine Fortune 500 companies.
• The Carnegie Museum of Art opened in 1895 as the world’s first museum of modern art.
• Mister Rogers’ real neighborhood was Oakland, home to WQED (the first public television in the country) and the “Neighborhood of Make Believe.”
• Allegheny County has more than 1,700 bridges, 720 within city limits, and 15 major bridges crossing downtown Pittsburgh alone.
• Pittsburgh lost the “h” in its spelling in 1891, but after 20 years of protest, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names relented and the “h” was restored.

First, something I have been praying for has been answered. Can’t spill the beans on it yet though, but let me tell you it’s encouraging to see God at work doing things I could never do on my own!

Second, we got a really good deal on a moving truck. It boggles my mind how soon I am going to need one, but it’s nice to find a better deal than a $3500 one way U-Haul. This whole move is going to be complicated, so every detail I figure out is a relief. Frankly, I think I would almost rather put all our stuff in a pile and burn it, but Uncle Dave whispers in my ear how much the money I would spend on rebuying everything would be in 30 years in a IRA.

Third, the prayer email is going out today. I don’t know what I was thinking saying I would do it last week right before Easter. This is why most of my schedule planning is in the hands of my wife.

Have some cool stuff to talk about this week! Don’t miss it!

There had to be death for there to be a resurrection.

What in my life needs to die, so that Jesus can bring it to life in a new way?

It’s humbling to consider that to be the leader I need to be, in starting a new church, I have to die and Jesus has to live in me. At the same time, this takes off some of the pressure. I don’t have to be: good enough, smart enough, speak well enough, and love people enough. In fact I can’t be any of those things. But Jesus is all of those things and, if I surrender and die, will work in those things through me.

Going to be sending out our first email of updates and prayer requests tonight! There are a few things we need you all to be praying for us about. If you are not on the email list, you can be! Just sign up here and we will add you.

I won’t be posting the pray email publicly because they will be containing personal stuff from my team and I. So you gotta sign up!