An Educational & Missional Celebration

Today, Kelly and I start a 17-day trip to the regions around Greece and Rome as an educational and missional celebration.

The Celebration

The event? Our 30^th wedding anniversary! God has granted us the grace to spend the last 30 years together married, and we dated for 4 additional years prior to our marriage. In fall of 1990, I met Kelly in the early days of my freshmen year in Bible college. Choosing to sit by a friend whom I had recently met at a mealtime, her roommate came over to join her as well. Both Kelly’s smile and personality caught my eye that supper meal. From that point on, I was interested in knowing more about her. Over the following weeks, we would see each other around campus, in the library, or in the cafeteria. We began to talk often and enjoy each other’s company. On November 16, 1990, she agreed to go out on our first date. As a good Kentucky country boy, I took her to Bonanza – we were eating high on the hog. We both enjoyed our time together and began to hang out more and more often. Jump ahead a few years, and we were engaged on Easter weekend in 1993. We were married on May 21, 1994.

As we anticipated our 30^th wedding anniversary, we both discussed the kinds of trips we wanted to take. In fact, we had settled on a trip south toward Hawaii or Guam. However, I heard about a Greece trip to study the second missionary journey of Paul. When I heard about it, I came home and mentioned it to her. She smiled and had me pass her her phone. She opened up the browser and showed me that she had been researching trips to Greece earlier on that specific day. Thus, we decided to take a study trip.

Educational Work

Educationally, we look forward to the next ten days with excitement. Several years ago, we had the privilege of going to Israel together. In many ways, the Holy Land trip changed and influenced us. I remember the deep and unexpected emotion I felt as we topped the Mount of Olives for the very first time and looked out across the Kidron Valley at the Temple Mount. This first look at the future place of Christ’s return while considering so much of its history struck me like none other.

As a result of that trip to Israel, I read my Bible much differently than I ever had. The Old and New Testaments came alive. I could sense the geography, the various people groups, and the context of the events so much differently than ever before.

Now as we fly to Greece, our prayer is that God would also give us a great sense of the geography, the people, and the context of Acts and the epistles. We will tour many of the stops along Paul’s second missionary journey. Please pray with us as we experience these new lands and places.

Missional Work

Further, we have included serving two different missionaries. The first Sunday we are here, we will serve alongside George and Louisa Dimakos. We will attend the first service, and I will preach in the second service. In addition, we will serve homeless people on Monday. Further, after our visit in Greece, we will travel over by plane to Rome where we will serve another missionary family there for almost a week, our dear friends Jon and Becky Liles. The following Sunday, I will minister there in that work as well. Of course, while in Rome, we will enjoy some sightseeing as well.

Will you pray for us?

While we are gone the next seventeen days, will you pray for us, our trip, our family back home, and our church family back home? Pray that God keeps us all safe, that Kelly and I grow in our knowledge of the early days of the church as part of Paul’s ministry, and that we honor Christ in everything we do. In addition, please pray we have a delightful time together touring, serving, and celebrating.

If you desire to follow along, I will update the blog with smaller posts highlighting things we see, learn, and do. Please join us.

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