Away From Home in Malta

How do I explain how difficult it is to be away from home so often. There is much security of the regular rhythm of my life that many of you take for granted. Being with my gorgeous wife; talking to my boys who are in college; wrestling with a kitchen remodel project; enjoying the excitement of college basketball (and other so-called minutia). All are things I deeply miss.

Still, being with friends here from across the world who most of you will (sadly) never meet, energizes me. Norm (from CA), Grant (from Lebanon), Glenn and Jennifer (pictured here now living in Spain), Edwin (from Malta), Marwan (from Egypt) and many others -- they give me strength. They give me encouragement to know that what God has called me to in developing partnering initiatives makes a small, but perhaps significance difference in the world. They help me to deal with the loneliness of being by myself most of the time. Their stories are often my stories. Their hurts and struggles have become mine. And mine have become theirs.

Your prayers are needed as we enter into discussion this week about how we can address strategic ministry to the majority peoples of the Middle East. We seek God's direction. We seek His involvement. We desperately desire to come alongside what He is already doing.