We all got baggage

Sharon and I have been doing a lot of pre-engagement and premarital counseling lately and we tell couples that everyone has baggage that they bring to the relationship. But the thing that will be important in any marriage is what you do with that baggage.

Well we had an opportunity to get rid of a lot of our literal baggage (not emotional) the other day. The Good Shepherd Slovenia team left and took a load of our stuff with them. They were not going to use all of their baggage allownaces for international travel so they gave us the opportunity to send some of our stuff with them.

Thanks so much SLO team! You Rock!

Prepare for take off

A few days ago Sharon and I got the green light from Josiah Venture to buy tickets to Slovenia!!

So we were able to get a smokin deal on a one way ticket to Europe (thanks Caroline Watts).

We leave from Seattle on July 21st. We will probably leave the Portland area on July 16th to go up to Seattle to be there for Sharon's mom's birthday and spend a few days with the inlaws before we make the big move.

We can't tell you how excited we are and how hard it will be to leave. Thanks for loving us and standing with us as we go to Slovenia to talk about how amazing and transformative the love of God is.

SOT

Last week Sharon, Eliana, and I were at SOT (school of theology) in Sunriver. It was a good week of listening to some super bright guys as they talked about God, the Bible, and the church in some new ways. Well they were apparently very old ways, but the concepts were newer for me anyway.

Not only did we press into some serious theology every morning and evening but we had some time to play.

Eliana got to go swimming.

I got to play with Jason on the tandem he rented. (notice the air under those tires)

Soma Schooled

Last week I (matt) had the opportunity to go to Soma School up in Tacoma, WA.

It was a great time of learning, doing, and dreaming and I want to Thank GSCC so much for making it possible for me to be there!!!

Learning...
Essentially they immersed 30 or so church planters into some killer training on how to start a missional church based primarily on small groups that live out some solid community and reach out into their neighborhoods to include others into that community. It was some solid teaching and fascinating methodology, but super challenging as to how the church should relate to the world and live on mission in it.
One of my big take aways was that, "we need to live in a way that demands a gospel answer." This really made me think how I need to be so radically shaped by the gospel that my life is so different and so other worldly that people want to know why I do what I do. That I might actually do what the Bible says and put others and their needs above my own.

Doing...
Part of Soma School was experiential as we got to got to live with people who are a part of their church community for the week. We also got to go to their home groups and see what they do. They even gave us an opportunity to serve with them as they went to a park to volunteer some time making it look prettier. Andrej, Terry, and I got to help eradicate some blackberry bushes. It was good to help restore an area of the park that hadn't been worked on in 25 years. I think God loves to make things new and restore beauty to brokenness, so we enjoyed joining in a tangible way that day.
(its hard to see but short sleeve shirts were a bad idea when fighting blackberries)














Dreaming...
I had the privilege of hanging out with Terry and Anrej, who both came from Slovenia for this training. It was amazing to talk about the things we were learning and how they could be implemented in Slovenia. Honestly, I learned so much just listening to those two talk about how to reach SLO and hearing their hearts for that country. I can't wait to serve alongside and learn from men like that.

I want to be this kind of friend.

O the comfort, the inexpressible comfort

Of feeling safe with another person

Having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words

But pouring them all out, chaff and grain together

Knowing a faithful hand will take and sift them,

Keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness

Blow the rest away.

--Diana Murlock Craik