During our first two months with Ethan, we’ve experienced a number of firsts. This week, we will experience another first — a road trip.

Tomorrow morning after breakfast, we will drive to Asbury in Wilmore, KY where we are scheduled to defend our dissertations Thursday afternoon (Randy) and Friday morning (Joleen) before driving back Friday afternoon and evening.

The trip normally takes us about 9 hours, but that’s with minimal stops. We expect the trip tomorrow and Friday to take longer because we’ll be traveling with Ethan. The question is, how much longer.

Adding to our concern is the fact that Ethan is not a big fan of the car seat idea.

We’re hoping for a good trip with Ethan, and for a good report on both of our defenses!

It’s our first day back to work (after parental leave). As we get back to the cause of leading our churches in mission, I’m thinking about an image I saw while we were in Korea.

During our tour of Kwanglim Methodist Church, I saw a large wall poster of John Wesley on horseback, which included the phrase (in English and in Korean): “The world is my parish.”

I saw the poster as we walked by it in the hallway. A couple minutes later, I went back to take a picture of it because it had really caught my attention. Here was this incredible church (70,000+ members) — plus all of the other Methodist churches in Korea — that was the fruit of John Wesley’s amazing ministry.

It’s a good reminder that what we do for God can make an impact on the world — in our lifetimes and beyond. It’s also a good reminder as Joleen and I get back to the mission of leading our churches in the work of God’s kingdom.

Whenever we return from traveling (or at the end of some important experience), we’ll commonly ask each other: How was the trip? It gives us an opportunity to reflect on things we enjoyed, things we didn’t enjoy, things we learned, and things we’ll carry with us forever.

Here at the end of our 10-week journey (i.e. parental leave), which involved going to Korea to get our baby and 8 weeks of creating a family with Ethan, it’s a good time for us to reflect on our trip.

General Highlights …

• Time in Korea. We enjoyed our time there, experiencing a new culture.
• Making new friends at the Korean Methodist churches, especially the small group with whom we spent our first evening with Ethan.
• Spending time with Ethan, getting to know him, sometimes entertaining him, and many times being entertained.
• Introducing Ethan to family and friends.
• Completing our dissertations (mostly).
• Memorializing this experience and inviting others on the journey with us, through this Web space.

We’re grateful for God’s incredible gifts to us. And we look forward continuing this journey with God and each other.