Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Joleen and I are splitting shifts this week between caring for, and spending time with, Ethan and working on our dissertations (defenses are just over three weeks away). I took yesterday afternoon and went to use the Wi-Fi Internet access at Wegmans. On the road to and from State College I listened to the last … Read more
Christ is risen! This is our first Easter together as a family. We began the weekend (Saturday) experiencing a little snow from a late season Alberta Clipper that passed through on Friday night. Ethan didn’t seem to be too overly excited about it, though. Also on Saturday, Ethan climbed the 16 steps from the first … Read more
One of my favorite writers/leaders is Bill Hybels, founding/senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, IL). Hybels has more than 30 years of leadership experience, and I am always inspired and challenged when I read his stuff. It’s no different after reading When Leadership and Discipleship Collide, a brief book with about 57 … Read more
During our first few weeks with Ethan, we’ve written a good bit about the challenges we’re facing with Ethan’s transition into our home. In the process, we’re also getting to know Ethan better and we’re discovering more of his personality. Joleen and I have been discussing some of our favorite things … Ethan’s smile as … Read more
In our dissertation work (at Asbury Theological Seminary), Joleen and I chose Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as the strategy for our field research (at the suggestion of our mentor, Dr. Russell West). AI, which grew out of Dr. David Cooperrider’s Ph.D. work in the 1980s, is a response to more traditional approaches that tend to focus … Read more
Two weeks ago, we posted that we had mailed the defense-ready drafts of our dissertations to our mentor, who delivered them to the doctor of ministry office on March 6 (after one last read-through). In the meantime, the editor at Asbury is currently editing them (they should be returned to us within the next few … Read more
Our busy weekend, which started with getting our tax returns completed at H&R Block Friday, continued Saturday with our annual Easter dinner with the Flaughs (Joleen’s step-dad’s family). This is always a big family gathering — Joleen’s mom and step-dad (Paul), Paul’s five sons and their families, plus Joleen and I, and new to the … Read more
Twenty-seven photos from our adventure to and from Korea (a small sampling of the 250 photos we took) have been posted on our Galleries page (these are no longer posted). Most of these photos are in addition to photos we posted while we were in Korea. Probably the best way to find those is to … Read more
It’s been one month since The Takeaway. Wow. We’ve come a long way in the last month! The word that came to mind that night a month ago was brutal, but the word that comes to mind now is resilient. We can’t imagine being taken from our home — our culture, our language — and … Read more
Today marks 4 weeks since we received Ethan in Korea. In the time since, we’ve talked a lot about his adjustment (including this post last Friday), but we haven’t talked much about how well he is bonding with us. When people meet Ethan (including some of you), particularly when visiting one of our 5 churches … Read more