Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part I

Our bulging suitcases

Almost a year ago, Ryan began developing a prospectus for church planting at UBC. What began as an idea written down on paper has now grown into an adventure for Ryan, myself and four others in the northeastern United States. During Spring Break, we will be spending time in Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut. During our eight days in those towns, we will meet with local church planters, pastors and campus leaders to get a scope for the current evangelical presence in these specific areas. We will also spend time walking the streets, driving the neighborhoods and hopefully sparking conversations with local members of the community, with a desire that what we see and hear will give a clear picture of the spiritual needs of focused areas of these three cities. Our prayer is that God will use that information to help us clearly identify whether He would have UBC plant a church in the near future in one of these areas. 

Five of the six members of our team drove to Tulsa yesterday. Brant, our sixth member, will be joining us on Wednesday - an event Ryan is ready for considering right now he is the only male representative on the team! We had a 6:00am flight out of Tulsa this morning, and were blessed with the hospitality of Trey & Kristen Richardson and her parents, who provided us with a home for the night near the airport. The alarm clock woke us up at 3:45am, which was WAY too early, but it was nice to arrive in Rhode Island early in the day. After getting on the plane headed to Detroit, it took me about 45 minutes to get adjusted to the idea of being 20,000 feet in the air (this happens EVERY time I get on a plane), but thankfully our flights were smooth and the weather was great, with the exception of 32-degree temperatures on the breezeway in Detroit. 

Speaking of weather, pray that it's favorable for us this week as we drive from city to city. There's a chance of slight snow on two or three of the days, and we would hate for that to interfere with any of our meetings or time in the city. If it does snow, though, Ryan and I are prepared. We were the only ones to bring a carry-on bag AND a checked bag, probably because we brought so many sweaters, heavy coats and scarves. :-)

Mission Trip Multi-Tasking 

After finally getting our fancy rental Yukon (we're high-rolling it this week!), we made it to our hotel, which is actually in Massachusetts. The hotel itself is not so high-rolling, but it fit the budget and is quite comfortable when you're living off of four hours of sleep. We made it just in time to watch the last part of the first half of Kentucky's basketball game, and then found lunch in time to see the end of the second half. We're now checking up on our brackets to find out who to cheer for in the rest of the games this afternoon. 

Our first church-planter meeting is tonight, so we're all getting rested up for that before dinner. We're all excited to get into the "meat" of the week and to see how God works in our team, in our individual lives and in the future of our church. He is definitely at work in each of these three cities, and it is our desire to see what part He might have us play in that as He continues to bring glory to Himself through these people and in these places. 

Please pray to that end with us this week - pray for protection as we travel; pray for the Gospel to be evident in our words, our actions and on our faces; pray for unity and fellowship within our team; pray for us to ask the right questions of those that we meet; pray for divine appointments; pray for clear vision and direction; pray for Hartford, Providence and New Haven!

As a complete side note, here are a couple of observations about the Northeast (and/or areas between there and Fayetteville):

- Lake Erie is much bigger than the lakes around Fayetteville.
- Traffic is way too congested. Going for a "short drive down this road" is not an option.
- It's still exciting to see a Walmart, even when you've lived next to one your whole life.
- There is an Indian Pow Wow happening in the conference room of our hotel. The Blue Cloud Moon Tribe is fun to watch.
- The Providence airport REALLY likes the moving sidewalks. Twenty minutes of them just to get a rental car.