Our dear friend Lisa Hepfer captured our last day at our sending church, Soma Tacoma, as only she can.  Look at these pictures!

This was such a meaningful day for us.  We were able to have our Slovak team and partners present with us.  For our Soma Tacoma family, goodbye was less like seeing us disappear into a black void and more like a relational baton handoff, as they got to spend a whole week getting to know these guys we would soon be joining.

Janci and I started a band together when we were fourteen.  Last week we got to co-lead a seminar on church planting at a national youth ministry leadership conference (KPM.)  Janci is planting a church in the city where we both grew up.

I gave a “fujara” as a parting gift to Soma Tacoma.  A fujara is a traditional Slovak flute used by shepherds in the Tatra mountains.

When we moved to Tacoma to do a church planting residency, I thought it was to gain competency.  Instead it was to learn dependency.  This gift was a representation of the gift that God gave us through Soma Tacoma – learning my need for dependency on the Good Shepherd, and learning to listen and love His voice.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”  John 10:27