7,000 Miles

Well, it’s been a minute since our last update. We bade a temporary farewell to our team in November so everyone could enjoy the holidays “off the road.” I put that in quotes because the 7,000 miles in the title isn’t referring to ministry travel. That’s approximately how many miles we drove from November to mid-January, so our break was anything but “off the road.”

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

So where did we go and what did we do?

55 days
Belmont, NC
Alexandria, VA
Buchanan, MI
Des Moines, IA
Plaistow, NH
Martinsville, NJ
Point Pleasant, NJ
Charlottesville, VA
Etlan, VA
Blacksburg, VA
12 different beds (each!)
LOTS of friends and family!

All in all, over 55 days, in 9 different places, we spent time with about 120 friends and family. With some we only got to share a meal. With others we slept over – some as little as one night, but none more than a week at a time.

It’s only 76 hours. What could go wrong?

You’re probably wondering why we would do that to ourselves. Honestly, I was wondering that myself at times.

A big impetus for the trip was that our house in Virginia is rented out for the next year and a half. We’re thankful to have that property pulling its own weight, but it also means our only home right now is the RV. This worked out great last summer, since we were able to park at Life Action Camp. We couldn’t have asked for a better place to enjoy RV life. But during the winter, southwest Michigan is not as hospitable to campers. So we decided to winterize the trailer and find other places to spend the holidays.

That being said, I don’t want to give the impression that we were forced to be vagrants for the holidays. We have family on both sides that would have gladly put us up (or put up with us 😜) for the entire break. But one of the benefits of our current role is we have the freedom to mostly use our breaks (summer and winter) as we like. Naturally, we decided to travel to 9 different places all across the East Coast and Midwest.

Yes, it was bit of a crazy plan, and yes, we’re still amazed we decided to do it. But we look back from the back end of the trip, and it’s amazing to us how many family, friends, and partners we got to connect with, even some we hadn’t seeen in years! Our kids also got to connect with so many of the friends they have scattered across the country.

In case you’re worried about our sanity after being houseguests for two months straight… we did intentionally plan time for just us. Amanda and I took some time away from the kids (thanks Mom & Dad!) in the mountains. We also toook some time away as a family. Just us, away from the noise, away from the screens (mostly), away from everyone but the six of us. (You can see some of our pics on our Flickr page.)

What do you think of our new front porch?

Now we’re back with our team. We’re about to start the third conference of 2020. It’s been a great few weeks already, and I can’t wait to tell you what God’s been doing!