In retrospect, we can pinpoint the spring of 2021 as the time our laughter disappeared — when our four-year ministry in Barcelona began to fall apart. As concerns regarding COVID-19 began to ease, expectations in the local church community changed. Gradually, things arrived at a point where our family needed to step away.

It's hard to laugh when it feels like the world is crumbling around you.

From a very, very young age when folks asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would naively respond, “An artist!”

In some ways, my journey seems to be running opposite of Vincent van Gogh. Vocationally, I’ve moved from artist to missionary (or I certainly had way more time to paint before becoming a full-time international church worker). However, in other ways, it’s very similar. I’ve learned to see how the brilliance of God cannot be contained inside a dark building.

When we arrived in the Czech Republic 10 years ago, we encountered young people who were feeling a deep spiritual longing but lacked the vocabulary or the guidance of healthy faith communities to find spiritual nourishment. And isn’t the definition of poverty not being able to get something you need to live fully?

Ergo, Spiritual Poverty.

The institutional church is at a “Calibrate your Phone’s Compass” moment. To be fair, this is a reoccurring phenomenon in the Judeo-Christian story. There are many stories in the scriptures of faithful individuals and communities choosing to calibrate their compasses. In fact, the Christian church was birthed out of just such a moment.

On July 11, 2010, we left for the Czech Republic on what we dubbed to be a “Worthwhile Adventure.” To celebrate the anniversary of this life-changing trip, we thought it would be good to share personal reflections looking back as gnarled, haggard international church workers 10 years later.

Mennonite Mission Network, our sending missions agency, recently offered me the opportunity to film a project in Benin. Of course, I accepted. It was a great reminder that joy and physical poverty are not directly connected.

It’s easy for wealthy folks like us to ask how we can help poor folks. It’s harder for us to embrace the reality that we can learn something from our brothers and sisters in Benin.

For as long as I can remember, my life has been shaded by clinical depression that comes in its seasonal form every autumn like an unstoppable glacier. It happens in waves, with low points sometimes lasting anywhere from a few days to several months. It’s something I’ve become much more attuned to these past seven years serving in international missions.

This is a nod to every other person currently bracing for the oncoming months.

We are funded largely by some wonderful, faithful individual supporters and churches. The struggle is that often when people give you money, it creates this sense that you work for them.

This is the third post in a three-part series that addresses some of the common myths and misconceptions we experience most regularly.

If you’re basing your opinion of us on social media, it could totally appear that we have a lot of time on our hands and we’re really living it up. That’s because we do have fun…as our closest friends would say has always been the case for us. As much as we have fun, we also wrestle with the hardships inherent to departing one’s native culture and entering a new one.

This is the second post in a three-part series that addresses some of the common myths and misconceptions we experience most regularly.

The legacy image of what international missions should look like always seems to linger. We’re not digging wells, converting villages of poor people, and dressing in some relatively exotic fashion. The dissonance that image creates with the parts of our experience we’re able to communicate, combined with the hallmark American fear of getting duped or flimflammed, often results in some unfortunate encounters and assumptions.

The first of a three-part series that addresses some of the common myths and misconceptions we experience most regularly.

I'm going to let you in on a secret: I'm a Christian missionary and I loathe the term "evangelism."

My friend Hal used to say people like me don't like evangelism because we "have seen evangelism done wrong time and time again." Those words have proven to be pivotal for me. If it's possible for evangelism to be "done wrong," what does it mean to be "done right?"

When Alisha and I first began talking about serving abroad several years ago, we never would have thought we'd end up serving in Europe. After all, mission workers are supposed to go to the poor, third-world countries of this world, right?

Political tensions in the region led to an unfounded accusation of Russian occupation on our campus. The students’ response was beautiful. Making peace is a battle worth fighting.

What role can we play while the nations rage around us? A glimpse of how we serve at LCC International University.

A snapshot of the awkwardness of cross-cultural integration and learning to find ones rhythm far outside one’s comfort zone.

God is not dead in Europe. In fact, the contrary is quite true — is very much alive and the young people thirst for God's message of peace, love, and redemption (although they may not always realize it). Amazingly, those who do believe have faith of unquestionable strength.

The English Camp uses a form of ministry called "relational evangelism." I know that for some of my friends, the "e" word makes them shudder. However, I've had a very good experience with that form this past week. When you live in a country where there are very few Christian role models, a camp staffed by Christians can have a profound effect on the campers.

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I found that by being transparent and honest in my beliefs, I was able to encourage some students to think in ways they hadn't before. One evening, Alisha shared a bit of her faith journey along with a few other staff. During our small group discussion after, several students shared that they could empathize with her story.

What started out as Alisha and me and one of the campers leading some of The Ragamuffin Stampede's songs has evolved into what we have dubbed "The Poděbrady Sound Machine." More and more of the youth have been asking to get involved and the best part is they're GREAT! We now have a keyboard player, a drummer, and a youth singer in addition to our original lineup. We were also able to recruit an additional youth guitarist to help Angela with morning worship.

If I had to describe the Czechs in our group in just two words, I would say they are "deep thinkers." While Czechs are traditionally reserved in their willingness to voice personal thoughts and opinions, our group has been exceptionally transparent and vulnerable in its conversations.

The campers have arrived!

After a morning of instruction and last-minute preparation for their arrival and an afternoon of getting our last "down time" for the next week (more on this in a bit), we all rushed outside and made a welcome tunnel at 3 p.m. as the charter bus inched up the steep hill to Chata Jadlová.

One thing I can assure you all is that teenagers always act like teenagers, regardless of what part of the world you are in.