Twenty five years ago this week, we packed up everything we owned and moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Castle Rock, Colorado.

Our entire lives and ministry had been lived and worked up and down the eastern part of the United States. Other than a couple exploratory trips, we had never even visited the West, let alone lived there.

A move like that might sound exciting, but for me it was terrifying.

The move was the first time we made the drive up to Interstate 70, then turned West to drive through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas before we came to Colorado. And Eastern Colorado is more like Kansas than the images of the Rocky Mountains that we expect from Colorado.

Every mile we drove I felt more like a stranger in my new world.  Everything I owned, was in two trucks and a car.

Moving is expensive.  The denomination that commissioned us to plant a church in "South Denver" (that covered a lot of territory) offered us a moving allowance, but only enough to cover the costs if we did it ourselves. So we rented a big Ryder truck, hired a driver and, with the help of our neighbors packed every inch of it.  With a small truckload of "stuff" remaining we rented another truck and I drove it while my wife drove the car from our familiar setting in Georgia to our strange new setting in Colorado.

We knew no one.

My wife, our 12 year old son and our 4 year old daughter, all of us knew no one. For the first time we were separated as a family. Our oldest son, 18, stayed back with his job and for a church missions trip.

What if something went wrong at the closing? What if the denomination changed it's mind and/or ability to support us? What if no one out there is interested in starting a church? This was a parachute in church plant -- no core group. Not a sending church with a group of people. Just the four of us blazing a trail, utterly and completely dependent on God for things to work out.

My first rodeo.

July 1, 1977, twenty two years earlier, I packed up my little Mercury Comet with my stereo, a few boxes of books and a couple suitcases of clothes. I left my parents and the house where I grew up and moved to Warren, Ohio to begin my career in ministry. I had just graduated from Bible College. It is what you do. After I landed the job by sharing my idealistic vision of what ministry should be, I experienced the first day horror of realizing I had no idea how to do it. A month later I married Susan, my sweetheart from college.

A time for celebration.

Now in 2024, I celebrate these anniversaries full of gratitude to God that we not only survived, but enjoyed many small, but significant successes won as we lived and worked through the struggles, questions, disappointments, surprises and countless other lessons and efforts that gave us a life I cherish with fruit that will last for eternity.

Everything changes yet it all stays the same.

Now, a few years into a new stage of life, I work to build a training, mentoring and teaching ministry to help people care effectively. 

Experiences over the last 15 years taught me most of the content I write on that subject and gave me the greatest sense of fulfillment in my work. Yet as I get ready to write a blog post I look at an empty page.

The #59th podcast episode that I just recorded, was a wonderful conversation with a mother of a school shooting victim. That conversation, and all the rest, were only incomplete ideas with unspoken word, unshare thoughts and feelings, until we had a recorded and published our conversation.

And I still don't know who reads or listens.

I write and read and plan and work believing is still working and I am blessed that he has called me to have a part in his work. My board and I strategize to grow and scale this ministry so we can make a difference in a culture that is in desperate need of God's love and care. But, it is as uncertain as a move to a new territory or beginning a new career.

That is the way life is, but that is not the whole story. "What God began, He will carry it on to completion." Phil 1:6  He is still working. There need is great and there is more to do. So, I am really excited to see why God brought this far and am expectant that He is going to do something very significant related to Caring Effectively.

He didn't bring me this far, to only bring me this far.

There is a motivational reel that is used for boxing, weight lifting, personal  performance and high achievement. The main phrase is, "I didn't come this far, to only come this far. I cam this far so I can go further."

They have verses that accompany their goals. I change the verbiage and added new verses to their theme that better engages with my life as God works in and through me. But, I hope you will google thier's, so you'll get the cadence and intensity of  "I didn't come this far to only come this far. I came this far to go further."

"Lord, You didn't bring me this far so I would only come this far,

You brought me this far so I could see Your faithfulness,

learn your ways, trust you more

and go further.

Lord, You didn't bring me this far so that I would be done with my work,

but so I could serve you more

with experience and wisdom and power,

so I can do more and go further.

Lord, You didn't bring me this far so I would stop,

but so I can rest, be still, live by faith,

trust you more,

and go further.

Lord, You didn't bring me this far to put me on a shelf,

but for me to encourage, listen to, love and comfort younger

people who have not yet come this far.

You didn't bring me this far so I would die,

but you brought me this far so I could live eternally,

leave a legacy, make a difference

and receive my reward.

Thank you for bringing me this far so that I can still go further."