ALCNTRA
My parting gift from my mom was a Savage Industries EDC One that she has been working on for the last six months. It’s a beautiful bag made more so by the knowledge that she made it with her hands and that the cloth it’s made from used to be a sail out at sea.
My time in 🇺🇸 is almost done so it was a race against the clock to get these done. These are both for my wife who I miss so much and can’t wait to see when she and the kids get to 🇵🇱 from 🇬🇧.
I’m moving to Warsaw
We finally have a way forward for my to join my family again. Over the course of this next year, I will be serving with a church plant in Wilanów, a district of Warsaw. I leave Saturday and arrive there Sunday afternoon. I’m really excited about this upcoming year but I’m still so sad to not have the chance to say goodbye to our church family in Liverpool. If you’re interested in following along or supporting our work to help reach the 30k people in Wilanów, visit our missions website.
Went for an evening ride that took me through old suburbs, river front, protected wetland and farmland all in under an hour.
I went to my nephew’s first ⚽️match this morning. The sun was very bright and I forgot to bring a hat.
make the most of it while you can
I’ve officially been away from my family for over a month now. It’s been really tough but I’m trying to make the most of the time that I do have on my own. I went for a 13-mile bike ride today and I just got done helping my mom sort some beans for an upcoming meal. Because I don’t actually know when I will be back in 🇺🇸 after I leave, it makes small things like this with my parents especially special.
My first sewing project in ages. Wanted to make some knitting project bags while I had access to sales at the fabric store and my mom’s sewing machine. 🧵 🧶
I miss these faces so much. We’re working on missions opportunities on the Continent so that hopefully we’ll be all together again in a couple of weeks.
Another quick sketch while listening to Dear Hank & John.
I’m supposed to be recovering from jet lag right now, but I’m still in the States. I’ve tried to stay productive in a sense, even though the things I was working on are all in Liverpool. I did a quick illustration on my iPad today, though.
An update on ministry in Liverpool and the UK
I’ve been in the 🇺🇸 trying to renew my visa application. Today, I received the news that my visa application was refused.
In the spring, a new law went into affect in the UK that states that those working in the UK on a Tier 5 Charity or Religious Worker Visa (the type of visa that I was on) must have a 12-month cooling-off period before being able to apply again. This is a crushing blow to our goal of doing ministry in the UK but more so for our family as I have been away from Tracy for coming up on 3 weeks and the kids for nearly a month.
In my cohort, there are 5 apprentices and their families. 2 out of the 5 have been successful in their applications but the rest of us have been refused. For the immediate future, this means that I’m not allowed in the UK for a minimum of 12 months.
We are still exploring what this means in terms of ministry. For now, we’re working to figure out what we need to do to be reunited as a family again. Our goal for now is still to do ministry in the UK but we may need to spend some time in Europe for now, particularly while Tracy and the kids are still entitled to live and work there without a visa.
So please be praying for these things:
- Pray that we are reunited soon, as we have already been apart for too long.
- A path to continuing ministry would be made clear.
- Pray that there would be a way for the other apprentices to continue in ministry as well.
Fresh off the needles, the Irish Hiking Scarf. 🧶
