Up and Coming

Peanuts are banned, pretzels are passe, but if you pick the right airline you might just get your own cheese snacks extruded in the shape of little jets! Move over Goldfish! What do you think? Does the name say it all? I wish I could share the little darlins' with you - but I ate them, every one.

My next travels may hold other surprises:

March 10-11 New Castle, Colorado - Several folks are flying in from out of town for our next ethnography training, so the organizers have invited us for a fun-packed social weekend in the mountains. Until I realized we weren't going up until Saturday afternoon I was feeling resentful - it was like working another weekend! Realized, too, why I often don't find mountain trips restful. Close up, mountains invoke within me feelings of danger and claustrophobia... come on, haven't YOU ever felt that the hills were alive?!

March 12-16 Somerset, Colorado - Then it's off to Jesus Camp (Camp Id-ra-ha-je West) to do five days of ethnography training. The team includes a married couple bringing seven of their eight kids (aged 5-18), a couple with a two-year-old, a single guy, and two single girls (one my friend Sarah.) They are all going to SE Europe this summer. My pal Shane and I will share the training load. He's bringing his wife and their brood as well; the more the merrier! Fun? Could be. Should be. But sleeping bags, and camp food (and rumor has it, limited Internet access! Not sure about cell phone coverage)

Then...yes, it is happening...

• March 22 - April 5 England!
• April 5 - May 2 Kazakhstan!

I'm going to see wonderful Tom, meet his kids, and then go on to the shores of the Caspian Sea to explore if God has a life for me there. Pray for some divine appointments with people He would have us meet with in both countries.

Meanwhile, back in the office, we're still waiting for the deals to come through for the transfer of assets to Pioneers. Along with about ten of us in the Littleton office, however, I am a provisional member of the Pioneers staff now.