T-14 Days to a New Life

And...I'm a little nervous, truth be told. In late 2021, that "still small voice" started taking us into some new frontiers as far as our future plans went. "Pass off the leadership of your church, and step out into the unknown". That's it in a nutshell. I felt like Abraham when God said, "Leave the familiar for a place that I will (as in, at some future point) show you, and go now - don't wait!"

We're still there in many ways, even though it's a "twinkling of an eye" when we'll say goodbye to our security blankets (job, paycheck, routine, etc.) and venture into who-knows-what for the better part of 2023. We still don't have a full grasp of what the future looks like. Yes, there are ideas, leads, and "sixth senses", but beyond that, we're walking this one step at a time, day by day. What a stretch!

Here's what the immediate future will look like:

January. We'll be on the island where dear friends have graciously opened up their home to us. While there, we'll get to spend time with our son Levi and his wife Jen (epic!), and work on a few things that need our attention:

Planning an extensive ministry trip to Africa and Ukraine.

Over eight weeks we'll visit five countries (Feb - Apr 2023), working with pastors we've been mentoring for the last few years, hosting leadership roundtables, doing Set Free Retreats, and building a foundation for further ventures in the future. Some of the stops will have a danger component, so prayers are appreciated!

Exploring a partnership with Leading Influence, working on building and strengthening their national prayer network for provincial and federal branches of government.

A couple years ago, the founder of Leading Influence (Tim Schindel), a chaplaincy ministry to political leaders in Canada, approached me about helping stir up vision and strategy for the Prayer Network of some 7000+ intercessors across Canada. I'm thrilled to get my hands dirty with this project! At this point, I'm leading the BC Prayer Network (PrayBC.com).

It's been a crazy season walking through a pastoral succession with our son-in-law Jimmy (and daughter Tiana), and a breather to get our heads screwed on right is most definitely in order.

In February we'll return home (Fort St. John) to make preparations for being overseas for three months. We'll be packing as light as we can, making it easier to move around over there. We expect we'll be living out of our backpacking gear a large majority of the time, though Sara's slightly nervous about our tent being trampled by elephants (True story: one of the guys I mentor has had five people in his community mauled [?] by elephants in the last few months). Our time will begin in Zambia and end in Ukraine.

What's this trip all about? Glad you asked.

Who are we going with?

Just ourselves. It'll be Tony and Sara venturing from place to place, connecting with friends in those countries, people we've been mentoring over the last few years (with Church Renewal). Actually, we won't always be alone ☺️. Our son Luke and his wife Dana will join us in Zambia for 10 days (exciting!), and Vadim Yurchenko is tentatively planning to join us in Ukraine (also exciting!).

How does Evangel Downtown fit into all this?

Evangel is our church (and will continue to be for another couple decades Lord willing). In a very real way, we are being "sent out". Our leadership team along with Pastor Jimmy are thrilled about the things we'll be involved in and want in on the action. What we do will literally be an extension of Evangel's mission (nationally and globally). We love this deep connection to our home church! It also means that anyone who wants to get behind us financially, can do so through Evangel and benefit from tax receipts (click link).

What's your connection to countries like Zambia and Ukraine?

A few years ago, both Vadim (one of Evangel's pastors) and I started mentoring pastors using The Way (https://theway.app) Our lives had been so impacted by being personally mentored that we couldn't help but share it with others. Those mentoring connections quickly developed into deep and personal friendships with pastors around the world (don't let anyone tell you Zoom-friendships aren't the real deal). At the same time, we've understood that at some point it would be crucial to "get our feet on the ground" with those we've been pouring our lives into. This will help us take them deeper into some of the core practices expressed in retreats like The Hearing God Seminar and The Set Free Retreat.

What's your itinerary?

Sara and I will land in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe mid-February, 2023. From there we have a rough and dynamic plan of traveling from Zimbabwe to western Zambia, to Lusaka to the DRC (Congo), and finally to Uganda. Along the way, we will host a variety of ministry and outreach events, including leadership round tables, Set Free Retreats, mentoring sessions, and more. The month of April is open for us - our plan is to visit Israel. The final stop will be in Ukraine, where we will travel by car from the Polish border to a town just outside of Kyiv called Berdychiv. We will be back in Fort St. John in mid-May.

How are you doing this financially?

When we first started planning this venture, we only intended to go to Zambia for ten days to spend time with my mentoring group there. However, when word got out that we would be visiting, neighboring communities (and countries) began to reach out. I've felt like Paul receiving the call from the Macedonians! So great is the hunger for pastors to be mentored and discipled! Needless to say, the adventure has grown to include several countries over eight weeks, much of that time traveling with a posse of local pastors. And hosting retreats that could number up to 300 in attendance. I've rough-estimated a budget of $17,000 for the eight weeks we're over there, but we'll work with what's in our hands. If you want to partner, you are most welcome. Contributions are tax-deductible and can be given through our church, Evangel Downtown. Go to this link for more info. Mark contributions "Nations and Kingdoms".

Over the summer months, we will take a much-needed Sabbatical (our church has graciously provided this for us). Sara and I plan to tackle some writing projects. I'm working on a book I'll likely title Fixing Sexuality, a guide to returning sex to God's intended design by first getting it right in marriage. Sara is going to continue translating The Way (theway.app) into a children-friendly format. Of course, it won't be all work and no play - we're very anxious to engage in other sabbatical-type activities including R&R, backpacking, and maybe even bike-packing (our new idea for staying fit at 50).

Come the fall of 2023, we will soft-land back in Evangel and continue discovering what the Lord has in store for the future of Tony and Sara 😃. This will include a couple of things in addition to the continued engagement with Church Renewal in Africa and Ukraine, as well as working with the national prayer network of Leading Influence.

A new pastor-role at our church, Evangel in Fort St. John.

Nope, not coming back to be the Lead Pastor. But the plan is to come back in some kind of role, likely part-time to begin with. Both Sara and I envision an apostolic (trans-local) ministry. This is also where that big word "convergence" comes into play - we'll be focusing specifically on the things that we are passionate about and gifted for. Some ideas percolating already: 1) retreats, including marriage retreats, 2) discipling leaders and mentoring people, 3) continuing to preach as often as possible, 4) working with our city's vision for revitalization. My heart starts beating faster just thinking about this stuff!

Working with Boondock Churches in BC/Yukon.

I've been in dialogue with our district office (Ken Russell) about ways that I could help the small-town church thrive. I wrote this book a few years ago, called Boondock Church, and it's gotten some attention in that it lays out a pretty succinct path forward for the boondock church, from floundering to flourishing. What we've succeeded in doing in Fort St. John (building a thriving community of faith in... the sticks) is something that many other communities need. So, come Fall of 2023, we may take on one or two pilot projects, functioning as specialists in the area of small-town rural ecclesia. This keeps me up at night (in a good way!).

And that gets you up to speed. We're going to do our darndest to keep current with social media (instagram, facebook, youtube, blogging, etc.) over the next year so you can come along with us on this fantastical journey.

If you've made it this far through this blog post, thanks for reading! I know you have tons going on in your world, and it means a lot that you'd take the time to catch up on our journey. And your support is greatly appreciated! Here's what that could look like:

First, pray for us.

Second, keep up-to-date on what's happening through SM. Like and share!