Special Assistant TO (God) the Inland NW Regional Director

With the weight of responsibility that comes with being a regional director, I spent a lot of time in prayer and met with some key mentors in my life to start this new role well.

One key mentor in my life, Marty Folsom, invited me to pray and listen to what God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is saying about HIS region, the Inland NW.  Marty is a professor, a counselor, a theologian, a president of a seminary, leads a movement in the NW to pull key organizational leaders to work together, and an author too.  When we meet, I fill at least three journal pages each visit. This time, we prayed, and I put my pen down.  In this time of prayer and seeking the Lord, three statements were clear to me of what God's heart is for the Inland NW Region.

1. "I've heard you."  He wants his 'people' here to know that He has heard their prayers.
2. "I am preparing to cut off and prune branches (areas, staff, volunteers) so that this region may be more fruitful (more changed lives of kids and adults.)"
3. "I desire more unity." Unity between people, within areas, between areas, between staff, and in communities that have lost trust and concern for one another.

I took these three 'words' from God to me (the leader God has clearly called....as evidenced in the past entries) as my direction and briefing of what to look for.  I mean...if God really did call me....and God really has specific thoughts for his people...and He really does speak...including to me...and did...I figure(d) that I can, with confidence, follow His lead.

Since starting, I have heard SO many people say "you are just perfect for what we need."  "Thank you for your input, I'd been praying for exactly THIS kind of wisdom and person to come alongside me." Another example: "I just want you to know how thankful I am for you and excited to be working under your team! I have already felt very cared for and honored by you and Tanya!!"  -A (Superstar) Inland NW female staff person-

Again, I say all this not to inflate your view of me or mine of myself, but to articulate that God is real, active and is good at His job! As Rich Sweum often said, "If God can use an ass (Balaam's donkey) in the Bible to speak....then He can use us!"

I have been a part of many conversations where people have acknowledged that they sense God is trimming them, preparing for significant change in them, and preparing them and their area for significant growth. In each of these personal conversations, I say to myself "of course!"  Our Father in Heaven, the gardener, has his loving shears out and is preparing his vine for a bountiful harvest of changed lives.

And lastly, for unity, I am amazed at the conversations I've had involving disunity amongst staff, areas and such. Immediately, conversations have sparked to unify these communities, and staff. Othello is heading towards joining Connell, who previously cut themselves off from one another.  Ellensburg leadership is desiring to pull in previously disconnected Cle Elum/Roslyn.  There are discussions of the Bi-Cities (not the actual name) becoming the Tri-Cities again, with Pasco re-joining Kennewick-Richland.  Staff who have not felt 'connected' to other staff or 'that Spokane group' are gelling like never before and loving it.

These words feel weird to type about myself and what I am personally involved in, but if you are reading along with me...I am not the main character in this story.  I am the reluctant side character.  God is the hero in this story.  It is a joy to aim to be 'best supporting actor (leader)' in His Story.
-Jeff-

The Mountaintop Experience

During the season of mulling over lists in our journals, trying our best to be good students, we were totally transparent with our small group.  We have been blessed for the last 15 years to have an intimate inner circle of friends who encourage and keep us accountable to live the lives we have committed to living.  We call this group of 5 other couples our Small Group.  They pray for us, love us when we forget the truth, think  erroneous thoughts, sav hurtful things to our spouses and yell at our kids.  When we were considering applying for the regional job, they were the first to hear about it.  They willingly joined us in prayer and patiently processed every facet of this life-changing decision.  

One friend from our small group said that when she prayed, she kept seeing a picture of Jeff and I standing on the banks of a rushing river.  In the scene that she saw, we were holding hands and stepping boldly, feet first, into a rushing river.  She told me what she saw.  With no harm done, I thanked her for sharing and parked this odd visual in the back of my mind. 

On the day of the interview with the regional board, we went out to lunch with the Ellensburg Area Director.  We listened to him talk about his region and his ministry over Italian salads.  After our meal, he suggested that we go down to the park at the end of the road as a place where we could gather our thoughts and put the finishing touches on our interview outfits.  He said it had a nice view and a shaded parking lot that would provide a cool resting spot on the hot August day.  We slowing rolled into the park.  Jumped out of the car to look over the side of the parking lot and were greeted by a rushing and powerful river.  Is this the river our friend saw in her picture of us?  I felt a little nauseous and wanted to jump in the Yakima River that was rushing before our eyes.  It was too real.

I didn’t jump. We went to the interview.  On the chatty drive home, we stopped at our favorite restaurant in Cle Elum, and kept driving, expecting a phone call lthe morning after.  Near the top of Snoqualmie pass Jeff received a text message from the Divisional Vice President requesting a call back.  I was driving, offering Jeff a break. We pulled over at the Department of Transportation restrooms at the top of the mountain pass.  We jumped out of the car and Jeff called back his supervisor.  He was offered the job and was asked if he would accept the job.  Silence.  Jeff looked at me, covered the phone with his hand and whispered, “what should I say?” “It’s your thing!”  I whispered back.  What a lie.  But I said it because he was the one who would be responsible for his decision.  He accepted.   And there, on the mountaintop, we knew things would be forever different.   

On the way home, we called our small group and requested a special meeting for the following night to discuss the interview.  One couple was away delivering their oldest son to college and joined us via skype.  We shared the play by play version of the previous day’s happenings.    Heather’s questions were peculiar.  “When you got the call, were you on the top of the mountain, or near the top, maybe on the other side?”  Her curiosity was almost troubling.  “We pulled over at the summit we took the call and said yes right there…” I assured her.  

“Hmm… not to freak you out, but when we were praying for you before this, I saw you and Jeff on the top of a mountain deciding if you would lead that region.  It was as if you were standing between the two areas, divided by the mountain, and were deciding right then and there where you would go.”  She didn’t want to tell us what she so vividly envisioned in her head.  I’m sure she thought I would think she was weird.  But she had to share the picture she saw and to me it was reassuring.  

The scene in her mind is exactly what happened.  Jeff and I at the mountain summit, deciding our own fate, choosing between the known life we have grown to love, and the unknown land of obedience. 

Mind was blown. 

A mind was meant to be blown

Many times after Jeff put his name “in the hat” I wondered what in the world we were doing.  I am always a worst case scenario person when thinking about potential situations.  I pondered the possibilities and would say, “Can I handle the worst thing that can result from this action?”    I reasoned that if we were hearing God and should continue down this path… it will turn out at minimum… just fine.  If we are acting as a result of bad pizza, this could be disastrous relationally, professionally and financially.  I contemplated to the point of insanity according to ordinary standards.  Finally, I was at the YMCA subjecting myself to pain and torture, having a usual ‘Jesus moment’ (you know when you think you are going to die), and I asked God between burpees and lunges… “so what do I make of all this stuff?  The interviews, the questions, the huge responsibility of a new position, a move, obedience, losing everything..”  And I felt like a still small voice say, ‘ Just hang in there.  I’m going to blow your mind.’ 

Well.  Fanfreakingtastic.  Blow my mind?  Just hang tight for a second while I recreate your reality thread by thread. Trust me.  It will be great.  In fact, it will exceed your expectations.  Hmm.  Am I capable of the kind of  trust I’ve only read about in books?

At that point, I didn’t think we would be in.  I only felt like I could rest into a roller-coaster seat, firmly seated beneath the seat-belt, not knowing where the roller-coaster would take me, or exactly what kind of ride I’d be on… but I was ready to have the fragments of my mind that remained prepare for take off!

There's something more!

Do you ever get the feeling that there is something more out there?  Maybe feel like there has to be more than the ordinary life you are living with an ordinary job and typical activities of daily living?  I think we have all felt like that.  We all have the sense that is something more.  It draws us to a simple but profound understanding that life is not just about us living and dying, yet we are just a small part of the universe.  We finally get that God orchestrates everything in this immense universe, but at the same time we are part of an intricate and often delicate plan.  I chuckle when I think about it, because our ultra scheduled lives of multi-tasking and stretching every fiber of our muscles to get the most out of our time, knowing the most outstanding people, entering with people in extreme and utter despair and celebrating in extravagant ways, have characterized our lives that are anything but boring.  Most people, me included, would  look at our lives and say that they were quite fulfilling.  Yet, I felt like there was something more I needed to be ready for.  This notion kept me awake at night as I prayed that I would chose the right direction, jump onto the correct train as it chugged by.  There was also some guilt for feeling discontent.  The discontent turned to heavenly expectation. I felt like perhaps the hope of something more was a mustard seed of faith, a grain of curiosity that would keep my eyes open to new direction in the future.

In the summer of 2014, I was in the depths of this wonder and spirit of expectation. Jeff and I had been in the habit of having a time of quiet meditation and reading each morning before the kids and I would rush off to school.  During this time, I felt like I had been in communication with God and we had come to the agreement that Jeff and I were true partners.  I had come to the resolution that whatever God had for our family, to move away, to change jobs, to (gasp) leave Young Life, to make a huge change in our family, that I was with him (Jeff).   Early one morning, I felt a prompting in my spirit to tell Jeff.  The vague words were received with polite obligation and we both went about our days.  I felt satisfied and relieved that I had followed my prompting and he obediently listened.

About 2 weeks later,  I felt the same prompting.  In the quiet of my early morning times of conversation with my Maker, I was reminded of my previous commitment to go along with Jeff, how ever God would lead.  The leading this time was ...Tell him again .  The reaction this time was a little different.  "Please stop saying this.  You are starting to freak me out!"  Jeff moved his hands around his head as if to shoo the words away from his ears as if to unhear them.  "I'm just trying to do what God tells me to do and say what he tells me to say!"  I offered as an excuse.  "Maybe we are supposed to be doing something more, not something else, but more."

This stirring of my spirit changed me. I had never thought of moving or doing something else.  Why would we?  Things were going so well. Ministry was reaching more kids than ever.  We were in the same place long enough to see the fruit of our labor in spiritual generations of students through Young Life happily loving and serving others in Christ's name.  Our house had finally evolved to a place we wanted to dwell in and host others.  I had the best job in the world.  We liked our kids...

But I started to live differently, looking for opportunities to find something more.  I entertained ideas of changing ministries, but never felt released.  I searched online for orphans who needed families.  We built a deck.  We got a dog.  What could more be?

By the fall of 2014, I stopped looking so hard and decided to wait with expectation.  Not wait and doze off, but non-frantically and prayerfully looking around.  I remember telling the other staff wives at our retreat in Ocean Shores that we were very happy in ministry, but feeling like there was something more to come. It seemed safely benign to state it like that.  And, I had NO IDEA what more was.  I was just being honest with my home girls.

Now I see that this long process was God preparing my heart for the change.  God is gentle and loving enough to offer me some time to process and marinade on the idea of uprooting and changing our entire lives. He helped me channel what I thought was discontentment into a prayerful expectation of anything to come.  How kind and thoughtful.
 Ah yes...and now we have something more.

Becoming a learner and eating fortune cookies

After returning from Creekside camp, having just been 'mooned' by God, I proactively sought counsel.  I met with my counselor Marty Folsom, whom I've met with for 17 years at least once a year. After deeply listening, as he excels and models to me to do, he ended our time with an invitation to me. "Jeff, consider taking on a season of being a 'learner' right now. Ask questions, interview people, take lots of notes, ask shameless questions. I acquiesced.

So the next few days, I met with some of my closest, most trusted friends in my small group. I called my lifelong best friend Mike who lives in DC who was my roomie in college 2 years and knows of my greatest capabilities for good and pure randomness. I talked with my fantasy football league. We prayed with our kids.  I interviewed the two former regional directors in Eastern WA. I talked to Brent Cunningham in Alaska and JC in Southern Idaho. I met with YL veterans Blacksmith, Scofield, and also Mason R. our WesternWA Regional Director to see if there were any opps within our region and listened to his take on the matter. I talked to my friend Kent, my own WestSnoCo YL staff and committee, area supporters, and my protege Ernie Merino.  During my meeting with Ernie at Changs Mongolian Grill, a place we have met together for 8 years, my fortune cookie had us screaming at the top of our lungs, yelling like college basketball fans who just saw a 5'7 point guard throw down a filthy slam dunk in the face of a 7 foot 6 defender. "Traveling to the east will bring you great rewards." Are you kidding me?

Before I was asked to 'put my name in the hat' for the regional director search, I had allowed others to speak into my life, I weighed their wisdom.  I was terrified to make a decision, yet was committed to follow what the Lord had asked me to do.  How open are we to invite wisdom, feedback, input and even correction from those we trust and respect when we know it could 'cost' us our comfort?

When God MOONED me.

When the possibility of becoming the regional director of Young Life came up, the question we asked was 'how will we know if this is right?'

In late May, we were at the Young Life camp, Washington Family Ranch Creekside, I (Jeff) had a moment of divine clarity.  On Saturday May 24th, my birthday, I sat alone during a 20 minute time we gave the high school campers to pray and listen to the Lord speak to them. As I found a spot to sit, I sensed God's Holy Spirit whisper to me 'look up, I am going to speak to you by what you see.'  This already was starting to sound odd. I looked up, awaiting perhaps a shooting star with a phrase that would be spelled out with star dust. Then, my eyes fixed on the moon (see pic attached, I was so moved by the experience that I took a pic with my non-hobble-telescope iPhone5.) It was a half moon. The left side was completely darkened and the right side was beaming with brightness. Then the Lord God spoke to me "I want you to be a light to the east side of the state." I sat dumbfounded, befuddled, bamboozled, and looking for an excuse to ignore and reason away what I had just received as an invitation from God. Has that ever happened to you? God speaks...you immediately come up with reasons to reason away God's unreasonable invitation to you?

I did what we asked campers NOT to do. I walked to my girlfriend in the middle of the quiet time and started distracting her. As I approached her, she started laughing. Violent laughing. I barked: "WHAT? Why are you laughing?" Her answer stopped me in my tracks: "Was God speaking to you too?"

Uh Oh!  Spaghetti-Os!

She began to show me her journal entry during the past 15 minutes. God speaks to Tanya 'through her pen,' she often explains. She hears and writes during meaningful prayer times. This was one. On her journal were these back-and-forth conversations:

Tanya, would you give me everything you hold dear?
Yes God, I would.
Would you give up your job that you LOVE for me?
Well, that would be hard, but I know it was a gift from you...yes, God I would.
Tanya, I want you to work more closely with Jeff than you ever have before.
Okay, I'm in.

(then I walked up with my 'deer-in-headlights' look on my face after the whole 'moon' thing.

Well...we both knew God was up to SOMETHING from here on out!

May we A) listen openly. B) write down what we hear and C) not reason it away as unreasonable when God speaks to us.  DO you agree?

Four Year Marching Orders...its all in the hat.

In January 2012, God gave us 4 year "marching orders."  We were at the Young Life All Staff Conference in Orlando. On night 2, all 5,000 Young Life staff were offered a chance to be prayed for before heading out for the evening. We couldn't think of anything to be 'prayed for.'  Life was going well and the night life of socializing beckoned. We looked at each other and neither wanted to be the one who finalized that we didn't need prayer. So, we decided to go ahead and accept the offer.  We walked up front and prayed with longtime Everett and Seattle natives, Mike and Shari Gaffney.  As we prayed, we felt an incredible clear sense from the Lord that we were to partner with God over the next four years until the next All-Staff Conference to launch a dynamic, long lasting ministry at Mariner HS, my alma mater.  It felt like a tall order.  Mariner had not had Young Life for 12 years.  It has been historically a tough-to-rally, urban, low-income, diverse and 'closed off' school that is known for giving Christian youth leaders the 'boot' from being on campus.  We had no adults involved or on the radar. Regardless, we accepted this assignment.  As we walked away from prayer, immediately I quizzed Tanya, "Wait, but what happens after four years? Is God foreshadowing that we will die, or get fired by YL, or something else?" We left with a clear sense of calling to start Mariner YL yet a pit feeling in our stomachs of a mysterious future ahead.

Fast forward to spring of 2015. Mariner has come of age.  A team of 5 leaders who all were volunteering in the school, 8 supportive Christian teachers, a team of supportive adults in place, students planning and executing a successful club, and Mariner was officially on the map in South Everett and within the open and welcoming hallways of Mariner HS.

In fact, June 1st, our area hired longtime volunteer Nick Johnson as our new full-time staff to head up Mariner to take the next steps as a ministry. The very next day, Ken Tankersley, the NW Divisional Vice President of Young Life called Jeff.  He informed him of an opening within Young Life for the Regional Director Position in the Inland NW, Eastern WA and Northern Idaho, and that Jeff's name had repeatedly come up in a search process.  'Tank' asked Jeff to put his name in the 'hat' for the pool of candidates.

This is when we realized that it was 4 years ago that God had given us direction and we had completed what he had asked.  Now, perhaps he was unveiling that 'next' thing that did not involve death or firing.  After much counsel, we agreed to put Jeff's name in the hat because, what could it hurt to simply put one's name in a hat, right?  :)

It all began here and we are excited to share in future posts what has come about as we have followed Jesus' lead.