So we’re finally into a groove again in B’ham and our whole team is getting back into the swing of things. Our trip to the U.S. was relaxing, encouraging, meaningful, helpful, and rewarding and we’ve come back charged and ready to go. Before we get to the ins and outs of it, here are 100+ photos from the trip.

First Things First
It already feels like a kind of distant past when we think back on our trip. So much has happened back in England since we’ve arrived. But let’s get back to the beginning of the trip. When we got into the U.S., what did we head for? Steak. Longhorn to be specific. And it was amazing, not only because it was tasty, but because we got to spend that first night’s dinner with our parents and it was quite a delight to get some face-to-face time with all of them.

Next Things Next
We were still waking up at weird times and getting hungry when we shouldn’t have been, thanks to jet lag. It’s quite an unfortunate phenomenon, more about that later. We had work to do while were were in Ohio. This particular weekend, First Christian Church was featuring their partnership with us in their main weekend services and wanted us to be a part of it. I was helping with the music for the contemporary service and Leah and I were tell our stories all morning. Part of being involved with all of that was rehearsing on the Wednesday night before at 6:30pm. Thanks to jet lag, it really did feel as though I was rehearsing starting at 11:30pm. All told though, the weekend was fantastic as we were able to share stories of our lives and work in England and to be encouraged by the people there who love us and the work of Canvas.

Dentistry
We got a chance to go to the dentist, a friend’s dad named Randy Siber. At the end of the appointment, we walked up to the counter to pay our bill and the receptionist said simply, “You’re all set.” Free dentistry. Priceless. Thank you, Randy, for your incredible kindness to us.

Happy Birthday Leah
On Saturday the 19th, we celebrated Leah’s birthday with her family in Canton (her birthday is actually the 22nd). Leah’s family is great and fun and there’s never a dull moment. Such was our experience at this party. I should mention as well, that through the duration of this trip, we were trying to stock up on things like Excedrin, jeans, shoes, shirts, and external hard drives. Compared to England, it was like a 50% off sale everwhere! Sad but true.

To Carrollton
The next stop was my hometown where it seems that time has stood still. Not much has changed, just the faces one sees around the town. My family is just as exciting as Leah’s; there isn’t ever a lag in happenings or things to find funny or strange or both. We had a great night eating dinner at my kitchen table and playing Monopoly: Birmingham Edition. As I remember it, Gabe (my brother) cleaned the floor with us that night - but we got him back. I had missed my family and it was great to be home again for a short time - as excited as I was to get back to England.

To Greenford
We had Mexican. It was as amazing as we remembered. We can’t get Mexican food here - at least not Mexican that tastes Mexican.

My great-grandpa died a couple of weeks after we first arrived in Birmingham and was buried in a cemetery close to where we were. My sister, Krista, had come into town to see us and the family and she and I (along with a friend of hers and Leah) went to see the grave marker for my great-grandpa. He was a great man and it was really meaningful for me to be able to see that sight. From there we went to my great-grandmother’s house (an old one-room school house) to talk with her, see photos, reminisce about grandpa and let her know that we love her.

Also in Greenford, we had the pleasure of spending some time with Greenford Christian Church, another group of people that’s pretty excited about Canvas. It was so nice to reconnect with them and with our college friend, Audra, a worker there.

Time to Leave Ohio
One part of our trip is over, another is just beginning. It was time to head to Tybee Island, Georgia to meet up with a bunch of other campus ministers from all over the world. It was meant to be a time of encouragement, refreshment, teaching and growing and it was all of those things. We got to hear from the other ministries about what they had tried in the past year, where they had failed, and what helped them succeed. We got to hear of their victories and their defeats. We got teaching that inspired us and we got to spend time with others that we admire and work along with for the sake of the Kingdom.

We also took some time to relax and recreate. Fishing. Fishing has never been a passion of mine, but the rest of the England team was headed out to fish off of a pier in the ocean and it didn’t sound all that bad to me! So, together we rented some poles from Captain Ray (see photos above) and had a great 5 or so hours, catching about 6 fish each, two of which were big enough for us to keep and eat for dinner (which we did).

And then there was the stingray. This guy was caught by a man who wrestled for an hour and a half to get him up onto the pier. Amazing.

Back to England
So yeah, it was an eventful, action-packed trip which kept us busy and filled us up. As soon as we got back to England, we had a party to attend for our exchange student guys. So we slept in the afternoon. Bad idea. We were out of sync for days because of the jet lag and we’re just now getting back to it.

As I’m rereading this, I’m realizing there was a LOT more to this trip but so many of the things were nice to just experience for what they were instead of try to catalogue them in my mind for blogging later. I wanted to just experience them and let these moments fuel me. And that they did.

We’re so grateful to all those who helped make our trip a great one. Now we’re back and ready to go because of all that was our America trip.

Our CONSTANTjourney iGoogle theme has over 8,000 users now! Hard to believe, but true and I wasn’t even taking advantage of all of the theme creating options. I have just finished updating the theme to take advantage of some of these features (I think Google says it will take about a week for the theme to be updated on their end).

So, now your CONSTANTjourney iGoogle theme will change throughout the day based on your time zone and features smoother gradients and better optimized graphics. It will take a bit of time for the updated theme to get out there, but in the meantime, you can use the old one and the new one will replace it automatically when it’s rolled out by Google.

Click here to get the CONSTANTjourney iGoogle theme on your homepage.

It was great to spend time as a whole team in Georgia last week, but in just a few hours, Robert and Natalie will be back in Birmingham with us once again. When Robert and Natalie got engaged, they went back to America for a short time to make their wedding plans, to go through some more pre-marriage counseling together and to be with their families in their really special time.

An now we’re happy to say that for the next few weeks leading up to their June wedding, they’ll be back with the team to rejoin the efforts of Canvas and to continue making plans for the future of Canvas. We’re happy to have them back, that’s for sure. Something seems…off…without all of us here.

Welcome back, friends!