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I am of the privileged few who have the opportunity/dread of working for themselves.  It’s one of those things I’ve always wanted to do, run my own business and be my own boss kind of thing.  Sure it sounds glamorous, but man, can my boss be a moody jerk sometimes.  The truth is though, I love what I’m doing and I’m doing those things that I love to do.  It is a dream job for me.  So what more could I ask for right?  The truth is, while I am loving the life I’m living, I know that there’s more to the story, I know that there’s more to my story, to the story God has for us (my family and myself).

See, I’ve had this longing for a deeper story for quiet sometime.  Like many I grew up with a culturally warped perception of “church” and “mission”.  Both entities must exist within a predefined American-appropriate box of correctness and historically “proven” methods.  A missionary is a person sent by a church organization to tell people about Jesus through authoritative tracts folded into a cube and fear inducing tactics that are meant to “scare the hell out of the natives”.  And while we’re at it, let’s make sure these “heathens” take on the essence and appearance of an American worldview.  After all, American Christianity is the only authentic Christianity right?  See, I want to live the story of the Gospel; I want to be a mission agent of God in a foreign culture—but not in this box!

The story we want to live is one of living alongside of the “heathens” of a different world and culture; not pounding Jesus into their skulls, but living Christ in their homes, cafes and markets.  My wife and I have been dreaming since we first met of our story together.  It is a big in-depth dream, but it’s feasible.  (After all if Inception taught us nothing it’s that dreams can be a least four levels deep!)  The dream looks like this:

We want to use what we have, what we love, and this exercise-in-passion enacts mission.  Our dream story is to open a Hostel in a country along the Mediterranean to (1) provide a service and hopefully enrich the community and (2) reach a diversely interesting and untouched “people group”–young tourists.  It’s common for students in European countries to spend months (or even a year) after graduating from school (our equivalent of high school) traveling the world, looking for a party and just seeing the world.

I have met some of these youth-in-limbo, no longer in adolescence yet having no established responsibility in this world.  Sure they are looking for a good time, but perhaps they are looking for themselves.  It’s evident they are seeking to fill up their passports with great stories of adventure and wild club scenes and maybe a little non-committal promiscuity along the way.  But maybe, just maybe they are hoping to find who they are in this world.  And hopefully for the week or few days they spend in our hostel they are able to see just a glimpse of Jesus in their interaction with our family and staff.  Just maybe we are able to plant a tiny seed of value and worth in their hearts that leave them longing for something more, longing to have a story of their own.

That’s where this opportunity comes into play.  I know this dream story of ours will come to fruition at some point in the near future.  We are working, dreaming and saving towards this.  What we would love help with is forming “actionable steps on making [our] personal storyline happen.”  We relish in the mere possibility of being able to attend this seminar and hope to be able to really learn from and focus our dream.  We really want someone outside of our dream to be able to speak into our vision and help sort out the complexities and steps needed to move forward.

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Living a Better Story Seminar from All Things Converge Podcast on Vimeo.