It is a Small Small Free Methodist World

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to travel up to Jackson, MI to spend some quality time with sister (Liz) and brother-in-law (Mark). This was partly to appease them, as they say I spend way too much time with the rest of the family, but also share in part of their new adventure.

For the first time in my life, I was able to go house hunting. For those that don't know, Mark has accepted the Worship Arts position at New Covenant in Clio, MI. The sad part is that now I have to travel even further into enemy territory to visit family, the exciting part is the fresh opportunity that awaits them.

Now to the title of this modest post. Everyone on the planet has heard of the six degrees of separation. Basically, in the Free Methodist Church you can subtract five of those degrees. The guy in charge (that sniped Mark away from Jackson) is a man named Phil Owen. The crazy thing is Liz, Mark and myself have known Phil for well over a decade. My, I believe, junior year in high school, Phil was making his way around to different camps representing Spring Arbor College (at least it was still a college at the time, it's a big time University now). He was a counselor at the camp Liz and I were at and, later in the summer, a camp that Mark was attending. Also at the camp was Phil's future cousin-in-law (I think that's correct), who was there "representing" my future alma mater.

Spencer and Lynsey Ball (who I worked very closely with in Romania) attended New Covenant for awhile and know the Owen clan very well. Lynsey's cousin (that I attended Greenville with and whom I randomly ran into on the streets of Rome, Dr. Joe Cunningham) was babysat by Phil's wife Emily. And the scary thing is, this is what we came up with in just a couple of hours. I'm sure this rabbit hole goes a lot deeper.

I am very excited for what lies ahead for Mark, Liz and New Covenant moving forward. And the degrees of separation continue to get subtracted.