It's Thursday 614am. Jill and I are up and at'em after about 6 hours of sleep. We both had naps yesterday (hers longer than mine since she slept a bit on the plane but I didn't).
Just a bit about the long flight. 7980 miles in 15 hours, Bombay (Mumbai) to Newark. We set out at 130pm your time on Tuesday, and arrived in Newark about 5am on Wednesday. We were w/out beds for 37 hours before yesterday's nap time of 3 hours and last night's sleep. Jill watched two movies and I watched four, all of which I would recommend to fans of drama/action-adventure (Eagle Eye, Hannah, The Joneses, and Killers (Ashton Kutcher and Tom Selleck in a plot where Ashton leaves his clandestine life as a clandestine operative for love; very funny yet realistic for those who live sacrificial lives for our national security).
Anyway, it was great to be back home. If you've traveled off American soil you know the peaceful reassurance that you are back where you understand the language and culture and have fewer known folks that might be hostile to your values.
A full report will be produced for our friends here who supported this trip for us to share with yet other friends. The preliminary is that we visited 3 cities in 21 days, covered 20,000 miles (approx.) on six flights, and a daily minimum of 50 kilometers (30 miles) over rough roads and around cows to visit and share a simple and practical skills that can be used to heal, strengthen and protect marriage, family and all other relationship with 97 couples (there's some overlap between individual and group meetings). By all measures this was a very successful trip. In emotional language, it was "pure joy" for us to build relationship with like-minded friends, and now to have continuing opportunity to serve them.
We've received word that one group of couples will be meeting monthly to celebrate progress using what they learned, and to share struggles so that they can learn from and support each other! This is a wonderful step forward. And we've received some other emails about personal breakthroughs in marriages after years of struggling with a tough issue. Wonderful!
The great thing about most of these couples is that they have embraced the reality that what they have learned (and now practice) is not just for them, but also for others. Several times we asked two questions: 1. Have you begun to think of couples w/ whom you would like to share this? and, 2. Are you comfortable and confident that you could teach others some of these things? Many said yes to both questions, and that brings me to HOPE for the FUTURE!
GREAT RELATIONSHIPS
Those whose followed our journey since 2003 know that God put a monstrous vision in our hearts (and has progressively given us the experiences we need to develop our character and competencies to pursue it): THAT EVERY COUPLE WOULD HAVE THE INFORMATION AND SKILLS THEY NEED TO LIVE WITH ABUNDANT HOPE, PLEASURE AND PURPOSE FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Toward this end, we discerned that the creation of a not for profit organization would be necessary as an agency to raise and steward funding to provide training to every couple called to train their marriage to train other couples, GREAT RELATIONSHIPS, Inc.
Donations flowed into this beginning December 2009, and so we secured an attorney and accountant to take the necessary steps, BUT, the IRS protested, and protested. The last we knew, just prior to leaving for this trip was that the agent assigned to the review (who had rejected three times prior) had secured agreement from his supervisor to deny approval and would be sending a letter to confirm the denial. But...
After landing in Newark and clearing immigration/customs by 615am yesterday, I charged the blackberry from its 3 week rest ($1.99/minute for calls, and much more for data in India, so we didn't use it) to listen to voicemails. The third message was from our accountant and friend, Steve Stuckey, "Brother, I don't know if you will have voicemail while you are gone, but wanted to tell you I received a letter from ________ (agent at IRS) {internally I groaned, expecting confirmation of the denial}. Remember how he said he would be sending a letter to confirm the denial? Well, it's an approval letter! GREAT RELATIONSHIPS is now an official not for profit in the United States!"
My immediate response was a flood of tears...relief, happiness for Jill who has done so much detail work on this, and emerging excitement for the future. What a gift and blessing to receive this miracle! And the timing is incredible...on the heels of this trip to share with friends EXACTLY what Great Relationships, Inc. was founded to DO!
We couldn't be more excited for the future as it seems that a season of unscheduled sabbatical designed to teach us to depend on God and to rest in our identity in Him (rather than our roles and work in His Name) is behind us and that we are being released into pursuit of the fulfillment of the Vision He has seared into our hearts.
So, if this vision somehow grips you, and you want to be involved somehow, the answer is yes. It will require much prayer, financial support, passionate and talented directors to serve on the board, talented brothers to serve as advisers, trained couples willing to travel and to serve, more couples to begin the training process, etc. Make yourself known and/or point to friends who may have similar vision and passion for this work, because as the Favor on this continues, the mission will require an army marriages share with others what they themselves have received.
Since we have received wind beneath our wings per the miracle of favor on this trip, and the miraculous resurrection of Great Relationships, we are going to continue this blog to chronicle progress toward realization of the Vision: Every marriage living with abundant hope, pleasure (joy) and purpose for the Kingdom of God!
Much love and gratitude for your prayers, support and encouragement!
Jeff and Jill
Great news about the non-profit status approval!
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! Just this morning I was in a meeting with other cross-cultural workers in Spain and we were organizing a marriage retreat--and I thought of how easy it would be to get 10-15 cross-cultural working couples to attend a seminar that would not only help them, but give them the tools to implement in their ministries. Obviously you and Jill came to mind. What would it take to get you guys here in Spain to do something like this? (P.S. I'll be in spfld in nov. for a few days and expect to be invited over :)
ReplyDeleteLove you guys!
Hey Chris, I'm posting my response here also for others that might have interest.
ReplyDeletebasically, we need two things: 1. the mission is to share the model of marriage coaching with as many multipliers as possible. Would you audience qualify as multipliers (would they put to use w/ others and not just their own marriage)? and 2. budget for travel, lodging and replacement income for time away from counseling and coaching practice. The non-profit makes this easier to accomplish since tax-deductible contributions can be made, and non-profits (like sponsoring churches) can give to other non-profits.