kingdom travelin'

two of my fav colleagues at one of the best places on earth

On most of these trips there is a Friday – Saturday leg of the trip in which Saturday breakfast is enjoyed by Gabor (not pictured), Arden, Laci and me. This morning was no exception. But Arden is moving to America and Laci, Keri and their girls are moving to Budapest. Gabor and I will hold down the fort on the Saturday breakfasts. The night before was the last ICF of the season, check it out on Arden’s blog (she even snuck in pic of me!).

Meanwhile in Budapest Joanna and the team were hanging out with students at Coffee House…

Our hope is that the conversations we are having with students will have meaningful and eternal consequesnces…

In in the Heartland for another 9 days with a great team. Please pray for our endeavors in Vac and Budapest. I am also making some side trips while the team is pretty stationary working with CEO’s partners. My hope is to make new connections for CEO partnerships. After the Heartland, I’m off to South Africa for for a while. My posting will remain in the minimalist mode, but I will be putting up a daily tweet so keep your eye on the Twitter update on the right…

Here is a pic of our team and our friends the Coppages at a Vac Stars baseball game. Doug is missing in the top pic ‘cuz he is sliding into home in the second pic.

I’ve said today’s date a million times it seems: June 5th.

I leave today with a small team for a trip to serve with partners in Hungary. I will also head to South Africa and then I’m back in Budapest for a while. This comes at a strategic time as I will be connecting with partners and visioning with them about ministry. I will also get some personal solitude that is way overdue, Budapest is a great place for me to do that.

Today is my last day at Covenant, I go in (appropriately) for the closing ceremony for high school and am leaving after my role therein. It is with great hope in God’s hand that the page turns and the new chapter begins today.

“Walk On”

Peace really does come from Grace

For three or four year, this pic has been on the home page of http://www.ceokids.org. I took this pic late one April afternoon in New York. What struck me then, and still does, is the fact that this church is lit up by the sun. The light causes it to stand out against the other buildings around it. 

Well, http://www.ceokids.org is undergoing a complete refit and this pic is not on the new site. So to give it a resting plasce, I post it here for one last look…

While our mission website is undergoing a re-fit we have placed our essential information about CEO on the page above and on our Christian Educators Outreach page over on Facebook, click HERE.

Today, over nine hundred letters are going in the mail to all of the donors on record of CEO. This letter is from the board of directors of Christian Educators Outreach announcing that I am going to be working full time as CEO’s executive director. I leave Covenant one week from today and will dearly miss my colleagues. The purpose of this letter is to inform our donors of the past nine years of this change and to ask them to support the ministries of CEO.

People ask, what will you be doing? Where will you be?

I will answer the “where will you be” question now and the other later.

Sweet Anna and I will continue to live in Charlottesville as we have for 14 years. CEO was started here and all of our connections for the running of the organization are here. So, we will not need to move. I have traveled over 60 days a year for the mission of CEO for several years from C’ville and though the number of days away will certainly increase, the base can and will remain here.

I am very thankful to have an amazingly supportive board. Here are some excerpts from that letter…

“Dear Friends,

We, the Board of Directors, are writing to let you know of a significant change taking place at Christian Educators Outreach. This dramatic step forward will allow CEO to take a stronger role in advancing God’s kingdom and to reach the potential with which it was founded. Since its origin in April, 2000, CEO has supported ministries to those in spiritual and physical need in Hungary, Ukraine, Croatia and most recently South Africa. As our partners in these locations have spread the Gospel of Christ and His love, our Executive Director, Tom Foley, has facilitated, encouraged and mentored them, all while working as a full time teacher at The Covenant School. In addition, scores of students have been led by Tom on mission trips in support of these efforts.

After a period of study, discernment and prayer, Tom, with the blessing of the Lord and the encouragement of his wife Anna and the Board of Directors, is leaving his teaching position to go full time into the ministry of CEO. With God’s help and Tom’s full time attention, CEO will be able to fulfill its mission of placing English teachers in Hungarian schools, enabling church planters to start new churches and giving professional and spiritual assistance to preschools in Africa….

…Thank you again for your love and support for the work of CEO. We covet your prayers that the God of all grace and glory will bless this work of His hands.”

I am gratified to be serving in this capacity and look forward to seeing what God will do through us in this new chapter! Next up: “What will you do?”