pretty much the cutest thing. evar. leah at the ‘little miss jr. america’ pagent, 1985.

At church today Leah and I are sharing that we’re leaving Quest in order to hopefully churchplant in the near future.  It’s bittersweet.  On one hand we’re excited for the ways God may lead us over the coming months and years, but on the other, the thought of leaving Quest and many of the friendships we both have formed over the past years is difficult.

Leah has been at Quest since almost the very beginning eight years ago.  She may have been the first non-Asian visitor, and in the years since has held just about every possible position from cafe manager to lead associate pastor.  She’s worked hard, built many lasting relationships, and contributed greatly to the ministry of the church.  From the outpouring of affection she’s received today it’s clear than many people feel the same way about her that I do, and as a husband it’s always heartwarming to see your spouse appreciated.

I joined Quest five and a half years ago, just after completing college.  At the time attendance was around 200 people a week and we were meeting in the cafe.  It’s amazing to see how much the church has grown and changed in the time since.  Collectively, we’ve shared so much life together here.  We’ve grown so much here.  For that matter, we became “we” here.  It’s not a time in life that either of us will ever forget.  It’s been a privaledge to take part in it all, with all of you.

By marrying Leah, I knew there would be a time when she’d be called to a different congregation.  It’s an odd situation when one spouse’s change of job, even within the same city, can have such wide ranging implications on both spouses, their social circles and faith communities.  In leaving Quest, I’ve come to re-realize how special are the people who make up this church.  It is a blessed and gifted congregation brimming with unique talents and characters, musicians, photographers, humanitarians and poets.  And great, great families.  We’re greatly encouraged by your faith, your honesty and your willingness to share yourselves with us.

We’re at a little bit of a strange place in that we’re not yet approved to take the next steps towards the next step.  We still have some assessments to take with our denomination and conference.  We’re still visioning how we imagine the new church could be.  We’re excited and nervous and scared and hopeful all at the same time.  While we can’t share non-existant details at the point, we’ll be excited to as soon as we can.

It’s a blessing to be able to leave something you love on good terms, and in a good place.  I’m excited for Quest’s next steps and hope that the congregation and the leadership keeps true to its powerful and risky vision.  We pray for every manner of blessing on Quest, just as we ask the same for whatever our new venture becomes.

Thanks to everyone who has walked this journey with us.  You’re amazing.  We’ll miss seeing you every week, but it isn’t goodbye, just a redefinition of friendships, and regardless of where we’ll all be led, you’ll be in our hearts forever.  The upcoming month here, our last, will be very meaningful.  We hope to make the most of it.  More to come soon

XOXO

What does it take to get the Klug family to Hawaii in the midst of the 9th highest snowfall Washington has seen in recorded history?  A friend’s wedding provided the impetus for the island journey, and in the throes of winter we decided to tack on a week of vacation time before the big day.  We’ve been on O’ahu for five days now, enjoying choke food (especially the BBQ at Miles’ house yesterday!), learning the spirit of aloha, and hitting the local beaches.  Here are a couple of pictures for those back home to enjoy, and also to give our friends back home even more reason to keep the hate emails coming.  Here’s a walk through our trip thus far:

The snow outside our plane window while we were stranded on the tarmac for an hour waiting for them to find/manufacture/steal more deicing fluid after they’d finished all but one wing. Following takeoff, Alan was able to narrate for me exactly what the plane was doing every ten seconds. Some things, like ‘oh cool, the wings are flexing’, I didn’t really want to know.

After picking up our rental car, we headed for Kailua, a small town on the windward side. Here’s Mr. Cuteness himself enjoying Turtle Beach, where we were able to spot some signs of our shelled friends: flippers waving in the water, and turtle heads popping up to check out the people on shore.

Hitting the sights on our first full day in the islands, we took in the local history. Visiting the USS Missouri, “Mighty Mo”, the battleship where the WWII peace treaty was signed, we were able to tour the massive vessel.

Alan enjoying himself sitting in the gunner’s seat near the Arizona and military museum. Disabled torpedoes, missiles, and ICBM’s rounded out the tour.

A sobering sight: the USS Arizona memorial, built above the sunken battleship Arizona, the tomb to more than 1,000 soldiers killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A not-so-sobering sight: Alan on the deck of the Mighty Mo. Get it, “guns”.

Mysteriously, many of the cars in Hawaii are broke beyond mainlander’s comprehension. Beyond rusted out fenders, fender-benders left unfixed, and flaking paint, we found this beauty. Be sure to check out the plastic ‘chrome’ hubcaps on this “G’d up” ride. Someone clearly pimped that Hyundai.

One of the oddest sights of our trip: Waikiki beach, while not much of a beach, is close to a number of high-end shopping complexes. Atop Hermes, we found a shooting range. Somehow, this fits with the ongoing theme of the trip.

It may seem from all accounts that the trip has revolved around ‘guns’. While in many ways, that has been one of the threads of the trip, we’ve also enjoyed another theme of the journey: food. Many thanks to our great Hawaiian locals who provided food suggestions and to the Quest gang here for putting together the mother of all BBQ’s. We’ve enjoyed cocoa puffs, malasadas from Leonard’s (sorry, after an hour’s walk, we were too tired to take pictures and could only stuff our faces on the bench out front), poke from Foodland, Rai Rai Ramen, Pepper’s sandwiches, coffee from Saturna, breakfast at Cinnamon’s, and breakfasts cooked in our own kitchen here at the homefront. In our next installment: the wedding!