The news my wife Carrie and I are about to share with you is the result of a full year of discernment as a family, for our family, around what--and where--God is calling us to next. We have come to realize in this moment that we are called to be close to family, in new places and phases of our respective vocations, and ultimately to a new home and hometown.
Birmingham, Alabama, will be our new hometown. I am
excited to become the seventh senior minister of Valley Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ), Carrie is excited to join Southern Perioperative
Services as close-knit anesthesiology practice and continuing to teach surgical
medicine through e-learning, and Sadie Lou is excited to finally have a house
with a yard! We will begin our cross-country sojourn on July 20, with a
stop in Kansas City to see my family, before arriving in Birmingham, where
we will both begin our new positions in September.
Valley Christian Church is a longtime fixture of the Birmingham community—the congregation will celebrate its seventieth anniversary next year—and I am excited to be called to a congregation that has long invested itself meaningfully in environmental ministry, cross-cultural and interracial relationships, and ministering to people experiencing poverty, all on top of their edifying worship and fellowship ministries. Carrie is looking forward to setting down roots and starting new endeavors alongside the world-class anesthesia colleagues in the Birmingham area as well as continuing to nurture close professional relationships everywhere.
This move places us within driving distance of both Kansas and North Carolina, close to family in a time of distancing. We are thrilled to be moving much closer my parents and sister in Kansas City, overjoyed to be closer to extended family all over the Southeast, and we are so blessed to have Carrie's parents relocating with us to Birmingham.