I began attending the Moody Bible Institute in the Fall of 1994. I had never lived in any city, much less downtown Chicago. Many of you have perhaps experienced that the first friends you make in college are not always the ones that last. Many of the guys from my dorm floor are still great friends today, but many that I met in freshman orientation, are those with whom I have lost touch. Then there are friends that God brings you from across your career in college that last a lifetime and you find yourself nit at the heart with them in ways that are inexpressible. Among a few others, that is the Bults for us.
Honestly, it’s really funny how close we are to the Bults now given that Kevin, Andrea and I spent only a little time together in our days at Moody. Kevin and I were both skaters so we spent some time skating together in downtown Chicago and our paths would cross from time to time. But something about these friends from those days brought us together again not long after we graduated. It was their love for the Gospel and the Lord of the Gospel that would see us not only strengthening our friendship from our undergrad days, but also give us the opportunity to minister together.
The years meld together at this point, but our ministry partnership began in an even greater way when after the Bults returned from serving in Guerrero, MX to attend Dallas Theological Seminary, Kevin and Andrea knew they were going to take a turn from their previous ministry goals. They knew they were going to pursue three areas of ministry: 1. Theological education for nationals, 2. Local church planting and strengthening, and 3. Orphan care. All three of these were areas that Amber and I had a passion for and so it was natural for us to encourage our then church (New Community in St. Louis) to support them. From there, we enjoyed visits together when they were on home assignment and Amber and I were able to make our first visit to Puebla in 2013 after we had moved to serve at Fellowship Bible in Peoria.
In the years here, the Bults have been able to see God work in all three areas of ministry that they desired to pursue. I will share in the coming days about each of these. But for now, here is a picture of our dear friends.
Left to right: Emma, Lili, Ethan, Andrea, Kevin