And now, at age 55, comes a new adventure.

Thirty-plus years ago living in Texas, I was struck by the model of an Old Testament slave-bureaucrat named Daniel. Carted off from his home and a promising career in Jewish royalty, he found himself a servant in the court of Babylon. There he got to rescuing the likes of sorcerers, quietly converting kings and blessing despicable empires. Other than a short list of thrilling adventures such as lion-taming, Daniel spent the rest of his life a mere a bureaucrat for various alien regimes.

Over the intervening decades I’ve discovered ways to apply that model in places diverse as New York and Ningxia. I’ve come to the conclusion that Daniel’s model, along with Paul’s in the New Testament and a host of other biblical heroes are as applicable today as they were back then – give or take a few interpretive and cultural hurdles. It is this cross-cultural challenge that stymies the forward movement of the contemporary church as much as anything in our global age, even after the church long ago became truly trans-global.

Missiological work is not just about pith helmets and martyrs on foreign soils. Being missionary or missional is everyday stuff for the average Jane or John Doe, or so I am attempting to prove in my book, Night Shift: Crossing the Cultural Line for the Kingdom, currently in painstaking editing process with my wonderful editor, Dave Greene, and to be released shortly by Fanno Creek Press. The mission of the church is all about crossing cultural barriers to preach good news to the poor, be they materially oppressed or spiritually destitute.

Four years ago a whirlwind of circumstances conspired to pluck our family out of its familiar world in Xi’an, China, and, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, dump us in a far away and strange land called Portland, Oregon. Unlike Dorothy’s dream, there is no going back to Kansas for us. We are here to stay. And so in the worst economic mess since the Great Depression, I have proceeded to explore where I could invest my dual passion for the unreached and the oppressed with my desire to provide financially for my family.

Last Tuesday that search came to a happy conclusion when Lowen Berman, Community Ministries Director of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, called me to say they wanted me to take the position of Program Manager for the Northeast Emergency Food Program (NEFP). And the next day I started. It’s been a heady few days of learning the ropes, a training process far from over. But I can honestly say I am thrilled to be heading up the team of staff and volunteers at 4800 NE 72nd Street. Upstairs is the Luther Memorial Lutheran Church. In 5,000 square feet of the church’s basement is the bustling world of NEFP, where languages as diverse as Romanian, Spanish, Vietnamese and that glorious mother tongue of Mandarin are spoken.

While I gain my sea legs, I’ll be cutting back on my blogging – don’t worry, readers, I’ll be back August 2 (meanwhile you can search for heresies in my old postings at my website http://hnkconnect.com). And, as I sort out my basement duties, I do intend to continue my involvement with the Oregon Center for Christian Values, Morrison Child and Family Services' Respite Foster Care program, and our home church, Mosaic, all on the geographical fringes of NEFP’s core service area in Northeast Portland.

Plus there is a family of becoming-adults to love, a garden to keep and a growing menagerie of pets (chickens, cats and now a dog) to clean up after. In true “loving the misfit” fashion, the Kenyon family welcomed two dogs into our house this past week. Finnegan will stay – a blessing from the Pug Rescue Mission. “Bandit” wandered into our yard Friday night and we’re not sure who doesn’t know where to find him. But since he’s terrifying Persia and Columbus, our cats, he’ll have to find a loving home elsewhere – today.

So having Danieled and Pauled myself across America and China, I’m out to prove what that looks like among Portland’s “land of barely there,” to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite Children’s book authors (Stephen Cosgrove), people who are at their wits’ end and desperate for the fresh produce, day-plus old bread, rice, canned goods and somewhat-used clothing we dispense four days a week. The food pantry is sort of new to me, but otherwise I’ll be doing what I’ve always been doing – recruiting workers, raising funds, and building relationships with people in need of a Friend.

See you August 2.