Ian & Jocelyn Barker

So I haven’t posted for a while; 12 days to be precise. Posting is a rhythm and once you get out of it, it is hard to get back in it. I still plan on going through Zechariah, but I’ve been a little sidetracked.

The first excuse, er, reason I have is that we moved. We moved apartments in a decided upgrade. For those in the area, we moved from Hillside to Timber Lakes. For those not in the area, you can see the map to see how far we moved (1 mile from doorstep to doorstep). You can’t see the difference in apartments, but you can feel a little bit apart of the journey. We are happy at our new place. Until we are able to buy a house, I think we both we feel much more settled here. It is nicer, quieter, and there is a nice walking trail we can use, a work out room, and a nice pool. There’s also a gate to drive through and four speed bumps to drive over on our way in or out. It’s a nice reminder of how the Lord gives us speed bumps on our journey of life.

The second reason I have for you is pure thought overload. That sounds very noble, but my idea of a thought overload is that I decide something one day, then will flip my idea the next day. This gets very confusing and I would not want to put anyone through that sort of experience. A big reason for this thought overload is that I am Assistant Teaching for Wes Hall’s “Biblical Theology of Israel” class. Israel is a subject that is dear to my heart, but an enigma to my mind. So I’m wrestling my way through God’s dealings with Israel once again and taking new ground. Knowing me though, I’ll probably give that ground back to whoever I took it from tomorrow. But for today, Romans 9:6 and 11:25-26 is talking about Jews and Gentiles together under the New Covenant.

Another reason I have for you is that my parents are (quite likely) moving here to KC. That’s not really a reason, but more of a way to tell you that. It bears repeating: my parents are moving here. Yup. They have put their house up for sale in Columbia, SC and will be here once it sells. My dad is an Anglican minister and there may be an opportunity for him here. Combine that with a sweet house of prayer to come to and a fine son and daughter-in-law to hang out with, and it is an offer that they cannot refuse. I’m really excited, needless to say.

This is unconnected to what I have been saying, but it kills me that we have 88 channels of cable TV for free with our apartment, but we don’t have a TV. At any other time of year it would not bother me so, but the baseball playoffs are quickly approaching and watching baseball might be one of my favorite forms of entertainment. So that is not relevant to anything I have just said but I thought it was interesting regardless.

Here’s to me and a reinstatement into the blogging world. 12 days is really not a long time to be gone. It was like I was never really gone.

This Friday, we are flying to Connecticut for Jocelyn’s sister’s wedding. The wedding will be on Sunday and we are flying back on Monday. We will get to spend a couple of nights at a cottage that her uncle owns that is by the Connecticut shore. It will be nice to get away, but I’m sure it will be busy with the wedding stuff.

We fly in at 11:20pm on Monday and soon after I get home, Wes Martin, Brandon Hammonds and Josh Motlong will pick me up to go backpacking in Colorado for 4 days. Yeah, I’ll be home for about an hour before heading off to the beautiful Colorado mountains where no cell phone will reach. It will be awesome. Wes, Brandon and I went last year a week before Jocelyn and I were married and it was amazing. There is nothing like being in the middle of nature for 4 days without seeing anyone. We come back on Saturday the 4th.

The very next day, August 5th, is our one-year anniversary! It’s hard to believe that it has been a year but it has been the best year of my life. I love you Jocelyn! We’re not sure what we are going to do yet…

3 days after that, Jocelyn is flying back to Connecticut for 4 days as her cousin is getting married. So I’ll be alone in KC as she will be when I am gone. That makes sense…

She gets back on Sunday the 12th and then we leave again the next Friday (the 17th) for a week’s vacation in Colorado. This was the first trip we planned and it is a gift from her mom. Thanks June! We’re going to Pagosa Springs which is a small town in southern Colorado that has natural hot springs. We are staying at a resort by a lake that is surrounded by the mountains. It will a nice getaway week to enjoy each other and God’s beautiful and good creation.

So to recap:

1. July 27-30 – Jocelyn’s sister’s wedding in Connecticut
2. July 31-August 4 – Ian away backpacking in Colorado
3. August 5 – One-year Anniversary
4. August 8-12 – Jocelyn away in Connecticut for cousin’s wedding
5. August 17-24 – Both of us away in Pagosa Springs, Colorado

If you would like to support us by giving us some money to help with travel expenses, we would greatly appreciate it as it is greatly needed. The two weddings were a surprise and definitely put us in a hard spot financially.

That is our August. Hopefully we’ll be able to blog about our trips, but not too much other blogging will be happening I’m sure.

It is Shawn Blanc’s birthday today. Shawn is a fellow IHOPer and authors a very cool blog called “The Fight Spot”. He’s 26 and he is launching a new blog, shawnblanc.net, that will be his personal blog so he can write whatever he wants. So go check it out.

Well, we waited a couple of days before making a decision, and in the mean time I got a $400 check for a web project I have been working on. So we took that to be the Lord’s voice telling us to fix the Powerbook. It’s always tempting to get something new, but we would be paying it off for a good 4-5 months. So that’s never good. We have too many trips and extra expenses in these next couple of months to burden ourselves with more payments. It’s a good little computer and it will look real nice with a new screen in there. Plus, the guy upgraded the RAM free of charge. Now, we just have to get some airline tickets for the end of July to fly to Connecticut…

On Sunday, Jocelyn and I returned from Arroyo Grande, California after spending 6 days with my brother, Matt, his wife, Leanne, and their two boys, Jack (6) and Caleb (2). We flew out from Kansas City with my mom and dad. We had an amazing time and feel really refreshed after a long semester of school. Here’s a recap of the highlights: |inline

Jocelyn’s mom blessed us with one of her timeshares this year. Over the weekend, we got a week in Pagosa Springs, CO at a place called Fairfield Pagosa. It’s in southern Colorado right on a lake in the midst of the mountains. It’s in a very remote area with lots of nature. We are very excited because it will be just after our one-year anniversary! God is good. We go on August 17th. |inline

Our friend, Brent Steeno, has requested help in formulating some thought-provoking and anointed questions to ask some IHOP leaders as he hosts this week’s IHOP conference on God-TV. He really wants to ask questions that inspire Holy Spirit anointed answers. Go to his blog and leave a question that you think would do such a thing.

I know it’s two days past Thanksgiving, so I shouldn’t write about Thanksgiving. But I went to the memorial service for Wes & Amanda’s baby girls, Ali & Charli, yesterday and it really was amazing. At the end, Wes exhorted us to be thankful for what we have. Being thankful is something that I always strive to work on. It is so easy to focus on the negative and what I don’t have instead of what I do have. I as discussing it with Jocelyn and I realized that thankfulness is really the foundation of being an intercessor. There is so much to pray for and it can lead us to give up because it is too much. But to be thankful, releases us from feeling weighed down and focusses us on a big God who knows the score and is not worried, He is not overly concerned.

Last night, Jocelyn and I saw a presentation of Handel’s “Messiah” performed by the Kansas City Symphony. I’ve never heard the whole thing so it was pretty cool. The piece itself is amazing as it is all pure Scripture. It is immensely powerful, but sadly unanointed. It was sad to see these professional singers get up and sing about God dashing the nations to pieces and then sit down again, seemingly unaffected by what they had just sung. |inline

I know it’s a little early to write about Christmas, considering that Thanksgiving is next week, but I really like Christmas so I’m excited. This year will be very different because it will be the first Christmas that I spend with my wife, and the first Christmas that I spend without my family. We are going to visit her family in Connecticut for 8 days which should be pretty interesting. She has a very big family while my family is small. Her family is very holiday-oriented while my family is very reserved. It will be a change for sure, but I’m looking forward to it. I just can’t believe that it is less than 6 weeks away.