How did we end up here?

For many of you who have been emailed, messaged, or otherwise connected to this website, the news that our family is transitioning from the States to the United Kingdom might be, as Phoebe Buffay says, BRAND NEW INFORMATION!

Allow us to give you a second to let it all sink in...

Now that, hopefully, you've gotten over the surprise (maybe shock? idk) of this little life update, let us tell you how we got here. It's quite the story and testimony of the Goodness and Purposes of God in our lives.

He's so good, friends.

New Songs for New Seasons

In the fall of 2024, Kelsey and I began to sense that The Lord was wanting to speak to us in a way that felt weighty and of great importance. In prayer, in The Secret Place, in conversations, and from those we seek guidance from, a theme was emerging - New Seasons.

If I am completely honest with you, neither of us was just thrilled at the idea of any type of transition. See, we had purchased a great house in March of 2024, but almost immediately said goodbye to our dog who had been with us since 4 months into our marriage; we were settling into our sweet spots at the church we had been serving for over 6 years; our eldest, Walter, was starting kindergarten at a school Holy Spirit had very clearly told us was the right place for him...it didn't look or feel like a season for change.

We were confident that something was being said to us from Heaven, and we knew that leaning in was the only way we would fully understand what was going on. So we did. We started praying, asking Father, Son, and Spirit: What are we sensing? What are You saying? Is this You? Is this us? And, because we serve a Good, Good Father, The Lord began to answer us and reveal the next season He had purposed for us.

Through scripture passages, confirming prophetic words, similar life changes in trusted and apostolic people in our lives, and yes, even some uncomfortable or painful moments, we began to sense that our time serving this specific church body was coming to an end and that a new horizon was being revealed before us.

That's great, but why England?

That's the million-dollar question, I guess.

During this process of revealing and processing, Kelsey came to me and invited us both into a time of examining the dreams within our hearts, the things we wanted deep down, and the things we maybe hadn't given any type of nurturing to in years. For Kels, this was a deeply rooted desire to lessen her time outside of our home due to work and to invest even more time, energy, and devotion to our children and home. Pretty quickly after she shared this, we knew that this was the direction Kelsey needed to run.

I, on the other hand, was at a pretty big loss. I'm an analyzer, a teacher, someone who doesn't really move forward without facts (and facts to support those facts). So, it was hard for me to move beyond the "new season" theme to even figure out what dreams were lying dormant in me. Instead, I started thinking through scenarios and possibilities - What would it look like to leave ministry? Should I get an advanced degree and return to my other love, academia? Am I even good at anything else outside of music and ministry? It was a bit of a spiral, but in the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet, and eventually, I was reminded of a dream I held deep in my heart...a life in England.

Further up, and Further in!

My love for England, English culture, and my overall Anglophilic nature started in my early teen years. By the time I finished high school, I had read Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia a total of 15 times. My theological expansion away from the churches of my childhood was being shaped by Chesterton, Tolkien, Lewis, Wright, and other great English Theologians long before I came to realize my very Southern Baptist college was actually very Anglican in its form and function. Then came The Doctor. I discovered Dr. Who during my Junior year of college and was hooked from episode one - Rose. Then came Harry Potter (which I had missed during my adolescent years), Bake-Off, Downton Abbey, Escape to the Country, Panel Shows (QI being our favorite), etc. Soon, British TV, humor, food, and culture became something I deeply connected with.

For years, I had jokingly told Kelsey how much I looked forward to the day we could retire to a small cottage in England with rolling hills and Sunday roasts. So, when I finally settled down out of my hurricane of emotions, I went to Kelsey and said, "I think the dream that is bubbling up in me is this England thing." And, because I have been blessed with an amazing helpmate, she encouraged me to pray into it.

Kelsey would add, if she were writing this post, that she felt safe to encourage me because it probably wouldn't happen, and it might actually lessen this foolish desire in me to the point where I would stop mentioning it so much.

Streams of Living Water

To keep this short, once the idea of looking at ministry opportunities in England was an option for me, I pretty quickly ended up on the website of a church I had been following for a few years (Gas Street Church) due to their pastor, Tim Hughes, being a name I knew through the worship world. Somehow, during my perusal of their website, I found a link to their "partner churches". There were churches located throughout England and even some abroad, and one church caught my eye because its location (like Gas Street) was in Birmingham, which just felt too coincidental not to look into.

I clicked the link to Rea Church in Birmingham, UK, and was immediately greeted with a banner on the homepage proclaiming "WE'RE HIRING. That banner led to a page that listed a Worship Pastor and a Digital pastor as roles being filled, which have been the roles I have been serving the local church in for over a decade at this point. So, I told Kelsey about it and expressed my desire to cast a net and see if we catch anything here.

Fast forward a few days (I needed to wrestle with myself on whether or not I would risk chasing this dream and having it go unfulfilled, unanswered, or actually met), I filled out an application and sent it in. After a few days of not hearing anything, I decided to look at the application again and realized that I had missed some "fine-print" directions for including other items sent to a listed email address. I pulled those items together and emailed them with my apologies to the listed email, and took my first releasing breath in four days.

God's plan or Brilliant Distraction?

I got a reply email within 45 minutes (which is crazy considering the 6-hour time difference between our two countries) from the Operations Pastor of Rea Church that included this line - "Funny enough, I'm also from Alabama (I went to Auburn and my parents are in Huntsville)!

At this point, I ran upstairs and told Kelsey this is either something God is doing or this is the most well-written distraction the enemy has ever thrown at us. Fast forward through conversations with Rea's Senior Pastor, interviews with members of their team, a meeting with that same Operations Pastor in Alabama, an official job offer, and a trip over to visit the church and their team, and we began to recognize that this wasn't a distraction, but an invitation into something special.

Everything Beautiful in Its Time

Remember that trip I mentioned in the last section? Let's talk a bit about that.

When Kelsey and I were offered a place on the Rea staff, one of the needs both parties had was for a trip over to visit the church, meet the team in person, and experience Birmingham. We were thrilled to book this trip and flew over in June of 2025. In full transparency, we went into this trip fully planning on giving a final "yes" to the roles and moving our family over before the fall school term (September) of 2025. To continue the transparency, that's not what happened.

Both Kelsey and I struggled physically (nothing beats a Jet-lag holiday) and spiritually throughout our short trip, and couldn't, no matter how many different ways we asked, hear anything clearly from Holy Spirit - we were just stuck in an unsettled feeling when we thought about our plan. It was frankly disheartening and very challenging for us.

We will write more about the almost 4 weeks that followed our initial trip in a separate post to give the numerous moments of God's goodness and the many testimonies that came in those weeks the honor they deserve. But, after prayer, confirming words from people both in Christ and out of Christ, and being filled with faith - We will be moving to Birmingham, England, in June of 2026.

We can't wait to share more with you!

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So, welcome to the beginning of our journey. We have a lot to share, to look forward to, and to celebrate in what God is doing in us, Rea Church, the UK, and the World - and we are honored (or should we say honoured) that you are here with us.

As we continue to walk the road ahead of us, here are a few things we would love to invite you into with us:

• Please subscribe to our Blog. We will both be writing and sharing in this place, and we cannot wait to celebrate King Jesus through this medium together with those we love.

• Join our Newsletter. We are going to be sharing prayer requests, needs, wins and losses, and exciting updates through this, and would love to have you a part of our little huddle.

• Prayerfully consider becoming a Financial Partner for us through this journey. We have some very real, very tangible financial needs as we step into this next season that we will share more about soon. All donations are tax-deductible and will go directly toward helping us minister in the areas of prayer and worship in England.

• Pray for us. This is the most important thing for us. We do not want to take any steps without knowing that we are covered in prayer. We covet them and are beyond humbled to know that people are lifting us up before The Father, Son, and Spirit.