Dear friends,

If you’re *really* interested in our path towards service in Colombia, South America, please read on. This Baer-Family briefing on our visit to Medellín last week contains concrete details.

If you’re only *a little* interested, this would be a great time to nail that ‘DELETE’ key and wait for a more polished summary email in a few days.

To make sense of what follows, you’ll need to know that ‘Junior’ is Karen’s nickname in the Baer Family in order to distinguish her from my older sister also named Karen Baer.

Thanks!

David (for Karen)

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Dear Baers,

I know our hearts and minds have been very much on Grandpa Baer’s health and Grandma Baer’s efforts (supported by Sissy and the Langhorne Baers) to respond to this health crisis.

Without detracting from the urgency of that situation, let me fill in a few details and next steps for us IndyBaers while memories of our last week in Medellín, Colombia, are still fresh.

√  Our travel from Indy to Medellín (via Chicago and Panama City) and from Medellín to Indy (via Bogotá and  Newark) was uneventful, except for the fact that Junior’s suitcase apparently never made it out of the Medellín Airport during our return. They’re ‘looking for it’.

√  It was a fantastic week. We were so well taken care of by the seminary. Many of the faculty and administrators are long-time friends of mine, but I was still blown away by their warmth and kindness. Junior fell in love with the seminary community, and expressed some regret when it came time for us to return home after just five full days on the ground there. I definitely married up, and have no idea how I ended up next to this amazing woman. We plan to be back in Medellín for a week in late January/early February in connection with a project I was helping to run while still with Overseas Council. Continue reading “unfiltered Baer news: Medellín visit briefing” →

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Today, May 24, we leave for Colombia to begin our onsite ministry via the Biblical Seminary of Colombia and the via the global reach of the Theological Education Initiative and its Apollos Fellowship. We’ve not yet achieved 100% of our support target, but people have been extraordinary and generously committed to standing with us in this calling, so we’re not standing still. We’re steppin’ out. Join us!

I don’t often spend 30 minutes in tears in front of our sound system and my laptop screen. It’s not like me. So this afternoon is unusual.

I’ve just been ambushed by ‘Bring Us Home’, a musical enactment of the biblical Joshua’s story. It’s part of the amazing 2011 album called Music Inspired by the Story, which I’ve loved since it was released those five years ago.

But today, out of left field, the Joshua story ambushed me. I was having a quiet shave at the time, if you must know, before migrating to my easy chair and my laptop. Continue reading “bring us home” →

More than ‘Hello, how are ya’?’ On October 30, Karen and I will travel to Medellín, Colombia as guests of the Biblical Seminary & University of Colombia. We’ll undergo formal interviews as candidates for service in this fine institution, one of the top-tier, cutting-edge seminaries in all of Latin America. Although I’ve known the school for twenty-five years, this will be Karen’s first eyes-on exposure both to Colombia and to the school. Medellín, once notorious for its drug cartels and associated violence, is a modern, dynamic city and home to nearly four million people. In addition to the social ills that are present in any large city, Medellín has thriving businesses, innovative governance that is now recognized worldwide, and strong universities. It’s a great place for preparing emerging Christian leaders with local, regional, and global promise. Our new chapter of service with the United World Mission will place us in Latin America for half of each year. I’ll direct UWM’s Theological Education Initiative (TEI) from our future home in Connecticut for the other half. My work with the TEI has already begun. We’ll catch you up with that in a future Baerly There … email. 25.6% Our support team has quickly moved us towards 30% of our required funds. Will you consider joining them? We’ll soon be far from our eight grandkids for our half-years in Latin America … but within reach of them during our six months in Connecticut. My new role in directing UWM’s Theological Education Initiative allows me to build upon a dozen years of working globally with great people like my former colleague Magdi Gendy, one of my favorite Egyptians (right). We apologize for the baldness of these men. United World Mission makes it easy to give. Click here to join our support team here. What happens next? The dominos are falling nicely. Here are the next ones in sequence: √ Our home in Indianapolis is on the market. √ When our home sells, we’ll move to the Haven House in Millersburg, Pennsylvania for the duration of our support-raising process. √ When we’re fully supported, we’ll purchase a home in Connecticut and head to Costa Rica, where I’ll work on the TEI and Karen will study Spanish for nine months. If things go as we hope, we’ll relocate to Costa Rica in April, 2017. √ When Karen finishes language school, we’ll begin our regular pattern of living and serving: six months based in a Latin American seminary and six months based in Connecticut (Theological Education Initiative). Until our home has sold, our mailing address remains: 124 West 64th Street Indianapolis, IN 46260 David’s contact details: 317-809-0483, david.baer@uwm.org All things karenbaerish: 317-997-8432, karen.baer@uwm.org Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list United World Mission 205 Regency Executive Park Drive Suite 430 Charlotte, NC 28217 800-825-5896 Reference: ‘Baers, account #31538’

Continue reading “Time to get seriously down south” →

Game on! Dear friends and family, Hello again, everyone! Our long march towards service in Latin America and beyond with the United World Mission slogs joyfully on, and we want to update you on progress. We are now squarely in the top of the second inning and we’ve got us a ball game! We’ll list our beloved home in Indianapolis for sale on October 7. Our previous income ends on September 30. There’s urgency in the air. None of this is a surprise. These are elements of our vision-driven migration into missionary service with the United World Mission in Latin America and the wider Majority World. That smell you smell? No worries, it’s just rubber hitting the road. David’s home church in Pennsylvania has opened to us the doors of their Haven House. We’ll live there after we sell our home and until our financial support has been fully raised. In late October, we’ll visit the South American seminary where we plan to serve. This will be Karen’s first look at our future home and place of service. Exciting stuff. Remember, you can always catch up with us at our Baerly There … website. We are praying for and working towards the miracle of full funding by December 31. It never happens that fast. But we can’t see why it should not. So far, 33 people and churches have told us they’ll be a part of our financial support team. They’ve jumped ahead of our ability even to reach out to them. If you’re one of these and are in a position to begin your financial support now, please do so here. We need 100 financially supporting partners. Are you the 34th? By mid-November, we expect to be able to provide you with ‘percent of needed funds raised’. For now, we’re just counting people and churches, and celebrating each one of you as we do. How are we keeping busy? √ Preparing our home for sale √ Pressing into our support-raising adventure √ Performing early responsibilities of the Theological Education Initiativeand mapping out where this puppy needs to go in order to reach its potential √ Tackling the et cetera of life Something is happening here, right under our feet. Will you join us? Our love, David & Karen Our mailing address is: 124 West 64th Street Indianapolis, IN 46260David hangs at: 317-809-0483, david.baer@uwm.org Karen has been spotted at: 317-997-8432, karen.baer@uwm.org Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list United World Mission 205 Regency Executive Park Drive Suite 430 Charlotte, NC 28217 800-825-5896 Reference: ‘Baers, account #31538’ or ‘Get those Baers fielded and outa’ my hair!’

Continue reading →

Dear Support Team and interested people,

Some of you may be interested in a subterranean stream that flows under the landscape of our integration into the United World Mission (UWM).

A few years ago, while I was serving on the board of the United World Mission, the board of the Latin America Mission approached UWM with a request to be merged into the United World Mission. I had served with LAM from 1988 to 2004, but I’d not had all that much contact with the LAM and its people since moving to Overseas Council in 2004.

As the UWM board deliberated, I was on several occasions inexplicably overcome with emotion. I supposed it was because I saw this potential merger as a way to salvage LAM’s amazing legacy at a time when the mission—like so many other smallish missionary organizations—was facing what appeared to be insurmountable challenges. Continue reading “that very rich LAM legacy” →

In a hotel room in Alabama with Karen, I find myself thinking about the distance.

We’re down here from Indiana, visiting two of our families who reside in this state.

One of them is here temporarily: Christopher (a.k.a. Captain Christopher Baer, US Army),

his wife Sheena, and their two-and-a-half-year-old son Connor are at Fort Benning for a few more months before taking up their next assignment with the 101st Airborne in Kentucky (and deployments). We spent the Labor Day weekend with these Baers.

Then over to Montgomery, where Ryan and his family live. Including three grandchildren, the last of which is six-week-old Cooper.

This has me thinking about distance again, though not the distance between Indy and Bama. Specifically, what weighs on the heart this evening is the distance between Colombia and family. Continue reading “in the debit column: the distance” →