My Isla Bonita

My Isla Bonita

called to greatness

I can't shake the fact that for years I have felt called to something greater than me. Greater than what I feel capable of doing on my own. When we are anointed by God we can start living beyond ourselves. It is my hope that our family never settles for something that is just manageable, but pursues something great.

Connect "a breath of fresh air"

There is something raw, real, and organic about these people...the people in the CAI "tribe" to which we now belong. Something refreshing about just sitting in the presence of people from around the world, sharing a glass of wine or a pint and talking about Jesus and how to be incarnational, immersed in culture, the way Jesus was. These people though not perfect, come as close as to what I believe Christians should be in the world. Of course we are all a work in progress and learning everyday, but they are on to something. Thank you Jesus for moving people out of the four walls and into the world.

OUR LIFE IS IN AN 8x10

As I pulled away from our 8x10 storage unit in Southern California for the last time, I had this incredible sense of freedom capped off with a bit of anxiety. I felt like my entire life, or the last five years at least, was locked up in this tiny cement room not to be opened for a year at minimum. I felt sad for our stuff. It was time for our family to leave the only life we knew as a family and head for the Big Sky. In the first hour of a 23 hour drive, it occurred to me that my life indeed was not left in that little 8x10, contrary to what the ideals of the "American Dream" would have us believe. For almost about 28 of my 29 years of life, I thought the underlying goals for every American was to 1. own a big home for your large family 2. in a nice neighborhood 3. with a great church and perfect schools 4. and drink coffee in the morning while reading the newspaper on the front porch where it never rains. I am not sure if it was a change of heart from God to prepare me for the next phase of life, but I know that those ideals now hold the weight of a paper clip in my life. Someone once challenged me to stop trying to live the American Dream and go out and live the Kingdom dream. Stop trying to collect stuff and start collecting friends for Jesus. So here goes. With all of our stuff crammed into an 8x10 (half of which I now feel like I don't even need), we are in phase one of living out the Kingdom dream.

What? When? How? Why? Northern Ireland

How It All Began…

I first visited the island in the spring of 2007. It was the fulfillment of a dream I’d had since childhood. As a kid, it seemed like a land from another world, often portrayed with massive rainbows spanning across endless, lush rolling green hills. Also—something about little men in green tuxes with their pots of gold.

The first time I landed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it was with a team of 12 students from Vanguard University. I was given the privilege of co-leading the team with my good friend, James Burley. As a teenager, he met Paul Bowman, an Irish youth pastor studying and speaking in the States, and what started as a good friendship, soon became a ministry partnership. Having traveled there during his high school years, James now had a vision to take a group from college. We were invited to the town of Saintfield (a suburb of Belfast) to come alongside Paul in ministering to the youth of his community.

It is a well-known fact that Ireland is a predominantly Christian nation. In the Republic, close to 90% of the population professes Roman Catholicism with the majority of the remainder either considering themselves Protestant or “deeply spiritual”. We’re familiar with this type of language in the States ourselves. The trend that quickly became apparent to us however wasn’t so much an attitude where young people outright rejected the church, but an idealism that the time to get serious about one’s faith would come far later in life. More rare still, was talk of a committed relationship with the living Jesus.

Most of us are also aware that religion has been cause for centuries of division and bloodshed in Ireland. The height of ‘the Troubles’ is now in their history books, but the deeply rooted tensions between Catholics and Protestants is still pervasive in many neighborhoods. You consider all these factors and have to ask yourself, “What does the future of the Church look like for the next generation?”

Our team was by no means coming in with the mentality that we would save Ireland, but was it possible that even in the 8-10 days we would have, we could live in community with them and share in a glimpse of the Kingdom Jesus proclaimed was “at hand”? We were given the opportunity to go into local high schools and share our stories of the Gospel living in us through music, theatre and the personal testimonies of our own journeys. We had the opportunity to encourage the local communities of believers and pray over the pastors and leaders working in the community. What started as an effort on our part to pour into this community became a model for everyday life back home. We developed such a strong bond with the community that we returned a year later with another team in 2008—and then again in 2009!

On a completely separate occasion, my family had the opportunity to travel to Saintfield with me during the winter of 2008 as the church was celebrating 350 years in ministry! I had been invited by the church to lead worship and provide special music for an outreach mission they were planning to coincide with their anniversary. By the end of the outreach, a mutual stirring began to take place about the partnership we had formed.

At the beginning of this year, a routine phone call to a friend in Saintfield turned into an extended conversation that finally set the dream in motion. Our family received an invitation to relocate to Northern Ireland to partner with them in the work of the Kingdom. Just weeks later, Andi and I went through an extended process and were accepted as staff members with Christian Associates Intl., a missions organization whose main focus has been to plant churches all throughout Europe. We shared our vision for Ireland with them and they enthusiastically agreed to endorse our missionary efforts as we move forward.

It is now May 2010. The Vanguard campus and community has served as our institution of learning, workplace, and most importantly, our home since the fall of 1999. Andi and I met there, fell in love there, were spiritually nurtured there, and up until now have raised our children there. We are so grateful for the hundreds of relationships and memories we have built there.

Our desire now is that as our friends and family, you will commit to praying for us as we pursue this new adventure. So much is still unknown. We do however, have a certainty that this is exactly where God is calling us next and simply want to be obedient to His prompting. As you pray, you may also feel called to partner with us as a monthly supporter as we begin this journey. What we are about to pursue will require so much more than just the four of us. Will you join with us?

Thank you all for your love and friendship!

Carlos, Andi, Chloe & Joaquin O’Fernandez