Now listen, you who say,
Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say,If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.
Soon I will be boarding a flight to Seattle with some clothes, my computer, and my french horn. I've been pretty quiet through all the deliberation and planning, so, naturally, I've had a lot of people asking me why as word trickles out.
This month marks my twenty-fifth birthday. It marks my second year out of college, and my first full year in business for myself. I've long desired to live somewhere new and on my own for a while, and now seems the perfect time to give that a try.
Why Seattle? Perhaps living somewhere other than sunny desert chaparral has a certain appeal to a native of San Diego. The green, rainy Pacific Northwest certainly has a beauty all its own. But I am sure precipitation loses its novelty after a while, and there are other reasons to go north.
I have already had the chance to visit Seattle twice. The first was a quick five-day visit, and the second was a longer six-week trip to Portland and Seattle. I loved both my times there, and was delighted to make some good business relationships, ministry contacts, and, of course, new friendships.
One of my near-term goals is to become a world-class software developer and business leader. One specific reason I am excited about moving to Seattle is the promise of more exposure to a variety of different projects and clients. I have some opportunities there that will offer me greater responsibilities and more opportunities to develop my project management skills. I'm also excited to network with the fantastic technical community present in Seattle.
A long-term project of mine, Beautiful Feet International, is focused on networking missionaries with missions agencies and doing missions right. There is an excellent non-profit community in the Northwest, with which I am eager to expand my contacts. I already have some contacts with the likes of World Vision, and my friend and future roommate actually work for a mission-sending agency based in Seattle.
Not only am I moving to a new area in the world, but what is looking to be a relatively isolated part of a very large city. I'm fully expecting to have an isolated couple of months. I have mixed feelings about that, of course, but hope to utilize that time to quiet myself and listen more and more closely to the still small voice of God. I'll also be working to hone my personal productivity, establish a more balanced lifestyle, and contribute more to the community directly around me. This, in addition to the above few paragraphs, forms the core of my request for prayer from those of you who care and feel called to the task.
There are probably some who find this news to be rather abrupt. I must apologize to those of you who were left in the dark during my planning. In my defense I would cite James 4:13-16, and my tendency to base my actions on others' opinions without following through when push comes to shove. A big move like this required a lot of careful prayer and deliberation to make sure that I am following a plan that's bigger than my own whims.
Finally, I am having a going-away party on Saturday the 19th. Please do let me know if you'd like to come so I can make arrangements for that. If you have an account on Facebook you can poke around for an event I created for that and RSVP on the guest list. Also, I do anticipate coming back to San Diego at least once every few months, possibly for a week at a time, to catch up with friends, family and clients.
To close, here's a few ways for you to keep track of me while I'm out and about in this world:
- http://nick.zadrozny.com/ is a day-to-day blog with random musings and various technical tidbits.
- Blogspot hosts a different kind of blog with my longer, more in-depth personal writings.
- Facebook has many of my contact details and is basically my online social hub.
- Facebook and Flickr host my photos. I'm trying to take one a day this year, so that should be fun to watch.
- Dopplr is where I publish my comings and goings.
Thanks for reading this far, and above all I hope we will all have opportunities in the future to learn from and love each other.
