Maywards --> St Andrews

The Maywards are moving to St Andrews, Scotland and we need your help!

I (Joel) have been accepted into PhD studies at the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts (ITIA) within the Divinity School at the University of St Andrews. This academic journey means our family of five will move from the Portland, OR area to the coast of Scotland for three years of adventures and education in Europe. I’ll graduate from Portland Seminary with my MA in Theological Studies on April 28, and my PhD program (“programme” in Scotland) begins on September 27. Our whole family is thrilled by this opportunity, as it will be an incredible cultural experience for all of us, especially my kids.

Why a PhD? Over the past few years, I’ve been on a journey of discerning my vocation—who God has created me to be and what I’m called to do. After being in pastoral ministry for over a decade, God has been guiding our family into the world of theological education for me to move towards a new role of professor and teacher. I want to build bridges between the church and the academy, along with utilizing the arts (especially film) to foster conversations between cultures and faiths, seeing how the beauty of God could save the world.

Why Scotland and the University of St Andrews? I will be focusing my studies on the intersection of theology, ethics, and film; ITIA is a unique interdisciplinary program at one of the best, most highly regarded Divinity schools in the entire world. It’s the best possible program for this kind of study, and I’m grateful to get accepted. (Fun trivia: St Andrews is where the opening scene of "Chariots of Fire" was filmed, is considered the birthplace of golf, and is where Prince William and Kate Middleton met while attending university.)

The way visas work for the UK, we have to have proof of adequate finances within our bank account to account for each person in our family. To cover the travel and visa costs for our family of five, we will need to have at least $40,000 in our bank account by June in order to move to Scotland. Over the past two years, we have saved up nearly $30,000 for this adventure, so we need at least $10,000 more to reach our goal. Between accommodations, visa and travel expenses, school tuition, and various fees, we recognize that we need financial help and support from others. It’s not just about me—this is about supporting theological education and the arts, about building bridges between cultures, and about supporting the education and care of my children and family. We humbly ask for you to support us.

In the past few months, we have been asked by many people how they may be of help in this adventure. So we have come up with a number of ways that you can support us:

-Give financially. Please give a donation directly to this fund, or you can send us a check (Mail: 12435 NE 20th Street, Vancouver, WA 98684). If 50 people gave $100, and 250 gave $20, we'd reach our goal! Feel free to give whatever you feel comfortable giving; every donation means a lot to us.

-Give us stuff to sell (or buy our stuff). We are planning on having at least two garage sales to sell all sorts of things, including our furniture, TV, kids’ clothes and toys, and books. If you have something you’d like to donate for us to sell, we’d love to pick it up from you if you live in the Portland area. We are also looking to sell our Subaru Forester just before we go, so if you’re interested in a car, let us know.

-Give to our travel needs. We will need enough large pieces of luggage for our family of five, so if you have any luggage you rarely use, we’d love to take it to Scotland! If you have airline miles you could donate, we are also looking to offset our ticket costs—five plane tickets to Edinburgh can get pricey.

-Hire me. I’m available to write for your publications or speak for your conference, camp, class, retreat, etc. during the months of May-August. I can also do webinars on any of my three books. Contact me: [email redacted]

-Share this campaign. We don’t want to add to the social media noise, but we do want to share our good news and gain the support of anyone and everyone who wants to help. Share with your friends, family, co-workers, church small group, or anyone who cares about education and the arts. Use #maywardadventures if you're a hashtagging sort of person.

-Pray. Sometimes this can feel like the Christian spiritual add-on to these financial requests, but we’re quite serious—we truly need people to be praying for us, not only for the beginning of this adventure, but for its entire three-year duration.

One of our family’s values is to live a great story. This means developing our character, choosing difficult paths intentionally, and take the harder-but-better road. We see this move to Scotland as a new chapter in a greater story God is telling in and through us, and we invite you to be a part of that story with us. Check out our blog post for more of our story.

Grace and peace,

Joel, Katie, Copeland, Eloise, and Alister

#maywardadventures