this morning, the publisher of youth specialties, jay howver, and his amazing wife, jen (former ys marketing dept staff member, currently doing contract work for ys as well as a dozen other ministry orgs) are pulling onto the freeway and driving to colorado. it’s not a vacation: it’s a move. jen and jay have been a massive gift to ys over these last few years, and a massive gift to me. jay has become one of my closest confidants, an exceptional and trustworthy friend, and a brilliant and tirelessly creative co-worker. the good news is: jay’s not leaving ys or his role as our publisher. he’s just moving the location of his desk, so to speak. somehow (who can explain this?), san diego has never been a perfect fit for them, and they have longed to get back to colorado. i’m condensing a long explanation into one sentence there, but that’s the basic gist of it. of all the employees in our publishing group, only jay and roni (our managing editor) were still located here in our san diego offices. the others are in princeton, nj, grand rapids, mi, the san fran bay area, and one more who’s ‘on the road’ and we never quite know where she’ll be at any given moment! so they’ve learned to work as a team completely remotely, using IM and phone and a cool online collaborative space called ‘basecamp’. jay being in colorado will make no difference to his role as publisher or his team.

but i’ll miss him.

he’ll come to san diego monthly, and we have hopes that our time together will even be more intentional, and, therefore, even better. but it’s change — relational change. and i can feel the distance as i picture him behind the wheel of that rental truck, heading east at this very moment.