Friendship and love lie at the heart of the Christian message, and anchor all authentic Christian mission. Jesus enters human history because of God's love for humanity, and becomes our friend in anticipation of eternity.

During my May-August 2009 sabbatical, I seek to deepen my appreciation of the impact friendships have on our spiritual journeys, by studying the relationship between the friendships American Baptist missionaries maintain and their vocational contentment. I will investigate:

1. To what extent do missionaries retain significant friendships among people that they knew before entering missionary service?

2. To what extent do missionaries invite new friends from their place of service into their friendship circles?

3. Is there a correlation between missionary satisfaction and the number of friends they maintain from among their missionary partnership teams, origin country friends, and field of service friends?

ABC missionaries will benefit from having an experience in which they can appreciate the role of friendships in their journeys. This research will benefit International Ministries as it seeks to support them, and has endorsed this project and promised access to its missionaries. My region’s pastors will benefit as I apply what I learn to our ministry setting in New Jersey. I will benefit by enjoying an extended period of time to intentionally reflect upon a subject that fascinates me, through research, conversation (many of the missionaries are friends and acquaintances), reading and writing.

International travel to missionary gatherings and its opportunity for photography will balance the sabbatical’s intellectual focus. Travel energizes me! My photography is about visualizing relationships, which is analogous to what I am seeking to accomplish in the sabbatical research.