About Us

So, what is “The Pipeline”? Well, in short, it’s kind of like a personal mission. It’s our collective purpose. Ever since we got married (June 2005), we’ve been trying to figure out how our seemingly contradictory desires fit together. You see, we have lots of things in common: we both want to live in ways that glorify God, put relationships ahead of tasks, put our marriage before work, be generous givers, help people to feel valued and loved, use our talents, abilities, and resources to help others, continually grow, and challenge others to do the same. In theory, we’re a lot alike.


In reality, not so much.


In general, Nate loves life. He’s happy, content, and easy going. He’s a “big picture” kind of guy and a major extrovert. He’s sees value in staying in Terre Haute (the small, Indiana town we grew up in and still call home!) and building into this community. He’d rather not move. Or change jobs. But he’s flexible and interested in what God is doing all over the world. He likes his “job” because he gets to fly around and have good conversations with inspiring businessmen (he has an aviation consulting company, Pimanco). He’s a dreamer.


On ther other hand, I (Rachael) obsess over details. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. I’m dying to live overseas. I’m ready to get the heck out of the Haute. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, so I really see no reason to stay here. I can be what I am (at present: unemployed) anywhere. And I’m an introvert.


So, where does that leave us? (Please, spare me the “you should do what Nate wants. He’s the man and the one with a job” speech. I know he’s in a better position to negotiate.) Thankfully, we’ve been thinking and praying about this for quite some time, and we’re finally in a place where our desires are starting to come together. It’s not all clear yet, but the short story is that, about a year ago, we shared our dilemna with a guy named Shane.  We told him how we’d been looking for a way to serve overseas (the Peace Corps, Samaritan’s Purse, the Fulbright), but nothing was working out. After listening to our story, Shane very wisely suggested we talk with our church leaders. He said he would like to see people like us (people who are willing to do risky things like live overseas, people with strong desires and initiative, people with leadership skills, etc.), connect with their local church. He suggested that we pour into something bigger than ourselves. After all, if we worked with and involved our church, it wouldn’t be just us benefiting from our experiences, it would be a whole community of people! How cool would it be to be able to include a whole group of people in our dreams? We started thinking, praying, and talking about it, and got really excited…especially after we had a few conversations with our pastor, Scot . He too has great dreams of getting eXchange, our church community, involved in what God is doing overseas.


So, we still don’t know what this all looks like, but the general idea is that we are “The Pipeline.” Somehow, some way, we’re supposed to connect our community with the work that God is doing. So, when you come back to “The Pipeline” expect to read about what’s going on in our lives and how it connects to our vision of connecting our community and our dreams!