About Shelterbelt Blog

 

In Man on the Run I refer to a man’s close friends as his shelterbelt. Nathan and JJ are a couple strong, tall cedars in my shelterbelt; they’re men I trust, lean on, and drink a lot of coffee with.

A blog that included just my thoughts would get rather boring rather quickly. So, I’ve asked Nathan & JJ to join me here. We’re calling this blog “the shelterbelt,” and we’d like to invite you to be a part of the dialog. We’ll be asking other friends to join in and contribute a blog from time to time. Together, we’ll be discussing the intersection of our faith with work, relationships, art, and culture.

We invite your comments, suggestions, and ideas.

Welcome!

 

Nathan Musgrave

 

Nathan Musgrave was born in raised in Central City, Nebraska. He left home to travel the world, beginning with a 5-year stop in Chicago, where he met his lovely wife Sandy. Their travels included a 10-year stay teaching English in Asia.

After logging roughly half a million frequent flyer miles in coach, Nathan decided to return to his home town and never set foot on an airplane again.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. He still works part-time for a non-profit organization in Asia, and he gets to travel there several times a year to sip Yak butter tea and sample Hong Kong dim sum, and a few other things that he’s not allowed to talk about.

Along the way, God has given Nathan & Sandy two beautiful daughters. The whole family is now adjusting to life on 20 acres in rural Nebraska, after living the past couple of years in an Asian city of 13 million people. Right now they are growing a large crop of weeds, and collecting a lot of stray cats on their little farm. A creek runs through it. Prairie Creek, in case anyone is interested. The creek meanders, twists and turns, kind of like their lives the last 20 years, but they hope to stay put for a little while.

Nathan also works as Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Heartland Evangelical Free Church. He has a degree in English Literature from John Brown University and a MA in Intercultural Studies and Teaching English as a Second Language from Wheaton College.

JJ Springer

 

JJ Springer grew up on a farm north of Aurora, Nebraska, about half a mile from this. Although he’s happy to have survived, it would have been a cool way to go.

Jesus used godly parents to save him at a young age. In 2005 he married his best friend Carol. Together they have four kids, or possibly five, depending on how you count.

Before becoming a youth pastor in 2008, his resume included teaching and public policy, with brief stints teaching English to disinterested Taiwanese kids and wiping dead bugs off of airplanes.

He likes to read, run (slowly), watch sports, travel and get worked up over politics. He is Assistant to the Head Coach of his son’s little league team.

He has degrees from the University of Nebraska (BS: Football Tickets) and Biola University (MA: Christian Apologetics).

He doesn’t know anything about trees.