“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:37-38)

There is only one city in the world that has more fountains than Kansas City, Missouri - can you guess it? Only Rome, a beautiful city with a terrible past, has more fountains than any other city in the world. Now fountains can be small or large, ornate or ordinary, gushing or trickling, but they are all fountains none the less.

What does this have to do with why the Couches are in KC? Nothing really, or maybe everything. Jenny and I love fountains, but more than our love for fountains, we want to be fountains. The great thing about a fountain is that is always freely flowing water, life-giving water. It always flows water because the vessel it flows through is always receiving water, and the end result of that flow is beauty that makes people want to gather around.

As much as we love Texas, and boy do we love Texas, we have found a home here in south Kansas City because we believe God wants us as a family to be a fountain of living water, receiving and giving His love. Receiving Him truthfully, that we might display His beauty and power, that which truly brings Him glory and regular people transforming, eternal wholeness in Jesus Christ. God desires this for everyone who has forsaken the broad path of worldly ambition and taken up the narrow road to eternity through Jesus Christ, and obviously they don’t have to be in Kansas City to be that. For us, however, Kansas City is spot on where God wants us to be.

We’ve found a church where we truly believe Jesus Christ is exalted pre-eminently, preached exclusively, and proclaimed victoriously. We’ve found a community made up of weak and broken people of all ages from many nations around the world who have gathered together to give themselves whole-heartedly to God in radical devotion, prayer, servanthood, and “Sermon on the Mount” lifestyles. They aren’t any better than any other Christian on the face of the earth, but they are embracing the promises and mandates of the Bible with a provoking aggression that is contagious. Not out of duty, or obligation, but from a place of grateful passion borne out of God’s love being shed abroad in their hearts. Praise God, there are many places like this all throughout the earth, but this is the place God has yoked us to for several years, even before we moved here in the summer of 2008.

Jenny and I were brought together in a supernatural way, with various promises and words of destiny spoken from the Scriptures over our lives. When we first visited the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, there was a dynamic convergence of what God has been speaking to us both, and what was happening in Kansas City. Not only that, but He began to give us vision about raising our family in the environment of night and day prayer and worship.

We are so thankful for our past, and for our supportive families, and most of all to our Lord, who loved us and gave His life for us. We are learning to receive that love in all that it entails (Eph. 3:16-19) that we might truly be the light of the world, a city on a hill, a fountain that flows with streams of living water through our life and ministry as a family.

So, here we are, at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. What is IHOP? And how did we get here? Read on...