Christopher is a professional Bible geek, with a doctorate in New Testament studies from the University of Oxford and an indomitable love for ancient Greek and the serial comma. He got his first few degrees at Wheaton College (where he found a ridiculously pretty wife as well), and then rattled around Scotland, England, and Germany, for his doctoral studies. A postdoctoral research fellowship from the British Academy brought the family from Bonn back to Oxford for three idyllic years, during the course of which he acquired a curious affection for waistcoats.

His theological interests range from Christian wealth ethics (the study of morality and money), to historical criticism, to eschatology, to debates about the relationship between science and Christian faith. He takes occasional breaks from theological-navel gazing to contribute to the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, a UK think-tank that addresses the role of morality in business, economics, and a world of striking wealth and poverty. He also drinks a startling amount of coffee, which accounts for the stains that speckle all his good shirts.

Michelle is a baby-wearing marathon woman. She has spent most of the past thirteen years with a child strapped to her hip, traversing the Atlantic, trotting along the cobbled streets of St Andrews and Oxford, exploring the Rheinland, and now trekking the mountainous urban slopes of Medellín. All the while she has been leading children’s ministries, herding untamable boys, and staving off Christopher’s neuroticism. She is well-schooled in the dark arts of baking, and promises chocolate concoctions to any visitors who will brave Medellín’s traffic to come see us.

The boys, Judah (age 13) and Asher (age 9) are already veteran TCKs (Third Culture Kids). Their years in Germany and Britain imbued them with an insatiable love for bratwurst, tea, cucumber sandwiches, and ‘proper’ football. Judah is the energetic Tigger to Asher’s sweet Winnie-the-Pooh personality, and both of them love the ladies in their family tremendously.

The youngest member of the Hays clan is Zoe Genevieve (age 5). Since she has lived most of her life here in Medellín, she is a proper paisa, with a pristine accent that puts the rest of us to shame.