I’m taking a little blog break until sometime in September. Even though the blog will be quiet, here is a list of things below that are still cooking around the international office:
:: Youth Leader Retreat - This is an annual thing and it continues to impress me that we have a ministry that invests […]
Placeholder post for images.
Like the past summer SPACE teams I have led, this experience was majorly impactful as well. I feel like I’m continuing to learn about myself, leadership and the world that God has called us to help serve. This summer was no different - I’m a different person because I went. And like […]
I think I mentioned before we left that our whole piece of the children’s program was created by our students. Theme, craft rotations, teachings via the short dramas, all of it was their creation. Some of the actual craft assemblies were the adults but overall, it was really our students. I’ve never […]
absolutely no rhyme or reason to this deluge of information - except to motivate you…
:: For a global missions org like CAI, even the kids ministry team needs to be at the top of their game.identification/selection and preparation in both ministry skills and the big picture of affecting humanity
:: Debriefing in Munichshould have listened to […]
Vienna Day was a pretty cool experience. Kudos to the leadership team of CAI for dreaming huge. The overall idea was to send the whole conference - kids and all - into Vienna to work with on-the-ground, local outreach and service projects.
Some of the projects included:- taking the elderly on a stroll around […]
TS: I’m a really good team player when I am in charge.ES: I’m a really good team player too when you are in charge.
Our biggest issue from the Hungary experience was difficulty working with another team. Two issues were very different styles of leadership from the point leaders and differing expectations of […]
Thursday am - land in Vienna, check into Hotel Delta, meet CalifTeam, walk the promenade down the street from our hotel - need to remember to buy the girls flat water.Thursday aft and eve - bus tour of Vienna - amazing - dinner in First District, around the corner from the opera house - girls […]
Church Planting and Movement MakingMartin Robinson[Notes from the one session I snuck in to]
::::- Tear Fund research in the UKimportant not to talk ourselves into insignificance53% of UK claim to be Christians - all is not lost in Europe- unusual situation in London [or all capital cities in Europe] - immigrationmore than 50% of population […]
Here is a glimpse into our travel logistics for the Hungary team. Thankfully, not all of this was something I had to plan and confirm.
private cars : Columbia to Dulles airportair : Dulles to Vienna Austriashuttle bus : Vienna Austria airport to Vienna Austria hotelshuttle bus : Vienna Austria airport to Sopron Hungaryshuttle bus […]
Fantastic trip. Will tell you more about it this week. Thanks to those of you that were following along and praying via the blog.
The conference officially ended tonight. Like any last night on a mission trip, emotions are high and the team is proud of the work they did here. They and you, certainly have a right to be proud - they went out of their way to serve and bless.
Tomorrow is a quick hop to […]
One full day left. We depart for Vienna Saturday morning at 9. Kids VBS this morning, clean up pack this afternoon, and one more Pirate Sven this evening. The team is still doing amazingly well. Michelle is totally back in the groove.
TriciaB is looking over my shoulder and says hi.
First Pirate Sven.Making legends that will last for the next 500 years.
Ministry is still going well. Our students are falling in love with these kids, its pretty cool. We are encouraging them to get as much time as they can with some real live missionaries. Last night, curfew was 11.00pm unless you were talking to someone that lived in another country - then […]
One of our students is a tad under the weather. The onsite nurse has checked on them and we are in the midst of setting up a doctor to check on them as well. She could use your prayers.
Our involvement here at this conference is taking SPACE to a new level of mobilization.
Our team went into Sopron this morning for a little break. It was nice just to be out of the conference for a little bit. Very cool village.
Big day of kids programs today - Waterworks VBS in the afternoon and our first run at Pirates and Treasures this evening. Our […]
Today was pretty wild. The whole conference went from Sopron into Vienna for a “serve the city” day, multiple, local, service projects set up for the conference attendees. Think Mission Advance * 400. Our students got to go out with families were serving as kind of a kid helper for a day. […]
Yesterday was all pre-conference - kids stuff with a small mass of kids. I heard one of the sessions with Martin Robinson, really good stuff, will upload notes later. Had dinner with a guy from Leadership Vision Consulting. That was crazy. As you can tell, not much time for posting. […]
We are here in Sopron, Hungary. Pre conference started last night with 25 or so kids. The team is doing great. Thursday was an all day run in Vienna, doing the sights, including a bus tour and the big huge palace. [I will find the name.] We didn’t remember much […]
Ok.. one more post right before we leave. Team should be arriving in twenty minutes. I got word last night from mpm of our new total support raised. $58,847 and some odd change. Based on estimated spending, we are now in the black. Of course, once NYC and Hungary return, […]
So this is probably the last post at least until we get to Sopron, Hungary on Friday. Thanks for praying for our travels. For all the stress of traveling with fourteen other people [2 of them being my own little kids], I’m looking forward to:
- flying with our team and feeling that buzz […]
The team is doing great, I just got off the phone with JBourq. Yesterday was a day in a West African neighborhood and last evening was them helping out with a free English class there. Of course, I knew it was going to go great… Take an average suburban high school […]
“Too many youth groups are holding tanks with pizza…” - Ed Stetzer. The Church Dropout Study full report and USA Today article.
In 2006, building on the streak we started with 2005, I helped lead a team of 12 students and leaders to Cameroon. Cameroon was also the home of one of GCC’s families and they jumped at the idea to host a team of American students. Months of their preparation culminated in our arrival […]
Our fourth out of five teams departed this morning - a team of 19 serving in NYC with Urban Impact. For those of you keeping score at home, we are up to 81.48% of our summer teams having departed. The final 21 odd percent is my team and we depart on Wednesday.
In other […]
Jeremy tagged me with this meme, about living out Scripture, so here it goes.
:: John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
The summer after I decided to follow Jesus, I met a guy who embodied life. […]
The other day, I drove into my driveway after work and saw something like this. Someone had come by and decorated our whole driveway and it was really funny. And fun. And on my porch, it said “Cool people live here.” I have no idea who it was but I suspect […]
Hi Dear friends of SPACE,
Thanks so very much for your investment in SPACE [Students Prepared to Act for Christ’s Empire] - Grace Church’s student ministry’s mission and service facet. We are thankful for you and your support for us. Already we find ourselves in early August and we’ve had a very busy but […]
In the summer of 2005, 12 years after the last time I led a student team out of the country, I traveled with a team of 10 students and leaders to serve and assist one of GCC’s mission families. The McMs were living in Londrina, Brasil building relationships with university students. Our team […]
We are down to less than a week. Here is some ramblings…
- Em’s passport is the last one. The passport agency said I should call back on Saturday if we haven’t gotten it then. Hmm…- Our original return flights had us going through Frankfurt. After some team discussion, we realized we […]
Todd Johnson - uber mission geek. You would probably love him too. From World Christian Trends, Update 2007, in the August 2007 issue of Lausanne World Pulse:[some of you should put the rss feed into your reader too]
- We estimate that over the entire history of Christianity, seventy million Christians have been killed […]
In the summer of 1993, I led, along with a female co-leader, a team of 6 students and leaders to spend three and a half weeks working with an orphanage in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. The context for the trip was working with a missionary and his family supported via our local church. This […]
