Dear SPACE Parents

Here is an email letter followup I sent out to all of our SPACE parents after we hosted a quick parents meeting last Sunday. Some of you might be interested if you deal with students, parents, mission teams, budgets... ok enough... HI SPACE parents, Thanks to those of you that were in attendance at our parents meeting on Sunday. Here is a quick recap of the information I went over. Feel free to pass this on to those I may have missed. + Summer Team Leaders I'm overjoyed to tell you that our summer team leaders have a retention rate of 85% this summer - meaning that 85% of team leaders have been either a leader or participant on a previous SPACE experience. We know that the more experience our leaders have with global cultures, working with students and serving in different contexts, the stronger our teams will be. Choosing team leaders is the most intentional decision we make, based on strengths, fit and experience. + Support Status Current Support as of 5/15/2008 Baltimore – XX/3600 – 2% NOLA – 5500/14000 – 50% England – 200/28000 – 2.5% Cameroon – 4000/51200 – 10% Hungary – 20334/71500 – 30% Total budget – 34,603/170,000 – 20% [estimated budget - will fluctuate once teams hit the field and there is a significant amount of support letters that have just gone out in the mail...] This is our most ambitious summer with more students involved in teams than ever and a larger budget due to 3 overseas teams, cost of oil, 2 teams to Europe and the global food crisis. We know that the only way these teams are viable is if God provides so we are all praying for support. Team leaders are challenging and encouraging the students to pray for support - it would be fun for you to do that with your kids too. As an effort to engage a broader community, SPACE is hosting a Silent Auction/Ice Cream social. Products or services can be donated to SPACE to help raise support. If you know a local business that might be interested in donating, please let me know. We could also use help that evening and could use items for a bake sale if you are interested. Friday June 6th Maryland Piano Studio 6pm - 8pm Website for donations: http://space2008auctions.blogspot.com Directions + Mission Advance Mission Advance is our weekend where all the summer teams come together for team building, mission trip workshops and a community service project. Mission Advance starts Friday June 20 at 7pm and ends Saturday June 21 at 8pm and will be using the Warehouse as a base of operations. We could use help from parents for food for the weekend, including donations, setup, etc. VK is coordinator for that effort - contact her if you are interested in helping. Our goal for the weekend is to architect an environment where teams grow, get to know each other better and serve together all in an effort to ensure that they hit the field as strong as possible. I know thats a long email. To summarize: - Know a business that can donate a product or service for a SPACE silent auction? Let me know. We would love to see you there - feel free to pass the event info on to anyone else that might be interested in getting to know SPACE a little better. - Interested in helping provide some food for Mission Advance? Let VK know. Thanks to each of you for being willing to send your students out this summer. We do this because we are convinced that your kids will mark human history. Our job is to help them do it. - tony sheng http://tonytsheng.blogspot.com

Hosting Cameroon

This is SPACE's good friend PT and I. He is the country director for Cameroon for The Navigators and a good friend of the Nens and served as one of our team's hosts when we were there in 2006. The term "host" is a large understatement given American's idea of host versus Cameroonian's idea of host. But our team will find that out this coming summer. He was in town recently and met with our 2008 team, giving them a little bit of an overview of the culture and environment they will find themselves in this summer. In 2006, our team helped start the first ever high school Navigator small groups in Yaounde, the capital city, ever. Keyword - ever. The big deal is not about our team, but about helping start specific environments for students to gather, connect, have fun and transform into something more. It's really fun for me to tell you that the majority of those groups are still meeting today. This summer's team is also going to start something new. The Navigators run a country wide conference every summer and there has never been a great opportunity for all families to come - mainly due to the lack of a kids program. So our team is going to run that, allowing husbands and wives to attend sessions together. Like in 2006, the service this team does is going to last for a while. If you are going to go to Africa, this is a great way to go. A host family that used to live where you live and understands all the cultural adjustments; a committed and top notch, indigenous, local ministry team on the ground; and great opportunities to ignite and pass on relationships and opportunities for the long term. Hosts that we trust, a solid indigenous team, and catalytic opportunities - these are all elements that make long term impact truly viable.

Meet Hungary Leader - RachelJ

I'm going to spend the next few Fridays introducing you to our Hungary leaders. In 500 years, you'll say I told you so. Meet RachelJ. Rachel is our newest SPACE friend, literally. We met her this past January when she came to the area to hang out with her college roommate, ESunde. Most of the SPACE peeps connected immediately and we decided to give her a formal invitation to the Hungary lead team because we saw intention, a servant's heart and a love of adventure and the unknown. [Read how our invitation and her acceptance was confirmed too.] She represents a few experimental questions, such as: + How can a brand new leader to SPACE contribute to leadership movement right from the start? + How can we maximize initial trip travel time to get Rachel well connected to the rest of the team? + Will Rachel's northwest network help expand SPACE and how we serve students and youthworkers? Rachel's got leadership experience in Mexico and Honduras, having been on a few mission trips with her home church in Washington State. She's a strong developer through and through, meaning that it won't be hard for her to think of new and fun exciting projects for team members whether she knows that them well or not. Photo: Rachel in NYC - Winter Expedition 2008.

Wednesday RocketFuel

::: Gladwell on invention and innovation [a must read] visiting topics such as : + the puzzling phenomenon of soldiers in Iraq who survive a bomb blast only to die a few days later of a stroke. Some think it's a shock wave, penetrating the soldiers' helmets and surging through their brains. + you can track moving things by counting wing beats. So you could build a mosquito fence and clear an entire area. [say for malaria] + stopping hurricanes - the waves in the ocean have energy, and you use that to lower the temperature differential. + what if you slid a tiny filter into a blood vessel of a cancer patient? "You don't have to intercept very much of the blood for it to work," Wood went on. "Maybe one ten-thousandth of it. Link via kottke ::: Lifechurch.tv, Granger Community Church and the church planting piece of OnePrayer Funding 500 church plants in 4 countries in one weekend. Link ::: What 100,000 people means in US terms. Link By the way: Baltimore - 651,154 Washington DC - 588,292

TSheng's txting fun

SPACE's customers

Long time readers know that every few months I go sit in on a Missions Task Force [MTF] meeting, the body of people charged with all missions all the time at Grace. One of the unique things about SPACE is that we have very tight integration with the MTF - they are constantly in the loop as we dream, plan and execute. Prime example - since this particular summer has some ridiculously audacious support goals, they were our last milestone sounding board before we pulled the trigger for our teams. Every meeting with them is so affirming, I always say that they are SPACE's biggest fans. But in a weird way, they are also SPACE's best customers. We deliver to them - just like parents, students, and our partners around the world - a way to make the future different. And they receive our "product" with open arms, always saying, "We want more." It reminds me a recent Seth Godin quote, "Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers."

Thinking About Disaster Relief

No doubt, a lot of us have been monitoring the Myanmar situation. In general, I've got mixed feelings about disaster relief. Within my circles, I know lots of people that would drop everything to be part of the rescue. That's really admirable, passion like that is contagious and we are called to be a part of rescuing humanity. On the flip side, disaster relief is so complex, I have to think that unless you have some really specific training and expertise, you are just going to be in the way. Passion is great, but it doesn't replace understanding what needs to happen in a situation like Myanmar or Katrina or the tsunami - safe disposal of the bodies, water treatment, reconstruction, distribution of food and water, grief and stress counseling. This also requires understanding the macro picture of this situation - resource poor localities, a very different form of government, the context of people related to the ladder of economic development. Of course, these lists can go on and on. In other words, I would probably advocate only the well trained go into a situation like that, while the rest of us who are passionate about mankind continue to pray, watch and send - specifically sending the right people. But what I'm also saying is that if you feel yourself drawn towards situations like this, go get some experience. Buy a water filter and figure out how to use it. Take a class in post traumatic stress. Invent large scale logistical problems with your friends for fun and profit. Get a degree in international development or medicine. Then the next time, and there certainly will be a next time, go with the confidence that you've got something that will really help. Some current resources with regard to Myanmar: Comments on where to give at TallSkinnyKiwi Rudy on WorldVision, where he serves as a board member. [Rudy also hosted our SPACE 2006 LA team.] Joel Vestal from ServLife

Mothers Day 2008

Happy Mothers Day D. Love.

Rotating Headers

This blog now has rotating headers. I can't tell you how fun that is for me. It might be fun for you too. F5 to see some of your favorite SPACE teams. Yet another moment of nerdery. Here is the collection of them all.

Nice and Little

I want two things that are mutually opposed - I want to live a nice little life, and I want to play an important role in God's kingdom.- John Eldredge, Walking with God

Small World or...

The Seattle pair of ESunde and RachelJ and I had another Skype video chat this evening. This time their webcam worked - lots of fun. Some of you remember reading about RachelJ, who is roommates with ESunde. She came out during the winter and hung out with some SPACE peeps, including traveling to NYC with us. Being a great fit, we invited her to help lead on the Hungary team. Of course, it was quite a decision for her, deciding whether she would connect with a team on the other side of the country and all that. Shortly after she made a commitment, she lined up a job as a nanny for this coming summer. And wouldn't you know it, the family she is working for spent a year living in .... Sopron, Hungary. Small world or God moving into human history?

SPACE Core Score - Summer 2008

From Marcus Buckingham: + What Is Our Core Score? By zeroing in on one core score leaders brought clarity to their people. Ideally, this score will be a leading indicator of success, such as employee engagement or employee safety or crime, rather than a trailing indicator, such as sales or profit or tax revenues, but from the perspective of your followers, what matters most is that it's clear. One of the metrics SPACE measures is how many leaders are returning to SPACE. If they have participated in a previous SPACE experience - either as a leader or student, it is scored. It matters because the more expertise, experience and context our summer team leaders have, the better the odds of their success. Our choices in leadership are about the most intentional thing we do and it's a choice we make matter. Here is that particular core score for this summer's leader teams. : Baltimore - 5 out of 6 == 83% : Cameroon - 5 out of 5 == 100% : Hungary - 6 out of 8 == 75% : NOLA - 6 out of 9 == 66% : England - 5 out of 6 == 83% + Total - 29/34 - 85% Compare this to the score from Summer 2007 -- 65%

Who Does What

A lot of leadership is observation. Who does what, when do they do it and why do they do it? When you leave the team to figure out something on their own, who takes charge, speaks up, organizes the rest. And who sits back and keeps quiet? And why? When your own seven year old falls down and needs some help, who picks her up and carries her the rest of the way home? And why? Of course, the next step for you as a leader is to engage them at the next level. How can you make their experience move them to the next step of initiative, influence and impact?

2008 Hungary #3

We had our third formal Hungary 2008 team meeting this past weekend. This particular all-day event included the following parts: - Blind Volleyball - We went down to the park in my neighborhood and played blind volleyball for about 15 minutes. Blind volleyball is when there is a tarp or something laying over the net so you can't see the other team. The overall idea was to get them to understand that this summer, and some of life, is moving and acting when you don't have all of the information. Even though you can't see what's coming next clearly, you still have to move. Get used to it, friends. - Program Development - At this stage, we are still very much in the midst of ideation as the program pieces develop. So far, we have a big idea theme along with team breakouts to develop specific pieces as much as we can. These breakouts include a teaching team, a skit/video team, crafts and opening and closing ceremonies. Similar to last year, most of the elements have been developed by the students on the team - we have given it to them and they have run with it. It's going to be pretty amazing. - Lunch - Window Wash Fundraiser - we did a fundraiser where we washed windows at a gas station. If people wanted to donate, they could but we made sure we told them they certainly didn't have to. Lots of fun conversations and people encouraging our team. We raised a nice bit of support. Related: Hungary 2007 - Meeting #3 Cameroon 2006 - Meeting #3 Brasil 2005 - Meeting #3

Friday RocketFuel

::: Thinking about the Peace Corps? Two insightful articles about culture, sustainability and impact related to the Peace Corps. 1 2 Interesting anecdote, one of my friends says his experience is that a lot of Peace Corps people finish out their careers as lawyers. ::: A Daily Big Idea Some of the recent ones: The rise of social networks has cheapened what it means to be "friends" with someone. All innovation is fueled by the theft of intellectual property. An entrepreneurial environment is the best way to foster high performance. Link from Fast Company. ::: Making the World Human Again Alex McManus's new book. Preorder here.

Lying to Myself

This is about the time of year where part of me tries to convince the whole of me to give it a rest. To shut it down, walk away, finalize the experiment to see how self sustaining it really is. To see what would happen to SPACE if I were to take a sabbatical. I use the word sabbatical because it implies taking a pause and then coming back. But that part of me is lying. Once it convinces me to leave, it's a done deal. This certainly was the case last year - after a very busy Spring and early summer of initiating and launching teams and a fabulous weekend of Mission Advance, I told myself I was done. And then the ridiculous happened - I visited our at-that-time freshmen team working with Chain Reaction in Baltimore. And the part of me that was trying to do the convincing gave up, right then and there. I saw hope. I saw purpose. I saw the future. And I decided we weren't done yet. I don't think you should feel like your SPACE team has the overdramatic responsibility for the future of me. That would be just silly. Like most people, I go through waves of certainty and uncertainty, low risk and high risk, loud and quiet. Those waves are anchored by the truth of who Jesus is my life and what kind of God uses people like me. But, your SPACE team certainly has the not-so-overdramatic responsibility for the future of humanity. That's how to not to lie to yourself. Photo: Last summer's SPACE 2007 Baltimore team.

What Time Is It There?

Pulling teams of high school kids together in disturbia is hard enough. Right now, I've got three leaders spread across multiple time zones. I haven't seen one of them since January. But they are doing it - living life while dropping in to culture after culture, blessing and serving those close and far away from home. Technology now allows us to stay in touch, even when we have sent them to where they need to be. Photo: Skype chat with ESunde and RachelJ. [Their video wasn't working...]

Tony Campolo and Macro Economics

Jeremy gave me a copy of Deep Justice in a Broken World and I've been skimming it. Full review and notes coming soon. In the meantime, from Tony Campolo... I think youth pastors are sometimes afraid and unable to recognize that there needs to be structural change in order for there to be social justice. It's not enough to work on the micro level. When youth ministers go to a third-world country, it is important for them to see the ways the political, social and economic structures on the macro level create and maintain poverty. And I find most youth workers haven't a clue as to what macro economics are all about, and how macro economic factors create the poverty in third-world countries. They don't understand why third-world peoples are angry with Americans. And Point blank, I'm not impressed with youth workers. I find that just like teenagers, they don't know what is going on in the world. Youth ministry is far too often a matter of fun and games. When I go to youth ministry conferences, I sometimes get depressed because I find that youth workers are primarily interested in techniques. They seldom want to deal with the issues. They often evade the hard-nosed facts of what's going on in the world. As a matter of fact, I think MTV may do more to help kids become sensitive to the needs of the world than youth workers. If you're asking me who is who is more likely turning young people on to poverty issues, I'll have to say it's Bono of U2 rather than youth workers. Youth workers are pressurized into maximizing big turn outs at the youth gatherings at their churches, and that doesn't usually come by making kids sensitive to the needs of the poor and the oppressed. That's a very sad thing, indeed. + Reading The End of Poverty [notes] was the first thing that ever exposed me to economic structures and how they impact poverty. + Does this validate my fascination with MTV? + Even though he doesn't mean it, I think he's saying something about the system of youth ministry too. + If you are a youth worker, what do you think?

World Malaria Day 2008

Today is World Malaria Day. If you are a long time reader, you know that this blog has talked about malaria a bunch of times before and you already know that it is a global issue that is totally preventable with the right kind of investment. I'll quote Jeffrey Sachs once again: 300 million sleeping sites in Africa that need protection from malaria anti-malaria bed net costs $5 and last five years - $1 a year multiple kids sleep under one total investment - $1.5B for 5 years the most amazing bargain of our time Two ways to make a difference right now: +1 United Nations Foundation - http://www.nothingbutnets.net +2 Compassion and Youth Specialties - http://biteback.net One of the tenets of this blog is to motivate you to do something and it would be fun that if you are a part of SPACE and feel compelled enough about this issue, that you give to one of those movements linked above. It's $10 meaning that you could forgo the movies once this weekend. And in light of all the support raising you are involved in right now for your summer teams, it's a little counterintuitive. But that's the Gospel, right. If you give, leave a comment. 300 million sleeping sites. minus what SPACE does. Oh and thinking about a career in the biological sciences? How about becoming an expert in malaria?

Europe - Death and Resurrection

From the newsletter of Jeff Fountain, director of YWAM Europe - referring to Philip Jenkins' God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis: ::: A persistent undercurrent of spirituality remains among old-stock Europeans, expressed in 'surprisingly medieval forms of devotion' such as pilgrimage, which is enjoying widespread revival as a spiritual exercise. Devotion among youth is evidenced by the 100,000 youth visiting Taizé each summer, the one million attending World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005, and engagement in many new movements both Catholic and Protestant including Focolare, the Alpha movement, ProChrist, the Thomas Mass for contemporary 'doubters', Soul Survivor... and on the list goes. ::: Immigration into Europe is usually associated with Islam, but many immigrants are Christians, a major factor in the shape of tomorrow's Christianity. Not only will the high birth rate among the rapidly-expanding immigrant churches boost the Christian figures, but these new Europeans are turning Catholic, protestant and charismatic-Pentecostal churches into centres of vibrant and colourful worship and witness. Of Britain's ten largest churches, four are pastored by Africans. Europe's largest church, in Kiev, is pastored by a Nigerian. ::: In short, Islam's encounter with Europe is likely to create an ever-more adaptable form of faith that can cope with social change without compromising basic beliefs. At the same time, and contrary to expectation, Christianity is surviving amid 'Eurosecularity' and could well emerge stronger for the challenge. ::: [Phillip] Jenkins suggest that perhaps the best indicator that Christianity is about to revive is a widespread conviction that the religion is doomed or in its closing days. After all, he reminds his readers, the Christian faith is all about death and resurrection. The quote heading the last chapter reads: "If you are the type of person who buys stocks and bonds, I'd buy Christianity. The price now is very low... it has to go up." For more [although this issue isn't online yet] see http://www.ywam.eu/weeklyword/2008/

Better Than Reform School

One guiding principle for SPACE summer experiences is that they are not meant [in the wise words of a well-seasoned mission pastor I heard one time] to be reform school. Meaning, we expect a certain baseline of maturity and growth for the students that are involved on our teams. That isn't to say that everyone has to be perfect, but it's not summer camp and we aren't a babysitting service. Along with a lot of praying and listening, we use student applications, small group leader opinions and employer/teacher references to make what are sometimes very difficult decisions with regard to who is in and who is not. There are certain times when we will take on a student even though there might be some small issues - it's a bit of risk on the part of the team leadership [like the whole trip has 0 element of risk in it..] And in these cases, we explicitly raise our expectations, because sometimes, you get what you expect. We have the resources, the context and the determination to work deeper with these specific students. Most of our team leaders are student small group leaders who work with these kids every week during the school year. They see them in their home culture and have deep ties with them, many of them lasting most of the high school years. And these leaders desire the very best for their students and willingly sacrifice for them. Most recently, I've come alongside a few leader teams that went out of their way to work with some particular students. On the surface, it means putting together a very informal growth path and executing that plan within the relationship. As opposed to a one-sided-measure-up-or-else ultimatum, this requires a commitment from both parties - the leader team and the student. The leaders commit something to the student - let us help you grow. And the student commits to the leaders - I will try my best. All with multi-faceted contexts - a summer team, a leader-student relationship, and a youth ministry. This is why SPACE is a component of a local youth ministry. [Side note: Find someone with a Developer Strengths Finder theme to help you with this. It is why they exist. This summer, around 50% of our leaders have this theme.]

Tuesday RocketFuel

::: Coaching Convictions + People are more like Acorns, not Empty Buckets. view people as full of God-given potential, rather than as empty buckets waiting to be filled. + Discovery learning, not merely "downloading information," leads to genuine growth. + Statistics show that 70% of the time, the solution for an issue is within the person we are developing. They don't need someone to give an answer, they need help in discovering what God has already put into them. Link to Simply Coaching [PDF] via Steve Addison ::: Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone Link ::: BioFuels and The World's Poor World cereal stocks are at an all-time low, food-aid programmes have run out of money and millions face starvation. Yet wealthy countries persist with plans to use grain for petrol. Link