From Austria 2007

I get these email updates from a team that is leading the Serve The City movement at a global, macro level. The last email had some pretty neat updates including:

: Vienna - to say that an ongoing relationship has happened since people first took elderly people on an outing to the zoo during the STC day
: Vienna - Lady whose old cinema was cleaned up in Vienna last year has now opened it up free to Christian groups and bands

Those were both groups that took part in Vienna Day last year at Connect. See the picture in this post for the team in the first item.

[Related: I Am I Need]

Leader Share - Risk

SPACE believes two things about risk. Number one - the leaders of tomorrow have to be willing to sacrifice and risk in order for mankind to have a chance. Number two - many times, we learn to truly walk with Jesus when we are way out on a limb.

From MichelleK’s SPACE 2008 Leader Application [posted here with permission]:

Q: Describe the riskiest - but not necessarily successful - endeavor you have ever attempted. [Question taken from the IMN]

A: So this one time I had a crazy leader called Tony….We were in this foreign city called Vienna after a two-hour bus ride from Sopron, and he handed us bus passes and told us to join a group of adults and follow them wherever they were serving. I attached my self to a group of people that I had never met before and spent an hour or so traversing the city with hopes of finding the movie theater we were supposed to clean. We found it, and I tried as hard as I could to make myself useful. I ended up getting into some pretty cool conversations with missionaries. Long story short, I managed to meet up with my team at the end of the day for some good story swapping on the Danube. … And that’s about as risky as it gets for me thus far.

And Michelle says thus far...... haha...

Photo: MichelleK's team in Vienna, Austria, August 2007. She is 5th from the right in the red.

In Hungary, I Asked...

I Am I Need

As you might have imagined, SPACE makes lots of new friends every summer, and this summer was no exception. One of our new friends, SDoyle, was in town this weekend, in town from Brussels, Belgium. He is a church planter with CAI, assisting in an expression of church called The Well. [Some of you might remember the stats on Brussels - mix of French and Flemish, 150,000 people, a third are immigrants, hq of the EU.] We first met at Connect in Hungary when a bunch of our team realized this S's wife graduated from the same high school some of our kids went to and that her hometown is indeed Ellicott City.

We saw S Friday night when he stopped over to hang out at one of the CpR Fridays and a few us got coffee with him on Saturday morning. I've said this from the beginning of SPACE - SPACE only exists as one component of the student ministry and only because our students are of such high quality. It was neat for one of our SPACE friends to see a bigger picture of GCC and her students.

S is also really involved in an international movement called Serve The City, an offshoot of CAI that focuses on serving the marginalized and needy in a specific city. The idea is to serve those who need it, not because they are a spiritual project, but because they are human. I anticipate that one of these years, a SPACE team will assist with a Serve The City. Think of Mission Advance, but seven days long, dozens of service projects, hundreds of workers, and thousands being helped.

The embedded video below is entitled "I Am I Need" and was from one of the STCs in Brussels. The church of the future is a community based on cause.


Photo: EllyK, TriciaB, MichelleK and SDoyle. And my kids in the background...

Spirit of Collaboration

SAdams, Organizational Partnering Catalyst for Christian Associates, crashed at the international SPACE office earlier this week. He's been doing an East Coast tour building and strengthening relationships between CAI and churches and other like-minded organizations, including meeting some of the GCC MTF. S and I first connected when we were working out logistics for our Hungary 2007 team to serve at Connect, their annual staff conference. He's also been doing fun Shengri-La stuff, like going Ghosting; dinner at the Inner Harbor; and conversations that included processing this summer, leadership development, the apostolic and staffing a surf shack in Uruguay [Besides a focus on Europe, CAI is also doing a bit in Latin America.] If I was going to be a full time cross cultural worker, CAI would be on the very short list of organizations I would be applying to.

Collaboration is a big thing that S is working on for possibilities between churches and CAI and it could look something like:

: Short Term
- Serve the City teams - addressing practical needs in a city, particularly those of the poor and marginalized
- Discovery trips - exposure to the emerging culture of Europe, learning about the development of postmodernism and its implications for ministry
- Exploration teams - exploring new cities for potential church planting through demographic research, strategic contacts, and prayerwalking [I would *love* to take students on something like this.]
- Extension teams - extending the impact of an existing missional initiative or church through special projects, outreach events, training, etc.

: Cross Training
- leadership exchanges for training in spiritual formation, leadership development, impacting the city, church planting and more
- idea exchanges and dialogues on innovative missional practices
- mentoring, coaching and interning of emerging leaders

If you are interested in learning more about those opportunities in Europe or high impact churches in Europe's urban centers, email or comment and I can put you in direct contact with S. I don't have first dibs on the surf shack. Yet.

Photo: iChatting with his kids.

Mission Trip Quotes - Ice Age 2

Some quotes from Ice Age The Meltdown and real life scenarios where they could have been used.

[Sid, talking about the vulture who is predicting doomsday.]
"He must have been a real pleasure to have in class."
Me, about TFS, who went on a 15 minute rant about how he hates United Airlines, unbeknownst that two United pilots were sitting behind us on the shuttle bus, Brasil, 2005.

[Manny thinks he might be the last mammoth.]
"Look at the bright side - you have us."
Me to my many teams, many times, referring to the leaders as "us."

[Cholly as he breaks wind on Sid.}
"My stomach hates me," and "Don't that put the stink in extinction."
Me and infectious diarrhea in the Dominican Republic, 1993.

"This is too hot. The ice age is too cold. What will it take to make you happy?"
Multiple scenarios huh?

"There are whole continents moving faster than you."
Our whole team through the palace tour after flying all night to Austria, 2007.

"From now on, land safe, water not safe."
After two hours paddling up a river in a dugout canoe, outside of Kribi, Cameroon, 2006.

"Making friends everywhere you go."
After sharing the Gospel with a Pygmy Indian tribal chief, translating from English to French to a tribal dialect and back, outside of Kribi, Cameroon, 2006.

[Sid, arriving at the Fire King place]
"Who is your decorator, this is nice!"
Arrival at our four star hotel resort in Sopron, Hungary, 2007.

[Sid, after all the little sloths tie him up.]
"This is either really good or really bad."
Finding out our team had been bumped off of our flight to Brasil, 2005. [Turned out to be good.]

And some other gems I'm sure you could work in to your experiences:
[Sid to Manny after Manny makes him stop singing songs about extinction.]
"Ok... someone doesn't like the classics."

[Sid says to Manny, "You might be the only two mammoths left."]
"I'm sorry, when did i join this dating service?"

"Can we slow down a little. I'm dying here. It was just a figure of speech! [after seeing the vultures]"

"One truly is the loneliest number."

The Essential 3 ::: Hungary 2007

In the summer of 2007, I helped lead a team of students to serve with Christian Associates International, helping to put on a kids program during their annual staff conference called Connect. Connect is a meeting point for their worldwide staff and is a homecoming of sorts where staff reconnect, introspect and get invested in. Connect serves to vitally recharge and re-energize church planting families that have served in their respective environments and contexts. Let's visit the 3 essential questions in light of this experience.

1. Am I planning to have an impact that lasts for 500 years?
Aside from the given of impacting the missionary kids, our interaction with the missionary families had a huge impact as well. I know all of our team was affected by hanging around the crazies - the ones that are brave and daring enough to leave everything behind to live in a foreign culture so that Jesus would be proclaimed. Like most missionary families I meet, in some ways they are normal and just like us. In other ways, they aren't normal at all. Living a life of intentionality is not commonplace. The members of this team saw Europe's need, spent quality time with families interacting about God's mission in the world and continue to envision a different future for themselves - and for mankind.

2. Can both host and teams trust each other because we are partners?
Our initial contact with CAI was through a GCC family that eventually ended up on the mission field serving with CAI. So based on that context, we already had somewhat of a partnership from an organizational [church:mission agency] level but not personal. Of course, that partnership deepened to the personal level as we prepared. The culmination of that partnership was a week of kids program that ran extremely well in both the logistics and overall ethos of the week. One other thing worth noting - SPACE and CAI share a lot of the same values - experimentation, personal leadership development and risky innovation.

3. How will I engage the culture?
The difference between American and European culture is not great. In addition to the similarities, staying in a hotel that was very American with a lot of other Americans made engaging with the culture more difficult. Out team made the most of non conference times, such as time before and after the conference in Vienna and Munich and a morning touring the city of Sopron [where our hotel was located], which provided some observations in culture. This experience required a bit more ingenuity when it came to making sure our team engaged context and culture.

Photos: Team reflection, Vienna, by RobynB; the fire tower, Sopron, Hungary, by ErinOB.

Orbiters at Work

Goodwin's expectation principle: "A potential leader tends to rise to the level of genuine expectancy of a leader he or she respects." via Bobby Clinton.

Whether interns respect me or not, I have the highest expectations for them. Knowing what they know and having experienced what they have experienced, their responsibility, impact and influence on the nations is limitless.



EllyK was the perfect person to spend one-on-one time with Nast, a three year old adopted girl who only spoke Russian. Any time there was the threat of having to be around only English speakers, she freaked and went into meltdown mode. EllyK - empathy - spent hours rebuilding and reshaping, creating safety and connection - ideation - distractions via swings, bubbles and walks in the woods.

In it's most desperate hour, the world needs you.

Photos: 2007-2008 Orbiters TriciaB and EllyK.

Hungary Images

Placeholder post for images.

Hungary and Me

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 every summer, what a privilege.

Here are some personal highlights:
:: The Fam
Having my family on the team was definitely a different dynamic. Most apparent was just needing to give some attention and time to D and the girls - not a bad thing at all. We did a stellar job in the selection and identification phase for this leader team and they were awesome, especially when I needed to bail a little bit - like the evening in Munich. And each one of the team members really just loved my family so much during the week, which was awesome for me to see. My fam was truly a part of the team, not just along for the ride.

There were certainly times I did feel the pressure between leading the team and being a husband and father, but that pressure was worth it. We all fell in love with Europe [what's not to love?], K continued to exercise her heart for others, and Em's first missional experience was in the context of serving those who serve. And of course, D was a glue that held both our family and the team together in so many ways. I believe, like we hoped when we planned this, that this experience was a milestone in our girls' lives.

:: Europe and CAI
I continue to be astounded at Europe's need and continue to have the highest admiration for families that leave everything behind to see humanity rescued. Like previous years, connecting with these kinds of families has been a great experience. CAI seems like a great community and many of their values resonate with me, most specifically - empowerment, experimentation and the development of leadership. If Europe is on your mind, you should check CAI out. And all the families made a huge impact on us. We know we were there to serve them, but their hospitality, openness, honesty and willingness to share their experiences with us was a profound blessing.

:: Sending
I think this team of students may do it. It's always hard to compare teams and trips, but I see a glimmer in the eyes of these students that I have not seen in others. A glimmer and shine that reflects both the world in need and the light inside. Only time and their resolve will tell, but when they depart - in order to restore, renew and rescue humanity - I will be sad in the moment and ecstatic in the future.

And that is why we - you and I - do this.

Related: - D's post about the team and my photos

Song-Skit-Students

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 seen a team put it all together like this one.

THE BEST SONG EVER
By Tricia and Elly
To the tune of Do-Re-Mi

We are here to watch your kids
And we are really excited
We have come from Baltimore Maryland
A long long way to fly
So sit back and relax
And enjoy your time here
We are here to serve you
All fifteen of us

Deanna, the mother of Katie and Emily
Kt, she's young but mature
Em, she's bubbly and outgoing
Sven, he's lived in lots of places
Emilie, she goes to college on the west coast
Michelle, she likes to play field hockey
Lindsey, she likes to rock climb
And Trevin's really good at soccer

Tricia, at home she is a lifeguard
Elly, it's her summer job as well
Greg, he is a high school math teacher
Robyn, she takes really good pictures
Erin, she works at our church
Leslie, she's training for a marathon
Tony, the leader of us all
And we are the Hungary team!

A snippet from one of the skits, all written by RobynB.

Sven: *looks around* Okay….now that I’ve forgiven Lindsey… how do I find this treasure. *looks at kids* Do you know where the treasure is? *improvise here, going off of their reactions, just don’t find it right away. Eventually, you find the cross first, not the treasure* Hey, a cross! This is to remind me about forgiveness! *looks back at kids* What? The treasure’s over here? *finds it..* X marks the spot….*ponders* Hey! Cross marks the spot! *opens the chest….and just stares at it for a few moments* It’s not gold at all! *looks at kids* Look! *pulls things from chest, the key heart, the patch, the compass, the cross* Love…Kindness…Patience! A new compass! …And forgiveness! *holds them up, shows them to the kids, finds something else in the chest, a paper and he reads it: * Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven… *realizing* For where your treasure is…*looks up* there your heart will be also! I…I think I get it! Love, kindness, patience, forgiveness…these treasures are way better than gold!

*Everyone comes out that he’s met on his journey.*

Tricia: Hey, Pirate Sven. Did you find your treasure?

Sven: *turns excitedly* Yeah, Tricia, I did! Look! *shows her* Love!

Tricia: *laughs*

Sven: *to Elly* And, Elly, look! Kindness! Like the Good Samaritan!!

Elly: That’s great, Pirate Sven!

Sven: *to Michelle* Michelle! Patience! And Lindsey, I got a new compass! And, *holds up cross* Forgiveness! These are the real treasures, not gold!

*All four girls smile excitedly and congratulate him…*

Parrot: RAWK! Well done, Pirate Sven! You realized the treasures God wants you to have!

Sven: Polly Parrot! Thank you for all your help! This is awesome! *turns to kids* Look, mateys! I found me treasure!! Now you should search for yours! Love, kindness, patience, forgiveness! God will give you all these things! And you can give them to others! Arrrrrr, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also! *looks back at everyone else* Come on, guys! Let’s share the treasures! *they…all…go off stage happily?*

Hungary Brain Dump

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 Munich
should have listened to D
ended up at a hotel too far in the suburbs
too much travel time to get into the city and landed too late in the day
team [minus Shengri-Las] still went into downtown Munich but it was a long day
and I left my wallet on an unattended cafe table for 20 minutes in the Munich airport.

:: CAI
organic, experimental, low-hierarchy, almost solely church planting, lots of tattoos
cool, young, hip missionaries, emerging culture

:: CAI internships - Brussels
either for post high school or post college
post high school - spend 3 months in Bible college in Europe - good time to acclimate to European culture
focused on action, experimental, etc. very well thought out
team leaders were youth pastors in the US and then in Europe before CAI
about Brussels - mix of French and Flemish
150,000 people, a third are immigrants
hq of the EU

:: Worship
in the sessions brought tears to my eyes every time - i have no idea why

:: CAI process
If you are not already living intentionally, being on staff won't make a difference.
Process

:: Europe
.05% in France are evangelical
Most people that come from Perspectives are very focused on the 10/40 window and Europe gets lost.
You have made it through your first year on the field, describe it. "Brutal." - Megan

:: Leadership
Everyone can be a leader - everyone can have influence over at least one more person.
Fuller's MA in Global Leadership sounds great if you are in your twenties or thirties

:: Say What?
There was a missions org in the conference center ending their conference as ours was beginning. They were your parents missionaries... and their conference [nor any of their conferences] did not accommodate any children. Not everything that falls under the label of "Missions" is inherently good or right.

Photos: Pirate Sven and EllyK, some of the girls and TriciaB and RobynB's VBS group.

Vienna Day

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 the zoo [this one is my favorite]
- ad hoc soccer and basketball games in the city
- street outreach with drama and music
- cleaning up a youth center
- refurbishing an old home for the elderly
[I'm sure there are more projects, I couldn't find my list.]

From a logistics point of view, think Mission Advance*400. [MPM, you would haved loved this.] 300 people, kids care at a local church [families had the option of taking their kids on projects or leaving them at a church], team leaders all with detailed directions, public transit tickets, bag lunches for everyone, 6 coach buses, BBQ dinner at a park when it's all done, and then getting everyone back home.

Our team's original plan was for all of us to hang at the church. About a month before the conference, one of our contacts had the brilliant idea of sending us out with specific families on their projects to help with their kids - a sort of babysitter for the day. Of course, we thought it was a fantastic idea. As Vienna Day got closer, the idea got nixed. But then at the last minute, our contact pulled some strings and each one of our students go to go out.

If you gathered a group of your most intentional and missional friends for a week long party, most of them wouldn't be content to just sit around the whole time, would they? That is the essence of Vienna Day.

Photostream from the day here.

Leading with a 3 year old

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 capacity and skill between teams. Both of these aspects could only have been worked out when the teams were brought together.

The quoted exchange above is a true one, I actually said that. Realizing that teams take on the persona of their leader [no matter what kind of team], I know that some of the difficulty in working with another team could have been something that I projected. And I know that if I'm a good team player only when I'm in charge, working with me could be like working with a 3 year old. It's something I need to be keenly aware of.

In the end though, once everyone got into their groove and over their jet lag, a lot of grace was given on both sides. We also experienced the 'cause creates community' idea, since our team had a bit more to concentrate on than just trying to get along with each other and this team was one of the most cohesive that I've helped lead, probably for that very reason. All of us together - the CalifTeam, us and the two fabulous ladies from Boston - shaped and molded a fantastic environment for the kids of CAI.

Photo: A photo of some StrengthsFinder scribble. [More on this later, but CAI has a team of missional consultants from LeadershipVision that come to every conference as well as visiting specific projects to work with their teams.]

Hungary Overall Schedule

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 go to opera with CalifTeam.
Friday am - our team minus the Sheng women go to Belvedere Palace before it is open, take shuttle from Vienna into Sopron, new passport stamp.
Friday pm - first kids club - spur of the moment, no real program
Sat am - kids club - same ad hoc make it up as you go
Sat aft - kids club - I snuck into one of the sessions
Sat eve - dinner with LeadershipVision guy - what the heck. If I could have a dinner like this once a year, I would be set.
Sun am - worship with preconference, and then kids club
Sun pm - first kids club with whole conference
Mon - Vienna day - amazing
Tues - Sopron with our team in the morning, kids club aft and first pirate sven in the evening.
Wed - kids all day morning aft night
Thurs - breakfast with missions pastor from CT, kids morning and after, dinner with team leaders from Brussels to talk about internship process and strucutre with CAI
Fri - kids morning, clean in aft, last sven in evening
Sat - departure in the am - land in Munich mid afternoon, team dinner in Erding and rest of the team goes into downtown Munich
Sun - home

Pre Conference Session Notes

Church Planting and Movement Making
Martin Robinson
[Notes from the one session I snuck in to]

::::
- Tear Fund research in the UK
important not to talk ourselves into insignificance
53% of UK claim to be Christians - all is not lost in Europe
- unusual situation in London [or all capital cities in Europe] - immigration
more than 50% of population is ethnic
minorities are not going away
- Christian vs. secular - not very much overlap
- Spirituality yes, church no
- consumer challenge
- challenge of youth
- churches are not connected with local communities
although ethnic churches seem to do a better job at this
- reinvention of the workplace
industrialization is coming to an end
- church plant
renewal of the church
redefinition of mainstream
experiment
ancient-future

Problems
- reproducing old models of church
- rearranging the kingdom - transfer growth is not going to do it
- movement creation - plant churches vs. plant a movement
- creation of intentional missionary movement
cultural exegesis
coaching/mentoring
spiritual direction
most church planters are isolated and lonely

Concerns
- Fresh expressions of church or mission
- mission is very hard work
- act quickly in relation to youth
- initiatives are no substitute for long term
- we've lost the skills to create viable communities of disciples [vs. members]

Key Issues
- cultural exegesis
- thought tribes [Driscoll]
- value tribes
- experience tribes
- high and popular culture - philosophy/thought and pop cultural are now deeply connected - think The Matrix and deep philosophy

- Listening
- Interpret
- Doing missional theology
- Reshaping
- Receptivity is a function of God conversations
Based on prayer and the miraculous
- Europe - there is an absence of a God-consciousness
- people of peace - Luke 10

Org Capacities
- constant relationship building - we keep people too busy
- evangelistic structures - build open communities
- discipleship capacity
- rapid mobilization
- sit light to buildings but remember sacred spaces - important to Europeans
- leadership development of the non-professional
::::

I asked the speaker the following questions [with the answers following them.]
- What is the most successful movement off the top of your head, religious or not?
The underground church in China.
- You spoke about the short window for youth in the UK. What would you do about that?
Partner with existing churches that have influence in the local, public schools. Public schools are asking for people to come in to the schools for service projects, etc.

Travel Logistics

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 airport
air : Dulles to Vienna Austria
shuttle bus : Vienna Austria airport to Vienna Austria hotel
shuttle bus : Vienna Austria airport to Sopron Hungary
shuttle bus : Sopron Hungary to Vienna church for Vienna day
public tram, subway, bus : teams travel in Vienna Austria during Vienna day
shuttle bus : Vienna Austria to Sopron Hungary
shuttle bus : Sopron Hungary to Vienna Austria airport
air : Vienna Austria to Munich Germany
shuttle bus : Munich Germany airport to Erdin Germany hotel
public bus : Erdin Germany hotel to train station
public train : train station to downtown Munich
taxi : train station to hotel
shuttle bus : hotel to Munich airport
air : Munich Germany to Dulles
private cars : Dulles to Columbia

The Gospel moves...

Photo: Our team either arriving or leaving...Hotel Delta, Vienna, Austria.

Ah Home

Fantastic trip. Will tell you more about it this week. Thanks to those of you that were following along and praying via the blog.

Conference Over

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 Munich, debriefing there and spending the night. Sunday we fly home to the US. All in all, it's been a very positive experience. Probably no updates until we get home and then I have a lot of processing to do.

Friday morning

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.

Pirate Sven #1 - video

First Pirate Sven.
Making legends that will last for the next 500 years.

Thursday am

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 you get an extra 45 minutes. The room scattered.

Michelle is doing much better. Got her a doctor and some antibiotics. The doctor cost 10,000 forints - about $52 - for him to drive from town and make a house call. Thanks for praying.

Had breakfast with a missions pastor funded via CA at The Well in Groton, CT.

Wed am

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.

Tues update

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 evening piece was great, mostly went well except for some momentum lost during the music piece, but not a big deal.

We have a team debrief every night where we collate ideas for adjustment. It's usually a fun time and provides a constant feedback loop [like this blog...]

Like I also expected, our students are getting a lot out of hearing some of the stories from CA staffers, as am I.

Pray for MichelleK and K. Michelle has a bit of a cold and chills. K threw up earlier this night but seems better. D gave her Pepto and you know what those pink pills do to people on SPACE experiences.

Mon Recap

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. In other words, they got to pick the brain of a missionary family.

Huge logistical ambition.

Sun pm

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. The team is doing great, doing a lot of really creative, on the fly, experiment-and-see-how-it-goes stuff. They would make you proud.

Official conference starts tonight.

Sat am

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 due to jet lag. Friday was coming here from Vienna. The team is doing well.

58847

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, the balance gets adjusted. But still....

81 students this summer. Almost $60K. I recognize, and you should to if you are connected with SPACE, that we are doing something that isn't very normal.

Departure in 24

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 when you send kids onward to serve a world in need
- watching their faces at the first sight of Vienna
- seeing them engage some kids that we have thought and prayed about for months

See you over the pond.

Weekend Update

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 weekend news, we got Em's passport. Out of the four times calling the passport office, we consistently got inconsistent updates. We are just happy that we have it, finally.

Our team packing went well. Here is a picture of the chaos during the packing party. Like last year, each person on the team [except the little kids] are checking in an extra bag filled with team stuff or stuff to give away to the families we meet - little fun things from the States that they maybe can't get in Europe.

Cool People Decorate Sidewalks

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 they were cool.

SPACE summer 2007 update

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 exhilarating summer.

We are thankful for three trips have gone out and come home safely with stunning feedback. Even more exciting, we know that students have been marked by these experiences:
- A team to England working with YWAM Marine Reach in and out of Liverpool, where they had a chance to give boat tours, serve the crew with energy and encouragement and bless our extended network of Grace families around the world. [Right before the bomb scares too...]
- A team to downtown Baltimore serving with Chain Reaction, blessing and serving downtown neighborhoods via a partnership with a local church. Best story - our team helped clean up the grounds of a local police station and no one had ever done that for them before.
- A small group of middle schoolers who assisted locally with the Howard County food bank and prayer walked through a downtown Baltimore city block, the sight of an inner city Adopt A Block movement someone from GCC is assisting with.
- All three teams have come back with awesome feedback from their hosts. We seek to send the best prepared, most engaged student teams.

As you remember, please pray for the two remaining teams this summer:
- A team serving in NYC with Urban Impact [8/5 - 8/10] - ministry focused on immigrants from the 10/40 window living in the city. They will be helping teach free English classes and also visiting an Islamic mosque. The world is indeed coming to our doors.
- A team traveling to Austria and Hungary, [8/8 - 8/19] serving with at the Christian Associates staff conference, running pieces of children's ministry for the conference. And actually... the whole Sheng family is taking part in this trip, so pray for D and I - for leadership, discernment and sending these students and our own
kids in the right trajectory for the nations.

As always to you friends near and far, blessings to you as you live out the Kingdom.
- tony
:::
some links you might enjoy
The Blog - http://tonytsheng.blogspot.com
Join M, a missional online social network - http://myimn.com

Hungary off the top of my head

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 all could delay coming home by one day so we arranged for a one night layover in Munich, which is supposed to be a lot nicer than Frankfurt. It was a pretty minimal cost and the overarching idea is that a layover in an neutral location is going to help our team regroup, recover and come home different [related - Debriefing Resources.]
- I bought a Canon CP720 printer to take with us and the thing is pretty awesome. The surface idea behind this was being able to print pictures of the kids for their parents to see during conference. The deep idea was to shape and mold the environment where their families could take home some memories.
- We are doing a big craft/team pack on Saturday, at least those that are in town. Like every year, and anytime you have a big group of people, the team is going in a million directions right before we leave. We've said to most of them, "See you at the airport." [Not really though, we are meeting at my house to depart.]
- Budget wise for the whole summer, we are at about 91% give or take, meaning that we are down about $5K of about $58K. Goodness that is a lot of money.
- I mentioned before that our theme for the evening stuff is "Pirates and Treasures." What I didn't tell you is that this was wholly put together by our students and us adults had nothing with it.
- RobynB has put together some awesome skits to go along with our theme and EllyK and TriciaB wrote the "BEST SONG EVER" for the way we will introduce ourselves at the conference. I didn't make that quote up either.
- These are the kinds of students I have the privilege of traveling with.

2007 Hungary - 3 week countdown

We have about 3 weeks to go. Here are some of the big items that we still have to plan:
- details on crafts for both VBS and evenings.
- build out activities in the evenings based on our theme.
- passports for RobynB, and the Shengri-Las.
- I need to get a hold of our world travelers ESunde and her brother for some final airline logistics. Apparently, they are in Iceland right now... We've had an itinerary for a few months but some last minute changes might make the return leg a lot more fun.
- Oh, and support. We are at about 80% give or take.
- I'm sure there is more. But we had a great team meeting last Tuesday and the momentum will continue to build.

Our theme is [if you are at the conference, help us keep this a secret until we get there please] Pirates and Treasure, which I think is amazingly creative. It will allow for a lot of fun elements as well as some good Bible teaching [Treasure like fruits of the Spirit].

Hungary Team - Weblinks

For the team... check out some of these:

http://kerriinfrance.blogspot.com/
http://www.unplowedground.com/
http://www.jonesfam.us/
http://www.christianassociates.org
http://fourwildgeese.blogspot.com/
http://glasgow.wordpress.com/
http://www.aixtremelife.blogspot.com/

this is the California team blog:
http://web.mac.com/jayrob2/iWeb/Connect%20Hungary%202007

Sweat Equity

The term "sweat equity" is not my original term, rather it is a term that one of our Mission Task Force members use to define the concept of a team coming together to put on a fundraiser and having the primary goal be a greater team identity, not necessarily making any money.

This weekend, our Hungary team washed people's windows at a local gas station as a fundraiser. I was pleasantly surprised by how much money we raised and how generous and gracious people were. We raised a serious amount of money in just a few hours.

Gen Y students we have in our ministries are very inventive and experimental in their efforts to raise support - much more than we adults could ever be. Our challenge is to ensure that they get the freedom to experiment, risk and run with their ideas. And when they are given ownership to do so, guaranteed that they will apply 110% of themselves to the task.

Michelle, Lindsey and Robyn - you guys are awesome.

At The Time

I spent this morning hanging out at a ...yes.... vacation Bible school. If you've hung around me long enough, you know I'm not a huge fan of pre archictected curriculum. Granted, I know not everyone [nor me] can write their own material... but I say, if you can come close, you should.

In any case, there is a cool church down the street from us that is running a VBS this week. And it just happens that the curriculum they are using is the same one we are helping out with in Hungary later this summer. So we signed our girls up to go to it, so they could have some fun and so we could spy. Well, not really on the 'they could have fun' part. [I'm kidding]

Our girls are having an absolute blast and the people I met at the church this morning we so kind and welcoming. The church also seemed to really have a heart for the world, integrating one of their own visiting [long term, involved in Bible translation in Burkina Faso - where there are over 60 some languages] missionary families into the VBS program.

Second funniest thing this morning - a kid's shirt that read, "At the time, it seemed like a good idea." Could be a SPACE motto.

First funniest thing this morning - someone was talking to K and pointed at me and asked her, "Is that your older brother?"

Happy 4th!

Mission Advance 2007

Quite a weekend with our summer teams. Once again, our goals were to train, inspire, and tightly gel teams. Thanks to those of you that were praying for our weekend and thanks to all of those that made it happen, from help with the food prep, all the acts for The Axis, and the workshop leaders. A lot of people were instrumental to pulling it all off - and that is the way it should be.

Here are the tactical elements in case some of you were interested:

- The Axis - SPACE's first talent and variety stage - designed to encourage, inspire and build support. We made a little bit of support from that, but it was more about that.

- Camping in tents on the church property. My favorite part about camping was being able to stuff my air mattress into my seventeen year old still-in-great-shape North Face VE-23 tent. My second favorite part were the sprinklers going off at 8am on the girls that kept me up all night. But hey, no hard feelings now... As you can imagine, this was the element that contributed most to the out-of-routine, get just a tad uncomfortable. I think it worked for most, me included.

- Team building initiatives with Amy M. One principle I asked her to stress was the idea of sacrificing for the team. During that initiative, I was the most guilty of trying to win instead of sacrificing for the team. Hmm...

- Serving and hanging out at an Adopt A Block party in downtown Baltimore. Our teams were also rotated through doing some minor clean up in the host church there and some of them got to share their story as well as do a short drama for the party. And yes, there was a dance party. Taking all of our teams there contributed a huge element to the weekend - we act on what we believe. Thanks to Colleen for hosting us to serve. [Her story is going matter more and more to Baltimore.]

- Mission workshops including principles about team unity; cultural aspects versus Biblical principles; sharing the Gospel without speaking and relational initiative. All of them from people that, once again, act, were great.

- Two separate blocks of team time.

- Heartbleeding worship with friends that are working to make a difference.

The album [from my M page] is below. [Feed readers will have to open the source post.]


Related: Mission Advance 2006

Reimagining the Wordless Book

We had another Hungary team meeting late last week and as the plans for the staff conference and our team continues to gel, there is a real sense of destiny and purpose for what we are going to do there. This is one of the phases of trips I love - an undercurrent of nervousness, excitement and energy, intersected by the unknown and mystery all the while knowing that we are doing something important.

One of the tasks our team has been charted to do is this element of evening fun with the kids, centered around the Wordless book. It's a great concept since some of these kids don't speak English and some of the kids will be able to go back home to non English speakers and communicate what they believe without having to use language words.

Our team is comprised of Christian kids - the wordless book can easily become an all to familiar cliche to all of us. So I challenged the team to really expand their imagination about how to communicate this. We need to make an experience that is powerfully centered around these ideas - and I know this team can pull it off.

Here is what we brainstormed - remember the brainstorm phase means not saying no to any idea, no matter how unrealistic.
- paint 5 different hotel rooms the colors and walk the kids through
each one
- skits based on each color where all the participants are dressed/face
painted in the color
- pick out film clips from popular kid movies that illustrate or
symbolize each colors principle

Creativity, innovation, experimentation. How would you break the cliche of the wordless book?

Hungary Team Reading

movies
what we could bring
[those top two links are some new friends that have connected with us
- they have two girls the same age as the Sheng girls - insight into life in another culture]

The 2nd most popular boys name in the UK
Passive indifference to faith has left Europe's churches mostly empty

2007 Summer Team Summary

Middle School
Two days of local service opportunities near Howard County, MD
[more details soon - post will be updated then]

::: Baltimore
Incoming 10th graders
Team of 7 leader and 12 students
Serving in Baltimore with Chain Reaction
July 1 - 7, 2007
$5400

::: New York City
Incoming 11th graders
Team of 6 leaders and 13 students
Serving in New York City with Urban Impact New York
August 5 - 11, 2007
$11,000

::: Liverpool, England
Incoming 12th graders
Team of 4 leaders and 12 students
Serving with Marine Reach
June 29 - July 9, 2007
$22,000

::: Hungary
Mixed age group
Team of 6 leaders, 7 students and 2 kids
Serving with Christian Associates International
August 8 - 18, 2007
$28,000

::: Middle School Mini Missions Experience
Team of 15 students and 6 leaders
Serving two local ministries connected with GCC - FISH of Laurel and Charm City Church
July 20 - 21, 2007

Hungary Team Meeting #3

We had team meeting #3 this past weekend, where most of the team went to eat at Old Europe - a German restaurant in DC. For this team, meeting #3 is the one where the team started to gel, to mold, mesh and become collectively one. You can see people stop being formal and start being friends, to ask probing, deeper questions and start thinking about others instead of just themselves.

Two other elements that were important for this meeting. First, about an hour car ride each way. Best use of time which also is the second element - the Myers Briggs test. One of the best ways to gel a team together. And, of course, we chart it out together.

Not to mention, the riveting and engaging older woman who played all kinds of fun songs on the piano, including all the songs from "The Sound of Music." And she sang the words. And she was blind. [No, I'm not kidding.]

Photo: Where our team fits on the MBTI scale.

Related:
Getting Started with Mission Team Preps
Cameroon 2006 Meeting #3
Brasil 2005 Meeting #3 [I think it was #3]

Hanging with the McN's

Our Hungary team had a great time hanging with K and B McN and their kids tonight - real live missionaries! Since they are one of the families that will be at the CAI conference we are serving at this summer, we invited them to our team meeting to meet some of the team and tell us what the conference is like from their perspective - one part vacation, one part great worship and teaching experiences, one part reconnecting with good friends who share the same mindset and experiences that you haven't seen for a year. It was a very fun time of hanging with them. The McNs are also the original way we imagined this trip in the first place since they are a GCC supported family, having been a part of Grace before the mission field.

Two my favorite stories from tonight: From K - how an In and Out Burger t-shirt reaches across the globe. From B - looking out over the city they just moved to and thinking, "God, my only purpose for moving here is to see the Kingdom advanced."

If in 500 years, we have one person from SPACE live like that, it will all have been worth it.

And the Sheng children were great little babysitters tonight.

Support Letter Stuffing

Matt, our logistics coordinator, threw this idea out to our leader teams and they have totally run with it - me included. Host a mission support letter stuffing party. It ensures your letters get out while you have some fun with your team.

Photo: TH, EllyK and GM at a recent Hungary team letter stuffing par-tay.

Pre Missions Sunday 2007

Missions Sunday [or as I am going to start calling it now - Pre Missions Sunday] was this past Sunday. It is the Sunday sometime in the spring or summer where the adult body gets to hear about all the summer teams. This time around, we were fairly ready with 3 out of 5 times, meaning that we had teams chosen, team pictures available and prayer cards printed. A fourth team was almost ready and a fifth team... well, we are seeking on that one...

This year, like every other detail every other year, has been a little different in that there are a whole other set of adult trips that GCC is doing this summer and fall - so the whole lobby was filled with mission stuff. All in all, there were ten or eleven teams represented. People stood up as teams were outlined on slides and then Pastor Mark spoke on Isaiah 58 and the idea of justice. He also outlined the overall direction for the Africa initiative and the first part of that is a partnership with AIDS Orphans Educational Trust, based in Uganda. [GCC has sent 3 or 4 teams to AOET in recent years.] And this Sunday was kind of a follow up to last Sunday, where the interview with Bono and Bill Hybels was shown.

I was surprised last year that my brain didn't implode sometime during the morning [it was Father's Day, I had worked all night, etc.] This year was just the opposite, nice and relaxing. It was also a lot of fun to see Em so excited about being able to stand up with the team. [K was sick with strep.]

The beauty of this Sunday is that the students feel like the whole church is behind them - which she is. And the adults feel like our students are doing really significant things in the world - which they are.

Photos: Some of the students standing during their slide; B and K McN in the lobby. B and K are from GCC and with CAI and are in MD for about a month before returning to the field. We will be hanging with them and their kids in August.

[Related: Pre Missions Sunday 2005 and 2006.]

First SPACE 2007 Hungary team meeting

[clockwise sort of]
D, Robyn, Elly, Erin, Michelle, Lindsey, Sven, moi, Tyler, K, Em, Greg, Trevin, Tricia [not shown Leslie and Emilie]

We would LOVE for you to be praying for us.

And...

I was pretty convinced... but now I'm really convinced...

Our 2007 Missions Support Letter

Dear Friends, Family, Co-laborers,

Each year, right around this time, Tony sits down and carefully constructs a support letter for one (or two) of his many missionary adventures. For years, I have been the whisper in the background, voice of reason (hehe – OK, maybe not ALL the time!), prayer support, and the organizer of funds, hotel reservations, an administrator of sorts and the point person the homefront. It has honestly been a fun journey, while a little sketchy at times (like the two weeks while he was in Brazil and we had no shower to speak of in our house!), and I would never trade those years for anything else.

This year, things have come together for a different sort of adventure, one that we have been dreaming of in our hearts for several years. God has opened the door for us to go this year as a family on a trip that seems, in many ways, designed just for us! We have the opportunity to embark on a family adventure with a team of leaders and students from our church to Vienna, Austria and Sopron, Hungary to serve the European missionary families working through Christian Associates International. These families will be meeting together for a week long conference and retreat and we have been chosen to serve these families by providing childcare while they are involved in learning and planning together.

I would like to invite each of you along on this one in whatever capacity you feel comfortable. We will need lots of preparation and prayer, patience and wisdom as we attempt to be Godly leaders/parents/servants, and a huge amount of faith as we tackle the daunting task of raising support for our family of four. We are excited and scared all at the same time, so please join us in any or all of these areas in the first Sheng missionary adventure! ~Deanna

CAI's existence is based around impacting Europe via the multiplication of high-impact leaders and churches, and a family from Grace has been working with CAI for the past few years. Our team's main goal will be to assist with different facets of the children's ministry for the kids of CAI workers. This trip has great elements including: blessing Grace's network of families who have invested everything for humanity's sake in Europe; having students spend some time with these innovative and unconventional people; and the opportunity to do ministry in a spiritually hungry post-Christian culture that is Europe. Being that this trip is focused on children, our own kids will also have lots of great opportunities to serve beyond themselves. The 16 of us fly out on August 8 and return on August 18, and our travels include flying in and out of Vienna, Austria; children's ministry during the conference; and a service project day trip with the whole conference back into Vienna. There may also be possible opportunities for our students to travel with CAI middle and high school students to do some service projects with local ministries in Vienna for a longer duration.

We would love for you to be a part of our support team. To start, you can pray for:
- all of our summer teams [Baltimore, NYC, Liverpool and this one] - for their leaders, their students and the logistics.
- for our Hungary team - for unity, for our leadership and for the vision to know that we will prevail.
- passports, airline tickets and logistical details.
- for our Mission Advance weekend, a missions prep weekend for all our summer student teams, June 22-24.
- for Tony and I as both leaders and parents, and the discernment about both roles.
- for K [9] and E [6] and for the contributions they will bring to the CAI kids and our team in general.

We also have to raise a significant amount of money - the total for our family being $7100. If you feel led to support financially, that would also be a huge blessing. There are two ways you can financially support our team. First, you may send a check in the enclosed envelope with the response card. Please make checks payable to Grace Community Church and in the note section please specify, "SPACE Hungary - Shengs". You may also contribute via the Internet, by clicking the "Online Giving!" link at the top of the Grace Church webpage - http://www.gcconline.org. Click the "eGive" link and after entering the appropriate donor and bank information, fill in the amount for "Short Term Missions" and specify for "SPACE Hungary - Shengs".

We dream of how this summer will catalyze the lives of our students, our church, and our children - giving them a direction for shaping human history because of the passion that Jesus has placed in their hearts. Thanks for your support and prayers, for supporting SPACE [Students Prepared to Act For Christ's Empire] and being an integral part of mobilizing students for mission. ~Tony

Images: Austria and Hungary, Em's castle, Kt's thoughts, the fam at Easter.

Related: Historical Mission Support Letters [2007, 2006, 2005]

Hungary Team Leaders

From the left: ErinOB, moi, D, LB, GM and inserted with some mad Photoshopping skills, EGrab.

Some short introductions to tell you the caliber of these peeps:
ErinOB - over four years of staff experience with Young Life and serving now as GCC's senior high youth administrator. Knows how to organize a movement and get students to a direction.
D - will keep me in line along with experience with children's ministry and intuitive, one-to-one interaction. Connectedness, Belief and Responsibility strengths which will mean specific insight into serving the CA staff to depths others may not have insight into.
LB - third summer of SPACE leadership on a third continent. Third summer of seeing first hand what families are going through in the field and being able to bless them in those ends.
GM - second summer of SPACE leadership. Off the scale Realtor and special attachment to high school students. His somewhat ADD tendencies will be a major asset to speaking life into some third culture students. [I'm being serious here.]
EGrab - second summer of SPACE leadership. Been immersed in children's ministry as long as he has been alive.

My personal challenge may in fact be to get out of the way. It's going to be a lot of fun to lead with these folks.

My Summer 2007 Team

Here are one of the overall directions we are moving towards for this summer. I am leading a team to Hungary and Austria this summer. Not to brag or anything, but I think this is one of the most innovative mission experiences around.

GCC supports a family that are ministering in Italy. Their mission organization does an annual staff conference where all of their staff come to a central location for some relaxation off the field, some investment and some downtime. This summer, my team is going to travel to this conference - happening in Hungary - to assist with all the activities centered around the missionary kids. There is also a possibility that some of our team will split off and assist with the activities for the high school missionary kids, which will be located in Vienna. The distance between Sopron, Hungary [where the staff conference is] and Vienna is only about an hour by car.

I say this is innovative because:
- A local *student* mission team connecting with some missionaries of a world wide missions organization.
- Our students are going to get to impact some families that are out in the field. I suspect some families are going to be fine and some other families are really going to need this break. For them, our students could fill a vital role of encouragement, blessing, a break from their kids, and speaking into their lives. Not only that, but having our students be able to spend time with missionary families is going to be so valuable.
- This missions organization is very cool. Tell you more about them later.
- It's part of our strategy to be connected to our extended body all around the world.
- This is an invite only team. Students that are invited to this trip have significant missions experience, have heavily invested in SPACE and are serious about considering a lifetime in cross cultural ministry.

With regard to another aspect of the trip, D and I have decided to move in the direction of all of us going as a family. Yup, call us either deluded, crazy, all of the above. We think that this is going to be a great experience for our kids and this specific trip is a great environment for our kids to actually assist and play a vital role in the team. Of course, we both know it's not going to be easy. Heck, we have a hard enough time getting them ready to go to the beach, much less Europe. But we believe that the difficult investment now is going to be worth it - the trajectory of their lives will see this summer as a major boundary event.

Leader invitations are en route as are the first round of student invites. Like all of the past teams, this team is slated to be a great one as well. Traveling across the world to hold up some people that are fighting to rescue humanity. I guess we shouldn't expect this to be super easy.

D and I are off for a night - computer free. As always, CourtK, her black belt and our watch dogs are home. Have a great weekend!

Hint One