adult church praying for us

right now, we are in the middle of morning services where adult church is praying for us.  the momentum is building...

saturday

Less than 24 hours before we leave. 
Today is my 11th wedding anniversary.  We are getting a brownie sunday and renting a dvd tonight.
Just played Go Fish with my 7 and 4 year olds.  E, who is 4, doesn't know her numbers.  Very fun.
Next post will probably be from Londrina Brazil.

Leader Reading

One of the hands down best parts about this trip is the leader team.  I've said it before, I'm saying it again.  These guys and gals do whatever it takes in order for the mission.

- JB went into a sporting goods store with a handwritten letter for me, on some psuedo church stationary, asking if he could get a discount on some flag football stuff for the trip. (He got 50% off by the way.)
- JB and FZ drove into DC looking for the visa place.  When they got there, there was no one there.
- LB sat in the international SPACE office and copied and scanned passports and visas with D.  For a few hours.
- All three wrote some hott devotions for the plane ride.
- JB and FZ collected various facts about Brazil and common phrases in Portueguese.
- LB and FZ put together the plane packets.

Totally my privilege to lead with them.  Part of the honor is getting to create and shape their ethos, while they do the same with the students.  (Yup, that message from Erwin again.)  So one of the things I did is put a little packet of "light" reading together.  Below are the articles.
(If you are one of my leaders reading this, stop reading now.)
- Billions to be won - going after the largest mission field in the world - youth
- STM - make a difference?
- Alex McManus - plant churches?
- Alex McManus - the News and hospitality
- Organic Multiplication

Wow... it is late Friday night and we leave Sunday evening.

D

My wife D does an incredible amount of behind-the-scenes stuff for SPACE. I'm going to try to list it all, with just recent memory, but I know I'm going to miss something...

- SPACE chef - made taco salad for 40 people for missions prep day
- SPACE art director - two posters for Brazil and CMTS mission teams
- SPACE dessert queen - made a Brazilian lime pie for our team meeting
- SPACE bookkeeper - organized, entered and reported on over 350 SPACE contributions totalling more than $22K
- SPACE mission leader - helped brainstorm and execute our DC day, with some great ideas including going to the Air and Space Museum, culture survey and not going to Adams Morgan
- SPACE administrator - helping to coordinate, organize and double and triple check all the visa paperwork
- SPACE help desk - answering crazy questions from parents about shots, etc
- SPACE maid - cleans up the international SPACE office for me
- SPACE permission granter - lets me do this crazy experiment
- Sheng general contractor - making sure our bathroom remodel goes fine next week, with two kids in tow
And of course, sooo many other things.

But what she does best is being a wife and mother. That counts multitudes more than anything in the list above.
love

visas are done

whew
check it out - visa guy said for all of ours to come through like that was a miracle, 'there is usually always something wrong with some of them.'

Londrina, Brazil

I mentioned a bit in a previous post about some mistakes on my last international missions trip. Here is what I think we are doing right this time:
- Long term partnership
We are working with a family from GCC. They used to live in Maryland and are one of the families that are homegrown on mission.
- Engage the local culture
Our team is going to be split up and staying with at least two families, possibly three. There is no sense of an American 'compound' as such this time, no concept of us retreating to our little home away from home. Home for us will be totally Brazilian.
- Setting up local ministry
One of the things we will be doing there is being involved in a culture exchange. It will look something like us hanging out with Brazilian high schoolers, being exposed to elements of culture from both countries. This is a great opportunity to jump start relationships that our hosts have with students, since our hosts work on a college campus. It could help getting them started for the next college term. Another activity we will be involved in is planting a garden at a local school.
In both cases, it's not as simple as bringing a team to build a church or construct something and then leaving. Instead, our activities should really give something for our indigenous, local ministry leaders to follow up on and build upon.
- To bless our family away from home
I hope that the team is sick of me saying this... Our whole mission is to bless and serve our GCC family. The rest is just icing.

Pew report - Teens and Technology

The Pew Internet report titled, "Teens and Technology: Youth are leading the transition to a fully wired and mobile nation."
87% of US teens aged 12-17 use the internet.
45% of teens have cell phones and 33% are texting.
51% of families have broadband.
73% of home teen users go online from a computer located in an open family area.
Size of wired teen population surges at seventh grade mark.  60% of sixth graders are online, jumps to 82% of seventh graders.

McLean Bible, VA - student ministry openings

McLean Bible Church, one of the mega churches on the other side of the DC Beltway from me, has three student ministry positions open.  I like to read job descriptions and these seem to be well thought out.  Hopefully, looking at those job descriptions can help some of you readers.
However, check out the required/preferred experience and the salary for each of these jobs.  That is some serious job experience and those are some heavy job responsibilities.  Of course, to live in DC on that salary.... My personal opinion - you would have to be insane to take any of these jobs. Of course, many of us are crazy already...

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE/SKILLS (for all three)
Bachelor degree required
Minimum 3 years experience as a full time staff member responsible for a growing student ministry of at least 350 students
Minimum 7 years student ministry experience (may include part time and internships)
Proven experience growing a student ministry numerically (must be documented in resume)
Compatibility with McLean Bible's vision, core values and statement of faith (available at www.mcleanbible.org)

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE/SKILLS (for all three)
5+ years experience with a growing student ministry of 500 or more students
7 years full time experience in student ministry

STUDENT MINISTRIES CAMPUS MINISTRY COORDINATOR
$45-55K
RESPONSIBILITIES TO INCLUDE:
Developing and implementing a campus impact strategy to incorporate students into the weekly large gathering event
Building and empowering school coach teams for selected schools
Developing outreach tools/events to reach campuses
Coordinating small group community Bible study development and leadership
Overseeing the transition from grade-based small groups to regional community Bible studies

STUDENT MINISTRIES VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
$35K-45K
RESPONSIBILITIES TO INCLUDE:
Defining the needs of the student ministry alongside the director and associate director
Recruiting, equipping and impassioning adult volunteer staff
Developing and maintaining a database retrieval system for matching interests, gifts and skills of volunteers with the needs of the ministry
Designing and implementing volunteer selection process including detailed job descriptions
Initiating appropriate training for volunteers
Ensuring quarterly performance reviews of all volunteer staff
Facilitating recognition for volunteers
Organizing staffing for all events including pre-event prayer and post-event analysis
Development and direction of student leadership team

STUDENT MINISTRIES ASSIMILATION DIRECTOR
$35-45K
RESPONSIBILITIES TO INCLUDE:
Ensuring a guest-friendly environment including building signage, promotional materials…etc.
Monitoring student attendance
Management of the student ministry database
Recruiting and equipping adult and student greeting teams for all events
Developing and overseeing ministry follow-up strategy including all emails, phone calls, and correspondence
Coordinating periodic phone and email "blasts"
Overseeing the assimilation of students from children's ministry to junior high ministry and from junior high ministry into the high school ministry

god speaks campaign

Godspeaks campaign starts again.  There was one in 1998, now another one in 2005.  More from the Friday Fax.

don miller sermons

linked here

Just Jump In

I leave for Brazil in 4 days. It's one of those things you can't quite comprehend. In many ways, its totally exciting. What a privilege to take a group of students into another culture, solely to encourage and bless a family from our church. With this trip, I think I've encapsulated a lot of the principles that I believe in so strongly in regards to overseas mission trips with students. (Long term relationship/partnership, strong team preparation, engaging the culture, etc. - all the stuff I've written about before)

The last time (and first time) I left the country with students was in 1993. Although it was a pretty good mission trip, there were a lot of things that we did incorrectly. There wasn't such a clear distinction between being a mission tourist and really having a mission to bless others around us. We didn't engage the surrounding culture like we could have. We stayed in an American 'compound.'

As much as I love taking students into new experiences soley for expanding the Kingdom, I'm a nervous wreck about this one. I wake up every morning feeling like I'm going to puke. It's getting better now that all the visa paperwork is complete and almost (hopefully) done. But there is still the actual traveling, making sure everyone has all their stuff, and hoping that we have prepared these kids in the right manner to really impact and bless others.

On the contrary, I know that God has paved the way for us. Nothing is going to be a surprise for Him, He lavishes in the fact that we are taking a risk for His sake.

This summer, my daughter K learned how to jump into the deep end of the pool. It's a real model for me this summer. The unknown, a new culture and context, the butterflies in the stomach, the final action of just taking that step. Let me get my googles.

Photo: The third time ever that K jumped into the deep end of the pool.

3 fibs and the truth

Great article here about which details 3 fibs that American churches have propogated about premarital sex.  Looks like a great resource to think through when students bring up related questions.

PM's 2006 student missions budget

My good friend PM has already published his 2006 student missions budget.  I told you all he was the real deal.

4 out of 10

good news!! four out of our ten visas are done.  the remaining six should be ready (keep praying) on thursday...  thanks for uplifting this need!

Building community with a splitter

I've decided that I'm buying a bunch of these if I can. It occurred to me a few days ago that while we are traveling, it would be so fun to listen to music with another person. I did this with K when we went to Boot Camp last summer. And I'm thinking that it would be fun to do it again with different people on our team. Much like trading music, but listening together. The overwhelming principle - building community among the team.

Final Brazil team meeting

We had our last team meeting tonight before departure. We went over the info packet, including what to pack, how to pack, what to bring, what to expect with regard to weather, activities...and of course, a music policy. Ha.
Seriously though, music is such a big deal with students, I decided to come up with some rough guidelines.
One final topic was - whatever you do now affects the team. Don't get enough rest before the trip, the team has to drag you along. Don't spend enough time with God, you hurt the rest of the team. We are now an organism that functions together.
Good meeting overall, the mood is excied yet a bit nervous and apprehensive. Worries include 23 hours of travel, what will the food be like, hoping no one gets sick. The team seems excited about the ministry opportunities we will be involved in, including the culture exchange, planting the garden and the various sports things.

T minus 6 days until Brazil!

Summer greetings to all you partners of SPACE!!
(Students Prepared to Act for Christ's Empire - the student missions component of GCC's youth ministry)

Thanks to all of you who have prayed and supported this summer's SPACE activities.  Your involvement and support has been crucial as we seek to send some pretty cool kids intentionally into other cultures and experiences to expand the Kingdom forth.

I've had some pretty phenomenal experiences this summer so far.  As I wrote about in my support letter, I was able to spend a few days
helping out with a community outreach with a youth pastor friend in Gilbert, AZ.  We had a great time reaching out to the community via a skatepark outreach, his local church's VBS and helping lead and direct a great community of students.  We may potentially partner in the future on some student mission projects.  I also helped lead a 21 person team of middle school kids and leaders that helped with an organization that supports missionaries with technical services.  We did various work projects around the property including washing and cleaning cars, lots of lawn and landscaping work and general cleaning.

As of now, we are about 6 days away from departing for the Brazil team.  Our team of 10 students and leaders are very excited about serving and encouraging GCC missionaries the McMs.  Plans include a culture exchange with Brazilian high schoolers, a one day baseketball camp and planting a community garden at a local school.

Our departure is July 31st and we would really appreciate your prayers about the following:
- that our visas are approved in the next day or two with no issues
- a safe arrival and good health for the entire team
- that our team would pour out ourselves in order to serve and encourage the McMs

Feel free to check tonytsheng.blogspot.com with updates about our mission to Brazil.  Thanks once again for supporting SPACE - you are integral to the next generation of students creating the future for the Kingdom!

love
- tony

real failure?

'real failure is actually not trying' - read another post in his series of mDNA from Phil

SPACE summer finance

With Trinidad now off and in the field, the other team dealing with finances is Brazil. In 11 weeks of raising support for these two SPACE teams, we have raised about $22K. That's about $2K per week, which I think is a pretty astonishing number.
A few things I have noticed regarding this summer's finances:
- Protect donor information. Make sure that your leaders that need to know the information (for thank you cards, current status, purchasing items and budgeting) understand how sensitive it is.
- Work in tandem with the church's finance people. We have a great accountant who has gone out of her way to help us. For example, we enter all the donations into an Excel spreadsheet, but only date, donor name, amount, team name, team member. We use that for feedback to the team members. Our accountant actually enters all the personal info of the donor into some accounting system. At the end of the year, they generate all the receipts. So she has made it really easy for us. Once you have agreed on a system, it will go much easier.
- Don't manage the donations by hand. Use a computer. If you have experience with Excel, you know what it can do. My top three Excel things - Sort, AutoFilter, Subtotals.

Trinidad is en route!

The third of our four major missional movements is now en route. They left Columbia at 7:00am this morning. I was crazy enough to get up at 5.45 (am!) so I could meet them all at 6 and see them off. It's a great team and I am overjoyed with their team and the work they are doing (like I am with all the SPACE stuff going on this summer.) For new readers, this team is serving and encouraging a family that our church supports in Trinidad. This is the third student team that we have sent to this family as long as I have been at Grace. Long term relationship, students impacting a part of the world where we already have a connection, seeing church planting and evangelism first hand - all elements that I believe are right on track with a student mission strategy.
On a related note, in the summer of 2004, we sent out 33 students and leaders. 12 of those directly impacted a Grace supported organization (although another 12 went with an organization we had gone with before, but not suppported by the church.) This summer, we will have sent out 52 students and leaders on some sort of missional experience (Trinidad, CMTS, the DC day trip and Brazil.) Of that number, 40 will have connected with a Grace supported missionary family or organization. I know that one of the challenges for this school year and next summer is momentum.

I love these parents

I've been going a little nuts this week trying to get all of our team's visa paperwork for Brazil. Of course, I need to make sure this integral fact is clear - this last minute pressure of all of this is totally my fault. I had everything we needed, but didn't get the info out in time. Now, everyone is running around like a bat out of ....
We turned in 4 out of 10 last night (the VISA guy lives a few miles down the road) and he said everything looked good and they were in the Brazil counsular office today. (I know because the church got a call about them.) So that is great news. Thanks for continuing to pray about them.
Even though I totally dropped the ball, the parents of these kids have been phenomenal. They have totally bent over backwards to get all the stuff their kids need. Not only that, they've apologized for being so late. Not only that, they've offered to help me do whatever needs to be done. (I didn't bring up tiling the shower though.) And, they have all done it with such a great attitude. Note the envelope above. I don't know what language that is in the lower right corner, but I do know that it made me laugh out loud when I read it. "Importante." Not only are these parents so helpful, they crack me up. No wonder each student on this team is so great.

Most Muslims

Muslims in the World
1,316,000,000

Muslims Who Know A Christian (well enough)
152,000,000 (12%)

Muslims Who Don't Know A Christian
1,164,000,000 (88%)
from Joel

Brazil - pray for visas

hi readers... could you pray for our visas, specifically that:
- all the paperwork would get in and approved no problem
- even though it says 'valid passport for 6 months', that would be ignored
- they would have mercy on us because we are bunch of kids

thanks for praying!

reminders to myself

If you are planning an international mission trip:
- don't decide to retile your bathroom in the two weeks before you leave.
- don't wait on the visa paperwork until the last minute.
- continue to love these parents that bend over backwards to get their kids' stuff to you on time.
- laugh at the chaos God loves to be in the middle of.

missional DNA

Phil at signposts has a series of posts about missional DNA, an idea put forth in a new book from Alan Hirsch, one of the authors of The Shaping of Things to Come . 
These five elements are; missional incarnational impulse, apostolic environment, communitas not community, organic systems and disciple making. It is Alan's thesis that these five elements are the catalyst for the missional church.

getting our attention

In one of my recent posts, I faintly alluded to something that I had really wanted.  I can't write too much more about it, but it was something that I thought God had really planned for.  We'll call this plan X.  It wasn't a material thing, but something much bigger than that.  Anyway, it didn't work out and I was a bit surprised that it didn't.  At dinner last night (SO good to be with the fam again), D and I were chatting about the rather strange things that have happened of late:
* the healings and somewhat miracles that happened in AZ
- Susie's knee being prayed for
- Courtney's headache going away after Mandy (of all people) kissing her forehead
- John's knee being prayed for
- Bill's gas tank being filled
* the stranger that bought $63 worth of ice cream at Dairy Queen for the LC kids
* D going to the doctor yesterday and having a miraculously low blood pressure (she has a history of high blood pressure)

D said something like God is taking care of us in spite of plan X not working out, He still wants us to know He is there.  Right on.

shots for Brazil

Got my shots for Brazil this morning.  Tetanus, yellow fever and hep A.  If you are in Howard County, MD, I have a great travel vaccination place.

Brazil passports

Thanks for praying for LF - she got her passport.... Now to get visas... I get my shots tomorrow.... Team meeting on Wed, packing party on Sunday, departure on the 31st....

LC - CMTS wrap up post

A few of us leaders took a few of our middle school (Light Company) kids to serve at CMTS over this past weekend.  CMTS serves missionaries both out in the field and at home by fixing cars and supplying technical and mechanical expertise and equipment.
We had a team of 21 students and leaders and they all worked extremely hard.  Most of it was manual labor - washing cars, mowing grass, landscaping, cleaning and hauling stuff.  Definitely hard work and these kids were all troopers.
CMTS has their annual open house this coming weekend, so it was a really good time for us to go and help make the place look a little nicer, cleaner, more organized, etc.  What I love about the place is that the director and his wife, Andy and Nancy, have a very cool perspective on the world that you don't usually find.  They are in touch with so many people.  They have lived a wild life of faith.  They aren't at all into image, prestige, or position.
It is one thing to serve and to do a really good job at it.  But I think it has to be more than that.  One of the ultimate goals of SPACE is that we are preparing kids for something.  The things that we do, mission trips, outreaches, serving the homeless, whatever, those things are all on the way to something else, none of them are an end to themselves.  And that's what I love about CMTS.  It's the perfect blend of working really, really hard, to help an organization that is doing some really cool and unique things around the world.  But it's also cultivate a worldview that includes a deep commitment to the nations, the lost, and a life of faith on the edge.

Post AZ

The Sun beat yellow down my face and lit the asphalt like some charcoal paste - and I stood on the top of the quarter pipe, afraid to drop in. Afraid of the fall. Afraid of what it meant to leave the safety of the horizontal. I had no problem going down the gentle incline of faith - few appreciate being forced to swallow a steep change in altitude while standing on four wheels, or the four pillars of house, school, employment & play.

Our God is an extreme God. A God that drops in on people he loves. Instead of sitting up on high, he leans forward and flows into our lives. An extreme God rids himself of his kingly estate and drops into our ordinary. An extreme God feels the awkwardness of the moment and starts to wash the other people's feet. An extreme God plays outside in the heat demanding that we do not hinder the little children from coming.

An extreme God loves his people more then the law and death- finds a way out, pays the price with his own life. An extreme God not only lives in human form for us, but dies to set us free. He came for:

an extreme reason:
in an extreme way,
and left in an extreme manner.

and this was all for you.
So, drop in,
as he dropped in for you.

Read more about the after effects of the Drop In outreach from PM. Watch this community of students become men and women that change the world because they are out of their mind...

Lc

LC trip-21 great kids and leaders mowing hauling washing cars. Went to dairy queen tonight and a stranger bought us $63 of ice cream

final Brazil lead team mtg

We had our final lead team meeting tonight.  Great great time.
Spent some time talking about how to create and shape ethos,  what values do we want the team to have, and how do we create and shape those values.  Opposite of rules...
I made them all listen to one of Erwin's talks before hand - the one from Catalyst - "The Primal Essence of Leadership"  Hands down the BEST leadership talk I have ever heard.  I swear I've listened to that message over 100 times.
(Link is I think on my delicious page)
Anyway.... very cool meeting, great discussion.
I'm humbled to be leading these quality guys and gals.
Very hard to believe we leave for Brazil in two weeks.

middle schoolers

middle school mission trip starting tommorrow until sunday. cmts. did someone say i was out of my mind?

blogger template

its late.
im really really tired.
a simple email post was turned into html tag purgatory.

My time in Gilbert, AZ

Quick short post about AZ, much of it already posted... but wanted to lay it out organized and neat. ha.
I flew in on Sunday from Savannah/Hilton Head after being on vacation. Flew into Atlanta right in the midst of Hurricane Dennis. Threw up on that flight. Didn't want to get on another plane. Especially to visit someone I had never really met. Landed in Phoenix at 1.30am PST, 4.30am EST.

Overall Picture
A combination of community outreach utilizing the Drop In Center (a ministry including homework tutoring, food and free skateboarding held every week during the school year at Gilbert Vineyard) and a kids VBS.
M and T were used to prime for W, TH and F - passing out flyers in the community and serving skaters at a local skatepark by handing out water, inviting them to W, TH, and F.
The team included students and leaders (some of the ones I met included Obie, Susie, Bill, Keith, Patty, Allyson, Courtney, Cela) from Gilbert Vineyard, three guys from Northern Ireland, a pastor/church planter from India, the Sportreach Extreme team and myself.
(PM and Gilbert Vineyard have made long term relationships with people in both Northern Ireland and India, which is how these guys came over for this.)

Monday and Tuesday
Team time in the am - praise and worship, devotions, hanging out, etc. I gave a few short talks here and there during M and T. Afternoon spent about an hour or so splitting into groups and passing out flyers around the community to invite them to the events later in the week. It was about 110 degrees F. Also prepped coolers, ice and water bottles for the skate park. Dinner was provided every night for us and anyone wanting to come to VBS, so we did odd jobs to assist for that. Evenings the team was split between helping out at VBS and outreach at the local skate park - about 10 minutes away from the church. Skate park outreach consisted of giving out free water, hanging out and making relationships and demos from the Sportreach Extreme team. M night I went to the skate park. Very wild. Talk about a subculture. T night I helped with VBS. They gave the adults free iced coffee. The first night had 150 kids show up - Gilbert Vineyard is a church of about 500-600.
I flew out on W right after lunch...The agenda W, TH and F included skate, BMX, and climbing wall demos at 3pm and 6pm, slip and slides, a free BBQ dinner, as well as skate time for kids that showed up.

The SportReach team
A cool bunch of guys and girls, mostly college aged and younger, that drove around the US with commitments to help out churches by doing an extreme sport clinic, show, type of thing. These guys and gals worked extremely hard, and were loads of fun to be around. Best story about them was 'The Blessed Burb (a GMC Suburban).' Talk about God providing... Two engines replaced for free, breaking down next to a wallet and being able to return it when they were towed to the town it was from...

PM
A great sense of humor, easy-going, great family, the right kinds of priorities, he loves students, passionate about students reaching the community. He's built students that care about God and the world because thats the kind of person he is. A great community that he is a part of, he 'speaks life.'
That's him in the orange shirt. A few minutes before this picture was taken, he grabbed a set of new skateboard wheels he had in the church van, got a bunch of skaters together and did some funny competition to give away the wheels. It was so cool to watch him connect with these skaters. They are playing a game of 'skate.' (I have very little idea.)
For me, taking the risk of:
- flying to AZ
- puking my guts out on one of the flights
- sacrificing some time with the fam
was totally worth it to work, minister and hang out with him. God has tied our hearts together somehow.

So What?
- skate culture is a cool youth subculture. does it exist in MD? if not, is there another unique subculture?
- drop in center
reminds me of the concept of proxmity places in TSOTTC - very very cool idea
- long term partnerships
PM is totally into long term partnerships. They have been back and forth to N Ireland and India a few times. I have this feeling we are going to do things in partnership in the future - its a totally fun feeling...

Oh. and the first time this has ever happended to me - Susie said her knee was hurting, about an 8 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst. PM, Obie and I prayed over it. And she said right away, it went to a 0. And stayed there.

OJ

My first oj in 5 days. Wow!

Az heat

It makes no difference that its a dry heat

AZ tues a

my laptop died i think.  not good.
having a great time here.
prayingmantis is money.
definitely more posting once I get home on Thurs.

youth subculture - skating
once you are youth worker, you are always one - PM
long term partnerships
God ordained team - sport reach, Ben from Nepal, N Ireland guys, me

AZ tues

A snippet...

so far we have done:
- am worship and prayer
- hangout time
- lunch
- pass out flyers to neighborhoods
- rest
- pack water bottles in coolers
- dinner
- split between team going to skate park and helping for church VBS
- the sport reach team (thats the extreme sports guys) go to skate park too
monday and tuesday are just setup, outreach days
w, th and fri the sport team does clinics, competitions and shows
with fri being the big competition for prizes and stuff

Az mon

These az guys are the real deal flyers in comm this aft skate park tonigt

Flight fun

At the atlanta airport connecting to phoenix. Hurricane is wreaking havoc. Barfed on flight from hilton head

evil and the future

The future is one that will be sprinkled with manifestations of darkness like this and worse. This is a battle of will that won't go away.... This is a time in which people need to know that the future is open with possibility but the responsibility for shaping that future is ours. Today.  - Alex McManus posting on the latest terrorist attacks

God's audible voice

Hearing God's audible voice is an idea that I have been thinking about for a few years on and off.  Does God audibly speak?  If so, how do I tune myself to listen?  Is this idea Biblical?  It's been a cool thing to think about.
Seth has two posts about the topic, 1 and 2.  Some great stories. 
I think it might be easy for us here in Western Christianity to answer no, and try and explain it via logic or reason.  Remember "The Excluded Middle."

greek versus hebrew

Phil posts a great chart on the Greek versus Hebrew way of discipleship, notes from a session at the Forge summit.  Very insightful.

more vacationing

we are STILL having a great time.  i'm not sure i wrote that we were in hilton head, sc.  we've been here before so we know what to expect.  but tons to do for both kids and adults.  this time we are so spoiled, we are renting a house with a pool.  i know rough.
between swimming, eating and napping, i'm thinking through Daniel as prep for AZ and my time with prayingmantis and his students.  really looking forward to that.
only two slight bumps - having to do dial up, and a slight bump in the road for something i was really really hoping for.  its ok, we will get used to it, God has a bigger plan.
we checkout on sat, spend the night in savannah with my sister in law and then i fly out sunday afternoon.  back home wednesday night, go to work on thurs, LC trip on friday, back home on sunday.  two weeks and then brazil.
K has made some incredible progress in her swimming.  long time readers know that i'm not a swimmer at all.  i've only really learned in the last 4 years or so, and i still have far to go.  this week K and I both swam to the bottom of the pool for the first time, using those dive toys.  it's a totally wild wild experience for me - i never imagined i could do it.  and it's wild that K is so much more aquatic than i ever hoped to be.  i'm glad though, i didn't want my kids to be as handicapped around the water as i was growing up.
fixed some of my posts from my phone that were messed up - that weird text over text.

Brazil passport update

Thanks for praying - lf's passport is in the works

Pray brazil

-for LF getting her passport
-for the $13k left
-for the lead team and a clear sense of purpose and responsibility

Daniel prep for AZ

In what ways was Daniel (from the book of Daniel) a cross cultural missionary?

Vacationing

Been having a great time so far. Cycle between food naps and the pool. Had a great mini golf date with K today.

Vacation depart

Columbia to smithfield nc in 6.5 hours not bad in fri dc traffic