Sabbatical Season

Late August and early September are a sabbatical season for me. We've had a great summer and this intentional time of rest is healthy for me and healthy for Ember as an organization. This starts for me today.

I started doing this very intentionally last year and I think picked up the original idea even before that. Ben Cloud would give his church volunteers the summer off and 3DM talks about this rhythm a lot - winter is recovery for fruit in the spring. If you are involved in multiple facets of work or ministry, I cannot recommend this enough.

See you in SeptEmber.

Ember mail

A set of coasters that I got in the mail yesterday from one of our lovely team. The beauty of the internet and a resourceful student...

Friday Burn

::: In Defense of Short Term Missions
Yes Marko yes.
Link


::: All of the World's Biggest Cities Will be in Asia and Africa by 2030

...by 2030, New York, Osaka, and Sao Paulo will no longer make the top 10, and Mexico City will barely hang on as the sole representative outside of Asia and Africa. This reflects the major shift driven by the urbanization in Asia and Africa, particularly in India (404 million projected new city dwellers by 2030), China (292 million), and Nigeria (212 million).

::: Which Countries Have the Youngest Population?
Link


Photo: Welcome to Aixandria. Aix-en-Provence, France. July 2014.

Book Notes - Dream Year: Make the Leap from a Job You Hate to a Life You Love

In 2011, I was fortunate enough to attend a Dream Year weekend hosted by Ben Arment. Fast forward and today, Ben's book outlining the Dream Year process hits the shelves. The content in this book has been pretty significant to what we do with Ember - it has helped me immensely as I've pursued the dream of a starting a student missions leadership organization. The material in the book has also helped us as we've coached some of the emerging generation to pursue the passions that God has placed in their hearts.

Some of you will remember that I tried to get a Dream Year Pitch Night up and running too. That didn't fly, but yes, I believe in it that much. Our ProtoGuides will be reading this book this coming semester and our Ember 14X team is all getting a copy too.

Here's some of the notes that I loved in the book:

Today, your only gatekeeper is courage.

It requires no courage to come up with an idea and wait for someone else to green-light it. You're asking the gatekeepers to have courage. You're asking investors to accept the risk. You're asking someone else to have faith in your dream.

You must choose which fear will be the strongest for you. If you don't choose one of them, one will be chosen for you. And it will be the fear of failure, each and every time.

As we grow older, dreams don't disappear. We trade them in for standards of living.

You can view the bad things in your life as either tragedy or trajectory. It all leads to something magnificent.

You don't go after your dream. It comes after you.

If you're not concerned about creating revenue, it's not a dream. It's a hobby.

A dream chaser is never clueless about money.

There are no such things as successful visionaries, only architects of successful vision-producing systems.

Have you ever met an insecure CEO?

Don't let rainmaking deter you from your dream. It's one of the barriers to entry, and you can overcome it.

Get your copy soon and give your dreams a kick in the *ss.

[Related: Dream Year Weekend 1, 2, 3]

Ember 2014 Investments

I know I go on and on around here about the emerging generation and how Ember exists to resource them and blah blah blah. But I'm proud to tell you that this summer, we put our money where our mouth is.

We helped fund a few projects this summer, which is great fun for us. This list included:

+ John and his trek around the world. He is now on the northern Peloponnese coast.
+ Our 2014 ProtoGuides. This was as a credit to their support goal for Ember 14X.
+ ORapp, who traveled with our daughter Katie to Madrid. Look for some kind of final report on that in a few weeks.
+ Ember guide Trevin Hoekzema, who with his wife, helped lead a team to Poland.

This was all to the tune of about $950 and we believe these to be really significant investments in the future. And... if you have given financial support to The Ember Cast in the past and are not comfortable with this kind of decision, please get in touch.

Friday Burn

::: 35 Countries One Flight Away from Ebola Affected Countries
I'm on a little family vaca but trying to track this story closely.
Link


::: How Google Thinks About Giving

...it is no longer "good money to good people doing good things." A new generation is looking more for social business, revenue generating nonprofits and disruptive ideas. In fact, "the nonprofit sector is a little sleepy and ripe for disruption."

Link from the always insightful Fred Smith who runs The Gathering


::: Tips from TED for Better Slides
Link


::: Get Ready for Generation Z

Teen innovators have always been with us (Braille, hip hop and earmuffs were all products of adolescent minds), but global social media combined with crowdsourcing, open-platform education and sharing have given this generation’s inventors unprecedented influence.

Link via Dennis
Without quite realizing, Ember's core customer is actually these kids now.

Photo: La Goulette City, Aix-en-Provence, France. July 2014.