Friday Burn

::: 4 Ways to Manage Deadlines on Cross Cultural Teams
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::: Mongolia is Changing All Its Address to Three Word Phrases
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::: 5 Trending Tensions in Social Innovation
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::: "It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels." - Saint Augustine

Lady Elliot Island

Amazing time on Lady Elliot Island for just the day. Lots of time in the water and I got on a boat and snorkeled a little while without drowning [but definitely freaking out]. What an experience. Island #2 of 2016.

Hervey Bay at night

More from yesterday

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary - amazing.

Currumbin

Byron Bay

Coffs Harbour

Port Macquarie

Koala rescue hospital.

Friday Burn

::: 5 Global Activists Whose Social Media Will Inspire You
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::: Anonymous Feedback is Evil
When I helped run the 2011 GCC Leadership Collective, one of the best things we tell people that we loved your feedback but if it was anonymous, we would not look at it and just throw it away. Feedback forms for Ember are moving in this direction as well.
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::: Americans Gave More than $1B to Charity Every Day in 2015
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::: How Migrants Have Reconfigured Europe
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::: Strong opinions, loosely held. - Marc Andreesen

Newcastle

Bondi Beach

Hello continent #6

SFO

Debbie

Sad news:

It is with great sadness and sorrow that I announce the passing of our beloved sister and fellow warrior Debra Jones. She died June 15th of kidney failure in Gambi Hospital in Bahar Dar, Ethiopia. She was on a journey loving people in ways that always stretched our capacity and blew our imagination. More information to follow.

If you ever traveled with us, went on a cross cultural experience with The Ember Cast or SPACE, been in a conversation over a meal about church planting or leadership or community development or global poverty or emerging global nomads, you were impacted by Andrew and Debbie Jones. Amazing people and we are deeply, deeply saddened by Debbie's passing.

We were fortunate to have them stay with us in 2010 and it was one of the most significant experiences to shape and mold our very suburban kids, helping them see a vision for becoming global people that serve a global God. Last summer, our Ember team, with Camp Juice, spent an afternoon and evening with them and again, walked away with new imagination for what it might look like to move and serve in any context. The world lost someone who truly shaped human destiny.

Photo: Prague, July 2015. Debbie, 3rd from the left.

90:12

College gathering last night. One of the big themes I tried to convey was that this is one of the most amazing times to be alive because there are things happening around the world that have never happened. Oh to be 20 years old right now. Teach us to number our days.

You Should Care About You

In about a week, our family is taking a little adventure overseas - I know, hard to believe. We've been planning this for a while and this trip only works because we travel hacked the airfare, which could be a topic for another post. But I'll be posting about our trip, at least a little bit.

Part of our adventure will also be attending a leadership conference together as a family. You probably know that I've attended lots of conferences with students, mostly leadership and missions and church planting types of gatherings. They've always been fun and we've always had a great time and learned a lot. But we've never done something like this as a family and we are really looking forward to it.

You are the only one that looks out for your growth and development. No one else cares about you becoming a better leader or gaining more competency or growing in your ability to care for others, but you should. Don't neglect your opportunities to get better.

Friday Burn

::: Why Summer Vacation is a $60B Problem
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::: McDonald's: you can sneer, but it's the glue that holds communities together
Link via NextDraft


::: This Little Girl Is Making Handbags With Essential Supplies For The Homeless And It’s Remarkable
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::: 'A happy family is but an earlier heaven.' - George Bernard Shaw

Photo: Ember guide, KY. May 2016.

The Graduate

Crazy week last week which included graduation, a minor [luckily] car accident right after the ceremony, a trip to the emergency room for the Madre. But everything worked out fine and we are proud of our graduate.

2013-2016 Support Trends

Big picture for 2013-2016 support trends in case you might be interested. Context for this is suburban, affluent, high achieving target culture with most students on these teams fitting into this demographic as well. 10 people on the team and most are well connected to people interested in this kind of stuff, meaning they have little difficulty raising money for a student missions project.

Current stats for the Italy team, as of 5 June:
+ 170 donations.
+ 17 donations electronically - 10%.
+ Rate is $340/day or $2377 a week.
+ One student averaged $60/a day or $420 a week with 37 donors at an average of $100/donation. That is really high and you shouldn't use that for comparison.
+ Average donation - $130.
+ Currently at just over $22K, which is almost 85% of budget, we still have a good few weeks before departure [this is not reflected in the trend chart though].
+ Creative revenue is around 6% which I anticipate will go up in the next few weeks.

If you are raising some support this summer, maybe this gives you a benchmark for some perspective.

Friday Burn

::: Mary Meeker's 2016 Internet Trends
This is always a must read.
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::: The amount of money it would take to eliminate extreme poverty is now lower than the amount of money spent on foreign aid every year.
Link via Scott Harrison


::: Study Abroad's Seven Deadly Sins
Link via David Livermore


::: A Beginner's Guide to Ramadan
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