Congrats Tess and Lindsey

Congrats to Ember Guides - Tess, on the left, and Lindsey, on the right, on graduating from Eastern University last weekend.

I first met Tess in the summer of 2013, when as a high school junior, she had returned from a missions experience in Europe with lots of energy and passion for serving in that context. Ember was a good fit for her to get involved and she's been one of our longest serving Guides, helping run the 2014 X, 2015 Prague, 2016 Italy and 2017 Italy teams. This year's team already feels a little strange without her.

Lindsey and I met through Tess - our first time hanging together was in Chinatown in Philadelphia seeing the sights after we had given a group some instructions on cultural navigation. Ah the fun of leadership. Tess and Lindsey also invested at the highest level of Ember Guides last summer when they were our Summer Send, being sent to Poland for 6 weeks to work with a church plant. I could not have imagined a better fit for them and they turned a great idea into an awesome experience.

The Ember Cast will miss you two. We will miss the way Tess can recite the Ember mantras by heart and how Lindsey looks just like Hillary Duff. But go do some amazing things in a world that desperately needs passion, beauty, and character and we will throw fire with you.

Welcome Home JT

Loved catching up with JTimmons, who you might remember helped with Ember 14X as the first leg of his 5 leg journey around the world. His jaunts also included Greece, Turkey, Nepal, and China and we loved being a small part of his quest as he sought how the Lord might use him in another culture. John's spirit of adventure will continue to inspire all of us.

Watch this guy and I don't know either about my hair.

Learn Another Language Or Two

Almost exactly 30 days after we returned home from Ember 14X, we gathered our team to do a little decompression. I am huge on wanting to walk students and teams through their experiences in order to help them process it but it never easy - after the experience, people get busy, you can't always get everyone and human nature tends to drift.

Our time together was great and we even skyped in our peeps from Austin and San Fran. Although we probably should have talked more about 'what are you going to do this school year?' we did talk a lot about our favorite memories and what experiences marked us and if anything about us will change. Sometimes 30 days in enough and sometimes not. And sometimes people will have great thoughts and other times, not so much.

I specifically loved what one of our team said though. She told the group that she was going to pick up a language in college because she understood the idea of being multilingual and how that could be really strategic for a cross cultural future. This is the kind of thing that we thrive on - expose a high school student to the way the world really looks and they can make significant decisions for their future. That is marking human history.

2013 and 2014 Summer Improvements

Like every year, we spend some time at the end of the summer looking to improve on what we did. Here are some items from both last summer and this summer:

+ We got better about bringing on leaders. John, Tess, Hope and Measu did a phenomenal job. We would require future potential leaders that we don't know very well to engage on an Ember day experience with us before we open up slots for summer teams, although haven't had to do this recently.

+ We needed one person to really help us pray these teams up. John did this for us this summer and it was beautiful. Ultimately, this comes down to a staffing decision, like recruiting for any other skill or talent.

+ Our travel agent, Valarie, was great. We flew British Airways with their nonprofit perk. Required a group of 9 or more.

+ It was tough to balance all the work that needs to get done for Kids Week and making sure our team is well fed and getting the Ember essentials in. Our team seemed to be more relaxed when we planned for Deanna to take care of most of the food instead of rotating team members in for that.

+ Of course I love our approach to funding with the Creative Revenue Plan. Although 10-25% of support is raised via creative revenue, we may need to be clearer about what makes up the rest - ie: do you pay for it yourself or raise support or is it case by case.

+ No body modifications and no riding motorcycles or scooters if you are under 21. [Ember spawn…]

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...

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.

Ember 14X Wrap

Long post - feel free to read it or skip it.

: Aix
Again, like last year, being in Aix was so fun. It's a great little city and I love some of the elements that make it up. Elements like expats there for the business opportunities, lots of third culture kids, a technology hub and close proximity to Marseille, which is a key gateway to North Africa. If those things interest you too, keep Aix in the back of your mind. This year our team understood, even more than last year, some of the unique difficulties of ministry here, like when one of our missions roundtables guests said something to the effect of "It's hard to raise missions support when you live in a wedding destination." It's a beautiful city and embodies European and French culture with a distinct appreciation for food, art and beauty. The weather is beautiful, the scenery is gorgeous and the churches are scarce. Some have said France is a graveyard for missionaries.

: Kids Week and ICCP
I didn't convey this real well as things unfolded but the plans for Kids Week had to be drastically changed. Originally scheduled to run Monday to Friday, we were instead shutdown after the day ended on Wednesday by local authorities due to some minor safety concerns. However, we were able to have an end of week picnic in a local park. There was a huge outpouring of community support so ICCP has found themselves with lots of attention, which is hopefully a good thing. The theme of the week was Kingdom of Grace, so everyone, including some pretty upset parents, were encouraged to respond… well… with grace. There is, of course, a bigger story going on here and it will be interesting to see what comes of it.

You know mission trips - stay flexible because things always change. It's a theme for Ember too, our plan A never works out. As I get older, I get less and less flexible. And I am more and more annoyed at myself for being less and less flexible. This is a personal decompression topic.

ICCP continues to be one of the most innovative communities we know about. Their level of intention, sacrifice, and creativity all for the sake of the kids in their community is unparalleled. It is a beautiful thing to see. Tim Anderson [KW director] and Tim Arlen [lead pastor] led this initiative with grace and integrity and I wish our team could have spent more time with both of them.

: Culture Aixchange and Missions Evening
One of my personal highlights of our two weeks in France was the culture exchange. Since the staff was such a good mix of French, American and various other cultures, we had originally wanted to host a culture exchange. The goals for this included having the kids to share about their cultures and having the staff to get to know each other better by doing something fun. This didn't work out for the original schedule but when Kids Week closed down, we were actually able to execute on this and it was a great success. See more notes on it here.

The other highlight for me was hosting a small group of missions people at our villa one evening for dinner and a time of discussion. Among the people included the lead pastor of ICCP, who just moved to Aix a year ago from the States; a Dutch guy who is a serial ministry starter and is going to plant a French speaking church out of ICCP; an American wife of ICCP's former lead pastor who also ran a local wine and cheese touring business in Aix; and someone who is considering coming on staff at ICCP and two of the guys who came to Kids Week from a church in Virginia. Moderated gatherings like these are one of the best things we do. Most trips like these never make the time or space to have students intentionally interact with experienced cross cultural people. For Ember, this is as important as the project itself. More here.

: Financials
Big picture financials - use these to compare keeping in mind that Europe is very expensive.
Airfare: $1230
Food: $157
Insurance: $8
Partner gift: $50
Ground costs: $185
Lodging: $618
Excursion: $18 [Les Baux castle tour]
Costs per team member were about $2266 for 14 days which equals about $161 per day. We got a great deal on our flights through British Airways nonprofit program. Last year, it cost $2250 per person for 10 days.

: Team
I loved working with Teal Rapp. He's one of the most easy going, highly relational leaders that I know. He cares for his family and teams phenomenally and gets fired up when people are engaged and empowered for God's mission. Since he was on staff with ICCP and lived in Aix, he was perfect to be a part of our team. Having his kids on our team was phenomenal too. [His oldest, Olivia, and Katie are working together in Madrid right now.]

The rest of our team was phenomenal as well. Each and every person contributed significantly to both Work Week and the short Kids Week as well as being fully engaged in whatever we were doing - seeing the sights, decompression, helping out around the house.

We made some improvements compared to last year about leadership and most of our team was returning. In addition, John helped prep our team with some very targeted prayer points the week before we departed. We engaged the older students in some various leadership roles which was a great help to me.

: Why This Matters
In the short term, I'm pretty sure you'll see each person grow in at least one of the missional concepts that we were exposed to from the experience: international church planting, people of peace, cultural icons, a community that is incarnational, bivocational ministry. In the long term, you'll see at least some of these kids do something phenomenal but it might take a while so hang on. Thanks to all of you supporters, investors and blog readers - your support is incredible. I love each person on this team like they were one of my kids.
'You don’t plant churches you plant sons.[and daughters]'- Oscar Muriu

Pictures and Videos

Random Ember 14X

Some random stuff from our time in France. Writing it down so I don't forget.

+ With 11 people, logistics like airport security or public transport can be tricky. This year, our plan was that I walk through security with Deanna [because of her insulin and her pump] and everyone else goes between Hope and Tessa. If anyone has extended time with security, Tess stays with them. Worked great.

+ Most of our travel through airports was fine and this is an issue because Deanna wears an insulin pump and travels with backup insulin in various forms as well as traveling with a backup pump. Coming back through Heathrow was the worst though. She has a great system for this though and each time, we learn a little more. But the people at Heathrow were just jerks.

+ Emily was not feeling well for most of the time we were in France. She had nasal congestion, a sore throat and her ears were clogged. We took her to a doctor on the last Saturday we were in Aix. Someone told us about a doctor that speaks English but you had to mention that you were the friend of so and so to get an appointment. Going to the doctor is definitely a fantastic cultural experience, so you should try it. Emily actually had blood drawn for the first time ever, in another country. And… she tested positive for mono. I can't believe how much she worked while having mono.

+ One night at dinner, our team of 14, ate 6 baguettes. Does that seem like a lot?

+ Our lodging costs averaged out to be about $52 per person per night. The villa was $46, the hostel in Sanary sur mer was $52 and the Holiday Inn MRS airport was $58. Don't get me wrong, the south of France is incredibly expensive. We were fortunate to do it very cheaply.

+ Les Baux was incredible. Bandol was amazing too. Pictures don't do either of them justice. They were both very worthwhile to visit. I know some people saw our pictures and thought, 'Wow rough missions trip...' But I won't apologize for that - my job was to value our team and the incredible work they did. Decompression on the beach on the Mediterranean Sea is part of it and you would be super dumb for not taking advantage of that.

+ In our whole time, we did not see any other evangelical faith based groups of people there. No youth groups, mission teams, handbell choirs. Not one. But we did see Mormons and Jehovahs Witnesses.

+ This year in Aix, I actually felt like I knew where I was going. That was interesting to me, especially as you hear people talk about their first year in a foreign city.

14x decompression outline

We spent most of the day Sunday going through the following list of decompression topics. It was broken up into hour long segments so that the team could have an hour to think/write on the given subject for that hour while doing whatever else too. It wasn't quite as intentional as I had hoped but everyone was almost too tired to think.

Steal these if you want.

1 Write for 10 minutes or more in your journal - recap or a summary of your time.

2 Write about:
What did you love/hate
When did time go fast (generative)
Something new you learned about God

3 Write down a list of people to pray for.

4 Write a summary of your time that fits on an index card.

5 Prepare three responses to when people ask about your time. 20 seconds, 2 min and 20 min. Most people will only listen for 20 secs. One day sooner or later you may need to talk for 20 mins to supporters, a board, or a church about an experience. Get the practice now.

Flying

Flying home.

Final Team breakfast

Last team breakfast. I'm going to miss this team a lot. No drama at all and they worked to their absolute best.

We are now all checked in at MRS and ready to board our flight to London.

Sending Katie and Olivia

Prayed and laid hands on Katie, Olivia and John this afternoon. Our time together came to an end too soon. So proud of all of them and the bravery they possess.

Hard for a dad but good for the world.

Sending John

We send John off tomorrow as he heads to Greece next, the first of 5 or 6 or who knows how many more destinations.

Bandol

Post kids week staff party.

Saturday

We checked out of the villa today and made our way back into Aix for a few hours. Emily has been sick all week so we also ran her to a doctor where they gave her some meds and tested her for strep and mono.

No one likes being sick in another country but it's always a cultural experience. She said it was the first time she had blood drawn in another country. That's Ember spawn talking right there.

Tonight we have a farewell dinner on the beach with all the kids week staff and then our team stays the night in Sanary ser mer, a little seaside village. Tomorow is decompression.

Friday

Friday morning was spent taking the Kids Week structures down and cleaning up the general property. In the afternoon and evening, we had a little concluding picnic at a local park with all the families of the kids. The French call this an 'apero' [I think....]

There has been a huge rally of support from the community around Kids Week and ICCP and interestingly enough, the theme of Kids Week was 'Kingdom of Grace.' So it's been a great example of the leadership and volunteer staff thinking and believing the best instead of being angry or mad.

Wrapping up things over the next few days. A big part of that is being very very very intentional about decompression and debriefing. Most teams, including many of mine in the past, spend little to no energy on these topics. Do not make that mistake. [Debriefing resources]

Family mission trip selfie

Best Missions Advice

I love asking people who are working in the field of missions to give their best advice to students thinking about global leadership. Here are some of the answers from last night.

+ Live on a budget now.
+ Travel - it helps your perspective. Get out of America if you can.
+ Learn another language. Almost every other country except the US is multi-lingual.
+ Pray every day for unreached people groups.
+ The love of Christ compels us.

Thursday

Spent most of this afternoon doing some property tear down - the authorities will not be allowing us to finish the week. We are, however, having a fun end of Kids Week picnic tomorrow at a park in Aix.

This evening, we hosted a few missions people here at the house. The lead pastor of ICCP, a few people in transition to various cross cultural ministry positions, Hillary who ran a wine tasting business as a bi-vocational project, and Frank who is partnering with ICCP to start a French speaking church in the Provence area. So so fun and one of the core functions of Ember. Working on a project is great but students really want to hear from the people you work with.

Culture Aixchange

In light of some drastic changes in plans, we helped facilitate a culture exchange activity in Aix this morning with all the staff. Great Great time. Culture exchanges are a great backup plan if you need and always pretty simple to execute.
Here are some questions we used in addition to having kids take pictures to help with the results and discussions. The goal was not to win but to get to know your team and learn something new.

+ During your Aixcursion, take a picture of each restaurant that that you come across that specializes in food from a culture other than France.

1 Find a flag from a country other than a country represented in your group. How do you determine where someone is from?

2 Figure out something that you all have in common that is unusual and take a picture of something to represent that.

3 Find the most stereotypical things or people that symbolize the countries represented in your group.

4 Find something that one country thinks is rude but another country thinks is normal.

5 Pose at a fountain and attempt to recreate it. Why was it designed to look like that?

6 Take a picture of everyone's feet around something of cultural significance.

7 Find a license plate from the furthest place from Aix that you can.

8 Find something that you can only buy in Europe that Americans want. Is there anything that you can only buy in America that Europeans want.

Update: Here's a few shots from this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Photo cred goes to Sarah A for these.