Tuesday Aug 1 - Day 7

Today is our last full day of camp as we leave for Yaounde tomorrow afternoon. We've told our team repeatedly to not squander our time here and to continue pouring into their new friends as much as they can. They are doing a great job of just that. This morning, EllyK and TriciaB talk about their spiritual disciples - how they journal, read the Bible and spend time with God. A basic goal of the camp is that some of these students understand a little bit better on how to have some base spiritual disciplines. Of course, EllyK and TriciaB do a great job. They naturally tell their stories and the other students listen intently. EllyK's blond hair helps. Two to watch in the future.

I'm a bit under the weather today - feeling groggy all day long. On most trips I run, I get into a rut around this time - day 6 or 7. I spend most of the afternoon trying to sleep it off. By the early evening, I'm running a slight temperature. Camp goes on fabulously without me. I've been smart though - I chose some fabulous leaders that go on without me. I have zero concerns about their ability to serve and lead. The evening has the camp doing a talent show with all of the teams performing some kind of skit or music. From all accounts, it was a great time.

Typical breakfast is some kind of baguette with peanut butter or chocolate spread. This culture is one that is not stressed out about time. In fact, time is more or less a suggestion. It is more important to make an appearance than to actually be punctual. I wrote before about the handshake between men. Women are greeted by two or three kisses to the cheek, alternating sides. So, a kiss on the left cheek, than right, than left again. It's cool. There is an underlying religious element to Cameroonians, many go to church but are not serious about Jesus. They may know the Bible very well, but may not be very serious about it. Kids don't have inherent value in the culture - that's why there really isn't much for them to do. Every story in Cameroonian fashion must have a moral to it. The idea of Seinfeld - a show about nothing - makes no sense. Music is huge, Cameroonians love to sing. Cameroon is the 2nd most corrupt nation in the world. It is also the 2nd most stable country in Africa. Many non-government organizations - charity and relief and development organizations - have their African headquarters here in Cameroon.

One question that must be asked is whether this trip has been worth the expense. Our overall costs were roughly $30,000 - the bulk of that due to airfare. With a team of twelve and spending 11 days in-country, that works out to a burn rate of about $200 per day per person. Granted the longer you stay, since the costs in-country are so low, the better your value. Is running this kind of camp, building these relationships and encouraging our missionary family worth $200 a day? Missions is not untouchable - it is unrealistic to say that as long as it is missions, it is inherently good and valid. Each trip needs to be critically assessed to make sure that the investment is wise. One of the best ways to do hedge our bets regarding our investment is to work with missionaries that we know and trust - ones that also know us. Another great way is to put the experience together in partnership - knowing what talents and gifts each party or team bring to the experience. Finally, we make sure that our hosts know at the beginning of the conversation that they can decline to host a team if it doesn't work for their ministry in the significant context or time.

Was this trip worth it? Was it wise and a good investment of our time and resources and not just a token missions trip? We get our answer later this week.

Photos: EllyK, TriciaB and G talking from up front, the human knot game, playing on the beach at sunset at Kribi.

20060726Cameroon photoset

Monday July 31 - Day 6

One of our team members, BB, has spent a part of the early morning in the bathroom with stomach issues. I readily offer him up as a token sacrifice to the stomach gods that be so that I may escape his dire situation. But hey, I'm a leader. Around mid-morning, NLind is with him as it comes out the other way - well she wanted to be a nurse. We let him sleep it off for the rest of the day. The rest of the day is simply known as "Pygmy Village." Not a store in the mall, but an excursion that all of the camp will take - riding in dugout canoes upriver into the jungle to visit a pygmy tribe. No I'm not kidding.

Right after breakfast, we pack it all up into three Toyota Minivans that serve as our transport. We drive about 20 minutes and then get in a combination of 4 canoes.

The lodging caretakers at the beach have set this up for us, including bringing a list of basic staples for the village - soap, matches and salt, and a huge bottle of whiskey we all thought was water. We are told the pygmy village is a touristy kind of thing, except we don't see any other people the whole day. Touristy is in the eye of the beholder I suppose. G ends up staying back at camp to take care of BB, also using the time to continue to tweak his talks.

The canoe ride is uneventful. We hear monkeys but don't see any, although people in another canoe later said they saw a few. I thought I saw an antelope, but it turned out to be a goat. Give me a break, I live in the suburbs.

Cameroonians believe that there is a spirit of water, a spirit that does not have the best interests of humans in mind. Couple that with not knowing how to swim, you have a chicken-egg combination - people die because they don't know how to swim and they are afraid of the water because people have died and there is a spirit that lives there. Many of the students here ran into big opposition from their parents about the camp because of both the beach and the river ride. It's pretty amazing that most of them were allowed to come in the first place.

The pygmy village is a surreal experience. There is no water or electricity and they live in a complex of thatched roof structures, built out of branches, leaves and sticks. They are all fully dressed in clothes when we arrive, and there are all ages of them from little kids to older, grandmotherly types. They are just a bit shorter than us and top of the roofs come up to about my shoulder. They marry other pygmies from other tribes and they go into town only when they need something vital. They don't speak English or French, except one of them named John. That's kind of random. They also have a dog or two.

In the back of my mind, I've been asking myself if this kind of thing is even morally right. The scenario is a bit too exhibitionist and consumeristic - bring a boatload [literally] of white people to see a village of pygmies. To be blunt - it sounds too much like a zoo. I love exposing students to the concepts of engaging another culture - I don't think we have a choice, the future depends on it. But it has to be an engagement, not a viewing.

At one point, JM tells me that she wants me to talk to the tribal chief about why we are there and about Jesus. I collect a few thoughts ranging from "I'm going to do what?" to "Maybe other gods talk to this guy," to "This should be interesting." In the end, I share just a little bit about how we are here from America because there is a God that talks to us, gave us a book and created everything that you and I see here. Not necessarily right from the Four Spiritual Laws. I would speak to Wlson, who spoke French to one of the canoe drivers, who spoke the pygmy language. The answer would come the other direction. After our short dialogue, there was also a short question and answer session and then the pygmies did a dance for us, with hand made drums, singing and pulling some of our pale skinned teammmates into the circle of dance. Surreal.

We arrive back at camp in the late afternoon, have a snack and continue on that evening with normal camp stuff, including a talk and small group time. Quite a day in Cameroon.

Photos: one of the canoes, NLind dancing with the tribal chief, me and the chief.

20060726Cameroon photoset

Another Update from Cameroon

Here is another update. Please remember the health of this team in your prayers!

Good Morning America!!!

Just talked to G and we need to keep praying for the health of the team. L and E are doing better. L is still on a BRAT diet with a tender tummy. B woke up early in the morning with loose stools and feeling yucky. They are working to keep him well hydrated and he is resting today.

Let’s really pray that the enemy would just leave them alone, please! And we do know that some great things are happening down there…even more reason for the enemy to be upset with us.

S has been a bit more engaged yesterday and Y (one of the guys that gave his life to Christ yesterday) has really jumped in with both feet and shows a true hunger and thirst for the Word. Praise God.

G said that even though this is a much more expensive facility (and therefore a pretty nice place to be) than we had originally desired, it has left no reason for complaining and therefore the teens are more able to be focused and there are less distractions. This is great news!

Love and hugs and thank you for battling with us!

W and the kiddos

Sunday July 30 - Day 5

Sunday is our first full day of camp. The schedule is similar to a retreat with talks immediately followed by small group time, meals and games and beach time in the afternoons. G is smart enough to know that small groups are the medium by where relationships are built and lives are transformed. Therefore, small groups are a major component of this camp.

Besides the games, our team also has responsibility for small groups, along with the Cameroonian Nav team. Out of six small groups, our team has been split so that each group has both American and Cameroonian leaders. Although not quite as straightforward, our team's job is to assist, dialogue, ask good questions and listen a lot. The relationship between teacher and student in Cameroon is a 'teacher talks, student listens' idea. Interactive discussions are not the norm but is the environment we are trying to shape.

LF and I are in JM's group. She's a fabulous lady who works as a teacher in Yaounde and has intentionally 'adopted' about 8 or 10 high school students over the years and a bunch are here at this camp. I'm amazed at our first few small group times, some of the students are sharing very deep parts of their soul. JM first met G - get this - 13 years ago when they were both on a summer YWAM project in Benin. Now, G and W live across the street from her and serve together. The wild adventure that is God's plan.

During the morning talk, ADress from our team shares his story about how he became a Christian. It's a good story, one that I know a lot of students, American or not, can relate to. I'm convinced that one day, someone in Cameroon will point back to the time here as the beginning of their story with Jesus.

Cameroonian men have this really cool handshake. It's kind of hard to describe, but its the normal shake your hands, which moves into both of your hands gripping each other like you are arm wrestling and then your fingers pull on each other as your hands move away and you end the shake by making a snapping sound as your fingers pull off of each others. Like I said, hard to explain, but very cool.

Today is also my anniversary. D is a saint for letting me be in another country on this day, the second year in a row. I would call her, but I don't see a phone booth anywhere. (haha)

Our team is a bit more vigilant during beach time today. I assign the three lifeguards to stay at the outermost line in the water so the Cameroonians will know how far is too far. I can relate to the concept of water being a new medium, whereas our students don't remember a time when they couldn't swim. Some of our kids give beginning swimming lessons to the Cameroon students.

Besides G, my two other roommates are NDne and Wlson. NDne is a closet evangelist. Soft-spoken with a gregarious smile, he comes alive when speaking about the Scriptures. Wlson spends as much time with students as he can, usually right after small group time, getting to know them and what is in their head. Both are high school teachers and both have a heart of gold.

Photos: mealtime at camp; G and ADress upfront during one of the talks; NDne, me and Wlson.

20060726Cameroon photoset

News from Cameroon

This is Deanna posting. I just heard from WN with these prayer requests for the team in Kribi. Here is what she sent. Please, if you feel led, life these up in prayer.

Thanks!

Hi Warriors,

Just heard from G and they are doing well. The weather is not rainy and they are having a good time. This morning, Ndoune, one of our Cameroonian team members, gave the Gospel message and 5 kids came to Christ!!! What a praise!!!

Some key things to be praying about…

Elly and Lauren, from the US team, were down yesterday with a bad tummy…They are both feeling better today, but let’s continue to pray God’s protection over all the US team.

One girl, Sophie, a Cameroonian, has been making herself scarce each time God is talked about. They are working to love her to the group and Christ and we are praying for an open heart and that she would be more involved.

The whole schedule that Gilles worked painstakingly to put in place has had to be changed and almost scrapped. We are learning the true meaning of flexibility and are praying that the US team can roll with the punches…they surely aren’t in Kansas anymore!!! J

Marie Paule, Ndoune’s wife, is staying with us while he is at the camp. She is 36 weeks pregnant and we are really praying that little Jean Samuel (the unborn little guy) doesn’t feel the need to come early…wouldn’t that be like the Lord’s sense of humor…NOT!!!

Thank you for praying for us and I will keep you updated as often as I have news. Gilles sounded encouraged and upbeat…he is so flexible and God made him for Cameroon, I think! I sometimes just do better to stay at home and pray!! J

Love you and thanks,

W and the kiddos

Saturday July 29 - Day 4

The process of putting on this camp is a major logistical spider web - funny that Mission Advance was a precursor to the summer in that fashion. Luckily for me, I just had to show up - 6000 miles away. G Nen manages all of it effortlessly. Incredibly adaptable, laid-back and soft spoken, he's got a huge heart for the students of Cameroon and a well thought out vision and strategy. As you hear the story of the Nens, you can tell that God has been preparing them for the French speaking African world.

We load 37 Cameroonian students, probably another 8 or 10 Cameroonian youth workers, our team of 12 and everyone's luggage onto a coach bus that seats about 60. We also load about 100 bannanas, plantains, tomatoes and avacados - 100 each. Kribi is about a 3 hour drive south from Yaounde and our bus is full. Everyone brims with anticipation. I'm just trying to watch the road in an effort to keep from getting motion sick. One of the endearing traits of this particular mission team leader.

The ride there is uneventful - which I'm told is a big relief in Africa. We enjoy watching the African countryside, with farms, houses, little market areas and roadside stands. These stands sell bushmeat - the real stuff - like water rats, porcupine and monkeys. The day's special hangs on a stick next to the road - by the tail. Yummy.

Our housing at Kribi is incredible. Americans would pay a ton to live here. We have two lodging areas adjacent to each other. The girls are about 50 feet away from the beach, on a little bluff a short staircase up from the water. This area contains about 8-10 4 bedroom apartments - each with a private bathroom including a toilet, shower and sink - and a few eating and meeting areas and serves as our meeting space. There are another set of 4 apartments around the corner where some of the boys will stay. A 5 minute walk around the corner and up another flight of stairs are where the rest of the boys stay, high up on a hill. Same lodging set up - 4 to a room, private bath. Better breeze than down below, the view of the ocean is spectacular.

After check in and getting their gear into their rooms, the whole camp heads down to the beach for some fun games. Getting here was a part of it. Executing now that we are here is what its about. Our students run the games and even with just a bit of confusion at the beginning, they run well. After the games, everyone gets in the water and has a blast. We have chosen a spot on the beach where you can wade out 75 feet while the water is only up to your waist. Even so, good thing our team has three lifeguards on it.

Since Kribi is a major fishing village, dinner is fresh fish, delicious. Our team is fully engaged over dinner and the evening, playing UNO, hanging out, trying to learn/practice French - most of these students speak both English and French. Watch a group of American students befriend other students in another culture sometime. It will give you hope and resolve for the future.

Photos: the bus ride, games on the beach and LB and ESunde eating fish.

20060726Cameroon photoset

SPACE Cam team Friday update

A quick update from Friday's activities -- today had a bunch of cultural orientation and planning sessions for the student camp that will start tomorrow. The team is all well and healthy and enjoying their time together while planning for the camp and enjoying their time with their host families.The student camp starts tomorrow and runs through Wednesday afternoon.

Tomorrow we take a bus for about 3 hours to a beach area known as Kribi. About 20 other Cameroonian students and leaders come with us and we will help out with a camp for high schoolers until Wednesday.

You can pray specifically that our team works well together in running both game and small group discussion components and for the students that will be involved in the camp. Also continue to pray for health and safety while we travel to and back from Kribi.

Thanks for thinking and praying for us

Friday July 28 - Day 3

It would be safe to say that most teams had a jolt last night due to the culture. Cameroonian homes are not like ones in the States. One team has no running water inside the house - they have plumbing just no water through it. Buckets are used for both showers and flushing the toilet. NLind, the leader in that house, absolutely loves it. The Lord has groomed her for Africa. Regardless of the luxuries, the host families are imprinting their hearts with ours.

My team has the least culture shock, since we are living with Americans. We have hot water and our house is very close to American standards. It is still Cameroon and the sounds of the city don't drift away until deep into the night. The weather here is mild, chilly at night for good sleeping with highs in the 80s during the days. There is the under-aroma of burning in many parts of the city - from people burning their trash. The smell reminds me of my time in the Dominican Republic - one of the most evocative triggers in my memory.

This morning was spent doing some administrative things at the Nav center. This included two sessions - one on cultural orientation and one on the history of the Nav ministry here in Cameroon. Both were vitally important. I'm beginning to see that our team is here at a very crucial, significant and unique time in the history of Cameroonian students - and for that matter, the future of Cameroon.

Lunch is at the Nens. Our main task while we are here is the assistance of running a student camp that will take place Saturday through Wednesday. This camp serves as the catalyst for jump starting student ministry here in Yaounde. The team here has thought about, prayed over and dreamed about this camp for many months and us being here signifies the culmination of a huge vision. After lunch, we sort out all of our team bags while the Nens kids have a rest time upstairs. It's Christmas time for this family. We have brought a huge amount of amenities for them - things we can get at any corner store back home and things they long for here. Cheerios, chocolate chips, Bible studies, Christmas napkins. Makes me wish that we had brought more - packages sent to Cameroon sometimes arrive, maybe arrive a year later or disappear forever. Our time this afternoon here is also great hanging out with the Nens' kids. They are a fun bunch.

We also spent the afternoon putting together our plan for the games segment for camp. Games will be run on the beach, in the later part of the afternoon. Gross youth type games won't go over here and most of our team aren't big fans of those anyway. Instead, we plan some relay-type games, with one of the goals to build community and relationships among the 6 different small groups that the camp will be broken into. As some of my mentors say, Cause Creates Community.

This trip, nor SPACE, isn't necessarily about this week. It is about shaping the future - specifically by preparing our students to engage culture and reach the world. Therefore, our leaders have purposely tried to stay out of the discussion about games and let the seven students brainstorm, decide and outline the plan of implementation. Although awkward and tense at times, our team prep time is a valuable experience - both for the leaders and students. Sometimes the most difficult task of a leader is to purposely stand down in order to force someone else to step up.

The evenings are spent back in the host homes where they have dinner together, continue to get to know one another and pack for the beach. Camp is tomorrow. Three hours on a bus with all of us to a beach/resort area called Kribi. 90% of Cameroons don't know how to swim. We will find tomorrow that none of them have ever been to the beach before. What is everyday for us in the States is nothing sort of the miraculous for them. And maybe vice versa.

Photos: Sorting through our team gear, trampoline time with the kids.

20060726Cameroon photoset

Thursday July 27 - Day 2

We flew from DC via Paris and Douala to Yaounde. 12 people, 24 checked bags. Miraculously, all of us and our stuff made it to Yaounde with no issues. Our flights were on time, we had seats and the gobs of stuff we packed all made it.

On our flight, we met an American church planter that was in Yaounde for three years. He was heading back over for a short time to speak at a conference. We also met a Canadian family working for Wycliffe/SIL working on Bible translation with a pygmy tribe, coming back from a year long furlough - Cameroon has an estimated 286 languages. Indeed, a small world.

When we landed, there was a mass of humanity that came to meet us. They all knew our names and faces, had been praying for us for months and carried all of our luggage for us. Included in that were our hosts G and W Nens, who moved from Howard County about 18 months ago and Ptrs, the Navigators Cameroon director. It was a small glimmer of the hospitality and warmth that we would experience for the rest of our trip.

The ride from the airport is in the dark and its pouring rain. Our first taste of transit in Cameroon includes potholes, an intersection with taxis everywhere the eye can see and lots of people out and about, even in the darkness and rain.

All of us went via a bunch of different cars to the Nav center, the house of the former director who had just left for the states a few months ago, for a little reception for our team. When we got there, we were told the power had been out for a few hours. A sometimes daily occurrence in parts of Yaounde, as well as other parts of the world outside the realm of a person from Columbia, MD.

After a short time of introductions and welcomes, all of us left for our host families. Our team split into 4 groups. All the other groups except mine stay with Cameroonian families, all who have deep investment in starting the student ministry here. Another small glimmer of the real depth and commitment of the people here. I and two other guys stay with the Nens, so that we can 'commiserate late at night.'

Photo: Some of our crew at the airport with Ptrs.

20060726Cameroon photoset

SPACE Cameroon has landed

Hi all
A quick note just to let you know that the team has arrived here in Yaounde safe and sound. All of our bags also made it safely and all of our flights had minimal delays. The team is now settling in with their host families tonight with cultural orientation and prepping for the camp tomorrow morning.
Our next email update will probably be on Friday or Saturday, right before we leave for the camp at Kribi.
Thanks for praying!

Difficulty Leaving Every Time

T minus 22

So we leave for the airport in about 22 hours. This will probably be the last post for at least a little bit. Here are some things I'm doing before we go:

- Putting all email addresses for parents onto a flash drive file. I'm not sure how much access we will have to the web once we get there. I know there is email but I think its only via dial-up, so we may use someone else's email client to send stuff out. So updates may come to this blog via Blogger's email feature [where you can email your post to a secret address and then it gets automatically posted.]
- We scan all of our passports into electronic files. We then print a copy of each passport for each leader and also email those files back to ourselves. The passport is probably our most important document, so we have multiple copies and can get one from an internet cafe if we need to. Leaders will also have copies of signed permission slips and health id cards.
- I think I have to buy some dog food.
- Finish packing - remember to always pack one set of clean underwear in your carry on.
- Laying out all the stuff for my team at work.
- D bought me some more bug spray.
- Set up my iPod shuffle for some music to soothe me when we are traveling. I very much appreciated the sentiment GM spoke of the other night when he predicted he would be throwing up on the 3 hour bus ride to Kribi. I told him we both could reserve the front row.
- And, yes, finally, I told my parents about my trip. Some might say I'm being a terrible example to my kids and students for withholding this pretty imporant information from my parents for so long. They might be right. But I know that the less time my parents have to mull over my decision, the better off we all will be. And I've told my kids - and will tell my students - embrace the good, right behavior, be liberated and free to toss the bad behavior - you have the choice for how you will live.

Strategy vs. Logistics

"Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics." - Omar Bradley, General of the US Army

I'm certainly learning about this idea this summer. More on that later. In the meantime, read the post titled Logistics and Movements from Sam Metcalf

Technorati tags:: Church+Resource+Ministries

Final Weekend

Another very busy weekend. But luckily, the fourth of our five teams is away. LA left yesterday afternoon and I had a fun time hanging with them in the final minutes before they departed. And our Merge team came home and they seemed to have a great trip all in all.

The Cam team also had a busy weekend with our final preparations. We got to stand up front during all the church services yesterday to be prayed over. And last night we had our final team meeting which included putting down some preparations for the camp we are going to be a part of, a packing party - packing all of our team stuff for the camp and our hosts, and hanging together during the first ever co-ed sleepover [lock-in] at the headquarters of the international SPACE office - ie my house.

All of our remaining visas were delivered this morning. Malaria meds start tommorrow. Departure is on Wednesday evening from Dulles. Keep praying for our support to continue to come in. We still need quite a bit.

Photo: After we packed our team stuff, I made the whole team take a walk around the block to get used to walking with about half of our stuff.

Visiting the Merge Team

KCoats [this coming year's SPACE intern], ESunde [last year's SPACE intern] and I went to visit the Merge team tonight. The team is doing great, they are having a great time. Intriguing first comment from JWhitt [one of the leaders], "This is nothing like I expected. It isn't a missions trip, it's a week long retreat."

JWhitt was one of my students that I had brought to the SEMP conference in the summer of 2000 - SEMP being the precursor to Merge. It's been fun to watch as she has taken the lead this year to bring a team back.

They have definitely done some neat things at Merge. There was a replica tabernacle set up and part of the experience was to walk students through each component experientially, giving them a hands-on experience of what some of the elements of the Old Testament tabernacle really mean. There was also a 'stations of Jesus last hours,' also the same kind of thing - very experiential. They have also integrated small service projects that the teams are involved in. Good things no doubt.

Those good things aside, it wasn't quite what I expected either. Anybody that went to a week of SEMP got exposed and trained on how to share their faith, at multiple depths. Whether it was identifying spiritual roadblocks, writing a letter to a friend or sharing verbally on the street, they all got both classroom teaching and on the street experiences of sharing their faith in their own culture. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that standing on a street corner screaming the Four Spiritual Laws is the goal. I AM saying that there is a correct midpoint somewhere on the spectrum between:
1 - screaming the Gospel to strangers
and
2 - having kids go to another culture with zero training about how to talk about Jesus and their faith.
And I'm also saying that the combination of evangelism training and community service projects sounds like a real winner. But Merge was definitely not about the evangelism training.

Our purpose for sending students to Merge revolved around the evangelism experience and training - and service projects would have been icing on the cake. Sending students to serve in another culture requires them to have experience in their own culture first. Sadly, although Merge sounds like a great week, I'm not sure it fits the type of preparation we want our students to have. Not a concluded decision yet, but definitely requires more evaluation. And hey you guys that have spent time in other cultures with students, love to hear your opinions...

Photo: KCoats, ESunde, JWhitt - Merge team leader and JSutar - Merge team leader.

Technorati tags:: student+missions, Sonlife, Merge

Tuesday Potpourri

** The 5 hottest religions in Hollywood
My favorite - a purported benefit to the Vedic religion is flying... Of course, the article doesn't exactly make Christianity sound that intelligent either... via Thunderstruck

** An interview with Erwin McManus on the The Leadership Blog

6. What goals do you have as a leader?
Erwin: i would like to change the course of human history.
i'm pretty sure we cant pull this off alone-
so we're doing every thing we can to
identify,
develop,
maximize,
and unleash
the god given potental in every person we touch-
to awaken humanity-
any one of them might be the key.
mosaic exists to create the future.

other than that i dont make goals.

Hmm, I think I need to rethink my goals for next year - er, the next 500 years...
via Steve McCoy

** Dennis posts about the big three challenges in Mexico City - space, transportation and time. Good things to think about since we know the world is getting more and more urban.

Technorati tags:: Hollywood, Erwin+McManus, Mexico+City

SPACE Prayer Letter - July 2006

"Let others complain that this age is evil. My complaint is that this age is paltry. It lacks passion. " - Soren Kierkegaard

Hi Dear Friends of SPACE --

Hope this July finds you well - thanks once again for your thoughts and prayers for our students and leaders that seek to communicate God's passion for the nations and to live lives larger than themselves.

We've already had a busy summer which included a mission prep weekend with all of our 5 summer teams and the sending of three teams so far.  (We also had a fabulous Sheng family vacation in California - Disneyland included, of course!)

In late June, we took all five teams away to one of the Delaware beaches to run a mission prep weekend where we enabled our teams to bond together through some mission workshops, small service projects on the boardwalk and living together for a weekend.  It was an awesome time as our teams grew, worshipped and served together - hopefully setting up some great teams for their summer experiences.

As of this week, we've had two of our summer teams come home from their mission experiences - serving with the Center for Student Missions in Washington, DC; and serving with CMTS Ministries near Lancaster, PA.  One team - Baltimore - is in the field this week and return on Saturday, while our LA team leaves for a week on Sunday.  The fifth and final team for this summer, my team to Cameroon, leaves the following Wednesday.

It's been a pretty wild summer seeing our dreams and visions come true for 5 student teams this summer - what a joy to watch kids leave their personal comfort in order to bless and serve strangers.  Already, we've heard some great stories about kids experiencing the tension of making an impact on people while being stretched and challenged.

We would love for you to pray for:
- The Baltimore team and the rest of their week, as they participate in various service projects around the city and grow as a team and as individuals within God's story.
- The LA and Cameroon teams as they finish their final preparations and that their teams would make a lasting impact.
- Pray for my Cameroon team, that we would all grow a deep level of team unity.
- That support for all of our summer teams would continue to come in so that we could finish the summer break-even.

Thanks so much for praying and partnering with us. As always, more real time updates on the blog - tonytsheng.blogspot.com

--
tony sheng

DC team followup

From the CSM DC blog, some comments from our team from last week:

I have really enjoyed my stay here at CSM. It's been a great experience and a great opportunity to grow with my friend, Tyler. I'd actually like to come back here next summer, or go on another CSM trip to another city in need. Thank you CSM, for an awesome time!
-Trevin

Welllllll tomorrow is our last day, and we are so sad! We had alottt of fun! The week flew by so fast! It was an amazing experience and we learned so much about the city and missions. We want to thank Hannah and Jordan for being awesome CSM leaders!
-Britt,Tricia, and Elizabeth

See the full post.

Don't worry, there will be a lot more content in August about our teams and following them up.

Technorati tags:: student+missions, Washington+DC, CSM

Blur of a Weekend

This weekend was pretty much a total blur. But I think I was involved in some good things, including a lot of Skip-Bo games with K... I've never played before and she has consistently beat me for the first 9 or 10 games. But yesterday.... I dominated...

In other non-Dad-has-to-win items...

- Worked from 1am to 5am on Sunday morning - got paged at 10am but luckily it was a quickly closed issue.
- Was able to make it to 2nd service to be able to pray with the LA team in front of big church.
- Em and I were able to see the Merge team off. I'm probably going to go visit them this week.
- More pool time.
- The DC and LC teams came home yesterday morning. By most accounts, both were pretty successful. 2 teams are done. 1 is in the field. 1 leaves this Sunday and my team, the last one to depart, leaves in 9 days.
- 2nd to last Cam team meeting where we went over the travel info in detail. GM did a great job going over two short passages about team unity and the idea of a body. We are having a Cam team sleepover next weekend - the first ever co-ed sleepover I have been involved in. Oh, the tragedy. [Pray for the final set of 3 visas - they are being Fed-ex'd to the visa service today...]

Photo: The LA team waiting to go up to the stage to be prayed for.

LC 2006 team departs

Well, the LC team of 14 departed for CMTS this morning. There was a bit of confusion up until last night with some vehicles - most of that was because I was in the middle of it. I should have taken care of it before I left for vacation, but oh well. It worked out and it's SPACE.

It's very exciting for me to see them off. I love this trip because, well, to be honest, it was, sort of, my idea. [OK you are right - *God* gave me a fantastic idea.] Anyway, it has so many great elements in it - to engage middle schoolers in working and serving, taking them away for some nonglamorous work, exploding their worldview and faith by working alongside someone so unconventional, and the connection to a GCC supported ministry.

This is also the first time [but hopefully not the last] that I have released something I wholly owned and unleashed someone else to run it. That's exciting to me because it personally lightens my load. But even better is the fun to empower someone else to run it and see how they shape and infuse the experience from their perspective for middle schoolers. And, NLind is the perfect person for it.

Two teams away now, one of them returns on Saturday, the other one returns on Sunday, while a third team departs on Sunday

Photo: some of the team getting ready to leave this morning. Check out the mohawk!

Related posts: 2005 and 2004 trip wrap ups

Technorati tags:: student+missions

Dinner with the DC team

A few of us went to have dinner with the DC team tonight. They have had a few bumps this week, but overall, the team is doing great. Morale was high, they still had a lot of energy and most of them seemed to enjoy the Thai food.

There were six of us that went, and after reflecting upon our group, I can't imagine a better group of people to drop in on a team that has been living away from home, serving and blessing strangers, doing new and strange urban work projects and experiencing urban missions. If I were away, I would go crazy if a group like that were to visit me.

Tomorrow morning, the LC team departs. That will be the second team that leaves for the field, out of five this summer. Hey, check it out, all of our huge dreams for the summer are really happening!!

Photo: some of the team and their wacky visitors outside Jandara - NW, DC.

Technorati tags:: Center+for+Student+Missions, student+missions

Our So Cal Vacation

The Hollywood Sign

sunset at Venice Beach

The Korean Bell

VMK...

Disney fireworks

DC visit 1

Tonight I drove down unexpectedly to visit the DC team. They had an issue with one of their cars today and needed to switch it out. Since the Madre is here most of this week with her car, it was totally easy for us to switch one of our cars.

It was a lot of fun to drop in and see the team - I had already made some plans to have dinner with them on Thursday with some other SPACE peeps - and I got to see where they are staying and hear a bit about what they are doing so far. But more about the team later.

After I heard about the car issues, I literally just started laughing loudly to myself. It's just perfectly SPACE isn't it? The most random, unplanned, bizarre, ever-so-slight modification in plans. I couldn't help laugh and think, "I love it..."

As I was getting ready to drive back home, all the kids staying in the CSM church lodging were getting ready to have a "Dance-Off!" These are not your parent's missionaries...

ps - our family vacation was fabulous.

Technorati tags:: Center+for+Student+Missions

Visiting Mosaic

Wow... it was a good as I expected it. D and I visited the 5pm service at the Mayan, along with UncleDve. The music was great and loud. Erwin was, of course, right on, speaking on Pressure, in the middle of their SportsCenter series.

UncleDve was easily the oldest person there - call us cool.

Technorati tags:: Erwin+McManus, Mosaic

SPACE 2006 DC team departs

I wish I was there to see them off, but alas, I'm still in So Cal [at least as of when I pre-wrote this post.] They will be spending all week with CSM in DC. It's a great team - quality students and leaders and I'm sure they are going to have a fantastic time. I'm also sure that there are going to be some major transformation that happens with some of them this week.

This trip was a bit bumpy in the early summer as the primary point person had a change of lifeplan and moved cross country before the trip. The other two leaders totally stepped up and led and then also recruited two more leaders. Not an easy situation to step into. One other neat thing about this team - one of the leaders is a Dteam leader for the guys. Meaning that not only does he get to experience this with his students, he will see them all through this coming school year. That greatly increases the odds for a mission experience 'sticking' with these guys.

Photo: Some of the DC team at the sandcastle building contest during Mission Advance.

Technorati tags:: student+missions, Washington+DC, Center+for+Student+Missions

stolen Celtic Way of Evangelism notes

[Post pre-written before leaving for vacation - another fun day in Disneyland - at the urging of K, we both rode the Grizzly River Rapids and, of course, I got soaked and she was totally dry.]

LB's notes here.

Interesting to me --
- No major denomination in the U.S. regards the apostolic mission as its highest priority
- Usually, the higher-ups in the church do not push for apostolic missions because they are the ones who want some security
- Use the Celtic model of conversion, not Roman
Roman: presentation - decision - fellowship
Celtic: fellowship - ministry/conversations - belief/invitation to commitment
"Christianity is more caught than taught."
- A good communicator helps people see what they can become.
- Contextualize the message: "The Christian faith never exists except as translated into a culture." (Bosch)
- In most cities, churches are only responding to those who take the initiative to visit.

Technorati tags:: George+Hunter, Celtic+Way+of+Evangelism

My Homeage to a good friend

[Post pre-written before leaving for vacation - Disneyland today was pretty cool...]
A few weeks ago, our church van blew up. It was a good friend. When we think of partners in ministry, we talk a lot about people, financial and prayer supporters, teams of people and stuff. This van was a partner as well, like candy bars stuffed in the vents, tickets from that ezpass thing, and that overhead light that never could quite turn off. Oh the stories it could tell. The end of an era.

Technorati tags:: student+missions

Happy 4th!!

Happy Independence Day! We are having a great family vacation.

Photo: Venice Beach, the first time the girls put their feet in the Pacific.

While I'm Out

[Post pre-written before leaving for vacation]
** CRM has launched a new web page with lots of cool resources for leader development, mission, church planting, etc.
Podcasts
SpeedLead - 10 minute exercises in leadership development - great idea huh?

** All 92 sneezed at the same time.

** Blending in abroad.

THUMB - unreached peoples

[Post pre-written before leaving for vacation]
This is what my kids were learning about last week at VBS in CT with the Madre. I was very impressed and excited when they got home. My guess would be 75% of adult Christians in America have no idea what THUMB means and why they should at least know something about it.

Technorati tags:: unreached, T.H.U.M.B

Ready for a vacation

Well we are ready. I'm not answering my cell phone for a while. And I'm sure people will manage. And someone is at my house just so you know. Here is the to-do list as of the past few weeks. Most of it has been quite worth it.

X DC - MR - CSM drop in?
X find DC mini vans
X cam visa - notarized letter from parents
X cam visa - letter from church
X team pictures to church office
X merge packet to jess w
X merge registration
X MMaloy JGuy Rmsings Mission Advance prep
X Cam team shot info faxed to Mary
X SPACE mission advance updated info sheet
X SPACE projected payment info to accountant
X find Mission Advance worship leader
X Drop visa batch#1
X LC moms - drinks for Mission Advance help
X list of families for Taiwan host to EOBrn
X projected church van need to SM
X DWoo - Merge guys paperwork
X meet with LB - funding and visas for next week
X input checks for this week
X input checks for last last week
X send out team financial reports
X write my personal thank you cards
X follow up with visa guy on status of first batch
mission adv finance close
X cam DI stuffs
X cam next mtg schedule
X RB LA release
X pay mission advance "citation" if that is what you call it
X swim across the pool for the first time
find student for merge team opening

See you in mid July. Might be some posts that are prewritten and published with a simple click before lounging at the pool. Or might not be.

The Best Debriefing Resources

Seth Barnes, Executive Director of Adventures in Missions, has a series of 10 posts that deal specifically with debriefing and reentry. I've thought for a long time that there was not a lot of material available on this subject and I think Seth's posts are probably the most comprehensive I have seen. Some of you may want to read, study and print these posts out.

#1 - Overview
#2 - Biblical Perspective
#3 - Why Do It?
#4 - Areas to Cover
#5 - 30 Questions to Ask, #5b - Continued
#6 - How Debriefs Make A Difference
#7 - Different Ways
#8 - Why Debriefing is Important
#9 - Debriefing Sharpens Our Spiritual Sight
#10 - Untangling Lies

A few things out of Seth's series that I try to specifically do:
- Instant, daily and post trip debriefs.
- Using journals and photos a lot.
- Encourage people to come up with different summaries of the trip for different people - 30 second, 2 minute and 20 minute versions.

Things out of his posts that I'm going to think more about:
- looking at those 30 questions more.
- more focus on planning for the future versus just processing the experience.
- more thinking about the 4 re-entry patterns and how they matter.

Related posts:
- Brasil 2005 Reentry
- The Next Mile debriefing resources

Skype, Smores and a Sombrero

The girlies are at the Madres in CT this week. She has been gracious enough to have them so that D and I could pull off this past weekend together and not have to worry about our girls. The girls are, of course, having a great time there and in no hurry for us to pick them up. Oh to be so carefree....

The whole pale-skinned side of the family decided to buy webcams and download Skype to keep in touch. I just got a webcam yesterday and we were able to video talk to the girls for the first time last night. Very fun and works pretty well. Our video last night was a little choppy and might have been due to both a bad connection and the electrical storms in our area.

I've been using Skype on and off for about a year and started to use it to talk to GMcM when we were getting ready for Brasil. Who would have imagined it would be so easy to keep in touch with friends around the world?

Photo: Kt and Em [in the foreground], smores and a sombrero; the sombrero courtesy of the fun effects that came with our webcam.

Technorati tags:: Skype

Urban Impact NY blog

Read about his heart... and let me tell you - it is real on the web like it is in person....
http://urbanimpact.voxtropolis.com/

Technorati tags:: New+York+City, Urban+Impact+NYC, 10/40+window

SPACE Mission Advance 2006

I'm back from Mission Advance 2006. There is so much to tell, but although exhausting as it was, it was definitely worth it.

Goals
The two big goals for the weekend was to have the teams bond together by spending time together and give the students a bit of preparation about culture, teams and their summer trips. Every piece of the weekend was centered around these two goals.

Schedule
Fri 09.30p arrive
Fri 10.00p intro and worship
Fri 10.30p team time
Fri 11.00p snack
Sat 12.30a lights out
Sat 09.00a breakfast
Sat 10.00a team build 1
Sat 11.00a team build 2
Sat 12.30p lunch
Sat 02.00p team build 3
Sat 03.30p free time
Sat 06.00p dinner
Sat 07.30p mission workshops
Sat 09.00p worship
Sat 10.00p snack
Sat 11.00p leader mtg
Sat 12.00a lights out
Sun 08.30p breakfast
Sun 10.00p close
Sun 11.00p depart

Team Building
Team Building 1 was a sand castle contest between four summer teams. Each team was given a bucket filled with random, obscure objects that D and I got from the dollar store. Their objective was to build a sandcastle using those objects. The activity was meant to be fun and light-hearted, to get teams working together and give them a bit of time on the beach. It went really well. The leaders decided to just let the students do the activity together while the leaders formed their own team and built their own castle. This was fun for the leaders, although it didn't give them the opportunity to observe how their teams were working [or not working] together. I didn't think about it, but I should have made sure they were watching their teams.
Team Building 2 was having the teams go through an activity called Lost At Sea. Some of you may have seen this before. It's an exercise in decision making and the intention is to show how working as a team usually results in better decision making compared to making the decision by yourself. Most teams enjoyed it although since this was a sit down exercise, we probably could have had more fun doing another interactive, outside activity. See www.training-manager.co.uk/documents/TMSS-LostatSeaExercise.pdf for the whole exercise.
Team Building 3 was meant to get the teams out on the boardwalk of Rehoboth Beach, doing some kind of light service project outside of camp, and taking some risks as a team. The ideas included filling up parking meters with some change that were close to expiring, serving and blessing some kids and families at Rehoboth Beach's Fun Land by giving them some free tokens, picking up some trash at the beach, and starting a soccer or volleyball game with some strangers on the beach. The Cam team played skeeball most of the time [no, not really.] Actually, we had an intersting discussion about who on the boardwalk would be a 'person of peace.' Most of these ideas worked well, but the weather was overcast and rainy. Fun Land was definitely a great place to see kids serve people they didn't know.

MMaloy told this story at dinner:
"Some guy was playing a game and his game finished. Someone from our team came and gave him a token to put into his game. His game finished again and someone else from oru team gave him another token. "This is the second person that has done this to me today!" "

Mission Workshops
JGuy - the ideas of obedience, prayer and trust on your missions trip.
MMaloy - how do you define success on your missions trip.
N and B Rmsing - culture - what is it and how can do we relate to it.
They were all excellent and the students appreciated the different topics and perspectives. The timeslot, being late in the day, was not optimal, but that was due to a last minute logistics change.

Lodging
Cape Henlopen State Parks, in the youth group camping section.

Weather
The weather had some fun with us this weekend. Ideally, a weekend without rain would have been perfect. But Sunday was literally washed out, with rain and thunderstorms all night long Saturday night and flash flooding warnings during our whole drive home. In fact, part of the trip home was driven through a quarter mile of highway with water 2-3 feet deep.
I had been planning a kind of send off thing for the leaders to be part of on Sunday morning. It would have involved leaders annointing there students with a drop of oil on their foreheads and praying over the students as we worshipped on the beach, with no rain. Unfortunately, it didn't stop raining and our worship leader broke a string on his guitar. So that plan fizzled.

Reflections
"I think this was my summer missions trip." - D [whose help in the kitchen was immense.]
"Adaptability is what it is all about." - N Rmsing

My two favorite parts - the mission workshops and our short leader gathering Sat night. I loved being able to bring some guys and gals with some good expertise and giving them a chance to share with these students. And I loved being able to share and hang with these leaders. Again, I can't tell these guys and gals enough how much I appreciate what they are going to do this summer.

Photos: All of SPACE Mission Advance; the Baltimore Merge team; the LC team during one of the workshops; the LA team admist the floods; most of the summer leaders. More photos at my 20060623missionadvance tag.

Technorati tags:: student+missions

Pray for Mission Advance

Well, we are almost ready to go for Mission Advance. It is sort of coming along nicely.

Here are a few things we would love for you to pray about:
- safety in getting 58 or so people down to the beach and back.
- for good weather - some of our team stuff is going to be outside - and, of course, we need good weather because we are going to the beach...
- for the team leaders - that they make the most of their time with their teams
- for two students and their job situations - that they are able to go because I really want them there.

As always, we really appreciate your praying for us.

Photo: The Cam team got shots on Tuesday. Most of their arms fell off that night.

Technorati tags:: student+missions

Mission Sunday 2006

I meant to post this a few days ago, but, like I mentioned before, Sunday was a total blur. If you asked or told me about something on Sunday, you should email it again.

Anyway, besides it being Fathers Day, and me working until 6am the night before, it was Mission Sunday - the Sunday where GCC promotes all summer mission trips. In theory, it is a phenomenal idea. The whole church gets to see and hear a little bit about some its own going out to different places and serving with different ministries. There are seven summer teams this year and I'm really ecstatic to have a small role in five of those teams.

Our graphic artist put together thousands of prayer cards for each of the teams. [See my previous posts.] She also printed the cards poster size. Each team had its own little area out in the lobby after each service where people could pick up a card and meet and chat with some of the team. It was really fun and like I told all of the kids - its a great opportunity to share with someone a cool thing you are doing this summer.

During the service, they had slides for each team, as they announced each team and showed its slide, they had people on those teams stand up. All of us sat mostly together during the 2nd service [see blurry photo] and it was pretty cool. The mass of student mission humanity.

Mission Sunday is a great idea. However, two things come to mind for improvement. First, Fathers Day isn't the best Sunday to do it. Secondly, on a much broader scale, mission isn't just about going to another place. We all know that, but have to make sure we don't glorify missionaries more than anyone else that is living with intention and purpose.

Technorati tags:: student+missions

Meet the SPACE 2006 Merge Team

Meet the SPACE 2006 DC Team

Meet the SPACE 2006 LA Team

Not My Helmet

So the heavens opened up and I found a worship leader for Mission Advance. I love it when a plan comes together. Of course, I know the plan will continue to hmm how shall I put it - evolve...

This is BCoe [the one without the helmet on]. He has been on a few of our SPACE teams, including NYC 04 and Trinidad 05 as well as on our Senior weekend last month. It will be lots of fun to see how he shapes our worship environment this weekend. Probably the coolest part is that he has been well involved with SPACE and will be able to shape the worship environment from that perspective.

Technorati tags:: student+missions

Enter the Matrix

In order to try and keep all our teams organized, I use Excel like it was the end of the world. Here is a quick snippet.

Names go down the rows. Teams are across the top for columns. Two more columns include attending Mission Advance and whose car they are in. An x in the column for each student signifies who is going on what.

Way over on the right are summary tables using important function = COUNTIF(L2:L79,"x"). That counts the number of how many cells have 'x' within the range.

Click on the image for full size.

Technorati tags:: student+missions, Excel

Expert Mission Trip Advice

A few months ago, I reached out to some experts to answer the question, "If you could give one piece of advice for people going on mission trips, what would it be?" I got some great responses and did a series of posts about their answers.

Here are the links:

#1 - PrayingMantis.
#2 - Justin Long.
#3 - Steve Addison.
#4 - Andrew Jones.
#5 - Dr. Ryan Bolger.

Good advice - learn from those who have gone before you.

Mission Trip Advice #5

This is the fifth in a series of posts entitled "Mission Trip Advice." [Post #1, #2, #3 and #4 in the series.] So you have signed up to go on a mission trip, and maybe you don't know exactly what to expect. And you are maybe looking for some advice. What is one piece of advice that experts could give you?

Dr. Ryan Bolger is assistant professor of Church in contemporary culture at Fuller Seminary and teaches classes on emerging churches and postmodern/global culture. Ryan is coauthor (with Eddie Gibbs) of Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Communities in Postmodern Cultures (Baker Book House, Fall 2005).

Dr. Bolger's advice:

The key thing for your students to understand is that the trip is for them and not who they are going to...It is to develop their awareness, wake them up, spark something. Rarely do the recipients of these trips experience long term change (although there are always exceptions!). I would encourage your students to journal and to process what is going on for them a changed Westerner can mobilize even more efforts when they get home...
Yes, we can change the world, but it will involve the rest of their life and not just two weeks...but praise God for small beginnings...

Much thanks to Dr. Bolger for his advice and experience!

Technorati tags:: student+missions, Ryan+Bolger

Already a Blur

This weeekend is moving way too fast...

Today was:
- lovely time at the pool with D this afternoon
- out to Reston with the fam to have dinner with an old college roommate and his family, he and his family of a wife and three girls under 5 are moving in two weeks to Bangkok, Thailand
- I'm at work now - it's when most normal people are sleeping

Tomorrow is:
- Fathers Day
- Mission Sunday at church in the morning - don't know if I will make it or not
- extended family's wedding in the afternoon

Nuts

It Actually Might Advance

So, this Mission Advance thing might actually work. Lord be with us.

Workshop Team:
There will be three guests coming with us - specifically to do some mission prep sessions:
JGuy - who was a student in the ministry and then became a Dteam leader. He has participated on numerous cross cultural mission trips, as well as helping to lead a SPACE team to Trinidad in 2005, assisting a GCC family living there. This past February, he spent 3 weeks in Southeast Asia, living with another GCC family.
MMaloy - who will be starting his third (!) rotation as a Dteam leader in the fall - he is either nuts or crazy. Seriously though, MMaloy is a well seasoned youth worker and has loads of experience with student missions. He has helped lead teams to DC, Trinidad, and Canada. He was also a big part of our most recent Senior missions weekend to NYC.
N and B Rmsing - N and B lived in Africa for a number of years and bring some very relevant cross cultural experience to our teams for this weekend.

Food:
Nothing too elaborate. Easy to eat breakfasts. Deli meat sandwiches for lunch. Meatball subs for dinner. Easy to eat and clean up. Two middle school mothers have volunteered to help and JBourq is also going to help. We will make teams come in and do meal prep and clean up for different meals and call it team bonding, when it in fact is just cheap labor. It's either help for your own meal or work in an iPod factory. Our kids were away tonight at Grannys and D and I went to a warehouse store and priced and bought a bunch of stuff. I'm much more optimistic about the whole thing after doing that. Almost all of these good ideas come from D.

Transport:
Barley enough cars to get there. I think.

Worship leader:
Pray that the heavens open up on this one.

Me:
I guess since this weekend's idea was mine, I'm responsible. Not only for the logistics going smoothly, but the overall tone and direction of the weekend. I guess at some point I'm going to have to talk about why we are doing what we do.

Team Bonding:
There are going to be two specific points for team interacting, bonding and growing, besides all the informal times. One is going to be very relational with the teams having to interact outside of themselves. The other is going to require some creativity and innovation, as well as just teams having a lot of fun with each other. Wish I could say more, but it's a fantastic idea. And it wasn't mine, it was Ds. And of course, the whole focus of this weekend is for the teams to grow together, just by being together.

Tell you more maybe after this coming weekend is over.

Photo: The Sheng girls, at an end of nature camp picnic for E. School is out!

Technorati tags:: student+missions

Delicious on the Sidebar

I just added a linkroll on the sidebar - which lists my most recent links saved into my del.icio.us account. If you save a lot of bookmarks for future reference, you should get a del.icio.us account. Firefox has a cool extension so that you can save bookmarks to your account really easily.

I also recently added a few people [Lon, Breathfire] into my delicious network. It seems like a cool thing. If you have an account and want to be in my network, let me know.

I also added some world clocks to the sidebar a little while ago too, showing significant places to SPACE around the world.

Getting Started With Mission Team Preps

I've had a few people ask me lately about how to get started preparing a mission team. Here are some of my thoughts and some tools that I have used a few times that seem to work well. The two primary aspects of team preparation should center around team unity and expectations.

First - team unity. Your team should get to know each other. They should begin to interact. They should get to know you and the other leaders. The members of the team will soon need to act as one versus acting as individuals.

"For the Christian, there are strictly speaking, no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, 'You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say to every group of Christian friends, 'You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.' The friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument which God reveals to us to each the beauties of all the others." - CS Lewis

I know I've quoted that before here on the blog but its worth quoting again. Essentially, you are trying to build a sense of community - but not community for the sake of community. The community is because of team's role and mission to the world. If not for the mission experience at hand, the team would not exist. Like they said at Origins - "fellowship is what you do while you change the world." And like the quote, someone else has been putting together your team, perfectly.

Building this aspect of the team can be intangible - it happens as you spend time together. Sure, some of your activities will center around activities designed to get to know one another, but most of it is going to be shared time and experiences. Your leader team will be a model for the team at large. A leader team that is tight, welcoming and warm will create an environment that will grow a team that is unified, empathetic and humble. And no surprise, your example matters the most.

Second - expectations. This is the more meaty part of your team preps - actual discussion and activities to prepare you for the actual experience - ministry activities and training, discussions and roleplays about culture, language training and that kind of stuff. You want to prepare your team as much as you can for what you know about. You also must prepare them to be flexible, to be innovative and creative, to be as improvisational as they can - because without a doubt, the plans you know of now are going to change.

On a broader scale, there are some expectations that you have of the team that will not be relegated by logistics or plans. Attitude, how they spend their time while on the field, and constant goals about witness and behavior are some good examples. For instance, no matter how our plans will change in Cameroon, one team expectation is that we are there to bless our missionary family. The expectation does not change even when plans do. If the plans for the camp fall through, the team knows the expectation is still to serve and bless these families, whether that is doing the dishes, taking their kids out for some fun, or organizing a pick up game of football with students.

Some tools that I have used in the past with good success:
- The Hardy Personality
- The Short Term Missions Workbook [I know, I know, you've heard about this a million times by now]
- Myers Briggs Personality Temperament
- The 5 Love Languages Tester
- StrengthsFinder - which I just gave out to leaders this summer for the first time

Here is a rough idea of what is left for my Cameroon team and their preparation:
- Shots and collecting all the rest of the visa paperwork
[Related to the visa paperwork, we get a notarized parental release form from all the parents for everyone under 18, and that gets submitted with the visa packages and we as leaders carry them everywhere we go. Also related, we carry scanned images of passports and those images are also uploaded to an email account just in case we need to get to them.]
- We will be talking about how to lead a Bible study, especially how to lead a Bible study for high schoolers - high schoolers leading a study for their peers.
- Breakout of team packing list which will include Bible camp supplies as well as special treats for our host families and stuff from the US for our GCC family
- A final packing party
- More discussion about the team as a body
- More discussion about a lifestyle of risk

The more I look at this list, the more sense Seth Barnes has about splitting between spiritual director and logistics - see previous post.

Photo: The first mission team I ever led, the summer of 1992. I'm the one with the really cool hat on.

Two roles of a mission project leader

Seth Barnes writes about two roles of a mission project leaders:

Spiritual Director
- Provides spiritual direction for the trip
- Ensures that our project mission and objectives are met
- Oversees logistics coordinator
- Equipped to train groups in listening prayer
- Leads debriefs
- Ensures learning
- Ensures unity of spirit and purpose

Logistics Coordinator
- Ensures safety
- Keeps things on schedule
- Compiles ministry charts
- Communicates logistics
- Understands and can enforce standards of excellence

The Spiritual Director usually functions best by overseeing the Logistics Coordinator rather than the other way around. The project is a spiritual exercise before it is a logistical one.

It's definitely some sound advice. I like the idea of splitting the logistics and spiritual direction because I think both are large enough undertakings that having two people fulfill those roles is a great breakdown of the huge task that mission experiences are. And right now, I'm in the midst of the hugeness. I also appreciate his concept that the experience is spiritual before logistical.

Maybe what some of this means for SPACE is that we find out which side people have more strengths on - the logisitics versus the direction. Interesting division that needs more thought.

Technorati tags:: student+missions, leadership, Seth+Barnes

Support Trending

Another reason why we use Excel to track financial support - Excel charts!

I love Excel charts!! This chart is the trend of the amount of support by date. [click for full size]

We are currently about 18% for all the summer teams, after about 3 weeks of donations. I think we are going to continue to get lots of donations at least for the next 3 or 4 weeks. If you might be interested in giving some financial support, we would love it, email for specifics.

Related post: Big picture of our support process, July 2005.

Technorati tags:: student+missions, Excel

My Sunday At Church

Sort of typical summer Sunday morning at church:
- show up for LC parents meeting, but a bit late. Have K meander around the Warehouse as long as she doesn't leave. Meeting ran out of time - no time for SPACE. Oh well.
- talk to a parent of two middle schoolers going on our LC trip. Parents have loads of cross cultural experience, including Teen Missions and growing up in Africa. Ding ding. Talk to them for a few minutes about our ideas of progression and strategy. Need to follow up with them for future Mission Advances - like that's going to happen.
- run into three 03 guys. All are doing really well. Especially TP - which has been a series of posts by himself. I can't tell you how good this news is - he looked absolutely fantastic. What can I say - it's the Developer strength in me.
- take K to class - move up Sunday, she is now in 3rd grade.
- back to Warehouse. LB and I collate all the visa materials - ones that are ready, ones that are not. She doesn't mind walking around with passports - she has more guts than me.
- introduce our potential NYC transplantee to some SPACE people.
- talk to our Senior High Admin about a venture with an overseas youth missions org, long story. Wish we could be better equipped, involved, partnered up.
- talk to our Senior High Pastor about projected church van use. The church van was on fire last Friday. Goodbye old green friend.
- collected one person's paperwork for Mission Advance - not due until next Sunday, but one is a good start.
- reviewed on LA team member's support letter. Not in the mail yet I guess?
- picked up more summer support donations.
- went to listen to Senior High Pastor SM talk during high school service. He showed pictures of real demon possessed people. Go SM, go!
- followed up an invitation to someone to lead worship at Mission Advance. She can't do it.
Busy, busy.

The afternoon was lighter. Bob Evans, Staples and Borders and then dinner at Grandpas and Grannys with K.

Photo: In homage to our old green church van, the rear and front of it the last time I drove it after successfully parallel parking it in NYC [with a spotter of course]

Technorati tags:: student+missions