SPACE Core Score - Summer 2008

From Marcus Buckingham:

+ What Is Our Core Score?
By zeroing in on one core score leaders brought clarity to their people.
Ideally, this score will be a leading indicator of success, such as employee engagement or employee safety or crime, rather than a trailing indicator, such as sales or profit or tax revenues, but from the perspective of your followers, what matters most is that it's clear.

One of the metrics SPACE measures is how many leaders are returning to SPACE. If they have participated in a previous SPACE experience - either as a leader or student, it is scored. It matters because the more expertise, experience and context our summer team leaders have, the better the odds of their success. Our choices in leadership are about the most intentional thing we do and it's a choice we make matter.

Here is that particular core score for this summer's leader teams.
: Baltimore - 5 out of 6 == 83%
: Cameroon - 5 out of 5 == 100%
: Hungary - 6 out of 8 == 75%
: NOLA - 6 out of 9 == 66%
: England - 5 out of 6 == 83%
+ Total - 29/34 - 85%

Compare this to the score from Summer 2007 -- 65%

Who Does What

A lot of leadership is observation. Who does what, when do they do it and why do they do it? When you leave the team to figure out something on their own, who takes charge, speaks up, organizes the rest. And who sits back and keeps quiet? And why? When your own seven year old falls down and needs some help, who picks her up and carries her the rest of the way home? And why?

Of course, the next step for you as a leader is to engage them at the next level. How can you make their experience move them to the next step of initiative, influence and impact?

2008 Hungary #3

We had our third formal Hungary 2008 team meeting this past weekend. This particular all-day event included the following parts:
- Blind Volleyball - We went down to the park in my neighborhood and played blind volleyball for about 15 minutes. Blind volleyball is when there is a tarp or something laying over the net so you can't see the other team. The overall idea was to get them to understand that this summer, and some of life, is moving and acting when you don't have all of the information. Even though you can't see what's coming next clearly, you still have to move. Get used to it, friends.
- Program Development - At this stage, we are still very much in the midst of ideation as the program pieces develop. So far, we have a big idea theme along with team breakouts to develop specific pieces as much as we can. These breakouts include a teaching team, a skit/video team, crafts and opening and closing ceremonies. Similar to last year, most of the elements have been developed by the students on the team - we have given it to them and they have run with it. It's going to be pretty amazing.
- Lunch
- Window Wash Fundraiser - we did a fundraiser where we washed windows at a gas station. If people wanted to donate, they could but we made sure we told them they certainly didn't have to. Lots of fun conversations and people encouraging our team. We raised a nice bit of support.

Related:
Hungary 2007 - Meeting #3
Cameroon 2006 - Meeting #3
Brasil 2005 - Meeting #3

Friday RocketFuel

::: Thinking about the Peace Corps?
Two insightful articles about culture, sustainability and impact related to the Peace Corps.
1
2
Interesting anecdote, one of my friends says his experience is that a lot of Peace Corps people finish out their careers as lawyers.


::: A Daily Big Idea
Some of the recent ones:

The rise of social networks has cheapened what it means to be "friends" with someone.
All innovation is fueled by the theft of intellectual property.
An entrepreneurial environment is the best way to foster high performance.

Link from Fast Company.


::: Making the World Human Again
Alex McManus's new book. Preorder here.

Lying to Myself

This is about the time of year where part of me tries to convince the whole of me to give it a rest. To shut it down, walk away, finalize the experiment to see how self sustaining it really is. To see what would happen to SPACE if I were to take a sabbatical. I use the word sabbatical because it implies taking a pause and then coming back. But that part of me is lying. Once it convinces me to leave, it's a done deal.

This certainly was the case last year - after a very busy Spring and early summer of initiating and launching teams and a fabulous weekend of Mission Advance, I told myself I was done. And then the ridiculous happened - I visited our at-that-time freshmen team working with Chain Reaction in Baltimore. And the part of me that was trying to do the convincing gave up, right then and there. I saw hope. I saw purpose. I saw the future. And I decided we weren't done yet.

I don't think you should feel like your SPACE team has the overdramatic responsibility for the future of me. That would be just silly. Like most people, I go through waves of certainty and uncertainty, low risk and high risk, loud and quiet. Those waves are anchored by the truth of who Jesus is my life and what kind of God uses people like me. But, your SPACE team certainly has the not-so-overdramatic responsibility for the future of humanity.

That's how to not to lie to yourself.

Photo: Last summer's SPACE 2007 Baltimore team.

What Time Is It There?

Pulling teams of high school kids together in disturbia is hard enough. Right now, I've got three leaders spread across multiple time zones. I haven't seen one of them since January. But they are doing it - living life while dropping in to culture after culture, blessing and serving those close and far away from home. Technology now allows us to stay in touch, even when we have sent them to where they need to be.

Photo: Skype chat with ESunde and RachelJ. [Their video wasn't working...]

Tony Campolo and Macro Economics

Jeremy gave me a copy of Deep Justice in a Broken World and I've been skimming it. Full review and notes coming soon. In the meantime, from Tony Campolo...

I think youth pastors are sometimes afraid and unable to recognize that there needs to be structural change in order for there to be social justice. It's not enough to work on the micro level. When youth ministers go to a third-world country, it is important for them to see the ways the political, social and economic structures on the macro level create and maintain poverty.

And

I find most youth workers haven't a clue as to what macro economics are all about, and how macro economic factors create the poverty in third-world countries. They don't understand why third-world peoples are angry with Americans.

And

Point blank, I'm not impressed with youth workers. I find that just like teenagers, they don't know what is going on in the world. Youth ministry is far too often a matter of fun and games. When I go to youth ministry conferences, I sometimes get depressed because I find that youth workers are primarily interested in techniques. They seldom want to deal with the issues. They often evade the hard-nosed facts of what's going on in the world.
As a matter of fact, I think MTV may do more to help kids become sensitive to the needs of the world than youth workers. If you're asking me who is who is more likely turning young people on to poverty issues, I'll have to say it's Bono of U2 rather than youth workers. Youth workers are pressurized into maximizing big turn outs at the youth gatherings at their churches, and that doesn't usually come by making kids sensitive to the needs of the poor and the oppressed. That's a very sad thing, indeed.

+ Reading The End of Poverty [notes] was the first thing that ever exposed me to economic structures and how they impact poverty.
+ Does this validate my fascination with MTV?
+ Even though he doesn't mean it, I think he's saying something about the system of youth ministry too.
+ If you are a youth worker, what do you think?

World Malaria Day 2008

Today is World Malaria Day. If you are a long time reader, you know that this blog has talked about malaria a bunch of times before and you already know that it is a global issue that is totally preventable with the right kind of investment.

I'll quote Jeffrey Sachs once again:

300 million sleeping sites in Africa that need protection from malaria
anti-malaria bed net costs $5 and last five years - $1 a year
multiple kids sleep under one
total investment - $1.5B for 5 years
the most amazing bargain of our time

Two ways to make a difference right now:

+1 United Nations Foundation - http://www.nothingbutnets.net
+2 Compassion and Youth Specialties - http://biteback.net

One of the tenets of this blog is to motivate you to do something and it would be fun that if you are a part of SPACE and feel compelled enough about this issue, that you give to one of those movements linked above. It's $10 meaning that you could forgo the movies once this weekend. And in light of all the support raising you are involved in right now for your summer teams, it's a little counterintuitive. But that's the Gospel, right. If you give, leave a comment.

300 million sleeping sites. minus what SPACE does.

Oh and thinking about a career in the biological sciences? How about becoming an expert in malaria?

Europe - Death and Resurrection

From the newsletter of Jeff Fountain, director of YWAM Europe - referring to Philip Jenkins' God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis:

::: A persistent undercurrent of spirituality remains among old-stock Europeans, expressed in 'surprisingly medieval forms of devotion' such as pilgrimage, which is enjoying widespread revival as a spiritual exercise. Devotion among youth is evidenced by the 100,000 youth visiting Taizé each summer, the one million attending World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005, and engagement in many new movements both Catholic and Protestant including Focolare, the Alpha movement, ProChrist, the Thomas Mass for contemporary 'doubters', Soul Survivor... and on the list goes.

::: Immigration into Europe is usually associated with Islam, but many immigrants are Christians, a major factor in the shape of tomorrow's Christianity. Not only will the high birth rate among the rapidly-expanding immigrant churches boost the Christian figures, but these new Europeans are turning Catholic, protestant and charismatic-Pentecostal churches into centres of vibrant and colourful worship and witness. Of Britain's ten largest churches, four are pastored by Africans. Europe's largest church, in Kiev, is pastored by a Nigerian.

::: In short, Islam's encounter with Europe is likely to create an ever-more adaptable form of faith that can cope with social change without compromising basic beliefs. At the same time, and contrary to expectation, Christianity is surviving amid 'Eurosecularity' and could well emerge stronger for the challenge.

::: [Phillip] Jenkins suggest that perhaps the best indicator that Christianity is
about to revive is a widespread conviction that the religion is doomed or in its closing days. After all, he reminds his readers, the Christian faith is all about death and resurrection. The quote heading the last chapter reads: "If you are the type of person who buys stocks and bonds, I'd buy Christianity. The price now is very low... it has to go up."

For more [although this issue isn't online yet] see http://www.ywam.eu/weeklyword/2008/

Better Than Reform School

One guiding principle for SPACE summer experiences is that they are not meant [in the wise words of a well-seasoned mission pastor I heard one time] to be reform school. Meaning, we expect a certain baseline of maturity and growth for the students that are involved on our teams. That isn't to say that everyone has to be perfect, but it's not summer camp and we aren't a babysitting service. Along with a lot of praying and listening, we use student applications, small group leader opinions and employer/teacher references to make what are sometimes very difficult decisions with regard to who is in and who is not.

There are certain times when we will take on a student even though there might be some small issues - it's a bit of risk on the part of the team leadership [like the whole trip has 0 element of risk in it..] And in these cases, we explicitly raise our expectations, because sometimes, you get what you expect. We have the resources, the context and the determination to work deeper with these specific students. Most of our team leaders are student small group leaders who work with these kids every week during the school year. They see them in their home culture and have deep ties with them, many of them lasting most of the high school years. And these leaders desire the very best for their students and willingly sacrifice for them.

Most recently, I've come alongside a few leader teams that went out of their way to work with some particular students. On the surface, it means putting together a very informal growth path and executing that plan within the relationship. As opposed to a one-sided-measure-up-or-else ultimatum, this requires a commitment from both parties - the leader team and the student. The leaders commit something to the student - let us help you grow. And the student commits to the leaders - I will try my best. All with multi-faceted contexts - a summer team, a leader-student relationship, and a youth ministry.

This is why SPACE is a component of a local youth ministry.

[Side note: Find someone with a Developer Strengths Finder theme to help you with this. It is why they exist. This summer, around 50% of our leaders have this theme.]

Tuesday RocketFuel

::: Coaching Convictions
+ People are more like Acorns, not Empty Buckets.
view people as full of God-given potential, rather than as empty buckets waiting to be filled.
+ Discovery learning, not merely "downloading information," leads to genuine growth.
+ Statistics show that 70% of the time, the solution for an issue is within the person we are developing. They don't need someone to give an answer, they need help in discovering what God has already put into them.
Link to Simply Coaching [PDF] via Steve Addison


::: Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone
Link


::: BioFuels and The World's Poor
World cereal stocks are at an all-time low, food-aid programmes have run out of money and millions face starvation. Yet wealthy countries persist with plans to use grain for petrol.
Link

Hungary Mid April Update

We had another fun meeting with the 2008 Hungary team this afternoon. Really amazing team - so talented, energetic and ready to serve. Here are a few highlights of where this team is at currently:

- Finances : About 10%
- Program : We have outlined the overall theme of the kids program. We have also identified specific elements and how they will fit together. The next step is putting some of that on paper [for example: what crafts for what days/video storyline on this day to fit with this topic, etc.]
- Travel : With 26 people, it's going to be interesting. But we have our initial lodging in Vienna booked - Vienna City Hostel.
- Various : Sending invitations to the CAI kids in advance possibly, a few souvenirs for them to take home, working on some team fundraisers like window washing and a restaurant night and our all SPACE silent auction
- I'm also working with each of the adult leaders on some bigger picture things - either helping to prepare and expand SPACE for the future and/or making some serious investments in this particular team. This is a big difference from last year and although last year's team was great, I'm much more intentional about this element for this coming summer. Tell you more about that later too, but this is one of the parts that I love.
- The biggest challenge I'm running into this summer, with this team and all of our teams, is empowering others. Giving permission and authority to others doesn't ever seem to get any easier, but you don't have a choice.

Photo: 23 of the 26 members on Hungary 2008.

Decompressing a Vacation

Well, we had a phenomenal time in Key West, it was really a lot of fun and a nice break. D's got the whole travelogue here.

In random order...
- there are 42 bridges from Key Largo to Key West.
- in real life, the blue water looks just like it does in the movies.
- people in Miami are more into cars than I expected or knew.
- a one bedroom apartment in downtown Key West costs ~$1800 a month to rent.
- Google shows 196 churches in Key West for 25,478 people. About 130 people per church.
- Key West is 90 miles from Cuba.

Key West Action Shots

[RSS readers, click to see the pictures on the actual post.]

Supporting SPACE

Of course, every summer, we have a huge number of people that support our summer teams. None of these teams are viable without friends, family, and partners within our networks that pray for and financially support our teams.

This year, in order to make it a bit easier for those that feel led to help with finances, we have two methods for electronic giving. The first is via a PayPal account. If you give this way, it comes to our direct account - therefore this is not tax deductible. Click on the "Donate" button, which will take you to PayPal information for our personal account.

The second way is to give via our the electronic giving vendor that our church uses. Click the icon to give to one of our SPACE teams, which will take you to eGive's page for donations to Grace Community Church. After entering the appropriate donor and bank information, fill in the amount for "Short Term Missions" and specify for "SPACE Hungary - Shengs". Or you can give to any of our other teams :
2008 - Baltimore
2008 - Cameroon
2008 - England
2008 - NYC
Just fill in the appropriate team after where it says "Short Term Missions."

Thank you for supporting SPACE. Of course, you know you are supporting students getting to serve and bless in other contexts. You are also supporting the real time lab of global mission, students and leadership. Expect that your investment will certainly multiply and know that we are so, so appreciative!

RSS readers, there is some embedded java script. Or something.

[PS - We think we got all the links correct. Please double check the info before you submit and let us know if something doesn't look quite right.]

Friday RocketFuel

::: John Eldredge's blog
Link via Ben Arment
Starting next week, I'm growing Eldredge hair.


::: Tim Keller on Cities

+ The Grace OF the City -
God says that the city is a gift of God for humanity
+ The Grace IN the City -
4 orders in humanity - Economic, Cultural, Residential, Political/Legal
Cities - all together
Suburbs - all segregated
+ Grace FOR the City....
NYC - it's expensive... Across the Hudson River, you keep 12% more of your income. Most people are here to USE the city... Which means REVOLVING door....
You have to have the grace to care about the city instead of your name. Default of your heart is to make a name....

From the Q conference, via Scott Hodge


::: Profile of Larry Brilliant, head of Google.org

In Brilliant's view, what the planet needs today is not simply the invention of a cleaner way to generate energy or better schools in developing nations but a transformation of human consciousness. "It's a matter of human will," he says. "And that's where my optimism comes from, because I've seen awful things that were solved by the projection of a positive, and I would say loving, human will."

Link


::: The Lord's Boot Camp
CBS does an expose on Teen Missions this coming Saturday night. I'm going to have to get a copy of this to watch.
Link via Bob Carlton
[Related: My time at Teen Missions, June 2004]

Not Enough Time for Perfection

Every summer [or practically all the time depending on how you look at it], we make some mistakes. Sometimes logistics, sometimes staffing, sometimes bad decisions. I spent a little bit of time last week trying to fix a potentially bad decision, working through it with a fabulous group of leaders. Not the first time, certainly not the last.

I like to think that we have open lines of communication so that our leaders and our students are free to tell us when we have messed up. If you are a student, your leader would love to talk with you. If you are a team leader, I would love to talk with you. We won't be offended and will try to fix it as best we can. I also like to think that we are trying to learn from our mistakes too. So when we mess up, because we are learning, I will listen to my wife about the specific hotel we should stay in. [Hi D!]

But the big one here is that we shouldn't be afraid to fail. It's okay and even preferable to try something that hasn't been tried before, to pursue it when we aren't sure of the outcome, to move forward with an amount of uncertainty. What we are doing requires us to go at a certain rate of momentum and that brings a bit of ambiguity. And that is the point of where we really learn. Because the world can't afford for you and I to sit around until our plans are perfect.

Meet The Mega Region

You've undoubtedly heard of the mega-city, especially if you are a regular reader. Now, faithful reader, I introduce you to the mega-region.

Mega-regions are integrated sets of cities and their surrounding suburban hinterlands across which labor and capital can be reallocated at very low cost. The 40 that we will identify here all have economies on the scale of $100 billion or more. Similarly, the 40th largest nation in terms of GDP also has an economy of about $100 billion.
The mega-regions of today perform functions that are somewhat similar to those of the great cities of the past - massing together talent, productive capability, innovation and markets. But they do this on a far larger scale. Furthermore, while cities in the past were part of national systems, globalization has exposed them to world-wide competition. As the distribution of economic activity has gone global, the city-system has also become global - meaning that cities compete now on a global terrain. Urban mega-regions are coming to relate to the global economy in much the same way that metropolitan regions relate to national economies.
Unlike mega-cities, which are termed as such simply for the size of their populations, mega-regions are by definition places that claim large populations, large markets, significant economic capacity, substantial innovative activity, and highly skilled talent.
If we take the largest mega-regions in terms of population, the world's 10 biggest are home to roughly 666 million people or 10.5 percent of world population; the top 20 comprise close to 1.1 billion people, 17 percent of the world total; while the top 40 are home to 1.5 billion people, 23 percent of global population.

- Richard Florida, Who's Your City? : How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life

Before the Bridge

While driving to CT for the SPACE Winter Expedition this past January, we watched the film "The Guardian." If you've seen the movie, you know it's a modern day paradigm for rescuing the lost [So Others May Live.] Sacrifice is also one of the themes in the movie and as we drove over The Tappan Zee bridge, we discussed the question, "how much would you sacrifice for someone else? " I mentioned the story of Daniel Santos, who jumped off the bridge after a woman who tried to commit suicide, jumping 140 feet into the Hudson River. [When I told the story, I got the height of the bridge wrong.]

Just last week, two people jumped off the bridge to commit suicide, within one hour of each other. Both died at the scene.

"So far nothing has helped make it [the bridge] less alluring to would-be suicides. Four suicide hot line telephones were installed last year, on both ends of the bridge. None have been used."

Only 1 Hour?

"I tell my staff if they are not praying for an hour a day about their ministries to let me know and I will hire someone who will." – Francis Chan

MegaSPACE

D and I have been pondering our context of a "megachurch" for a long while now. Sam Metcalf's post Megachurches reminded me again of some of our thinking.

+ A megachurch is defined as a church having around 2,000 people for worship in a typical week.
+ Megachurches represent one half of one percent of all religious congregations in the United States.
+ There are 1250 megachurches out of 320,000 Christian congregations, comprising 4.5 million attendees every week.
+ Only about 30% of the North American population is within reach of the institutional/traditional/attractional church and an even smaller percentage of that would ever meaningfully connect with a megachurch. [- Alan Hirsch]

If you are a part of SPACE, the above describes your context too. With that, there are some things that we can do that other churches cannot do. This summer is a good example - over 30 leaders, over 100 students, a projected budget of over $150,000 - larger than the average church in America.

You also should know:
+ your church experience is very, very unique.
+ it's so unique that other expressions of Church may seem really odd to you, but are in fact, just as valid.
+ when you leave SPACE, you won't find another Grace Community Church. Instead, your experience in researching, finding and being involved in a new community will be enlightening, stretching and very healthy.
+ The 30% reachability threshold mentioned above is troubling. But it doesn't mean you have to accept it.

Thursday RocketFuel

::: Paris or London
Link
via The Where Blog


::: Steve Jobs on
focus, finding talent and planning
Link
via The Practice of Leadership


::: What Every American Should Know About the Middle East
Link
via Kottke

Global Poverty Tidbits

I picked up this series of articles about ending global poverty somewhere. Below are some of the interesting tidbits. If these interest you too, make sure to check out the whole series of articles.

:: In 1981, 1.5 billion people survived on less than $1 a day, according to World Bank household surveys. By 2001, that number had dropped 27 percent, to just over 1 billion. That means well over 400 million people no longer face the lethal burden of extreme poverty.

:: While humanitarian assistance has saved millions, consider this startling conclusion from a recent study by the Center for Global Development: When aid rises to 8 percent of a recipient nation's gross domestic product, it has zero effect on economic growth. Above that, it has a negative effect.

:: The world's richest 500 individuals have the same income as the poorest half-billion.

:: Change from within must be driven by brave people in the country, to assure the relevance, acceptance, and success of any assistance or reform.

:: Abolishing all barriers to trade in goods and services could increase global income by $2.8 trillion and lift 320 million people out of poverty by 2015, according to a 2002 World Bank statement.

:: From 1981 to 2001, 400 million people there lifted themselves out of extreme poverty. Their numbers as a share of population fell from 53 to just 8 percent. Effectively, 80 percent of the world's progress in ending abject poverty has happened in China, independent of foreign aid.

[Related - my series of notes from The End of Poverty.]

State of Christianity - 2008

The State of Christianity, a yearly run of statistics from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. For those of you that love data, this should make your week.

See the 2008 one page report here. Below are some of the fun ones I've been tracking [although I'm missing some of the years.]

Global Population:
1900 - 1,619,625,000
1970 - 3,692,495,000
2000 - 6,070,581,000
2005 - 6,453,628,000
2006 - 6,529,426,000
2008 - 6,691,484,000

Urban dwellers
1900 - 232,695,000
1970 - 1,362,295,000
2000 - 2,878,861,000
2005 - 3,158,016,000
2006 - 3,252,255,000
2008 - 3,368,561,000

Nonliterates
1900 - 777,475,000
1970 - 836,256,000
2000 - 990,317,000
2005 - 1,078,271,000
2006 - 1,095,879,000
2008 - 1,094,278,000

Metropolises (over 100,000 population)
1900 - 300
1970 - 2,400
2000 - 4,050
2005 - 4,500
2006 - 4,500
2008 - 4,700

Megacities (over 1 million population)
1900 - 20
1970 - 161
2000 - 402
2005 - 440
2006 - 450
2008 - 470

Urban poor
1900 - 100 million
1970 - 650 million
2000 - 1,400 million
2006 - 1,680 million
2008 - 1,790 million

Urban slumdwellers
1900 - 20 million
1970 - 260 million
2000 - 700 million
2005 - 830 million
2006 - 850 million
2008 - 910 million

Average Christian martyrs per year
1900 - 34,400
1970 - 377,000
2000 - 160,000
2005 - 169,000
2008 - 175,000

Unevangelized population
1900 - 879,672,000
1970 - 1,638,575,000
2000 - 1,722,254,000
2008 - 1,871,208,000

Unevangelized as % of world
1900 - 54.3
1970 - 44.3
2000 - 28.3
2008 - 28.0

SPACE 08 Leader Lunch

This past Saturday, we hosted a SPACE Leader Lunch for our summer team leaders. The overarching goal was to gel some teams together and invest in their leadership,

These leaders represent all five of our summer teams - middle school, Baltimore, New Orleans, England, Cameroon and Hungary. Almost 100% of these leaders also serve within our youth ministry in other capacities - most of them helping lead weekly small groups for students. As a ministry, we are very blessed. First, because we have such great leaders. Passionate, loving, generous, and teachable, all of them love students because it's built into their DNA. Secondly, we are blessed because the powers that be allow something like SPACE to build synergy across multiple elements of the student ministry. And of course, you know the rule about being blessed - you must then be a blessing.

Our discussion points included an introduction to Strengths Finder and sharing about their strengths [describe a time when you were operating in a strength, predict/identify a theme in another person on your team]. We also utilized "The 8 Great Questions" and "Your Mission Experience as a Treasure Hunt" principles from The Short Term Missions Workbook [one of the must-have resources if you help out with mission teams.] This was all done within the context of their leadership teams, hopefully helping people understand each other better as they seek to serve this summer and beyond.

For the perspective of this summer, we did a gathering like this so that our teams are adequately prepared to be enormous blessings to others. For the rest of the perspective, we do this because our students and leaders will make all the difference in the world.

Enormously Capable

"There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming."

- Soren Kierkegaard, as quoted by John Wood in Leaving Microsoft To Change The World - An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children.

Our 2008 Missions Support Letter

Make sure you put in your supporter's letter that you blessed many families in immeasurable ways. Let them know that your team invested not only their time and resources, but their whole hearts to serve the families of Christian Associates. We are so grateful for all that your supporters have given so that we could be blessed!
~MR, serving in France

Dear friends, family, faithful supporters and anyone else who is receiving this!

It has been nearly a year since we initiated realizing a dream of ours – to serve Christ together as a family in some capacity outside of the US, our comfort zone. Many of you, I’m sure, remember receiving our letter last year, maybe wondering if we were out of our minds! If that’s what you were thinking, you may wonder again as we are hoping to return this year in the same capacity as last only with the added responsibility of being the sole team in charge of providing a full fledged children’s program for this amazing group of church planters in Europe.

Our trip last year was a growing and learning experience in so many ways. We had opportunities to connect with families who had given up their comfy homes in the US to serve in some of the most spiritually darkened places in Europe. We learned of the struggles they had adjusting to new cultures, languages, and the obvious disdain for America amidst the Iraq war. But even more apparent to us was the effect this had on their children, referred to as third culture kids, as they try to comprehend the passion their parents have for the lost in Europe as that relates to their roots, their socialization and their futures. Providing a short escape from the often stressful and uncertain lives of church planters was so much more important, and took so many various forms, than any of us had realized.

This summer, as part of SPACE [Students Prepared to Act for Christ’s Empire] - Grace's student ministry mission component, we are returning to serve in Sopron, Hungary during Christian Associates International annual staff conference. We will be traveling from July 22 to August 3 with a total team of 26 students and leaders, architecting an experience for the kids of CAI staff. While the opportunity to serve CAI and their kids is immensely rewarding, we also know that this environment is a real time laboratory for our students to learn about global cultures, leadership development and creating Kingdom threads out of nothing.

Of course, we can't do this all alone and we would love your prayers and financial support. You can pray for our leadership, that the students on our team would create the future and that our children would continue to live lives bigger than themselves. You could also pray for our other SPACE teams for this summer – Baltimore, New Orleans, England and Cameroon. Financially, we need to raise $10,000 for our family of four and your financial support would also be a huge blessing. There are two ways you can financially support our team. First, you may send a check in the enclosed envelope with the response card. Please make checks payable to Grace Community Church and in the note section please specify, "SPACE Hungary - Shengs". You may also contribute via the Internet, by clicking the "Online Giving!" link at the top of the Grace Church webpage - http://www.gcconline.org. Click the "eGive" link and after entering the appropriate donor and bank information, fill in the amount for "Short Term Missions" and specify for "SPACE Hungary - Shengs".

Thank you so much for your support and prayers. We have huge expectations for this team traveling to Hungary with us – that they will serve and sacrifice for many this summer and that the spiritual climate of Europe will be different because of many of them.

I don't know if y'all realize just how much you give to us in coming to serve. Our first year, we were beaten down, discouraged, frustrated, humbled and broken. We were also grown, stretched, challenged and provided for in ways we could never imagine. The gift you gave us was a chance to process this stuff for significant periods of time, knowing our kids were entertained, safe and above all LOVED. It's hard to express how much the week at conference means to us-how much we look forward to it each year. Knowing that there are people there who believe in what we are doing and are willing to encourage us in that is amazing. THANK YOU!!!!!

~MR

Related: Historical Mission Support Letters [2007, 2006, 2005]

Leading to Irrelevance

"My defintion of a great team is one that continues to function when the leader goes down, like I did on Everest. The leader's role is to pick a team, train them, and then make himself irrelevant."

- Pasquale Scaturro, modern day explorer, as quoted in Outside Magazine, April 2008. One of his conquests includes the first, full descent of the Nile River, from its Blue Nile source in the mountains of Ethiopia to its terminus just north of Rosetta, Egypt. The 3,260 mile, four month trip included threats such as:
- Class IV and V rapids of the upper Blue Nile, where two capsizes forced one team member to quit the expedition.
- Deadly crocodiles and hippos.
- Arrests by Ethiopian and Egyptian militia.
- Gunfire from Sudanese bandits.
- Extreme temperatures.
- Violent sandstorms.
- Exposure to malaria.

Hungary 2008 Adult Lead Team

Here are some quick introductions to the adult leader team for this coming summer. We also have a huge group of student leaders - graduating seniors that we are bringing on to help us lead and empower - tell you more about them later. Like every summer, I'm thrilled to be working with this group of people. When we recruit leaders, we look for trustworthiness, character and cross cultural experience. And they have to be fun. You will hear plenty more about these guys and gals, and not just from me.

D - my bride. You know her.

ESunde - our first SPACE intern in 2005-2006 and she's stuck with us ever since, leading on Cameroon 2006 and Hungary 2007.

LB - she's currently right now traipsing across the world in Asia and Europe with a YWAM DTS. Leadership experience includes Cameroon 2006 and Hungary 2007.

ErinOB - also returning from Hungary 2007. She will be the sole leader that will continue from Hungary direct to Cameroon this summer and it will be an awesome experience. A little manic, but awesome nontheless.

New to SPACE this year, sort of... - KevGN and his wife KeelyN - KevGN was actually one of my Dteam boys, long before the idea of SPACE ever existed. In many ways, he and his peers were the first [or second] iteration of student mission experiments, since I dragged him and his friends through a variety of different mission experiences before the medium called SPACE. Those fun times included three days of giving money away to new friends on the boardwalk of Ocean City, Maryland; and 11 days in New York City. The trip to NY was one of my all time favorites, when we introduced suburban kids to Harlem and when Kev introduced me to Avril Lavigne. KevGN has also been to Kazakhstan and Turkey. KeelyN has several years of cross cultural experience too, including serving two summers in a row in France [see her 2005 blog]. Oh, and they are newlyweds and will be celebrating their one year anniversary with all their new friends and teammates in Hungary.

Finally, last but not least, RachelJ. RachelJ is good friends with ESunde and is joining us all the way from Seattle. She was with us for the NYC Expedition and showed us her heart for serving and students. Another key barometer was that she was thrilled at the idea of writing "Ask Me About the 10-40 window" on one of the SPACE interns car windows. This is her first SPACE team, but she's been to Mexico and Honduras serving before.

Yup, a great team. Envy me.

Good Friday RocketFuel

::: Vision Trekk
You might hear a lot more about this in the future.
Link


::: Resumes
Solid tips on writing one. Link
Or, you may really not need one. Link
PS - I love writing recommendation letters.


::: Gorbachev's faith
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet Communist leader, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time in a surprise visit to the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.
Link


::: Illinois students and global missionaries
Link
Hope you don't mind, I've given Evan some of your links....

If They Follow You Around

Two repeatable and predictable gauges for when people are ready to go to the next level are availability and curiosity. If they show up whenever you are moving the cause forward, they might be ready. If they ask deep questions, listen whenever you talk [whether you know what you are saying or not], and take a lot of notes, they might be ready.

Who around you is showing up all the time? And who is asking some good questions?

From Austria 2007

I get these email updates from a team that is leading the Serve The City movement at a global, macro level. The last email had some pretty neat updates including:

: Vienna - to say that an ongoing relationship has happened since people first took elderly people on an outing to the zoo during the STC day
: Vienna - Lady whose old cinema was cleaned up in Vienna last year has now opened it up free to Christian groups and bands

Those were both groups that took part in Vienna Day last year at Connect. See the picture in this post for the team in the first item.

[Related: I Am I Need]

2008 Spring Retreat

We had a great time on the CpR retreat this past weekend at NorthBay. My workshop actually went swimmingly well and most of that was because things just happened to click when I was giving my talk. Sometimes, you are on and sometimes not. This time, the Ghost decided to impart. It was a lot of fun and I'm hopeful that it gave students some good things to think about relating to understanding and engaging culture. [Related - my speaking notes.]

By far though, my favorite time of the weekend was when one of our favorite people - TriciaB [one of the 07-08 interns] - got baptized in the Bay. Memorable elements included the cold, murky water of the Chesapeake Bay; 300 friends gathered on the beach; hearing her talk about why Jesus is all; and listening to her friends share about her obvious impact to those around her. At the essence, it was a community sharing about one of their own that blesses those they don't know, all for the sake of One. Congrats Tricia!

[Update - here is the embedded video. How cool is that]

Decompressing Culture - CpR Spring 2008 Retreat Notes

+ 1 == Create
Describe a time when you created something from nothing.
What was the idea, how did you do it, and what was the outcome.

Western Christianity has largely given up on creating culture - instead we are
hiding from it.
The Christian ghetto - books, music, film, bookstores = its unbiblical
God the Creator created you to be creative
You have the ability to mold and shape culture.

Some examples:
: Genesis Adam naming the animals an expression of culture Gen 2:19
: S in Cameroon corruption at every level decided she would not bribe went without a paycheck for 2 years she is changing the culture
: William Carey - created culture in India. Translated the Bible into 34 languages, compiled language dictionaries, started 100 schools for girls, started Horticultural society, professor at college, printed first Indian newspaper, started savings accounts for farmers, helped lead ban against burning of widows. He shaped culture and he did it because he wanted to make the future different.

+ 2 == Engage
Engage the culture
Not about hiding from it
Tools for Engagement
: redemptive analogy
Acts 17
: seek out understanding other cultures
find someone that doesn't look like you and ask them about their background
: language - common language creates culture
StrengthsFinder - common words that describe what you are good at - now everyone understands
JOY in worship - no rule that says when a worship song comes on with the word JOY in it, you scream it
changing the definitions of words
: get involved in people's lives that are outside the Church
don't think that because you now pop culture, that you are engaging culture
you have to invest in people outside of the church for that
if you are not involved in those outside the church, you are not engaging culture.

+3 == Possibility
Agent of change
Catalyst
Risk taker
Shepherd -> King - David
Slave -> Queen - Esther
prosecution to church planter - Paul
The Scriptures are the epitome of POSSIBILITY
What do you create from the possibilities

: Surf church in Portugal
: Aix-en-Provence - south of France, ran a kids camp with 70 kids in an area where half a percent are evangelical
: 14 year old in Malawi that built a windmill for his family - from spare parts and plans he found in an old library book

+4 == back to Create
Creating something from nothing - but it marks human history
Will you do whatever it takes?
In the end, a culture that's trying to kill you really has nothing on you.
Mt 9 - not the healthy but the sick

Pre Weekend Ramblings

In no particular order:

- We are joining the high school [CpR] retreat this weekend, for just Saturday night and Sunday morning. It should be a lot of fun. I've had a no-retreat policy for the past few years [every since I spent about a month away from home in calendar year 2005 for this SPACE hobby] unless I'm doing something to help significantly. I'm running a small workshop on Saturday evening. I needed some creative inspiration so I just went for a drive. [Actually, this article about Ben Saunders - arctic explorer is some good inspiration too.]

- We've taken some extra time to get some clarity on our Hungary team budget for this summer. Although our personal family's support letter is written and printed, our team's letters are on hold until we get some firm info. Have you stayed with a large group of students in Vienna [not Virginia but Austria] or Paris [not Texas but France] ? If so, you and I need to talk.

- I celebrated one full year with Corp1.3 this past week. It's been amazing all the new skills I have picked up in one year, and not all of them were purely technical. For instance, I never uttered the word 'customer' before this job. I hope you think that's odd too, because we ALL should be thinking about 'customers.' [Oh, and I think I've gained 10 pounds in the past year too.]

- D and I have all of our logistics booked for 4 days in the Florida keys in a few weeks. We are celebrating our 15 oops 14 [thanks amy!] year anniversary early since we'll be in Hungary on the actual day. Our kids are celebrating with us by staying home. HA.

Have a great weekend!

Phrases We Try Not to Use

- short term.
- here, let me give you this tract.
- culture doesn't really matter.
- i'm not going into the city. cities are too big, too scary and too irrelevant.
- she has 0 leadership potential.
- let's buy a program book for it.
- why use the internets?

Wednesday RocketFuel

::: Tim Keller speaks at Google
Tim Keller, pastor at Redeemer Pres in NYC.
Link


::: What Books Should You Read on Africa?
Link


::: What Microloans Miss
The vast majority of microfinance projects have only one paid employee: the owner. But businesses that can generate jobs for others are the best hope of any country trying to put a serious dent in its poverty rate.
Link

Understanding Polytheism from Your 10 Year Old

Huh? [Click for full size image]

First 2008 Hungary team meeting

Some shots from our first 2008 Hungary team meeting. This team is comprised of 26[!] people, a lot of them returning from last year - lots of energy, excitement and ideas. At this point in the process, for this specific trip, a lot of the task is just getting thoughts down on paper.

We covered the big picture stuff like Why Europe, overview of CAI and why this team looks the way it does. We also started to plan for the tactical pieces of the children's ministry, including the overall theme [this is a really good one - tell you later] and elements that will be structured within that theme.

If the future were left up to anybody, I would bet on them.

I Think God Could Deflate the Euro

Our Hungary team is busy writing their support letters for this summer, except for one vital piece of information - overall cost. One of our contacts at Christian Associates and I talked earlier this week about some estimated costs and frankly, the cost estimate has left me in a funk. The gist is that the American dollar continues to decline in value in Europe - one American dollar buys less and less. I realize it's not that big of a deal in the overall scheme of my life - we have quite a few friends serving in Europe for a lifetime and for them, it's exponentially worse. Even so, it's got me second guessing this summer's plan.

On one hand, even though the cost per person is significantly higher, we've also got a larger team and therefore a bigger pool of people that are potentially interested in supporting the team. Every year, we get more and more kids on teams and this year is also reflective of that growth. On the other hand, funding is not infinite, there are only so many dollars out there. Or are there? And we've got three summer teams this summer, two to Europe. Budget-wise, this summer looks like double last summer - that's not exactly spare change.

In the end though, and I said this to a few people last year too, part of this whole deal is trying to do something so risky that it will only work when God comes through. If we could do it on our own, we would be short cutting this experience of risk and faith, and it wouldn't be worth it. So, it's with these ideas in my head and that pit in my stomach that we move forward. For those of you that might feel compelled to pray for our teams and/or give, contact me and I'll make sure we get you all the information.

I'm sure this won't be the last of those I'm-going-to-throw-up feelings. We haven't bought any plane tickets yet...

A Student Ministry Global Catalyst's Guide to TED2008

Some of you have probably been following TED 2008 which just finished last week. I followed it too and, like with every TED conference, there is a lot of inspiration for those of you out to make a difference. Here are some of my favorite inspirations and a bit about why:

::: Idea: A car that drives itself.
The Chevy Tahoe named "Boss" can drive itself through a sixty mile urban course.
Think about - the engineering innovation and what it means for a future that is more and more urban. And us Americans, dang, we just love our cars don't we?
Link

::: Idea: How do we give credible hope to the billion poorest people in the world?

We need compassion, because a billion people are living in societies that have not offered credible hope. But we need enlightened self interest because "if economic divergence continues, combined with global integration, it will build a nightmare for our children."

Related: The Bottom Billion. [I think I need to read this.]
Think about - how some of you will be intimately involved providing hope to the poor.
Link

::: Idea: Leaders exude passion.
Ben Zander on music, passion and vision:

He tells the story of critiquing a performer - "You're on both buttocks. You need to play on one buttock." An entrepreneur watching the class told him later he'd re-tooled his entire business to "a one buttock venture"...
Throwing down a challenge, he tells us he's not leaving until we all love classical music. A leader can do this because he truly believes others will believe his vision.

Think about - how passion transcends disciplines, cultures and domains of expertise.
Link

::: Idea: Deep sea exploration and going where no one has gone before. [Does this remind some of you of H2.08?]
Robert Ballard on deep sea exploration:

Ballard now has an amazing new ship, the Okeonos Explorer - it's explicitly chartered to "go where no one has gone before." It will explore the US seas, especially the "Western Territorial Trust", our Pacific territories. "We don't know what we'll find, so run it like a nuclear sub, or a hospital", with teams working 24/7 connected to the ship via the internet, running on Internet 2, connected by 10 gigabits of bandwidth.

Think about - building such a craft and the bravery, resolve and audacity it takes to go where no one has gone before.
Link

::: Idea: More college and high schoolers are involved in anti-genocide movements now than there were for anti-apartheid.
Samantha Power on genocide:

In this century, we have an anti-genocide movement, a student movement that has appeared "almost out of nowhere." There are more people involved on high school and college campuses that is now "bigger than the anti-apartheid movement." The goal of this movement is to raise the political cost for not standing up against genocide.

Think about - how young people have a much more deep tie between belief and action.
Link

::: Idea: A catalog of all human cultures
Bob Geldof to catalog significant human culture:

Now, he has another Africa-focused project, and he wants some help. He tells us of a trip to Niger, talking to an elder, who tell him "18 months ago, there were 300 languages here."
"Separate, complete cultures. They're gone. I never heard those languages, but I already miss them. It's in these ways that the lights of human genius wink out."
So Geldof is proposing "a great mapping to be undertaken. I'm going to log all of us. I'm going to take a snapshot of now." He proposes making 900 half-hour films of 900 different cultural groups.

Think about - wow.
Link

All links from Ethan Zuckerman's crazy real time blogging of the conference. Thanks Ethan!

Wednesday RocketFuel

::: 21 world accents in 2:30

via Kottke


::: The Ambitions Index

- 54 percent of 8-12 year olds and and 66 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Travel the world."**
- 46 percent of 8-12 year olds and 59 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Speak another language" **
- 40 percent of 8-12 year olds and 36 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Invent something"
- 40 percent of 8-12 year olds and 42 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "See a rainforest"
- 28 percent of 8-12 year olds and 26 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Fly a plane"
- 26 percent of 8-12 year olds and 20 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Be in the Guiness Book of World Records"
- 24 percent of 8-12 year olds and 21 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Go to Mars" **
- 18 percent of 8-12 year olds and 30 percent of 13-21 year olds want to try "Bungee jumping"
- 16 percent of 8-12 year olds and 31 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Sky dive"
- 20 percent of 8-12 year olds and 28 percent of 13-21 year olds want to go "Whitewater rafting"
- 16 percent of 8-12 year olds and 23 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Climb a Mountain"
- 15 percent of 8-12 year olds and 42 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Live in another country." **
- 11 percent of 8-12 year olds and 12 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Bike across country"
- 11 percent of 8-12 year olds and 20 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Backpack across country"
- 9 percent of 8-12 year olds and 19 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Run a marathon"
- 6 percent of 8-12 year olds and 10 percent of 13-21 year olds want to "Finish a triathlon"

**You know, SPACE can help you! [OK, so maybe not on the Mars one, yet...]
Link via ysmarko


::: My Husband Wants to be a Church Planter
Uh, no, not my husband. But since SPACE is somehow primarily women [but we are going to change that this summer], this might be useful to some of them in the future... If I approve of their suitors.
Link [pdf] via Lon

The 03 - Four and a half Later

This is the 03 guys, four and a half years after graduation, gathered at the B's wedding this past weekend. [Picture was not great quality]

Lots of fun to catch up with all of them. They are all involved in serving in some capacity - leading worship, researching alternative energy, national security, high school education, the performing arts. Living intentionally takes all forms.

5

We've done a lot in 5 years, but I still don't know why.

Congrats to JAB and FZ!

D and I were involved in a wedding bash over the weekend for old friends JAB and FZ. Long time readers will recognize the names from the 2005Brasil team. Some of you may also remember that JAB was in the Dteam that I helped led from 1999-2003.

D and I also had the fun privilege of facilitating their pre-marriage counseling. They were definitely our guinea pigs while we were definitely too young to be at this stage in life. In either case, it was a lot of fun talking about marriage with them because we know them well, they are good friends and I've dragged them around the world with me. Part of the benefit of us being their therapists was that I got to say a blessing and charge to them as part of the ceremony. "Fun" for my nerves but worth it.

Another fun bit from their reception - all the money that would have been spent on wedding favors was instead given to AIDS relief in Africa. They are a couple that knows that their responsibility is to humanity, because of their compassion for the world and their love for the Father.

[Photo stolen from JWhitt]

Did Paul Like the Suburbs?

All ambitious missionary movements are, or soon become, urban. If the goal is to "make disciples of all nations," missionaries need to go where there are many potential converts, which is precisely what Paul did. His missionary journeys took him to major cities such as Antioch, Corinth, and Athens, with only occasional visits to smaller communities such as Iconium and Laodicea. No mention is made of him preaching in the countryside.

- Rodney Stark, Cities of God

Lots more meaty info here about the spread of early Christianity among an urban context. For instance - population density of Antioch around 117/acre, compared to Chicago 21; SF 23; NY 37; Manhattan 100.

Thursday RocketFuel

::: What MBTI is your favorite candidate?
John McCain - ESTP
Barack Obama - ENFP
Hillary Clinton - ESTJ
Link


::: African Aid from the US and the EU

U.S. economic aid to sub-Saharan Africa increased from $2.1 billion to $5.4 billion between 2000 and 2005. But EU countries gave $21.9 billion to Africa in 2006, and the United Kindgom alone gave $5.2 billion -- with an economy one-sixth of the size of the U.S. economy.

Link


::: Gen Y Speaks up at NASA
About creativity, innovation, social networking, and the engagement of those under 30 with regard to NASA's mission. Make sure to check out the very well done PowerPoint as well.
Link via YPulse

Book 123 Meme

I got tagged via Chris and Ben for this meme. Like them, I hardly ever do these things either. But because we just hung out a few weeks ago face to face and because they are cool....

Here are the rules:
* Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more (no cheating!)
* Find page 123
* Count down five sentences
* Post the next three sentences
* Tag five people

"Are these people for real?" we asked ourselves. Time and time again, the answer was a resounding, albeit surprising, "Yes, they are."
Wanting to help is the fuel that drives a catalyst's ability to connect people. - The Starfish and The Spider

[Related: posts on this blog with the word 'catalyst']

Pray for Some Names

Would you say a quick prayer as you read this? This is the 2008 Hungary team, so far. One or two more names later this week, but we would love for you to be thinking of us real quick. [I'll be updating this post when the team is final.]

the Shengs, Kevin, Keely, Erin, Leslie, Emilie, Rachel, Tricia, Elly, Gwen, Lexi, Andrea, Andrew, John, Taylor, Michelle, Lindsey, Jenny, Sven

The Interns - Saving The World

One elementary school at a time... Link
[Photo via the Baltimore Sun]

Leader Share - Risk

SPACE believes two things about risk. Number one - the leaders of tomorrow have to be willing to sacrifice and risk in order for mankind to have a chance. Number two - many times, we learn to truly walk with Jesus when we are way out on a limb.

From MichelleK’s SPACE 2008 Leader Application [posted here with permission]:

Q: Describe the riskiest - but not necessarily successful - endeavor you have ever attempted. [Question taken from the IMN]

A: So this one time I had a crazy leader called Tony….We were in this foreign city called Vienna after a two-hour bus ride from Sopron, and he handed us bus passes and told us to join a group of adults and follow them wherever they were serving. I attached my self to a group of people that I had never met before and spent an hour or so traversing the city with hopes of finding the movie theater we were supposed to clean. We found it, and I tried as hard as I could to make myself useful. I ended up getting into some pretty cool conversations with missionaries. Long story short, I managed to meet up with my team at the end of the day for some good story swapping on the Danube. … And that’s about as risky as it gets for me thus far.

And Michelle says thus far...... haha...

Photo: MichelleK's team in Vienna, Austria, August 2007. She is 5th from the right in the red.

But Wait, There's More - SPACE Seniors 08

We've never treated graduating seniors the same from year to year. Some years, we invite some of them to be leaders. Other years, we send them off into the cold, harsh world. This year, for those that have invested into SPACE, we are giving them some pretty wild opportunities.

The summer after graduation is a chaotic summer. It's the last summer at home with family and friends, financial pressure for college is large and the whole summer is an emotional roller coaster. And just for kicks, SPACE throws in some cool opportunities. We've tried to be very upfront about all the issues these students need to think about - with their families. The last summer before college is, historically for us, a much more difficult summer for commitments from just graduated seniors.

We are providing these opportunities because we believe the best way to get leaders is to grow them ourselves. Therefore, because some of these students understand SPACE as well as we do, they are prime candidates for more leadership. These students are ones that have traveled with us multiple years, understand risk and initiative and ones we trust with the future of the world.

Therefore, we've invited these well invested Seniors into leadership for this summer. All of these are leadership-based, meaning not just participation but requiring a certain level of responsibility, initiative and hard work. The four options are:
1 - England
2 - Hungary with my team
3 - Cameroon
4 - Options 2 and 3 above - Hungary ends Aug 2 with a decompression in Europe, meeting up with the Cam team who will be arriving in Europe from DC, and then continuing on to Cameroon. [At least, that's the "plan']

Option #4 is for the crazy ones. Three and a half weeks, two continents, four countries, a myriad of world cultures and serving with some incredible hosts. This is the one where other crazy people have said, "I would do that," while normative humans told me I was a nutcase for planning it.

Sure, it's your last summer at home. Yup, college starts in a few weeks. Correct, your life will never be the same again. But you have your whole world ahead of you...

Taking Back The Future

Let me introduce you to ErinMoy and Kenzie. ErinMoy [left] was actually on the first ever SPACE missions team - middle school in 2004 and both of them were on the NYC 2007 team last summer. In 2008-2009, according to the current plan [which you know can change in an instant, you do know that right?], they will be next iteration of SPACE interns - and the experiments will continue... In 2508, who knows.

Internships are one of the best ways we can ensure that there is a pipeline of leadership and investment. And a key characteristic about all of our interns is that none of them had to be sought out - they all identified themselves and initiated opportunity. Tell you much more about these two later. In the meantime, how are your most catalytic leaders getting your attention?

Happy Birthday D!

Go wish my wife a happy birthday. I'm taking the day off so we can go out and play in the snow. Just kidding. If you know her, you know that snow is probably her least favorite thing in the world.

If you know about her and snow, you also know that she's dedicated, responsible and holds the Sheng household together in many, many ways. This year, God has also chosen to use her in even more ways outside of our home to impact, influence and lead so that the future will be different. That's been a ton of fun to watch.

Love

Photo: Us and the elephant from the Natural History Museum, DC.

Tuesday RocketFuel

::: Mobilizing | Student | Mission - Blog Reader Quiz
How many of these do you find counter-intuitive to who you are and what you do?
Counter-Intuitive
Comment away!


::: Engineering Challenges for the Future
My personal favorites are "provide access to clean water", "restore and improve urban infrastructure" and "make solar energy economical."
Link



::: Hints About a Person of Peace [from Luke 10]
Link

1 More - Hungary 2008

Oh.... and one other team for this year.... In addition to the 2008 summer teams, I'm also taking a team back to Hungary again this summer, once again to serve with Christian Associates International. I didn't really post that in the official announcement because this team is a bit different than all the other teams.

This team is targeted for students that have a deep interest in world cultures, global missions and perhaps a cross cultural career. At least, in theory. Practically speaking, this team will get a chance to serve and interact first hand with some dear friends who have decided to leave everything in order that humanity could be different. They have literally left the 99 to go after the 1. This team gets shaped by sharing in that experience, at least for a few days.

We have a lot of work. Unlike last year, this year we will be running the whole show. It's a fun challenge but also a bit daunting. So we have already begun to prepare, firstly by inviting some very talented and passionate leaders, because *everything* rises and falls on leadership, and don't try to kid yourself otherwise. Tell you more about these leaders soon. The rest of the team should be final by the end of February.

If you are a leader, there are some opportunities you should be creating that are more exclusive, ones designed specifically so that you can directly invest in the best and brightest. And I say that knowing that all of our 2008 teams are going to be incredible. Most of you know that I have a lot of fun in brainstorming, dreaming and empowering our teams to go out and serve. But at the core, I'm a futuristic developer, molding and shaping people for the future. And this team experience represents what I must do and what I do best.

Exponential Times

We are living in exponential times. Pay attention graduating Seniors... And well, the rest of you too most likely....

+ 3.3 M college graduates in China in 2006
+ 100% of 2006 college graduates in India know English.
+ More than 50% of 21 year olds in the US have created content on the Web.
+ Years it took to reach a market audience of 50M, via:
radio – 38
television – 13
the internet – 4
+ 540,000 words in the English language.
+ 3000 books are published every day.
+ By 2010, technical information will double every 72 hours.
+ 2B children
+ One in 3 never completes 5th grade.

1 Year Ago

One year ago yesterday, job 1.3 was set in motion. That was the day, flying home from Humana with the fam, waiting for our flight in Orlando airport, that I got the call for the interview.

It's been a good, good, good year.

Tuesday RocketFuel

::: Free Bed Nets and Malaria
Results from a new survey by the World Health Organization on free bed nets.

In Ethiopia, deaths of children from malaria dropped more than 50 percent. In Rwanda, they dropped more than 60 percent in only two months.

via Defeating Global Poverty


::: Need to get some ideation - take a hot shower

Right before you take your shower, think about something you want to write or a subject you'd like to write about. As you shower, just let the idea roll around in your head. A hot shower naturally helps your body produce DHEA, so you'll find that your brain/mind makes synapse connections in this environment.

- Tim Sanders


::: Morning Brief
- FP Passport - the blog from the editors of Foreign Policy, does a Morning Brief post every weekday. Essential for those of you that have the world on your heart.

SPACE 2008 Summer Teams

::: 9th grade
This team will be serving in inner city Baltimore with Chain Reaction [www.chainreaction.be], a local youth mission host and partner of SPACE. Your time will be spent serving via community impact projects with local, indigenous ministry partners that are serving Baltimore for the long term. Projects include community acts of service, prayer walks, and light work projects.

Dates: July 6 – July 12
Estimated cost: $350
Team leaders: JGuy and freshmen guys Dteam [female leaders are TBD]

::: 10th grade
This team will be serving in New Orleans, as part of the KatrinaGrace partnership. Ministry tasks include light home improvement, cleanup and repair as well as relational encouragement and presence.

Dates: June 27 – July 6
Estimated cost: $450
Team leaders: AlecL and other 10th grade Dteam leader team.


::: 11th grade
Option A – Manchester, England, Europe.
Your team will be serving in Manchester, England with church planter Kirk Crager and his team. [Kirk is JBourque’s nephew.] Kirk and his team are planning multiple outreach events this coming summer, anchored by a community music and arts festival. Your team will be assisting via random acts of kindness in the community, assisting with small music and drama outreaches and helping with the community music and arts festival. You will also be a key catalyst for helping encourage a Christ following community in the very pluralistic and multicultural community that is Manchester.
Rough Dates: August 3 – August 11
Estimated cost: $2700
Team leaders: JBourque, others TBD

Option B – Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa.
Your team will serve and encourage G and Wendy N, a family that is supported via GCC, and continue momentum that was started by a SPACE team in 2006. You will assist with all facets of a national leadership conference for people serving within the Ns mission organization, which may include tasks related to child care, student ministry, and/or hospitality. You will also have opportunities to build relationships with Cameroonian high school students as you serve side by side with them. You will also make an impact as you encourage the continuation of the first high school small groups in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.
Rough Dates: August 1 – August 15
Estimated cost: $2700
Team leaders: ErinOb, TMurray, GMurach, JCaroselli, JWhittington

::: Hungary
A team will be traveling to Hungary from July 22 - August 4, serving with Christian Associates International, helping with their kids ministry during their staff conference. This is a repeat from a team that went in the summer of 2007.


::: Middle School - Charm City Church::: Middle School - Charm City Church, Baltimore - July 10-12
A small team will serve with Charm City Church, being involved in kids ministry, strategic neighborhood prayer walks and other community impact projects. Cost is $35. Sign up by May 25.

For all teams:
Download your application from http://tonytsheng.blogspot.com,
look in the upper right hand corner.
Your app and deposit are due on Feb 23.

Humana 2.08 - Unreasonable

The team and I had a great time in Orlando, attending Humana 2.08. Lots to process and lots more to do.

::: My Notes
Alex McManus

We are created to explore, risk and move into the future.

At NASA, there is a memorial to astronauts who have died. Most of the squares are empty, waiting to be filled.

We are called to point to a world that none of us know yet.

Sarah Conner Chronicles - "Taking Back the Future"

In communication, the listener is sovereign.

What is God saying to us through unreached artists, musicians, etc?

The Spirit is speaking prophetically but that isn't limited to people inside the Church.

Being intentional is the most natural when you know the Gospel.

I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit is in a subwoofer.

Gerardo Marti

Christianity is a missionary religion. That is why we engage culture. It is inevitable that we meet people that are different from ourselves.

Genesis 11 - expansion of ethnicities based on Babel
Genesis 12 - God intends to bless them ALL

Church must move from therapy to inspiration.

Jesus discipleship process - Mark 5 - sends the healed man back to his home - was a region of 200 miles and 10 cities
Discipleship is simulateanously
- coming to Jesus
- being sent out
Luke 10 - the 70 are given the same edict as the 12

We must recover the word "apostle"

Jesus doesn't think about leadership as maximum control, He thinks of it as maximum opportunity.

Catalytic leadership - John 20:21
Key question - How will this multiply?

Instead of reading the Bible for personal direction or information, we should read it with the filter of "I have responsibility for other people." Some of the Scriptures just don't make sense outside of a leadership lens.

We don't need to teach people to be creative. We need to give them permission.

To create a culture of creativity:
- what stories are you telling
- mentor people to be creative
- what do you reward

Brian Russell

The framework for all passages of Scripture: mission, holiness[character], community

Matthew 18 - the cliched passage about church discipline
Jesus says to treat them like a tax collector or sinner - the lost, exactly who Jesus came for.

Dean Sharp

Meaningful things must survive honesty.
The West doesn't teach people how to fail well.

Thorsten Moritz

Churches cannot afford to exist as hierarchical institutions

.
::: Random Thoughts
+ The format was very discussion based. It looked like:
12 minutes from the speaker
5-7 minutes of discussion based on a question the speaker left you with.
At certain times, there would be a "decompression", with half of the room interacting with 2 or 3 of the speakers on one side, while the other half interacted with some other speakers, and then we would switch. Decompressions were a huge hit and made the whole time much more interactive.

+ On Friday, we drove from Ocoee to Daytona Beach, hung out there for an hour or so, and drove to Downtown Disney for lunch. We left there right for the airport and then flew home. Amazing day. Yes I went in the water. No, not all the way. Yes, MPM went all the way in.

+ I spent the first hour trying to gauge how my team was responding to the conference, since it was a little difficult to explain exactly what it was. By lunch, they were hooked. Our team decompression on Thursday evening was packed.

+ Ever seen three Ideations ideate? It's like ice hockey.

+ We watched the SPACE shuttle launch on the large screen. Well sort of. Right before it launched, we ran out to see it from outside, but it was too hazy.

+ The team set a lot in motion for Mission Advance. Tell you more about that later.

+ I got to hang with Chris Marsden and Ben Boles, as well as spend a lot of time with my good friends MMM and K. It's always great seeing them and they are an anchor point for SPACE, the Shengs and that part of the world.

+ What I loved most was hearing how inspired my team was. More than information, we left with motivation. The world will be different because of what happens next.

[Related: Humana 2007 notes.]

I'm Almost Ready, How About You?

Traveling and Humana 2.08

The blog will be a tad silent over the next 10 days or so. Here is what is on the agenda of this particular student ministry global catalyst.

+ Disconnecting from the world with the fam this weekend.

+ Speaking at my second GCC Leadership Development Program workshop, "Leading in the Global Matrix" on Monday evening. If you are around and interested, I can sneak you in.

+ Flying to Orlando on Tuesday afternoon through Friday evening to attend Humana 2.08 with a team of people from SPACE. Should be a very exciting time of learning, processing and connecting. Although I won't be updating this blog, I will be updating Twitter. You can see the updates in the sidebar on the left or at this link. I did this a few weeks ago while in NYC and really just had a ball with it. The 140 character limit is a great catalyst for creatively summarizing what you are doing and why. Expect to see some more detailed reflections next week. [Related: Humana 2.0 2007]

+ Summer 08 plans get published next Sunday, 2/10. Some are going to be amazed and some are going to think we are out of our mind.