Ember X Reflections

Long post - you've been warned.

:: Aix
+ Typical European city with a core city. Absolutely stunningly beautiful - my pictures won't capture it. 71 square miles with a population of 145K. So smaller than Baltimore in physical size with about a quarter of the population.
+ It's a totally multi cultural city and lots of expats there although we didn't see a ton of Asian/Middle Eastern people. I expected to see more and almost none of the kids at camp were from either of those areas of the world.
+ Loved the story that Hillary told that there is a time of the year when she will see college exchange students in the city center crying because they don't know where they are going - definitely a college town.
+ The climate of Aix during July is much like the desert. Hot dry heat during the day, cool nights, lots of sun. Arid, dusty, very hard and rock soil. Vegetation is limited, not much rain. There is a spiritual parallel.
+ Lots of expats there. Eurocopter is a huge employer and there is a big nuclear fusion project going on there.
+ Marseille is 30 minutes away and is a big gateway for Africa. Think port and airport. You can get to any global city from there.
+ The streets are lined with 'plane' trees that Napoleon planted all through France to give shade to his army.
+ I also didn't see a lot of gypsies there like you do in other European cities. Maybe it was because of the Tour going through or the height of tourist season or a combination.

:: Logistics
+ Our schedule of travel home wasn't great. Would have been far better to debrief at a neutral location somewhere fun on the way home. I did this in 2007 and 2008 and it is the way to go. Not only that, we missed the last 2 days of camp which was less than ideal as well. 3am wake up call for a 6am flight from Marseille to Paris. The Holiday Inn Express at Marseille was beautiful - we were only there for 5 hours.
+ Our villa slept 12 people, had its own pool, had 2 cats and 2 horses on the property, a US size refrigerator, wifi, washer and dryer and was absolutely amazing. We were told it wasn't how a normal French person lives but that it was a vacation home. It calculated to be about 40 euros a person a night, which ended up being easily the cheapest lodging. It was 15 minutes from the city, on the bus line and 5 minutes from camp. Our landlord was the sweetest. Dea found this on vrbo.com
+ We rented a 9 person van which was perfect getting our team from our house to camp, but not so easy driving through city center because of the size.
+ Speaking of the van, on the first day I put a pretty significant dent in the rear bumper because I backed into a stone flower post at the villa. I'm pretty sure the rental car company didn't charge me for it and Megan told us that the French don't care about their cars like other countries do.
+ We could have used a dedicated cook.

:: ICCP
+ ICCP is the only English speaking church in the south of France. Their incoming pastor, Tim Arlens, is great.
+ Met 3 missionary families that belong to ICCP and are in Aix for global mission purposes. One works for Wycliffe doing administration for Bible translation, one works for the IMB involved in humanitarian logistics in North Africa and one used to be one of George Verwer's gophers for a year. Not only that, lots of people there in bivoc/missional sense too like a guy starting up a campus for SCAD, camp director Tim who works for a global semiconductor company and his family, and a doctor and his family there on sabbatical.
+ There is a creative ethos in ICCP - it is subtle and hard to describe. The context requires it.
+ Hillary, the wife of outgoing pastor Dom, has a business where she does wine and market tours. Love that creative revenue/bivocational plan. She took our team on a four hour tour of the different food markets and it was amazing.
+ Some people in Aix think that ICCP is a cult. Some people in the US think that evangelicals are....

:: Camp
+ Camp is a major production.
+ Tim and Apryl are awesome. They lead the charge in terms of camp and it's held on their property. Their creative act speaks about the Creator.
+ There were 120 campers there this year, which may or may not seem like a lot from American standards. Clearly though, the ethos of people involved at camp is that we sacrifice for those that haven't heard the good news yet. With that mentality, the numbers are irrelevant. And that is beautiful.
+ The camp staff this year, which was mostly older high school and college students, had a few kids who weren't necessarily people of faith which I think is awesome. [Belong before believe...] The message for camp was just as much for them as for the campers. I know that might not sit well with some. I will say too, the message of camp - the good news - was clear and undiluted.
+ Camp is what you would expect. Fun, energy, different rotations including a zip line, arts and crafts, sports and games, pool time, archery, trampoline, and then a program which includes music, drama and a talk. Costume day was Wednesday, Water day was Thursday and families are invited to join on Friday. They rent a jump house on Wednesday and a giant water slide on Thursday.
+ It would have been fun to do some more stuff with the camp staff together. Leadership development or stuff like that.

:: Rough Financials
+ Raised ~ $25,500. 19% was raised via creative revenue plans.
+ Spent ~ $22,500. Divide by 10 people = $2250 per person.
+ The extra in there will be spent on some student mission projects this Fall.
+ Approx costs: Airfare: $13946. Food: $1239. Lodging $4688. Insurance: $340. Car + Fuel: $1302. Camp gift/cost: $1000.
+ Pleasantly surprised at the budget. Cost on food was super low because we cooked in as much as we could and camp provided meals on a few days as well as treating our team to a typical 3 course southern French Provencal meal on the last night we were there.

:: Ember X Matters Because
+ Even though I've done this kind of thing a few times before, this was Ember's first overseas project. That's a big deal.
+ It was quite the experience for our family as well, with Deanna's recent health issues. Suffice to say that God can lead your journey through an insulin pump and she only had one day where her blood sugar numbers were a little out of whack.
+ We design these experiences to be catalytic - they are beginnings if we have done it right. This was a win. Watch some of these students in the next 500 years.
+ We connected some very special students to some of the best global leaders we know of. Our students worked with them side by side. They watched them create and innovate and navigate the unknown. They connected with them on the ideas of calling, other cultures and loving and serving people because you have been loved. They met people who intentionally moved to another culture and learned about the path they took. They worked with these world class global leaders to put together an experience for kids they had never met... yet. That is why Ember exists.

+ Special thanks to you - our family, friends and supporters. Be proud of this team.

Lots more pictures here and here's a camp video.

Favorite moment

My favorite moment from Ember X:

We were driving in to have dinner in the city and I was in the drivers seat with Emily next to me and Hope on the other side of her. [front seat was a bench that fit 3] Hope told us the story of how she got to be friends with a little French girl who was about 7 or 8 and didn't speak any English. This little girl loved the fun music and was totally into it. When it came time for the drama and the talk right after that, she was captivated by this idea of the 'man of good news' and was asking about this book called the Bible and was that a secret book? From there, Hope talked about how a lot of the material in the Ember internship we have talked about this past year became clear - the unreached, the unengaged, post Christianity, why we went to France.

Perhaps more than any other recent Ember experience, Ember X feels like a really powerful beginning of something.

Ember X flying home

Flying home right now. Debrief session in the terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris. Not ideal but we have to do at least some of it.

Not a great picture of Hope and Measu but anyway. They led us in some debriefing - love giving students opportinities like this.

Much more later after we get home. Thanks to all of the Ember X friends and supporters.

Ember X - Tuesday pm

Camp ends at 6pm after campers leave at 5pm and a staff debriefing. It's a hardy discussion that includes lots of encouragement as well as lots of challenge to make things better.

We had a visiting team dinner tonight including our compatriots from Austin. After that, Teal hosted a little discussion about:
+ identification of future missionaries
how is your time with God
are you adaptable, entrepreneurial, able to navigate the unknowns

+ your first few years in another culture
phase 1 - the first 3 weeks - honeymoon
phase 2 - up to 18 months - real life
phase 3 - up to 2 years - then it gets better.

+ calling
God makes it known.
their list was 56 items in how God spoke to them.

Working all day with campers and then having a short session in the evening is a long day. But having this kind of opportunity with a global leader like Teal is rare. It is why we do what we do.

Ember X - camp day 2

Tim Arlens new incoming pastor of iccp gives camp a quick talk every morning. Its about an extraordinary journey looking for the unseen island, following a guide and finding true life.

Our team is doing great although we are exhausted. There are about 120 kids here and they are loving the experience.

Ember X - Camp has started

Camp has started. About 120 campers and 40 staff. This is morning worship. Great to see it come together.

Ember X - post work week

Tim Anderson and his wife have lived in Aix for a number of years and ICCP's camp has always been held on the property, affectionately known as Anderland. Tim is the pragmatic engineer that works together with Martin, the creative, imaginative architect and together, they mesh and take a vision and construct an experience. It's awesome to watch them work together.

If you are a parent, family member or friend of one of these Ember X kids, Tim's comments should make you proud. What he says is all true.

Ember X Sunday

+ Went on a three hour walking tour of the city center, including a ton of history, culture and missional topics and principles from Hillary Rivera, wife of outgoing ICCP pastor Dom. Amazing time. Churches, cathedrals, markets, fresh fresh fresh food.
+ Lunch in a park.
+ Free time in the city.
+ Sunday early evening [5pm] church service in a park with ICCP - first Sunday with their new pastor.

The team is doing well although we are all pretty tired. Work week has been very long days, very hard work, and even though the weather here in Aix is beautiful, it is a very hot, dry climate.

Camp starts bright and early tomorrow.

Ember X Saturday pm

After our final work day...
+ Mission strategy session including people groups, unreached people groups, the 10/40 window, and global urban migration. You know I loved this.
+ Team dinner in the city - so so good. Walking through city center. Team picture at the Rotund.
+ Introducing the topic of third culture kids. [Lots of them here in Aix.]

Ember X Sat am

Lots of final prep this am including major cleanup and touching up here and there. Interesting to see an idea in someones head take shape. They are definitely striving for campers to have an experience and not just go to camp.

Our team is doing great - working hard and loving being a part of something bigger than themselves.

Ember X Friday

Big work day at camp today before campers arrive on Monday. Today included lots of moving big creations,

Some of us went to go grocery shopping this afternoon after work day. Grocery shopping in another country is a must and is always a cultural experience.

Tonight over dinner, our conversation included a short devotional about contentment versus complaining [led by Ember former intern DK who is leading us all week], creativity versus artistry and the context of the iccp camp in Aix with creatives, artists and a post Christian environment.

Ember X Thursday

We spent most of the late morning and early afternoon in the center in Aix watching the 100th Tour De France right through a small section of town. On the United States' Independence Day. Amazing.

This afternoon was spent back at camp working on more work projects including some cleaning and painting. It's pretty amazing what a huge production this is and there are some very skilled artisans as part of this team. It's experience designing at its best. Our team did a ton of painting today.

Dominic Rivera and Teal rode the bus back to our villa with us after lunch in the city. While waiting for the next bus, we had a short conversation about mission and calling, ministry in Western Europe, learning to live cross culturally. Lots of use of the word context. This is one of the best things Ember can offer - face to face deep learning and insight from experienced, talented global leaders. Pizza from the pizza van this evening for dinner.

Some photos are here.

The Ship

Ember X landed safely earlier today with all of the team healthy and all of our bags although connecting in Paris at Charles De Gaulle airport was close.

Other logistics included getting the rental van, meeting one of the host teams, and driving to the rent by owner house we are staying in. All went well with those details.

This one of the first sites of camp - it is a big ship. Lots of work cleaning, constructing and all that today. Jetlag will make most of us go to sleep early tonight.

Travel vitals

Passports, seabands, and the ember logistics playbook. T - 16 hours.

Ember X team mtg #10

Our 10th and final team meeting:

+ Packing a few team bags which includes camp t shirts we are bringing.
+ Any final logistics and travel questions.
+ The God of mission has a church in the world.
+ Praying it up.

Really great success with 10 team prep meetings, and even though it may seem like a lot, I would rather on too much prep than not enough. And you've been around the student teams that show up on the field and they are... well let's just say you put some distance between you and them... So we've had lots of fun becoming a team. We depart tomorrow - then the real fun begins.

Friday Burn

::: How Today's Youth Redefines the World
Great post by Bob, including some details on how his church's student summer camp was in the city this year for the first time. For many years, I wanted to run Mission Advance in a city. Maybe one day.
Link


::: National Community Church's Short Term Mission Leader Application
They have twenty-something short term teams this summer. See what they want on an application and think about why.
Link


::: Christianity in its Global Context
Must read. The Center for Global Christianity always has great resources.
Link


::: Perspectives, Fall 2013.
I'm teaching one class of Perspectives this coming Fall in Reston, VA. If you are interested in some of this kind of stuff but never taken it....


Photo: Ben Cloud and I, Gilbert, AZ, July 2005.

AZ - 2005 to 2013

From the archives.... February 23, 2005 - a comment from our infamous friend Ben Cloud back when he authored a blog called Praying Mantis [hence the initials PM]. This comment sparked our first shared project together, an experience in missional imagination. In July of 2005, I flew out, sight unseen, and spent a few days serving with him and his students, sleeping in his living room and having meals with his beautiful family. That was part 1. [The image is a screen shot of exported comments from a previous commenting system...]

Part 2 was in 2010. Part 3 was in 2012. Part 4 started yesterday when Wendy Usher landed for the beginning of a 5 week experience with Amadeo Church and Ben and a Grace student team serving there in the middle. We haven't decided how many parts this is going to have.

Warren's Plan

He swaggered in wearing both a scowl and bad intentions. By profession, Warren was an evil fire-breathing clown in a horror show in Las Vegas. He also moonlighted as a freak-show wrestler.
By philosophy, Warren was an atheist—a hard-core atheist. A "There is no God, and if there was one I would hate him, and I despise anyone who believes there is a God or who tries to lead others to believe there is one" kind of atheist.
Warren heard about this new church starting in his city. He thought his city, a city that prides itself on sin, was no place for someone to start a new church. He decided to do something about it.
He realized a new church wouldn't have many people and that the people who did show up would not be very committed, which helped him form his plan: he would go to one of the church's first services, sit in the middle of the room, and wait. When the pastor walked onstage to give the sermon, Warren would stand up and let loose a barrage of profanity, throw some chairs, and hopefully hit the pastor and maybe a few others as well. He figured that all the people who were still making up their minds about the church would decide, "If I have to subject myself to this, forget it!" and never come back. The church wouldn't be able to survive without people, and Warren could brag for the rest of his life that he had killed a church.
It was a great plan. There was just one problem: I was the pastor.

- Vince Antonucci, Renegade: Your Faith Isn't Meant to be Safe

Ember X team mtg #9

Team meeting where we reviewed:
:: travel logistics: flight times, what to pack including one pair of clean clothes in your carry on, and how we don't allow boring Christian music.
:: definition of redemptive analogies [part of the core curriculum] and why those are important, some current examples of them, and how they help when we are trying to communicate and live the Gospel
:: special guest Wendy Usher, who departs tomorrow for 5 weeks working with Amadeo Church. Wendy is the first person that Ember has ever 'sent' somewhere.

And yes, that is Katy Perry. The video for Wide Awake is one my favorites.

Friday Burn

::: The Ends of the Road
Road ends around the world, via google maps.
Link via kottke


::: Why Small Churches are the Next Big Thing

There's no better place to express or sense that kind of love-leadership than in a small church. For this reason, I believe small churches are uniquely poised to meet the needs of Millennials and perhaps turn the tide on the trend of the unchurched.
No, megachurches won’t disappear, despite all the predictions to the contrary. And I hope they don’t. I hope any church preaching
Christ and His gospel of grace continues to continue its good work.

Link


::: Lifts and Skyscrapers

This week Kone, a Finnish liftmaker, announced that after a decade of development at its laboratory in Lohja, which sits above a 333-metre-deep mineshaft which the firm uses as a test bed, it has devised a system that should be able to raise an elevator a kilometre (3,300 feet) or more. This is twice as far as the things can go at present. Since the effectiveness of lifts is one of the main constraints on the height of buildings, Kone’s technology—which replaces the steel cables from which lift cars are currently suspended with ones made of carbon fibres—could result in buildings truly worthy of the name “skyscraper”.

Link


::: Twitter Metadata Visualizations
Link

Photo: scheming: Ben Cloud and I, Queen Creek, AZ, July 2012.

Geography

If your church is full of members, you get an occasional missionary. If your church is full of missionaries, the rest is geography.

- Erwin McManus

Balance Versus Seasons

This school year has been a big year of transition in our family, with our girls finishing 9th and 6th grade. Here is a hint I wish someone would have told me: when your kids start high school, their level of activity explodes. Between schoolwork, sports, band, church activities, time with friends.... you get the picture. Most of these need more than just time - they need an emotional investment. When your kid has a band concert or a volleyball game, you are present there. Being an engaged parent is a good thing.

A few weeks ago I was putting together slides for Ember's board of directors meeting. Taking a big picture perspective gives you different realizations sometimes and I realized that Ember has had a great year. We've been involved in some amazing projects, connected some incredibly talented and passionate young people and Ember X, being our first official overseas adventure, has all the potential for a ton of great impact. It's an exciting time and we're getting better and better at our core competencies.

I think balance is a misnomer but I do think we live in seasons. A year ago, I would have told you that my season of juggling trying to be a great husband and father, holding down a day job, running a nonprofit as a 'hobby', taking care of an aging parent, mowing my lawn once a month.... that this season was good, a little difficult but so fulfilling.. After this year, I will tell you that it has still very fulfilling but it also has been very challenging, mostly because it would be wrong to sacrifice your kids to the alter of your hobby.

All this to say, my kids had a great great school year. And I'm proud of what Ember did this year and what we are doing this summer. Ember X is going to be a great experience. And I've scheduled a 6 week sabbatical at the end of the summer.

Photo: swim meet on the first day of summer vaca, June 2013.

Friday Burn

::: How Churches Can Help Students and their Careers

Only 38% of youth pastors and 36% of senior pastors say they frequently discuss college plans with their students... Only 1% of youth workers say they had addressed issues related to science in the last year and a similarly small percentage had taught about creativity or the arts.

This is quite unfortunate. If you are a youth worker reading this post, I implore you to talk to your students about vocation and calling.
Link


::: Listening to Young Atheists
When a Christian foundation interviewed college nonbelievers about how and why they left religion, surprising themes emerged.
Link


::: Rachel's Gift
My absolute favorite Charity:Water story.
Link


::: It Starts with 100 Million.... Bible downloads that is.

And while 100 million sounds like a lot, we know it’s nowhere close to what’s possible. In fact, we like to say it starts with 100 million. Our faith has expanded to believe that Bible engagement could be transformed not only for this generation, but generations to come.

Link

Photo: Deanna, my wife. She always wanted to be Chinese. ;-) Washington DC, June 2013.

2013 on the move

Some of our Ember tribe on the move this summer, besides X, the Grace AZ team and Wendy.

+ JTimmons - in Mozambique with Iris Ministries. End of May until mid August.
+ CStolte - Nairobi Kenya working in a medical context with Nairobi Chapel. Most of the month of June.
+ KParlette - leading a team for Grace studenets to Brussels Belgium working with Serve the City. End of June to beg of July.
+ ARotolo - Nairobi Kenya working with Carolina for Kibera. Mid July to Mid August.

So proud of these fine young men and women. Our privilege to work with them for a little bit of time.

[Related: 2012, 2011 on the move.]

Ember Board of Director Notes - May 2013

I'm very very fortunate to have the support of a great group of people known as The Ember Cast board of directors. They have enough faith and hope in the overall vision of this little tribe that they give me a lot of latitude and freedom to experiment with 'running' a nonprofit. Notice the term running in quotes.

Our last board meeting was a few weeks ago and here are some bullet points that might be interesting to you if you find yourself in a role with some kind of organizational leadership.

+ Although we decided to hire a marketing person in late 2012, I put a hold on that in the Spring when considering what the summer might look like and the finances with that, which I'm glad I did. The money we saved help fund purchasing airfare early enough for a good deal.
+ We reviewed some of our large projects this year so far. 2013 has been an amazing, amazing year.
+ We also reviewed the current status on Ember X including making sure the financial model was clear. Since we are so small, we don't have a lot of financial margin.
+ Talked in brief about the other summer projects.
+ Listing what guides are on the move this summer.
+ Our core competencies are getting to be more competent. Creative revenue is a concept that resonates with a lot of people.
+ Personally, it's been an interesting year with our oldest going into high school. The time and energy demands are greater and with that, the challenges of being bi-vocational are bigger.
+ We still believe in the connection economy.

I never envisioned myself working with a board of directors, talking about things like finances and marketing, trying to move a small but passionate group of people forward along a shared vision. Great for an ENTJ. And this is something that happens when you give yourself permission.

The 2013 Ember X Bake Sale

The Ember X bake sale, a pretty significant creative revenue activity.

+ Raised $221. As of earlier this week, we actually reached the 100% funded milestone. Had we known we would be at this point, we wouldn't have executed on this bake sale idea but it was already in flight. And it was a lot of fun to hang with our team anyway. We now have some margin with our finances for the X team.
+ Lots of donated baked goods. All kinds of cookies, brownies, a 4 layer chocolate cake, biscotti, etc.
+ Of course, the bake sale was not just about raising money. It was about teamwork, selling and connecting.
+ Teamwork - executing a project together as a team, including set up, clean up, manning the table.
+ Selling - what works and doesn't work when trying to 'sell' a product or service. In this case, a big takeaway had to deal with presentation. Some of this was contextual too - we weren't selling baked goods in front of a supermarket, it was at a local outdoor food market type of event, with lots of professional food vendors.
+ Connecting - our team had to verbalize for themselves what we are actually doing when people asked.

Now this is a way to package a cupcake, my wife's idea, of course.

Friday Burn

::: Join Wall Street. Save the World
Jason Trigg went into finance to make as much money as he could so he could give it away.
Link


::: The Way to Produce a Person
David Brooks pushes back on the idea outlined in the above article and he's got some good points.

Third, and most important, I would worry about turning yourself into a means rather than an end. If you go to Wall Street mostly to make money for charity, you may turn yourself into a machine for the redistribution of wealth. You may turn yourself into a fiscal policy.

Link

Both are worth reading and contemplating what we do with a generation that is very very ready to change the world. I think you will agree, at a minimum, it requires some solid teaching on vocation and calling.


::: How to Give a Killer Presentation
By the guy that runs TED. Yeah. Read it and put it into practice.
Link


::: Please, keep your day job.

It's this idea that if you’re a "true" creative, freelancer, entrepreneur then anything less than working for yourself is heresy, a compromise, a lack of integrity as an artist, etc. Who told you that? Those guys are idiots.

Link

::: In the New Testament Church, conversion is your commission, or baptism is your ordination. Take your pick. - @alanhirsch

Photo: Chinatown, Washington DC. June 2013.

Our Lifeguard

Our oldest, first day guarding at our local pool.

2013 Creative Revenue Plan Wrap Up

Many people have asked for more details about our creative revenue plans for the Ember X team and how they are going. I thought I would summarize most of it in one single post here.

Ember believes that missionaries of the future will rely on a 'portfolio of revenue.' [credit for this term goes to Ben Arment.] In other words, they will need to actually make some money outside of personal donations. As part of this summer, our team is required to dream and execute a Creative Revenue Plan - a way to make some income based on their talents and gifts. This unique income will go directly towards the funding of their missions experience. Prayer and financial support letters are also required.

Below are the following 2013 X plans that were executed:
Scarves with hand painted Bible verses on them
Car Detailing
Donation Box
Lifeguarding
Calligraphy
Personality Assessments for Teams
Slumlord
Lots and lots of Babysitting
Tutoring

Not only were team members successful in executing a plan [which is pretty significant in and of itself you know...], we also hit our financial targets with regards to these plans. As of today, we are at 99% of our total financial goal, which is a testament to how hard these students have worked. About 17%, approximately $4200, of that came out of Creative Revenue, which was right in line with what we were targeting.

Combine the global recession with the need for disruption to the paradigm of missions support letters, and donor, cause and nonprofit fatigue and you have a need for looking at funding missions creatively. The experience of starting a micro business is also hugely valuable. The best way to learn about income, revenue, pricing, demand and customer service is by doing something related - like starting a micro business. For 2013, the execution of creative revenue plans has been a vital success.

Future Global Credibility

The future church will have global credibility only to the extent that it has local diversity.

- Tim Dearborn as quoted in Western Christians in Global Mission by Paul Borthwick

Ember X team mtg #7

An afternoon in DC with the Ember X team and special guest, ARotolo, guide and former intern.

:: Visiting National Community Church at their Barracks Row site
Because:
+ NCC is easily one of the most innovative and creative churches on the East Coast.
+ Ember highly values exposing high school students to different expressions of Church and that is going to look a lot different when they are our age. Missions experiences naturally lend themselves to experience Church in a different medium.

:: Dinner in Chinatown at Fuddruckers [yeah yeah I know. We went to Chinatown to have burgers.]
Because:
+ Logistically challenging to find a place to eat for 10 people on a Saturday night. So we wanted counter service somewhere.

:: A walk around Chinatown while the team focused on cultural icons.
Because:
+ Identifying icons helps inform us what is both different from our own culture as well as what is important in this new culture we are in.
+ Learning to think like a missionary at home requires us to observe what is really important in our own culture.
+ Sometimes these icons are not physically present but subtle and under the surface.

Friday Burn

::: 2013 internet trends
This is so good - a must read.
Link


::: The #1 tourist destination in the world...
Bangkok.
Link


::: Planting 1000 churches by 2050
Link


::: The next worlds tallest building and mass urbanization
Link

Photo: San Xavier, Tucson, AZ.

Ember X Bake Sale at The Little French Market

The Ember X team is having a little bake sale in Sunday June 9. Our team will be in front The Little French Market [get it - French...?] and this is part of old town Ellicott City's second Sunday market.

We would love to see you there - we will be there from around 10am - 3pm. If you are interested in donating a baked good, we would really appreciate that too. Just fill out this little form and someone will be in touch with you to work out specific details.

Creative Revenue Plan - Slumlord

Well, sort of, but not really.... About a year after Ember became officially official, an opportunity landed in our laps to host a good friend in our house during some weeknights. BB, parent of a student/leader/Ember Board member, who we knew really well, had an interesting career circumstance where he traveled here during the week for his job. So, for a few nights each week, he takes over the Ember international office.

The deal is a win win. For the better part of a year, he has helped creatively create some revenue for Ember, while saving money on a hotel. And he gets to see first hand how much fun the Shengs really have.

The New Suburbs

1 Greek, 1 Ethiopian, 1 Taiwanese, 4 Caucasians , 1 Chinese, and 2 mixed Caucasian/Chinese go on a missions trip...

This is the make up of the Ember X team, based in Howard County, Merryland, a suburb between DC and Baltimore. Note that the Caucasians are in a minority, Asians are in a majority and the presence of two people who are of mixed races.

These are the new suburbs. You might already know this or you may need to open your perspective to the suburbs in a different fashion. You may also have to pivot, adjust and learn again.

Friday Burn

::: World Languages Facts and Numbers
PS - You should think about learning Mandarin
Link


::: The Suburbanization of Poverty
Link


::: Graduation Advice We Wish We'd Been Given
Link


::: A pastor's question: "how's my church doing". A missionary's question: "how's my city doing" #kingdom @bobrobertsjr

Future Casting

In the spring of 2005, I created a student missions training single day event and made it a non-negotiable for all student mission team members and leaders. During the event, we created environments for teams to work together and we brought in facilitators to cover specific missions concepts. The following year, we expanded on the idea and took 70 leaders and students away for the weekend to make the experience even more intense. We called it Mission Advance. Mission Advance, in that form, continued to run for the next two years after that. Even now in that same faith community, they still run an event very similar and our Ember team has been honored to be a part of it. A personal best decision with lots of help from lots of people.

In September of 2005, a high school student took the brave initiative and took me up on an experimental leadership opportunity: a student missions leadership internship. It was a pipeline before we realized it and it created momentum and a system for identifying and catalyzing future leaders. Even now, I'm amazed at how many high caliber leaders and influencers do not think about this important concept. It is a tragic omission.

In the spring of 2006, 7 years ago this month, I bought 30 copies of Now Discover Your Strengths and gave copies to specific people and implored them to take the StrengthsFinder assessment. I funded the purchase through some leftover student missions money in an account I had freedom to use. If you haven't noticed, StrengthsFinder has recently become a staple among many leadership development people. Getting this was not my idea, I stole it from Mosaic and one of their leadership development initiatives. One of the best "catalyzing talent" decisions I've made.

Back in those days, the gaps we needed to fill in our student missions environment were: a leadership pipeline, assessment based leadership development and missions team training. My mentor Alex McManus talks about the idea of desynchronization - there are some ideas that hit people at different times and people change at desynchronized times. I submit that some of these ideas might still be ahead of their time.

What is futuristic right now for student missions? Ember is working on it.

Ember X Creative Revenue - Lifeguarding

Kt - our older daughter's - creative revenue plan: lifeguarding. After over 40 hours of training, she is now certified to be a lifeguard for the local community association of pools. It's popular summer job for the high school students in our community and getting through the training alone says something about commitment, tenacity and your ability to float.

This plan actually benefits more than just the revenue part of a missions experience. I've been on teams in the past where having a certified lifeguard is a huge benefit: kids, water, fun.

Ember X team mtg #6

:: Skype with Teal Rapp, who gives an overview about camp, the context for Europe - how it's expensive and materialistic and how ministry is so different than in other contexts, and what does post Christian mean.
:: Talking about cultural distance, what that looks like for traveling to different global cultures and how that relates to clusters of cultures within our own culture.
:: Smores.

Thanks for praying by name for this team. Back row: Deanna, Measu, MK, Katie, Emily. Front row: Deanna, Tony, Mike, Hope, Victor. Fantastic team.

Friday Burn

::: Breakfasts Around the World
Link via Chris


::: What Christian Leaders Can Learn from the Surge In Mormon Youth

Mormons expect a lot from their teenagers: They ordain their young men into the ministry at age 12, expect their young people to attend seminary every day of high school, and ask them to serve in the field upwards of two years. Needless to say, we don't.

Link


::: Being a Releasing Pastor

From being general controller to being primary releaser.
From being the hero to being the hero maker.
From focusing on just their needs to focusing on their call.

So so good. Personally, I believe the primary challenge of the church of the future is releasing, mobilizing and catalyzing their talent.
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::: Mark Batterson on jump starting creativity.
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Photo: Some train station in the Netherlands, early in the morning. July 2012.

Book Notes - Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team : A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers and Facilitators

:: Teams
Teamwork remains the one sustainable competitive advantage that has been largely untapped.
First, because teamwork is hard to measure. Why? Because it impacts the outcome of an organization in such comprehensive and invasive ways that it's virtually impossible to isolate it as a single variable. Many executives prefer solutions that are more easily measurable and verifiable, and so they look elsewhere for their competitive advantages.
But even if the impact of teamwork were more easily measurable, executives probably would still look elsewhere. Why? Because teamwork is extremely hard to achieve. It can’t be bought, and it can’t be attained by hiring an intellectual giant from the world’s best business school. It requires levels of courage and discipline—and emotional energy—that even the most driven executives don’t always possess.

:: Trust
The key ingredient to building trust is not time. It is courage. [<-- the money quote]

Trust lies at the heart of a functioning, cohesive team. Without it, team work is all but impossible.
In the context of building a team, trust is the confidence among team members that their peers' intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group. In essence, teammates must get comfortable being vulnerable with one another.

:: Discomfort and conflict
One way for a team to know if they are having enough conflict is for them to think about how an outsider to the team would feel sitting in on a team meeting. A great team will look at least a little strange to an outsider who isn't accustomed to the direct and unfiltered dialogue taking place. Like a friend invited to dinner at a close family's house, they would probably be a little taken aback, at least at first.

When a team recovers from an incident of destructive conflict, it builds confidence that it can survive such an event, which in turn builds trust.

When people self-identify and publicly declare their outlook on conflict, they become much more open to adjusting it to whatever team norms need to be established.

The leader is going to have to be ready to not only light the fuse of good conflict but to gently fan the flames for a while too.

:: Commitment
Commitment is about a group of intelligent, driven individuals buying in to a decision precisely when they don't naturally agree. In other words, it's the ability to defy a lack of consensus.

:: Accountability
Peer pressure and the distaste for letting down a colleague will motivate a team player more than any fear of authoritative punishment or rebuke.
The most important challenge of building a team where people hold one another accountable is overcoming the understandable hesitance of human beings to give one another critical feedback.
Help people realize that when they fail to provide peers with constructive feedback they are letting them down personally. By holding back, we are hurting not only the team, but also our teammates themselves.

:: Results
Results-oriented teams establish their own measurements for success.They don't allow themselves the wiggle room of subjectivity. But this is not easy, because subjectivity is attractive.

It Feels Like One of Those Nights

Seriously.... amazing show.

Creative Revenue Plan - Calligraphy

My wife Deanna's creative revenue plan: calligraphy. Wedding invitations, place cards for a sophisticated dinner, invites for fancy events, or specific art work. All done by hand.

If you are going to be the host with the most, get in touch.

This is What Trust Looks Like

The key ingredient to building trust is not time. It is courage. - Patrick Lencioni

+ Trevin tells me [in a very constructive tone] that sometimes I talk really fast and in choosing a cross cultural tool to teach on, I should choose something that I know less about so I can teach it with more depth. And I should try to talk a little slower. Amy says, "Wow, that is some unfiltered debate." I am not offended or put off at all. In fact, I value the feedback and let it marinate in my mind for a few days. In the end, I choose a topic that I don't know that well. But I still probably talk too fast.

+ During some team building rotations, I was a floater, meaning I was off watching everyone do the work and also in charge of telling teams where to rotate to next. At the first switch, I totally screwed it up. I call Amy, who is down in the woods waiting for her next team to arrive. She says, "It doesn't matter who it is, just whatever works so that someone rotates into something they haven't done before."

+ In the fantasy world of infinite time, any time our team does a teaching or presentation, we would practice it. In reality, sometimes we don't have time. Trevin and Amy are tasked with delivering a talk to student mission trip leaders. Kristen, Trevin and I divide up workshop topics on cross cultural tools. Everyone runs with these tasks and although I feel a need to listen to at least part of their talk, I decide to not worry about it. Because I trust them. The feedback I get about all the sessions read something like this:
"Kristen did a wonderful job presenting the information."
"Trevin's was solid... needs more refining, but the message was excellent....He was well received and people were talking about for the rest of the day."
"I really enjoyed the combination of academic (definition/diagram/handout) and stories to model the process. The Circle seems like a good tool to use all-the-time!"

We put a lot of value in our guides, knowing they are talented, have lots of cross cultural experience and can relate and inspire the next generation. Probably better than all that - they are courageous.

Friday Burn

::: What the Steamship and Landline Tell us About the Decline of Cars
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::: The Most Crowded Part of the World
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::: 21 of the World's Largest Unengaged-Unreached People Groups with Representatives in the US
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Note NYC, Detroit and .... Rockville, Merryland


::: "I believe the missional challenge of the twenty-first century is the city. It is the new '10/40' window of this generation" -Lillestrand @pauldz

Photo: bathroom, on the train, somewhere between Bielefeld, Germany and Brussels, Belgium. July 2012.

Creative Revenue Plan - Donation Box

One of MB's creative revenue plans is this donation box. The context of this donation box is that it sits on the counter of a coffee shop that her parents own, in an affluent subdivision in Howard County called Maple Lawn. My guess is that most of the people that live in Maple Lawn aren't interested in organized religion or how Christianity might be in decline in Europe. So overall, I think it's pretty gutsy for her to put that out there in the first place.

2013 Mission Support Metrics

The X team is exactly two months into our support raising - here are some metrics if you are involved in the same kind of thing. Creative revenue is included the notes too.

Some context:
+ This team is based in a highly affluent suburban area.
+ The project location is Southern Europe, which doesn't have the same 'mission draw' that a project might have if it were in the developing world. Hate to say it but it is true.
+ Team is mostly high school kids: 1 senior, 2 juniors, 3 freshmen, 1 6th grader, 1 college kid, 2 adults [sort of].
+ Every team member has significant overseas experience and has raised support before.

The metrics:
Target amount: $24500
Departure date: July 2
Start date: March 8
Time - we are 60 days in to the process, just about half way in terms of timeline.
Total Raised: $16980 - 69.3% of overall goal - $7520 left.
Of that total, $16054 was from support. $926 [5.4%]was from creative revenue plans.
$283 per day
105 donations = $163 / donation
55 days until departure. We need about $137/day.

We have a team bake sale scheduled. And team members continue to work their support networks and their creative revenue plans. If you feel like supporting something like this, get in touch.

Related: 2008 Mission Support Metrics

Student Missions Prep - The Tipping Point

Part of why Ember exists is to help student mission teams get ready for their missions experience. If you are like us, you know that there are lots of student mission teams that are woefully unprepared. One of our core competencies is helping prepare student teams and its always a joy to be involved.

GRACE termed their student missions preparation day The Tipping Point [which is a great book by the way] and it was our privilege to help facilitate a day like this for around 90 students and leaders broken into 9 different summer teams. GRACE has lots of mature systems when it comes to student missions and this day is part of their system.

Here's a rough outline of the day, feel free to steal what you want. If you want deeper details - get in touch. Our prep days like these are always customized and contextualized and we would love to help you.

+ Team Leader session
Trevin and Amy dived into the idea of kairos moments and how they related to the context of student mission trips and the larger context of discipling students. This was a phenomenal session and I loved both the content and their style of delivery. The content was something that leaders need but maybe didn't quite know that they need - who doesn't want to learn about helping students mark pivotal times in their journey and making significant decisions in light of those moments. Their style of delivery was Amy explaining the concepts interspersed with Trevin telling his stories of traveling around the world and how those experiences molded his missions perspective. Some of this content was taken from Building a Discipling Culture from 3DM.

+ Round Robin Prayer Rotation
Students rotating through each of the teams, praying for the summer experiences.

+ Tools of the Trade
There were three breakout sessions of 20 minutes each, based on cross cultural tools. These are simple, reproducible tools that students can use to understand another a new culture and also tools that will help them navigate the culture that they live in. Our hope is that they help prepare these students to both be an agent of change this summer on their missions trip as well as here at home. The three tools were mapmaking, person of peace and redemptive analogy, which are all concepts in our core curriculum. A great resource for this is the book Tradecraft.

+ Team Building Initiatives
The final element was team building initiatives. I've been pretty impacted by the book The Advantage and the emphasis on the idea of trust. So when we were imagining this element, I asked Amy if there was a way that we could help teams explicitly learn to trust each other. We all know that trust is earned over time and experience so doing the same thing in an afternoon was a challenge. I think the exercises helped facilitate did that, but of course, we'll know at the end of the summer.

I'm so proud of what our team did this day. Amy, Trevin, Kristen, Dustin and some other guests did a phenomenal job as well as some of our Ember X team who jumped in to help. These missions prep events are some of our most catalytic events and I'm expectant to see how these student teams throw fire this summer.

Friday Burn

::: The Payphone of the Future
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::: Historical Lessons from the Decline of the German Church
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::: Radical Cartography
Link


Photo: Automatic sprinklers after camping out on the church property. Mission Advance, 2006.

Creative Revenue Plan - Car Detailing

VL's creative revenue plan: Car detailing. In fact, he's already got a pretty legit business running that he started last summer. He's got the skills, the supplies, the financial model and the network already in place.

If you've got a smooth ride that needs some cleaning, get in touch.

Post #3000

This post is the 3000th post on this blog. Hard to believe and I wanted to sort of commemorate it. It has come a long way.

I started this blog about ten years ago because it was an interesting medium back then and it seemed to be a great way to journal some cool stuff that was going on. Ten years later and it has become exactly that - an amazing journal of me and my family's journey as we hang and serve with some amazing individuals that represent the emerging generation. This thing really is for me - I search it all the time. The memories it evokes are amazing.

Of course, I'm happy to have you along for the ride too. As I documented life and catalyzing students, this blog has helped me meet some amazing people who have the same kind of mindset. Those that love students, people that are passionate about the intricacies of the world, ones that pour their lives out for others. Meeting these people, both in real life and virtually, because of this blog, has been a true privilege.

Ember's Examples of People of Peace

There are some core concepts that Ember tries to teach students every chance we get. Understanding these ideas goes a long way towards helping prepare students to have influence both in the highly-fragmented-micro-cultures within their own culture as well as when they travel to a wholly different culture. One of these important concepts is the person of peace.

Here's a few examples from our experiences:
+ Pen Lucy, Baltimore
When we there for one day working on a community impact project, there was a guy there who got out his push mower and mowed 5 or 6 of his neighbors lawns. He obviously knew all his neighbors and what was going on in the community.

+ Londrina, Brasil
One of our hosts' good friends was a lady that knew every set of parents in the local middle school. Through her connections, we worked on a community project to fix up and old park.

+ Darly Park, Baltimore
D was one of 5 residents who had lived in this neighborhood for many many years. She was our resident guide, helping us help her community.

+ Queen Creek, AZ
G knew everyone in her apartment village - and I mean everyone. She clearly had a great deal of influence, helping a local church be able to host a kids club in the apartment complex as well as knowing everyone's names. We saw that most evidently when the police showed up.

+ Coney Island, NY
We had lunch at Tom's Diner, one of the first businesses to get re-established after Hurricane Sandy. I think I could point out who Tom was - he was the one who greeted all the locals by name.

Person of peace is an important tool that students [even middle school students] can easily grasp. Teach it well and hopefully the people you shepherd are able to influence the influencers, not just followers.

Friday Burn

::: Retired City Buses Being Converted to Showers for the Homeless
Link via Rudy


::: The 21st Century Missionary
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::: Today's Unchurched
Link


::: @philunderwood Disciples are made on the road, not in rows. @kimhammond #Exponential13
::: @mwbuckingham 'Follower' is not the opposite of 'leader.' The opposite of 'leader' is 'pessimist.'
::: @BenArment Don't get discouraged when others reject your ideas. That's how being a visionary is supposed to work

Photo: Emily Swinburne, Amadeo Church, Queen Creek, AZ, USA. July 2010.

More than Mobilizers

Some of the best missions mobilizers that I know. Except we call them catalysts.

The three of us [moi, Kristen and Trevin] are reviewing some cross cultural tools - some of the best ways we think to help students navigate culture. And when we say culture, we mean both the different cultures in another country some students will find themselves in this summer as well as the ultra pluralistic, always moving intersection of micro-cultures they live in here in the States. The training day we are helping to prepare also includes Amy [not shown] who has decades of experience working with teams. Think team initiatives like nobody's business. Incredibly thankful for this team.

If you are leading a team to travel to another culture this summer, you might think of yourself as a mobilizer. Prepare your team better than the average teams though... and you'll be a catalyst.

Creative Revenue Plan - Hand Painted Scarves

MK's creative revenue plan: Selling scarves that she has hand painted Bible verses on. Artistic, creative and a fun idea... and as she says, "Everyone wears scarves these days."

Word on the street says that she has sold about 15 of them so far and she told me they will look neater than the one in the picture. If you want to purchase some, get in touch.

Ember X team mtg 4

+ extended sharing and prayer time
+ talent - who does good at what
+ person of peace - part of our core curriculum
+ finance and creative revenue plan updates
+ next team meetings
and... we have a team blog.

April Kindling

+ Ember X finances are at about 54%, which is huge. This team is seriously doing the work of raising support - both via personal letters as well as creative revenue plans [these are awesome by the way]. Put a deposit on lodging last week, buying airfare in the next few weeks.
+ This works out to about $305 on average per day.
+ The X team is full of introverts. Oh boy.
+ Some of the X team is hearing the typical argument against mission trips to Europe - is this a vacation, pretty rough experience, do they really need you, etc. My response is something along the lines of "if you know anything about cultures becoming post Christian, you would know to help the next generation learn to lead in that." Or something like that.
+ Support raising: I go from feeling incredibly humbled and grateful to sometimes feeling dirty.
+ The GCC AZ team spent all day this past Saturday serving with an inner city ministry in Baltimore this past weekend, a small part of a bigger initiative known as ServeFest. Service opportunities are great ways to gel a team.
+ Guides are continuing to work towards preparing for a student missions training day in May.
+ Caught up with an old friend from college who is going to Madagascar and riding motorcycles through the villages showing the Jesus film later this summer.
+ Great read about boards of directors, passed on to me by one of Ember's board members.
+ My friend Joshua Symonette is helping host City Fathers in DC in early June. If you love the DC area, you should be there.
+ If you work for GE, The Ember Cast just became qualified to receive matching gifts.

Friday Burn

::: Blood analysis using a DVD player
Link


::: How Post Christian is the US?
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::: 15 Stats You Should Know About Millenials
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::: @jack Orville Wright never had a pilot's license. via @BenArment


Photo: Ember spawn and intern, NYC, Jan 2013.

May Mission Team Preparation

One of our strong convictions is that most short term mission teams are woefully under prepared. Despite all the energy around short term missions today, this is still painfully true. Ember exists partly to help fix this. Last week, we started some significant work to get ready for a student missions training day happening in a few weeks. It's one of the days that's going to be full of energy and potential - it will be a beautiful day in May.

Like most of these kinds of projects, I love both the way it has come together and the specific elements included. We've got a great team of guides running the show and our point person for the 'client' is someone we love working with. Our three big elements include:

Leaders only - discipleship and kairos moments [3DM]
Cross cultural tools of the trade [lots of this came right from Tradecraft]
Team building - team initiatives - we are toying with the theme of 'trust' for this

Very much looking forward to executing on this. If you are leading or on a missions team, please spend some time preparing. If you are looking for help, get in touch.

Ember X Mtg #3

Our Ember X meeting #3 included:
+ Dinner
+ Hearing from Ember friend JMeeder about her background as a missionary in Argentina for 2 years and a new season of service working with Araminta Freedom Initiative, a collection of churches to combat human slavery.
+ The Myers Briggs test
+ A rough schedule for our time in X [plan a at least]
+ Support, fundraising and creative revenue plans [I can't wait to tell you about some of these...]

We almost always walk through the Myers Briggs test with our teams. It's a fantastic way to fast forward relationships. [If you are putting together a mission team and looking for this kind of insight, Ember has the opportunity for you...] Luckily for this extrovert, most of our team are introverts... And it was always fun hearing from JMeeder - one of Ember's sweet spots is the ability to connect students with slightly older people who have jumped into cross cultural service and then hearing from them. JMeeder is always doing cool stuff. I joke around that everyone wants to be a social justice missionary these days and although that might be partly true, Araminta seems to be unique in that it's a collection of Baltimore churches leading the charge on this. And... I can't wait to tell you more about the creative revenue plans that are being executed. Soon and very soon.

[Related: Ember 2012 AZ meeting #2,
2010 AZ meeting #3,
2008 Hungary meeting #3,
2007 Hungary meeting #3
2006 Cameroon meeting #3
2005 Brazil meeting #1]

Friday Burn

::: Mastering the Email Intro
This is a pretty vital skill, me thinks...
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::: Are New York City religions contributing to the city's booming start-up scene?
Good reading on the Entrepreneurship Initiative of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
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::: Global Trends from Floyd McClung
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::: A "3d Printer" for vaccines
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::: The Best Conference Hack
Sit in the front row
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::: "The biggest lesson I learned in 30 years in Honduras is not to waste my time with the wrong people." - George Patterson via @ApostleFarm

Photo: Ember spawn #2, The Samaritans Women, Baltimore, MD, March 2013.

Mental Illness

I remember when my mom first came home and told my dad and I that people were talking about her in the grocery store. I was about 12 and it, of course, didn't make much sense. Even though these kinds of strange things continued to happen here and there, my family never sat down and talked about it - ever. Fast forward almost 30 years or so to 2010 when my dad was towards the end of his life. Now, people in the hospital cafeteria were talking about her, there were people on her roof late at night singing songs, people at the bank knew all of her financial details. As we dug into her medical records - deciding to address the facts for the first time ever, the official diagnosis was delusional disorder and she had suffered with it for decades. Now it all started to make sense - the sometimes talking to people who weren't there, the stories about strangers, and the suspicions about the ordinary. After my dad passed away, the stress made it even worse. I don't remember all the details now - I'm sure it's better that way.

3 years ago this week, I went to a local National Alliance of Mental Illness discussion group for family members of people suffering from mental illness. Deanna and I had talked about it for a while and eventually decided I should go to at least check it out. While there, I heard from other family members trying to help their parents or kids or siblings - many of the stories were heartbreaking. The facilitators stressed two things: we were not alone and I was not intended to be my mother's savior. That was enough.

I could tell you that I think a life of faith might help some of this. When we live a life larger than ourselves, maybe our anxieties are channeled into something healthier. I'm pretty sure that serving others gives you a proper perspective about how good or bad your life is. But instead I'll tell you that if you are having trouble with your thoughts or if things just seem really bad or if you feel overwhelmingly desperate, or if you have a family member who is talking about this kind of stuff, there is help and you are not alone.

A Front Row Seat

I spent about an hour on the phone yesterday with John Hawkins. John runs a nonprofit called Leadership Edge and I was introduced to him from two mutual Ember friends who have nothing but stunning things to say about him. They are right. John has spent the last 20 years mentoring college and young adults - around 10,000 students have been engaged in various leadership talks and sessions and about 200-300 have been personally mentored by him.

Our conversation included topics like the global recession, how nonprofits need to do more with less, university campuses as cross cultural missions environments and helping volunteers engage at their best. John prayed for me at the end of our conversation - that hour on the phone was a gift.

My favorite - "A front row seat into a life transformed," how John reflected on mentoring young people and then releasing them to do the work they were meant to do.

The Ability to Execute

I would argue that our churches don't have missional leaders, but I'd take it a step further. I also think that most of our churches have next to no leaders. Sure we have leadership development programs. We have dinners, classes, meetings, and maybe some training. But leadership means that we've been given a vision from the Lord for ourselves and given the power and the authority to execute this vision. This isn't what is happening in our churches.

- Mike Breen, Multipliying Missional Leaders

Friday Burn

::: The World in 100 people
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::: Finland's New Passport
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::: 10 Challenges Facing us in the next decade
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::: The World's Main Airports
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Photo: MK and Katie, at The Samaritans Women, Baltimore, MD, March 2013