Astrojax

I don't know if I'm really late on this one... but this weekend, at a discount toy store, we picked up a set of Astrojax for K to play with. Think two balls on either end of a string, with one in the middle that slides to either end. This particular set also lights up. I had never seen them before, and they looked kind of cool. The idea is sort of a yo-yo and juggling. Come to find out, there are all kinds of really cool tricks you can do with them and they are pretty addicting. Comes with a CD-ROM showing you some of the tricks and it looks like there is a pretty big online community too. It could potentially be a great tool to help with a Gospel illustration maybe (three parts of the Trinity... I don't know, maybe...), but could totally be a lot of fun for some kinds of kids club, children's ministry thing.

WWLD?

D and I shipped our kids off last night and went away for one night, just to have an extended date away... It was great fun. We stayed near an outlet mall and spent a little bit of time there this morning, where I noticed this 'cute' game... What Would Lizzie Do?... So did WWJD or WWLD come first?

Airport Fun

The last time I was in an airport, earlier this summer, one of my Brasil team members had just come through customs and threw up all over the floor. The next to last time I was in an airport (about 10 days prior to the throw up incident), the flight was overbooked and my team of 10 was delayed going out of the country for 24 hours.

I got lucky this time. I had the honor of meeting up and hanging with three pretty cool dudes at Reagan National Airport this afternoon.

From left to right, Rudy, (but for only 10 minutes before his flight out) Jeremy and Matt.

Matt, Jeremy and I had a great hanging out and talking about students, ministry, the revolution of blogging, NOLA and their current vision for their ministries. It was very, very cool. What I loved most was hearing about common themes in their ministries:
- missional
- built from natural connections
- common DNA of leaders and vision
- focusing on local, indigenous people and vision within communities
- partnerships and growth at the grassroots, organic level
- God ordaining it all

These guys are instable, on the edge, and scary. They envision something in the future, know that students are worth pouring into, and they implement and execute - instead of just sitting around talking about it. In other words, I loved hanging out with them. I suspect that our paths will cross again.

this blog in Portuguese

I know some of you (well, at least one of you) comes to this blog with WinXP running in Portuguese.  So hopefully to make it a little easier, I added a link for a translation of this blog into Portuguese (over on the right sidebar.)  Hopefully that helps.  If you haven't seen it before, Google has a whole set of language translation tools here.

Misc Thurs

For all you wondering readers, yes, the bathroom tile is sooo close to being done. Just a little more grouting... (just a little bit more seriously.) Those of you that know me know I'm not exactly Mr. Handy. But take a look at that grout would ya? I even mixed the grout myself!

Alex writes about Montreal being unreached (unreached - less than 2% Christian - see JoshuaProject.net definition) - with one person in 200 knowing Jesus. Shocking on one hand, because its within North America, a place where we don't normally think things are unreached from the Church. Exhilarating on another hand because its a great context to build leaders. One of these days, I'm going to jot down my thoughts about leadership lessons from this summer - the clincher being a context of cross cultural mission.

PM has a cool blog series on sex with the title being "CASCADE."

GCC is sending the 2nd team down to NOLA - they just left tonight. More details here at katrinagrace.blogspot.com.

Matthew 25

I've been ruminating on the following passage for a few days now. More on why later. I have no idea what it means. Also, look up the word 'ruminiating.' It's good when it comes to the Bible.

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like...

14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'
21"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
22"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'
23"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'
26"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Resource - Helping Children Cope with Disasters

Great resource that got linked with the Youth Specialties youthworker email today - "Helping Children Cope with Disasters: A Manual for Professionals Working with Elementary School Aged Children" -
full pdf here.

The resource was developed by the faculty at the University of Miami after Hurricane Andrew in Florida, and has some great information as well as a series of hands on activities and questionnaires to use with children post-disaster. Looks to me like the activities and questionnaires are invaluable.

Snippet:
Three key components that have been used in many of the interventions reported in research literature:
1. Exposure to and discussion of disaster-related events. Research suggests that repeated presentation of disaster related material helps to reduce the emotional distress following such events. This suggest that children need an opportunity to talk about their experiences in a safe, accepting environment in order to recover from the disaster.
2. Promotion of positive coping and problem solving skills. Research suggest that the development of positive strategies and problem solving skills can improve children's management of the stressors after a disaster.
3. Strengthening of children's friendships and peer support. Research has shown that children with strong emotional support from others are better able to cope and adjust in stressful situations.

Would be a good resource to have if you are going to NOLA anytime soon and one to save to your resource folder.

PocketMod

Found this website called PocketMod, which gives you some templates and instructions on making a foldable, paperbased, note taking, calendar, personal organizer that fits neatly in your pocket.

It caught my attention because I have come to realize that with a lot of mission experiences, a lot of time is spent in transit. (I think I wrote about this earlier but couldn't find the post.) You take the subway, you take a plane, you are lugging your baggage, etc. I know that when we have done things in NYC, for example, we probably spent the better part of an hour on the subway every day. Some of that time is great, no doubt. Kids hanging out, getting to know one another, me and my constant barrage of questions... But some of that time could maybe be better used.

Thats why PocketMod caught my attention. The goal is to try to produce a one page devotional guide that kids can read while in transit. But it would have to be easily foldable, something they could hold with one hand (while the other is holding on to the subway rails) and something that could be kept in a pocket and then pulled out or put away quickly.

PocketMod gives you some neat already built templates. It would be really cool to be able to import your own text but thats okay. And it gives you a folding guide, which is probably the most helpful for us. Maybe I will try to come up with a Word PocketMod template. That would be (kind of) fun. Oh, and the next thing, after we get it sort of working, would be to laminate the sheets for that crisp, clean feeling.

HT: BoingBoing from a few weeks ago

hit 7000

Earlier today, this blog had its 7000 visitor.  If that was you (you come from AOL, you use IE 6.0, around 3:42:10 pm), let me know via comment or email.  I will send you a little gift.  (Really, its nothing big, but kind of cool)

By the way, 7000th visit in about 1000 days of this blog being in existence.  So on average 7 hits per day.  Don't think I'm all that.  Ha.

Clarification

Big clarification here.  After my trip to Brasil, I had posted some things about the trip and our time there, etc.  Some readers may have inferred that the McMs were not well supported.  That is not at all true.  Both in reality, and in my experience, the McMs have a great support system.  GCC (and this makes me really proud to say) has done a great job of supporting them and their ministry.

Some of my posts may have accidentally suggested the opposite, but those were simply a lack of accurate communication on my part. I experienced one thing, tried to write about something related, and it came out really wrong and maybe people inferred something else.  So, because of that, I have edited some posts a bit, and removed some other text and wanted to post this clarification. Alas, the double edge sword of blogging. Hopefully this post makes it clear.

All in all, it just reminds me again of what a privilege the whole trip was, and what a cool community of faith we both (us and the McMs) belong to.

Todays apostles

You don't graduate from the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Indonesia unless you have started a new church in an unreached village with twenty-five baptised converts. There are no exceptions.... the seminary's goal is to plant twenty thousand churches by the year 2015. One church in each of Indonesians twenty thousand villages. Over seven hundred churches have been planted this way and the college has started thirteen branch seminaries throughout Indonesia.
Steve writes about what apostles do today.
1 - pioneer evangelism
2 - starting new churches
3 - strengthening churches
The post is kind of old, but well worth the read.  Steve's blog is becoming one of my favorite resources.

LF from Brasil

LF, one of my team that went to Brasil, has started a blog.  Welcome her.

Crash - the movie

If this movie didn't have such bad language, there would literally be at least 25 cross cultural lessons and bad stereotypes you could extract from it and use for some kind of teaching. But be forewarned - lots of bad language and some nudity. Recommended but use discretion in light of your audience.

Sunday morning recap

Quick recap from speaking at LC.

- It was total middle school chaos.  But I loved it.
- Taping up all the kids that represented the unreached was a really good visual.
- I hope a lot of kids tell their parents, "He was about to give her a crew cut!"
- One of the students that helped out showed up with 2 minutes to spare.  I was sweating it, but I knew it was going to work out on way or another.

A lot of fun.  A great opportunity.

comments

Sorry, had some trouble with comments and such over the weekend... should be fixed now.  Comment away!

Indigenous and contextualized

Quick post here since I have to be up in 7 hours and speak (or try to) in front of loads of middle schoolers.  Actually, I'm not doing all the speaking, I've farmed it out to a bunch of the high schoolers from the summer teams.

We met with the SPACEcrew Friday night.  It was one of those meetings for students who have shown interest in being part of the planning, dreaming, executing.  Interestingly enough, most of the kids that came last year didn't come on Friday.  Instead, it was a few who were involved last year, and a few more who just came because their friends were there.  They, in fact, had little idea what it really was.  It was a little disappointing.  Fully half of the kids there didn't really understand the purpose.

But not that much.  What we must remember is that indigenous and contextualized ministry is how things must occur.  A student who invites a friend into the movement of God makes much more of an impact than when a 36 year old begs and pleads with kids to come.  A local church in NOLA makes a bigger difference in serving the community than outsiders.  English classes with a family that lives in Brazil does more than a few IMs from someone in the States.  Our tendency is to want to manage it all, want to jump in and serve and help, to be the rescuers, the attraction, the one that can make it happen.

Even though I know them, it takes diligence and stamina to keep applying these ideas.  The natural thing to do is to bring it all back under our own leadership and influence.

"They treat you very well"

"You just walk in," said Ethel Wicker, 57, who fled the Ninth Ward in New Orleans ahead of the storm that flooded it, as she dug into a Styrofoam container of oriental chicken in the gym of Florida Boulevard Baptist Church. "They have clothing. They have drinks. They have candy. And they treat you very well."

Quote from NYT article entitled "A New Meaning for 'Organized Religion': It Helps the Needy Quickly."  HT to Stephen and the KatrinaGrace blog. 

Andy Stanley again

An optimal sized church?

Our theory is that a church should be allowed or encouraged to grow large enough to sustain a viable high school and middle school ministry. A successful student ministry requires critical mass in order to capture and keep the attention of their target audience. So the question becomes, how many adults are required to generate critical mass for a student ministry? That depends upon the demographic of a community.

If you are a twenty six year old seminary student with a couple of kids in diapers that may not sound like a great answer. But if you are a church planter with 150 people and one of your elders just informed you that her family is leaving because you don't have anything for her thirteen year old, it makes painful sense.

Parents will put up with a lot in big church if their teenagers feel connected to a student ministry.

Full post and comments here. Very interesting.

1 - Your student ministry is a huge attraction for families within the overall larger body of your community. It's not just about your students anymore. (Well, actually, it was never about your students necessarily.) So, you inherently have more responsibility, not just to minister to students, but to families. (If you are a mission team leader, you already have a natural connection with your students' families, whether you thought about it or not.)

2 - Maybe we all need to answer the question Andy asks - how many adults in your community are needed to generate critical mass for your student ministry? This critical mass can look different in the context of different communities. Notice the overall principle - contextualization. Just like in cross cultural ministry - context is important.

Its an interesting principle, especially since a lot of the discussion in the comments are things that I think people could easily say about GCC. But... healthy things grow. I could write more but I'm not going to right now.

Katrina - help where you can

Its a weird dynamic to be in the richest nation in the world and watch NOLA happen. Sounds like its going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. I think the overall sentiment with students is one of frustration. They want to help, but there isn't seemingly much they can do. They can't fly down there. They don't have a big disposable income to give a lot. They can't exactly open their home for an evacuee. The desire is there, the means are not as easy.

GCC is sending a small team to NOLA this weekend. They are bringing a light load of supplies and will also scope the situation, in an effort to long term partner with Trinity Church in Covington. (The pastor is a guy that D and I know from our previous church way back - good guy.)

I dropped some stuff off at the church office tonight and met a lady also dropping off some stuff. She mentioned that they had only been at GCC for one month. She has a son in LC and a elementary age daughter. Both of their kids were doing stuff with the Boys/Girl Scouts and they had even more stuff to drop off later tonight. I really enjoyed meeting someone who had only been at GCC for a month, but was already pitching in and donating some stuff.

I was chatting with LB the other night and she mentioned that she had taken an hour and helped with the KatrinaPeopleFinder wiki. She felt like it was something tangible and within her means that she could do to help. (Her dad is one of the ones going this weekend. I don't wonder where she gets it from.)

We are going to do a little bit with the SPACE crew to help for NOLA on Friday night too. I can't divulge any more details, otherwise it might ruin it. But nothing huge. But its something. And, we know - we *really* know - that a group of young people, when they set their mind to it, can change the world.

Andy Stanley comments

Andy Stanley comments on a blog observation of someone that visited NorthPoint.  He is a bit sarcastic, has very thoughtful answers and even engages the readers about a question about an optimal sized church.  Make sure you read all the comments.


HT: Phil