adult church praying for us

right now, we are in the middle of morning services where adult church is praying for us.  the momentum is building...

saturday

Less than 24 hours before we leave. 
Today is my 11th wedding anniversary.  We are getting a brownie sunday and renting a dvd tonight.
Just played Go Fish with my 7 and 4 year olds.  E, who is 4, doesn't know her numbers.  Very fun.
Next post will probably be from Londrina Brazil.

Leader Reading

One of the hands down best parts about this trip is the leader team.  I've said it before, I'm saying it again.  These guys and gals do whatever it takes in order for the mission.

- JB went into a sporting goods store with a handwritten letter for me, on some psuedo church stationary, asking if he could get a discount on some flag football stuff for the trip. (He got 50% off by the way.)
- JB and FZ drove into DC looking for the visa place.  When they got there, there was no one there.
- LB sat in the international SPACE office and copied and scanned passports and visas with D.  For a few hours.
- All three wrote some hott devotions for the plane ride.
- JB and FZ collected various facts about Brazil and common phrases in Portueguese.
- LB and FZ put together the plane packets.

Totally my privilege to lead with them.  Part of the honor is getting to create and shape their ethos, while they do the same with the students.  (Yup, that message from Erwin again.)  So one of the things I did is put a little packet of "light" reading together.  Below are the articles.
(If you are one of my leaders reading this, stop reading now.)
- Billions to be won - going after the largest mission field in the world - youth
- STM - make a difference?
- Alex McManus - plant churches?
- Alex McManus - the News and hospitality
- Organic Multiplication

Wow... it is late Friday night and we leave Sunday evening.

D

My wife D does an incredible amount of behind-the-scenes stuff for SPACE. I'm going to try to list it all, with just recent memory, but I know I'm going to miss something...

- SPACE chef - made taco salad for 40 people for missions prep day
- SPACE art director - two posters for Brazil and CMTS mission teams
- SPACE dessert queen - made a Brazilian lime pie for our team meeting
- SPACE bookkeeper - organized, entered and reported on over 350 SPACE contributions totalling more than $22K
- SPACE mission leader - helped brainstorm and execute our DC day, with some great ideas including going to the Air and Space Museum, culture survey and not going to Adams Morgan
- SPACE administrator - helping to coordinate, organize and double and triple check all the visa paperwork
- SPACE help desk - answering crazy questions from parents about shots, etc
- SPACE maid - cleans up the international SPACE office for me
- SPACE permission granter - lets me do this crazy experiment
- Sheng general contractor - making sure our bathroom remodel goes fine next week, with two kids in tow
And of course, sooo many other things.

But what she does best is being a wife and mother. That counts multitudes more than anything in the list above.
love

visas are done

whew
check it out - visa guy said for all of ours to come through like that was a miracle, 'there is usually always something wrong with some of them.'

Londrina, Brazil

I mentioned a bit in a previous post about some mistakes on my last international missions trip. Here is what I think we are doing right this time:
- Long term partnership
We are working with a family from GCC. They used to live in Maryland and are one of the families that are homegrown on mission.
- Engage the local culture
Our team is going to be split up and staying with at least two families, possibly three. There is no sense of an American 'compound' as such this time, no concept of us retreating to our little home away from home. Home for us will be totally Brazilian.
- Setting up local ministry
One of the things we will be doing there is being involved in a culture exchange. It will look something like us hanging out with Brazilian high schoolers, being exposed to elements of culture from both countries. This is a great opportunity to jump start relationships that our hosts have with students, since our hosts work on a college campus. It could help getting them started for the next college term. Another activity we will be involved in is planting a garden at a local school.
In both cases, it's not as simple as bringing a team to build a church or construct something and then leaving. Instead, our activities should really give something for our indigenous, local ministry leaders to follow up on and build upon.
- To bless our family away from home
I hope that the team is sick of me saying this... Our whole mission is to bless and serve our GCC family. The rest is just icing.

Pew report - Teens and Technology

The Pew Internet report titled, "Teens and Technology: Youth are leading the transition to a fully wired and mobile nation."
87% of US teens aged 12-17 use the internet.
45% of teens have cell phones and 33% are texting.
51% of families have broadband.
73% of home teen users go online from a computer located in an open family area.
Size of wired teen population surges at seventh grade mark.  60% of sixth graders are online, jumps to 82% of seventh graders.

McLean Bible, VA - student ministry openings

McLean Bible Church, one of the mega churches on the other side of the DC Beltway from me, has three student ministry positions open.  I like to read job descriptions and these seem to be well thought out.  Hopefully, looking at those job descriptions can help some of you readers.
However, check out the required/preferred experience and the salary for each of these jobs.  That is some serious job experience and those are some heavy job responsibilities.  Of course, to live in DC on that salary.... My personal opinion - you would have to be insane to take any of these jobs. Of course, many of us are crazy already...

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE/SKILLS (for all three)
Bachelor degree required
Minimum 3 years experience as a full time staff member responsible for a growing student ministry of at least 350 students
Minimum 7 years student ministry experience (may include part time and internships)
Proven experience growing a student ministry numerically (must be documented in resume)
Compatibility with McLean Bible's vision, core values and statement of faith (available at www.mcleanbible.org)

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE/SKILLS (for all three)
5+ years experience with a growing student ministry of 500 or more students
7 years full time experience in student ministry

STUDENT MINISTRIES CAMPUS MINISTRY COORDINATOR
$45-55K
RESPONSIBILITIES TO INCLUDE:
Developing and implementing a campus impact strategy to incorporate students into the weekly large gathering event
Building and empowering school coach teams for selected schools
Developing outreach tools/events to reach campuses
Coordinating small group community Bible study development and leadership
Overseeing the transition from grade-based small groups to regional community Bible studies

STUDENT MINISTRIES VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
$35K-45K
RESPONSIBILITIES TO INCLUDE:
Defining the needs of the student ministry alongside the director and associate director
Recruiting, equipping and impassioning adult volunteer staff
Developing and maintaining a database retrieval system for matching interests, gifts and skills of volunteers with the needs of the ministry
Designing and implementing volunteer selection process including detailed job descriptions
Initiating appropriate training for volunteers
Ensuring quarterly performance reviews of all volunteer staff
Facilitating recognition for volunteers
Organizing staffing for all events including pre-event prayer and post-event analysis
Development and direction of student leadership team

STUDENT MINISTRIES ASSIMILATION DIRECTOR
$35-45K
RESPONSIBILITIES TO INCLUDE:
Ensuring a guest-friendly environment including building signage, promotional materials…etc.
Monitoring student attendance
Management of the student ministry database
Recruiting and equipping adult and student greeting teams for all events
Developing and overseeing ministry follow-up strategy including all emails, phone calls, and correspondence
Coordinating periodic phone and email "blasts"
Overseeing the assimilation of students from children's ministry to junior high ministry and from junior high ministry into the high school ministry

god speaks campaign

Godspeaks campaign starts again.  There was one in 1998, now another one in 2005.  More from the Friday Fax.

don miller sermons

linked here

Just Jump In

I leave for Brazil in 4 days. It's one of those things you can't quite comprehend. In many ways, its totally exciting. What a privilege to take a group of students into another culture, solely to encourage and bless a family from our church. With this trip, I think I've encapsulated a lot of the principles that I believe in so strongly in regards to overseas mission trips with students. (Long term relationship/partnership, strong team preparation, engaging the culture, etc. - all the stuff I've written about before)

The last time (and first time) I left the country with students was in 1993. Although it was a pretty good mission trip, there were a lot of things that we did incorrectly. There wasn't such a clear distinction between being a mission tourist and really having a mission to bless others around us. We didn't engage the surrounding culture like we could have. We stayed in an American 'compound.'

As much as I love taking students into new experiences soley for expanding the Kingdom, I'm a nervous wreck about this one. I wake up every morning feeling like I'm going to puke. It's getting better now that all the visa paperwork is complete and almost (hopefully) done. But there is still the actual traveling, making sure everyone has all their stuff, and hoping that we have prepared these kids in the right manner to really impact and bless others.

On the contrary, I know that God has paved the way for us. Nothing is going to be a surprise for Him, He lavishes in the fact that we are taking a risk for His sake.

This summer, my daughter K learned how to jump into the deep end of the pool. It's a real model for me this summer. The unknown, a new culture and context, the butterflies in the stomach, the final action of just taking that step. Let me get my googles.

Photo: The third time ever that K jumped into the deep end of the pool.

3 fibs and the truth

Great article here about which details 3 fibs that American churches have propogated about premarital sex.  Looks like a great resource to think through when students bring up related questions.

PM's 2006 student missions budget

My good friend PM has already published his 2006 student missions budget.  I told you all he was the real deal.

4 out of 10

good news!! four out of our ten visas are done.  the remaining six should be ready (keep praying) on thursday...  thanks for uplifting this need!

Building community with a splitter

I've decided that I'm buying a bunch of these if I can. It occurred to me a few days ago that while we are traveling, it would be so fun to listen to music with another person. I did this with K when we went to Boot Camp last summer. And I'm thinking that it would be fun to do it again with different people on our team. Much like trading music, but listening together. The overwhelming principle - building community among the team.

Final Brazil team meeting

We had our last team meeting tonight before departure. We went over the info packet, including what to pack, how to pack, what to bring, what to expect with regard to weather, activities...and of course, a music policy. Ha.
Seriously though, music is such a big deal with students, I decided to come up with some rough guidelines.
One final topic was - whatever you do now affects the team. Don't get enough rest before the trip, the team has to drag you along. Don't spend enough time with God, you hurt the rest of the team. We are now an organism that functions together.
Good meeting overall, the mood is excied yet a bit nervous and apprehensive. Worries include 23 hours of travel, what will the food be like, hoping no one gets sick. The team seems excited about the ministry opportunities we will be involved in, including the culture exchange, planting the garden and the various sports things.

T minus 6 days until Brazil!

Summer greetings to all you partners of SPACE!!
(Students Prepared to Act for Christ's Empire - the student missions component of GCC's youth ministry)

Thanks to all of you who have prayed and supported this summer's SPACE activities.  Your involvement and support has been crucial as we seek to send some pretty cool kids intentionally into other cultures and experiences to expand the Kingdom forth.

I've had some pretty phenomenal experiences this summer so far.  As I wrote about in my support letter, I was able to spend a few days
helping out with a community outreach with a youth pastor friend in Gilbert, AZ.  We had a great time reaching out to the community via a skatepark outreach, his local church's VBS and helping lead and direct a great community of students.  We may potentially partner in the future on some student mission projects.  I also helped lead a 21 person team of middle school kids and leaders that helped with an organization that supports missionaries with technical services.  We did various work projects around the property including washing and cleaning cars, lots of lawn and landscaping work and general cleaning.

As of now, we are about 6 days away from departing for the Brazil team.  Our team of 10 students and leaders are very excited about serving and encouraging GCC missionaries the McMs.  Plans include a culture exchange with Brazilian high schoolers, a one day baseketball camp and planting a community garden at a local school.

Our departure is July 31st and we would really appreciate your prayers about the following:
- that our visas are approved in the next day or two with no issues
- a safe arrival and good health for the entire team
- that our team would pour out ourselves in order to serve and encourage the McMs

Feel free to check tonytsheng.blogspot.com with updates about our mission to Brazil.  Thanks once again for supporting SPACE - you are integral to the next generation of students creating the future for the Kingdom!

love
- tony

real failure?

'real failure is actually not trying' - read another post in his series of mDNA from Phil

SPACE summer finance

With Trinidad now off and in the field, the other team dealing with finances is Brazil. In 11 weeks of raising support for these two SPACE teams, we have raised about $22K. That's about $2K per week, which I think is a pretty astonishing number.
A few things I have noticed regarding this summer's finances:
- Protect donor information. Make sure that your leaders that need to know the information (for thank you cards, current status, purchasing items and budgeting) understand how sensitive it is.
- Work in tandem with the church's finance people. We have a great accountant who has gone out of her way to help us. For example, we enter all the donations into an Excel spreadsheet, but only date, donor name, amount, team name, team member. We use that for feedback to the team members. Our accountant actually enters all the personal info of the donor into some accounting system. At the end of the year, they generate all the receipts. So she has made it really easy for us. Once you have agreed on a system, it will go much easier.
- Don't manage the donations by hand. Use a computer. If you have experience with Excel, you know what it can do. My top three Excel things - Sort, AutoFilter, Subtotals.

Trinidad is en route!

The third of our four major missional movements is now en route. They left Columbia at 7:00am this morning. I was crazy enough to get up at 5.45 (am!) so I could meet them all at 6 and see them off. It's a great team and I am overjoyed with their team and the work they are doing (like I am with all the SPACE stuff going on this summer.) For new readers, this team is serving and encouraging a family that our church supports in Trinidad. This is the third student team that we have sent to this family as long as I have been at Grace. Long term relationship, students impacting a part of the world where we already have a connection, seeing church planting and evangelism first hand - all elements that I believe are right on track with a student mission strategy.
On a related note, in the summer of 2004, we sent out 33 students and leaders. 12 of those directly impacted a Grace supported organization (although another 12 went with an organization we had gone with before, but not suppported by the church.) This summer, we will have sent out 52 students and leaders on some sort of missional experience (Trinidad, CMTS, the DC day trip and Brazil.) Of that number, 40 will have connected with a Grace supported missionary family or organization. I know that one of the challenges for this school year and next summer is momentum.