And then there was Door # 4??

One door closed last night; another opened this morning.

I came to the fairly easy conclusion late last night that I should withdraw from the IMB ISC (International Service Corp) Process for the following reasons:

1) Lack of language training. Because the ISC assignments are for just 2 years, then the language that is offered to successful candidates is BARE MINIMUM...like one month of language training. I want more than that!

2) Although the overwhelming majority of ISC, Journeyman and Masters Candidates will hear about jobs and read about jobs at this conference that will hit them squarely in the heart; that wasn't the case with me. There are a number of jobs around the world that would be a good fit for me and my particular skilset and experiences. None of them however was what I feel like I want to do...have wanted to do...all along.

Just as I thought for sure that one of my options had been eliminated though I was offered yet another choice.

The Consultants here have suggested that I transfer my application to the Missionary Apprentice Program which is a Career Track program. Apprentices serve for 3 years with an option to continue as Career Missionaries. They receive the same language training as Career Missionaries (typically a full year) and may have more flexibility in selecting a "job".

I'm willing to pursue this path if I can be paired with a job that's very close to this:

Here's what I'd like to do: I want to go to Ukraine. I want to enroll in the SEND Language School for at least one academic school year. I would like to be a part of at least two churches while I'm in language school. One being a Ukrainian fellowship so I can not only meet Ukrainian Christians but so that I can be immersed in worship in the Russian language and the other being an English congregation so I can meet other English speaking missionaries and expats. My goal my first year would be to learn the language and make ministry contacts. In the summer I would like to work in a summer camp setting with one of the contacts I already have in Ukraine. Ultimately, I would like to develop ministries in Ukrainian Government Orphanages. I see myself becoming, essentially a volunteer Youth Minister for an orphanage. Within that context I could then develop programs and ministries to disciple those kids and prepare them for life after the orphanage; programs that could be replicated in other orphanages. I think I have strengths in planning for and coordinating teams, so I would like eventually to serve as a "Mission Base Director" of sorts to facilitate the work of short-term teams and individuals. Finally- I would want to be an "incidental church planter". That is- as I have opportunities to lead people to Christ and disciple them I would like to connect them with existing churches or move them to begin new churches wherever it is practical to do so.

Finally...Door # 3

Welcome back to my options. Even though I fly to Richmond tomorrow and hope and pray that all these options come completely into focus by the end of this week, I have yet another option.

While nothing has been promised and I haven’t even arranged for an interview with these people yet…there’s the possibility I could go to work with a mission-sending organization in Alabama.

It’s a group that I’ve been associated with for a long time as a Student Minister. I love who they are and what they do. The job would involve organizing and implementing mission trips all over the world for individuals and church groups. I would get to travel regularly to many of those countries. I would spend time promoting the ministry and dreaming about and developing new ministry partners around the world. I’m sure the job pays nicely and the benefits are above average. It would be fairly high profile work but I think it is work I’m suited for in light of my past experiences. I would be near friends and family. I have grieved a good bit thinking about living overseas and not seeing my great-nephews and great-niece grow up. Living in the Birmingham area would allow me to be near enough to them. I have great friends there already too and I love the area itself. I can hike and bike and kayak and climb rocks with my jeep or my feet in no time! I anticipate being asked to interview shortly after the IMB interviews have concluded.

What to do, what to do?

Door Number 2

Welcome Back. Today I want to outline another of my options. That of going overseas on my own.

Actually, I have no intention of going overseas entirely on my own. I know better than to go without a support system in place. For that reason, If I don’t go overseas with IMB then I would seek to go as a part of some other ministry and Adventures in Missions in Gainesville, GA is the first one that comes to mind. That’s who I served with doing The World Race last year. They have a number of missionaries around the world already. They have a very broad “policy” I guess you would say of allowing missionaries to develop ministries as they are led of the Lord. They have an excellent Shepherding Services department to provide emotional and spiritual support. They are well equipped and experienced in handling the financial support I would have to raise.

If I go on my own, I think I’ll have a greater opportunity to learn the language. My plan right now would be to pretty much be a student of the language and culture for most of my first year overseas. I would enroll in a language school in Kiev, Ukraine for the Fall and Spring Semester. During that time I would find two churches to be involved with; a Ukrainian language church and an English language church. One so I could meet Ukrainians and one so I could have some English speaking friends. In the summer I would probably work at an English language camp for Ukrainian kids and begin trying to get my foot in the door of an orphanage. Hopefully by the end of the summer I would basically be the full-time volunteer youth minister at the orphanage. From there I could develop an unlimited number of ministries as I begin to understand the needs. Ultimately, I’d like to be a Mission Base Director- serving the orphans, being an “incidental” church planter and hosting and directing mission teams.

I’m not sure how much it would cost me to do this. I’ve heard one estimate of $1000.00 a month but I think that’s probably low. Housing in Kiev is pretty expensive, although it wouldn’t be so much in other places. I think I could begin for as little as $20,000.00 a year. One friend suggested that’s just 200 people giving me $100.00 a year. That’s doable I believe

Options

Greetings to the two family members and three friends that regularly check my blog. Over the next three days I’m going to lay out what looks like to be options for my immediate future. Today, I want to write about my upcoming IMB Interview in Richmond, VA and some of the pros and cons of serving with them.

On Tuesday I am leaving to spend the better part of a week in Richmond, VA at the International Mission Board’s International Learning Center. About 185 of us in at least three categories are exploring God’s call to overseas missions this. We are hearing presentations from Ministry Leaders from all of the IMB’s International Regions. There is an extensive library where we can research those regions and their people groups. We have small group times and numerous interviews scheduled throughout the week.

It’s been a long road to get here! I began the online application process from Cambodia last September after meeting three young women in Thailand last August who were working with the IMB. I had long considered serving with the IMB, but meeting those girls solidified my decision to begin the application process. I was thoroughly impressed by them. They were all working in very non-traditional jobs in Bangkok and that appealed to me.

I have mentioned in other blogs I think and to many of my readers in person that my prayer is to know by the end of this week IF I want to serve with IMB.

IMB is a Southern Baptist organization. I’m obviously comfortable with the theology. The IMB offers phenomenal support- their missionaries are paid pretty well, have the best insurance and benefits package available and are supported emotionally and otherwise. If there is ever a problem on the field…or even back home… these guys will take care of you and do it well.

But because it is a monster-big organization there’s a certain amount of bureaucracy involved and that might be my biggest “con”. There’s a lot of accountability, which is a good thing…but a laborious thing. While visiting with some IMB friends in Eastern Europe a few months ago, we were presented with an opportunity to be a part of what I felt like was an incredible “Kingdom Event” taking place there. I felt like the IMB should have been in the forefront of this “event”. Instead, in my opinion they were so overly concerned about not appearing to dictate to their national hosts what ministries they should and shouldn’t be involved with and likely because the event wasn’t “theirs” to begin with…that they missed the biggest gathering of Christian students in a former Soviet bloc country ever. That’s the bureaucracy I’m talking about. I “get” authority and serving under a national host and all that but not at the expense of missing something so huge.

Another “con” is while there appears to be some flexibility in creating job assignments, most of them to me seem to be cookie-cutter positions and I’m not sure that’s what I want to do. I appreciate their efforts to spend the majority of their resources developing Church Planting Movements but I feel like there has to be more emphasis on social and justice issues as well. The old adage “People don’t care what (or who) you know until they know that you care” applies. I think I want to basically be the “Youth Minister” for an orphanage somewhere in Ukraine. I want to be a constant presence in the lives of a bunch of kids. I want to develop ministries and programs that will teach them how to live once they leave the orphanage. I would obviously be involved in a church while I’m doing that. I would want to meet people and disciple them which I think would turn out to be a church planting movement. In other words- I think I want to serve Orphans and be an “Incidental Church Planter”. The difference as I see it is that I would be intimately involved in the lives of kids while being a discipler and church planter and not a Church Planter that may or may not have meaningful relationships with kids. Maybe it’s a fine distinction, I don’t know.

I really am praying that I’ll see and hear something that will convince me otherwise in regard to my “cons” of serving with IMB. If I can do what I feel like the Lord is calling me to do with them…then that’s my first choice.

Counseling 101

Seth Barnes, Executive Director of Adventures in Missions posts amazing and brilliant articles regularly on his blog page (www.sethbarnes.org). One of his latest was about our "victim mentality" here in America and included the following Bob Newhart skit.

I won't even try to write about it as he did...you can go to his blog if you want to. I recommend it. But the video is awesome even without the commentary. Enjoy!

Here's Ya Sign

So, the thought crossed my mind . . . to rob this little shop in downtown Scottsdale.

But I was deterred by this sign on the door. These folks are obviously way ahead of your average crook.
















Couldn't miss this sign at the entrance to the Men's Toilet at Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport. You can't imagine how relieved I was that the restroom doubled as the secure weather room. Imagine what it would be like in the event of actual severe weather?!

Envision

Ya know, once upon a time I majored in Forestry. I went to school with a LOT of Forestry guys and even a few Forestry gals too. A lot of those guys and gals ended up working for big paper companies like Georgia Pacific.

I realize the men and women that do all the marketing and promotion work are probably not Forestry majors.

There's a world of difference between a Forestry major and a Marketing major.

I remember when I was in college how my Forestry friends and I would purposefully walk through McCool Hall at MSU occasionally just to have the rare experience of seeing people dressed nicely; girls in particular. You could tell by their expressions that they didn't see a lot of guys with hard hats and machetes. Who knew?

But I digress.

Note the spare roll of TP found in the restrooms at Mississippi College during Super Summer. "Envision". Really? Is that the best they could come up with? "Green by design and desire". Really?

Super Summer

It's Tuesday morning at Super Summer. I've been here with over 100 college student Small Group Leaders (Team Leaders) and nearly that many Student Ministers and Youth Workers and College Ministers (Executive Staff) since Saturday evening. Student Campers arrived yesterday.

I LOVE Super Summer. It's been around in Mississippi since 1987. I think there's a border dispute between Texas and Oklahoma as to where it began, but in any case it's been an amazing camp in Mississippi since the beginning. I've been here since 1992- missing last year and the 1998.

It's a different kind of "camp". It's not for the entire youth group. There are other camps for that. Super Summer has fairly stringent entrance requirements that results in campers that really want to be here. Year after year Super Summer attracts the best kids in the State- leaders from their respective youth groups.

Students are eligible to attend Super Summer for the first time after their 8th grade year in school. Assuming they continue to meet Super Summer requirements every year, they are eligible to attend for 5 years- progressing to a different "school" every year. The pinnacle is Purple School for 5th year attenders. Each school has a different color- Red, Silver, Orange, Blue, Yellow, Lime, Green, Brown, Gold, White, Purple. We usually go all out. This year in Red School (1st year students from N. Mississippi) we're using hockey's RED WINGS as our theme...we're all decked out in hockey gear and we're using Is. 40:31 as our theme verse. But for all the hype with the colors and songs, etc. It's so much more about our Team Leaders spending time with kids 3 times a day plus during their free time.

Every year over half of the 100+ Team Leaders are Super Summer Alumni. The strength of Super Summer, I've always felt, is the small group time with the Team Leaders. Another element that differentiates Super Summer from most other camps is that our kids are in "class" 3 times a day followed by Small Group meetings and then amazing- AMAZING- corporate worship each evening. This year, there are about 600 student campers.



Chris Thomas, Shannon Slover, Hal Clark and me- some of our Executive Staff for Red School.

Back Home... for lack of a better way to put it.

So...I was visiting friends in Ohio when Chris Thomas from FBC Aberdeen called and suggested I make the trip over to Baltimore to hang out with him and his students at the Baltimore PowerPlant Project. Not having much of anything else to do, I did. If you read the previous blog, then you know that much already.

I had a great visit with them. Mostly free food (thanks PowerPlant) and a place to lay my Therma Rest.

I was able to visit Chris and his kids at their worksite a couple days. I took a day off to visit nearby Gettysburg National Battlefield. I thought Gettysburg- the town- was a cool place. Very touristy, but in a good way. I was there July 3, which was the anniversary of the actual battle (July 1-3, 1863). The battlefield is huge and encompasses the entire area- town included. I think the Vicksburg Battlefield in Mississippi is a more visitor friendly park though.

The PowerPlant Project was over on Friday morning, July 4. I decided to stay in the area with Chris and his crew. We went to Arlington National Cemetery for a few hours and then we hit some of the memorials on the National Mall. We were able to find a sweet spot at the base of the Washington Monument just under the Mississippi State Flag to watch the July 4 fireworks.

Later that night/early the next morning we received the bad news that my friend Susan Peugh's father had suffered a serious Stroke back home in Mississippi. She was able to find a quick flight out of Baltimore the next morning and arrived in Tupelo in time to be with her mother and brother and his family. Mr Bill Peugh died just after midnight that night. I was about halfway home when he passed away. I was in Aberdeen yesterday for the funeral.

Both Chris and Susan spoke at the funeral. I don't know how she did that. Susan is a veteran and passionate speaker and she gave an incredible tribute to her father. He was an educator for 35 years in the school district and town he himself grew up in. That's what you call "giving back to the community!" I've known him as long as I've known Susan- about 20 years now. He was always a faithful and quiet leader in church as well as the community. In the last several years of his retirement he was very active in mission projects- especially with World Changers. It was a lot of fun to watch and hear of his mission exploits. I guess you could rightfully say he LIVED right up until he died. That's not a bad way to go.

I am back in Mississippi. I'm getting ready to work at Super Summer next week. I'll write more about that in a few days. It's my favorite student camp of all time. After that I'm flying to Washington for a wedding and to Arizona to see a friend. Then I'm off to Richmond, VA to interview with the International Mission Board for an International Service Corps position somewhere in the world.

You can pray for me and my travels and the kids at camp next week...but don't forget to pray for Susan, her mother Jannette and brother Stephen.

From Ohio to Maryland- Pretty Awesome!!

The Cleveland PowerPlant project ended last Friday morning and the staff and I went straight to Cedar Point Amusement Park- a self-proclaimed Roller Coaster Capital of the World. True enough, there are 17 roller coasters on-site and I think I rode 10 or 11 of them. The Top Thrill Dragster topped out at 120 mph and rose to a height of 420 feet! The Maverick was like flying in a fighter jet. A old wooden roller coaster was over a mile long and it is probably the last wooden roller coaster I'll ever ride- I thought I was going to pass kidney stones right there on the ride.

After the day and night at Cedar Point I left the PowerPlant team and went back to a hotel in Cleveland. After a good night of sleep I visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the next day. I was a little underwhelmed. It was like going into a glorified Hard Rock Cafe. Later that day I drove to Columbus, Ohio- home of The Ohio State University. It's an amazing campus and the neighborhoods around it are just smothered with students- even in the middle of the summer. I have to admit though, I would like to make a t-shirt that says "Tradition: Ohio State University. Losing Championships to SEC Teams since 2007." Or something tacky like that.

Sunday morning I drove down to Dayton and spent a few hours with my fellow World Racer Joshua Daniels. We had a great visit. Before going back to Columbus that afternoon I discovered the US Air Force Museum and all the Wright Brother historical sites surrounding Dayton. I determined I'd have to come back the next day for a longer visit. Back in Columbus I was able to visit with and spend the night with Allison Johnston- World Race C Squad Leader. We also had a wonderful visit.


As previously determined, I drove back to Dayton on Monday morning and spent ALL DAY in the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Field. What a place! I think it may be better than the Air & Space Museum in DC. Three HUGE hangers with over 300 planes. I bought a book about the actor Jimmy Stewart's expoits as a bomber pilot in WW2. My Uncle Jack flew with him.

While I was still in Cleveland my buddy Chris Thomas- long time student minister at FBC Aberdeen, MS invited me to drive over to Baltimore since he was bringing his students to the PowerPlant project there (now in progress!). Having nothing else to do until July 12, I made the drive to Baltimore yesterday. I'm having a blast because my PowerPlant Staff from Pittsburgh is here too and they are amazing kids.

I arrived at the Baltimore project just in time for the night-off activities which included catching a Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yard. A big highlight for me was getting to see the former Laura Barnett- now married and pictured here with me and her husband Michael. They are in Baltimore for a few months with his job. Back when Kim and I bought our first house we had one bedroom that was affectionately known as "Laura's Room" since she helped paint the house and then spent nights with us on several occasions (as well as occasionally rolling our yard!!).

I brought a group from Bayou View to this area to help with a church plant- Journey Fellowship- back in the summer of 2003. Some of the teams this week are working with this now 5 year old church. PowerPlant is having worship this week in the new building of the Church at Severn Run- which was the parent church of Journey. I even ran into an old acquaintance from that trip- Brent Rawson- who is the student minister at Severn.

I'm going to skip out on the PowerPlant tomorrow and spend a day at Gettysburg and then figure out what to do this weekend. Chris and his students from Aberdeen are spending all day Friday and Saturday in DC so I'll probably do that too and then "camp" and hike my way back south.