MinistryHappens . . .in Ukraine

a week in review

2012-02-12T04:39:00.000-06:00

Thought I’d give both of my readers an update on my past week starting with last Saturday.

Igor Minenko is both the President of Ruka Dopomogy (Helping Hands), which is the ministry through which we coach churches in Jesus Focused Youth Ministry…and he’s a Rabbi at a local Messianic Church. Last Saturday (Sabbath) I spoke at his church and stuck around for their youth group meeting afterwards.

I shared my testimony and gave an overview of missions from Genesis to Revelation. Umm, apparently several ladies in the church are convinced that I’m Jewish. I had a great time with them and especially enjoyed the youth group meeting, although the walk home was FRIGID!

There was a lady visiting from another church in town who spoke wonderful English and asked me if I’d be willing to meet some youth leaders from her church. Of course, I said yes! Sure enough, she called me a few days later and set-up an appointment for me to meet two young guys from her church. Turns out, they go to the same church as a guy named Norby. (Norby knows my friend Darrel and Norby and I have been communicating via Facebook since my first week here but haven’t been able to meet). Anyway, the two Sasha’s invited me to one of their small groups this past Thursday night where I finally met Norby and got to hang out with a handful of high school and college-aged kids. I’m going to visit their church this coming Sunday night.

Thus was my week. Doug was out of town all week but his wife hosted a welcome party for me and two American Couples also working in the city. It was fun to meet them and learn a little about their ministries and passions. I met with our Pastor a couple times during the week to talk about the Young Adult Ministry (college age) and the worship band.

And I had some time this week to write and study. I’ll help coach my first church the week after next I think.

My VISA application has been started. Pastor Vadim thinks it may only take a week or so. Be in prayer for a positive outcome, that is, me being granted a 3-5 year Religious VISA. So much hinges on getting the VISA. The next steps would be to get “Registered” as a resident alien and then get a bank account and start looking for a car.

How can I pray for you?

It's COLD

2012-02-03T09:18:00.000-06:00

Well I completed my quick trip to Kyiv to retrieve some of my "stuff" from storage.

For those of you who were dying to know what was left, well, most of it actually. My friend gave the Bed away as I expected...and I didn't see my boots either. I didn't even bother looking at my old guitar after suffering summer heat and winter sub-zero x2; I actually bought a newer, nicer guitar while in Kyiv. I was happy to retrieve my heavy coat and I had more clothes here than I thought I did. I can almost dress up now!

My trip to Kyiv was fun. It was the best train ride I've ever had. I had a bunk (1 of 4) in a coupe and one of the other passengers spoke English. That doesn't happen often! There was married couple too who expressed a lot of interest in what I am doing here.

The big news though is how cold it was in Kyiv (and now is all over Ukraine). Windchills were/are in the negative 20's. The Kyiv Post (an English paper in Ukraine) is reporting over 100 cold-related deaths, mostly of homeless people on the street. There's been several hundred cases of frostbite.

Thinking about the homeless people in the cold...along with having finished A Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns has me thinking a lot about my response to beggars and homeless people. There's a blog brewing but I'm not ready to go there yet.

I also have some other ministry-related thoughts brewing. I don't know if you've seen it, but the Super Bowl is getting a lot of attention in regard to Human Trafficking. If you're not aware of the spike that takes place surrounding the Super Bowl, then you need to Google! So...here's my thought: If the Super Bowl is such a huge trafficking magnet, then how much more so the 16 Eurocup Soccer Games that Ukraine will host in June and July?

Stuff I hope is still in storage....

2012-01-28T07:45:00.000-06:00

Just before Christmas back in 2009 I packed-up what I could take back to the States after living a year in Kyiv, Ukraine. A friend offered to let me put the rest of my stuff in his rented storage unit.

I left my favorite Backpack. I love that backpack. It’s a decent size but very light. I left my tent. I’m not talking about a Walmart-special, but a tiny little one-man trail tent. As you can tell, I had intentions of hiking and camping. I never got around to it back then, but I fully expected to return to Ukraine some day.

I left my huge and very warm Parka. I knew I wouldn’t need it in Mississippi but again, I had every intention of returning to Ukraine. I left a nice pair of hiking boots.

I left my 12-string Ukrainian-made guitar. I left a small flat-screen tv. I left some books and papers and clothes and cooking stuff. I left an entire bed!

I told my buddy back then to give some of it away…like the bed…which I think he did. And I think I told him I didn’t need the books, so if they’re gone that’s ok too. I might have told him it would be alright to let the TV and the Guitar and the cookware go too (Truth is, I’d like to buy a better Guitar!).

So why do you care what I left in storage? You don’t. I know that. But I do have a couple of points.

1) I’m going to Kyiv this coming Monday to retrieve what’s left. And you know what? If none of it is there then I’ll go right on living and breathing. I can honestly say, “My stuff does not own me”.

2) That said, I’m glad I left stuff here 2 years ago. For me, it was a “faith” thing. I was dealing with things in my life that at times paralyzed me yet through it all I felt God’s call to be here. Leaving stuff here was like a deposit on a promise.

Do you have “stuff” or does your stuff have you?

Are you “pressing-on” toward the promise God planted in your heart?

Settling In

2012-01-21T06:37:00.000-06:00

I am in Uzhgorod, Ukraine!

I arrived this past Tuesday after my friend Darrel drove me from Budapest to the Hungarian/Ukrainian border near Mukachevo, Ukraine. My Team Leader, Doug, drove across and picked me up. We went straight to his home for dinner and then to a Church Youth Leader's Bible Study before I finally saw my "home" for the first time later that night.

I'm renting the first floor (2 bedrooms, kitchen, bath, living room and balcony) from a couple of youth workers from the church. They have a 15 or so year old son who speaks a little English.

So that was Tuesday.

On Wednesday Doug took me all over town to buy supplies. I got my phone set-up. I exchanged US Cash for Ukrainian money. I bought groceries. I bought household goods like towels and pots/pans. I bought a TV, Microwave, Toaster Oven and a space heater.

On Thursday I went with Doug to a regional Pastor's Network meeting. I guess it's held in different places and I think they meet quarterly. There were about 30 men and women there. A couple of them know Darrel and we hit it off pretty well. It's a big region though- ZaCarpatia Region (Carpathian) so some of them had to drive 4-5 hours.

Friday morning we had a Youth Ministry Coaches Meeting/Training time. That was good. I have some homework I need to work on. And then I had the afternoon free. So I walked to the local electronics store- El Dorado and tried to buy a Refrigerator and Washer/Dryer. Unfortunately my credit cards refused to work on the large transaction. So I took the Marshrutka (bus) back into the center of the city and exchanged more money at a bank and then went back to El Dorado. I bought my major appliances and had them delivered to my home later in the evening.

Today- Saturday- I went to the local version of Home Depot to get some plumbing supplies to get my Washer going...I think I have everything I need. And then I went into the city to take a few pictures. It's been a mostly sunny, pretty day but still with snow, slush, ice and mud on the cobblestone streets downtown. I haven't been very strategic in my walking around...I'll pull out my map and get serious about learning my way around in the coming days.

Here are a couple shots of the old town and the Uzh River that splits the town.

Layover Budapest.

2012-01-15T14:25:00.000-06:00

Ok, it isn't really a layover. I flew from Atlanta to London (First Class I might add! It was only the 2nd time in my life that I flew 1st Class. Pretty awesome. And no, I didn't pay for that. I flew on a Buddy Pass because my awesome youngest niece is a Flight Attendant!) I had a 12 hour layover in London so I visited the Churchill War Planning Underground Museum, Westminster Abbey and the Tate Britain Art Museum.

The Churchill Museum is pretty cool. Westminster Abbey is amazing except you can't take pictures. Really? Get over yourself! Anyway, I especially like Poet's Corner in the Abbey where I recognized the names of dozens of writers who are buried there. I guess my favorite discovery was the tomb of David Livingstone.

I like Art Museums but I don't really "get" art; especially modern and/or abstract art and there was a lot of that at Tate.

At the end of the day I flew on into Budapest where my friend Darrel Hathcock picked me up at the airport at 11 pm. Since then (4 nights now) I've been staying with his family on the outskirts of Budapest. I had big plans to see the sights while in town but you know what? It's just been to darn cold! It's been terribly windy since I've been here bringing the windchill down into the teens and single digits. You know what else? I will be living close enough to here (5 hours by train) that I can come back anytime I like in the Spring, Summer or Fall! I do plan to spend some time in the National Museum tomorrow though. It's all indoors! Darrel is giving me a ride to the Ukrainian border Tuesday. I should be there shortly after lunch.

I enjoyed two good worship services today. We went to Calvary Chapel in downtown Budapest this morning. It was an awesome mixture of English and Hungarian. Nice diverse crowd...and by crowd, I mean packed house!! This evening church was more of a fellowship/bible study with mostly IMB Missionaries. It was good to meet some of them though. Who knows how our paths may cross in the future.

I'm ready to get on into Ukraine though. Ready to get settled in to "my place" and start figuring out my job and what I will need to do to learn the language. I'm glad to be here.

My next post will be from Ukraine.

Post Passion/ Pre Ukraine

2012-01-08T18:21:00.000-06:00

January 2-5 I volunteered at Passion 2012. It was my second time to be a "Doorholder" (their term for volunteers taken from Psalm 84:10 where it says it's better to be a Doorholder in the house of God than dwell in the house of the wicked). I also worked at the one-night Passion event in Kyiv, Ukraine back in 08.

I served on the Do Something Now team. Beginning back in 2007 Passion made a decision to be known for more than "Worship". They believe (and I agree) that our worship is empty if we're not moved to action; to justice. So every Passion event since then has incorporated an "outlet" to impact the world.

My particular job was to direct the students who gave financially to respond in worship by writing prayers, creating artwork...whatever on items representing those articles that are commonly made by slave labor around the world. It was really humbling to "handle" those articles and attach them to the statute. I felt like I was "handling" the Prayers of the Saints. It was a sacred service.

In past years Passion partnered with a variety of ministries around the world. This year the entire focus was FREEDOM for 27 million slaves in the world. All of this years' partners work in the areas of Prevention, Rescue, and Restoration. 42000+ College Students (and at least 1 Adult with deep pockets) gave more than $3 Million dollars for 10-12 ministries around the world.

This morning I attended Passion City Church and it was an incredible Post-Passion Celebration. It was neat to be there this morning and hear some of the stories. 36000 Towels and 156000 pairs of socks given to ATL area Homeless Ministries! People in downtown ATL with no connection to Passion coming to the Lord because of the influence of these students and the work of the Holy Spirit that permeated the event.

Here's a cool story: One of the "creative" voices at Passion who worked to develop the DSN theme came up with the idea last summer to fly 27000 White Flags (each flag representing 1000 Slaves). She shared her idea (inspiration?) with Louie and he just stared at her like he'd seen a ghost. He then told her that only 2 or 3 people in the world knew that Tomlin was working on a song they thought would (and did) become the anthem for the event...the song was named, "White Flag"!

A Muslim Student came to the conference...who knows how that happened. He was assigned "randomly" to a Community Group (that's one of 19 groups of about 2000 students!). He was then assigned very "randomly" to a "Family Group" of 8 students and a leader. Guess what? His leader was a former follower of Islam. That leader led that student to Christ! Crazy!

The 103 foot artwork. The Hand. Here's how it was described this morning in church. "A Hand of Worship Covered in Justice". That's awesome!

If this is part of the journey to Ukraine then I'm having a blast so far . . .

2012-01-07T21:09:00.002-06:00

Dec 30. Drive to Birmingham to spend the night with some friends and watch Mississippi State beat Wake Forest on TV in the Music City Bowl.

Dec 31. Get invited to the Chick Fil A Bowl in Atlanta and watch Auburn thrash Virginia.

Jan 1. Check-in early at the Marriot Downtown for Passion 2012 and get to have dinner with my awesome youngest niece!

Jan 2-5. Are you kidding me? I get to be a Doorholder/Doorkeeper at Passion. ( Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.) I get to be a part of the Do Something Now team. I get to help raise more than $3 Million to combat Slavery and Trafficking. I get to see a lot of great friends. I get to hear Giglio, Piper, Chan and others.

Jan 6. Lunch at Chick Fil A Corporate HQ. I got to step inside Truett Cathy's Office! Awesome organization! Later that night, I had dinner with my friend Jimmy McCarty- my Co-Squad Leader from the World Race.

Jan 7. I spent the day with World Race/AIM Friends in Gainesville, GA. I haven't been prayed over and prayed for this much in a long time!

Jan 8- Tomorrow morning I will attend Passion City Church with friends I made at Passion.

And in just a couple days- Wednesday, Jan 11, I will fly to London (on the same flight with one of my former students from the Coast), then to Budapest to spend a couple days with more friends and finally will make it on to Ukraine next weekend.

I'm having fun so far!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T22:50:00.000-06:00

I have been...(and am still)...bringing in the New Year in awesome fashion.

On Friday, Dec 30 I began the journey to Ukraine via a sleep-over in Birmingham where I watched Mississippi State's Music City Bowl Game on TV with my one of my oldest friends and his family! The Dogs Won.

Saturday morning I had a great breakfast in Birmingham with another sweet friend, her husband and beautiful kids. We go pretty far back too...back to my "proto-youth minister" days in Aberdeen.

And then the day got better. My other friends got free tickets to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta so off we went to see Auburn put a thrashing on Virginia. If you look closely you can see hundreds of little Chick-Fil-A Cows parachuting onto the crowd!

My friends left me in Atlanta where I spent the night with my sister and went to church with her and her husband the next morning.

Later in the day I checked in to my hotel in downtown Atlanta in preparation for Passion 2012. Before all that kicked off though, I had dinner with my precious youngest niece.

I'm spending January 2-5 at Passion 2012 at the Georgia Dome with 44000 + College Students/Leaders/Volunteers and some High School Seniors. Not to mention Piper, Giglio, Beth Moore, Christine Caine, David Crowder Band's LAST Concert, Hillsong United, Tomlin, Nockels, Stanfill, Redman, Hall...and quite a few friends who will be attending.

My buddy Stik and his sister are bringing students from Zion Hill. Student/Friends from Mississippi State and South Mississippi will be there. My buddy Thomas and some of is Aberdeen students are coming. It's going to be busy, but it will be a blast.

Lastly- DRUM ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

I'm catching a flight to London next Wednesday (and flying with a former youth group student from the Coast I might add!) From there I'll fly to Budapest, Hungary and spend a couple days with a friend and his family. And a day or two later I'll figure out how to get to my destination of Uzzhorod, Ukraine!!!

I hope your New Year is off to a great start too!

Another one of those "Where Am I?" Posts

2011-12-13T00:11:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it's almost mid-December already? My friend Stik made a comment a couple weeks ago that this is the time of year when everything accelerates.

I've been answering questions, especially at Church, all year long about when I'm going back to Ukraine. All year long the answer has been in "x" months. Now...it's in less than a month! And really, I'm leaving my "home" with Stik and my new (as of this past summer) Church sometime next week so now when some of the kids ask when I'm leaving, the answer is "next week". As much as I'm looking forward to going back to Ukraine, it doesn't get any easier to say goodbye!

Lord willing I will fly from Atlanta a few days after the Passion Conference (Jan 2-5).

I'm still raising support but I've reached a level that I can live on. Additional monthly support that might come in before the end of the year will allow me to increase both my Personal Salary and my Ministry Budget. One-time gifts will go toward a fund to eventually purchase a used car/minivan.

Speaking of cars. My Jeeps are for sale. I've listed the Wrangler on Craigslist in Jackson (and will probably add it to some other sites this week). http://jackson.craigslist.org/cto/2743035647.html

This is a big prayer request- that at least one of them sells before I leave. I've been blessed to have a place to live (without moving in with parents) and I've been blessed to have work but it's been a level of income that didn't really cover all the bills so selling the Jeeps will allow me to terminate Insurance payments and pay off other debts before going overseas.

Where I'm At!

2011-10-11T17:04:00.000-05:00

A little less than 2 months ago I wrote a blog about where I am in terms of Support Raising and I ended with a cool story about how a STUDENT...a HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT joined my team with a gift of $1000.00!

I wrote that I was only receiving about 15% of my monthly support but that I had nearly 40% "pledged".

Where am I now? I'm receiving about 50% of monthly support and I have about 80% pledged. God is Good!

That means I need three things to happen before the end of the year (preferably before the end of November!).

I need to raise 20% of my monthly support (which is only $600).
I need for all my "pledges" to get started by December (if you're giving through a Bank Transfer, you have to start the transfer 30 days before the date of the intended transaction...that is, if you're giving a monthly transaction that begins November 15th, then you must submit the form before the 15th of THIS month in order for it to take effect otherwise it will be December before it takes effect!)
I need one-time gifts. My Start-up Account is separate from my Monthly Support Account and I still need nearly $5000 in that account.

Now here's another cool story. I was in a wedding a few weeks ago. I didn't really know anyone in that part of the State except the couple and some of their immediate family. But in the course of meeting some new people that weekend I've already received a $250 gift and I have a pledge for more than $1000 more.

God is good; better than I deserve...meeting my needs beyond what I can even ask for!

Celebration of Discipline

2011-10-02T15:22:00.000-05:00

I enjoy reading. I read several kinds of books. I like history, I like fiction, I like "Christian Help" kind of books.

But sometimes it's just hard to get through a book. That was often the case when I was in Seminary. I spent the better part of three years being told by someone else what to read. The first thing I bought after graduation was a big, fat fantasy novel with dragons and elves and magic!

Celebration of Disciple is an assigned read. It's part of my preparation for going overseas with International Teams. It's the kind of book that I should be able to devour in a day and spit out the book review in under an hour!

That hasn't been the case. I've had a terrible time getting "into it". I've been chipping away at it for a couple months and I'm still not finished with it.

But something blogworthy (in my opinion) happened today. I read the chapter on "Confession". And as I was beginning the chapter on "Confession", I have to "confess" that I didn't think I'd like it too much.

I was wrong. I wish I would have read it three years ago. (In fact, I'm not sure how I escaped reading this book at some point in the past anyway. It may have been one of those books I sleepwalked through when I was in Seminary!)

Here are some excerpts from the chapter on Confession through which the Lord really spoke to me this afternoon:

"The followers of Jesus Christ have been given the authority to receive the confession of sin and to forgive it in his name (Jn 20:33).... Why do we shy away from such a life-giving ministry? If we, not out of merit but sheer grace, have been given the authority to set others free, how dare we withhold this great gift!"

Counsel in the Giving of a Confession

"A generalized confession may save us from humiliation and shame, but it will not ignite inner healing."

"Then there is the practical matter of to whom we should go to confess. It is quite correct theologically to say that every Christian believer can receive the confession of another, but not every Christian believer will have sufficient empathy and understanding. Though it is unfortunate, it is a fact of life that some people seem unable to keep a confidence."

Counsel in the Receiving of a Confession

"We begin by learning to live under the Cross. Bonhoeffer writes, "Anybody who lives beneath the Cross and who has discerned in the Cross of Jesus the utter wickedness of all men and of his own heart will find there is no sin that can ever be alien to him. Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother." This is the one thing that will save us from ever being offended in the confession of another. It forever delivers us from conveying any attitude of superiority. We know the deceptiveness of the human heart, and we know the grace and mercy of God's acceptance. Once we see the awfulness of sin we know that, regardless of what others have done, we ourselves are the chief of sinners. Therefore, there is nothing that anyone can say that will disturb us. Nothing. By living under the cross we can hear the worst possible things from the best possible people without so much as batting an eyelash."

That chapter alone was worth the price of admission!

It reminds me why I think something like "Celebrate Recovery" ought to replace every Adult Sunday School Class in every Baptist Church. And it reminds me why I like Derek Webb's "House Show" CD (where he preaches a LOT about being real and transparent). You can't live in the "light" unless you can put your crap on the table. It's a better way to live, folks...if you can find a safe place (and safe people) in which to practice this particular discipline.

I watched a great TV Show last night...read all about it!

2011-09-26T20:01:00.000-05:00

Last night I watched a PBS program called, "The American Experience: The Great Famine" ... The film is based on Stanford researcher Bertrand Patenaude'sThe Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921.

It was a fascinating program depicting a bit of American history that I had never heard before.

The story begins in Russia following its devastating losses in World War 1 and also following the chaos and bloodshed of the Bolshevik Revolution and Civil War. In the wake of an already difficult time Russia's rich farming regions East of Moscow suffered a severe drought. Famine ensued. The new communist government apparently refused to seek international aid (which was really unknown of for the time anyway) but they did allow certain influential individuals to appeal for help and the writer Maxim Gorky made a strong case to the West for help, essentially saying that millions would die without help.

Gorky's plea caught the eye/ear/heart of someday-to-be President Herbert Hoover, then the Director of the newly formed American Relief Administration. He began by using his budget and privately raised funds to feed upwards of 100,000 starving Russian children PER DAY! Running the operation on the ground in Russia was US Colonel William Haskell...a WW1 Veteran who had overseen relief efforts in Belgium after the War. On the ground, he could see that the famine was worse than imagined and they would need to provide food for adults as well as children. Herbert Hoover fought a battle with Congress to gain an aid package worth $20 Million (1920) Dollars...that would be more than $200 Million in 2011 Dollars...twice what was initially offered by the US to Haiti after the earthquake.

(As a sidenote: I noticed in the film that the bags of corn were clearly marked, "Corn from America". Last summer in Haiti some of our volunteers had problems that the supplies we were giving out were marked "US AID"...like we were taking advantage of the situation. Maybe that's so...you can't escape politics but the practice of letting people know where the help is coming from goes back at least to the beginnings of US Government relief efforts following WW1- it's not a new thing!)

At the peak of the operation, the United States (along with several others efforts...but mostly it was a US- ARA effort)...fed more than 11 million people PER DAY in 19,000 kitchens! PER DAY! I said... PER DAY!

The PBS Program never said much about the motivations of the 300+ Americans that responded to the crises by living and working in Russia for 2+ years in incredibly severe conditions...that led to the death of several! The program mentioned that "Hoovers' Boys" were adventurous. That's for sure. I suspect something more...maybe there's more about it in the book...but early 1920's might have seen the peak of the American Social Gospel movement- the application of theology to social justice issues. A lot of modern, conservative, evangelical theologians today have some disdain for the Social Gospel Movement...and to be sure, at it's extreme- all "Social" and no "Gospel", it's empty...it's sharing a cup of cold water without sharing whose name your sharing it in!! But in my way of thinking there is no Gospel without addressing Justice issues. It's both addressing Justice and Making Disciples. I digress. What I wanted to say here is that I suspect many of the Americans that responded so heroically probably did so out of their Christian convictions.

A lot of people today have a problem with the money the US spends on humanitarian efforts around the globe. I don't have a problem with it. It's a minuscule amount compared to what is wasted by our government. Herbert Hoover was credited with saving more lives than any single person that's ever lived! That's worth more than anything I can think of that our government is spending money on!

You can read more about this episode of American History here: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/april/famine-040411.html

The PBS Episode "The American Experience: The Great Famine" is available on Netflix...I encourage you watch it and be proud of what we did there.

I guess I'm dreamin' of a White (family) Christmas

2011-09-19T18:17:00.000-05:00

Today is September 19th. Almost a year ago, in December 2010 I was accepted to serve in Ukraine with International Teams. In my wild imagination I envisioned completing about 20 weeks of training and raising support in time to be in Ukraine by mid-summer.

After the initial phase of training in Elgin, IL in January and February, I revised my schedule in anticipation of going to Ukraine in August.

After attending the Support Raising Bootcamp in April I revised my schedule again with an eye toward landing in Ukraine in early October.

Ain't gonna happen!

I already have more supporters than I originally planned for. That's a good thing. The average gifts however are smaller than I thought they would be. It's also been more difficult for me to get appointments and do follow-ups while working (support raising is a full-time gig and I don't have the time or money to do it that way).

SO. I'm revising my schedule yet again. I'm shooting for the first week of January- after January 7 which is Christmas in Ukraine. This schedule will allow me to fully engage with my family and friends for the holidays so I'm excited about that.

I have a few friends who have been "early adopters" and have supported me since I made the assignment announcement back in December. THANK YOU. Money that is accumulating in my account will pay for my "start-up" expenses once I get there. If you're planning to support and haven't begun yet, then please consider doing so. Again, money that is accumulating will help with expenses and give me some "cushion".

Thanksgiving. Christmas. New Year. Then I'll volunteer at the Passion Conference in Atlanta January 2-5 and fly from there a couple days later. Lord willing.

Support Raising- Where am I? (and then a cool conclusion)

2011-08-17T16:13:00.000-05:00

I don't want this blog to be about where I am in my Support Raising. There's a cool story at the end. Part of me wants to say, "I'm right where God wants me to be" because He's in control, right? Part of me wants to say I am where I am because of the effort (and at times, lack thereof) that I've put in.

Actually, I think it's both. God is in control but there's work for me to do as well.

So I'll say a little something about "where I am" and then I'll get on to the real story.

According to I-Teams I'm only about 15% supported. That's the monthly support I'm already receiving (as of last month).

According to commitments I've received from friends I'm a little over 40% supported (their bank drafts just haven't started coming through yet).

I've had some really good visits in the last 5 weeks and I have about 10 "follow-ups" to make. I know better than count my eggs before they hatch but I feel like most of those visits will yield monthly support worth maybe as much as 15-25% meaning I should have 60+% of my support as soon as I can follow-up on those visits.

But here's the cool story.

I received a $1000.00 one-time gift the other day.

Now, that's only 1/60th of my total need (monthly support plus Start-up plus all my training/traveling expenses).

And it's only 1/36th of my monthly support.

It's 1/10th of my Start-up cost.

Hang on, I'm not to the cool part yet.

I've received some bigger gifts. I've received some other $1000.00 gifts.

I've never received that big of a gift from a 16 year old though. In fact, this kid is my youngest supporter at any level. And I'm so incredibly humbled that a 16 year old would bless me that much.

There are days when I doubt I'll ever get there; and then there are days like that.

I should be listening to Dental Stops and Fricatives

2011-08-07T23:18:00.000-05:00

Time: 11:15 pm
When: Sunday Night. August 7.
What: In the middle of a two week long Introduction to Phonetics course. About 3/4 through Lesson 10.

Motivation: Gone

Would rather watch a movie on Netflix. Would rather eat. Would rather sleep till noon tomorrow.

Went to church this morning at historic Moody Church in downtown Chicago. Now that was cool. The building is nearly 100 years old and it's beautiful. What was even more beautiful was that it was packed with young families and while it wasn't as quite a diverse congregation as I expected, it was still much more ethnically diverse than most churches.

After cruising around the northside of Chicago after church and having lunch on the way home I crashed for a really long nap this evening (4 pm- 8 pm) and now I'm trying to get back into academic mode for tomorrow by finishing up homework.

This stuff is CRAZY! It's hard to explain. I guess it would be stranger to me if I hadn't already studied Russian, but suffice to say there are a lot more sounds that can be made than the ones we use in English. And that's what we're doing these 2 weeks. We're learning how to hear and make those sounds; some of which will show up in the various languages we will study on the mission field.

Therein lies part of the motivation problem. I've studied enough Russian to know which of these sounds are present and which are not and therefore have little motivation to learn the ones which do not. Make sense?

What I really want to do is see my Support Account increase by about 50% and then go to Ukraine in October as planned!

Let me tell you about something that fires me up

2011-07-27T23:23:00.000-05:00

I was on the road again today. I semi-scheduled a few visits (I'm raising support to go to Ukraine, right?) but they were all "lite" visits- more social and soft-sell and about nurturing relationships than about getting money.

I spent a few minutes with a Pastor-friend that I admire a lot. Bro Hal was my Pastor in Amory for about 10 months back in the late 80's. I've probably seen him one time since then and that was before 1997! He's a great guy and we enjoyed our brief visit. After all these years I really didn't want to hard-sell my support goals but I know he and his wife will prayerfully consider supporting me anyway.

After that I stopped by another nearby church where I know practically the whole staff. Tommy, Mark, Nick and Rusty. They are great guys, great friends (ok, I just met Rusty today but I've known Nick all his life and Tommy and Mark for several years!) Again, no hard sell with them- just a social visit. I appreciate their hearts and just wanted to connect with them for a few minutes.

I had lunch with another buddy that I worked with on a volunteer basis doing Campus Ministry back in my Gulfport days. It was good to catch up with Kevin and good to hear his continued passion for youth ministry.

I had ice cream with a former youth- Heather-who just had all her wisdom teeth removed! She was sporting some serious chipmunk cheeks!

I visited my old church and got to hear another of my former "youths" leading tonight's Bible study. Will did a great job.

The highlight though was visiting with my friend Jamie.

Jamie was in maybe the 8th or 9th grade when I left Gulfport at the end of 2006. She was fired-up about her relationship with Christ back then. She still is today; even moreso. Her passion is mature and focused. Her heart is for the Nations. She just got back to the States after living in Indonesia for the summer. With very limited internet access and staying a whole 2 months- she was able to not only get out of America, but she was able to get America out of her. We could all stand that kind of de-tox!

We talked. And we kept talking. And we walked to our cars and kept talking. And it occurred to me as we were trying to say goodbye that I could talk to her and listen to her passion for the Nations all night long. I LOVE spending that kind of time with someone. I think I love it even more when it's a student. It doesn't hurt that in a small way I can claim she's one of "mine" (Thank you Jesus for letting her be in my life and me in hers!). That fires me up!

Waffle House and Walmart

2011-07-23T01:01:00.000-05:00

Waffle House and Walmart! Yep, that makes for a fine dining experience and good family entertainment!

I guess we're in the "dog days" of Summer. I think both of my readers know that I'm living with and working with my best friend from college (when I'm not traipsing around the country looking for mission supporters!). My buddy Stik- he's an engineer and surveyor. Mostly, we Survey. And that can be a HOT job during a Mississippi Summer. So basically, we do as little as possible during this annual global warming tribute to Al Gore.

Actually, I've been able to increase the frequency of my Support Raising meetings now that we're not committed to a survey job everyday. That's been a good thing for me.

There are days when I'm very anxious about securing 100% of my support but then there are days when God is just too good! In my mind, I can't help but imagine how much Support person X or Y will give me as a meeting approaches. Time and again I've been surprised. I'm surprised that some of my greatest givers are former students just now beginning their careers. How humbling is that? I'm surprised about once a month here lately when someone that I had "written off" weeks ago contacts me to begin their giving. Every time someone says "yes", it's affirmation to me that God has called me to Ukraine for such a time as this and where He called, He'll provide. I wonder if my Supporters understand how their giving affirms me?

I'm starting to feel a little behind the 8-Ball for an early October departure but that's the goal.

I've got a lot of catching-up to do here on the Blog- I've spent a week at StudentLife Camp with the Zion Hill Youth, I've spoken in a couple churches, and I'm headed back to Chicago next week to continue training with I-Teams. Be on the lookout for more news soon!

Ponderings and a Prayer Request

2011-07-10T00:35:00.000-05:00

It's midnight. I'm mellow tonight. It's a combination of today's happenings and the music I'm listening to right now.

Today was Arrival Day for Super Summer Staff. I was in the Jackson area so I basically just crashed the party and hung-out during Registration, Dinner and the opening worship event for staff. I've been a part of Super Summer since 1992 or 93. I missed the year Kim had her Double Lung Transplant (98) and again in 07 (World Race), 09 (Ukraine), and 10 (Haiti). And this year I'll be at StudentLife in Daytona Beach.

Super Summer is the best camp I was ever a part of. Why? The Leadership is pretty much all Mississippi Youth Ministers. Guys and girls that are in the trenches everyday working with teenagers. They serve the kids at Super Summer like they are their own kids...which of course, they are. The second element is the students themselves. They are just always top-notch. The last element is the small group leaders. Many of them (most of them) grew up going to Super Summer. Most of them are in college and most of them are simply outstanding young people. I guess I could mention that the worship leaders and speakers are consistently amazing.

So tonight I got to hang out with youth ministers I've known and worked with since the late 80's! I saw kids that were once in my youth group who are small group leaders. I saw Executive Staffers that I knew when they were students at Super Summer. They are all world class.

After my visit with them I stopped by the hospital to see some friends who are keeping vigil over a loved one in ICU. I performed the wedding for Amy and Stevie back in 08 and now Stevie's 30 year old brother is fighting for his life with a broken neck and no feeling in his arms and legs after a diving accident on July 4. To say I'm in a sober mood right now would be an understatement. If you've never had a loved one in an ICU, in critical condition with tubes and wires and monitors and only able to step into the room for a few minutes every several hours....well, I rather hope you don't have to do that. Ever. I hurt for them.

I'd love for you to join me in prayer for all of them. For Brian, that God would perform a miracle. He's to be thanked for Brian receiving the great care he's receiving...but he needs more than that. I pray for him to regain full function and live the rest of his life as a living testimony of God's greatness and goodness and power. I pray for the family that's waiting. For peace and comfort that's out of this world, for employers and friends and co-workers and teachers who are patient and graceful towards the family who, despite the fact that life goes on and there are obligations to be met, really have more consuming thoughts right now than work, class, cutting the grass and all that stuff. I pray for friends to rally around the family and just be there. No words are necessary really.

Long Overdue

2011-07-05T16:03:00.000-05:00

Once again, it's been weeks since I last blogged. There's been a lot going on, just not a lot to write about.

I'm sitting at a Cups Coffeeshop in Jackson waiting to meet with an old friend and potential ministry supporter in another hour or so. I've had some successful visits the last few weeks; just not enough of them.

Let me clarify, almost everyone that I've met with has joined my Support Team. The thing is; I need to be meeting with 6-10 people a week and I only met with that many people all of last month!

But the meetings I had in June sure were a lot of fun. I reconnected with an old employer and a college roomy I hadn't seen in 18 years. I met with students I met working at Super Summer back in the 90's! I met with a couple of my favorite couples, including a couple that I married back in 2000 (I think). Today I'm meeting with two old ministry friends; one of which I haven't seen in 20 years! That's crazy.

So where am I? I basically have 2 different Support Raising Accounts as I prepare to return to Ukraine. One account is my Start-Up Account which includes my training cost (5 weeks in Chicago), my support-raising cost (all my travel and expenses this summer) and my actual start-up cost for Ukraine (airfare, furnishing an apartment, supplies and equipment for ministry). I'm at about 50% of the nearly $20K needed.

The other account is more important- it's my Monthly Support Account. I'm working towards $3000.00 a month. I'm at about 30% right now. One thing I'm learning about the current economy is that people just aren't able to give at the "higher" levels. All that means is that I need to ask more people to support me. That's not a bad thing. It's a lot easier to get by if a $50/month supporter has to miss a month than it is if a $200/mo supporter has to miss a month.

I haven't written much about my Support Needs. And I don't intend to write much more. Hopefully, the next think I'll write about the financial situation will be a big Praise The Lord when I'm at 100%. I believe He called me and I believe He'll provide for me.

How about a re-post from 2005!!

2011-06-18T00:46:00.000-05:00

Tonight one of the networks played Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. I both love and hate that movie. I love it because it has rockin' fight scenes and the story of Anakin's turn to the dark side is finally completed. I hate it because it's just sad. Depressing. So great was the fall... (and so cheesy was Natalie Portman's line, "Anakin, you're breaking my heart.") But I digress. After watching the movie I remembered writing about it more than 6 years ago. Here it is:

Thursday, May 19, 2005

The midnight showing of Episode 3 was worth the wait. There were at least two Sith's, a handful of Jedi, a princess or two (including one sitting kinda behind me in an Amazing t-shirt ), a Stormtrooper, a really cool LightSaber along with some cheesy ones...in attendance.

Interpreting a movie is kinda like interpreting the Bible. There are 6 billion of us and 6 billion opinions...but the opinion that matters most is the one that wrote it. I've never heard that Lucas set out to do anything more profound than create a sci-fi swashbuckling space opera. To say much more is to read into it what may or may not be there at all.

Having said that- there are some incredible spiritual applications and perhaps none so striking as in this movie. In some ways, I thought Anakin gave in too easily...I didn't think the movie adequately developed his inner turmoil that led to such fateful decisions. But gosh...once he started making those bad choices...well...things got seriously out of hand! I always thought of Darth Vader as a "great" bad guy...ya know? one of the best movie villians of all time. But after last night I see nothing great about his character at all. He was worse than horrible. Before last night he was a bad guy in a cool costume. Now he's a horrendous human on par or worse than Hitler. He is hate personified- SIN itself personified. If it were real...and not a movie...I can't imagine seeing any good in him. But as much as I hate to admit it...as dark as Anakin was...as evil and vile as he was- that's a really good picture of us outside of a relationship with Christ. I don't want to imagine myself like that. I can easily compare myself to someone else in an effort to not appear as "dark". But the truth is- Vader is a pretty good personification of SIN.

Of course...Episode 3 isn't the end. It's just the middle. Luke didn't see any good in Vader when he killed Obi Wan in Ep. 4 or when they fought in Ep5. But something happened to Luke that changed him and changed the way he saw Vader. Classic line from Ep6, Luke: "But Father, I came to save you", Vader: "You already have".

Star Wars- the story of lost man redeemed by the Son.

Lousy Blogger

2011-05-31T09:46:00.000-05:00

I'm doing a lousy job of blogging these days. It's been, what? About a month since my last post?

I guess my latest news is that I just sent out my "End of May" email newsletter via MailChimp yesterday. So far, the open rate is below average. Actually, in all 4 monthly mailings I've done so far there's a large percentage of people that never open the email so I suspect their Spam filters are catching it. I should probably check with those people individually to see if they're aware of the newsletter.

Perspectives in the World Christian Movement- Have any of you ever heard of or taken this course? I'm starting it this week online. I'm excited about it; I just hope I have the time for it. I'm already behind on some work I'm supposed to be doing for training with International Teams!

Support Raising- I think every time I pick up the phone to make an "appointment" I get nervous and I hear satan's whisper that I shouldn't even bother- that the person I'm calling will be too busy or have too much going on to support me. Most of the time I push through and make the appointment and so far over 90% of the people I've personally spoken with have joined my Support Team. Why is it so hard to trust God when all He ever does is be completely faithful?

Memorial Day- I spent the long weekend in Vicksburg with my entire immediate family. All my siblings were there, my parents, all the nieces and nephews and great-nieces/nephews. There's something special about seeing that kind of continuity... seeing my nieces in my great nieces...that sort of thing, ya know? I'm grateful for them. And at the same time...with it being Memorial Day Weekend I thought a little about my Dad and my Uncles who served in the Military (and my brother too). I love to see those old pictures of my Uncles in World War 2. They were all so young and dashing...and immensely brave to enlist knowing what the cost could be.

Going Undercover!

2011-05-05T23:21:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time I was a "Law Enforcement" Officer. Sorta. I was a Wildife/Fisheries Tech 3 (aka, Associate Wildlife Biologist). Back in the day (right out of college) even the "Technical Staff" as we were called completed the MS Law Enforcement Officers Training Academy ie, The Police Academy. So in January of 1989 I attended several weeks of Basic Training in Pearl, MS. For what it's worth, I graduated at the top of the class.

During my years with the "State" the overwhelming majority of my work involved Fisheries Research and Mgmt. There were a few exceptions though. Once I was recruited to "spy" on a fellow Officer for a couple days. He was a Lake Manager and was allegedly allowing the State Prisoners he was using to have conjugal visits with their girlfriends at the Lake. Another time some people were selling "gamefish" at a restaurant which was/is illegal. I'm the one that made the "delivery" of fish to the bad guys.

This past week I resurrected my "undercover" persona; which really means I just turned into a paranoid, Liam Neeson from the movie, Taken, wannabe.

But first a little more background: I've had a lot of exposure to Human Trafficking over the last few years. When I did The World Race we walked the streets of Cambodia and Thailand. Since then several World Racers have gone on to work with anti-trafficking ministries such as International Justice Mission and Shared Hope International and others. I've heard statistics that suggest that as many as 70% of the girl orphans in Ukraine are trafficked after they age-out. A huge number of girls and women in Moldova have been trafficked in the last 10 years. And then I read stories like this. (Ukrainian girls arrive in America for summer work and are immediately trafficked).

So it's no wonder that my hackles got up when I learned that two young friends from Ukraine were coming to America on a Student Work/Travel Visa. They are both 20 year olds that I met while I lived in Ukraine in 2009. One of them was my translator at camp. So what did I do? I timed a "Support Raising" Road Trip to coincide with their arrival at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC this past week.

To begin with, I researched the company (a Pool Mgmt company that provides Lifeguards for apartments and hotels). Turns out they have been sued before for Fair Labor Standards violations. I talked to the National Trafficking Hotline people to see if they had any complaints. This past Monday night I was there when the girls arrived. My plan was to see who picked them up. I wanted to get pictures of the "guy" and I wanted get pictures of whatever vehicle they left in. I even wanted to get fingerprints by handing the guy my water bottle or something.

So, I waited. I spotted the "guy" first- he was waiting with a sign with my friends name on it. I managed to get near enough to him to overhear his phone conversations and I could tell he was a native Russian speaker. When the girls arrived, I took pictures and got video. He seemed a little surprised and shy when I insisted on taking his picture. So I gave him a paraphrase of that line from "Taken" (I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.)

Seriously, I told him I was taking his picture so that if anything happened to the girls this summer I would know who to look for!

I walked to the car with them and got a picture of the Vehicle Tag. The next day I staked-out their "Office" and took more vehicle pictures. I managed to get two more Tag pictures.

I also gave one of the girls a Prepaid Phone with several key telephone numbers. I was able to stay in touch with them for the couple days I was in DC. It looks like the company is fairly legit. A little sketchy...for example, the apartment the girls are in isn't furnished at all; only has mattresses on the floor- not even any bedding. I took the girls shopping and got them sleeping bags and pillows and some other essentials. I hope some friends in the DC Area will keep tabs on them through the summer.

So there ya go. Just like in my old "Wildlife Dept" days, I was reminded that I really don't have the personality type to be an effective undercover guy. My heart was racing when I was taking pictures and videos and stuff. That's ok though. I think I accomplished my mission. Nothing I did necessarily guarantees the girls' safety this summer, but if they had disappeared the other night I know I would have regretted being there for the rest of my life. And if your daughter was 5000 miles away from home for the summer, wouldn't you want someone looking out for her?

Day of the Tornado

2011-04-28T22:34:00.000-05:00

I rarely get worked up about the weather. I figure it's something we don't have any control over. And apparently I'm not quite in the "Weather Channel" demographic yet. Watching it for hours on end ranks right behind back-to-back episodes of Wheel of Fortune.

Yesterday I left my friends house in West-Central MS thinking that the whole thing had been overblown. The storm that was projected had completely failed to materialize. I drove a little further East to my Dad's house to spend the night and there was nothing there either.

On the radio, a DJ proclaimed that they were watching a tornado, live, ripping through Tuscaloosa. You know what? I had just watched several videos in the past week of a tornado zipping around the Interstate in Clinton, MS without doing much of anything. So I dismissed what I was hearing.

And then today, I woke up at 5 am to drive from Mize, MS to Nashville with plans of seeing a friend in Decatur along the way. Early this morning I started hearing the radio reports from Tuscaloosa. Before I got there it was evident that a catastrophic event had happened.

I passed by Tuscaloosa. I drove half-way around Birmingham and headed north. My friend in Decatur called to warn me that I probably wouldn't find electricity (and therefore gasoline) in all of N Alabama. She was almost right. I had to get 20 miles of the Interstate on fumes before I found a station with a half hour line at every pump. I continued to drive the backroads, east of Cullman all the way to Decatur. In Huntsville I ran into traffic and found another backroad- this time forcing me to ford mini-lakes where country roads used to be. I emerged from the sticks somewhere around Athens, AL.

Along the way I passed through numerous small towns and communities- unnamed on the radio or Weather Channel broadcast. Small places where other tornadoes touched down long enough to change lives forever. And probably end a few too.

I've been conflicted all day long. Part of me wanted to turn around, go home and gather my Chain Saw, Crow Bar and Bottled Water and just go to work. Obviously the other part of me won; I'm still on my road trip. I have appointments with people and this is a trip I only want to make one time. The damage will still be there when I get through and then I can spend some time in an affected area.

I really can't describe what I saw. It was similar to that first view south of the railroad tracks in Gulfport after Hurricane Katrina. Only not as wet. In Katrina, the stuff people had just disappeared. Gone forever. Today, it almost looked like it was still there- just spread over several counties. Just as gone though I suppose. I heard it described as looking like images from WW2 Hiroshima or Nagasaki but without the nuclear fallout. I'm not sure that's not a bad description.

Here's a couple pics that you won't see on tv probably, just places along the way.

on.

Friend Raising

2011-04-17T23:09:00.000-05:00

Actually, there's a book by that name...Friend Raising. It's on my list. Maybe I'll get around to it this summer.

I'm in the midst of raising support to go to Ukraine. You know that already.

What you don't know though is that I'm learning so much doing this. More than I've been able to process really and more than I know how to adequately write about.

I've been learning a lot about the Biblical basis for support raising. I've been Southern Baptist most of my life and we have the "Cooperative Program". I've always thought and still do think that it's a brilliant way to fund missions. But it's not the only way, that's for sure. One way to look at it is like this: My support raising is giving people an opportunity to "give". Duh! But since it's more blessed to give than receive and God wants us to give what we purpose in our hearts with cheerful hearts...then just giving people an outlet, an avenue to give is as much a ministry to them as their giving is to me.

I've been learning a lot about exercising my strengths as a minister in the context of raising support. A few of my strengths- the way God has wired me- is that I'm a Relator, I build meaningful relationships with people and then maintain those relationships. I'm a Developer- I often (especially in teenagers) see potential in people and I like to call-out that potential and encourage people. And I'm into being Connected- I see myself as part of a bigger picture. I have been really fulfilled in the last few weeks of raising support- not just because it's affecting the bottom line in my support account- but because doing so is allowing me to exercise my strengths.

Ask anyone if they want to do what they love for a living. Most people probably don't enjoy that privilege.

There's more I guess. Like I said, I'm still processing. And even though I'm still pretty much in the starting gate I can, nevertheless, glimpse the finish line. I can see being fully supported and I can see the beauty and simplicity of being a part of the body of Christ and sharing the fruit with those whose gifts are making it possible.

Oh Mexico

2011-03-18T22:22:00.000-05:00

I think I may have traveled the farthest of anyone I know for a Spring Break trip this week...and it was maybe the shortest trip to boot.

I went to San Luis Rio Colorado south of the border from Yuma, AZ with Zion Hill Baptist Church. I was the "Camp Pastor" for the trip. I had a blast getting to know some of the students from ZH.

We left last Saturday morning at 7 am and arrived in Yuma about 10 am the following morning. We met our host missionary and then drove across the border arriving at our host church before noon and just in time for morning worship.

We spent the rest of the day overcoming the "van lag" and acclimating to our new environment which included another worship service that evening and a late dinner.

On each of the next three days we spent the mornings in team devotionals and free time followed by afternoons of preparing give-away bags of Rice and Beans. Later in the afternoon we canvassed neiqhborhoods, prayer-walking and passing out invitations door-to-door to invite everyone to a free movie that evening.

The movie was a very effective film version of Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames. The neighborhoods were very poor, one of them a simple squatter village on the outskirts of a town whose infrastructure was struggling to keep up with growth.

Our host Pastor and his church members were very effective at gathering information for follow-up purposes. It was a joy to work with them.

Following our third (and biggest night) we packed our trailer and crossed the border knowing that it would take 4 hours or more if we waited until the morning. We finally crossed the border just after midnight that night and decided to begin our drive back to Mississippi arriving back in Wesson at 8 am Friday morning.

Now that's a crazy trip!

And the best part of it was that there were more than 250 decisions made and seeds sown among hundreds and hundreds of people.

March 12- 5 Years Later

2011-03-11T23:31:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about this week, well, all week. The other day, I thought about how 5 years ago, on Wednesday, March 8 Kim's parents took her to Ochsner Hospital for what I thought would be just another regular check-up. Her health had been pretty poor in the weeks leading up to that appointment so we knew they would admit her- give her some fluids and antibiotics- just like always, right?

There were two big differences I guess.

About 3 weeks prior to that appointment we had seen the doctor and for the first time he mentioned that we should consider getting on "the list" again- the list to receive another set of lungs. (Kim had received a Double Lung Transplant the summer of 1998). Kim flat refused to go on the list again. Her main reason was that she felt like she had had her chance and someone else deserved to have theirs as well. Secondly, at that point she really wasn't healthy enough to undergo the procedure.

I remember being really shocked that day. I mean, we both knew the day would come. But when we were told to consider getting another transplant; it hit me. Still...I was thinking we'd get another year together.

Later that day I asked her if she was afraid to die. She said no. Unequivocally. I asked her if she was afraid of anything and her answer was stunning. She told me she was afraid she'd die before school was out that Spring and worried what would happen to Anna in that case. (Anna was a high school Senior that have moved in with us after Hurricane Katrina). I was stunned at realizing that Kim was worried she wouldn't be around another 3 months. I wasn't prepared for that. (For the record, I was not all that surprised that she was concerned for someone other than herself- that fact, plus the fact that I didn't care less what anyone at church or in town thought of me having a high school senior girl living with me prompted me to invite Anna to stay in Gulfport until I left at the end of the year).

The other big difference that day- March 8, 5 years ago. It was a Wednesday. Normally our appointments were on Monday or Thursday and I'd take her. Wednesday was "Church Night". I let her parents take her to the doctor that day. So I was in my office preparing for 605 that night when her Dad called me late that afternoon to tell me not only had they "admitted" Kim- which wasn't unexpected...but that the doctor had said it would be her "last" admission.

Looking back on it now, I realize I went into some form of shock right then and there. A normal person would have dropped everything and took off to New Orleans. Me. I calmly wrapped things up. I made arrangements for that night. In fact, I waited till 6 pm to let everyone know I was going to New Orleans (but I didn't tell anyone how grave the situation was...I'm not sure I really "got it" myself").

So I arrived at Ochsner around 8 pm with one of Kim's favorite foods- Chicken Strips from Canes and I got to spend about 30 minutes with her while she was still cognizant. We had short conversations. We kissed and said we loved one another and then she got increasingly agitated at the I.V.'s which was absolutely not like her. Being a Nurse made her a model Patient! They sedated her to keep her from pulling out the I.V.'s and from there on it was a waiting game until about 1:30 am the morning of March 12.

I was also thinking this week about where I've been and what I've done since then. Here's the journal:

March 2006- this is what I wrote on my "then" blog- Xanga: http://cwhitedog.xanga.com/456640078/item/
March 2007- I spent a long, lonely day on a bus from San Salvador to somewhere in Nicaragua: http://clintonwhite.theworldrace.org/?filename=welcome-race-fans&bookmark=true#comments
August 2007 I wrote about missing Kim during her birthday: http://clintonwhite.theworldrace.org/?filename=feeling-old-and-missing-someone
March 2008 I finally took off my Wedding Band: http://ministryhappens.blogspot.com/2008/03/empty-handed.html
March 2009 I was in Ukraine: http://ministryhappens.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-that-was.html

Last year I guess I didn't have internet. I think I wrote something on a computer journal but I don't know where my back-up is.

Today marks 5 years. As you read this I'll be in a van on my way to Mexico for the week.

Life goes on. I wish it could go back.

Monday Musings

2011-03-07T20:23:00.000-06:00

I really should write more regularly. As in...at least a specific day each week. Might as well be Monday huh?

In less than a week I'll be in Mexico, south of the border from Yuma, Arizona. I'm going with my friend's church- Zion Hill Baptist Church, in Wesson, MS. This is the first time I've gone on a mission trip with them.

Why is that a big deal at all? Well- I'm going with my friend Stik. He went with me to Ukraine. And to Belize- twice! And to Chicago. And to Pikeville, KY. And...I can't even remember if there are others. Stik's an Engineer. He has ADD but he's blessed with lots of Common Sense and Genius. He's just the kind of guy you always want with you on mission trips.

And so now I get to go with him somewhere instead of vice-versa.

I'm not crazy about driving all the way out there. Back in about 1990 or so, Stik, his cousin (and my college roommate) Richard and I rented a Cadillac and drove to Yuma to be in a friends wedding. It was a classic Road-Trip. With two Vans and a trailer in tow, this will be a little different.

I've been asked to lead the nightly "Devotions". Unless the Lord gives me something else I intend to flesh-out the 5 Objectives of a Mission Project that Adventures in Missions uses:

Listen in Prayer
Share Your Faith
Build a Meaningful Relationship
Meet Felt Needs
Debrief and Respond.

And I probably won't have a "Monday Musing" next Monday. I don't think I'm taking the computer on this trip.

New Website is up and running

2011-02-27T19:52:00.001-06:00

www.clintoninukraine.org is up and running and my February Email Newsletter just went out announcing the launch.

Right now I still have this blogsite and I will continue to blog here. What I might do down the line though is to redirect this web address to the webpage (which has a link to this blogpage). I just don't want people having to remember or bookmark two or more different web addresses.

The purpose for the webpage though is to consolidate all the information about my work in Ukraine (and other places).

So, to that effect- the homepage contains general information about who I'm serving with and what I'll be doing in Ukraine.

There's a "tab" for this blog as well as a tab for "News". In most cases the "News" will be the same as my blog.

There's a tabs that link to forms to sign-up for my Newsletter and to be a Prayer Partner. And there's a tab where you can send my your prayer request. Being Prayer Partners is a two-way street you know- I need you to pray for me, but I also want to be current on what's happening in your life and I want to join you in your prayers too.

There's a tab to get information about how to support me financially. 'Nuff said.

There's a Photo Page. I don't intend to load a whole lot of pictures but I'll try to keep it current and representative of what I'm up to. There's also a Video Page. Right now I have an old video loaded just to see how it works. Once I'm in Ukraine I might do a monthly Video Blog or something.

Finally there's a tab for some of my favorite Links- I'm still working on that. And a Calendar because I know you want to know what I'm doing everyday. Right.

So there ya go. It's official. I've announced the launch of my webpage on my Blog which means 2 family members, 3 friends and 1 stranger now know about it.

Way Behind

2011-02-19T20:30:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I blogged. (Hmm, how many times have I started a blog like that?)

I really should write about my three weeks in Illinois with International Teams. To be honest, I'm at a loss how to summarize it.

I could write a whole blog about the trip up there. I love driving across country when I have time to goof-off on back roads. I drove up Hwy 61 and 1 from Vicksburg to Memphis and then had "Man vs Food" amazing fried chicken in Memphis with my nephew. Later that day I continued up the backroads to southern Illinois and spent the night with a great kid from my first youth group in Aberdeen...he's married now, he's a Pastor and has wonderful kids.

I could write about that first week at ITeams. How I had Deep Dish Chicago Pizza with my friends Carrie and Ali. How I enjoyed getting to know 28 or so missionaries- especially the short-termers that were only with us for a week. Most of them were college-age and they are awesome and getting ready to go all over the world.

The 2nd week was mostly about studying our strengths and gifts and personality. That alone deserves it's own blog. At the end of the week I drove down to Southwestern Illinois for an all day "Jesus Focused Youth Ministry" Seminar. That's the material I'll be teaching in Ukraine.

The 3rd week included a lot of cross-cultural stuff like visiting an Islamic Mosque, and Inner City Church and a Hindu Temple. Crazy week. At the end of the week I began the road-trip home which is another blog too. I spent the night with my friend Dennis on Friday night, with Thuy and Ryan in St Louis on Saturday night and with Darrell and Kimberly and kids on Sunday night. On the way home that Monday I drove down scenic Hwy 7 in Arkansas- a great drive!

So now I'm back in MS and working with Stik. I hope to begin meeting with people in regard to support raising as early as next weekend (heading to Tupelo for another JFYM Seminar).

So there ya go.

Vision and Mission Statements

2011-01-25T18:22:00.001-06:00

I've done "Vision" and "Mission" Statements for a long time, all the way back to my Aberdeen Youth Minister days.

This week I've heard the simplest definitions for the two that I've ever heard.

Vision- What You See. (From Andy Stanley, "Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be.")

Mission- What You Do.

In short, vision is what you see (in the future) and mission is how you achieve your vision, or what you do to get there.

As we were discussing all of this, Scott Olson, the CEO of International Teams gave us what he thinks would be the Vision and Mission Statement hanging on the wall of the office of GOD- the CEO of the Universe!!

Vision: (what you want to see, remember?)- Revelation 7:9 ⁹ After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Mission Statement: (What we do/How we get there)- Matthew 28:18-20 ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

In case you're wondering, the Global Vision for I-Teams is "Lives and communities transformed by the power of God." That's what we want to see.

Our Mission? How we're going to do it? "We Bring People Together To Help The Oppressed". In case "the oppressed" sounds a little vague, we have a focus on the Economically Oppressed (the poor), the Physically Oppressed (the slave), and the Spiritual Oppressed (the blind, as in "blinded to the truth").

Northward Bound

2011-01-21T00:39:00.000-06:00

Just in case you hadn't heard (slim chance since there's only 4 people that read this blog)- I'm driving later today to Elgin, Illinois where I'll participate in 3 weeks of training/orientation with International Teams. I'm hoping to visit with friends and eat Pizza in Chicago for the next 3 weeks and seeing some other friends along the way both there and back.

Week 1-

Missions related Biblical teaching
Mission Statement & Core Values of IT
Organizational Structure of IT
Worldwide Ministries of IT
Cross-cultural communication styles
Team Dynamics
The Church in Mission
Concept and constituent parts of TEmP (a planning tool used in IT)

Weeks 2-3-

Missions related Biblical Teaching
The Gospel in a pluralistic world
Concept and Development of a LifeMap
Financial procedures within IT
Issues of prejudice and reconciliation
Issues related to struggles within personal relationships
Issues related to singleness and marriage
Issues related to supernatural spiritual realities
Financial planning
Conditions for working in teams
Characteristics of leaders/servants

These 2 segments are known as A2 and A3. I've already completed 12 online lessons required for A1. A4 will be another 2 week residential segment later this summer related to language acquisition. A5 is an independent study module that will include 13 weeks of meeting with a mentor and studying Larry Crabb's book, Inside Out.

One Old Breakfast Table...now on Craigslist. Let's try this:

2011-01-18T18:16:00.000-06:00

Do you remember that game, "Bigger and Better", where you trade something you have for something bigger and better? Can you believe a guy out West, through a series of trades, parlayed his Red Paperclip for a HOUSE to live in? (http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/)?

I'm inspired by that guy. I'm currently raising funds to work as a Christian Missionary in Ukraine. I need to raise more than $48,000 to fund two years of ministry. Here's what I want to do: I'd like to trade my antique English Breakfast Table for something bigger or better. It's appraised at $2500.00. Whatever I trade for, I'll keep trading "up" until I can fund two years' ministry.

Here's the description of the table:

This is an Cuban Mahogany English Victorian Breakfast table made in England circa 1870s to 1880s. If the table is restored and finished with a French polish it will sell for more money. Most dealers who sell English Antiques may be interested in this type of table. The knob on the bottom of the base is a assembly technique used to hold to finial in place, the space at the top of the base and under the top is not a storage space it is just the construction technique used on all the same type of tables.

It's in pretty good, used condition. Has many scuffs and scratches but still very charming and useable. The table top is cracked along one edge (could be glued back and refinished and would not be noticeable).

* Current Fair Market Value: $2500

** Replacement Cost: $4500

It was given to me and my late wife as a wedding gift in 1997. The previous owner was the US Ambassador to Barbados during the Reagan years and I think (but can't prove) that the table once resided there.

You might want to just buy it. I guess I could do that. But technically, if you sent the money directly to the ministry and not to me then the IRS stipulates that I can only give a "donor" a gift of 15% of the value of the donor's gift- meaning if I were to give you a $2500 gift in exchange for a "donation" to the ministry, then your gift would have to be $16666. Make sense?

I can sell it directly and use the funds for ministry but ideally I want to trade "up". That's the plan.

Email me and I'll send you more information about the ministry with links to my blogsite and ministry web address (clinton@clintonwhite.net)

One Red Paperclip

2011-01-18T11:35:00.000-06:00

Have you seen this? http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

It's a remarkable story about a guy that decided to take the "Bigger and Better" Game- where you trade something you have with someone else for something bigger and better. In a little over a year he parlayed his one red paperclip into a HOUSE to live in. Along the way he met a lot of people and along the way of fulfilling his own dream, he helped others fulfill their dreams too.

I don't know if this is one of those things that can be done again. I mean, maybe one guy, one time is the shelf-life for a project like this.

But I'm wondering if I could do something like this to fund about 2 years on the mission field in Ukraine? I'm thinking of starting with something pretty big...like an antique breakfast table with some sentimental history behind it?

What do you think?

Being thankful isn't all that easy

2011-01-11T22:45:00.000-06:00

Being thankful isn't all that easy. It should be.

Actually...there's no way I can go through a day without thinking of multiple reasons to be thankful.

But as I go through my days supposedly with an "eye out" for something I'm especially thankful for (see my last blog) I find that I have days like today. Days when the enemy's voice seems especially louder or clearer.

Of course I'm thankful for the air I breathe. A warm house to sleep in and a big fluffy blanket and comfortable bed. I'm pretty thankful right this second for high speed internet. Heck I'm thankful for Direct TV. I'm thankful for "My Utmost For His Highest" and for more Bible's in my home than I could possibly need.

But then there's that dang stinkin' voice. The one that tells me that the economy sucks and I really don't have a "home church" anymore and I don't really have much of a support base and I might not be able to raise funds to go back overseas.

See where my mind's been today?

Cognitively I know God my Provider can meet my needs. He's done it over and over again in my life. I've seen Him do it just in the last week in lives of some friends. He can meet my needs too. Lord, forgive me for my unbelief and

thank you.

Thankful

2011-01-04T21:32:00.000-06:00

It's not always easy being thankful.

Today I listened to two great podcasts from one of my favorite preachers/communicators. Ben Stuart leads "Breakaway"- a small college Bible study at Texas A & M that reaches SEVERAL thousand students every Tuesday night. You know how they do everything big in Texas, right?

Anyway, he did two sermons in November about living in Community from 1 Thessalonians. His last message focused on being "thankful".

He shared some remarkable statistics just about the health benefits of being a thankful person. One study of 100 students at the University of Miami ...1/3 were told to make a list of 5 things each week they were thankful for, 1/3 made a list of 5 annoying things (complaining), and 1/3 just listed "happenings". At the end of 10 weeks the students who counted their blessings had better grades and a better outlook on life.

The US Air Force Survival Training Program trains people to remember 2 numbers. 98.6- Core Temperature is very important. And 3. They say you will die if you don't get air within 3 minutes. You can last 3 days with out water and 3 weeks without food. You'll only last 3 months with love and attention. But the most important 3 was 3 seconds. You can't go 3 seconds without a positive outlook. You're as good as dead without it. Not an "unrealistic" outlook...but a positive- thankful- grateful- outlook.

So...a lot of friends do a 365 Album on Facebook or on their blog. A picture a day. Sometimes with commentary, sometimes not.

I'm doing one called Rejoice 365. I'm going to try and post a picture and some brief commentary everyday about something I'm thankful for that day. I need to. I need to count my blessings because despite whatever "hell" I sometimes feel like I've been through God is still on His throne and He's never ceased to be good to me even though, outside of His grace and mercy, I don't deserve it.

I might post some of them to my blog...maybe a weekly re-cap. We'll see.

By the way... check out Ben Stuart...you can download sermons from the website or on Itunes (http://breakawayministries.org/home).

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T16:57:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since I blogged. Just like I couldn't believe it last night when I clicked on my blogsite and discovered that my webhost subscription had expired and my blogsite wasn't even up! Fornutaely it's renewed for another year now...which seems especially appropriate seeing as how it's a "new" year!

So what's up? New Year's Resolutions? I haven't even thought about it.

A friend today said something about "how you bring in the new year is how you'll spend the new year". If that's the case, I expect to sit in a recliner on my butt a lot. I was with good friends and we had lots of good food...and we had fun playing Wii but mostly we sat around like old folks and watched the Weather Channel. Wait. I'm a lot closer to old folks now than I am to young folks!

I got to visit with a friend from Ukraine today. Natasha just moved to the States to attend college in Texas. We talked about my latest endeavor- which is (drum roll):

I am now a Missionary-in-Training with International Teams. I will spend about 5 weeks in Chicago later this month and next in training/orientation. I expressed to my friend that I'm really concerned about raising support. The economy isn't what it used to be and frankly, my support base is dwindled. It's been 4 years now since I was on a church staff and had any kind of "home church" stability. I've lived out-of-the-country more in the last 4 years than I have in-country. But here's the thing: It's in God's hand right? The doors seem to be opening for me to return to Ukraine (more or less indefinitely)- I have my mission appointment, I have some early expressions of financial support. Why would God give me the opportunity without taking care of the support part?

One thing is certain: If I return to Ukraine it will be a God-thing. Nothing I can take credit for and I think that's the way to go this New Year...or any year.

Here's a Cyber Monday Shopping Idea (and it's good all month long)

2010-11-29T14:50:00.000-06:00

I bought some gifts online on Black Friday but before I could buy anything today- Cyber Monday- I got distracted. In a good way.

Instead- I gave to a Cause.

My friend Tom Davis (He's the President of Children's HopeChest and author of a couple of my favorite books like Priceless and Scared), is raising money and awareness through a campaign called "Change Their Story".

The idea is that for the money I would normally spend on someone's Christmas gift I can "Change an Orphans Story". And by blogging and Facebooking about it I can raise awareness that will also help "Change an Orphans Story".

I know it's a crazy time of year. We spend money we don't have giving gifts to loved ones that really don't need anything. On top of that it's a great time to give last-minute gifts to our church and other charities for tax purposes. We're in a recession; money is tight.

I'm treating my donation like it's gift under the tree. And for my part...I don't need anything for Christmas. I'll be WITH my family; that's better than a new shirt or book or CD. I'd rather have someone who would otherwise spend money to give me a gift give that money towards my $500.00 Goal through CHC; I'd rather you give a gift to protect an Orphan.

Would you consider joining me? My $500.00 goal is a part of a greater goal of $10000.00 that will help protect Russian girls from being kidnapped and trafficked. Now that's an awesome gift that can help "Change Their Story".

You can donate via Credit Card on my "Change Their Story" Page.

A nice long blog about Politics and Entitlements and Government Spending and Foreign Aid

2010-11-18T23:33:00.000-06:00

At least three friends have re-posted this Facebook "status" in the last month.

Homeless go without eating. Elderly go without needed medicines. Mentally ill go without treatment. Troops go without the proper equipment. Veterans go without benefits that were promised to them!!! Yet we donate millions of dollars to other countries before helping our own first!

I've taken issue in the form of a comment each time I've seen this post and each time I've been shot-down by other commentators. I absolutely respect my friends' right to express their opinion but I feel like they are simply re-posting without really exploring the issue.

Here are some thoughts:

It's difficult to get real figures which I suppose is typical when dealing with our government. As best as I can tell in recent years the Total US Budget has been in the neighborhood of $4 Trillion Dollars with about $2.5 Trillion of that earmarked for Mandatory or Entitlement Programs.

According the the 2003 "Complete Idiot's Guide to Economics" the US spent it's highest percentage of the US Budget (65%) on "Mandatory Spending" programs appropriated by Congress...also known as Entitlement Programs. In President Clinton's last year in office Congress appropriated the following:

Social Security: 23%

Medicare: 12%
Medicaid: 7%
Other Means-tested entitlements: 6%
Mandatory payments (pensions, etc.): 6%
Net interest on debt: 11%

I'm not sure how the Budget works. I'm not sure I get the difference between the Mandated Spending...that appropriated by Congress and the rest of the budget. I see in the 2010 Budget that the Department of Defense gets about $700 Billion which is slightly less than all other Government Agencies combined.

But how much are we spending overseas and is it so much that Americans are suffering for it?

Again, it's hard to nail down specifics. In general though, the total amount of US Foreign Aid (which includes Humanitarian and Food Aid right alongside Military Funding and Political/Development Funding) is less than 1% of our Federal Budget and generally has been for the last 50 years!

According to a Washington Post study most Americans think Foreign Aid is one of our top expenditures. Most think we spend 15%-25% on International Aid. When asked what we should be spending, the average is 5%. Remember, the truth is that we spend less than 1%...so you could say most Americans feel we should be spending 5x as much on International Aid!

A friend referred me to this article which described how President Obama recently promised more than $100 Billion to the UN alone for the fight against Global Warming! I don't think that money is counted in most figures for Foreign Aid. That's money the President asks Congress for but it isn't mandated or appropriated ahead of time. I think. Which is pretty crazy.

Even so. Even if you throw in that crazy amount... the amount of money we spend on Foreign Aid is still miniscule compared to what we spend on our own entitlement programs.

I don't know if you can put a price on goodwill. Part of our Foreign Aid spending obviously isn't just because we're such Good Samaritans, although that's part of it. I can tell you first hand about being in countries where people still love America and Americans because of the Aid we've given or because of our intervention in their affairs. I don't care how Isolationist you are- intervening to prevent Genocide is always the right thing to do no matter where or who it is! My opinion.

Finally. What about those homeless people here in America that go without? What about our our Vets that aren't taken care of or our Soldiers that are ill-equipped?

If our Vets are getting the shaft then vote out the liars that reneged on their promises to them. That doesn't have as much to do with money we send overseas as it does with lies and mismanagement in Congress. Ill equipped Troops? I would argue we have the best equipped and trained military in the history of the world. Again... the issue seems to me to be mismanagement on the part of the Civilians (Congress) that are involved in decision-making. Homelessness and Elderly without medicine? Maybe as a Church we've abrogated our responsibility by expecting our Government to do everything for us.

I'm not against spending to take care of our own. I am against waste and corruption and creating dependency. Americans give more personal funds for "Aid" at home and abroad than probably people in any other country. We are generous and I think it stems mostly from our Christian heritage. I wonder how much more we could give if we could get our Government out of our pocket?

I remember memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution back in the 8th Grade. I remember these legitimate roles of Government according to our Founding Fathers:

Establish Justice (rule of law)

Insure Domestic Tranquility (quell rebellions)

Provide for the Common Defense (a National Army/Navy to defend us)

Promote the General Welfare (Founding Fathers weren't thinking Entitlement Programs as much as...just keep Government from intruding into people's lives so much that it hurts more than helps).

Secure the blessings of Liberty for us and our posterity- (What are the "Blessings of Liberty"?...I think they were enumerated in the Bill of Rights).

So where does Foreign Aid fit in? I'm not sure it fits according to those Roles of Government in the Preamble. But I do think it's money well spent. I don't think anyone in America is suffering because of what we're sending overseas. I'm Pro-Military but I read that two B2 Bombers that cost $4.4 Billion Dollars is more than the total budget of The World Food Program ($3.2 Billion Budget and is the largest relief agency in the world) which assists 104 million starving and malnourished people in 81 countries.

What do you think? You are welcome to disagree with me. Several folks on Facebook did already.

History

2010-10-25T22:00:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of friends involved in the Modern Day Abolitionist Movement. (Yes friends, Slavery is a greater issue today than it ever was in the 1800's in America!) That's one thought. Hang on to it for a minute.

Another thought: One of my classes is Russian Culture and History. One element I've found fascinating is how much Russia's (and the rest of the former Soviet world's) present is shaped by the past (I guess that's true of all of us.)

For example: The emerging Russian Empire was dominated by the Mongol Horde for more than 200 years. By all accounts it was a particularly ruthless reign of terror that left a lasting impression on Russian Culture. Not only did the West (Western Europe at least) fail to aid Russia during the invasion, but in the chaos and vacuum of leadership that followed, the West on different occasions wrestled land and control from the Russians. One invader actually tried to deceive the Russians into thinking he was a long lost heir to the throne and led an invasion at the head of a Polish Army. His reign lasted less than a year and when he was found out, he was killed and his ashes loaded into a cannon and shot back to Poland!!

To this day Russians are generally distrustful of the West and they learned well the art of despotic rule, ie, they tend towards authoritarian and/or totalitarian rule.

Here's where my two thoughts collide: There's a great hour-long video floating around produced by PBS's Frontline (http://freedocumentaries.org/teatro.php?filmID=161&lan=undefined&size=undefined), It's about the Sex Trade in Eastern Europe and along with any number of articles you can find on the internet, you can see that not only is Eastern Europe (Ukraine in particular) a major source country for trafficking victims...but a primary destination country is Turkey.

Now read this excerpt from one of my text regarding the occupation of Ukraine/Russia by the Mongols. More lasting results of the past bearing on the present??

"Each year they would ride forth from their strongholds in the Crimea through the narrow Isthmus of Perekop in roving bands which had no purpose other than to take captives. In the summer, when the river beds were dry, they would ride in silently, surround villages and descend on them. The horsemen carried leather thongs to drag away men prisoners. On the sides of their horses were slung great baskets made like bakers' panniers to carry away children, for their prized booty were young boys and girls whom they sold to the Turks or other neighbors. Galloping through the towns, they swept up children in their baskets; a sick child was dashed to the ground or against a tree."

"As late as 1571, the Crimean Tatars reached Moscow. Accounts of the day say they killed 200,000 people and that the rives were swollen with bodies; 130,000 people were carried off into slavery." (Land of the Firebird, Massie 39).

Dreams

2010-10-24T17:47:00.000-05:00

Sometimes dreams can feel so dang real.

I drove back to SC from Mississippi on Friday. I was sick with some kind of bug all day and it was a miserable drive. I didn't get back to SC until a little after midnight.

At some point in the morning I had this dream: It was Monday morning and I was back in class. I was supposed to turn-in my mid-term take-home exam but I hadn't finished it. I was so ticked off at myself for not doing it. I had no excuse.

So anyway...I wake up...and I'm just feeling miserable because I didn't do my test over the break. I mean...it took me several minutes to realize that it was in fact...Saturday morning. I hadn't returned to class yet. I still had a couple days to finish my exams.

Crazy real dream!

I Was Born a Travelin' Man (and Thank God for Fall Break!)

2010-10-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

I have been "talking" with 2 different Mission Sending Organizations for several months. One based in Florida and one based in Illinois. A few weeks ago I clicked on the "submit" button after finally completing the online application for the Chicago based agency. Apparently they forwarded my application to their Director in Ukraine. A few days later I received a nice email from the guy and an invitation to get together with him via Skype for a telephone interview. That ended up happening that very day- a 45 minute conversation.

Later that day or the next day he sent me an email informing me that he would be in the States this week and inviting me to spend a day with him in Chicago (or come to Ukraine the following week...which is a little out-of-the-way).

So here I am. It's Tuesday night and my Fall Break begins when I finish class tomorrow afternoon. I'm headed to Atlanta tomorrow where I'll fly to Chicago tomorrow night. (And I'll get to visit a couple of friends I worked with in Haiti tomorrow night too). On Thursday I'll spend the day getting to know Doug- who will be my boss in Ukraine should things work out- and learning more about the ministry.

I'll fly back to Atlanta Friday and then drive to Birmingham where I intend to work on my old Jeep for the weekend while visiting some friends there.

On Monday or Tuesday I'll head to Mississippi and probably help my buddy Stik do some Land Surveying for a few days.

I'm hoping to go to Mississippi State's Homecoming the following weekend before returning to Columbia for the beginning of Book 2 in my Russian Language studies.

Homework

2010-10-06T00:28:00.001-05:00

Want to know what my Homework looks like? Well, actually this isn't a good representation because most of my homework is Grammar, Writing and Language Listening Exercises. But one of the elements here in South Carolina that's very different from what I did in Ukraine is our once a week Culture and History Lesson. I think I could have enjoyed being a History Teacher. I'd much rather hear a good lecture and engage in discussion and read a book than try to remember a million grammar rules.

In any case, one of our texts is The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware. Below are my answers to 3 questions from the 10th and 11th Chapter of said book. You may find it boring but what the heck. I know that both of my regular readers want to know what I'm doing these days.

What do you think about orthodoxy's view of the Holy Tradition? Does it seem to you that they place the traditions, such as the 7 Ecumenical Councils, the Church Canon, etc., on a par with scripture?

The author makes that case. He goes so far as to fault the Western Church (and those within Orthodoxy) that separate Tradition and Scripture saying that Scripture exists within Tradition. He says that among the various elements of Tradition that the Bible enjoys pre-eminence…along with the Creed and the Councils. What kind of pre-eminence is that? And what of the elements that don’t hold “pre-eminence”? Writings of the Fathers, Canons, Service Books, Icons, the whole system of Church government, worship, spirituality and art are all elements of Tradition.

As regards Scripture, the author argues that “if Christians are People of the Book, the Bible is the Book of the People.” Not something set up over the Church (my interpretation is that he’s saying the Bible has no authority over the Church) because it was the Church in the first place that determined what books would be in the Bible. “It is from the Church that the Bible ultimately derives its authority” and “it is the Church alone which can interpret Holy Scripture with authority.”

I can agree that the Bible is best understood (interpreted??) in light of Christian community (Church) but there’s something to be said about Scripture being “God breathed and profitable….” (2nd Tim 3:16).

He goes on to say that Tradition is more than a set of abstract propositions- “it is a life, a personal encounter with Christ in the Holy Spirit” and “it is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church”. What? I guess he’s saying that the Holy Spirit works or speaks through all these elements?? I can agree with that but I wouldn’t limit Him to just those elements.

2. What do you think about Orthodoxy's belief that (in Ware's words) "while we cannot 'merit' salvation, we must certainly work for it, since 'faith without works is dead?' Does this appear to be a contradiction to you?

On the surface, yes there’s definitely a contradiction. I think the author is mis-using the passage from James. I don’t think “to work out our Salvation” as Paul says to the Philippians and “faith without works is dead” as in James means that we have to work for our Salvation. In practice… and in my limited experience, I feel like most Orthodox Christians hold firmly to a merit-based Salvation…or at least they seem to reject any concept of Eternal Security. To wit… a Ukrainian Christian friend of mine was recently Baptized. She grew up in an Orthodox Church but in recent years has embraced a non-denominational Protestant Church. Her Facebook status on the day she was baptized was something to the effect of “ Thank God now I know for sure I will go to heaven”…as if her actions in being obedient to follow Christ in Baptism somehow guaranteed her eternal security. Admittedly I don’t know any Orthodox Christians very well, but my observations is that the devout ones are very concerned with all the outward demonstrations of piety- which to me seems to be an emphasis on “works”.

Towards the end of Chapter 11 the author explains the concept of Deification and in his 3rd point stresses that the process of Deification is simple: go to church, receive the sacraments regularly, pray to God ‘in spirit and in truth’, read the Gospels, and follow the commandments. That sounds like works-merited Salvation to me.

3. What do you think of the fact that the Orthodox do not believe that humans were utterly depraved and unable to have good desires after the fall? Is there any merit to their rejection of Calvin's doctrine of "total depravity" and Augustine's unique concept of "original sin"?

Can we be both utterly depraved and still be capable of some good? On one hand Scripture says that all our righteousness is as filthy rags and that none of us are good. I Corinthians 2:14 suggests that we aren’t capable of making spiritual assessments without the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Yet Ware makes a case for what it means to be made in the Image and Likeness of God. I rather like the way he separates the two. Spiritually we certainly are fallen and incapable of attaining Salvation on our own. But as Ware says, we are made in the Image and Likeness of God. There’s something in us; not in any other creation… that makes us the “Image” of our Father. It’s like DNA, there’s something of Him in all of us even in our fallen state. I think we see that when someone who otherwise completely rejects God is does something noble or good. It’s not because of their innate goodness…but because of the hint of the Creator that’s in all of us. To be in the “Likeness” of God is to become “like” Him and that’s a process that begins with following God. Others can argue about Calvin’s view of Irresistible Grace…whether there’s some application of our free will to choose to follow God or whether, like Calvin, we are the Eternal Elect…we don’t automatically “look” like God. That happens over time as we know Him more and more.

Based on the Orthodox understanding of Image and Likeness I at least understand why they reject Calvin’s Total Depravity. As for Original Sin, the biggest difference I see between Augustine and Orthodoxy is how far “we” had to fall. In the big scheme of things I don’t know if it makes much difference if you fall from near the top of a cliff or halfway up the cliff. In both cases, you’re at the bottom at the end of the Fall. The results- separation from God spiritually- is the same.

Procrastination

2010-10-05T22:55:00.000-05:00

Of all the reasons to write a quick blog...doing so to keep from studying or doing homework has to be one of the lamest reasons!

I'm barely treading water on this whole being a student thing. I do just enough to keep up; to keep from drowning. I'm lazy here lately...more than usual.

My sleep is completely out of whack. It's almost like working a night shift. In Haiti this summer I was good about getting up early, sometimes as early as 5 am and then going to bed before 10 pm. Since I've been a "student" again, I find myself waking early...at 5 or 6 because I have to in order to finish homework from the day before. I come home from class at noon and crash on the couch. Not that there's anything wrong with a good nap...but mine are becoming 3-4 hour long naps. Then I wake up and cook dinner and watch tv and don't look at homework till midnight. I go to sleep at 2 and get up again at 5 or 6. Bad habits!

My only chance of doing homework after class is to go almost straight to Starbucks or Panera. I'm productive when I do that.

But here it is, 11:55 am and I'm writing a blog and staring at 11 or 12 exercises I need to complete plus some reading.

I'm a student looking forward to Fall Break which begins next week! (More about that in a few days!)

First Day of School...Again

2010-09-07T20:43:00.000-05:00

This will be a short update. I am in Columbia, SC where I'm studying Russian at Columbia International University- at the Institute of Strategic Languages and Cultures. Sounds impressive, huh? First day of class today scared me to death just because I had no clue where they were already and where I am in relation to the rest of the class. It wasn't a bad day though. After one day I feel like they are ahead of me conversationally (to be expected as that's a primary focus of this course) and they may have a better grasp of the grammar they've been taught already ( I think they've only covered 4 of the 6 Cases and I've covered all 6 but maybe not in as much detail).

Columbia is nice; I haven't had time to explore much. There's a confluence of 3 Rivers here in town and lots of green space. I have my Kayak and Bike with me. I'm hoping to go hiking in NC next month when the leaves are changing. I visited 2 different churches last Sunday and might go to a small group meeting this Thursday (What am I thinking? State and Auburn are on ESPN Thursday night??).

I'm renting a trailer about a 1/4 mile from the language school. I'm within 5 miles of any restaurant or store I could want (except an REI Store or Jeep Store). I know a few people here in town but haven't been able to catch up with them yet.

So that's about it for now.

Decisions....

2010-08-22T17:54:00.000-05:00

I've posted stuff like this before. About how I like when I finally make a decision; reach a conclusion. There's a sigh of relief that comes with that.

And like a lot of things in my life over the last few years...this isn't etched in stone either...but it's about as close as I get these days.

I've been looking at this Russian Language program at Columbia International University in South Carolina for a few years now...even before I lived in Ukraine. It's always been an option.

Seems like now is the right time.

I'm still in limboland in regards to affiliating with a ministry/sending agency and getting back to Ukraine. I think it'll be end of the year/early next year at the earliest before I can do that. My other option right now is to stay in Mississippi and work a little bit. I didn't get rich doing that before; I reckon I can not get rich somewhere else just as easily!

In reality I'll have to at least work part-time I think or sell something (Most of my furniture is in an Antique Consignment Shop in Natchez...and I guess if push comes to shove one of the Jeeps could go too).

But I'm excited about a new start. Again. I'm looking forward to living in a little trailer or apartment or something and moving my church membership and finding out how much Russian I really know already! This program is supposed to be very intense! The program is set-up as a 8-month course they say is equivalent to a 4-year University Degree in Russian!!! Ideally, I'll do one semester (about half the course) and get affiliated with someone by the end of the year which would put me either in Florida or Illinois (I'm working on applications with 2 sending agencies) for training in the Spring. Then I'd be ready to deploy to Ukraine as soon as I could complete support raising.

One day at a time though, right?

Lately

2010-08-13T16:35:00.002-05:00

Lately.

Staffers are leaving left and right. We're down to just 6 of us in the Staff House this week. We have one more week of Participants arriving Monday. The Lease on the Staff House runs out next month so we are trying to get rid of stuff (we donated our Bunk Beds to an orphanage). We're probably taking our vehicles back to the Dominican Republic where they were bought.

It's a busy time.

Our Generator gave up the ghost last weekend. You may remember that we had an electrical problem that necessitated taking ourselves off the City Grid and relying totally on the generator. Then last weekend the generator threw a rod or something and punched a whole through the cast-iron block. It's toast.

The good news is that we had just fixed the electrical panel problem so we're back on the City Grid but it's sporadic at best.

Our Cook is finished after this week so we'll be preparing our own meals next week. No more Beans and Rice I'm pretty sure.

The Staff that's still here has made the best of the sporadic electricity. We've had several evenings without power and each time we've ended up sitting on the balcony talking about our time here in Haiti.

We've been recalling our favorite things: Watching Thunderstorms sweep over the Mountains and stretch across the Bay. Seeing people hold hands as they cross the streets- regardless of gender or age. Smiling at children and seeing them light-up in response. Hearing familiar old hymns from the neighborhood churches and Bible Studies at all hours of the day and night. Having orphans climb all over you when you visit. Making new friends from all over the States...and of course, new friends here in Haiti. The overwhelming sense of joy among some of the most beaten-down people on the planet.

And some things I won't miss: I'll be ok if I never hear a car horn again. Traffic without lanes and signals. A State Dept document says "Haitian Drivers adhere to no known international standards of driving" or something to that effect. I won't miss spending a day doing something that would take an hour at home. I won't miss working on a Diesel engine. I won't miss the pollution/trash. The overwhelming poverty.

Hate it or love it, I'll never forget what I've seen here. I've driven from point A to point B almost every day and every day I see people by the thousands that I know have NOTHING. I pass their "homes"- just tents and I can see inside. I see NOTHING. Not all of them mind you. Some have nice homes...even by American standards. But most do not. So many of them lost it all in a matter of minutes. Most of them are not spending their days cleaning up their lots and rebuilding... their decision every morning is this: "Do I clear the rubble that once was my home or do I find something for my family to eat today?". Clearly, clearing rubble is a low priority for many of them.

I don't know what's next for me. But I think I've done what I came here to do.

Waiting....

2010-07-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

Things are winding down here. We had a huge group here last week...about 75 participants on 5 different teams. It was a surprisingly slow week for me though. We'll continue to have 30-40 participants every week from now till the 3rd week of August. There will be NO teams here during my last few days in Haiti. I suspect I'll be very busy then though. We are looking for a smaller staff house and if something comes up before the end of the month then I guess since I'll be one of the last staffers here I'll end up doing a LOT of the moving. I hate moving!

A theme among the staffers this summer has been, "What's next?" It seems like everyone here is in some sort of transition in their lives. With one month to go I find myself thinking the same thing.

What I want to do is affiliate with a sending agency- raise support- and go back to Ukraine. I've been talking with a Florida based organization for a few months now. I have to make up my mind quickly upon returning home since their next training will begin in October. The thing is- even though it most definitely is what I want to do- I can't say with any degree of certainty if that's what the Lord wants me to do.

Another option would be to enroll in an Intensive Russian Language Program at Columbia International University. I relish the idea of being a student- renting an off-campus trailer and just enjoying the change of scenery. But that doesn't really get me any closer to Ukraine does it?

I can go back to Mississippi and work. And wait. I don't like waiting. I've told my Haiti Family several times this summer that my love language is "Leaving on Time" (I get that from my Dad I think). I'm tired of waiting.

Words of Wisdom from Dr Seuss:
You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't.
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Short of Cash. It's a statement, not a question. Can you help?

2010-07-13T09:03:00.002-05:00

So...I'm a little short of cash.

When I left for Haiti I thought I left enough money in the bank to cover my Car Insurance, Health Insurance, Child Support (take a breath...I sponsor a child through Compassion), and a Credit Card Payment.

Alas, I spent too much money buying new gear (lightweight clothing from REI, Water Filter, etc) before coming down here.

As you probably know, even though I'm serving with AIM this summer I'm not really on Staff and so I cannot offer you a way to receive a tax-deduction.

If you want to help me cover my bills over the next two months (July and August- I'll return to Mississippi August 25th), then really the only way to do that is to send money in care of my Dad who will deposit said money into my Hancock Bank Account from which I can pay my bills online.

You can send a Check to: Clinton White, in care of John White- Post Office Box 601, Mize, Mississippi 39116.

We're talking about $121.00 per month for Car Insurance and $38.00 for Compassion. My Credit Card payment is about $30.00...so I need about $200.00 a month for 2 months...I left money with my Dad to cover Health Insurance for the summer. I should get reimbursed at some point for my airline ticket to Haiti and that will knock the credit card back down.

How's Haiti?

2010-07-08T22:18:00.000-05:00

A buddy of mine asked this profound question today, via Facebook..."How's Haiti?"

It's crazy. I don't think I've ever been anywhere where I'm more affected by "the tyranny of the urgent"- those things that pop up that demand your attention and keep you from doing more important things. When something pops up here it quickly becomes a major ordeal. I suppose a lot of that is spiritual warfare. The enemy can't be pleased with what's happening here. It's hard and frustrating but being here seems very significant most of the time.

I could cite a lot of examples. A day of important shopping is planned. We have responsibilities to pick-up ministry supplies like food or lumber or concrete or whatever. Then spur of the moment a vehicle won't start, or is overheating, or someone forgot to tell me they need a truck for some other purpose. Suddenly the whole schedule is thrown off.

A kid gets sick on one of the sites and necessitates dropping everything to go to a hospital, which is an all day affair at best and often an overnight affair.

The Generator's Air Filter gets grossly clogged-up to the point where it won't run. That necessitates a night without power and half a day of searching for the right part.

All that stuff is actually important. It's of utmost importance that we take care of participants...that we get them to a doctor if they need to go. It's really important to get parts to make the generator run or keeps the trucks going. It's important to respond to a team that's running low on bread or water. But anything that isn't planned for nearly shuts us down elsewhere. The urgent knocks out the planned every time.

It's not that we aren't flexible- a word that anyone who's been on a Mission Trip is familiar with. We're beyond flexible here. We're Fluid. We roll with the punches. But the planned-for stuff is what we want to be about. We want to be about serving our teams and serving our Haitian Church Partners. We want to honor our meeting times with them. We want to be timely in delivering ministry supplies. We want to pick-up participants and deliver them at appointed times. We want to be safe and smart.

AND we want to have some "margin" built in and the discernment to be able to be "Fluid" when we know the Holy Spirit is directing us beyond our "planned-for" stuff. But when the Urgent comes, the margin is wasted and maybe too often so is the opportunity to join God in what He is doing.

I'm not one to see a demon behind every discordant note. But you can't deny the spiritual warfare here. I remember hearing somewhere this axiom: "If the devil can't make you sin, then he'll make you busy"! It's a good thing to be busy with the "work" of ministry, but sometimes busy is the enemy of productivity and fruitfulness and intimacy with God.

Any Electrical Help Out There?

2010-07-06T20:46:00.000-05:00

Attention All Electricians Out There! I need some help here!

What you see to the left is the junction box for our Staff House? If I have it right, the Main Power comes in on the Right Side.

We also have a Generator. Somehow or another, there's a safety built in so that when the Main Power comes on (a few hours a day at random times) it doesn't affect our generator.

Ok..When the generator comes on, (I think the contraption on the Left), the little button on the contraption goes in and the contraption on the Right...that's a switch of some sort...a bridge-like thingy that closes the circuit and provides power for the house from the generator.

Now notice the next picture and my problem:

There should be a really heavy gauge wire from the top-right of the Left contraption to the top-left of the Switch on the Right. Someone used wire that was way too small. I suspect that as that wire got hot it eventually burned up the connection on the top-left post on the Switch.

Here's the Question: What the heck kind of switch is this? Could some other kind of switch work?

Can someone find something that will work and send it to us? We have teams coming down every week and someone could bring us what we need.

Right now, we have disconnected the Main Power- we are completely off the Grid to avoid a conflict with our generator and the main power source...which means we are completely dependent on our generator. That's gonna get expensive and it's a heck of a strain to run the whole house on it.

Let me know if you can help: email me at Clinton@clintonwhite.net

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-04T12:15:00.002-05:00

This is my 2nd 4th of July overseas. In 2007 we had Hamburgers and Hotdogs in Swaziland, Africa. Last year of course I was at the Camp in Lugansk, Ukraine where we had an "American Breakfast" which was a fried egg on top of a bowl of Chili with a hotdog in it!

Over the last few years I've had the great privilege to meet and know people all over the world. Today I've seen Facebook Statuses (Stati??) from friends celebrating the Fourth of July in Ukraine, Russian, South Africa, Korea, Peru, Guatemala and Cambodia. That's crazy!

Today has been pretty low key so far. We had an early morning Airport pick-up. Later today I'll go with a local bus driver to pick-up 2 groups totaling 27 people. Once we get them settled then I can enjoy the rest of the 4th of July with my fellow staffers. I think we have Hotdogs and Watermelon.

BUT the big surprise for today was a special lunch. One of our staffers, Toya, definitely has a "Momma/Cook" Gene and she cooked me a Steak with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Fried Okra. The steak was pretty tough but it was spicy and very tasty the way she cooked it (which was quite a fete by the way...she was basically cooking over an electric hot plate!)

Mmmm

Saturday- Pizza Day

2010-07-03T20:49:00.000-05:00

Another Saturday.

We've had "Pizza Night" every Saturday that I've been here.

The first 3 or 4 weeks we had Domino's. Yes. Domino's Pizza. You know those Portable Trailer thingy's you might see at some sort of festival or carnival?? Well, some enterprising genius brought a Domino's Pizza Trailer over from the Dominican Republic (I assume this because the writing on the trailer is in Spanish) and parked it pretty much right next to the US Embassy and across the street from a UN Compound. I said genius, right?

Anyway, for a mere $18.00 a pizza you too can eat like a youth group in Haiti.

Alas, a large contingent of US troops have left Haiti so the Dominoes packed it up and moved to a new location.

But we had Pizza anyway- we bought it from the Quebec Hotel here in Port Au Prince...cheaper and just as good.

So...Saturday...after dropping off all our teams at the Airport, we enjoyed Pizza Night...and Worship Night while the entire team is in the house.

One Month Down

2010-06-28T14:54:00.000-05:00

Time does fly. I've been in Haiti for a month already. Right now I'm enjoying a day off- after waking early to get our transportation needs in order for the day and taking part in our daily morning devotions- I went back to sleep until lunch! I'm trying to get in some reading and guitar playing and maybe watching a movie. I was pretty whipped coming out of the weekend!

We continue to have daily vehicle problems. We've had a van without a transmission ever since before I arrived. We finally got it going last week but cranking it and driving it only revealed other problems. I think the initial cause of the most of the problems is bad fuel combined with poor maintenance like changing filters, etc. But now the problems are greater- likely fouled up injectors and sensors and the like. We need a really good Diesel mechanic and maybe a portable code reader to get everything back in order.

Everyday is a juggling game in terms of who gets which vehicle. We have a team that conducts Discipleship among local Pastors and they also coordinate a partnership between Haitian and non-Haitian Churches....this requires local travel 2-3 days a week. Our Set-Up Team is constantly evaluating Ministry sites and homes where our teams live during the week...they need transportation to do that. We have airport pick-ups and drop-offs as well as "lost-luggage" runs a few times a week. We generally need to resupply our short-term teams with perishable food on Wednesdays. If we provide any other supplies to the teams- like Food for a church or Building supplies- then we do that on Wednesday and Thursday. Also Wednesday-Friday, we start planning for the next week so we make massive shopping runs. Our Directors here need to visit local orphanages about once a week. If a vehicle needs a part, we usually have to take the part we need off and then take it into the city to find a replacement, thus using 2 vehicles! Finally, on Saturdays we have to make multiple airport runs for departing teams and on Sunday we make multiple airport pick-ups as well transport our Project Leadership teams and all the supplies they'll need for a week to their sites.

Having a "down" vehicle complicates the heck out of everything!

If we have more than 15 or so people departing or arriving then we usually hire a local bus-driver- here's what one of our airport pick-ups looked like yesterday morning with a team of 21 people:

Weekend

2010-06-12T22:43:00.000-05:00

It's late Saturday night. A little past my bedtime really. Here's what my weekend looks like.

First a couple of definitions:
Project Leadership Team-A Project Leader and a few Support Staff that live at a Ministry Site with one of the Short Term Mission Teams.
Mission Team- usually a church group

Teams depart on Saturdays. We had a small group of teenagers from Indianapolis with us all week in the Staff House. They were great, I really enjoyed having them around. They had to leave at 6 am this morning so I was up in time to see them off.

At 7:30ish I made a "Water Run"- a trip to a local store to buy drinking water- about 130 gallons.
At 8:30ish I picked up one of our Project Leadership Teams and a few Mission Team Members from their ministry site.
At 9:30ish I made another Water Run- stocking up...we need about 600 gallons for the Staff House and the two team houses this week.
At noon I took the last two participants to the airport...and picked up Pizza at the Domino's trailer near the US Embassy.

Tonight one of the World Race Teams joined us for our weekly worship time which was preceded by Pizza and followed by Ice Cream! After the party died down I talked Sarah into cutting my hair. Pictures later.

In the morning I'll make an Airport run to pick up 8 incoming participants. At the same time, two Project Leadership Teams will go to their ministry sites. 21 more participants will arrive after lunch and 2 more later in the day. After my first airport run I'll continue to make Water Runs and disperse supplies and participants to the two Leadership Teams before making a final airport run.

All this assuming all the vehicles keep running and I don't get lost going to or from the airport!

Connections

2010-06-07T19:51:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple of nice "Hey what are you doing here?" moments so far in Haiti.

When I arrived the first night I ran into Stacy. Stacy was on my World Race Squad and I think this was the first time I had seen her since Nov 19, 2007.

She's here leading a World Race Relief Team for the month.

It was awesome running into her!

This story will take a few minutes but it's a good one. This is Debbie from Tupelo. A few minutes after her arrival today we figured out that we share the obvious Mississippi Connection.

In the course of getting to know one another she mentioned one of her daughters whose name is Shannon...and a slight bell went off.

At some point she mentioned her daughter went to Ole Miss...a big bell went off.

Then she mentioned that her daughter is currently on The World Race because some guy spoke at the BSU about it. The lights, the bells, the whistle's all went off.

That's when I asked her if she would believe that I was that guy that spoke back in Nov 08. Shannon applied for The World Race less than a week after I spoke.

It was almost like a little family reunion.

Debbie and another World Race Parent are in town for the week which is a pretty awesome thing for a parent to do.

First Blog from Haiti

2010-06-03T15:47:00.003-05:00

First blog from Haiti. But where to begin?

Should I write about my first impressions? About how the daily thundershower began right after I stepped out of the airport and I stood underneath a tarp roof for over an hour waiting on someone to pick me up. Should I mention there were hundreds of us packed -in that stifling, confined space?

Should I write about what I saw and smelled riding in the back of the already beat-up Nissan Caravan on the way to the Staff House? I saw the Tent Cities. I saw crumbled buildings. I saw tin-shacks seemingly stacked upon one another on a hillside- probably the worst living conditions I’ve ever seen. And they didn’t pop up since the Earthquake… they pre-dated the Earthquake. People were living like that well before the Earthquake.

I could write about NGO World. Behind a fence near the airport are, I guess, thousands of workers with Non-Govt Organizations. A lot of the NGO’s have really nice Mercedes trucks or Land Rovers or Pathfinders…and we’re struggling to keep our used Nissan Vans and Chevy Truck running. I could write about how the US Embassy appears to be the nicest building around and how there’s a Domino’s Pizza trailer just down the street from it.

Should I write about the trash that is everywhere? I don’t think there’s been any trash pick-up since January (and maybe not before then either!). And when it rains (as it does every day), the roads coming down the hill onto the flat plain surrounding the port become rivers and gulleys washing down even more debris. There seemed to be so much flotsam and jetsam that you could have walked on it across the flooded streets. Today I drove for the first time- going up one of those hills felt more like driving up a riverbed- it was that rocky and water was flowing down all the way.

I could write about how it took 3 hours to drive 10 miles yesterday because of the rain, the traffic and the messed-up roads.

Or I could write about how this one lady in a neighborhood we’ve been ministering in this week (alongside a local Pastor) has turned her home into a school- taking in a dozen or so neighborhood kids! About how appreciative they were for a small donation of crayons and stuff.

I could write about the girl and her baby one of our Project Leaders took to the hospital yesterday.

I could write about running into some Southern Baptist Disaster Relief guys from Oklahoma today while buying 120 gallons of drinking water.

I could write about running into World Race friends down here or about the World Race Relief Team that arrived yesterday- 50 of them for one month- many who have never been on a mission trip before!

I could write about how awesome this week’s team is- a group from a church in Wisconsin along with 4 individuals working with them.

I could write about an amazing Staff here- about how diverse we are but about how much it seems everyone really desires this communal living arrangement.

I could write about Rice and Beans. I could write A LOT about rice and beans!

I could write about the apparent stoicism of the Haitian people. They can talk so matter-of-factly about losing loved ones in the Earthquake.

I could write about the way the Haitian believers have responded to the Earthquake- in repentance and dependence upon God- and about how, in the long run, all of these well-meaning Americans and the American Church (I’m one of them) may be here to learn something from them in preparation for times to come in America!

I could write about our Haitian Translators who are being discipled and who are discipling us too. They are men-of-God bringing Kingdom to the Republic!

I could write about the beauty amidst the destruction- the port city of Port Au Prince is surrounded by the Caribbean Ocean and Mountains!

I just don’t know where to start.

Haiti Bound

2010-05-30T17:42:00.000-05:00

I've been enjoying a full weekend with family in Vicksburg. My youngest niece from Atlanta is here (her birthday was a few days ago) and my Dad has a birthday next week... and of course, this is Memorial Day weekend. Pretty much all the immediate family except one nephew is here. All the rug-rats are here too (I have 6 great-nephews and 2 great-nieces all under age 9)! It's been fun.

And...I guess it's my going-away party too. I'm leaving. On a jet plane. Don't know when I'll be back again.... the John Denver tune breaks down at this point because in fact, I don't "hate" to go. I'm ready to go. And I do know when I'll be back again (Lord willing) because I have a return ticket for the end of August.

I'm headed to Haiti first thing tomorrow morning. After a circuitous route from Jackson, MS to Charlotte, NC to Miami, FL...I should arrive in Port Au Prince, Haiti tomorrow afternoon. I'll be there 3 months serving with my friends from Adventures in Missions.

We have a full summer ahead. Mostly, I'll live in a rented house (formerly a small hotel) with a weekly-variable number of other AIM Staff. My work will probably focus primarily on pastoring and supporting the staff. Together we will host and serve upwards of 800 volunteers throughout the summer. Hey? Want to come to Haiti...you can join a team or come as in individual...not just with a group from your church!

Want to know more? Check out these resources:

Adventures in Missions-Haiti
Adventures in Missions- Haiti/Blog
Church to Church on Facebook-
Seth Barnes' blog about Church to Church-

In short- part of the big-picture vision AIM has for serving in Haiti is for Haitian Pastors to Spiritually Re-Father the Nation in the wake of the massive earthquake that shook Haiti's physical and spiritual foundations. Now it's time to rebuild- physically and spiritually. Your Church could be a huge part of that re-building process. It's not about an American church dumping cash in Haiti- it's about real partnership where long-term Discipleship is more important than anything we can build with hammers and nails.

Is that something you want to be a part of?

Top Character Strengths....

2010-05-26T17:32:00.001-05:00

My sweet friend Thuy got this from her sister- a free survey that ranks your character strengths. You can check yours out at this site: http://www.viasurvey.org/Account/Register/

Here's mine:

Your Top Character Strength

Spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith
You have strong and coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe. You know where you fit in the larger scheme. Your beliefs shape your actions and are a source of comfort to you.

Your Second Character Strength

Honesty, authenticity, and genuineness
You are an honest person, not only by speaking the truth but by living your life in a genuine and authentic way. You are down to earth and without pretense; you are a "real" person.

Your Third Character Strength

Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness
Thinking things through and examining them from all sides are important aspects of who you are. You do not jump to conclusions, and you rely only on solid evidence to make your decisions. You are able to change your mind.

Your Fourth Character Strength

Citizenship, teamwork, and loyalty
You excel as a member of a group. You are a loyal and dedicated teammate, you always do your share, and you work hard for the success of your group.

Your Fifth Character Strength

Forgiveness and mercy
You forgive those who have done you wrong. You always give people a second chance. Your guiding principle is mercy and not revenge.

Character Strength #6

Modesty and humility
You do not seek the spotlight, preferring to let your accomplishments speak for themselves. You do not regard yourself as special, and others recognize and value your modesty.

Character Strength #7

Perspective (wisdom)
Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself.

Character Strength #8

Fairness, equity, and justice
Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance.

Character Strength #9

Leadership
You excel at the tasks of leadership: encouraging a group to get things done and preserving harmony within the group by making everyone feel included. You do a good job organizing activities and seeing that they happen.

Character Strength #10

Kindness and generosity
You are kind and generous to others, and you are never too busy to do a favor. You enjoy doing good deeds for others, even if you do not know them well.

Character Strength #11

Bravery and valor
You are a courageous person who does not shrink from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain. You speak up for what is right even if there is opposition. You act on your convictions.

Character Strength #12

Curiosity and interest in the world
You are curious about everything. You are always asking questions, and you find all subjects and topics fascinating. You like exploration and discovery.

Character Strength #13

Social intelligence
You are aware of the motives and feelings of other people. You know what to do to fit in to different social situations, and you know what to do to put others at ease.

Character Strength #14

Capacity to love and be loved
You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you.

Character Strength #15

Industry, diligence, and perseverance
You work hard to finish what you start. No matter the project, you "get it out the door" in timely fashion. You do not get distracted when you work, and you take satisfaction in completing tasks.

Character Strength #16

Appreciation of beauty and excellence
You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.

Character Strength #17

Creativity, ingenuity, and originality
Thinking of new ways to do things is a crucial part of who you are. You are never content with doing something the conventional way if a better way is possible.

Character Strength #18

Love of learning
You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.

Character Strength #19

Caution, prudence, and discretion
You are a careful person, and your choices are consistently prudent ones. You do not say or do things that you might later regret.

Character Strength #20

Gratitude
You are aware of the good things that happen to you, and you never take them for granted. Your friends and family members know that you are a grateful person because you always take the time to express your thanks.

Character Strength #21

Hope, optimism, and future-mindedness
You expect the best in the future, and you work to achieve it. You believe that the future is something that you can control.

Character Strength #22

Self-control and self-regulation
You self-consciously regulate what you feel and what you do. You are a disciplined person. You are in control of your appetites and your emotions, not vice versa.

Character Strength #23

Zest, enthusiasm, and energy
Regardless of what you do, you approach it with excitement and energy. You never do anything halfway or halfheartedly. For you, life is an adventure.

Character Strength #24

Humor and playfulness
You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.

Old Friends

2010-05-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

At the same time Mission Project Leaders are in Gainesville, GA training for work all over the country, two squads of World Racers are training about an hour and a half from here.

A PILE of World Race Alums are helping facilitate the training. I was really thankful to be able to see some of them and spend a few minutes with them at their training site. They are training the June and July World Race Squads…check them out at www.adventures.org … theywill be proclaiming the Kingdom of God all over the world.

Me and sweet BriEllyn.

And here's Bri and her precious little girl, Adelyn.

A few buds: Brian Alonzo (far left) led a Squad to Ukraine last year.

Sean Smith (4th from left) was a few months behind us on C Squad.

Dennis Ho (5th) came through Ukraine last year.

My friend Jimmy McCarty (3rd from R).

Jerry Goode- WR Leadership (far R)

My friend Tangi Holmes- a fellow Mississippi State Grad and WR Alum

My Arkansas buddy Rusty Jackson.

And there were more...and they were all as important to me and fun to see as the ones above. There were kids from A,B,C and I think D Squads hanging around that I knew from when I was on the Race...and there were several kids I met that traveled through Ukraine (3 Squads) last year.

So...it was a nice reunion.

Surgery without the Anesthetic

2010-05-22T21:24:00.000-05:00

Training Camp at AIM Headquarters. Oh, the memories!

I’ve spent the weekend here in North Georgia with about 40 really diverse, spiritually attuned and hungry Mission Project Leaders and Staff. The AIM DNA is alive and well. I’ve been reminded of a lot of things- things I needed to be reminded about like:

· my Identity in Christ.

· the Authority Christ has delegated to me.

· releasing sins that entangle me and surrendering them at the Cross.

· peeling back the lies of satan about me and revealing the Truth of God about me.

This thought occurred to me earlier today: This is all good for me but it’s a heck of a lot harder than just being a good Baptist church attender.

Here’s what I mean: I’ve been a member of one Church or another since I was a teenager. I’ve sat under several Pastors. I’ve been to ALL the conferences and camps- most of them were great. I’ve heard about and learned about Identity and Authority and Surrender, etc … but I don’t know if I’ve ever been confronted with all that the way I am when I’m playing in AIM’s backyard.

Here- it’s not an academic proposition, it’s not a sermon aimed “at” me- what is it? It’s a challenge to me to respond. It’s an expectation that I’m going to respond. I’m not left to walk an aisle at the end of the sermon nor am I left to ponder what I’m going to do with all this new information. There’s space- right then and there- to deal with it. There’s someone right then and there ready to process it with me and pray with me and pray over me. That kind of action leads to transformation. Information alone does not equal transformation and that’s mostly what I’ve experienced in most “church” contexts.

And it’s painful as heck and a lot harder than being a passive pew sitter. It’s surgery without the anesthetic. I spend part of the time wanting it and part of the time looking for a chair to hide under but you can’t hide from the Holy Spirit and in a room of 40 people experiencing the same thing, well, you can’t hide from them either.

So you deal with it. You confess your sins, not just to God but to somebody in the room. You renounce the lies you’ve believed about yourself and repent- you change your mind and heart and begin to believe the truth. You accept help from the community and you offer your hand and head and heart. You wash feet and you get cleansed. You experience brokenness, and healing, and community and communion and deeper faith. And you face the realization that you may need to go through it all again tomorrow. But the community will be there to help you do it because we weren’t designed to do it alone.

Recently Read and/or Reading

2010-05-18T01:14:00.000-05:00

The New Testament- The Church I attended while in Kyiv promoted NT60- a challenge to read the New Testament in 60 days (works out to about 5 chapters a day) back in January and February. I did it. Then I did it again. And I’m working on it again.

Clancy- I’ve been on a Tom Clancy kick for a few months. Actually, I’ve been on an “anything Russian/Ukrainian” spy novel kick and most of Clancy’s stuff at least touches on that. I’ve read Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Hunt For Red October, The Cardinal of the Kremlin, and The Sum of All Fears in the last several months. I bought most of the ones I haven’t read yet at a Thrift Store a few weeks ago for a Buck apiece.

Winds of War, Herman Wouk- Epic story leading up to World War 2. I’ve been on a thrift store kick for a few months too and I picked up a hard-cover First Edition for a couple Bucks.

The Russia House, John Le Carre- Another Russian/British/American Spy Novel…also a thrift store find.

What The Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell- This guy connects dots better than just about anyone- it’s a book I’ve picked at for a few months.

Victory Over Darkness, Neil Anderson- I read this about once a year just to be reminded who I am.

The Mean Streets of L.A., Roger Walker- Roger is a missionary friend currently in Thailand. I got to read the manuscript. It’s due to be published later this year.

Adopted for Life, Dr. Russell Moore- I went to Seminary with Russ; we were both Youth Minister’s in the same town. This is probably a good intro to the Theology of Adoption for the Church.

Radical, David Platt- Just got it today and will dig into it this week…expecting it to be better than Francis Chan’s Crazy Love (which I read last Fall).

The Starfish Manifesto, Wolfgang Simson- This is an online thing that’s floating around…it’s free. The subtitle is “A Prophetic Roadmap for an Apostolic Journey”.

Missions Dilemma, Steve Saint- AMAZING and challenging DVD and book about the good and bad of missions.

Priceless, Tom Davis- Tom is a friend and this is his 2^nd novel (following Scared). It’s out June 1 so I’ll have to have someone bring me a copy to Haiti.

20000 Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne- Another thrift store find…will go to Haiti with me.

Passion Ukraine 2010

2010-04-30T15:18:00.000-05:00

This blog is in no way meant to toot my horn. It’s about praising God for a precious opportunity and being glad to be a part of it. There are several elements to this tale:

Exhibit A) When I was a Student Minster I was a “early adopter”- that is, I liked the “cutting edge” stuff…gadgets, music, camps and conferences. If it was new, I was usually in on it. Louie Giglio took his Baylor University Campus Ministry nationwide with the 1st Passion event in 1997…reaching and mobilizing an entire generation to make God’s Glory and Fame preeminent. I took my first group of students to a Passion event in 1999.

Exhibit B) In 2004 I led an amazing group of students from my church on a week-long mission trip to Odessa, Ukraine. I loved it! These three “kids” were no small part of that.

I enjoyed and loved every kid I met that week . . . but there’s always a few that really capture your heart, and these 2 sisters and their brother captured mine.

Exhibit C) 2008 afforded me two INCREDIBLE experiences while visiting Ukraine (for the 3^rd time).

(1) I re-connected with my “kids” again and

(2) I volunteered at the 1^st ever Passion World Tour event held in Kyiv.

Exhibit D) In 2009 I met some new friends in Ukraine- College students who were Interpreters for the Camp I served. Amazing students every one! They attend college in Odessa. I spent my Thanksgiving break last year in Odessa visiting them and my “kids” and I had the privilege of introducing them…hoping that the introduction would lead to some opportunities for my college friends to love and minister to my favorite kids in Odessa.

Exhibit E) Passion is returning to Ukraine next week, May 10. It will be a phenomenal event. As soon as I heard about it last year I started scheming of a way to get my friends in Odessa- particularly the kids- to the Passion event. I really hoped I would be there myself. But alas, it is not to be.

However- I just found out that my college friends invited my “kids” to go and they are all going. I wish I could be there with them. I wish I could make the train trip with them and see their faces when Louie preaches or Chris Tomlin sings “God of this City” in Russian. I wish I could hang-out with them in Kyiv.

But I’m really happy they are going. I’m so glad I made the introductions.

Pray for them this week if you think about it. Pray that the Holy Spirit captivates the hearts of my “kids”. Pray that Passion sparks a movement- an awakening- among college aged kids in Ukraine and throughout Eastern Europe.

Finding a Church is Tough

2010-04-25T14:18:00.000-05:00

I've been home now for about 5 months. The first several weeks included Christmas and New Year's and just generally trying to get around to see everyone. Things have settled down a bit since the beginning of the year but still... I receive my mail and spend most weekends at my Dad's house in Mize. I'm living with my friend Stik during the week while we're working.

Finding a "Base" is a challenge in itself.

Back in January I visited a friend's church south of Jackson. It's probably a great church. An interesting mixture of small and country and progressive. I've only been there one time so I can't really go beyond first impressions.

I visited a church in Jackson that I really like a lot. Lot's of college students. Sweet acoustic coffee-shop worship. Solid teaching and preaching. Believe it or not it felt almost "too young" for me. I mean, I love students and I'm generally more comfortable with them than I am with people my own age or older. But I couldn't help but feel like I've got stuff going on in my life that's well beyond where most of them are.

Mostly I've visited another near Jackson. I've been there 6 or 7 weeks in a row. The preaching is solid and practical. I like the Pastor. The worship style suits me- mostly. Despite the fact I've been there for 2 months and wear a name tag every week I really don't know anyone there yet. They don't do Sunday School and it's pretty impractical for me to connect with a Men's Group that meets on Tuesday nights. My feeling is that they try so hard to be accepting and not-pushy/pressuring that they actually don't do a very good job of assimilating newcomers. That's a balance that most churches struggle with I think. No one wants to feel uncomfortable ("I see we have a visitor this morning, stand up and tell us about yourself!") but no one wants to be invisible either.

So what am I looking for? A safe place. A place I can be known. I don't want to feel like I have to be guarded about anything. Those places are rare. I've always heard that Christians are bad about shooting their wounded. I wonder if being ignored might be worse than being shot. I guess they used to say back in the 60's "Don't trust no one" or something to that effect. I increasingly don't trust leaders without a limp.

Of course I want to serve. I want to play a part in the Kingdom and I don't care if my role goes mostly unnoticed (which is not the same as being ignored).

For a long time I served on a church staff. I had input into "how" we "did" church. I chimed in on all those inane things like whether the announcements were first, in the middle or at the end. I had some input about our worship style. I wonder how many times I counseled students to "worship/grow where you're planted" which is sort of a euphemism for "it doesn't matter whether it appeals to you or not- if you can't "worship and grow" there must be something wrong with your attitude."

But here I am: I have a choice. I mean, I'll go wherever the Lord leads me but until He says "here" or "there" then I guess I get to look around. And maybe I have an attitude too. As long as I'm looking around I'm pretty much gonna eliminate places where I hear a lot of piano and organ music or places where the preacher yells a lot or places where there's an expectation to dress my best because it's the "Lord's Day" or the "Lord's House" (as if the other days aren't His and that temporary structure of brick and wood is His dwelling).

I've worshiped in a lot of places in a lot of different ways over the last few years. None of those places were perfect because each place was populated with imperfect people. So I'm not looking for perfection and I don't think it's all about me and what I like or don't like. But I am looking for a community of fellow journey-ers who know they haven't got it figured out yet. That's where I want to be.

It's Alive!

2010-04-18T00:41:00.000-05:00

This is my 1981 Jeep CJ 5. Codename: Bubba

I've owned it (or is it the other way around?) for about 9 years. It was one of those "sweet" deals- bought it from an old farmer that only drove it around the farm (really) who bought it from an Attorney that only used it at the Hunting Camp in the winter (really). Or not. Who knows? It was in pretty good shape when I got it and it had relatively low miles.

Since then I've near 'bout rebuilt it from the ground up.

Wheels. Check.

Tires. Check.

Rebuilt and highly modified motor. Check.

Bodywork, Paint Prep and Paint Job. Check.

Custom homemade Dashpanel. Check.

New Transmission. Check.

Rebuilt Axles. Check.

Upgraded Suspension. Check.

New Seats. Check.

Winch. Check.

Replace Wiring. Check.

But I heard a "Car Guy" on a radio show make a really smart statement a few weeks ago: "Never get emotionally attached to a vehicle".

I've let so many "things" go over the last few years. I'm one of the most unencumbered people I know in terms of owning "stuff". In fact, I'm still divesting myself of stuff.

Well. Bubba ain't for sale per se. But when or if the time comes- if letting him go is what I need to do in order to be where God wants me to be, then I'm committed to "not being too emotionally attached" to him.

But I gotta say... on days like today... mid-70's and mostly sunny... top off and running good... it don't get much better.

Charting the Course

2010-04-03T00:15:00.000-05:00

I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing this. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Accountability. Motivation. Seemed like a "New Year's Resolution" kind of thing to do.

I downloaded LiveJournal 2- obviously, it's Journaling Software. I really don't like to write. It hurts my hands and even I can't read my own writing but I can type all day long. So, a journal I can type instead of write works better for me. The software is password protected and does all the dating and formatting and linking pretty much automatically. Included with the software is the "Pulse Graph", which allows me to create any number of categories that I can "graph" on a daily basis.

For example:

How many minutes per day I'm on the internet
How many Push-Ups and Sit-Ups I do every night
1-10 scale of how "Close I feel to God"
1-10 scale of my mood.
1-10 scale of how "tempted" I feel for the day

And a few more. Here's a glimpse of my life for the 1st Quarter of 2010.

Here's how close to God I've felt.

Here's my Mood interposed over how close I've felt to God.

And finally...time per day spent in prayer interposed with my mood...

Thoughts? Insights? How can I really use this stuff?

I Pray

2010-03-19T13:40:00.000-05:00

Right around New Year’s (Resolutions and all that) I came up with the idea of creating a “Prayer Album” on my ITouch. It’s a digital photo album of people/things I want to pray for/about on a regular basis. For me, scrolling through those pictures works better and is more meaningful to me, than simply going down a list of names/prayer request.

My original Prayer Album had about 43 pictures of 55+ people. It was taking me an hour to get through the list, not that interceding an hour a day is a bad thing! But the reality is that I only made it completely through my list a few times.

A couple weeks ago I made a revision- Prayer Album, Rev. 2.0- I created separate albums for each day of the week. Some people are only in one album but some are in 3 or 4 albums. Mostly I have pictures of people, but I can also upload a logo for example- so I can regularly pray for an organization, ministry or I can upload an image of a flag and pray for a Nation or people group.

I guess I don’t have to have visual reminders to pray/intercede for others- but I like it…and I’m more apt to have my ITouch with me during the day than a prayer journal. Not only do I normally spend the 10-20 minutes each morning interceding, but I find myself scrolling through the album throughout the day and whispering a quick prayer for the people on my list.

If you like this idea, then feel free to send me $9.99 and create your own Daily Prayer Photo Album. Or don’t send me any money and just do it anyway.

Update. Surveying. Haiti. Passion. Ukraine.

2010-03-07T17:02:00.000-06:00

It's been a while so I figured I'd post an update.

I'm living in SW Central MS right now...mostly anyway. I'm Surveying with my best friend from college. We have plenty of work (when the weather cooperates) and people are quick to remind me it is a blessing what with so many people out-of-work these days. It sucks to be shackled with debt again. Although I anticipate clawing my way out by the end of the year if not earlier.

I'm a little depressed because my pleas for help in purchasing vehicles in Haiti seems to be largely ignored. As I mentioned in an earlier post- when the earthquake struck Haiti I wanted to be there. Missions- living overseas- serving...it's in my blood. Because I need to concentrate on paying off my credit card and because I am committed to helping my friend in his business I knew I couldn't go to Haiti right now.

What I could do though was authorize the use of my Ukraine Mission money for use in Haiti. There's a steady flow- and even stockpiling- of food and water down there now. What's missing is a reliable way to distribute relief. My friends at AIM (Adventures in Missions) already had a network in place. They are already working with local Haitian Pastors and Churches. The flood of short-term teams has already begun. They want to purchase 5 Trucks/Vans and a trailer to transport teams and supplies. I donated $12000.00 to be used as a Matching Fund towards a goal of $61000.00. You can still give at either of these websites:

https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=HAITIEQ10

http://www.razoo.com/story/Haiti-Transportation-Fund

In Ukraine news: The Passion World Tour will be in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 10. When I came home last November my goal was to return to Ukraine in time for the Passion Conference but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen. If things go well, I could return as early as the end of May but that's unlikely at this point. I really want to get back there though...and I'd still like to spend some time in Haiti too.

Finally- man... it just seems like a lot of my family has been under attack lately. Times are hard for several family members. I appreciate your prayers.

How you can help me help Haiti.

2010-02-04T18:28:00.001-06:00

My Dear Friends,

Are you as overwhelmed by the Earthquake in Haiti as I am? I wanted to go there the very next day. I’ve prayed a lot and my best response right now is to GIVE but even giving financial support is overwhelming. There are so many options, right?

Here’s a way you can give that will double your contribution. There is an immediate need for $61,000.00 for the purchase of 4 vehicles and a trailer to distribute relief supplies and transport aid workers through Adventures in Missions in Haiti. I will match your gift up to $12,000.00. I am donating the money from my Ukraine Account to fund this Match. The food and water is there; the bottleneck is a way to distribute the aid!

Adventures in Missions (The World Race people), in Gainesville, Georgia have a strong history of rapidly responding to disasters here and abroad. AIM Missionary Miquel Shaul has served in Dominican Republic for the last 5 years. He was in Port au Prince a few days after the Earthquake. An AIM Assessment Team was on the ground a week later. World Racers served in Haiti in 2009 developing and nurturing relationships with Haitian Churches. The network is there. AIM anticipates sending more than 2000 volunteers to Haiti this year. The first team leaves this week!

Teams serving in Haiti will need vehicles to deliver relief supplies and transport volunteers. AIM has already purchased one vehicle at a cost of $12,000.00. My goal is to raise at least $12,000.00 ($24,000.00 with the matching funds) to help purchase 4 more vehicles and a trailer.

Will you give to the Haiti Truck Fund? Remember, I am matching your gift dollar for dollar up to $12,000.00. Together I believe we can raise this money in just a few days! Your donation is 100% tax-deductible (and the deduction can be used on your 2009 taxes if you wish).

You can donate online right now at: http://www.razoo.com/story/Haiti-Transportation-Fund

or http://www.adventures.org/haiti/ (You can give at the Adventures site for ministry in Haiti in general but not specifically for the Transportation Fund)

Or you can mail a check or cash to:

Adventures in Missions

Haiti Truck Fund

6000 Wellspring Trail

Gainesville, GA 30506

Thanks for giving and praying.

In Christ,

Clinton White

Want to learn more about AIM’s response in Haiti? Check out these resources:

www.haiti.adventures.org

http://theshauls.myadventures.org/ AIMS’s Country Director in Dominican Republic

www.sethbarnes.com

www.clintonwhite.net-

I have no official affiliation with AIM; this effort is my own on their behalf.

Haiti. Money.

2010-01-23T18:56:00.006-06:00

Haiti. The Earthquake.

When I first heard of the earthquake and it's magnitude I knew it would be devastating. Those first few hours I was either in a car or at a friends house watching an "Office" marathon...effectively a news blackout. It wasn't until later that night that I finally started seeing reports and images.

I spent the following evening glued to the television watching rebroadcast and live reports from that first full day after the catastrophic event. Here is some of what I wrote in my journal that night:

"I've prayed about children lying scared and hurt and separated from parents tonight. Many of them will never be reunited. I prayed about people lying trapped in the rubble hoping to be found in time but most of them will die slow, painful deaths.

Where is God in this? The answer is another question. God has a physical body here on earth. It's the body of Christ. So the answer to the question, "Where is God in this?" is... where is the Church in this?

The 2004 Tsunami. Katrina. Now Haiti. These are the great humanitarian efforts of our time. If we fail... if the church fails to show up, the the question will persist... "where is God?"

Growing up in Mississippi I had heard people talking about Hurricane Camille for 30+ years. I suppose people will be talking about Katrina 30 years from now. The difference is that no one (who was actually there!) can talk about Katrina without talking about the amazing response of the Church. The response and the witness of the Church IS the story and legacy of Katrina.

If the Church does what it is capable of, then the world will know there is a God. I believe it's the only hope Haitians have. Financial aid alone will not be enough for them to ever recover.

What should the "Church's" response be? Jesus said whatever we do to or for the least of these we've done unto Him. People in Haiti were already the "least of these" before the Earthquake. How much more so now? They are hungry, thirsty and naked among so many other things. How can we not feed and water and clothe them?

So I'm lying here in bed thinking about what I can do. I'm daydreaming about standing up in a Church business meeting and proposing that we give all our Building Fund money to help the people in Haiti. In my fantasy, I'm thinking how stupid it is for the local news to be reporting about how Jackson (Mississippi) has a temporary water shortage and you can drive to such and such location and workers will load your trunk or back seat with free water. You don't even have to get out of your car.

Meanwhile in Haiti, there is not water. There's no free drive-through. What an absurd contrast!

And then another thought popped in my mind. If I'm going to fantasize about being the lightening rod that spurs the church to forego it's building program in favor of giving to this immediate need, then maybe I need to give up "my" money too.

Truth is, I don't have much to give; in fact I'm in debt from living in Ukraine all last year. But I do have a significant amount of "ministry money"; money that many of you gave me to minister in Ukraine. I haven't been able to use it because I served independently last year and not with an organization. I can however direct the organization that's holding the money to give it to Haiti.

So I'm praying about doing that. Part of me feels no remorse- I want to save lives and invest in the Kingdom...and it really isn't my money anyway, right? But part of me is fearful because I'll be giving up my safety net for returning to Ukraine and I'm afraid I won't be as successful raising support again if I have the opportunity to return to Ukraine in a few months.

So...pray for me and with me. I want to be found faithful and I want to be a good steward. And I want to trust God.

PS- check out how Adventures in Missions is on the ground and ministering in Haiti

Thoughts on Defining Moments

2010-01-11T18:14:00.002-06:00

I heard a "heartwarming" little story on a radio station this morning. The lady had been asked to sing the National Anthem at an Atlanta Braves Baseball game. Of course, you know what happened. She choked. No, literally...she coughed/choked on a word while singing the song.

Afterwards she received the applause of 40000 fans and pats on her back from her husband and friends. All she could think of though was how she blew one word/ one note. For days she beat herself up until she came to the realization that she hit 80 words and at least that many notes- perfectly. From that time forward she gave herself a break in the knowledge that she had been defining herself by the one bad moment instead of the 80 good ones.

My immediate reaction to her story was that I should give myself a break too and not define myself by one sin or one mistake or one blown judgement call.

But as I continued driving down the road I started thinking that... regardless of whatever positive attitude I can muster, the fact is that most of us are defined by our "defining moments".

Nobody remembers or even cares much what George Washington might have done on a day to day basis; he's remembered for Crossing the Delaware in the middle of the night or for braving the bitter cold of Valley Forge...you get the picture.

So...here I am somewhere in the middle. I'm in the middle of nowhere Mississippi helping my best friend in his Survey business. (I'm the genius that holds the red and white striped pole steady!). And maybe I'm between "defining moments" too. Time will tell.

One thing I think though is that most of us don't know when our "defining moments" will occur. I guess we just play the Boy Scout and put ourselves in a position to be prepared for when it happens. If I blow it I can still thank God for His grace and if I succeed then I can praise Him for His grace. Either way, he gets the glory.

The Mighty Mississippi

2009-12-23T22:39:00.002-06:00

I grew up close enough to the Mississippi River to sneak over on my bike when I was way too little to be riding that far on my bike!

Later, I moved to Natchez, MS and graduated from High School there along the banks of the Mighty Mississip.

A lot of my Ukrainian friends know about the River. And in all fairness, Ukraine has a pretty sizeable river in the Dnieper (but not as big as the Mississippi).

So, in honor of them, I snapped a couple pictures as I was crossing the river in Natchez to day heading into Louisiana to spend Christmas Eve with my niece and her family.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree. Ukrainians don't play!

2009-12-09T08:43:00.005-06:00

I got to see the Christmas Tree going up in Independence Square today. I guess this is equivalent to the National Christmas Tree. It was fascinating. I'm guessing at least 100 feet tall- maybe the biggest artificial/live hybrid tree ever!!

The "trunk" was a tall steel structure, like a light pole. Fixed along the trunk were hollow pipes of decreasing lengths from bottom to top. Real trees were inserted into the pipes and also strapped to the trunk- in other words...whole, live trees are the "branches" of this artificial tree.

I hope they get it decorated and lit before I leave next week. Check it out!!

Odessa Rewind

2009-12-02T03:36:00.007-06:00

Gee Whiz, December already? Time flies.

I had a nice visit down in Odessa after Thanksgiving. It was cold and wet and just as ugly down there as it has been here in Kyiv so I stayed pretty close to my hotel room the first day in town. On Saturday I caught up with my Translator friends from summer camp...Natasha and Oksana, who are both attending the Christian University in Odessa. They went with me to visit my friends Katya, Vika and Yura- friends from my very first trip to Ukraine in 2004. The girls are 18 and almost 16 now, Yura is 14. They are growing up. Yura is still involved in the Bible Club but I don't think the girls are too much. My ministry friend Maxim still stays in touch with the family though. I was glad for Natasha and Oksana to meet them; maybe that will lead to some ministry opportunities.

Later that night I found a Cafe with WiFi and was able to watch the State-Ole Miss Game on the internet and enjoy some Intercontinental Smack Talk with my Nephew (an OM fan) and some other friends.

Sunday morning I attended church with Natasha, Oksana, and their roommate Ksusha. Some other friends, former SEND Language Students, were also at the church. I

really enjoyed worshiping with them.

Later that afternoon I met Maxim and attended the Gypsy Church. Here's what I wrote while I was waiting to meet Maxim:

Crazy! I'm sitting in a cafe (which happens a lot in this part of the world) in a shopping center on the outskirts of Odessa. There's a Cafeteria upstairs and when I walked through there earlier I was flooded with memories. I distinctly remember eating there with kids from my youth group during a mission trip 5 years ago. I remember being scared to death because I couldn't read or understand anything. I remember choosing my food and paying for it and trying to look like I knew what I was doing because I was the "leader"!

I still don't know if I know what I'm doing. I'm just more comfortable in my discomfort now!

I'm right in the middle of where it all started...this love for Ukraine. I'm just a few blocks from where we stayed at the church. I'm a few blocks from our daily "Field of Dreams" Backyard Bible Club. It's a 20 minute walk to the Gypsy settlement. In just over an hour I'll be meeting Maxim to go to a Church Service in the settlement. It starts at 4 pm. It'll be dark already and as I understand it, there's no electricity. Probably no heat either. We will worship by candlelight. I don't think there'll be a translator, so I'm off the hook for speaking unless I share my standard short paragraph of who I am and what I'm doing speech in Russian.

Without a Translator, I won't be sharing a message tonight. And even if I did, what do I have to say to a handful of Gypsies huddled in the cold, dark night of Odessa? Do I tell them that in spite of all the blessings I've received from God, despite all I have and all I've been given that I still have all sorts of doubts and fears about my future? I doubt I have anything to say to them that will encourage or strengthen them more than just being with them will encourage and strengthen me.

Aftermath: The church was dark. The worship was by candlelight. They had a propane heater though so it was warm...it was warm in more ways than one. And talk about a mix of no tech (no electricity) and new tech (they used a laptop computer for music and lyrics!!).

The people made it special though. As best as I could tell there were probably only 2-3 families present and mostly teens and children. They are beautiful and friendly. Here's a picture of the Pastor and some of his family.

Finally! Sunday night before catching the train back to Kyiv, I took Natasha, Oksana and Ksusha to their first Mexican Restaurant. Food was edible. Time together was much fun. After dinner, they treated me to Tea and Cookies at their dorm and then walked me back to the train station at 11 pm!

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T02:28:00.007-06:00

Ok, so there is no “Thanksgiving Day” in Ukraine, not like in the United States in any case. Nevertheless, it is that time of the year and I guarantee you the American Community here in Kyiv will be thinking Turkey & Dressing today! I’m spending the day with my friends, the Hathcocks, and a bunch of their friends for all the traditional fare including (maybe) Football (not Futbol) on TV. We’re not quite sure how we’re going to pull that off yet...but we are committed to making it happen! I’ll probably make a Skype phone call to my family sometime this evening. And late tonight I'm taking the overnight train to Odessa for a few days to visit with some friends from summer camp and with my friends Katya, Vika and Yura whom I met in 2004 during my first trip to Ukraine. I hope the time you have with your family reminds you of all you have to be thankful for.

Being thankful is something I’ve struggled with the last few months. I’ve been listening to Ben Stuart’s Podcastthis month (from the Breakaway Bible Study at Texas A&M) as he’s been going through the book of James.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers” James says, “whenever you face trials of many kinds….”

Consider it pure joy? What was he smokin’? I hate to sound like a weenie but most of this year has been a trial for me with no end in sight! And I’m supposed to “consider it pure joy”?

Really? I’d rather complain and protest. It’s a lot easier to list all the things that have gone wrong and the things I’m definitely not thankful for!

But then I read (in 2nd Cor. 11) where Paul is boasting about all the crap he’s been through and then in Phil. 3 he essentially recounts all that would otherwise be accounted as “blessings” in his life and says of them that he considers them as a “loss for the sake of Christ.” It’s hard not to see the “upside-down-ed-ness” of following Christ.

Lord, I want to want Your will to be done no matter the consequences. I want to be like Paul and James and see that my trials are for my good– they are producing Godly character in me. I want to be like the Hebrews in the fire– I want to trust You even if you choose not to deliver me from the fire.

Finally, here's some things I'm thankful for...I posted these a few days ago in another blog, but they bear repeating I guess:

I’m thankful for the opportunity I’ve had to be in Ukraine all year, for the opportunity to move forward with language study. I’m thankful that I’m making progress. Sometimes I can’t believe I’m actually reading, writing, understanding and speaking a 2nd language– even if I do sound like a toddler!! I’m thankful to have lived on less than half of what I originally thought it would take. I’m thankful for my family’s unyielding support of me. I’m thankful for a handful of friends that have consistently reminded me this year that they are! I’m thankful that what I’ve done is not who I am! I’m thankful that He hasn’t forsaken me and He won’t. If it gets worse before it gets better, He’ll still be walking through it with me. And I’m thankful for your continued prayers for me as I approach what has to be the culmination of this ordeal I’ve suffered through all year long.

National Blog Month. Guess I missed the memo.

2009-11-19T14:46:00.003-06:00

November is National Blog Month. Lots of people are honoring that designation by posting a blog EVERY DAY this month.

Obviously, I'm not one of them.

What can I say? November has been a slow month. And it's been a pretty hard month too. In fact, this "semester" has been pretty hard.

October was alright. I enjoyed getting to help-out with World Racers who were in town during that time.

I always enjoy getting to hang out with some of my IMB friends- usually on Friday nights when one family almost always cooks Homemade Pizza...which is the best Pizza in Ukraine, by far! A few weeks ago we had Mexican/Enchilada Night in honor of one of the team members' birthday (she's from Texas). The following week we had Red Beans and Rice with sausage in honor of my birthday. So...I can't complain about the food, at least not on Friday nights.

But back to this being a hard month and a hard time. It just is. Maybe it has something to do with the shortening of the days. We're down to just a little over 8 hours of daylight per day. It's still dim at 8 in the morning and it's dark by 4:15ish. The days will continue to get shorter for another month. It hasn't been particularly cold here, but we seem to be in that constant "overcast" mode- aptly reflecting how I feel on so many different levels.

School is hard. Really hard. It's always two steps forward and one step back. Not that I've ever been a real fan of homework...but it's getting harder and harder for me to "just do it." I usually end up waiting until a few hours before class- which is not good studying technique!

My sleeping habits have gotten continuously erratic since returning to Ukraine a couple months ago. At least I'll be all set to get back into the swing of things when I return to the States next month. I'm essentially living on Central Time here lately (which is about opposite of how I should be functioning over here!).

But next week is Thanksgiving. I'll have Dinner with friends and rumor has it we'll figure out a way to watch football too. I do have a lot to be thankful for (here's an excerpt from a newsletter I'm working on):

First Little Lite Dusting of Snow

2009-11-04T02:45:00.004-06:00

There were very light snow flurries yesterday but no accumulation. Finally this morning there was just the tiniest bit of accumulation. Other parts of the country have already received some snow, but this is the first for Kyiv for this Winter. It's really chilly outside (high 20's F with low 20's windchill) and it's overcast (and if my time here last Winter was an indicator...it'll be overcast until the end of March!!). The days are rapidly getting shorter. It's getting dark about 4:30 pm...and by time late December rolls around it won't get light until after 8:30 or so in the morning I guess.

Since I don't have to drive anywhere I can say that I like the snow. I guess that's a Mississippi thing...to have seen so little of it growing up makes it special for me even though it's such a regular part of life here in Ukraine. Once it gets here for real, I think it's beautiful...and hot tea or coffee is just...better...when it's a snowy white winter wonderland outside.

Anniversary of my Day of Birth

2009-11-01T15:43:00.004-06:00

It hasn't been a bad Birthday weekend. It's just that...I find I'm not looking forward to them as much as I used to. How did it happen? I know my family will be quick to remind me that I'm still the "baby" of the family (resist, ok?)...but dang! Forty-Five year old babies? Just doesn't sound right.

But I digress. After a couple of pretty hard days in class Thursday and Friday the Birthday weekend began to show promise Friday night. Most Friday nights I join the Hathcock Family for Homemade Pizza. Darrel and Kim are IMB Missionaries here in Kyiv and he's a Team Leader that overseas a handful of Journeymen (2 year) and Hands-On Missionaries (less than a year term). Homemade Pizza night is something to look forward to!

This past Friday night featured Enchiladas in honor of one of the Journeygirl's (a Texan) birthday. Let's just say anything remotely resembling Mexican Food is a major treat arou

nd here. I helped Darrel move a refrigerator Saturday afternoon and ended up hanging out with him all day...which ended with leftovers Saturday night that was probably better the 2nd time!

Today after church the Hathcock's and another family treated me to Chinese Food...another rarity here. It was really fun especially because-

between the two families there were 7 kids-including 5 girls under 11. That was quite a sight (and sound!) in a small Chinese Restaurant occupied predominately with Asian patrons.

Finally- I have to say the Birthday Reminder is probably Facebooks very best feature. I love it because I've always been terrible keeping up with Birthdays. I don't even remember immediate family birthdays half the time. But thanks to FB, I've received LOTS of online love from friends and family this weekend. AND...MSU won a game (I woke up at 3 in the morning to watch the 2nd half on the internet!)

So. Happy Birthday to me...and thanks to all of you that pray for me.

Swine Flu in Ukraine

2009-11-01T14:54:00.005-06:00

In case you're wondering...no, I didn't get Swine Flu for my Birthday. However, seemingly overnight all of Ukraine is in a panic. As best as I can tell from looking at a lot of blogs and news sources, there's been a major Flu outbreak in the Western part of the country and it's moving this way. Also...in keeping with standard government operating procedure over here... no one really knew about it until it reached Epidemic proportions. Reports vary, but some estimates are that about 53 people have died in the last 10 days out West and thousands are infected. Some reports are stating that the government had been warned months ago to prepare for this, but of course that money has been squandered elsewhere.

As it stands...here in Kyiv, all public and private schools are closed for the next 3 weeks. Most public meetings have been banned for the same period, including some church services. No word yet if my school will be cancelled, but I think it will probably go on unless some teachers get sick. Public Markets are closed until further notice...I don't think that will apply to the regular grocery stores. I may stock up on Ramen Noodles just in case!!

(picture stolen from Michelle Knisley's blog)

Travel between Oblasts (like States or really large counties) have been restricted. People everywhere are wearing surgical masks...I can't imagine them being much use. The President said today that some State Factories have been mobilized to begin producing up to 1 million mask per day. Train Station personnel are reportedly "disinfecting" passengers upon embarkation. There's been a run on pharmacies for the masks and for basic medicines. Of course there aren't nearly enough actual vaccinations to go around. One article said Kyiv shipped 1200 vaccines out West...where 150,000+ people may be sick??!! Today's online edition of Kyiv Post says the government has requested International Aid and that the World Health Organization is sending a team here.

So. It's Ukraine. It's hard to tell how bad it really is. In terms of Preparedness and Infrastructure to handle an epidemic...it's probably bad. I feel like there's a pretty big element of "hype" and "panic" though.

Busses and Subways here are always VERY crowded- the potential for spreading a Virus is, well...viral to be sure. I made it through last winter just fine in part I think because once it actually got cold, I would wear gloves everywhere, including on public transportation. I think that probably helps more than wearing masks. In any case, there's no need for me to do much traveling here in the city. I walk to class and I can lay low for a few weeks. I've got good insurance (not that it would do any good with Meds in short supply).

So. I ain't skeered.

Be in prayer though. So many people here don't have the luxury of "laying low". They have no option for mounting the cram-packed public transports every day for work. They don't have private insurance and even if they did it probably wouldn't help them much. If only America would send it's Congressional Health Care Reform geniuses over here to fix things!! Sigh.

The Departure of The World Race (for lack of a better title to describe what I've been up to all month)

2009-10-29T11:57:00.003-05:00

The last of The World Race teams left Ukraine Tuesday. The four teams that were in Odessa and Lugansk began arriving last Thursday. So for the weekend all 8 of the January 09 World Race teams were in Kyiv for their monthly debrief. You can learn all about their month of ministry in Ukraine by clicking "Blogs" and "Blogs by Group" and "January 2009" at The World Race website.

From all that I've heard, I think they had a great month of ministry. Three teams worked with ministry friends in and around Lugansk. Some of them taught English and lectured in classrooms. Some of them visited orphans throughout the month. The team in Odessa was met by a Ukrainian friend that led to a great month of relational ministry among University students. Teams here in Kyiv also taught English and ministered alongside Ukrainian University students. Some of them worked outreaches to Drug Addicts several times a week. Some of them worked with street kids. They made friends that will last beyond their brief time here.

The last night was pretty memorable. We had rented an apartment where two teams of girls had lived for the month. Most of the teams left town on Monday, but 2 or 3 teams couldn't leave until different times on Tuesday, so we put them all in the apartment that was already paid for.

So...Monday- right after my language class- I went to a local Ukrainian Baptist Church to host a Coffee House Ministry for some IMB friends that were out of town this week. Not long after arriving at the Coffee House, one of the guys at the apartment called to tell me the Police were there, asking a lot of questions and threatening to confiscate their passports! Apparently a suspicious neighbor called- what with all the loud Americans coming and going.

I told them to bow up as best they could and try not to let them leave with the passports. If all else failed, to appeal to be taken to the US Embassy and to write a "Ticket"...but not to pay a Bribe...and not to give up the passports! The closest thing to a "charge" was that the apartment address was not the same as the address listed on their Immigration Cards.

Fortunately for the team, one of their Ukrainian translator friends was nearby and arrived in just a few minutes to help communicate with the Policemen. As I understand it, I think the scene got pretty heated but in the end, it was agreed that the Police would not take the passports but that one of the team members had to appear in court the following morning.

So...on Tuesday morning Tim Dixon, his friend Galina and I went to the Police Station. I stayed outside and prayed...we didn't feel the need to introduce a new character to the play at that point. A few minutes later, Tim texted me that after the Police finished writing their report then they would go see a judge. A couple hours later, he called to tell me that the Judge read the report and concluded almost immediately that there was "no crime- case closed."

Prayers answered. Adventures had. Blogs written. Another day in Ukraine.

I mentioned that some of my IMB friends were out of town this week on a Retreat. So, I've been house-sitting/dog-sitting for one of them. The apartment is really nice and comfortable. Staying here this week really worked out well for me since my usual abode- a Ukrainian friends Ministry Office/apartment- has been really hectic this week because they are hosting a major conference this weekend.

So...that's October. I have been originally planning to return to Mississippi when this school semester is over in December...but due to cash-flow issues, I may be home the week of Thanksgiving. I should know for sure in a few days.

The Return of The World Race in Ukraine

2009-10-04T14:28:00.006-05:00

(Racers just after arrival at Kyiv Train Station)

At the end of last month more than 170 World Racers from 4 different squads, along with a 20-30 WR Alums and current Coaches and Leaders converged in Romania for the 1st Ever WR Awakening Conference. The immediate aftermath of the conference was sort of like a team breaking huddle with everyone motivated and re-energized to make their next play.

The January 09 (H Squad??) began arriving in Ukraine this past Wednesday. I think it was a week ago tonight (Sunday) that I started getting emails and FB and Skype messages enlisting a little help on this end.

Here's how God provided:

There were 8 teams (52 Racers) arriving in Ukraine in less than a week with really only 1 firm ministry lined up that would accommodate 2 teams. They pretty much had no ministry lined up and no place to stay.

I guess the first thing I did was to send out a FB Message to all of my Ukraine contacts- American and Ukrainian alike- to enlist help in finding them a place to stay and ministries to partner with.

(Some of the Racers at St Sophia Square)

Proportionately speaking- I didn't get much of a return on my investment...but a handful of folks jumped on it. One really sweet "God gift" was that I was chatting online with one of the girls who was a translator at camp this past summer. She's a University student in Odessa named Natalie. She told me she'd love to help them. I made the recommendation to Squad Leadership and the next thing you know there's a team heading for Odessa... still with no place to stay and no ministry to work with. But Natalie was there (after a short delay and some confusion about which Bus Station the team was at) to greet them. She found them a place to stay the night with a friend. The next day she helped them find an apartment for the month. She's connected them with a group of her friends that will essentially be the core of their ministry to college students this month. Thank you Lord.

Two teams were already committed to go to Lugansk and work with my YWAM friends Forrest and Darcy. Between my emails and Squad Leaderships' inquiries for ministry partners, another acquaintance in Lugansk agreed to take a team. Thank you Lord!

That left 4 teams for Kyiv. The WR had very fruitful ministry back in the Spring with CCX- a college student outreach of Intervarsity. We thought they'd be a good partner this time too, but we had not heard from them. The other day after the teams arrived I made one phone call and the next thing you know...we're connected and at least 1 team is set to go. Thank you Lord!

I have been a Facebook "Fan" of Ukraine Teen Challenge for months but I had never met the folks that run it. When I was looking for partners last week we finally connected...which led to a meeting the other day...which led to connecting one team to work with them this month...AND...Teen Challenge found affordable housing for the team as well! Thank you Lord!

The first Friday the WR was in town, I connected them with another friend that ministers to AIDS Orphans. So this past Friday I think 3 of the WR Girls joined her for that ministry at a local hospital. Thank you Lord!

(Art on St. Andrews Street in Kyiv)

My friend Oleg answered the call to house a team...offering to rent them a garage/studio apartment within the very limited WR Budget. Thank you Lord!

My friend Darrell moved out of his old apartment last week but managed to get the lease extended a month to allow two teams of girls to live in the apartment this month. It's crowded...but it's home! I thought we would have to pay them in advance last Wednesday night. I was going to cover the Racers until they could get some cash...but when I went to an ATM, my card didn't work. I was nervous, but offered up a quick prayer and God answered...at the meeting with the landlords and Attorney...they said they didn't need the money for a couple more days. Thank you Lord!

So...the WR is off to a great start in Kyiv. They all have somewhat affordable housing. Most of them have very solid ministry lined up for the month.

It's been fun for me to "show off" my city. Helping the Racers get acclimated and helping them find ministry has affirmed my heart for this place, for these people. The downside is that I skipped 3 days of classes so that will be painful beginning tomorrow. But since I won't be working camp later this month, then I guess it's okay that I missed most of this past week. I did keep up with most of my homework! One upside was that I got to use my language a good bit and enjoyed feeling like a genius while helping the Racers get around!

Another big help the last few days has been the presence of another "Camp Interpreter"- Vika (pictured below). She's been in Kyiv this past week and was great helping me help the team. Thank you Lord!

The Writing Blahs...Not Much News.

2009-09-27T14:53:00.003-05:00

It's time for an update of some sort, but I don't have much that's "news".

Tomorrow I will begin my 5th week of classes. Time is flying it seems. I can't believe it will be October in just a few days.

For anyone that cares, we have now been at least acquainted with all 6 cases of the Russian Language. To give you an idea what that means (remembering that Russian also uses Genders- M, F, Neuter and Plurals)...that means adjectives and nouns and such could potentially have 24 different endings. Most don't because there's some overlap...but still.

Most of our classwork and homework the last week or so has been trying to put it all together...that is, maybe taking a sentence and rewriting it in each of those 6 cases. I've found myself flipping through the pages of my notes a lot lately. I do alright on my homework where I have the opportunity to do that; but trying to speak it in class is another story. Studying and practicing is hard work.

In other news: About 170 current World Racers along with 20+ Race Alumni and Coaches/Leaders spent last week in next-door Romania. I really didn't have the money to go (I can fly across country in Ukraine for under $50.00 but it was gonna cost $500 to go to Romania!). As the week wore on, I got more and more bummed about not being able to be with them. There will be a Squad of Racers here in Ukraine throughout October though and I should have some opportunities to visit with some of them and lend a helping hand.

Finally, I had hoped to skip a week of school at the end of October and help with a camp similar to the ones I helped with this past summer but those plans have changed too. It's a "circumstances beyond my control" sort of thing. Oh well- not going will save me some money and I won't fall behind in my class.

Lana's Song...the Video

2009-09-08T16:20:00.005-05:00

I blogged awhile back about a song I wrote this summer inspired by one of the kids at Camp Friendship. I guess it's called "Lana's Song: When I look in your eyes"...but really, it's dedicated to all the fatherless kids I've known.

I still think the music is pretty one-dimensional...and the vocals were kinda hurried. I created it the track with Audacity (a fun, free download).

Enjoy.

Happy Labor Day

2009-09-07T10:23:00.003-05:00

Yep, it's Labor Day. As I write this, I see that it is about 10:30 am back in Mississippi. That means a lot of people I know are probably still sleeping (students), and a lot of my friends are probably getting ready to cook-out sometime today. Sweet.

This being the opening weekend for SEC Football, probably a lot of you will take advantage of the promotional thing with Chick Fil A today where you can get a free sandwich just by wearing an SEC School logo shirt of some sort.

I didn't get much sleep this weekend because I was watching or listening to several SEC Football Games. You have to remember the 8 hour time difference. That means MSU's 2:30 kickoff didn't happen here until 10:30 Saturday night. Florida didn't kickoff until like 3 in the morning!! I watched a little; slept a little. Technology is crazy isn't it? I can watch "most" games on the computer (I guess you can watch every SEC game now on Secsports.com the day after). There are blogs where you can chat and interact with others during the game... it's almost like being there (not!). I's a nice distraction.

I hope everyone back home enjoys their Labor Day. Mine is 3/4 over with. You have to remember the 8 hour time difference. I didn't have the day off. I had a 2 1/2 hour Russian Langauge Class and I have homework to attend to. And I'm hungry but went grocery shopping on the way home and have the fixins for Blackened Chicken Pasta. Now it's time for my own little cook-out.

Headed Back to Ukraine

2009-08-26T17:32:00.005-05:00

Thursday, Aug 13- Jackson Airport to Mize, MS

Sat., Aug 15- Mize to Gulfport (USM, Long Beach and Ocean Springs)

Sun., Aug 16- Gpt to Mize

Tue., Aug 18- Mize to Pineville, LA

Wed., Aug 19- Pineville to Wesson, MS

Thur., Aug 20- Wesson to Alcorn State to Wesson to Vicksburg

Sun., Aug 23- Vicksburg to Clinton to Starkville to Aberdeen

Mon., Aug 24- Aberdeen to Amory to Birmingham

Tue., Aug 25- Birmingham to Atlanta to Buford to Mize

Wed., Aug 26- Mize to Magee to Mize to Magee to Mize to Magee to Mize

Thur., Aug 27- Magee to Jackson Airport to Charlotte, NC to NYC

Fri., Aug 28- to Zurich to Kyiv.

Russian Language Classes begin Monday. Fun.

Some of you enquired about my finances. I'm short still. Still not able to come under my Mission Agency umbrella and thus not able to receive tax-deductible support.

If you want to help me directly, send money to my Dad: Clinton White, c/o John White, P.O. Box 601, Mize, MS 39116, He'll deposit to an account I can access in Ukraine.

Lord willing, I'll be back at Christmas and maybe things will be looking up by then.

Mississippi

2009-08-14T18:00:00.003-05:00

I'm back!

It was a long day getting home. I didn't sleep hardly at all the night before leaving Kyiv...stayed awake most of the night boxing and sorting stuff I left at my apartment (just in case I don't get to go back as planned).

My driver picked me (and Sam, Angel and Robby) up at 3:30 am. The International Airport in Kyiv is a model of inefficiency! Even though we were there a full 2 hours prior to take-off...it took all of it!

We had a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam so I hightailed it out of the airport and went downtown to the Anne Frank house. It all happened too quick but it was very moving.

I watched the newish Star Trek movie on the flight home. It probably lost something on that massive 6 inch screen! The flight to Memphis was terribly long. However, coming through Customs was a breeze and incident free.

So now I'm home.

Now what?

I'll be in Gpt this weekend. And I need to go there at least once during the week sometime to do some banking. I'll be in Vicksburg next weekend and who knows in-between. I'd like to see friends in Birmingham and maybe Atlanta.

I have a return ticket to Ukraine for Aug 27. What I don't have is funds to live there until Christmas. I have enough Support Money to last for a year and half but I still can't access it yet. (A number of close friends are aware of what the problem is; get in touch with me personally if you want to know more.)

The deal is...for now... either my issue has to be favorably resolved in less than 2 weeks or I need someone to bless me with some support money without the benefit of receiving a tax credit. The other option is to not return for the next semester of language school and work as a surveyor's helper until things are resolved.

Fun Facts & Figures

2009-08-12T15:42:00.004-05:00

I've been playing with receipts.
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June, Jul, Aug

School $230, $220, $220, $220, $180, 0, 0, 0
Rent 350, 350, 300, 300, 300, 300, 0, 0
Eating Out* 15, 15, 100, 30, 48, 6, 23, 35
Groceries 47, ?, 36, 60, 37, 30, 15, 30
Gloria Jeans** 5, 0, 9, 32, 31, 12, 5, 5
Supplies 102, 250, 100, 0, 0, 200, 300, 0
Travel 0,0,300, 31, 65, 20, 180
Entertainment 0,0,0,0,26, 36,0,
Camp Fees 0,0,0,0,0,900,0,0

* Mostly McDonalds
** Closest thing to Starbucks in Ukraine

Some thoughts: I went to London in March for Spring Break...obviously blew the eating out and travel budget...but worth every penney!

Supplies: Bought a bed in January, a TV in Feb, a Printer in March, a Deep Fryer and ink and stuff in June and replaced my camera in July.

Traveling- March I flew to London, and in August I flew to Lugansk...all other travel expenses were by Train.

Eating out and Coffee expenses jumped in April and May when I was entertaining World Racers I think. Some of my supply cost might have been associated with them as well since I did some printing for them.

I probably spent $12.00 a month to keep my phone and maybe $5.00 on average for subway tokens.

I spent about $900.00 total as a contribution to Camp Friendship...to pay for my meals and lodging and Interpreter salary plus sponsoring some kids for the camp.

The list above doesn't include maintaining US Health Insurance (nearly $200.00 a month) and Overseas Insurance (about $60.00 a month Jan-June) or Vehicle Insurance on my Jeep.

This isn't an exhaustive list of what I spent, but it's in the ballpark.

Camp 3

2009-08-10T10:58:00.002-05:00

My original plan was to go back to Mississippi 2-weeks ago. Instead, I postponed my flight home and returned to Camp Friendship.

The scene I'm about to describe on the last day of camp- this past Saturday- actually when Camp was officially over and all that was left was for kids to go home- illustrates why I went back. Why I stayed all summer.

Anastasia is a beautiful little 11 year old from nearby Lugansk. She lives with both parents and has an 18-year old brother. She's really bright. Plays Piano, dances, sings, draws, speaks a little English. She's a lot like so many other pre-teen girls. We met the very first day of Camp 1 and we hit it off immediately.
The last night of Camp 2 she got permission from her Dorm Parent to sit with me instead of with the girls from her dorm. She got one of the Interpreters to teach her how to tell me I was her best friend in English. I know I surprised her with I returned for the 3rd Camp.

Anyway, the "scene" I alluded to. This past Saturday morning I was out on the road telling other kids goodbye when I saw Nastya and her mother walking through the center of the Camp. We waved excitedly to one another but I noticed that they kept walking through the center and not up to the road. A few seconds later I thought, "I can't let it go at a wave, I want to hug her goodbye", so I started jogging down the road back toward the center of the camp. When I was about halfway down the road, she came running around the corner towards me, apparently having had the same thought as I. I got to meet her very gracious mother (pretty obvious that Nastya had told her all about me).

Anyway...we never had any terribly deep conversations...with or without interpreters. We threw the frisbee a lot. We played Checkers. During the last week of camp she came to me twice with an interpreter to pray. The last night she prayed one of the sweetest prayers I'ver ever heard for her family to become believers and for her friends to be serious in their faith. It was precious.

And that's why I stayed all summer. My 15-semester hours of RussianLanguage wasn't nearly enough to learn her life-story or explain to her the current tension between the emergent church and the institutional church (like I could, right?). But there was something of value in spending 2-weeks of my life (6 weeks with her and a few others) just loving and caring for her. Just being attentive and available. Hopefully, being Jesus with skin on.

In a quickly fading summer I hope the Nastya's and Natasha's and Dasha's and Tonya's and Lana's, the Dima's and Kolya's and Sasha's and Anton's all felt as much love from me and Jesus as I felt from them and for them.

(Pictured here is Anastasia and Natasha- Natasha was also a 3-camp-kid...at Camp Friendship all summer. She's from one of the local orphanages.)

Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention the Interpreters. They were a great bunch of mostly 19-25 year olds that Shane (the Camp Director) has discipled and nurtured over the last 4 years. They were all great and I'm proud to call them my Ukrainian Friends.