Mexico City

I'm taking a group of students to Mexico City for spring break to help with what Campus Crusade is calling "City-focus" there. You can read more about it here. Basically we'll be trusting the Lord to start a student ministry on one of the 400 campuses in Mexico City, which just happens to be the 2nd largest city in the world. We'll also be serving in an orphanage for part of the time. There are more college students in Mexico City than there are people in the state of Montana. The vision: To launch missional Christ-centered communities on every one of these 400 campuses so that each of the one million students in Mexico City will know someone who truly follows Jesus.

We're taking a great group of students and it should stretch them as they see how God can use them internationally.

Interestingly, more people in the world now live in urban settings than rural. This is starting to have an effect on how we do ministry.

Summer Project staff team

Tristan came to Bozeman to meet up with Jody, Emily and I for some Croatia summer project planning this week. This is how excited we are for the summer.

Walking

So our daughter picked Superbowl Sunday to start walking.

Going Global

This is the flight board from Frankfurt airport. The letters and numbers flip and chatter in kind of an old school way (forget those digital monitors...old school IS new school).

I love to stand in front of it and imagine what it's like in all the places listed. It makes the world seem very small and the possability of the Great Comission (Matthew 28:18-20) being fulfilled seem very real.

Go.

Is this theologically sound?

It made me laugh...hard. But after giving it some more thought it seems very human effort centered. Perhaps its perpetuating (or being perpetuated by) the undercurrent of "I have Christ in my life....but I think if I work a little harder he might love me more" mentality.

Maybe I'm just thinking to much.

Hungarian stuff

The Croatia STINT team (and us!)
The parade of nations at the Area of Affairs conference. 19 countries represented...over 1000 staff. It was awesome.
Jon (MSU grad on STINT in Croatia) and me enjoying a rainy day in Budapest.

A few pictures of our trip to Hungary

Suspicious item.

Going through security in the Frankfurt airport resulted in my backpack getting tagged with a suspicious looking item. Rummaging through my bag the security guy pulled out the suspicious item...my Bible.

Friendly German security guy: "Is this really a Bible? I'm going to have to do some extra test on this...follow me."

We proceeded over to the special area where another security agent joined us and began to rub my Bible with some chemical sensor thing. The security guards seemed to get a kick out of it. I was still wondering if I was going to have to buy a new Bible. One security agent actually looked to see what version it was (NIV...in case you were wondering).

Thank goodness my Bible passed the test and got to come back to America with me.

Awesome

Free wireless in the Budapest Airport!

We're on our way home.

We wrapped up our conference with STINTers from all over Eastern Europe and Russia. These recent graduates who have taken a year of their lives to invest in the lives of students in distant lands are heroes of the Faith to me. What a privelige it was for Jody and I to serve them all communion and give thanks to the Lord together. It's a been a busy time for us as we've done our best to bring encouragement and blessings specifically to the STINT team in Rijeka, Croatia.

The last two day we went to another city in Hungary where we gathered with over 1000 staff from 19 different countries for two days and now we head back to Montana (via Oregon to pick up Jenna). We had a great time meeting with Brooke and Hrvoje and talking through the Northwest partnership with Croatia.

Continue to pray for safe travels and that Jenna would have a great time with the Grandparents. So far everything is going well on the homefront with our daughter. We're excited to see her though!

Budapest

Tomorrow we're headed to the land of the Maygars, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and goulash.

mmmm....goulash

We'll be hanging out with staff from all over eastern europe and Russia at a conference. Should be a rocking good time. We have a duffle bag full of stuff (peanut butter, etc.) for our fellow Campus Crusade staff...it only weighs 46 lbs.

I've been to Budapest (pronounced Budapesht), but have not flown into Budapest before. So it should be a little bit of an adventure getting around the city. I'm also determined to partake of a Hungarian bath this time, but only if Pete Zagorda is with me.

On the road

For all 3 of you that read this.

We haven't dropped off the face of the earth. We've been on the road. We drove the 12 hours to Oregon right before Christmas. Jenna was a saint. She didn't cry once the whole way (although she's crying as I write this).

We had a great Christmas. It's way more fun with a kid.

We then drove to Portland for the annual Northwest Winter Conference. It was a rocking good time. In fact 3 girls from our campus turned their lives over to Christ while we were there!

Finally, I took two classes at Western Seminary in Portland January 2-5. They were so good and will probably mean I'll take some more in the future. By the time I'm 45 I might have a Masters degree.

All that to say, it's been a little busy lately and it's not done yet. Today we're headed back to Prineville for a few support appointments (and hopefully some good rest) and then Jody and I are flying to Budapest to meet up with stinters from all around eastern Europe and Russia.

Oh, and tomorrow is Jenna's first birthday!!!

Please continue to pray for safe travels for us. Also, pray for us as we leave Jenna at the grandparents while we're in Budapest.

off site

An "off-site" is a some sort of big corporate business term.

Anyway, last week our staff team went up to Big Sky to spend a couple of nights together. We worked, prayed, laughed, ate much good food, and watched all of season 1of The Office. Many good times were had. We stayed here...don't worry we didn't pay full price.

Action sequence of Thang and I tossing Jenna around.

trying to simplify

How I'm wired.

I like to make make complex stuff simple.

They brought in a handful of campus staff from around the U.S. to give their input on a student tracker software. This is something that we in the field could use to track all evangelistic contacts and students who are involved. It's also a tool students could use to help them as they reach out to students around them. The issues are incredibly complex (alumni, confedentiality, student use, whole classes graduating every year, simplicity of use, high school, etc.) with lot's of tension of making complex stuff simple to use. So we'll see.

My input goes like this....make it visionary and energizing for students to use AND connect it to Facebook.

Facebook is the answer to everything. If it's not on your strategic plan it should be.

Wouldn't it be sweet if we could get on a website and see all the amazing stuff God is doing across the U.S. (and the world for that matter)? Wouldn't be great to see (or hear via rss) that two weeks ago 400 people were exposed to the Gospel at Eastern Washington University and 66 people placed their trust in Christ? If I were a student and heard that I would want to jump on board and trust the Lord to reach my campus.

Wouldn't it be great for me Mr. campus ministry guy to be able to get an accurate picture of what's going on at a particular campus, region, area? Or be able to see who the next emerging student leaders are from a campus ministry that I'm coaching 300 miles away (i.e. Havre, Montana)?

Anyway the possibilities are endless. Good thing we have 2 days to figure it out.

Orlando

I'm in Orlando!

This morning when I woke up it was about -1 degrees in Bozeman. Tomorrow it's supposed to +85 degrees in Orlando. I might get a little sweaty. I hope they don't mind if I take my shirt off at this meeting I'm supposed to be at.