It's all about forgiveness

I recently applied for a grant from Wheaton College that pays off the student loans of Wheaties who are headed overseas as missionaries. Amy and I had planned to pay off my loans when she went back to work. But now that we are moving to Mozambique and living off from support, the loans are a bit more of a burden than we thought they would be at this stage of life.

If you are in to prayer (and I hope you are), please pray that I am awarded the scholarship. It would be a huge blessing for our family. We can certainly make our finances work without it, but as anyone with student loans can attest, it would be a big deal if they were forgiven.

Week with YWAM

Youth With a Mission (YWAM) invited me to speak at their University of the Nations campus this last week. I spent the week teaching for 3 hours every morning to a group of about 40 20-something students on "The Fundamentals of Christian Leadership".

Besides the joy of teaching about one of my favorite topics, it was great to spend a week with hundreds of people who have committed their life to mission. The entire base seemed to be filled with some of the most passionate followers of Jesus on the planet. It made for an especially fun class as I didn't need to draw students out to help them care. They already did.

Besides having fun and using my gifts, the week forced me to boil all of my leadership thoughts and philosophies down to a just a couple of ideas. I had to ask myself the question: what do I believe are the most important and essential fundamentals of the faith? That was hard work but worth doing. I know it will have lasting impact on the way I think about leadership in the future.

The Problem with Democracy

I have just finished reading the biography of John Adams written by David McCullough (reading and writing is about all I can do today as I am sick and in bed). And after reading about the amazing founders of our nation, I have come to a sad conclusion:

When a government is "by the people" in a democracy, then the nation will rise or fall based upon the quality of her citizens. Those elected are simply the product of the people.

I know that this thought is neither new, nor profound, but it makes me all the more determined on a single point. I will do my best for the rest of my life to not simply complain about my elected officials. After all, they were elected by me and my neighbors.

What I will dedicate the rest of my life toward is helping to transform the lives of my neighbors and myself (here and in Africa). After all, only when the people lead, will those they elect follow.

Rhythm and Blues

For the last two weeks I have been in Arizona (for my sister-in-law's wedding) and Chicago (for the Willow Creek Leadership Summit). Now that I am back home, Amy and I are trying to find our rhythm again. It's hard.

I notice that the worst part about being out of rhythm with life is not just the funk of losing your beat. It's that it too easily turns into a self-defeating cycle. Being out of rhythm for working out, putting the kids down to sleep, waking up in the morning, or even reading the Scriptures with regularity makes me depressed. It gives me the blues. And of course these blues don't help motivate me to get back in rhythm.

So I have felt the funk begin to fade over the last couple of days, but it has been a frustrating week trying to get in rhythm. I'm there now, but I felt like I lost a couple of valuable days at less-than-normal efficiency. I've found my groove, but it took too long. Any suggestions on how to keep the groove after a transition?

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Missionary Training

WorldVenture requires us to complete quite a bit of training before we can head to the field. So far, Amy and I have been very impressed with the training that we have received. In fact, the excellence of the practical training that we have gotten from WorldVenture as well as outside contractors has made me rethink training in the church and in seminary. Do we spend too much time on theory and not enough time on application? Should seminaries make students "practice" more skills in the classroom? Should churches spend more time on Bible Study techniques, how to pray, how to counsel friends, etc.?

At the beginning of May, Amy and I went to Chicago to complete a training on how to educate our children overseas. It was awesome. In fact, I came away from the training thinking that we should have a similar seminar for every parent in the church: How to educate your kids, regardless of the schooling choice your family makes.

So far, the skills we have received in training to be missionaries have been great. Let's just hope they work on the field.

One of the saddest goodbyes

After 13 years of sponsoring Ashenafi Girma, we had to end our sponsorship today. With our new budget reality, we simply could not make it work anymore. I can't begin to explain how sad it is to say goodbye. I have "known" Ashenafi longer than I have known most of those who read this blog.

Amy and I began sponsoring him before we were even married. I think our sponsorship of him helped to define our relationship from the beginning as being about a mission, not just about us (an idea my former colleague spoke about this last Tuesday).

So if you are reading this and you already sponsor a child, I would like to encourage you to write them. I wish I would have done that more. And if you are reading this and you don't sponsor a child - sign up! It is a life changing experience.

We will miss you Ashenafi!