November 14, 2010
Cannonball + ECC + Global Impact Celebration
#MtCC is taking two big JUMPs “into the pool” to make splashes for God, both this week! And I survived my term as Eastern Christian Convention workshops chairman – all the workshop presenters made it there 
and shared insights from the Spirit. The last couple of weeks I’ve suffered the “ripple effects” of a cold + last minute ECC + Cannonball + GIC scrambling, which meant no blogging, but I’m back
Here are notes for the most recent Cannonball Sunday AM messages. I’ll be trying to catch up w/ reflections on some of the daily devotions & daily dares in upcoming posts; along w/ thougsht about the ECC + GIC.
February 9, 2010
Thailand mission team: There was not a dry eye in the house
An 8 person team of MCC members is on a 16 day mission trip to Thailand. While I’m content w/ my decision to defer on this trip, as I’ve followed their updates on the MCC short term missions blog, a part of me is there in spirit – especially when they mention the people I’ve met on my previous trips.
translator for MCC mission team w/ gift from Alex & family
For me, the most moving stories are my Christian brothers and sisters whose tears mingle w/ those of the early Christians (Acts 20:36-38).
For more background on our fellow disciples in refugee camps, Mark Rogers of The Gospel Coalition writes about “The Persecuted Church in Burma.”
February 6, 2010
Super Bowl + important things
As a fan of NY sports teams (the NY Giants in the case of the NFL), this year’s Super Bowl holds less rooting interest for me than did last year’s World Series. For family and anti-New England reasons (the more Super Bowls Peyton Manning wins, the less I have to read about Tom Brady), I’m cheering for the Colts. MCC teammate Rob Kastens also sent an email about this NY Times story about Haiti relief, featuring Haitian-descent Indianapolis wide receiver Pierre Garcon and Northwest Haiti Christian Mission.
MCC is working with three partners in Haiti relief: FAME (Fellowship of Associates in Medical Evangelism), IDES (International Disaster Emergency Services), and Alberto Rivas of Christian Dominican Evangelistic Mission. Alberto has already made one trip across the border to bring relief supplies, and MCC plans on sending a mission team of its own in the days to come.
For snowbound MCCers, and others, looking for relief from Super Bowl hype, here are a Christianity Today article critiquing Christians succumbing to the sports culture, while this NY Times op-ed examines the roots of the role of sports in American culture, and its value.
January 30, 2010
MCC Haiti relief update
Report from MCC supported missionary Alberto Rivas (Christian Dominican Evangelistic Mission) on how MCC (and other supporters) relief funds are being used in Haiti.
Hello Brothers and Sisters in Christ -
Thank you for your prayers and for your financial help for the people of Haiti.
On Wednesday, Jan. 20th we sent a truck of supplies to Jimani. We brought food (canned food, oil, baby formula, spaghetti), 13,000 bottles of water, bleach and soap. $4312 was spent to purchase these supplies. This transportation was free. The Dominican Government provided a truck to transport it because they were going to Jimani.
On Friday, Jan. 22nd we brought food (canned food, crackers, rice, oil, spaghetti), bleach, soap and 7,000 bottles of water to the airport early in the morning. We drove the food from Monte Cristi to Santiago. From there the supplies were flown to Port-au-Prince for the people. $14,545.45 was spent to purchase these supplies. We used 2 trucks to bring the food to Santiago. We paid $351.10 for the use of the trucks.
hospital from Alberto's relief trip to Haiti
On Saturday, Jan. 23rd we drove some supplies to Dajabon. We crossed the border to Juana Mendez. People have to pay money to cross the border. A Dominican Consular in Haiti took us across the border for free. At Juana Mendez we meet Salonique. He is a pastor from Gonaives, Haiti. We put the food on the bus that Salonique brought. Arismandy and Suyapa went back to Mo
nte Cristi in the van. Damian and I continued with Salonique and some people from his church on the bus. We brought canned food, rice, spaghetti and oil. $626.54 was used to purchase this food. W
hen we went to Gonaives we also visited a hospital. Many of the people have had to have single and double amputations. They are very sick. Some of them sleep in beds and a lot of them have to sleep on the floor. We were there with the pastor and on Sunday morning we went to the church for service at 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. We went back to church for another service at 6:00 p.m.
On Monday morning we went to Saint Marc for visiting another pastor and missionary there, Wilckly and Dee Dorcay. We also visited the hospital in San Marcos. There
was a lot of injured people there. Most of them had to sleep on the floor. There are a lot of people in need and they have used up all of their medical supplies.
We then went to the missionaries home, Wiclies. More then 100 people are sleeping outside on their property. They don’t want to sleep in the home because they are afraid of being inside due to the earthquake.
On Tuesday, we went to church service at 4:00 a.m. at the same place were the people sleep. At 8:00 a.m. we went to Port-au-Prince. There we saw the devastating results of the earthquake and all of the destroyed homes. We saw how the people are all living outside. The people use blankets for roofs and one blanket to sleep on. A few people have mattresses to sleep on.
On Tuesday we went from Port-au-Prince to Jimani. We were in Jimani at 7:00 p.m. We waited until 1:00 a.m. and took a public bus to Santo Dominco. On Wednesday we arrived at 5:50 a.m. in Santo Dominco. At 6:00 a.m. we left on a bus for Santiago. At 8:00 we arrived in Santiago and took another bus to Monte Cristi. We arrived in Monte Crisit at 10:35 a.m. I was very sick with stomach problems. Praise God that I am OK now. Damian is OK. Thank you for your prayers for us to have safe travel.
supplies unloaded to crowd during Alberto's trip
Right now the Haitians need medical supplies, tents, food and water. They don’t have a blanket to cover up with to sleep or a mosquito netting.
If you are medically trained, the hospitals are in need of Dr’s and nurses.
If you have any questions about the supplies that were purchased you can call. The water was bought from Agua Beller for 80,000 pesos. . . Food was purchased at Benjamin for 116,225 pesos . . . Radames for 133,315 pesos, . . . . Amalia for 1095 pesos . . . Diego Jimenez for 374,100 . . .
Transportation from Monte Cristi to the airport Santiago – The 2 trucks were rented from Pedro for 12,700 pesos…
Total is 717,435 pesos. The money that was donated for Haiti equaled $20,331.91. Right now $19,835.09 was used for the above supplies and transportation. We have $496.82 left. We would like to buy medical supplies, Tents and more food and water to help the people. . . .
If you feel that God is leading you to come to Monte Cristi and bring any needed supplies, we are here to help with everything that you need [edit] [contact MCC Global-local pastor Tom Moen]
We will have pictures on Facebook for everyone to see. (Alberto Rivas) On the pictures you will see how the people live. Thank you God that we are blessed and can help those in need.
Thank you and God bless you.
November 24, 2009
Persecuted Christians
One of my favorite bloggers, Seldom Wrong Never In Doubt, posts his comment on a Wall Street Journal article on the unregistered churches thriving in spite of religious persecution in China. During the holidays, I sometimes read emails from a Bible college friend from years gone by who is a (covert) missionary teaching English as a foreign language in China. The militantly atheist Communist government allows Westerners to come to China to teach English because its the language of international commerce and technology. My friend even uses passages from the Bible as language translation exercises in the classroom, but for safety’s sake her emails must always “code” her references to the faith we share. I enjoy her brilliant creativity in finding ways to pass along prayer requests and praises in phrases that a Communist censor can’t decipher. When I’m tempted to take for granted not just the material blessing but the freedom to worship that American Christian enjoy, I try to remember my brothers and sisters in chains in China who have so much in common with the Pilgrims of the First Thanksgiving, and with the early Christians.
October 30, 2009
India mission team + Slumdog Millionaire
Back in the spring, Heather & I went to see the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire for her birthday, a rare movie for both of us She enjoyed the romance, and I appreciated the underlying reality of the religious extremism, crime, and poverty. For a more eloquent and thoughtful analysis, check Jennifer Taylor’s post. For a Christian mission that is confronting some of these crimes in the courts and on the streets, check International Justice Mission, my teammate Tom Moen was attending a screening of the IJM movie At The End of Slavery this week.
Last Sunday, she & I attended the celebration for MCC’s India short-term mission team. Imperfect disciples serving the one perfect God are changing the storyline of hatred, crime, and poverty one small step at a time, whether thousands of miles away or in our own neighborhood, something my teammate Luke Erickson will speak about this coming Sunday.
May 30, 2009
Up close and in person at Global Outreach Open House
Coming to MCC’s Global Outreach Open House two different times throughout the day reminded me yet again of the effectiveness of in-person connecting. When I was there in the morning, MCC member Jon M chatted – informal, unplanned – about his four-month experience hosting a Milligan College intern and his Czech Republic 2007 short term mission trip. Similarly, w/ Pat W, Kim D, and (a another) Pat W, seeing them in person led us to catch up on projects like Adopt-An-MCC-Missionary and the MCC message boards – informal, unplanned conversations helped us reconnect better than email or phone could have. When Heather and I stopped by later in the day, as she was browsing the displays, she noticed the November 19-22 trip to Grundy Mountain Mission School, and began thinking about the possibility of bringing her student ministries girls small group – another example of the Spirit using an in-person encounter to accomplish a task or grow a relationship.
May 29, 2009
God of This City NYC 09 – two month countdown
I’ll be periodically blogging the next couple of months about a MCC short term mission team that will go to NYC Thursday 30 July – Monday 3 August to help six different churches and ministries:
Indian church planter C.T. Abraham and family
- Community Christian Church – NYC
- Orchard Group Indian Project
- Forefront Church
- Igreja de Cristo
- Church of the Incarnation
- NYC Rescue Mission
Here are some past posts about MCC trips to NYC: reflection on 2008 one-day trip, prep for 2008 trip, the 2007 day-trip I planned to go but missed.
Download the first draft promo flyer.
November 13, 2008
Persecution made personal
On both my trips to the Thai-Burma border, I’ve met Christians who understand what Jesus meant when He said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” One of the Burmese Christian refugees helped dig a well for a Thai Bible training school. He will probably never drink the water from that well he helped dig, because he doesn’t have UN issued papers (the UN High Commission on Refugees doesn’t come to that camp very often). At the risk of his freedom and possibly his life, he escaped the barb-wire, check-pointed refugee camp to travel 80 kilometers to spend two back-breaking, muscle-aching days digging someone else’s well.
This article is about the preacher of one of the students taught by fellow MCC pastor John Sarno on his mission trips to Europe with TCM. I blogged earlier about MCC exec pastor Rob Kastens short term mission trip to India. He met, worshipped with, and listened to testimonies of faithful Christians like these.
In my mind, I know plenty of statistics about the persecution of Christians, but I need to know more than facts. I need to learn the names and faces, remember the stories, and pray.
October 30, 2008
Intersections
Bangkok is a city of crazy busy intersections – particularly mid-day as we drove to pick up Burmese language Bible from the Thai Bible Society. 
Our mission team dinner at MK Restauarant created some marvelous people intersections, too. Though the food was both out of the ordinary and extraordinary (which also describes Tom Steck demonstrating his cullinary skills as he & Jim Boyle added the ingredients brought to our table for our do-it-yourself soup) the best part was spending time intersecting biological family w/ spiritual family and seeing how closely we shared the same Lord. I met my cousin Gail in person for the first time – I missed her on my previous trip becaue she was at a training Youth for Christ conference. 
Uncle Jimmy (my mom’s youngest brother) talked about his next medical missions trip w/Couples for Christ.
When I logged on to record our team’s ongoing adventures, my cousin Ian reminded me that my Uncle Gil (my dad’s brother) is en route back from India & Pakistan where he was leading a medical missions trip for Bring Good News. And our team is bringing well-digging equipment and sharing Community Health Evangelism lessons with Burmese refugees — all of these missions intersecting and overlapping in one crazy, busy evening.
