When I Was Just a Wee Zombie...

This is me (yes, i had hair at one time) and my friend Paul Bengds at 15 and 16 years old, respectively.  We met in 1988 on our first short-term summer mission trip through Teen Missions, International.  During that time, we spent the better part of 80 days together winding through the canals and locks of England on canal boats and the hills of Scotland by bike as part of a 20 person team that included other teens from around the country and Canada.  Our mission?  Open air "street" evangelism in major port cities ranging from Birmingham (England's second largest city) to Glasgow. 

Paul and i actually returned to TMI the next year and spent three gruelling months in Papua New Guinea on a hospital construction team, and then i returned a year later on another team to Budapest, Hungary.  These trips set the tone for the passion for Mission that has continued to burn in me through the rest of my adult life, and as I look back at my developing years of adolescense and young adulthood, stand out like mountain peaks among the myriad other formative experiences.

One other note:  although Paul and i became such good friends that we continued to visit and write each other for nearly a decade after our initial foray into Missions together, somewhere over the last ten years, we eventually lost touch.  I figured we'd probably never reconnect until he found me on Facebook a couple of months ago, and we have been re-igniting old memories and contemporary stories about where God has taken us over the years.  I tell you... Facebook is a wonderful thing!

Other Eyes On Target...

I have a friend in India right now, leading a group of people through some of the major areas where the ministry he works for are doing the bulk of their service.   He is a man of incredible wisdom and experience, has served as a mentor for many of us on staff here at GCC, and has helped to plant more than 40,000 churches worldwide in the last 25 years.  His name is Ron (last name omitted for security's sake), and he has a way with words and a good photographic eye to boot.  So why am i telling you this?  Because he's actually blogging his current trip!  You won't want to miss it.  I loaded up today's posts and saw what he saw sitting at the banks of the Ganges River near the town of Varnasi.  You can get there by clicking here, or going to the following link:   http://tourindiaoctober08.blogspot.com/

Holy Overstimulation, Batman!

Okay, through a bizarre and sudden combination of Birthdays, in-store credits, accumulated coupons, killer sales and Gamespot's already extensive collection of $5 - 10 PS2 used games, we walked away this weekend from the little store with enough PS2 adventure and drama to last us for several lifetimes, and all for...well... pretty much next to nothing.  While most of these titles won't compare to the newest and greatest next gen platoforms (hey, we haven't even played HALO 1 yet... much less HALO 3...sorry), they are setting up to be some serious fun for us who still have yet to make the next gen leap and are still in the land of Playstation 2.  Here's the quick rundown on what we picked up and our initial reactions:

Over the Hedge:  Yes, Peri picked this one up.  Actually, it's pret

ty good, not too difficult for small munchkins, and features many of the voices of the original cast (Steve Carrell doesn't do Hammy's voice, alas, and i'm pretty sure Avril doesn't do Heather, but Bruce Willis does RJ and m

ost of the others seem consistent).  It blends all the wackiness of mind-controlled gophers and REALLY serious yard security systems with the fun personalities of

 the movie... if you liked the movie.

Avatar:  The Last Airbender:  As with Over the Hedge, if you like the Avatar animated series, you'll probably like the game.  My personal opinion is that it's a little too cumbersome and tedious to be really enjoyable, and 

hasn't received much play time from either kid, but when we get bored of the other titles, will probably be a good stand-by.  I hope.  

Marvel:  Ultimate Alliance:  Okay, this one is my biggest disappointment, actually.  I really liked the idea of being able to select my favorite heroes from various Marvel comic series, and i had read reviews that said that the

 gameplay was worthy of notice.  I found, however, that it's 

virtually the same as previously released X-Men series, and the gameplay is basically just lots and lots of repeated smashing of things.  Granted, if you were a superhero flying on an enemy airship miles above earth fighting legions of robotic minions, "smashing things" would probably be a good use of your time, but after a few minutes, it made me start wondering how long it could continue.

Star 

Wars Battlefront and Battlefront II:  Okay, now these games ROCK!  As far

 as first person shooters go, i haven't seen their equal (again, barring some of the newer next gen games, i'm sure).  And the great part is, you can choose from a variety of sides, functions and perspectives.  Need to take out a tank?  No problem, respawn as a rocket-equipped storm trooper.  Need to pilot that snow speeder?  No problem, respawn as a Rebel pilot.  Need to take down 30 s

uper battle droids?  No problem, play as the Jedi-Knight Mace Windu.  The controls are easy to use and master (very straight forward) and playing through historical campaigns reminisces nicely of the movies.  These are great games!!!   

Lego Batman:  THIS was the gem in the stash.  We have played at least one other LEGO version (Star Wars II) and found it funny, fun and pleasantly challenging enough to hold interest while not being impossible to play.  Batman was likewise no disappointment in the same vein, and we have all had great fun running across Gotham rooftops as the Dynamic Duo, or donning our bad-guy masks and parading through Arkham Assylum as Poison Ivy, Clayface, Joker and the like as well.  These games are brilliant blends of tongue-in-cheek fun and genuine g

ameplay, and i'd highly recommend them to anyone.  We'll be seeking LEGO Indiana Jones when we've had our fill of Batman!   

ONE Prayer Update: Cambodia

Crew!  Bob Craft (our ministry contact for Cambodia) sent this in.  Enjoy! -sj

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Cambodia was country divided by a civil war, a holocaust and then invaded by enemies from a neighboring country. There are far too many stories of war, of refugees and the sheer struggle to survive. But by the grace of God, some have managed to emerge from the pain with amazing testimonies to the love of God.

In 1983, Lim left Phnom Penh city to live in the Rithy Sen, and join the resistance army to fight against the army of the State of Cambodia government. He was commander of 30 soldiers in the resistance movement. He was a cruel person and dictator. He fought in many battles, there was even one time when he was surrounded by the State of Cambodia army, and was almost killed. He lay unconscious for about three days and three nights. And apart from battles with human enemies, he almost died from malaria.  He finally fled across the Thai border to a refugee camp. 

In 1985, he left the army, and lived in City Two, Rithy Sen refugee camp. He became a teacher at a small school in the refugee camp. He had four friends who were teachers, and one of them, Mr. Sothy, was a Christian. Mr. Sothy shared the good news of Jesus Christ with Lim saying that Jesus was the Savior and those who believed in Him would be saved from sins and have eternal life.  He shared about Christ three times, so Lim got very angry with him, and had some students tie Mr. Sothy up to a cross and tickle him, humiliating him by saying “if your God is true and living, let Him help you”. Mr. Sothy was very upset at this treatment, so finally Lim’s students let Mr. Sothy go. Lim had grown up like 90% of his Cambodian peers, he practiced Buddhism and Brahmanism in the tradition of his ancestors. He had no use for Christians and their foreign religion. 

In 1986, he moved to another refugee camp, and got into trouble when he broke the rules of the camp. The Thai soldiers who guarded this new camp always arrested those who broke the law in the K.I.D. camp, and moved them back to the camps nearer the border. Lim often hid himself from the Thai guards in a deep pit from which he could look to the outside only through a small hole. One Saturday in February of 1986, there was a big raid by Thai solders to arrest law breakers in the camps, so Lim and his friends got so frightened that they hid themselves in the pit for the whole night.  Early in the morning on Sunday, Lim heard a voice outside the pit through the small hole saying, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest. Place my yoke on you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” It was the words of God speaking to him to seek God! He left the pit for another friend’s house and took a bath. There he met an English teacher named Chann who was going to church. Chann asked Lim to go to church with him (as he had asked once before) so Lim decided to go with him as he was curious to know about this God who could help humans and “give them rest”. At the church, he sat at the back corner of the meeting so that he could observe, but he criticized and cursed them in his heart. Despite the struggle going on in his heart and mind, he decided to read some small Christian booklets, and then finished reading the New Testament three times in one week! 

Each time he read the New Testament, it spoke deeper and deeper to his heart and life. Lim had come to put his trust in Jesus Christ and opened his life to the Holy Spirit of God. Lim became full of joy, and no longer feared being arrested by the soldiers. He studied the Word of God with the pastor and a group Christians. Lim immediately went out to share the Good News with other people. Many people listened to the words of God as Lim taught them as much as he knew.  Sometimes he felt like he had taught them correctly and sometimes he did not, so when he went back home, he studied even harder. He started going to share the Good News in the hospital and prison. In the villages, they had twenty five bible study groups and there were hundreds of people accepting Jesus Christ. Although Lim never studied at the Bible school, and never had a diploma, God has chosen him to serve Him in church planting ministry.  Lim has dedicated himself to establishing groups of believers in unreached areas of Batambang province. Lim is a leader and trainer in the One Prayer church planting initiative.

ONE Prayer Update: India

Crew!  Here's another ONE Prayer update.  This one is from India and from the mouth (erm...keyboard) of our brother Raj  about one of the ONE Prayer church planters in Tamilnadu! -sj

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Brother Jeyapaul was born deaf to a poor Hindu family. As a result, he was not allowed to study beyond 4th grade. In order to survive, he found all sorts of odd-jobs serving in restaurants, agriculture and road work, all of which were paid on daily wage basis. Many times, he did not get any job.

Because of his low status and physical disability, no girl was willing to marry him. As a result, he married an orphan girl from the nearby state of Kerala. She was a professional witch, and each week, as many as 70 people would come to her to ask her to solve their various problems through her ability to manipulate evil spirits. Later, when Jeyapaul and his wife had a daughter, they found that she was born mute. Until at the age of six, she could not speak even a single word. At that time, Jeyapaul himself became sick and bed ridden. His wife tried to heal him using all her spiritist means, but every thing was in vain. It was also during this time that a group of Christians came to that village to do open air evangelism. When Jeyapaul and his family heard that Jesus can heal any sickness, they invited the Christians to pray for him. He was miraculously healed! Then after joining the local church, they began to pray for his daughter. Immediately she started speaking as well! After that, his wife decided to follow this powerful God, and as a family they started sharing their testimony, which brought many people to Christ.

When God called Jeyapaul to do His ministry, he sold all his tools at half rate in order to acquire a little initial capital for books and supplies. He approached different organization to get an opportunity to learn to pastor and plant churches, but all of them rejected him because he was not educated either in secular college or in seminary. He asked his wife to help him. He said he wanted to study the Bible and pray for3 years, so that he will know the word of God to teach others. His wife decided to help him, and by hiring herself out as a day laborer, was able to acquire about 75 cent per day for the work she did (all the while honoring God by giving a tithe of about 7 cents). One day, when he was praying, his daughter asked for a few cents to buy some toffee. Since he did not have the money, he was feeling so bad and asked God if he would help him to provide something kind and compassionate for his daughter. After he finished praying, his daughter came to him holding some sweets in her little hands. When he asked where she had acquired the candy, the little girl pointed to a raven perching on a branch nearby. The raven left, and then came back with more candy for the little girl. This continued for three days, during which time, Jeyapaul came across the passage in 1Kings 17 where Elijah was fed by ravens in the wilderness. He was so shocked that he began to call people to him, instructing them about this God who can feed his children, even from the mouths of the birds of the air. As a result, more than 27 people came to Christ during this period.

Later, the Lord directed Jeyapaul to go to a small village called Kodimangalam. This village has 4,000 houses. There are 28 temples and 32 priests serving in those temples. There are 4 Hindu spiritists (witch-doctors) functioning in this village. There are also 17 prostitutes living in the area. When he came to do ministry in this village, no one would provide him with a house. As a result, the first day, he had to sleep on the road with his wife’s old saree wrapped around him. The next day, he found a house for $3 rent per month. When he started sharing Christ, the head of the village man, Palanisamy, chased him out of the village. He was there out in the village for 12 days, without any food. Then one man from that village who opposes Palanisamy gave his cow shed. Jeyapaul started staying there and doing ministry, and while he continues to meet significant opposition, threats and persecution, God is doing great things in the village as he seeks to plant a church there, and also in a village nearby

When Jeyapaul heard that we are training Church planters, he rushed to us and begged to be allowed to participate in the training program. Through the ONE Prayer movement, we are so happy to say that Jeyapaul is being trained to do ministry more effectively, and that he is proceeding through the training curriculum with great enthusiasm. He told us recently, that “I am so thrilled [to be receiving this training] and now have confidence and tools that will help me to plant a Church with 1000 people in it some day!” 

ONE Prayer Update: China

See below for most recent post from China for the ONE Prayer network! -sj

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In July of 2004, the daughter of Victor Zhang became 

seriously ill. The doctors in the city where he lived told him that his daughter had only a few weeks left to live, and could offer no hope for her condition to improve.

Looking for ways to rescue his daughter, Victor decided to take her to Harbin, a larger city nearby, in the hope that the more sophisticated and famous hospitals and doctors would be able to help. These hopes were unrealized, however, when the doctors’ answers were the same in each instance: “sorry, but we cannot help.”

Eventually, a smaller hospital in the region agreed to try to

 help and treat his daughter’s illness, but the prognosis remained bleak in regard to their confidence that they would be able to do more than just try to keep her comfortable.

At that point, Victor and his family turned to Jesus for help, and began praying for his daughter as a result of his newfound faith. Quickly, his daughter began to show signs of improvement, and a month later she was even able to get up from her bed. As a result, many patients, relatives and even the doctors themselves began inquiring about the nature of the dramatic recovery, and that is when Victor started to preach Jesus Christ boldly to those in the hospital.

Even though the 

treatment for Victor’s daughter has continued for two more years at the hospital, groups of believers have steadily begun to meet under Victor’s leadership and pastoral care. In fact, Victor and his family eventually decided to stay in Harbin in order to be able to continue the church planting ministry God so specifically and directly laid upon their hearts.

Now, through the training and help provided through the ONE Prayer Network, Victor is planting churches in the neighborhood where his daughter’s hospital continues to operate, offering worship services at the hospital and helping those in residence there to find salvation for both body and soul through Jesus Christ.

“Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods! For who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who knows enough to be his counselor?” 
Rom. 11:33-34; (NLT)

“This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it” John 11:4; (NIV)

ONE Prayer Update: Sudan

Crew!  Here's the latest update from Sudan for the ONE Prayer Network.  Enjoy! -sj

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Twenty church planters and a lot

 of other people attended the training in eastern Sudan in September.  It is becoming harder and harder to limit the training only to the church planters enrolled in the year long program.  The objective is to take a cohort of new church planters through training that focuses on the skills needed for each stage of church planting, but as time goes on, more people hear about the sessions and just show up. 

Like Jesus model with his disciples, the twenty church planters have been sent out two by two after each training session.  At this session, all ten reported that they have started a ministry center.  The three largest have between 25 and 30 adults at regular worship services, all from mixed Muslim and animist backgrounds.

Each team of workers is related to a “mother” church which takes responsibility for the emerging new congregation.  The leaders of these churches met with the trainers and shared how they are encouraged to be “totally active” in the new churches.  (It is wonderful to see these leaders so energized by the success of their missionary teams.  Many “mother” churches have been in survival mode, convinced that they cannot reach Moslems.  Now with training and experience, the new groups are already talking about how to reach other villages and will bring plans and prayers to the December training session.)

I Should Have Been a Drill Sargeant...

I probably missed my calling as a US Marine Corps Drill Sergeant, but i make up for some of that through training our India Teams to get them ready for the field. One thing that we do that i find to be both fun and fairly unique is a combined set of "simulations" where team members prepare to see how they will do physically during their time in India. You see, on the field, they will experience travel fatigue, sleeping on dirt floors, excess of hundred degree heat, carting luggage over the proverbial river and through the woods, and all sorts of new and different things that will tax them physically, psychologically and spiritually. So... to get them ready for the experience, we design a weekend long simulation that looks like the following:

Friday Night - Sleep on your floor. No fair dragging your mattress onto the ground, but it doesn't matter whether you have carpet, hard wood or linoleum. The idea is that you will most likely be sleeping on the floor in India, so just changing your sleeping position and normal level of comfort will help you get a feel for what that will be like.

Saturday Morning - Wake up early and head to GCC to participate in 2nd Saturday. The idea is that you are dong something "active".

Saturday Afternoon/Evening - After finishing 2nd Saturday, we meet back at GCC, grab a quick bite to eat together, and then head to Potato Creek State Park with everyone's gear packed the way they're going to be taking it to India. At Potato Creek, the teams will hike (with their luggage) through Trail I for a distance over mud and trails of about 2.2 miles. It's not that big of a deal, but if you get tired of carrying your 26 lb makeup kit during that time, better to find out this side of the travel timeline than in India and having to toss it on the field. When finished, team members are dismissed to run home, get a quick shower, and head back to church, where we meet to sit together at the 5 pm worship service at GCC.

Saturday Night - Sleep on your floor...again. By this point, you should be a little sore from Friday night, plus good and tired from the day.

Sunday Morning - Wake up and see how you feel. Whether good or bad, it's probably a airly decent indicator as to how you're going to feel on an average day in India. Once you figure out how you're doing, send Jack an e-mail telling him such. If you're grouchy and sore, then you'll probably want to increase your physical fitness regimen before you go. If you're "just fine", don't get cocky, but be glad that you're on the right track.

The simulations are "required" and are not optional, and we are offering them for the December India Team window on three separate dates (each revolving around the Second Saturdays in October, November and December). For the October option, the following people participated (see picture above - left to right): Ron Twedt (Justice), Mike Ryan (Tech), Elaine Ryan (Construction), Ted Bryant (Justice), Jennifer Kukla (Water), Nancy Leist (Construction), Greg Schermier (Construction).

December-January India Team Blog!

Hey, many of you already know that I'm facilitating another round of teams to India in December and January to reinforce and help our Indian church planter network, and i wanted to let you know that the blog for the teams is now up and running. You can do the following with/through the blog if you would like to track it:

• Keep up with the teams we're sending throughout the entire training process, as well as while they are on the field.
• Link to other previous teams to get an idea of what GCC India teams do when they're on the field.
• Give to either specific team members or to the team as a whole through the "online giving" link.

Check it out! You can either click here, or go to the following: http://gccindiadec08.blogspot.com/
-sj

Eastern Europe: One Year Later...

Last year at about this time, i had the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong ambition and spend a couple of weeks hiking through Eastern Europe. Since i'm a closet Goth (okay, maybe not quite too "closet"), many of the sites i wanted to see pertain to the lore and mythologies that i have loved for so long. The folllowing is a brief explanation of the sites and activities i had the opportunity to experience while there, and the attached slideshow gives a few pics as well.

* Krakow, Poland - I flew into Krakow for starters, and had a couple of days wandering through the beauty of one of Europe's truly "old cities". It was gorgeous.

* Auschwitz, Poland - One of the most profound and deeply sobering classes i took in college was a course on literature by/from survivors of the Nazi genocide during WWII. I'm not sure one says that they "get" to visit a site like Auschwitz, therefore, but i also think that it's one of those places that everyone should see if they can, if for no other reason than to be reminded of the warning that it supplies to the human race as to what happens when evil is left unchecked.

* Csjethe Castle, Slovakia - On my way from Poland, i wanted to stop and visit a castle ruin that belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Considered the "female Dracula" by historians and folklorists, Bathory is a seminal root to contemporary vampiric lore in both a "real" and legendary capacity.

* Budapest, Hungary - I spent 3 months in Budapest in 1991, and LOVED it! I couldn't wait to go back, and also had the opportunity to visit and help train some church planters who are functioning in the region.

* Transylvania, Romania - I couldn't go on a trek through Eastern Europe without visiting Transylvania (that region that spans through most of Romania and beyond, resting on the backbone of the Carpathian Mountains). Being limited a bit on time, i didn't have a chance to get all the way to Poenari Castle in Curtea D'Argess (i.e. the real Castle Dracula, being used by the historical Vlad "The Impaler" Dracul Tepes in the 15th century), but did have a chance to visit some other fun sites (Bran Castle being among one of the most notable).

I blogged pretty diligently throughout the whole experience, and you can check my family blog for additional posts and greater depth if you want to by clicking here.

A New Way to Dance the Cha-Cha!

As i mentioned in a previous post this morning, i learned some about a new web-service called ChaCha that blends the benefits of Twitter and Wikipedia. You can basically, either through the Web or via your cell phone, ask ChaCha ANY question you can think of, and the company outsources your question to a network of 44,000 guides (volunteer crowd-sourcers who reply to ChaCha questions sourced to them based on identified areas of expertise) to supply you with a researched answer in just a couple of minutes.

I signed up quickly for an account, and decided to test it out to see how it "flew". Here's what i tried and found out.

My test question?
Q: "What's the combined thrust to weigh ratio of an F-22 Raptor's engines?"

Answer supplied by ChaCha?
A: "The Raptor's two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 engines pump out 35,000 pounds of thrust each. Thrust to weight ratio 1.13:1 ChaCha!"

The answer was supplied by a guide named Melissa, and she found my answer (all of this listed in the quick "answer blurb") by researching the following:

Howstuffworks "How F/A-22 Raptors Work"
http://science.howstuffworks.com/f-22-raptor.htm/printable

"Ooookay, that was pretty good!", i thought, "and even better, i had my answer in just a few minutes". Then, i decided to try it from my cell phone (ChaCha has the "Twitteresque" ability to use report to/from your mobile device OR the web, either way) to test the response time. I shot a text to ChaCha, set my stopwatch and waited. Here was my next question:

Q: "How does one kill an Aswang?" (Note: An Aswang is a Philipino mythological vampiric creature)

A: "You can shoot them with a gun."

Response Time: 3 minutes, 11 seconds.

Problem is, firearms are not typically listed as a reliable way to kill an Aswang, so even though the response was fast, it was incorrect. In addition, the source link supplied by the "guide" gave some info about the mythical creature, but never stated firearm useage in the article. There also wasn't an easily identifiable "reporting mechanism" to ChaCha to let them know it was incorrect short of the "contact us" form.

Ah well... still... fun product! Check it out!

Smart Zombies: Life Mission International Crew...

What a team! The men represented in this picture are part of the staff and volunteers associated with GCC's India-based non-profit organization called Life Mission International! They are responsible for training, supervising and supporting over 350 men and women who are attempting to plant or pastor holistically minded churches in [mostly] remote villages in Southern India.

We have the privilege of working closely with these men, and can honestly say that they are helping to change and shape the face of the nation. You will notice Raj (middle row, second from the left), of course, and if you've been to India on one of our GCC ministry teams, you'll undoubtedly recognize other faces as well.

And then, of course, you simply MUST notice that all of them are wearing black t-shirts... which, of course... makes me feel right at home as i always wear similar in my day-to-day activities! Why? Well... more on that later.

TechPoint Briefing: Barnes & Thornburg - "New Economy, New Rules"

Once again, I'm here at Barnes & Thornburg (a local law firm that also has its hands in several community projects as well) for their monthly "Tech Point" to learn about local entrepreneurs, technologies that will be impacting our community, and just general things that are "up and coming". Anyway, today's panel of speakers mainly centered around issues related to Human Resources, and the following were my "takeaways" from the morning.

C. Todd Richardson (VP, ExactTarget, LLC) - Capturing Outstanding Quality Talent
* Quality Talent is defined as...
** Experienced Professional - their potential is/has been realized.
** Recent Graduates - their potential is/has yet to be realized.
*** Flexible Career Paths
*** Laid-back work environment (dress code, hours, mgmt. styles)
*** Environmentally Friendly (paperless, green awareness)
*** Freedom to take risks
*** Growth in the Personal as well as Professional (i.e. encouragement in the employee's pursuit of outside interests).

* Successful staffing strategies are dependent on drawing from both of these talent pools.
* What are your Differentiators?
** Personal development opportunities. Aggressive people want to know how to "go somewhere". Seldom do they just want to "do status quo". Often, this requires customized personal development plans.
** Industry Growth Initiatives (i.e. the industry is actually growing, and there are opportunities for actual growth).
** Entrepreneurial Environment (i.e. encourage experimentation).
** Workplace Flexibility (i.e. telecommuting, compressed workweeks, food provided at the office, etc.)
** Lifestyle/Employment Differentiators (Compensation/Benefit Plans/Stock Options, ExactFun, ExactImpact, ExactWellness).

* Understand the difference between your team and your "farm team" (internships).
** Internship Program (Slingshot)
*** 10 week intern program with the expectation that participants will think, innovate and contribute.
*** Will provide them with a minimum of two resume-worthy projects.
*** The Goal: Foundation for long term-relationship.
** Accellerated Track for Full-time Employment (Catapult)
*** Post-graduate, full-time, rotational program.
*** Comprehensive orientation, followed by three separate 6-week rotations through the business.
*** Allows non-committal, high-potential grads to discover the career path of most interest.
*** Goal: Passionate employment

Christopher O'Bryhim (Chief Human Resources Officer, Veriana Networks, Inc)
1 year old Tech company that focuses on content creation and distribution, as well as content consumption. Has a high value for helping Indiana recognize that promoting and maintaining technology-centered jobs will be its key to being a major player in the emerging economy.
* Veriana supports the practice of "Corporate Onshoring": a concept is based upon the recognition of talent and resources that are abundant in Indiana and the Midewest. In fact, Technology oriented businesses are a key element to sustainable development in Indiana.
* Reverse the "brain drain" in Indiana via further development and attraction of technology oriented jobs to the state.
* Technology success breeds more technology success.

Deborah Mullin (Director of Human Resources, ChaCha Search, Inc.)
ChaCha gets a lot of press for being one of the foremost notable "up and coming" Indiana-based businesses. It focuses on providing a seriously innovative "ask anything" digital response service via cell-phone, and i was interested to find that you can literally use ChaCha to answer just about anything through networks of "guides" who specialize in particular areas. You could, for instance, send ChaCha a question like "What was 'Dirty Harry's' last name?" and a guide somewhere would ping you via the ChaCha service to say "Callahan". It's free, it's mobile-based, and is very SmartZombie in that links crowd-sourcing with good tech infrastructure. Think Twitter meets Wikipedia. Cool!

ChaCha has (and is) demonstrated a radical committment to genuinely trying to make its workplace "the best place to work in America" through a combination of an exciting product and an open work environment. I sound like a commercial... i don't mean to... i was just genuinely impressed by them. Free weekly massages at the workplace? Okay, now you have to admit that that sounds good!

How do they "recruit top talent"?
* Hired a full time recruiter just to gather and hold top talent.
* Host "outside the box" recruiting events with their employees.
* Internal referral program.
* Website reflects the internal culture of the company, as well as provides the service.
* Have close and developed connection(s) with local universities to ensure that they have "top pick" upon graduation.

"Sweded" Looney Tunes Classic: "The Rabbit of Seville"

The movie Be Kind, Rewind has had an apparent (and unexpected) impact on my family in the way of a new fascination among my kids to "Swede" movies and favorite other media. The process, as defined by Jack Black and Mos Def, essentially revolves around a) picking a favorite movie, b) truncating it to its absolute barest and most memorable parts, and c) re-enacting it with what you have around you to the best of your ability. The end result is a fun, often hilarious and always cute (hey, they're my kids... if you don't think they're cute, you can keep that to yourself) rendition of whatever it is they are attempting to reproduce.

Recently, we've been watching a lot of Looney Tune classics on YouTube. I'm amazed at all that they have on that site... holy cow! But anyway, Elijah and Peri have some particular fondness for Bugs Bunny, and specifically, the "opera" satires that involve Bugs getting the better of [usually] Elmer Fudd to the classic music of everything to Wagner to The Marriage of Figaro.

Last night's target for Sweding centered around Bugs and the parody of The Barber of Seville, one of my personal favorites (i had a chance to see it at The Bolshoi in Moscow in 1994... it rocked!!!) called "The Rabbit of Seville" (what else?) and focused on a particual scene where Bugs dons the appearance of a Spanish lady to sucker Elmer into a position where he doesn't notice Bugs shearing his garters.

The kids' re-enactment (notice Elijah's attempt at re-creating the green "gown" worn by Bugs and Peri's pink hat - she didn't want to look TOO much like a boy... even though she was trying to be Elmer Fudd) is shown below, and if you want to see the original cartoon, you can click here to go to YouTube to watch the 7 minute classic.

ONE Prayer Update: India...

In July, Raj and i went to a 1,300 year old temple fortification near the seashore of a town called Mammalapuram (it's a large, tourist attraction), where, at sunrise, we shot the following update of the progress of the ONE Prayer movement in India. Walking through the stone ruins of this beautiful, massive, hand-built structure helped me to see anew the beauty of what God is doing in and through all of us to knit people together to Himself! Enjoy!

Thirst II: Reloaded...

In July, i visited one of the villages where GCC Water Teams will be operating in December. My purpose was to do a little recon in figuring out what the status of the village is in terms of their existing water quality, as well as getting some basic data on their demographics, population stats, etc. What is attached here is a little video that is an edited compendium of the footage that i took while there, and gives you an accurate picture of how our helping to deliver clean water to the 65 - 75 families who live there will be helpful.

By the way, we will be blogging the December Teams as we prep to leave for the field. You can track them by clicking here, or going to http://gccindiadec08.blogspot.com.

ONE Prayer Update: China

Please see below from our field ministry partners in China regarding progress on the ONE Prayer initiative in that country! -sj

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On August 8th 2008 one of our teachers was conducting a baptismal service in one of the lakes near Yian town in the Heilongjiang province. The water in this lake was quite muddy and the lake shore was covered with seaweed. One of the ladies had brought her little boy with her who was playing near the water. Several times during the service she had told him to stay away from the water. But towards the end of the baptismal process the boy still ran into the water and disappeared. Fortunately his mother realized it and jumped to his rescue, but when she entered the water she realized that it was deep and also went under.

The teacher who was still baptizing people interrupted his service and ran to the rescue of mother and her child, but when he jumped in the water where the mother went under he also disappeared in the water. At that point the whole group got together, formed a line holding each other by their hands and lowered one brother into the water who started to search for the three people in the water now. He was able to get a hold of the teacher who held on to the mother with her son. All three were saved in the end. This was truly God’s grace in action. Praise the Lord!!!

Smart Zombie: Raj

Meet Raj! He's our Director of International Missions here at GCC, and one of the most amazing people on the planet! Seriously! Under his leadership over the past 10 years, more than 600 men and women have been trained to plant churches in Tamilnadu, Southern India. We first met Raj through our partnership with The Bible League , and now have the privilege of having him on staff with us.

In addition to continuing to resource ongoing networks of Indian church planters, Raj is also running point for/with us on the India partnership component of the ONE Prayer campaign, operates our "in country" organization (called Life Mission International), and is a dedicated dad (he has two children, Bruce - who is in college, and Clarinda, who is in High School) and husband to his wife of 20 years (Prema). We'll be spending several days hammering out all of the various things we'll be doing together over 2009 and beyond, and are grateful to have him with us for a few days!

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 6 - Conclusion)

So i like Morgan. I like that he was quick to rally to unconventional solutions to big problems. I like that he saw in a group of misfits and outlanders the capacity to change the world. I like that he embodied the kind of poise, precision and audacity that appears to be more and more necessary to succeed in the world in which we live. I like that he helped to forge the spine for many "Pirate Charters" where, despite the despicable nature of their trade itself, exhibited more democracy, equality, generosity and character than the supposedly "civilized" cultures who often criticized them for their brutality. And finally, i like that by doing all of the above, Morgan and his ilk managed to single-handedly bring England to the proverbial table of the global goods trade and make it a "player" for global consideration for centuries to come.

No doubt by now you've noticed that i like metaphors. I like the idea of being a Smart Zombie and a Samurai. I like the tangible picture(s) that such images give me for what i'm trying to achieve. And apparently, i like Pirates! Avast!

2nd Saturday Media...

Also thought that i would include the media that Rob Wegner showed in his amazing session here at Innovate about 2nd Saturday (our largest, most regularly scheduled "Local Access" media).

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 5 - Playah's)

* Playah's -By the end of Morgan's career, he and his fleet of Buccanneers had very nearly harassed Spain into bankruptcy and brought England forward as a key player in the New World. So often we hear about nations who rise and fall at the success of their diplomacy or their armies, but in this case, it was actually the Crown that owed its eventual prosperity to a group of people it had only loosely backed, and even sometimes double-crossed for convenient deals or unstable truces with longstanding enemies. I wonder sometimes whether or not the same could be said of us. Can we sometimes save our own nations, families, churches, whatever, possibly by means that are completely other than those established by/through conventional norms or what has worked for centuries? What if, in another hundred years, the powers that be look back on private bands of men and women who pulled loosely-bound, rag-tag groups of outsiders together to systematically reinvent the support structures that they then depend upon rather than established government systems or long-standing social structures? I wonder... i wonder what a recipe that added Jesus to Morgan might look like in our current day. I think i'd like to find out. I think that we're trying. Doubtless, as we experiment here at GCC, the solutions don't involve larceny, murder or torture, but i wonder if they could be just as audacious and big, just as innovative and pioneering.

ONE Prayer Update: India...

See below for a field update from India and the progress of ministry there with the ONE Prayer movement. -sj

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Here is brother POOVARASU, which means King of Flower, who was sick from birth. He had multiple problem, heart problem, puss coming out from ear, and "un-healable" wounds. His poor parents could not care for him during his childhood due to the poverty they experienced, and could not afford to take him to the nearby town hospital. Once, while he was studying 3rd standard in a free government school, they took him to a hospital and the doctors said he needed to undergo different operations which exceeded the potential savings of his small family. Since they did not have the resources, and since bad smell used to come from his body, his parents eventually just left him outside the house, not knowing what else to do with him. People used to pass by him so often that his plight became "routine", and he was eventually completely forgotten. While he was in 9th grade, he became so sick and his pain became so unbearable that everyone expected him to die.

Since Jesus loves him, however, he had a different plan for him. On an eventful day a Christian woman passed by the village, saw the misery of this man, and it broke her heart. She immediately knelt down and touched him with compassion and prayed for him. God also touched him, healed him, and he became a new man! All the wounds and pain slowly disappeared from him. People who saw him earlier were amazed by what had happened. God filled him with a love and joy that he never experienced.
He then received a Bible from the lady who prayed for him, and started reading the Word of God. As he was reading the life of Jesus, he was moved by the love of Christ even to the persecutors and the thieves on the cross. He wanted show the same love to his parents, even though they abandoned him. He started learning from this lady about Christ. Then he started sharing about Christ to his parents and relatives. When his parents saw what had happened, they believed in Jesus as well. Few of the relatives and village people have accepted Christ. Now, if anyone is sick in the village or close by, they call Poovarasu to come and pray for them.

Now he is the most wanted man in this area for people who long for peace, healing, and meaning in life. God is using him mightily to touch many people in this community. Now he has joined our ONE Prayer KGT ("Kingdom of God") Training to plant churches in the villages around him. He has completed the first module, and is using a simple Bible study booklet that we have provided to share Christ along with his living testimony. He is so happy that he found a right training to shape his life and ministry. He is thankful to the ONE Prayer Movement for the opportunity!

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 4 - The Pirate Code)

* The Pirate Code - If you happened to serve on a Spanish Galley or Dutch merchantmen, life was dangerous, difficult and, for the most part, unpleasant. Unless you were a ranking officer, you could expect to have no say in what happened on the ship, no call as to its mission or destination, no benefit reaped from jobs well-done, no part in any boon or blessing (those were reserved most often for the Captain and First Mate, and for the Company who financed them), and in return, you could be flogged, beaten or confined below deck for...well... anything, even just ranging from poorly swabbing a deck to just being at the psychotic whim of the Captain or Mate.

On a pirate vessel, however, none of the above applied. As a member of the crew, you immediately had a share in all decision-making. You helped to pick the mission, the objectives and points of plunder. You also reaped an equal share of the reward with all others, and only the Captain received a double-share. By comparison, virtually all pirate charters were egalitarian, democratic, and attempted to treat crew-members as "owners" of a shared whole. Once decided, of course, the Captains assumed full responsibility for the accomplishment of the established objectives, and the crew snapped to unswervingly, becoming a single body bound by common mission and the promise of fortune.

I love the irony that the best chance at egalitarianism and democracy that you would find in the Golden Age of Piracy was on a pirate ship! Sometimes, it seems, that beauty can be found in the oddest places! Sometimes i wonder what people 200 years will think when they look back at the "charters" that bound us together as people of faith.

ONE Prayer Update: Cambodia...

Received the following from our ministry partner in Cambodia regarding the process of how the efforts are going at moving us toward our goal of planting 500 churches in 4 nations by next June. See below! -sj

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Cambodia is a beautiful country of rivers, mountains, forests, palm trees and rice fields nestled in the heart of Southeast Asia. A relatively small country of 14 million people, most of them live in more than 13,000 villages spread throughout the countryside. It is also the location of the famed Anchor Wat temple ruins from the 9th to 12th century, a world heritage site.

But not everything is so beautiful in Cambodia. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. forces dropped over 2.75 million tons of bombs on Cambodia. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the pull out of US troops in 1975 from South Vietnam, revolutionary Cambodian leader, Pol Pot, and the Khmer Rouge army killed over 1.7 million Cambodians. They are buried in mass graves in over 300 locations throughout the country. The genocide took the lives of over 20% of the population at the time. I have never spoken to a Cambodian whose family was not directly affected by the genocide. Cambodia is a country in recovery and still has great social, economic and spiritual need.

Of the 13,000 villages in Cambodia, it is estimated that there are over 11,000 villages that do not have a single follower of Christ. These villages make up the places where over 80% of the population lives. The housing and lifestyle of these Cambodians is simple and predominantly agricultural. The villages are remote and the roads are often impassable. In fact, no one just casually visits one of these villages. Someone must intentionally go to them. That’s where you come in. The One Prayer church planting initiative in Cambodia is going to help train and mobilize Cambodian believers to go into these yet unreached villages with the gospel of peace.
Based on the testimony of a church planter I talked to in May (we’ll call him “Mark”), the journey into most of these villages in his area is not at all easy. He describes trying to find a remote village that he heard about deep in the jungle forest which rises up from the Mekong River that flows through the area. He and his companion were walking deep in the forest as dusk began to make it almost impossible to see. They had hoped to make it to the village before dark, because these particular forests are full of malaria carrying mosquitoes. He and his companion continually prayed about what to do.

Surrounded by the closing darkness of the forest he decided to climb a tree for a better view. In the distance he saw the glow of a fire. He got his bearings and they began to walk in that direction. When they approached the cluster of small bamboo and wood homes, he saw the cooking fire of a woman outside her hut which stood on stilts above her. It was not the village they were looking for, but they were glad to find people, any people.

The strangers had no idea how they would be received by these people who rarely see anyone from outside their village clusters. However, the men were greeted by a woman with a warm smile and the aroma of steaming rice. Almost as if she were expecting them, she invited them near and naturally began to ask them questions. Off to one side, under the house, lay a man. It was her husband who had passed out in a drunken stupor, oblivious to the strangers who had emerged from the forest. Bro Mark and his companion inquired about her life, her husband and family. These men shared their own testimonies of a changed life and the Creator God who loves and seeks the people he created. News about the strangers quickly spread to the other houses and people began to come and listen to them tell stories into the night as they ate with the growing crowd. They prayed for the family and thanked the village for their hospitality. The people wanted to hear more, so the men stayed there in that village, sharing God’s Word with them and seeing many of them come to faith. What seemed like the wrong village was the right village. This “woman of peace”, prepared by God, welcomed the men of God and helped the people in her village receive the gospel and they are growing in His grace.

Thanks to the One Prayer Church planting initiative, Bro. Mark will now have opportunity to train and mobilize at least 8 teams of church planters in his province to seek out more of the 200 to 300 villages he has heard about that have yet to meet a believer and hear the Good News of Christ. Pray for Mark and his teams as they risk malaria on their trek of faith, or even climb trees to seek out those who need the gospel.

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 3 - Ragamuffin Army & Poise, Precision and Audacity)

* Ragamuffin Army - By the time Morgan began to piece together what became known as the legendary Bretheren of the Coast (a loose coalition of marauders who operated in the Carribean Islands in the 17th Century), he was recruiting from the most unlikely groups of people imaginable. Did you know that the term "Buccanneer" actually originates from the fact that many of the mountain men who rallied to Morgan's banner were called "barbecuers" (i.e. "boucaners", from which we also get our word "bacon") by local inhabitants because of their uncouth practices of openly flaying, firing and eating the wild pigs who often roamed the islands? These groups were mostly comprised of those whom conventional society had completely forgotten or abandoned. They were the runaway or free slaves, the bankrupt, the poor, the desperate, the landless, the uneducated, the absolute bottom of the proverbial barrell. And yet, they liked Morgan as he promised them an opportunity to rally and prove themselves, rising from the ranks of the forgotten and rigid classes of reinforced aristocracy and becoming, eventually, what Talty calls "pound for pound, one of the most elite fighting forces on the planet...".

* Poise, Precision and Audacity -Morgan consistently did the impossible. Throughout his career, the Spanish found themselves retreating into supposed impossiblities, only to have to later eat their own words later. "He'll never attack Portobello... it's too well defended!" Then Morgan sent letters of ransom to bewildered Spanish authorities after sacking the fort in one of the most daring moonlight amphibious raids ever attempted in maritime warfare. "Well! At least we still have Panama! He would never dare attack Panama! We have nearly 1,500 infantry and cavalry there!" Then, after 1671, Panama belonged to Morgan. Although he was careful with the lives of his men, he was simply undaunted by... well... anything. There was no limit to his ambition (and, unfortunately, his greed), and because he simply dared, he pushed the boundaries of what was even thougth possible by the ruling Spanish heirarchy, and forced them to acknowledge England and its rag-tag bands of Privateers as a real menace. You cannot read about Morgan without walking away with the notion that poise, precision and audacity account for much.

I LOVE the idea of gathering "people at the margins" (i.e. the "zombies" i speak of in my previous post) for a cause that ultimately becomes successful, and i love the audacity that Morgan displayed in rallying the forgotten to a cause that made the Spanish Empire tremble!

ONE Prayer Update: Sudan

As many of you know that we are coordinating the missional elements of the ONE Prayer campaign, i thought it would be fun to list the weekly updates that we are receiving from each of our field partners in Sudan, India, Cambodia and China. As a result, please see below for what we recently received from our partner in Sudan.
-sj
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Jesus walked from town to town with his disciples, but Sudan, Africa's largest country, is more than 100 times larger than the territory of Judea and Samaria. 55 church planters in two groups are already in training and have begun to share Christ in the villages of two unreached districts. Planting churches in rural towns and villages in Sudan can be very difficult because people quickly recognize and are suspicious of strangers. The church planters learn to go first to one of the village elders and ask for permission to visit the village and start a school. The word "school" does not mean an institution with a building, but something as simple as a teacher sitting under the tree or in the shade of a hut with any "students" willing to learn.

One of the church planters currently working with/through the ONE Prayer network (we will call him Michael) approached an elder in the village he was praying for. He asked the elder for permission but was refused. The elder said that everyone in the village was Muslim. The elder walked with Michael through the whole village to prove that there were no Christians there. Michael left, but returned regularly to the village, always visiting the elder and reading to him some passages from the Bible. Finally, he confessed that he had grown up in a Christian family, but did not know anything about the Bible. In order to live in this village, he had converted to Islam and taken a Muslim name. But now that the elder was hearing the Bible, he wanted Michale to start a school in his home. On the first "official" day of the school, almost 50 people came to listen.

Michael and all of the church planters visit several villages each week. The bikes that they use (like the one featured above in the inset picture) greatly improve their mobility and outreach capability. The early stage of church planting involves a lot of conversation and relationship building, and the model offered is based on Ecclesiastes 11:6 ("Sow seed in the morning and at evening, let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that or whether both will do equally well.").
8/1/08
rvg

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 2 - Broke but Smart)

Henry Morgan was a rare individual, and i won't go into a lengthy history here, but there were a few details about his life that really stood out to me, and reinforced the notion in my mind that in many ways, what i really think that we're attempting to accomplish in our lives as we attempt to follow Jesus in the world in which we are emerging is "becoming pirates"! Here's what i mean:

* Broke but Smart - "Modern" Piracy (piracy itself is older than the ancient Greeks) was started by King Henry VIII after he had to sell his navy to pay off his debts, and emerged out of the need of desperate kings who could not finance their own navies, but who would offer a sort of "license" to opportunistic or desperate men who wished to raid enemy ships, forts and cities in order to carry off whatever could be of any value. This practice was given a veneer of legitimacy under the guise of being called "Privateering" (Piracy sounds like such a nasty word... so why not call it something "nicer"). In return, these mercenaries agreed to pay the crown as much as 16% of their total (10% to the Lord Admiral and 6% to the King), and their only real limitation to what they could accomplish was their own audacity. This unorthodox approach to solving really big problems (i.e. financial shortages and economic collapse from within, hostile enemies on every border baying for your blood from without) required cash-strapped kings to completely re-think conventional notions of funding their empires and defending their borders without having large standing armies. Sure, it was nice that Spain had a dedicated Navy with huge, gold-gilded ships and highly disciplined crew ranks, but small, heavily armed sloops of freed slaves, runaways, mountain men and drifters who were given freedom, opportunity and a chance to succeed as far as their dreams could take them eventually proved a match for even the highly disciplined fleets of armed Spanish, Dutch and Portugese forces. This was the world that Henry Morgan inherited as he began his pirate career.

Like most businesses, families and individuals, we in local churches, NGO's, local agencies and other such entities often find ourselves (particularly in our current economy...sheesh!) in positions where cash is scarce, demand and need are high, and pressure is on to deliver better and better solutions to really large problems that confront us on every end. I think we'll need to increasingly consider what it might look like to unleash the force of not only volunteers in our communities, but businesses and entrepreneurially minded people as well in capacities heretofore unexplored. More on that later, but the environment of Morgan's day isn't TOO different in many ways from our environment.

MC3 Video Media...

We are asked often here at GCC "what we are doing here locally in the South Bend community", and i usually respond with elaborate recitations of programs and history. In this instance, however, the media below illustrates that in an encapsulated way that is considerably more powerful that my droning and rambling. This media was produced through a combination of both "in house" (like my friend Ben Sanders) and professional volunteers (like my friend Gene Ort), and was overlay narrated by our very own DC Curry (Diretor of Granger Student Ministries). Enjoy!

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 1 - Intro)

No doubt, pirates receive far too noble a wrap from conventional Hollywood media. I mean, c'mon, it's pretty hard to hate Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, no matter how much dirt and grime you smear on them, right? But in reality, old-world pirates were nasty critters, and seeing the hated "Jolly Roger" flapping from a mast like a black streamer on the fin of a shark in your wake was enough to make merchantmen and even heavily armed Spanish warships tremble for good reason. Pirates were robbers, thieves, muggers and murderers, plain and simple. They were adventurers and [usually] desperate men (and sometimes women) who would really rather have just as soon run you through with a rusty cutlass as looked at you... unless they could ransom you, and in which case, you'd better make sure that your family paid up because there was no need for them to exhibit much patience or cordiality otherwise.

But there's something about the swarthy swashbucklers that has always fascinated me. Perhaps it's the fact that they absolutely flew in the face of a dominating aristocracy (i.e. the Spanish Empire) to live lives of relative freedom, equality and adventure. Or maybe i just like things that tend to be bound together in tight, usually small, hyper-effective (and sometimes lethal) bands of men and women wound around a common purpose. But whatever it is, i've long been a fan of pirate lore and history, and recently read Stephan Talty's book (Empire of Blue Water) about one of pirate history's most famous (and notorious) pirate captains: Captain Sir Henry Morgan (yes... the Rum is named after him as well).

So stay tuned for why after reading this particular book, i was moved to consider how Morgan and his men exhibited some particularly 'Smart Zombie" characteristics, and why i think contemplating their history is worthwhile in regard to how we approach our lives today.

I Get It... Sort Of...

Okay... so my blog posts are too long. I get it. So now, in an attempt to "shorten" them, i'm going to cheat a bit. I'm not really going to "shrink" what i'm saying... but i'm going to break them up a bit when i have a long one and put them into "parts" so that if you do what i do (i.e. scan/read posts quickly through a blog reader), it won't be quite such an investment for a single posts. Hope that this works. Thanks! -jack