Timing is Everything
Have you every been around someone who is trying to clap along with the beat of a song that is playing and they just can't get it? It can be almost painful to watch! Or maybe you've seen an all-star baseball player who is in a slump and can't hit a pitch thrown by a 70 year old grandmother. Or a basketball player who can't drain a free throw to save his life. When your timing is off, it's can really be OFF.
On the other hand, when your timing is on, and your in "the zone" good things just seem to fall into your lap and you can't loose.
Most of us live somewhere between these extremes. Today I'm wondering where I fall on that track. Let me explain.
I am currently writing from Springfield, MO. I came here primarily to work on a video project that will be used as part of an effort to target unreached peoples throughout Asia-Pacific with the gospel. Great. So while I am here I had decided to try to get some other things done. One of those things was to pick up a new computer to use with our video work in Cambodia, so I had special ordered exactly what we needed from Dell before I came to the States sop that it would be here ready to go when I arrived. Well, it was here, but as I was working with it here I found that one of the critical features wasn't working. After spending 4 hours on the phone with Dell's tech support it came down to needing to replace the computer. So they would build and ship a new one to me, I would put the old one back in the box, and then ship it back to Dell. Fine. However, this all happened 4 days before I was supposed to leave to return to Cambodia. So I changed my flight schedule so that I would be around for 4 more days, hopefully enough time to get the new computer. Well, my time has almost run out. I am scheduled to leave in 2 days and still no computer. So for me to get it in time they would have to ship it by this evening.
So is my timing off? I'm not so sure. Even if the computer doesn't come on time and I have to leave without it, I have been able to get a number of things done this week that have opened a number of other opportunities I otherwise would not have had. So does that mean I am in "the zone"? Ask me again after I find out if the computer makes it in time...
Opportunities, The Will of God, and Open & Closed Doors
As I write this it is going on 1:00 in the afternoon here in Springfield, MO, and almost 1:00 in the morning back home in Cambodia. But opportunities come at strange times. About 12 hours ago, at 1:00 AM here in Springfield, I was wrapping up a meeting and some work with a local media production company owned by a good friend and discussing a new opportunity.
Cambodia has a population of about 12 to 13 million people, and about 60% of those people are under the age of 14. Obviously reaching children with the gospel is a necessity. The opportunity that is opening up for us speaks directly to that need. Let me be clear; this isn't a " done deal", so I can't go into a lot of details, but there is a very good probability that we will be working to bring a popular children's ministry series to the children of Cambodia.
So if this isn't a done deal, why even bring it up? Well, opportunities is what missions is all about. Day in and day out we have various opportunities come our way. Some of them we have pursued, some we haven't. And of those we have pursued, some have worked out well, and some haven't. In human terms it often seems to be a roll of the dice. However, I believe that God doesn't play dice. I believe that God has a purpose and a plan and we need to seek to follow his lead in all that we do. Rather than picking something because I think it is a good idea and then asking God to bless it, I would rather find those things that God is blessing and do them. At times, despite my best efforts to do this, I have made mistakes. In those cases we have worked with different groups and in the long run ended up wasting our time and efforts on projects that didn't pan out. So coming into this opportunity the question is, is this a part of God's plan for us and our ministry in Cambodia?
There isn't any short and easy answer to this question, and honestly, at this point it is too early to say. But what I want to ask you to do is to help us by praying that God would lead us and guide us and make His will clear in this matter. I'm not any kind of spiritual giant. Like you I struggle with knowing God's will and direction. So usually, when I pray for His direction in these types of areas, I pray that God would make His will clear despite my limited vision. Please pray with me that God would open the doors that He wants us to use, and close the doors that He wants us to avoid. Ultimately, missions is life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, trying to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13).
I'll update you on how things go as things become more clear. Thanks and God Bless.
While Dad is gone, the boys will be hacking (in more ways than one)
The information age has presented a number of amazing opportunities. Communication has become easier and with the ease of distribution of various media the number of people who have seen our work has grown as well. That's all good, but it also creates a lot more requests from different people in various areas for us to help them put something together. This is something we hoped would develop, but it does have it's down side as well. For example, I am currently in the USA to work on a Asia Pacific region wide project, but my family is still back home in Cambodia. In the past year this kind of situation has come up a number of times, and we try to use the available technology to make the best of it. That means e-mails, and more recently using Skype to talk over the internet as well.
Our boys, Alex (age 7) and Dmetri (age 9) love getting e-mails from me and talking over the computer. Sometimes I'm not sure if they are excited about hearing from me or if it's just they are excited about using the computer! They both like using the computer for things, but Dmetri excels at it. Electronic stuff, whether it's computers or games or DVD players, are definitely his thing.
Well, this trip has lasted longer than most, so it presents a greater number of opportunities for mischief than usual. Yesterday, Lisa was in the kitchen doing some work and Alex came in from the other room with an unexpected question; "Mom, what kind of noise do panda bears make?"
OK, now I don't know about your house, but in my house, whenever one of our kids asks a question that just seems to come out of the blue like that, I get a little nervous. Lisa wasn't sure what to make of it, but just told him "Well, I'm not sure but I think they probable sort of growl."
Alex said "OK," and left. So Lisa went back to work. But a few minutes later Dmetri comes in and asks "Mom, what kind of noise does a panda bear make?"
At this point, I would have been actively investigating to see what was going on, but being home alone with the kids with a lot of things she needed to do, Lisa told him "I'm not sure but I just told Alex that I think they growl."
Thankfully, Dmetri's next question not only raise some red flags, but had him waiving that red flag, jumping up and down , and yelling a warning at the top of his voice. He said, "Oh. How do you spell that?"
Now you might be saying "I don't get it. What's the big deal?" Well, that last question made a few things fall into place. To help you get the picture, let me give you a few facts:
1) Aside from being a kind of cute fuzzy black and white bear from China, panda is also the name of a black and white Alaskan husky dog that I had when I was growing up.
2) On the log in screen for my computer, the image that appears next to my name is a picture of a black and white dog.
3) I had told the boys I would send them an e-mail.
OK, have you put it together yet? Neither had Lisa, but she did decide she had better go check it out. What she found was that the boys were in my office (where they are not supposed to be by themselves), where at my computer (which they are not supposed to use), and were trying to hack my password to see if I had sent them an e-mail! Aside from being shocked and angry about them breaking a number of house rules, I was never the less somewhat proud of the high tech nature of their escapade (of course it was easy for me to feel that way; I was on the other side of the planet and Lisa was the one who had to deal with it!). You never know what they are going to do next!
The other hacking that is referred to in the title of this posting is the kind you do when you are sick.
The other bad thing about traveling is that when someone gets sick you feel pretty helpless. This morning Lisa told me Alex is sick; throwing up, vomiting, fever, diarrhea... The whole deal. And on top of my not being there, medical service in Cambodia isn't exactly state of the art, so there is also the uncertainty of it all.
Ultimately, it comes down to faith and trust. The reason we are able to deal with those types of things is the same reason that we are in Cambodia in the first place; because of our faith and trust in God. We know God called us to be there, and we know God will provide for us and take care of us while we are there as well.
So if you think of it today, pray for Alex, that he would feel better, and for Lisa to have the strength and patience she needs while I am away.
Blogs and Coffee in the morning
As the sun slips over the horizon across the world, millions of bleary eyed people shuffle through their homes toward their kitchen looking for a little morning clarity in a cup of fresh coffee. I'm no exception. But today, and for the last few days, I have been shuffling across town for my coffee.
As I write this I am sitting in a Panera Bread Company store in Springfield, Missouri logged on to their free high speed WiFi internet service waiting to talk to my wife and kids back in Cambodia over a free internet based telephone service called Skype. The world is changing! When My wife Lisa and I first went to Cambodia in January of 1994 we didn't even have a phone. We lived in the eastern province of Kompong Cham where we ran an orphanage of about 120 kids. For us to talk with someone in the USA we would first have to drive 3 hours to the capitol city of Phnom Penh, then hope that the phone at our mission's office there was working. If it was we could call the States for about $8 per minute. If someone was calling us it was between $6 and $4 per minute. Internet and e-mail where non-existent. Now, we live in Phnom Penh where we work with media ministries (helping the church to produce evangelism and discipleship materials in both audio and video formats). This week I happen to be in the States working on a video project, but Lisa and our two boys (Dmetri who is about to turn 9 and Alex who is 7) are back home in Cambodia. But thanks to the modern marvel of computers, the internet and the coffee shop I am able to talk to them every morning for free!
So why have I gone through explaining all that? Didn't I say yesterday that we were going to talk a bit more about why I am doing this blog? Well, that's what I am doing! Today a generation of people are growing up with the ability to communicate almost instantaneously around the world, and they want to see an immediate impact from what they are doing. If they give to missions they don't want to wait a couple of months for a newsletter that the church secretary will hang on some obscure bulletin board somewhere in the church. They want immediate feedback and interactivity. After all, they can now publish their own media world-wide. It could be text based like this blog, audio based, like the rapidly growing "podcast" trend, or video based webcasting. But whatever the format, it has become so simple that they can do it all while they are sitting in their local coffee shop, drinking a cappuccino, and they can do it all for free! Why should they expect any less from us? We spend time, energy and money to learn the language and culture of the people in the country we go to so that we can communicate to them in a culturally acceptable and meaningful way that they can easily understand. Shouldn't we do the same when we communicate back to our supporters in the States? So I'm taking a shot at it.
I hope this also starts to give you a picture of my family. We will definitely come back to them more later.
The Beginning Is A Good Place To Start...
Everything has to start somewhere, and this is as good a time and place as any.
I have been looking at starting a blog on and off for the last year or two, but like so many things, I just kept putting it off. But over the last week or so I have been talking through some different issues with people regarding communication and I decided it was time to get this going. Eventually I will go to a different host (I think) but for now this service provides a convienient starting point.
OK, so what are those issues I was talking about? For starters there is support. As a missionary with Assemblies of God World Missions we are supported by churches and individuals who pledge to give financially to our work over a period of time (ussually 4 years at a time). So before we ever leave the USA for our field of service (Cambodia in our case) we have to raise a certian amount of pledges. Churches ussually make pledges based on commitments made by church members to give monthly to the church's missionary program. This has escentially been the way the Assemblies of God has worked their missions program since it was started. The challenge that is imerging today has to do with generational issues. The regular monthly missions supporter in the church is becoming more scarce. People who have grown up with an understanding of long term missions support are becoming older, and the younger generation, say those under 40, are much less likely to regualarly support a long term missions program. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons that people talk about, but one of the reasons is that this younger generation wants to feel connected and have an immediate method of feedback, and the the church's missions program has been slow to repond.
Now, I realize this greatly simplifies the issues involved, and I will come back to discuss these issues in detail as time goes by, but everyone needs to start somewhere. So this blog is largely an attempted to make a connection. And not just a one way connection; I want this to become more of a two way street to allow for feedback and dialogue on us, our missionary work, and missions in general.
Reading over what I have written, it occurs to me that I haven't said anything about who I am or what I do. Let's cover that later.
