I read this interesting comparison of terms. It is very insightful. I have been changing my vocabulary to be more “join with you in the journey” as I talk with fellow travelers on airplanes and other opportunities. I thought you might benefit from it also.
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Doing what we love
DOING WHAT WE LOVE TO DO
September found Kay and I spending 3 weeks helping lead 8 conferences developing leaders from around the world. Building into others is one of our greatest privileges.
When I was a student at Texas A&M University, Frank came by my dorm room one afternoon and shared how I could know God personally. Frank was a fellow student who loved to tell others about Jesus. I had already made the decision to accept Christ as a youngster through my parents and my church. Frank continued to meet with me and help me learn to grow as a Christian. During those months of growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I decided to invest my life helping others learn to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit every day, to live life abundantly, and to invest in the lives of others. When Kay and I married, we began to dream together of fulltime opportunities to disciple others and soon joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ.
For 30 years, we’ve had the privilege of helping build strong disciples and develop leaders.
So spending 3 weeks in beautiful Budapest, Hungary with 80 leaders from around the world was awesome. We love doing this. The greatest part about our time in Budapest was not the “touristy” opportunities (which we did thoroughly enjoy!), but rather the privilege of helping fulfill the Great Commission through growing our capacity to build and sustain movements of evangelism and discipleship in every location in the world.
What does building discipleship infrastructure look like? It looks like Ray developing training curriculum in computer skills and teaching staff throughout the Middle East so their computers become tools to create and distribute evangelistic and discipleship materials.
It looks like Oumar setting up email accounts for staff throughout French-speaking Africa so they can hold email conversations with young people who are seeking Jesus. It looks like Russ and Mark developing a flash drive of software that will run on any computer so that staff who do not own a computer can take their “mobile office” into any internet café to easily communicate ministry ideas with one another. It looks like Richard flying from Singapore to countries around the Pacific Rim helping them plan strategically and wisely.
Kay and I help develop these leaders who then multiply throughout their areas of the world. We love this! It’s not work, it’s a privilege.
MEETING WITH MINISTRY PARTNERS
During the next few weeks, Kay and I are doing another thing we love. We are meeting personally with many of you, our faithful partners. We can share more stories and answer your questions.
Kay and I continue to have the privilege of being your partners in this mission. Together, we are building leaders. Together we are building capacity for the Great Commission. We appreciate doing what we love with people like you.
SKYPE IS EFFECTIVE IN INTERNET EVANGELISM
Oumar Diagne, technology leader for French-speaking Africa, writes: S.D. came into my office very enthusiastically and told me “Oumar, I have a success story!” He told me how he had a ministry opportunity with a man using SKYPE (computer to computer communication). S. D. told the man that he and his wife worked with Campus Pour Christ. The man replied that it was hard for him to work with his wife at the office and that it was better that she remain at home. As the conversation progressed, S. D. discovered that his friend was actually divorced. S.D. agreed to keep everything confidential and continued by presenting the Gospel to the man while on-line. The man broke down in tears, which S.D. could see through his Web camera, and he led his friend in a prayer to receive Jesus as his Savior and Lord!
NOTE: Oumar is the technology leader for French-speaking Africa. He is a leader in using internet technologies for evangelism and discipleship throughout Africa.
DID YOU KNOW…
- that Campus Crusade for Christ staff maintain over 600 websites in almost 30 languages?
- that you can search these 600 websites? Click here to test it out.
- that over 300 communities of purpose have been formed in our Global ConneXion community tool over the past several months? (Visit here to learn more.)
You can download and print this prayer letter here: Doing what we love.
Congestion charging zone
This is a test post to see how it works now. But I did find this photo fun to take. How do you charge for congestion? Or does it mean, there is congestion ahead, please charge ahead. Maybe the society that generated the famous, “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.” does something similar in congested areas!
Abby in the park
Yesterday, Grammy and I took Abby to the park. It was fun to hear her squeal with delight at all the fun things to do. Everything was interesting!
Smoking in Europe is all about the ashtrays
I’ve learned that the difference in Europe, or Budapest at least, in smoking areas and non-smoking areas of public places is the placement of ashtrays. Earlier today, I was sitting in the Budapest airport waiting to board. I grabbed a quick sandwich for lunch. I sat at a non-smoking table, since my table didn’t have an ashtray. The table next to me was a smoking table, since they had an ashtray.
This can be very conveniently self-reconfigured easily. I noticed that one person sat at a non-smoking table (no ashtray), but needed to smoke. So he reached over to the smoking table next to him and took the ashtray, hence “reconfiguring” the arrangement.
Now, I’ve walked through the Frankfurt airport and noticed the “smoking” area is a table in the main hallway with several ashtrays. It was very crowded as people stood and puffed. There was a measure of anynomity, though, since there was quite a cloud of smoke obscuring the smokers.
By the way, this is my first time through the Frankfurt airport in maybe 25 years. It is a l-o-n-g way from my arrival gate A64 to my departure gate A22! It asctually feels like another terminal, but it’s still called “A”.
I’m going from Budapest to Amsterdam for a meeting tomorrow (Monday) helping develop internet evangelism and discipleship for Western Europe.
Well, they are boarding. At least, even in Europe, the flights are non-smoking!