Ministry

My colleague Rob alerted me to this plan:

French authorities plan on passing out open-source software to incoming high school freshman next year. The software expected to include Firefox and Thunderbird as well as an office suite; instant messaging software and an audio video player will be put on a USB flash drive and passed out to students at the beginning of the school year. The USB drive will give students the ability to check email and surf the web with personal preferences without purchasing each child their own personal laptop.

We distributed a very similar solution at Pamoja! Glad to see others thinking similar thoughts. Our goal is not just to distribute software, but to increase communication and collaboration. We added headphones and a nice bag. Plus training and technical support.

Our finance leader in southern Africa wrote this week to tell me it is working. He needed some banking information from one of the countries in his area. He saw one of our Pamoja trainees online using his new Skype skills. So he used text chat to ask for the banking information he needed to help flow funds to the country. We’re building operational capacity, one step at a time, enabling better communication.

I’ve been quoted in a podcast! This reminds me how important it is to be sure I know what I’m saying! I’m sure glad I said it reasonably well and it was quoted accurately!

God is using the internet to further his kingdom worldwide.

It’s fun to see some of the early ideas from over a decade ago blossom and flourish around the world.

An exciting thing for me about being a part of Campus Crusade for Christ is our enthusiastic embracing of every opportunity to introduce people to Christ. This weekend, a full-page SuperBowl Ad will appear in the USA Today newspaper. The coaches of the two teams (Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears) are very committed Christians and the ad will point people to a special website where they can read their stories and get a clear presentation of the gospel. Please be praying for the impact of this unique outreach which was done by Athletes in Action, the athletic ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Check out the evangelistic website Beyond the Ultimate.

You can download a PDF file of the ad. Click here.

Athletes in Action will also host their 20th annual Superbowl Breakfast, which is an NFL-sanctioned event.

Karin created a colorful map of our recent training in Kenya. These are the countries with staff who now have been trained and equipped with the Mobile ConneXion toolkit.

Pamoja Africa participants:

• 36 countries
• 2441 people
• 1430 Students
• 532 Professionals
• 388 staff
• 41 volunteers

Rob & Patricia have a complete listing of countries and participants.

I’m looking for great improvements in communication and collaboration to come out of this training.

Pamoja Africa (“Together Africa”) is a wake up call to prepare African students for leadership and Christian missions.

The vision for Pamoja Africa Conference is to accelerate the building of a new generation of spiritual leaders for a new Africa and beyond.

Africa is significant in God’s plan for world transformation and that plan invites young leaders to join hands across the continent to learn and share in leading the transformation of Africa. This is a call that every student and professional needs to respond to — it is a call to impact the nations.

Kay and Keith will participate in Pamoja Africa December 24 through January 5. We will celebrate Christmas early with our family in Dallas, then fly to Nairobi Kenya on Christmas eve.

Part of our involvement will be to help train 250 African Campus staff in using the Mobile Office tool our team has developed.

This will be our first time back in the African ministry since leaving Nigeria in 1992. We’re looking forward to the opportunity to minister in Africa again.

Mobile Office Project

Most of the international staff of Campus Crusade for Christ do not have their own computer. Of those who own a personal computer, most do not have internet access in their homes. Most use shared computers in internet cafés.
In an effort to improve communications and collaboration between staff, our team developed a Mobile Office. The mobile office allows staff to use internet cafes, without worry about the programs available on the computers, plug in their MOP drive, and work from it as if the computer they are renting is a terminal. [Photo courtesy of Rob.]

Kay and Keith will participate in Pamoja Africa to help train the 250 Campus Staff from around Africa in the use of the Mobile Office. We expect over the next 12 months to see a significant increase in collaboration across the continent as our staff work together to develop movements.

Note: For more information on the Mobile Office Project, visit the website.