We are launched. The mLearning pilot project launched in Kenya with 33
students. Over the next 12 weeks, pastors and Campus Crusade staff will
learn more about following Christ as his disciples.

Our team’s goal is to learn about delivering discipleship training in a
mobile phone. After just 2 weeks, we’ve learned a lot! We’re hoping the
students learn too! Like most pilot projects, we had to make many
adjustments just to get started.

There were technical challenges to overcome, administrative matters to break
through, financial opportunities to trust God. Like NASA’s Space Shuttle, it
takes a huge amount of energy to get liftoff. The shuttle consumes 1.5
million pounds of fuel in it’s first 1 minute of flight. I don’t know how
much energy our team in Kenya expended, but we do have liftoff!

This project is a partnership between our Global Technology Office (GTO),
the Nairobi International School of Theology (NIST, International Leadership
University-Nairobi), an Orlando mega-church, and an unnamed
corporate/academic partner. We are using technology developed by a research
university for government and commercial purposes.

We thank so many of you who have prayed these past few weeks. So many
difficulties have been worked through or worked around.

Kay and I leave for Thailand this week. We’re helping lead the Operations
Leadership Connection, 80 global leaders coming together for training, vision
and fellowship. More about that project soon…

Please pray with us:

• Visit our OLC prayer site. We will be posting prayer requests daily over the next 2 weeks.
• Join Kay and I in praying that we will be “the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing”. [2 Corinthians 2:15]

	Co-workers David Ngaruiya of NIST (left) and Jerry Hertzler of GTO (right) meetin with Pastor Robert of Rongai, Kenya (center).
	NIST staff learning to use the mobile phones.
	50 mobile phones being prepared to carry the basics of the Christian life to students.

Extreme dependence on God.

As we go about launching movements of evangelism and discipleship, we must learn to rely more and more on His power rather than our own. For us the norm needs to be taking faith risks and asking God in faith, “What do You want us to believe You for now?” The alternative is simply go after whatever we imagine we can accomplish in our own efforts. (Steve Douglass, President, Campus Crusade for Christ)

Today is a special day. Today, thousands in the family of Campus Crusade for Christ will gather around the world. We will set aside our normal activities and spend the day before the Lord. We have the privilege of doing this corporately, together worldwide, twice each year.

Together, we will be asking God for more. More people to come to know him. More of His glory to shine like the stars on a cloudless night. More of his justice for the oppressed. More laborers for the harvest fields.

Steve also said, “God is calling us to a renewed posture of extreme dependence on Him and His Word.”

Today, I am asking God in faith, “What do You want me to believe You for now?”

You can pray for the Global Technology Office. We are publishing a prayer calendar and invite anyone to become a part of helping implement digital strategies to increase fruitfulness in ministry, to connect and engage laborers in movements around the world, and to develop operational capacity to sustain the mission. Click here to Pray for GTO. Bookmark this site to come back regularly.

John Piper says that we cannot know what prayer is for, until we understand that life is war.

He explains further:

Life is war. That’s not all it is. But it is always that. Our weakness in prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den. (John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, page 45).

I’ve been thinking about Piper’s words as we have prepared for today. The entire staff and associates of Campus Crusade will be gathering at many scattered sites for a Worldwide Day of Prayer.

Kay and I always look to this time. The theme for this Day of Prayer is “Our Strength and Our Shield”.

Psalm 28:7

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
And I will give thanks to him in song.

Another portion of Scripture on this theme is found in Psalm 46:1

God is our refuge and strength,
An ever-present help in trouble.

He is our strength and our shield, our refuge and our strength.

Because life is war, and prayer is our wartime walkie-talkie.

Thai Air

Thai Airways flight TG325 was roaring down the runway in Bangkok, Thailand. It was after 1 am and I was sleepily waiting for takeoff of our flight from Thailand to Bangalore, India. I remember thinking, “We’re taking longer than usual to take-off. It seems like we should have rotated nose up by now. Maybe the engines on this Airbus A300 are not as powerful as other planes and the take-off run is longer.”

About that time, the pilot slammed on the brakes. Hard. The seat belt tugged. Kay and I were both wide awake now.

It takes a while to get 19 tons traveling at 170 miles per hour slowed down. Three hundred people on flight TG325 were  hoping there was enough runway left.

There was. The Thai pilot was a professional. He did all the right things and we were always safe.

As we turned around to taxi back towards the terminal, Kay commented that she had prayed twice during the evening for our flight to India. She had felt an unusual prompting to pray. The Lord was preparing the pilot, the flight crew, and us for an aborted take-off experience. Kay’s prayers were a part of that preparation.

That is why your prayers are important. Air travel is pretty routine. Except when it isn’t! We do it all the time. It’s amazing how regularly flights take off and land safely. Baggage arrives as expected most of the time.

God allows things to happen “normally” most of the time. Most things are so “normal” that we forget to “pray without ceasing.” But sometimes, he has special opportunities to trust him built into our daily schedule. I don’t know whether it’s special faith-building opportunities, or whether the always-present-but-rarely-seen spiritual warfare breaks out in a skirmish in our part of reality.

But prayer is a very important part of both faith-building and war-fighting. I wrote a few months ago about an amazing thought from John Piper (click here to view Piper video clip):

God, the sovereign ruler of the universe, has ordained that prayers cause things to happen that would not happen if we do not pray. When James 4:2 says ‘you do not have because you do not ask’, it doesn’t mean ‘you would have anyway even if you did not ask because I’ve got a plan’.

This was a difficult trip from the perspective of airlines and travel. Long flights. Missed connections. Delays. Missing bags.

But in the end, we had one of the most profitable meetings of our global technology leadership that we’ve had. Ever. And we trained 30 leaders in India how to use our measurement system to capture statistics and stories of the amazing things God is doing in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. They will soon train their hundreds of staff. We will soon be even better able to publish abroad the amazing things God is doing throughout that entire region of the world.

And prayer is a major a part. Prayers were part of getting us to Thailand and to India. Prayers were part of the effectiveness of the training. And prayers will help Sam and Robin and Bibisho and others as they lead in helping everyone know someone who truly follows Jesus.

“Prayers cause things to happen that would not happen if we do not pray.”

You can now pray for our Global Technology team. We’re producing a monthly prayer calendar online. Click here to get to the prayer calendar.

I’ve been impressed by God with the thought of leading with power. There are many facets to leadership. There are skills that improve my effectiveness. There are heart attitudes that qualify me for effectiveness as a leader.

Leading with power is what I’m learning now. The power source is God, and God’s power is unleashed through prayer. I took a huge step in understanding this last fall when I watched a short video of John Piper explaining that prayer cause things to happen that would not happen if we do not pray. I wrote about that here.

One of the staff on our team has created this online prayer calendar. Leading with power. I invite you to pray regularly for the Global Technology team. Let’s unleash God’s power.

In my work in technology, we are implementing a global identity tool so that all staff and non-staff affiliated with our organization are known uniquely and individually. It’s a huge project. It’s the foundation of providing greatly-increased participation in helping launch spiritual movements around the world. So, I’ve been thinking about “identity” a lot lately.

Today, Steve Addison introduced me to John Wesely’s Covenant Prayer. Read Wesley’s covenant prayer through the eyes of our identity, of who we are as people.

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,
exalted for you or brought low for you;
let me be full, let me be empty;
let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Talk about an identity exchange! Wesley was empowered by his identity in Christ. Identity with Christ energized him with boldness and perseverance.

A very special opportunity presented itself while we were in Thailand. We helped our associates from the country where 41 were recently imprisoned. We talked about improving their security to help prevent any more of our associates from being sent to prison. We talked about email security, website security, and notebook computer security. We identified steps for them to take. It is a privilege to help protect our associates through helping with security precautions. These are very special people who risk much as they serve God. I am humbled to sit beside them and advise them on security issues. Please continue to pray for the 41 and their families.

Granddaughter Lucy was diagnosed with meningitis while we were in India. It was probably bacterial (the really nasty kind). She’s home from the hospital and doing well. Praise God with us for her healthy recovery. Praise God for giving doctors wisdom to treat her. Praise God for giving parents Daniel and Michelle the grace and faith to walk through this time. Thank all of you who held them close to the throne of mercy.

“You were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell played out here on earth. … Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days, we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are
life abundant.”
- John Eldredge, Waking the Dead

Kay and I were recently asked for a prayer request for the next year. Here’s what we sent. We invite you to join in praying this for our lives this next year.

Personally, pray that we maintain our personal walks of faith, growing in the image of Jesus Christ, living out examples of risky faith, showing mercy and compassion to others.

In our ministries, pray that we lead well as we help develop next-generation leaders committed to building spiritual movements everywhere.