Africa, here I come!

Keith drove me to the airport. Then he drove home. I, on the other hand, flew to Accra, Ghana as part of a training team. A few days later, we will fly to Nairobi, Kenya for a second round of training.

We are embarking on the next step in a massive, faith-stretching opportunity. Our Global Technology Team is partnering with the Go North project to train thousands of pastors and church planters to plant thousands of churches across the Sahara Belt of Africa by 2020.

Karin & Kay preparing training materials

The Go North strategy leaders expressed a need. How do we train thousands of pastors and church planters in thousands of towns and villages in a dozen countries? International Leadership University-Kenya had experience in life-transforming training, so they produced Pastors Training in Leadership. The Global Technology Office had an idea: use the most common communications device in Africa today — a mobile phone. Together we developed the solution to the need.

These next weeks will represent the culmination of 2 years of development, testing, planning, and praying. Mobile phone training using ILU-Kenya curriculum has been tested in several locations for 18 months. Pastors tell amazing stories of how their lives and their leadership have been transformed.

Some of the mLearning team

We will train 32 coordinators from 11 countries. In the next few months, 100 to 300 pastors and church planters in each country will be trained. In the following months, we prayerfully expect this training to spread to 20,000 pastors and church planters who will plant 50,000 churches across the Sahara Belt of Africa.

Right where Islam is spreading southward. Right where sectarian violence is growing. Right where people desperately want to know about God’s love and his release from shame and guilt.

So, how does a seasoned missionary and global traveler feel about this next adventure on her own? I am honored to be able to help these leaders learn a new method of training the pastors of their countries. I am excited to be back on the continent of Africa, a place that God has given me a special love for. I feel strange to be leaving Keith behind, but confident in traveling with good friends and co-laborers.

Read co-trainer Karin Tome’s thoughts here.

The flood is coming to Bangkok. So are the MinistryNet conferees! The MinistryNet 2011 conference is ON and it is in Bangkok!

Our theme verse is becoming Isaiah 43:2:

When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.

Kay and I are in Bangkok as the advance team. Well, truthfully we are in Bangkok to be Grammy and Grandad to two amazing grandgirls. With the flooding crisis, we have become the eyes and ears to help with on-site evaluations about continuing the conference here.

We traveled the city streets in the conference area of town which have no water at this time. We talked several times with our Thai leadership and crisis management team. We all agreed the conference should continue. Air tickets are purchased. Travel visas are approved. Hotel arrangements are made.

In contrast, our grandgirls and their mom Michelle are leaving town!

Yes, we are bringing people into town and Daniel is sending his family out of town. How did we arrive at differing decisions?

It’s because the decision-making process needs to fit the target audience. Our conference is in a 5-star hotel that is committed to providing food and water. They have large national procurement chains that continue to work during this crisis time. They have a stand-by generator with days of fuel reserves. The hotel is located in a higher section of town. The roads from the airport to the hotel are elevated and will not flood. Our conferees are adults who can take care of themselves.

This is different from the parents of 4 and 6 year olds who were scheduled to depart for furlough in 6 weeks. They purchase their food in the local stores, where food and water have disappeared from shelves due to stockpiling. Their daughter’s school, along with all Bangkok schools, are closed for 2-3 weeks. Some expect the flood waters could stay around for the month. Would you want to live on the second floor of your house and not go outside for a month?

Daniel, Michelle and their leadership decided to send them on their furlough early. Daniel will stay behind to care for their house during the flood and to help with flood relief.

Continuing our MinistryNet conference is already helping with flood relief. We were asked by the Thai leadership if conferees could bring in 4-person inflatable boats. Local Campus Crusade staff will fill the boats with water and food and navigate flooded streets helping others. In 90 minutes, we found 7 volunteers who each purchased a boat, two paddles and a foot pump. We used the internet to pull it together very quickly. After a cellphone call from the Thailand Campus Crusade crisis management team, we used Skype and email to finalize the plan. We emailed a number of conferees. We used a Google Doc to manage the signup process. Each volunteer used Amazon.com to order the items. There was not a single face-to-face meeting to plan and execute the project. It was a totally internet-based project.

In 90 minutes, across 9,500 miles, the project was initiated, planned, and executed. Next week, 7 boats will arrive to help with life-saving relief.

It’s kind of cool — a conference focusing on using the internet for ministry is able to use the internet to prepare for flood relief.

As Hannibal Smith would say, “I love it when a plan comes together!”

I just finished the plane part of a journey which got me to Amsterdam. Soon, I start the train to Rotterdam, then the bus. The goal is to get to the ship, SS Rotterdam. But before that story, let me tell you what Kay and I did last week.

Kay and I joined about 40 others at the Global Operations Team meeting in Orlando. I love going to a conference and not feeling jet-lagged! The highlight of the time was connecting with leaders from around the world.  After a dinner where Kay and I talked with leaders from 5 parts of the world, I was struck by how unusual that might be to many people. Kay and I are blessed to be missionaries in a role that allows us to work across cultures with Spirit-filled leaders from around the world.

Some of the highlights:

• Kay served all as the hotel and conference liaison, working with the hotel to enable the conference leaders to focus on the agenda rather than the rooms, the break times, and the physical arrangements. Her gift of hospitality and service was appreciated by everyone.
• I spoke on Leadership Thoughts, sharing from my experience and from the Word.
• Introduced the initial version from the Ops in a Box project, a set of simple but powerful operations tools that help our staff (and disciples) be more effective at building movements at the local level. I have been co-leading this project over the past 6 months with our leader in East Asia. The development of this project has been fast and furious. Our project motto:

An imperfect plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan when it is too late. [US General George Patton]

Some photos from the conference. Click the thumbnail below to see a larger version.

Global Operations Leaders from the 13 areas of the world	Keith speaking on Leadership	Working with Operations Leaders

Now, on to the train and bus part of this story!

I am participating in the Jesus.Net Conference. Our European colleagues partner with others in an internet evangelism and discipleship project called Jesus.Net.

Visit their real-time decision page to see an absolutely amazing display of people who are coming to know Jesus right before your eyes. Their Knowing God website has been translated into 21 languages and variations with trained counselors ready to help people come to know God, to grow in their faith, and to engage in sharing their faith with others via the internet.

What is your latest travel story? Comment below and we can all enjoy!

I recently returned from a 10 day trip to Asia. I spent nights in 3 countries.

And I checked no baggage.

I lived out of a rollerboard carry-on bag and my computer backpack.

How did I do this?

It has taken me some time to learn and it takes my wife’s excellent packing abilities. And it’s not just a guy thing. Kay has developed the ability to live for a week out of a carry-on bag. Here’s how we do it.

• Wear the shoes you will use throughout the trip. Extra shoes take up space.
• Pack efficiently. Roll your clothes. This prevents wrinkles, but also takes less space.
• Use the laundry service in your hotel. There is a cost, but it’s less than having no changes in clothing because your checked bag is missing.
• Choose clothes that can be mixed and matched. Every shirt should go with every pair of trousers.
• This is a personal choice, but I prefer wool-blend trousers, even in the tropics. I’m in meeting rooms with air conditioning most of the time. Wool trousers travel well with minimal wrinkles. They wear well and can be worn more times than cotton trousers. (Pinky Tailor in Thailand makes great trousers!)
• Be brutal about leaving things at home. You need much less than you think you do. Set out everything you think you need. Then remove everything you can.

Why is this important?

• Because I was moving every few days to another country, a missing bag would probably never have caught up with me. It was important to have everything with me as I moved from place to place.
• Because flights are sometimes delayed or rerouted. It’s important to have everything with me.
• Because I can more easily rebook flights if necessary. On the return trip, we arrived at the U.S. entry airport more than an hour earlier than expected. I was able to change to flights that allowed me to arrive home an hour earlier. After 33 hours of travel, arriving at 10:30 pm rather than 11:30 pm becomes really important! It was important to have everything with me when rebooking or changing flights.

Here are some links that I’ve found helpful

• Never have to check your luggage again
• Pack as efficiently as a flight attendant
• 10 days in a carry-on
• Fit more clothes with fewer wrinkles

So, what packing tips do you have? Use the comments to share with others.

I’m sitting in Tokyo’s Narita airport as I write this. The last time I was here was March 11th and Kay was with me. And together, we experienced the massive earthquake. (Click here to read the story again.). Thousands died. Over 4,000 are still missing. Extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure. Significant accidents at nuclear power stations.

But there is more to the story. So, on this revisit to Tokyo, I’ll share some of the amazing things that God and His people have seen happen.

In the days following the tsunami, a team of 8 Japanese Campus Crusade for Christ staff and students went to Tohoku to help. Tohoku is a region in Japan where the gospel is slow in spreading. It is an area where they do not want to accept Christian volunteers. They shun off the volunteer efforts from churches too. A member of the team wrote:

Despite these obstacles, and through the prayers of many, we are thankful we were able to have this opportunity to be close to them, cry and laugh together with them and encourage them. And, of course, all these are possible because dedicated leaders and the Kesennuma Bible Baptist Church members have been sowing seeds in this neighborhood, which resulted in good relationships built up.

Those whom we have met told us to come again. For people in Tohoku to say, “please come again”, they are not saying it to be polite, they really meant what they say. To be able to earn the trust of people in “closed” Tohoku in just 4 days is only by the grace and the work of GOD. The local pastor was overjoyed and said that he has more families to visit from now onwards.

When I visited and helped the last house during this trip, I asked if I could pray for blessing for this household. The elderly lady said, “Yes. Thank you.” She kept saying thank you repeatedly. With tears, she said, “Just when I felt I was going to go under…” When we were cleaning her house, she acted strong. But I felt that she had been pushing down her feelings of pain and distress. We were able to give her daughter a copy of the Manga Search (manga Knowing God Personally booklet).

A little later, another team worked in a nearby area. They were able to store supplies at the local church. A team member reported:

A house owner whose house had been cleaned by an earlier team heard about the supplies at the local church and went to pick some. One of our team members helped her carry the stuff back home.

The home owner was so thankful for the help from the earlier team and kept talking about it with tears in her eyes. Our team member took the opportunity to say, “God loves you, and has kept you alive and provided help for you. When I face difficult times, God helps, encourages and comforts me. Through a simple prayer, you can invite God into your heart. Would you like to pray a prayer to invite Him in?“ The home owner said, “Yes” and they prayed together!

When the earlier team heard this good news, we all shed tears of joy. The Lord has opened doors in mysterious ways and sent us there in His exquisite timing. As we witness the work of His hands, we can’t keep from praising Him.

Our amazing God uses all things to draw people to himself. Do we view everything as opportunities to tell people of God’s love?

We were taxiing to the end of the runway, maybe 5 minutes before full power would be applied and we would soon take off. Then it began to feel like we were driving over rough construction. The huge 747 bounced up and down, the wings flapped. It wasn’t nearly as bad as some mid-air turbulence I’ve experienced.

But we were not in the air! There is not supposed to be turbulence on the ground!

I kept thinking, “They don’t let multi-million dollar aircraft drive over runway construction! What is going on?” Then the plane stopped forward progress, but the bouncing and shaking continued. “What is going on?” The pilot later told us that he thought it was some unusual buffeting by the wind.

Then the pilot came over the loudspeaker and said, “Folks, we’re having an earthquake. We’re going to sit right here for a while. I’ve been flying 31 years and there is nothing in the manual about what to do when you are trying to take off during an earthquake!”

A few minutes later, the pilot announced, “Folks, the control tower has been abandoned. There is no ground control. We are not going to move the plane. We’ll just sit here a while.” A while stretched to almost 4 hours. Aftershocks occurred frequently each hour. Some were gentle, and some were almost as strong as the original earthquake. The pilot announced, “The terminal has been abandoned. Even if we returned to the gate, there is no ground personnel to operate the jetway. And you don’t want to be in the terminal during these aftershocks.”

Kay and I thought, “We’re safer here in the airplane. We are far from any buildings. This aircraft has excellent shock absorbers. We have 12 hours of fuel to push this aircraft from Tokyo to Detroit, so we have many hours of auxiliary engine to power the air conditioning and lights. We have comfortable seats. There is food on board. We are in the best place to wait out the aftermath of this earthquake.”

People around us were using their mobile phones to check news reports. We were keeping up with the increasing magnitude of the reported quake (first 6.6, then 8.1, then 8.9, and now 9.1). We heard about the tsunami hitting the east coast of Japan and the tsunami warnings across the Pacific.

Our mobile phones on the T-Mobile system (GSM system) do not work on Japan’s cellular system. But I remembered that Kay and I each have an Amazon Kindle with 3G world cellphone service for downloading books. And there is a very rudimentary web browser included. So, we fired up our Kindles. Kay posted on Facebook. I posted on Twitter and Facebook. I sent emails to family and friends keeping people updated. And Kindles have a tremendous battery life. Others’ mobile phones began to run out of battery, but our Kindles kept on working.

About the 4 hour point, the pilot told us that we had been ordered back to the gate. We would deplane. The airport was closed and all flights were cancelled. We would go to hotels and wait until flights resumed.

It was very disappointing. I knew there were thousands of passengers in the terminal. Hotels were overloaded. Aftershocks were still happening so it was not clear where we would stay. It looked like we would be in Tokyo for days while the aftermath was sorted out and passengers could depart.

The pilot decided to keep us on the plane for a while. He had been told that there was no space in the “safe area” to put additional passengers. He wisely decided to feed us dinner since it was unclear when we might eat again.

As we finished dinner, the pilot said that both Delta and the airport authorities had decided to allow the planes with boarded passengers to go ahead and depart. Kay and I thought that was an excellent idea. So did the other 500 passengers on our 747-400! He instructed the cabin crew to quickly stow the food carts, we refueled, and he took off before anyone could change their mind!

There was never any panic in the plane. Actually, it was more like the atmosphere at a casual gathering of friends. The Delta pilot did an excellent job of keeping us informed. Even when there was nothing new to announce, he spoke several times each hour keeping us informed. He spent time walking up and down the aisles meeting with passengers, chatting about possibilities. I have sent Delta a letter of commendation for the actions of the pilot and flight crew to make the most of the situation.

It wasn’t really until we landed in Detroit and saw the devastation on the airport monitors that we truly realized the magnitude of destruction. The text-only news reports on our Kindles told us the story, but the videos gave us the emotional impact of the destruction.

Kay and I are so thankful for many who prayed for us. We were less than 5 minutes from departure. If the earthquake had been 5 minutes later, we would have been in the air and not affected. But, if the earthquake had been 3 minutes later, we would have been racing down the runway at 180 miles per hour with the ground bucking up and down. I have no idea what would have happened, but none of the scenarios sound exciting to me as a passenger!

Several have written that they were awakened early on Friday morning and could not go back to sleep. Two told us that their visits to the internet alerted them to the earthquake and they began praying. We were among the many recipients of those prayers.

We thank all of you for your care, for your prayer, for your concern.

Our thoughts remain with the hundreds of thousands in Japan whose lives have been tremendously affected by these disasters and the continuing potential of a nuclear disaster also. The God of the universe is aware of every tear, of every heartache, not just from those who believe, but from pre-believers also. Our prayer is for their comfort, for their peace. But most of all, our prayer is for the Buddhist nation of Japan to experience the explosion of church growth that often follows a time of intense natural disaster. Mission Frontiers reports that 40% of church-planting breakthroughs among Muslim people groups followed some kind of natural disaster. (click here for the article) May it be true in Buddhist Japan also.

Kay and I returned last night from 20 days on the road in Thailand. We thoroughly enjoyed our time, including rich time with kids and grandkids. Daughter-in-love M wrote a very sweet blog post about the Departure Gate.

Being home is good too. It was great to sleep in my own bed. It’s great to be sitting in my favorite chair, with my favorite cup of coffee, and enjoying the stillness of my house. It’s 5am and my body doesn’t know which timezone it’s in, but if I’m going to be awake at 5 am, this is the place: my chair in my house with my coffee!

Today is a special day in the life of Campus Crusade for Christ staff. Today, we join around the world in active, intentional, dedicated prayer. Running through my head this morning:

From the rising of the sun

This is a photo from a worship time in Thailand last week with our local Thai staff leading us. Scenes like this will be happening around the world today from the rising of the sun, to going down of the same. The Lord’s name will be praised.

Things that happened on our recent trip in Southeast Asia:

“Kay, wake up. There are ants in our bed.” At 4 am. I felt crawling and itching. I thought I must be developing a rash. No rash, just ants!

Grammy Kay bumped Abby off a baggage cart when they hit a bump exiting a moving walkway. Abby was unhurt and jumped up laughing. (Grammy says I must use bumped not dumped for her escapade!)

Grandad Keith dumped Abby and two of her friends off a baggage cart when it became unbalanced and turned over. All were unhurt and laughing. (Do you think Abby wonders about grandparents now? What do Daniel and Michelle’s new team friends think about their parents?)

8 bags of household possessions for Daniel and Michelle were heavily packed. Thai Airways only charged them $90 for 500 pounds rather than the expected $1500. Amazing answer to prayers.

Daniel and Michelle received their visa to Thailand just a few days before moving there, after weeks of trying. Amazing answer.

Life continues to be an amazing adventure walking with the Lord every day.

The meetings part of my Africa trip are over. I’m partway into the travel remaining. I’m returned from Nairobi, Kenya to Johannesburg, South Africa on the first leg of 33 ½ hours of travel, leaving the hotel at 4:45 am until I touch down in Orlando on Thursday. The reclining cocoons of Business Class sure look nice as I walk past them to the Economy section!

Yesterday, Chris and I met with Dr. Emmanuel Bellon, Vice Chancellor of Nairobi International School of Theology. We were joined by Nicholos Kimolo, Managing Director of Futuristics. Emmanuel’s vision of the need and urgency of distance learning in Africa is motivating. Nicholas seems a very competent consultant and advisor to come alongside and help implement the vision. Emmanuel shared the urgent need for trained leadership to guide the exploding church membership in Africa. Theological education schools in Nairobi do not graduate enough leaders to supply the new churches planted each year in just the city of Nairobi alone. It’s fairly normal for a church to see its trained pastor preach once every 3 months. The interim times are led by lay leaders and women, mostly untrained. There is an urgent need for trained leadership across the African continent.

Emmanuel sees distance education as an effective way to increase theologically-trained leadership beyond what resident schools are able to do. He began working on a plan 3 years ago, and really launched about a year ago. They have contracted Futuristics to help with the technologies needed.

As we talked, we identified several areas where my technology team in Orlando may be able to partner with this distance learning project. We have developed several systems that are needed in this project. It’s exciting to see the Lord enabling the work of our hands to be helpful to this distance learning project in Africa.

In addition to assisting with their current distance learning project, we agreed to a pilot project to test the ability to deliver distance learning in mobile phones. The current distance project seems focused on the centralized components of distance learning. I think the mobile device project can add value by addressing the end-user component of distance learning by providing a way for remote users to be trained without needing to have a computer and a high-speed internet connection.

This has been a very productive time. I am very aware of your faithful giving and praying. Kay and I are privileged to partner with you. We get to be your hands and feet, your personal representatives working with Dr. Bellon and others to develop new ways to help others grow and develop as Christ’s ambassadors.

More photos from Nairobi are online here.

Our September prayer calendar is online here.

On the journey together with you,
Keith & Kay

“We’re having Springbok pie with Chutney for dinner,” said our hostess Marie Dell. Springbok is a South African antelope. It tasted like venison (meat from deer) which I enjoy. But I’d never had it in a pie. A “pie” means a crust, something like a chicken pot pie. Chutney is a spicy relish made from vegetables or fruit. Good dinner!!!

I asked where the Springbok had come from. Marie’s husband Stefan had taken his discipleship group hunting. They had licenses for 5 springbok. We were eating from one of them.

Sounds like my kind of discipleship group! Maybe a transfer to South Africa will be in our future!

Nicholas and Pravani wanted to learn about TOM and other tools to build movements on their campuses. TOM is our nickname for a Facebook application called Together on Mission. TOM helps build movements through several momentum-building activities like

• encouraging praying for one another
• encouraging students to identify their “sphere of influence” whom they hope to influence for Christ
• sharing stories contributed by students of evangelistic opportunities
• helping students find a Bible study group and join it
• reporting statistics of God’s activities on the campus

We recently released TOM version 1. Nicholas and Pravani quickly grasped how TOM could help them with their students. They saw how TOM could be used to launch ministries on campuses where they are not able to go.

More photos are available on our photo site.