Heading to Ethne 2012

I have just arrived in Seoul, Korea for a major consultation occurring this next week. Called Ethne 2012, it is the third major meeting of global mission leaders who are focused on strategies for completing the Great Commission.

What makes this particular meeting stand out from others I’ve been to, is that it was initiated and envisioned more by non-Western mission initiatives than by North Americans.  As their own literature states:

The Ethnê vision is to see “Peoples Glorifying God among All Peoples”. The Ethnê purpose is to Celebrate Great Commission Progress; to Assess (and Connect) Resources and Needs; and to Accelerate Progress in Reaching the Unreached

In fulfilling its vision and purpose, Ethne strives to exemplify two characteristics. The first is trusted relationships - many non-Western participants have said that this is the first global network where they feel like equal partners. The second is that Ethne strives to be practical - the goal is do something together, not just talk.

Previous Ethne meetings that occurred in 2006 in Bali, Indonesia and in 2009 in Bogotá, Columbia made significant progress identifying families of unreached people groups that were least impacted by evangelism and church planting efforts. As a result, key networks have now sprung up in those regions thanks in part to the partnership and dialog from these Ethne meetings.

At this event, the objectives will go further in identifying more regions of the world that need proactive mission activity plus provide plenty of workshops designed to develop useful plans of action. As it says above, the theme will be to DO something together and not just TALK about it.

For me personally, it will be fun to attend a meeting for once without a specific agenda or responsibility that I have to fulfill. Instead, I’m here to learn as much as I can about the latest dynamics fueling these indigenous mission thrusts and hopefully discover new ways that my role as mentor, encourager and consultant for national ministry leaders might be used. I also hope to become introduced to some of my key colleagues working with OC International as a means of getting to know them and their ministry work better.

Stay tuned to this blog for some further updates as the week goes on.

My First eBooks!

I’m excited to announce that I've just launched my very first eBooks that are now available on Amazon for down-loading onto any Kindle reader.

For some twenty years, I've had a tradition of writing a Christmas short story and then reading it to my family on Christmas Eve.  Often, I've taken settings from places I've visited during my mission visits to countries around the world. Others stories are from imagined scenarios surrounding the first Christmas in Bethlehem. All of these are great for reading out loud in a family setting, so I hope many of you will give them a try. And, of course, please tell your friends!

Below are my first three titles which you can find by clicking on the following links. Stay tuned for more that I hope to up-load to Amazon in the coming days and weeks.

The Boy Who Missed Christmas

A teenage shepherd boy encounters a young stranger near Bethlehem and recounts to him his bitter experience of missing the excitement of the first Christmas. To his surprise, the shepherd discovers who his new friend really is.

Amazon price: $.99

http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Missed-Christmas-ebook/dp/B00A2YA2TI

The Tale of the Odd Soldier

A mysterious stranger, a magical tree and a set of toy soldiers combine in this Christmas fairy tale to teach the eternal lesson that it is better to give than to receive.

Amazon price: $1.99

http://www.amazon.com/The-Tale-Odd-Soldier-ebook/dp/B00A4TMBZ4/

 The Bridge

A heart-warming story of an orphan boy in nineteenth-century Paris who is searching for a clue to his lost family. His kindness to strangers pays off during a fateful encounter on his way to celebrate Christmas Eve mass at Notre Dame Cathedral.

Amazon price: $2.99

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bridge-ebook/dp/B00A8NGHYW

By the way - I want to give special recognition to my wife, Anita, who has done an amazing job of editing and cleaning up my stories to get ready for publication and also my son, Nathaniel, who has created all the cover art for the titles above.

eLibraries: Multiplied!

“We could use 200 more of these!”

That was the reply I received after supplying seven digital libraries on electronic tablets last August to a ministry leader working with house-church leaders in a key country in the Middle East (see blog post of Sept 16). Thanks to generous partnership help from Mission Aviation Fellowship Learning Technology Division and the Digital Bible Society, the basic content for these eLibraries has already been set up. So, fulfilling this new request should not be that difficult. It will mean acquiring the tablets, loading the memory card with the digital resources, and testing them out before sending them off for use.

 And the amazing thing is that I believe I can do it all for $300 each!

For that price, I can purchase a brand-new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, a micro SD card, a protective case, and a power adapter and still have enough to pay a young local geek to help me with the project.

One Challenge International (OC International), my mission organization, has already set up a special project account for me so that I can start accepting donations toward these units. To contribute, you first click on this link https://donate.onechallenge.org/, fill in the designation, “eLibrary Project #830451,” and submit your credit card information.  All donations will be fully tax-deductible.

Having been in mission work for some thirty-five years, I don’t think I've ever seen a ministry investment opportunity that has any more bang-for-the-buck than this project. Just think—for a $300 investment, someone can supply a turn-key, ready-to-use, personal digital library to a house-church leader that will contain two versions of the Bible, a Bible commentary, eight custom-picked books on Christian living, a lay-counselor’s guide, a hymnbook, two CDs of worship songs, an audio New Testament and videos of the Jesus Film, The Jesus Story (for children), and Magdelena (for women)—all in the local language.

Two hundred is a big number, but I intend to prepare these eLibraries for delivery in batches of ten to twenty as the funding resources come in. I certainly hope you’ll consider becoming an investor in this exciting project.