Meet Malawi Project pictures...

If you'd like to see the pictures from the Meet Malawi Project team, they are now available. Just click on the link below. Notice that there are a whole bunch of different albums (each person on the team is uploading their personal set of pictures). There are also albums featuring some of the different stops along their journey.

Take your time and browse each set. It's a great way to get a feel for what the team experienced. There are some amazing pictures in here.

Meet Malawi Pictures

Enjoy!

Monday's Leadership Nugget

"The leader must appreciate that the vision is the deepest "yes", and as such, the integrity of the vision requires a thousand no's."

- Will Mancini in Church Unique

ALMOST HERE!!!!

The Malawi Team is on the LEX bus and on their way to Champaign. They'll be arriving at Illini Terminal on University, sometime between 2 and 2:30pm.

So if you want to be sure to be there when their bus arrives, best bet is to get there just before 2pm.

Amazingly, every leg of their trip home (except for the first one - flat tire) has been ahead of schedule.

Hope you can join us at the terminal to welcome them home!

Malawi Update - The Return...

Hey folks.
If you are considering joining us at the train / bus station to welcome the Malawi Team back home, just a quick update on timing. They will be returning this Sunday afternoon. The group may actually be back at the station as early as 2:30pm. That is actually the time on their LEX reservation. Of course that all depends on quite alot of things going just right. So it may be later than that.

We figure that we'll know for sure before the 10:30 service ends and we should be able to announce it at that point.

I'll also come home and update my blog immediately with a more specific arrival time.

Bottom line, we'll have to play it by ear a bit. But we do hope you'll find a way to come join us in celebrating the faithfulness of our Malawi Team by welcoming them home!

Thanks much.

Malawi Welcome Home Party

We want to invite you all to join us in welcoming the Malawi Team back to Champaign.
We'll be meeting them at the Train Depot / Bus Station on University.

They are currently scheduled to arrive at approximately 3:45pm on Sunday afternoon. Obviously that could change depending on the timeliness of planes, luggage, buses, etc. We should hear from them during the 10:30 worship services and will be able to confirm at both campuses what time they will be arriving.

By all accounts, it has been a great trip and I think it would be a wonderful wrap up to the trip if we had a crowd of folks there to welcome them home!

Stay tuned for more.

Malawi update - Thursday

Everything is going great. It genuinely sounds like the team members have just been blown away on this trip. In those short little calls, we can seriously hear it in their voices. God is working in them! Can't wait to hear all the details.

One little tidbit from yesterday. The team got to go on a moonlight safari drive. So they were out in the middle of nowhere, out in the midst of the African wildlife, and they get a flat tire. Can you imagine sitting there in the pitch black, not really knowing what's around you, waiting on the tire to get changed? Well, sounds like it was fixed easily and the safari drive was great.

God is good. Can't wait to hear more!

Keep praying.

Malawi update - Wednesday!

Many thanks to Tim Jefferson and Greg Cozad whose cell phones have made it possible for the team to occasionally stay in touch with us! Every few days, we're getting calls (that usually last about a minute) with super quick updates.

Here's the latest.
The group spend yesterday and part of today with Opportunity International. This is the organization through whom we are providing micro-financing to people in Lisanjala grow their own businesses. Our team got to meet together with the trust group (the group of 15 or so local people who received loans together and who meet together for spiritual support and business mentoring). Our team also got to experience the training seminar that the Opportunity International clients receive. It's pretty exciting to know that our partnership has allowed a whole group of families to work themselves out of poverty and to increase their ability to provide food for the families, education for their children, and many other things.

This evening, our team was headed to a wildlife preserve where they are hoping to catch up rest and showers and also will get to see some of the beauty and natural wonder of Malawi.

Tomorrow the team will be visiting a few other villages to learn about some of the ways that churches are healing their communities through health clinics and clean water programs. The team is hoping that these experiences will reveal new ways that God might be inviting us to partner with our new friends in Malawi.

Keep them in your prayers. And keep praying for all of us who are waiting expectantly (if not so patiently) for our loved ones to get back home!!!

Monday update from Malawi

Well, it turns out some actual details got lost in translation when we were talking with Melissa on the cell phone, with speaker phone, held up to my microphone at church.

The Malawi team has not had a shortage of drinking water. There has been enough of that. What they've been missing is running water. Which means showers and flushable toilets have been temporarily sacrificed. But I talked with Melissa today and she said the water is running again and everything is great.

In case you missed this in earlier information, the team spent Sunday afternoon and all day today "shadowing" a family in the village of Lisanjala. This means they just spent the entire 2 days living life with a family. I know that as the team prepared for the trip, these 2 days of shadowing were the part they were most nervous about. What would they eat? Where would they go to the bathroom? What would they spend their time doing? What would they talk about? HOW would they communicate? The amazing thing is that from everything we've heard, these 2 days of shadowing may just turn out to be everyone's favorite part. We are hearing so many amazing stories of our team members just being so incredibly embraced, welcomed, and loved. It sounds phenomenal. Can't wait to hear more about it!

Keep the team in your prayers!

Malawi Update from Sunday, Sept 20

This was a complete surprise - I didn't find out about it until about 5 minutes before worship on Sunday.
But the Malawi team was able to phone us from Lisanjala during worship. It was pretty darn cool! Though I have to admit it was tough to hear my wife's voice and not be able to just chat with her a little. But anyway.

Here's what we heard:
They are having an awesome experience. When they arrived at the airport in Malawi, they were greeted by a choir from our sister church! This is pretty remarkable, because many of those choir members had never even been to the big city, much less to the airport. It was a tremendous display of welcome from our sister church members!

The group spent Sunday morning worshipping with our sister church in Lisanjala. They had a big crowd, including well over 150 kids. Scott Anderson and Jeannie Murray gave a children's message that included some lessons on dental hygiene! Even though they had way more kids than they were expecting, the supply of toothbrushes and toothpaste that Scott brought "multiplied" and every kid got one of each. Melissa and Rick participated in the service and we gave the church a communion service set that was engraved with the names of our two churches on it. I believe that set was used for communion that day!

By the way, the worship service lasted between 4 and 5 hours, which was great to hear seeing as how I preached another marathon sermon yesterday!

The team members were matched up with host families from the village and they spent Sunday afternoon. It sounds like every host family had a person with them who could translate for our team members. They spent the day learning about each other's culture and way of life. The team members gave gifts to each family. I heard that Greg Cozad brought a picture album that his host family had a great time looking through with him.

They are having a few challenges. The banks have been closed for several days due to a national holiday, so they haven't been able to exchange money into the local currency. There also appears to have been a shortage of water, due to rationing. They mentioned that this was an insightful experience into the real need for clean drinking water. Melissa mentioned that they were drinking alot of Coke for the time being. A later text message suggested that the water issue had been worked out.

They asked for prayers for continued health, protection, and safety. Let's all continue to pray that God would work mightily in the hearts of our team members and that they would return so full of God's love and God's heart that they would lead us to an ever greater vision for what it means to love our neighbor!

From everything we hear, it sounds like our team members are being warmly welcomed and are jumping head first into the lives of the people in Lisanjala. We only caught hints of the ways they are being impacted and can't wait to hear more! Tim Jefferson may have summed it up best with a one word text message he sent to Kelley: "Amazing."

Malawi update #3

And the journey continues...
The Malawi team has arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa. They'll spend the night there before the last leg of the trip to Malawi.

Malawi update #2

I got a text at around 10:30 last night saying that the group had arrived in Senegal (which is on the northwest coast of Africa). They were stopping to refuel. Right about now, they should be approaching South Africa where they will spend the night. They've been gone for about 24 hours and still have one more flight to go. It's a long way to Malawi!

The journals that Carol Thomas made for the kids are phenomenal. They've been a great way for the kids to process through some of the emotions of mom being gone. Thanks Carol.

Malawi update #1

Got this from Scott Anderson around noon today. It was too good not to post...

Hi Scott. You encouraged me to take this "leap of faith" and I'm so glad you did. This place is amazing!! A whole different world. Talk about diversity. The energy level here is amazing and we are all getting along great. The food is just so so but that's not surprising. Haven't seen any wild animals yet but lots of interesting people watching. That's all for now. From gate B17 at O'Hare. Ndapita (goodby in chichewa)

I love that guy!
Keep praying for the team as they are departing Chicago right about now.

Meet Malawi Project hits the road...

Actually they are in the air. The team of 13 left Champaign this morning at 7:30 and are on their way ultimately to the village of Lisanjala in Malawi. Please keep them in your prayers. The team is so excited about seeing how God is going to work in them and through them as this new mission partnership kicks off.

I need a hero....

Heroes.
Fall Sermon Series @ the Launch.
Starts September 20th

Have you ever had the feeling you were meant for something extraordinary?

A long time ago, events were set in motion that destined humans to experience life with unbelievable freedom and extraordinary abilities. Within us, with God's help, lies the potential to forever impact the world...in all it's brokenness. Poverty, loneliness, disease, hunger, and darkness have settled over our planet like a plague.

The brightest hope for a dying world?

Men and women who will recognize their abilities and act, right where they are. It could cause a ripple-like effect the world has never known and the waves of change are already beginning.

Ordinary people, with extraordinary abilities.

We call them HEROES.

Join us as we spend 5 weeks exploring the hero within each of us - the God given abilities and strengths that enable us to give back. Think you don't have anything like that inside of you? Think again.

You were meant for something extraordinary.


PS. I double dog dare you to invite a friend!

One Car Wednesday...

Sorry for the long delay with no blog updates.
Been tough to get back in the groove since vacation! But here we go.

So, I am averaging 3 days a week of biking to work. It's about 6.5 miles each way. So just under 20 miles a week. Our Subaru gets roughly 22 mpg in the city. So I estimate that I'm saving roughly just under a gallon of gas a week by biking.

That's kind of fun.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say a special thanks to the grey Honda civic that passed me on Kirby (just west of Duncan). I know it was important to get in front of that truck when the lanes merged. I just hope I didn't hinder your progress. Thanks for trying to give me a half inch of clearance as you sped by. I literally felt your side view mirror brush my hand as you passed. I only hope I didn't put a scratch on your mirror. I'd feel bad if I did.