A Non-Profit and 2 Businesses in 11 Months!

Wow! What a journey the last 11 months have been! Around the beginning of November of 2009, along with some friends, I started launching a new non-profit organization called The Sending Project (TSP). TSP's mission is to unite the Church to eliminate physical and spiritual poverty in the world. It has been a fantastic season of pioneering this work, and I've had the privilege of meeting many wonderful people along the way. Now, we actually have functioning teams, 9 churches that have joined TSP Alliance, and we're facilitating our first conference later this month. God has been orchestrating some amazing things along the way! Can't wait to see what the next 11 months have in store!

In April, I launched two businesses. Never started a business before, but have wanted to. Allow me to introduce you to Green Kite Travel (also doing business as Eric's Travel Club) and MediaBoiler. Green Kite Travel is a comprehensive travel agency that specializes in group travel organizing for church groups including mission trips, while Eric's Travel Club is more focused on group leisure travel. MediaBoiler is a media company that provides high quality media for churches and non-profits at reduced rates. Both are brand new, and I hope both of them will help cover part of my cost of living, enabling me flexibility of schedule to provide leadership for TSP. Stay tuned for more updates about all three of these ventures in the near future!

The Best Thing about the Tea Party

Probably by now, you've heard of The Tea Party...a grass roots movement of millions of people, calling for the U.S.A. to get back to the founding fathers' version of the government's role in American's lives. Small government is good. Big government, taking over more and more control of people's lives and adding more and more taxation, is bad.

These days I don't consider myself a Democrat or a Republican...basically an Independent. I like what the Tea Party is doing, and I hope it can avoid becoming a political party. As long it remains a movement, and not a political party, I think it will continue to shake things up in both of our main political parties. And that, I believe, is the BEST THING about the Tea Party...it's shaking things up.

The people of the U.S.A. are rising up and saying to our government: enough is enough. Enough debt, enough taxation, enough government growth and control. So...I say...GO TEA PARTY, GO! I hope it remains strong, and can avoid latching on to any one leader personality. It's making a difference...it has the attention of the White House, and both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Back to basics is usually a good thing...and I believe the Tea Party is helping us take steps to get back to the type of America our constitution and founding fathers intended.

Angels and Airwaves

Gotta thank my daughter, Lindsey, who introduced me to Angels and Airwaves. We went to hear them in concert last night, and I have to say, I was really impressed! These guys have something unique and fresh musically. Can't really think of another band that really sounds like these guys. Angels and Airwaves, or AvA for short, is on a leading edge of a new type of music: Space Rock. Of course, the lead singer of the band, Tom DeLonge (from Blink 182), is a talented singer/songwriter, but what even stood out more to me is that he is a brilliant visionary, with great branding and marketing skills, too. (Or he has some brilliant marketing and branding people around him.)

The live concert was executed masterfully. Another thing I appreciated about it was it's simplicity...they don't over complicate their music, which seems like you could easily do with "space rock." I'm still exploring their lyrics, but it's clear to me so far, that overall they are bringing hope, rather than hate and destruction. It also didn't hurt that the sound and lights were phenomenal.

With so much of the rock music world sounding like itself, it's refreshing and really amazing to have a unique band like AvA in the mix.

Mission House KC

I had the privilege of spending some time with Sam McCord this morning. He gave me a tour of an old house in Kansas City, Kansas, and then we had coffee and snacks at a nearby coffee shop. I'm inspired by Sam and the vision God has given him. He's launching a ministry this Fall that will host interns for 11 months at a time. The interns will focus on following Jesus and sharing Jesus with others, in the context of communal living. (Check out Acts 2:42-47 for a Biblical foundation for this type of ministry.)

Sam is in his mid-twenties, and he's stepping out in faith in a big way. Way to go, Sam! I hope the best for you. He's not that far removed from college himself, and there are tons of options for him to pick from, regarding what work he will do. But here he is, in the urban part of town, going for it. He's chosen a less convenient path, for the sake of making an eternal impact in people's lives. If you know of an 18-25 year-old follower of Jesus who might be interested in an intense discipleship and mission experience, in the context of urban Kansas City, Kansas, make a comment on this blog post, with your contact info. I'll make sure to pass it on to Sam.

Go Sam! Go Mission House!

Haiti Crisis Update from Jimmy Dodd

A very good friend of mine, Jimmy Dodd, has been blogging on the Haiti Crisis. He is currently on his 36th trip to Haiti, and has many solid ministry contacts and of course many great friendships in this grief-stricken nation. I encourage you to read his blog. We've posted all 15 of his updates thus far on The Sending Project website. Each one of them is worth reading. Let's keep Haiti and Haitians in our prayers, and let's go and serve there if we can.

Here's the link to Jimmy's Haiti Crisis Blog.

Gotta Love March Madness!

March Madness is here! And I have to admit it...I love it. It helps that my team, the Kansas Jayhawks are the number one seed in the tournament and have a great possibility of winning another national championship! Go Sherron! Go Cole! Go all you guys who make up this talented, deep, balanced, and well-coached team!

I've realized, however, that one of the main reasons I love March Madness is that it's a great time of hanging out with my parents. My dad and I have competed against each other in picking the winners of all the games for the last two years. Side note: He won in 2008, but I came back to win in 2009. So this is a big year...a tie breaker of sorts...although I know the opportunity to even it out will return next year.

My Dad (pictured above) and I have a lot of fun picking the winners, and then keeping track of who's ahead, and of course, who actually wins it all. (The loser takes the other one out to dinner.) We'll differ on various games, which makes it that much more interesting. But I'm pretty certain about one thing...both of us will be picking the Jayhawks to win every one of their games. Rock chalk!

New Sending Project Opportunity: Poland

The Sending Project is adding "Poland: PROeM" to its lineup of mission projects. One of The Sending Project alliance churches, Cedar Ridge Christian (Lenexa, KS), has a strong connection with PROeM, and is putting it in the mix of Sending Project opportunities. I had the privilege to learn more about PROeM this weekend, and to have lunch with two of its leaders, Rafal and Agnieszka Piekarski. They pastor the church that PROeM has launched in Poland. We are very blessed to be able to offer a couple of mission trip opportunities for you to participate in this Summer. Check back soon for more details on The Sending Project website.

Beat the Drum

One of The Sending Project ventures for 2010 is an amazing ministry called Beat the Drum. It's a ministry of HIV/AIDS prevention and education in the nation of South Africa. You can participate.

It's a 2-week trip. You go, get trained during the first week, and then you go into a school the second week and present the material. (There's even been a movie already produced in connection with this project.)

You can learn more about all of this on The Sending Project website. I encourage you to check it out, and get signed up to be a part of this!

At this stage, it's pretty clear that we're going to have anywhere from 100-300 people participating with Beat the Drum...most from the U.S.A., but some from beyond our borders, too!

Spinning

Miracles still happen!

I've actually worked out three times this week! I've taken up a new (to me) cardio workout called Spinning (basically a stationary cycling workout). Many of you have already done Spinning before I'm sure. I'm simply declaring that I am now a Spinner. I'm still just a "beginner Spinner"...but I'm getting a great workout each time I Spin.

Oh yeah, lifting some weights, too. This is escalating like crazy!

Go me!

Dependent

Okay, I'll just go ahead and say it: I'm scared. I don't like to admit that I'm fearful, but it's true. You see, I stepped away from a good, well-paying, job at my church to launch a new non-profit organization. I believed (and still do believe) that the Lord was (and is) calling me to take this step.

The development of this new organization, called The Sending Project (TSP), is going well. Its purpose is to unite the Church to eliminate global poverty. (Something very close to God's heart.) It's just that the funding of it hasn't grown as quickly as I'd hoped. I won't be able to go full-time with TSP right now...not until 2011 at the earliest. So...now...while we (me, volunteers, including our great board of directors) continue to develop TSP, I need to earn some dough via another job (or a few part-time jobs?). The big deadline for me is March 31. My compensation and benefits from my old job run out at that time.

Ahhh...life on the edge...makes one feel...dependent. Yes, I'm scared...but I'm also excited about what God is doing and what He is going to do to bring glory to Himself in this process. That's the crazy thing...that God would love someone like me (and someone like you) so much that He actually works in and through my (and your) life! That's His way. And...in the next several weeks, as God does His thing...and we see what happens...I will post the update right here on this blog...because it will be something that only He could've done.

I've only had 2 different employers during the last 28 years! And now, I'm in this season of vocational transition (or at least job transition within the same vocation?). Leads to some anxiety. But I rest in this wonderful reality: the times I've been most aware of God's activity in and around me have been the times I've been most dependent on Him.

Amen and Amen.